SPRING ISSUE OF THE MISSOURI READER Vol. 44, Issue 2

Spring is the time for rebirth and renewal. As I write this Chairman’s Message, I see many signs that we are moving toward better times. After the COVID crisis of the past year, there are now real signs of hope. Vaccines are finally available for educators. The new rules around social distancing in the classroom will make returning to in-person learning easier to accomplish. We’ve all learned more new teaching skills than we could have imagined a year ago. We’ve adapted to the new normal. We learned of such things as Zoom and distance learning. I foresee that the new normal is about to be replaced by what I will call the new new normal. We’ll take what we’ve learned and make the education system better for it. I am proud that the Missouri Literacy Association rose to the challenges of this past year to support educators as they have met these challenges. Our social media presence has grown exponentially. We reached almost 50,000 educators on Facebook in just the past month. There are reasons for that. Let me elaborate.

We provide daily information and inspiration on Facebook, in book clubs, webinars

and mini-PD sessions. Our local councils have been very busy. The Kansas City chapter hosted its first speaker event with Sunday Cummins. The St. Louis chapter has provided several different speaker events and will begin a four-part speaker series, "Racially Relevant Literacy in the PreK-Third Grade Classroom," that begins with Dr. Gholdy Muhammed on April 8 and ends with Dr. Stephen Peters in October. To register for this series, see the information on page 19.To find information about the many opportunities we offer visit the Missouri Literacy Association website at https://mla31.wildapricot.org/

Opportunities such as these have made the Missouri Literacy Association one of the fastest growing affiliates in the International Literacy Association. Don't miss anything we have to offer by becoming a member today. You can join through our website athttps://mla31.wildapricot.org/

So, please be well and be safe. Please help us as we enter this new era of growth and renewal. You can begin with the hundreds of innovative teaching ideas about using poetry as part of literacy instruction you’ll find in this current issue of The Missouri Reader. I’ll end by saying thank you to all who have done so much to make this year so successful.

Happy Spring!

Dr. Sam Bommarito

Chairperson of the Missouri Literacy Association