June is often a time for celebration. New high-school graduates move on to the next chapter of their loves and new teachers graduate with their Bachelor of Education degrees, eager to enter into the classroom. For many teachers, June is a time to look back and celebrate successes and to think about the year ahead. 

The Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg also uses the late spring to honour members of our community who have made valuable contributions to literacy in our province. We are pleased to announce the winners of the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg's Awards and Scholarships, which were presented Thursday, May 31, 2018 at the Viscount Gort in partnership with the Manitoba Reading Association. 

The Certificate of Merit Award recognizes persons of outstanding achievement in reading in the areas of research, classroom teaching or teacher education. Katya Adamov Ferguson has excelled and made significant contributions in not one, but all of these areas. Katya’s dedication and contributions to education and literacy are far reaching.

Katya is a gifted learner willing to collaborate with others to provide resources and to learn new skills. Katya holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Bachelor of Education degree (Early Years Stream), Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Education (with Special Education Certification) and just this spring completed her Master of Education (Curriculum Teaching and Learning Specialization). Katya has taught in the Winnipeg School Division since 2008 and is currently employed as an Early Years Literacy/Numeracy Support Teacher.

Katya is one of the outstanding educators in our province working alongside people who wish to be more responsive to our indigenous peoples. Katya’s thesis, “Power in Places, Policies and Pedagogies: One Teacher’s Critical Inquiry into Reconciliation” has had an enormous impact on educators. Katya has spoken on topics related to her research at the ILA conference in Boston in 2016, the Reading for the Love of it conference in Toronto this year, and at the recent University of Manitoba Grad Research Symposium. Katya provides a perspective her listeners can appreciate and is helping many make progress towards the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Since 2012 Katya has also used her knowledge to weave theory and research into practical resources for teachers. As a teacher-writer for Portage and Main/High Water Press she has authored teachers’ guides for the Seven Teachings Stories book series by Katherena Vermette and Tales from Big Spirit graphic novel series by David A. Robertson.

Katya is passionate about teaching, learning and creating high-quality and equitable learning opportunities and environments for all. RCGW is thrilled to recognize Katya with a Certificate of Merit award.

​Barb deserves to be recognized for her hard work, dedication and love of literacy. She embodies dedication to the profession and gives of herself to her students, families and colleagues. 
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Barb began her teaching career 35 years ago at Wellingham School teaching grade one, but for the past 24 years she has taught at St. Gerard School. Barb knows her students’ strengths and weaknesses and works with each child to help them feel secure in their learning. An avid reader, Barb models her love of literacy and brings it into the classroom.

Perhaps Barb’s most substantial contribution to the students at St. Gerard School is her phonological awareness program. She created a phonological test to assess each student and get a benchmark before the sessions begin. After that, training and information sessions are presented to parents to increase their understanding of phonological awareness. This not only helps the program run smoothly, but helps develop understanding of the reading process and the importance of fostering the love of reading at home. She encourages families to visit the library and to read to their children in their first language if English is not the family’s primary language.  

When the 12-session program begins in January Barb organizes home sewn bags filled with activities that are delivered by highly trained Kindergarten parent volunteers. Her focus on alliteration, rhyme, segmentation and letter recognition come alive with a class mascot named Marty Moose who delivers a large envelope every week with a new letter sound. The sessions are fun, educational and memorable. From phonics phones to letter bags filled with the letter of the week, Barb uses objects to provide tactile experiences and the result is smiling and giggling students who love learning about phonics.
Barb’s program is exquisitely planned and implemented.  She demonstrates her love of literacy and her sense of community by giving the children and families a wealth of knowledge to bring home.
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RCGW is pleased to present Barb with a Certificate of Merit Award for her hard work and dedication to literacy throughout her career. 

Terry Phillips was described in her nomination as a “gifted educator who finds a way to reach each child.” She is a dedicated teacher whose career in the River East Transcona School Division has spanned over 20 years.
 
For the past five years, Terry has taught grade two at Joseph Teres School. Terry begins every day by personally helping students find and sign out books for home reading. She has a genuine love of books and has worked hard to build an extensive classroom library. This year she partnered with other teachers to improve her students’ reading ability through mixing of classes, creative use of time, and her extensive knowledge of guided reading, Daily 5, CAFÉ, Regie Routman and Guided Reading. Over the years Terry has found a way to take the best parts of all these programs to create her own best practice. Terry genuinely cares and makes sure her students have the tools and time necessary to grow. Her students’ attitudes toward reading and confidence in their literacy skills have blossomed. 
 
Terry is retiring in June but her ongoing legacy to her students and co-workers is the gift of reading and high-quality instruction. She is always one of the first to step up to make I Love to Read Month and other committees successful. The teaming that she has done with her co-workers has been very important through her career. One of her biggest contributions to Joseph Teres School is a refreshed Literacy Lab, which she helped develop by moving, cataloguing and re-ordering materials. This took many hours to complete in both grade group and school teams. Her leadership during this school project was invaluable.
 
Another legacy Terry leaves behind is her dedication to charity work as part of a joint project with the Women’s Canadian Club of Winnipeg to send used books to Nunavut. Terry collected, assessed, sorted, counted and helped get the books ready for distribution and involved the grade two classes at Joseph Teres in reading, sorting, counting and packaging the materials. Terry truly believes that access to good quality reading materials is important for all children regardless of geography.
 
RCGW is pleased to present Terry Phillips with a Certificate of Merit Award for her many years of outstanding teaching and dedication to literacy.

Katelin is a student at the University of Winnipeg. She is currently enrolled in the Faculty of Education and has completed her certification year four. Katelin is in the Early/Middle Years stream and is passionate about teaching the future leaders of Manitoba.

Over the past five years Katelin has volunteered and worked in Winnipeg One School Division. She worked for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg to help combat summer learning loss. Katelin spent her time working for the Community Schools Investigation Summer Program with inner-city students. She strongly believes that children should have the opportunity to continue learning and practicing their literacy skills over the summer.

Katelin is committed to the students she works with and loves being a part of their success. She believes that literacy is a vital part of everyday life and a key element in a child’s learning. She understands that every classroom is diverse and every student should have an equal learning experience.

Katelin recognizes the need for students to be exposed to literacy in all subject areas. During her practicum Katelin would find short articles related to her teachings so that the students were constantly exercising their reading abilities. She also began reading books to the class at the beginning of every social studies period and gave students time to discuss what they heard. She also gave students opportunities to write short pieces about what they learned, following models done by the teacher and shared writing with the class. Katelin uses great cross-curricular literacy practices and follows Regie Routman’s optimal learning model.

Reference letters from a professor and a cooperating teacher describe her as determined, driven, organized and committed to literacy. Katelin is a worthy recipient as she is passionate about sharing her love for literacy with her future students.
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The Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg extends our congratulations to Katelin as a 2018 Anniversary Scholarship recipient and wishes her the best as she completes her studies in Education. 

Larissa Chubenko is an education student at the University of Winnipeg currently finishing her first year Early/Middle Years of the After Degree Education Program.
 
In her cover letter, Larissa emphasized her desire to empower those living in lower socio-economic conditions through education. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies from Menno Simmons College, completed her practicum placement at King Edward School, and was involved in social justice and development outreach programs. Larissa’s academic and personal interests are embedded in wanting to provide rich literacy opportunities for all.

Larissa’s practicum experience this year in a grade one classroom included being involved in rich literacy programs such as “Read to Me” and “Lucy Calkins” writing. Larissa was able to connect with students in small group instruction and build upon students’ literacy at a pace that was reflective of their unique and individualized learning needs.

Larissa formed and implemented the student group “CODE on Campus UW” which is affiliated with Canadian Organization for Development through Education. The main framework and mission statement of CODE is to ensure that children and youth globally have access to an education, by means of being exposed to literature. As the founder and president of CODE, Larissa embraces CODE’s philosophy and commitment to literacy as a means of acquiring an education. Larissa spearheaded many fundraising opportunities with CODE and donations were made to “Margibi All Girls School” in Liberia as well as locally to the N.E.E.D.S. program in Winnipeg.
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Cooperating teacher and professor reference letters note her high degree of professionalism, commitment, self-motivation and positive attitude. Larissa’s ability to take new professional learning, past experiences, and current philosophy and meld these into empowering literacy ideas is a very noteworthy skill. As you can see, Larissa’s many achievements and her commitment to literacy education in Manitoba make her a worthy recipient of this year’s RCGW Anniversary Scholarship. Congratulations Larissa from the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg. 

WRITTEN BY SHANNON MORIN

Over the 2017-2018 year, the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg has worked to support its members through an array of programming, the sharing of important findings and techniques on social media, and our blog.

Throughout the year, we have gained membership by offering professional development programming to members and non-members. We offered an incentive discount to encourage new memberships.

We have celebrated many successes within our community over the last year. My tenure began with an immersion in the International Literacy Association (ILA) conference in Orlando, FL, where I had the opportunity to learn from world-wide literacy leaders. In October, we had another successful Manitoba Teachers’ Society Professional Development day with Dr. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. We also hosted an evening program with Monica Wiebe in January. In February, for I Love to Read Month, we were able to donate books and craft supplies to the children's clinic at Cancer Care. In May, we celebrated our Annual Awards evening and were able to provide several scholarships to university students. On top of it all, we made a $500.00 donation to Lubov SSMI Foundation’s Home of Hope in Ukraine. Lubov SSMI Foundation is a part of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, an international congregation of sisters for the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The RCGW continues to use many different social media platforms to reach a wide audience within our local community to advertise professional development and to share research and practical information for literacy programming.
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None of this could be accomplished without the hard work of many fine educators from our community. I would like to formally thank everyone who has worked diligently to support the teachers of the greater Winnipeg area, and I hope they know the impact they make on their students and a whole community of students each and every day because of these efforts.

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The end of the year always brings preparations for the next, and we are excited to invite you to our MTS PD Day event, October 19, 2018 , with John Schumacher! Mr. Schu will deliver a full-day program at the CanadInns Destination Center Fort Garry (in Celebrations) – 1824 Pembina Hwy. Every day is a giant book party for this teacher-librarian! John blogs daily at MrSchuReads.com. He also hosts the Scholastic Book Fairs web series "Mr. Schu Goes to the Book Fair" and co-edits the "Reader Leader" blog.
John Schumacher is a blogger, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs. He served on the 2014 Newbery committee and on ALSC’s Children and Technology committee, AASL’s Best Websites for Teachers and Learning, two readers’ choice award committees, the School Library Month Planning Committee, and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature selection committee.

Registration details coming VERY soon!


About the Author - Shannon Morin is the Past President of the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg. She is currently a Grade 4 and 5 teacher at Wayoata School in the River East Transcona School Division. Her passion is connecting children with good books and fostering a love of reading in her students that extends well beyond their year in her classroom.

WRITTEN BY BRITTANY BELL 

The Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg I Love to Read committee celebrates I Love to Read month every February with the children at the Children’s Cancer Care Unit. The theme this year is “The Great Canadian Reading Race”. The titles donated reflected the diversity across Canada and what it means to be Canadian. Two books, CARSON CROSSES CANADA by Linda Bailey & Kass Reich and I AM CANADA by Heather Patterson were read to the children, their siblings and their parents. A craft kit, including a Canadian colouring book and supplies to create beaver puppets and maple leaf origami birds were left for the children and their families.

The Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg was once again honoured to  present Dawn Kidder, Cancer Care’s Child Life Specialist, with a monetary  donation of $350.00. This donation will be used to purchase books and support materials for the clinic.

While visiting the Cancer Care Unit, I was able to get a small glimpse of the magic that occurs here each and every day. I had the privilege of being present during the music therapists Tuesday visit, for which I was awestruck. Words cannot describe the serenity and state of peace that was brought to the clinic through her beautiful music. After reading the two stories to the children and their families, I was also blessed enough to be able to sit down with a few eager girls and help them create their own beaver puppets. It’s in these simple acts that normalization can occur for these children at a time when life may seem anything but normal.

I hope the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg’s involvement can continue to inspire children and their families to share in the joy and love of literacy.

WRITTEN BY JILL COOPER

It's been almost five years since I went to a workshop that had been highly recommended by a colleague. Penny Kittle, teacher and author, was in Winnipeg presenting about ways to engage students through independent book choice and daily reading and writing in class. 

The day was transformative and led to me completely change my teaching practice to include daily book talks and writing activities. Every day in class, I share a book I have read with students and read a little bit out loud. After, we write together based on a prompt or try an interesting technique used by the author. 

Aside from the new ideas for running my classroom, I also heard about a grant provided by Penny's Book Love Foundation. Classroom libraries are given to teachers who are committed to improving the reading lives of their students through independent book choice. After I heard Penny speak a second time, I decided to apply, and I became the second of two Canadian teachers to receive a 500-book classroom library. 

The effect of this award on my classroom and my teaching is difficult to describe. My students and I have been engaged in incredibly rich conversations about the books in the classroom. First, we had to make decisions about which books we should order. In the year and a half since they have arrived, we are reading and recommending and discussing. The sheer number of different books within the classroom have managed to engage the majority of students in reading much more, both in terms of volume and variety. I used to be the primary source for book recommendations. But students have taken my place - they have started to become resources for each other. 

Some favourites are: 

• A Long Way Down by  Jason Reynolds
• The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
• The Crank Series by Ellen Hopkins
• The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Street Pharm by Allison van Diepen
• If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
• The Break by Katherena Vermette

In August 2017, a group of Book Love grant recipients were asked to present a round-table session at the annual National Council of Teachers of English conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri. Thanks to support of the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg, along with other organizations committed to improving literacy, I was able to attend. I count it as one of the best professional and personal experiences of my life. 

The theme of the conference centred around how books save lives. The right book in the hands of the right student can make them feel visible in a world where they are often silenced. Themes of diversity and choice were present in every session I attended and reminded me of the power that teachers can hold in both positive and negative ways.

The following questions are still lingering:
​How are we representing (or not) the lives of ALL our students in our classroom practices? What texts, world views, and ways of knowing are seen as acceptable? 

I was fortunate to attend sessions hosted by some of my students' favourite authors. As well, there were researchers, teachers, students, and literacy leaders offering a variety of sessions dedicated to examining the lives and educational experiences of some of the most vulnerable students in our schools. I work with this population in my own school, so the sessions resonated deeply with me.

The round-table session that I was part of was made up of about 17 past grant recipients and was moderated by Penny Kittle. Each of us led a table and discussed the ways we used the libraries in our classrooms. Participants had the opportunity to visit three separate tables during the hour. Book Source, the publishing company that put the libraries together for the grant winners, provided books for our use that we could either give to participants or bring back to our classrooms. I talked specifically about book talks and how to link those to daily writing activities. I did three book introductions, had participants write and share their writing, and then showed student samples for the same activities that had been done in my classroom. 

We have already been approached to reapply to speak again next year!

I thank the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg for their continued interest and support.

About the Author - Jill Cooper is a member of the Reading Council of Greater Winnipeg. She teaches high school English in the Winnipeg School Division and is a recipient of a 2016 Book Love Foundation grant.