Welcome New Members of the Royal Court!

2015 is here, and Literacy Land will be turning 1 tomorrow!  It is so hard to believe!  This has been a fun adventure for all of us, and we love sharing our love of literacy with all of you.

And our love of literacy has led us to some new members of the Royal Court!  I am excited to announce them to you, our readers!

Through our guest blogging, we found five wonderful bloggers who are excited to share their love of literacy with you!  We are proud to introduce them to you!

Cathy joins us from her blog The W.I.S.E. Owl.  She works as a Reading Specialist for grades K-2, and loves Kindergarten!  She is honored to be a blogger for the International Reading Association (IRA).  She enjoys presenting at conferences and for school divisions.

Jen joins us from  her blog An Adventure in Literacy.  She has had experience in many different grade levels from PK-2 and as a Reading Specialist and Special Education Teacher.  She is married with one cat and enjoys traveling, running, and baking.  She loves integrating literacy into all subjects and using interventions to help students become successful readers.  Her favorite way to help students learn is through games and game-like activities.

Pixie joins us from her blog Growing Little Learners.  She has been the literacy leader in her school and is now the leader for maths this year.  When she started teaching, she started in year 6 (5th grade) and took the plunge two years ago to work with the younger students.  She loves every minute of it!  In her free time, she enjoys reading, sewing, pretty stationary, and pyjama days!  She also enjoys her two cats, Pomme and Oak.

Jennifer joins us from her blog Stories and Songs in Second.  She loves to use music in her classroom and to enhance her students' learning.  Along with being a second grade teacher, she is the volunteer coordinator for the READ TO SUCCEED program at her school.  She organizes author/illustrator visits and other fun literacy celebrations.  She has met Patricia Polacco, who inspired and enchanted her by her spirit, talent, and personal strength.  Throughout the year, she uses her books as mentor texts for many lessons in her classroom.  The books The Junkyard Wonders and  Thank You, Mr. Falker speak to her philosophy that all children are uniquely gifted and talented.

Tara joins us from her blog Looney's Literacy:  Mind Matters.  She has been married to her best friend for 12 years and is a mom of two lovely daughters, ages 7 & 11. She enjoys reading and writing and hanging out with her girls.  She is a firm believer in differentiated instruction, standards based grading and her new study is using formative assessments to target instruction.  Because she loves to research and learn new things, she often becomes very passionate about the current topic she's studying.  She has enjoyed meeting and making new friends in this blogging world and looks forward to many more friendships and learning opportunities in the years to come!

We are excited to have all of these ladies join us as we venture into 2015!    Join us each month as they share their love and knowledge of literacy with everyone!