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Monday, February 22, 2010

Dublin Literacy Conference

The screen behind Dr. Tim Tyson says, "School Can Be Anything That You Can Imagine." Dr. Tyson's thinking about the transformative capabilities of technology in our classrooms set the tone for the conference with the first keynote. (Check out #DubLit2010 on Twitter for a running commentary on his and other speakers' presentations.)

To continue with the theme of 21st Century Literacies, we collected digital as well as traditional student displays for attendees to view, and there was a "Technology Playground" with a myriad of tools (Flip Video, Kindle, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, etc) for folks to try out.



With our children's authors Denise Fleming, Melissa Sweet, and Patrick Carman, we celebrated the joy of reading words and pictures and books that come in multiple formats, and with David J. Smith, the importance of reading the world .






It seems appropriate that today is Edna St. Vincent Millay's birthday. She's the poet who wrote,
"My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light!"
The committee, the teacher presenters, and the featured speakers all worked hard to make this conference one of the best of the 21 we've held. And now we are all turning back to our day jobs, hopefully enriched and enthused and challenged and inspired to do our work better and smarter and with the knowledge that all we do every day (whether as teacher, author, or illustrator) does indeed make a huge difference -- a "lovely light" -- in the world.

5 comments:

  1. "When does meaningfulness start? How old do we have to be until we individual do something that matter..." Dr. Tyson-2010

    These words, among so others stuck with me for the rest of the day. He was beyond inspirational. An amazing person that is truly DOING something. Mary Lee and Franki, congratulations for a job well done on Saturday. The conference was so meaningful and productive. Clearly, you and the other committee members put many hours to make this happen.

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  2. P.S. sorry for omitting my "S's" in the quote...boy it's early Monday morning and the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet. :)

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  3. It was a wonderful conference indeed! Great blog entry! I like how you highlighted the authors, Mary Lee! Your photos really captured the essence of the conference.

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  4. Great post. You guys sure put on a great conference. Thanks for being such great hosts.
    Kevin

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  5. Sounds like I missed a good one :( If all the gods smiling, I will be back next year for sure.

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