Joyful, Accelerated Literacy Professional Development Seminars: Proven Strategies for Meeting Rigorous Common Core Standards
Sponsoring a Nellie Edge Seminar or a Keynote Presentation with Follow-up (2012)
Details to ensure a quality experience are as follows:
- Minimum number of participants required is 75. There is no maximum, provided the space is accommodating. Seminar is appropriate for all educators concerned with joyful, accelerated language and early literacy development.
- Seminar — $3,500.00 consulting fee plus travel (direct flight) and per diem for Nellie Edge or Julie Lay, and seminar set-up assistant. If it is more efficient to travel via car (in Washington and Oregon); a fee will be charged to cover packing, unpacking, driver time, and mileage.
- Keynote presentations and follow-up morning presentations in the same room — $3,000. A complimentary e-Book of keynote highlights will be available to download from our site. Participants will also be able to view online video clips of many of our joyful accelerated literacy practices to enhance the practical follow-through from the conference. We are excited to offer these services to all of our colleagues.
- We highly recommend that you share the link to our website (www.nellieedge.com) with the participants, so they can view our complimentary e-Books, photo essays, articles, and resources that will be of special interest to early literacy educators. We encourage teachers to participate in professional development dialog prior to and after the seminar.
- For Nellie Edge Seminars, each participant receives a comprehensive seminar manual, anthology set, and CD or instructional DVD featuring favorite seminar songs. The cost of the materials is your responsibility as well as shipping fees, due 30 days prior to the seminar. Seminar resource prices vary and will be discussed and agreed upon in advance. (Minimum order of 75)
- A hotel or suitable conference meeting room of at least 2,100 square feet is required. The room needs to comfortably seat teachers (classroom style) with room to move into aisles for hand-jiving, dancing and active literacy games. The room must be equipped with air conditioning/heating, a quality sound system with cordless lavaliere microphone, projector and screen for a PowerPoint presentation and two easels.
If seminar is not held at a hotel, then an auditorium with chairs and arm rests or comparable conference room is required. Presenters need a quiet room adjacent to the presentation room in which to eat, plan, and refocus during the lunch break.
- Seminar setup requires 4 tables of 2' x 6' or 8' length for display in the front and 8 tables in the back of the room (diagram will be sent). Many examples of language charts, photo montages, and child-made books will be displayed.
- We must be able to set up between 4:00pm and 6:00pm the day prior to the seminar to create a visually-engaging, language-rich environment for participants. We will require an assistant or bellman to help load and unload boxes of materials.
- Refreshments served with Nellie Edge Seminars include: coffee, decaffeinated coffee, tea, fruit, and whole wheat bagels with cream cheese for the morning break as well as water and assorted beverages for the afternoon break. Pitchers of water need to available, on the tables, throughout the day. All catering fees are the responsibility of the sponsoring agency.
- A site coordinator will need to make arrangements for Nellie Edge and her assistant to travel to and from the hotel, seminar site and airport.
- To assist with promotion of this seminar or conference, you may make copies of our seminar description invitations—adding your seminar date, special discounted pricing, and location information. Nellie Edge Seminars needs to pre-approve any promotional brochures. We recommend that brochures be disseminated at least 12 weeks prior to the event, with follow-up emails linking teachers to photo essays, video clips, and e-Books from our website.
- Travel expenses and seminar material fees are due one month prior to the scheduled event. The remainder is due on the day of presentation.
As an alternative to the direct costs involved in sponsoring a seminar, we also work collaboratively with district kindergarten literacy coordinators and offer a significantly reduced seminar fee to individual teachers registering for the seminar. (The minimum number of guaranteed attendees is 50 to 75, depending on locale.) Nellie Edge Seminars provides for advertising, travel and all direct seminar costs in these collaborative relationships, which usually involve a district interested in an ongoing professional relationship.
Bringing a Nellie Edge Seminar to your district is a major commitment for quality professional development. We are only available for a few seminars and keynote addresses each year. We recommend you allow at least six months for planning and promotion. We promise an inspiring day celebrating language and accelerating literacy with strategies that make a powerful—and magical—difference in the classroom. We look forward to working with you.
See Seminar Tab for our Current Seminar Schedule and Details:
Even if we are not able to share a seminar or keynote presentation in your area, we hope your teachers will link to our educational website www.nellieedge.com and join our free online community for monthly Excellence in Kindergarten and Early Literacy newsletters, video clips, e-Books, photo essays, articles, reproducible Poetry Anthology pages, Little Books, and over 100 writing-to-read templates.
Kindergarten is for Language
“It is the familiarity with the English language that allows a child to develop phonemic awareness, build comprehension and extend vocabulary. It is the familiarity with the English language that allows a child’s decoding to be error free and reading to be fluent. Oral language is the vital foundation that allows us to develop confident, independent readers and writers who achieve ambitious expectations. We teach most powerfully when we celebrate language, involve parents, and honor childhood.”~ Nellie Edge
