Welcome, Friends and Colleagues

Welcome to The Literacy Booth: A Place for Wisconsin Coaches.

I am so very glad you're here.

We literacy coaches? We're a unique bunch. We're teachers, but we are also mentors. We are coaches, but we we may also be interventionists. We are readers of research. Wait. We are - more than likely - readers of just about anything you put in front of us. We cultivate relationships. We are passionate about literacy. We advocate for teachers; we advocate for students. We are masters at facilitating meetings and designing professional learning opportunities. We are leaders. We are listeners. We are learners. And, those are just the things that we are in our professional lives. . . 

We cannot do this important work alone. We need a place to call our own, and that's just what The Literacy Booth strives to be - a place for literacy coaches.

Specifically, The Literacy Booth is an online professional learning community especially for literacy coaches.

The Literacy Booth will be filled with reflections, practical tips, and conversations built upon the work of eight Wisconsin literacy coaches (along with the occasional special guest) and coordinated by yours truly.* 

Here's how it works (generally):

• A topic is posted. For example, "How do you build relationships with teachers?" Each topic begins with an introductory post.
• Each of the coaches behind The Literacy Booth will write a post related to the topic. These posts will be shared over about two weeks.
• Each post will be open to readers' comments. The conversation that happens in your comments will make this a true professional learning community. Please, please, please comment! Comment to share links to resources. Comment to ask questions. Comment to continue the conversation.
• The cycle repeats. We will write about a new topic about every two weeks.

Please use the comments on this post to introduce yourself. Who are you? What's your job? What are you learning right now? What do you still want to know more about?

*Barb Novak is one of two literacy consultants at Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Having attended public schools from kindergarten (suburban Milwaukee and Eau Claire) through college (UW-Stevens Point) and graduate degrees (UW-Oshkosh and UW-Madison), Barb is the proud product of and an advocate for Wisconsin’s public school system. Prior to joining the DPI in November 2012, Barb worked as a literacy coach, reading interventionist, and reading teacher. She prides herself on being a bit of a professional matchmaker by helping the incredible literacy leaders she meets throughout Wisconsin form relationships to improve professional practice. Barb serves as the coordinator of The Literacy Booth: A Place for Wisconsin's Coaches.