Nevada Superintendent of Instruction Jhone Ebert speaks during the Reading Week Conference keynote address on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
Saturday, April 27, 2024 | 4:32 p.m.
Over 150 librarians and public educators from across the state gathered in North Las Vegas City Hall for the Library Reading Week Conference.
Celebrated in Nevada schools for over 40 years, Reading Week became an official Department of Education initiative in 1987 to engage students through themed activities. The conference Saturday was the first of its kind — giving educators the opportunity to learn from national professionals and connect with other librarians and teachers.
The conference opened with keynote speeches from public officials with backgrounds in education, including North Las Vegas mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown and Nevada Superintendent of Instruction Jhone Ebert.
“I am a former educator and it's just near and dear to my heart, and I just miss watching great educators teach,” Goynes-Brown said. “Nothing brings me greater joy than hearing a story told to the voice of someone else.”
After the keynote speeches, educators engaged with guest instructors from different education assistance groups to learn about new technology for classrooms and opportunities for their students. Sessions hosted by the likes of Teachingbooks.net founder Nick Glass demonstrated resources enabling educators to connect with authors, create lesson plans tailored to specific novels and make passages accessible for online courses.
The opportunity to learn about the latest developments in teaching and connect with fellow educators is crucial for school officials to elevate their students, Ebert said, especially to update teachers’ knowledge on the Science of Reading school of thought.
The Science of Reading is a specific curriculum that is “the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction,” according to the Northwest Evaluation Association. The curriculum utilizes mathematical understandings of reading comprehension and brain research alongside traditional means of education to maximize a student’s ability to learn. 37 states have passed laws implementing Science of Reading curriculum, including Nevada, according to Education Week.
“How do we make sure that all of our children have access to resources, and that our teachers have current practices?” Ebert said. “We need to make sure those teachers that have been in the classroom for a few years now know best practices to support our students.”
The conference was paid for through funding packages passed by the 2023 Nevada Legislature, which also passed funding for early reading programs. The funding was praised by Ebert and other speakers, who said the work could not be done without the support of the state Congress.
Ebert said one of the biggest challenges for organizing the event was finding a space for it to occur. During conversations about the conference, Mayor Goynes-Brown offered North Las Vegas’ city hall for the event, a move Ebert said is a display of Goynes-Brown’s passion for helping educators.
“There's one thing to say, ‘I support education,’ it’s something else to open your home,” Ebert said.
Educators also expressed their own challenges in elevating their students’ learning experiences during the conference. Lisa Cabrera-Terry is a librarian at Marion Earl Elementary, and said her biggest obstacle to supporting her students is often funding.
“My budget is based off of profits from a book fair, that a lot of my kids can't even afford to shop at,” Cabrera-Terry said. “My principal is generous, she’s generous with our school budget to buy books. But what about bringing authors in, and all the extra things that we want to provide through our library programming?"
Cabrera-Terry and others said they appreciated the conference not only empowering them to continue the work they do, but for providing them with the knowledge to continue improving beyond simply making books accessible to students.
“Libraries are more than just books now, we’re providing other resources,” Cabrera-Terry said.
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