| Susan Cisna received both her Bachelors and Masters Degrees at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. She currently teaches eighth grade language arts at Tuscola, Illinois, where she is also Student Council sponsor, Yearbook Advisor, and Cheerleading Sponsor. Over her 32 years of teaching, Susan has taught 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th grades. Susan developed “Voices from the Prairie” which is a student/parent literacy program for junior high school students in Tuscola. For this program, she has received support from IRC through a Literacy Support Grant. She has served as the President of East Central/EIU Reading Council, Regional Director of Region 6, Corresponding Secretary for the Illinois Reading Council, and Chairperson of the Exemplary Reading Program Committee. Among her numerous teaching awards, Susan has been honored with the Illinois Teacher of the Year Award of Merit, the Illinois Education Association’s Advocate of Education Award, and the Illinois Reading Council’s Reading Teacher of the Year for 2004. Most recently Susan was honored by the State of Illinois House of Representative with House Resolution 1141 honoring her for her achievements in the field of reading education. One of her most important literacy goals is achieved by conducting workshops and presentations for teachers throughout the state and at national and international conferences. When she is not traveling, Susan enjoys reading, scrapbooking, and sewing. She resides in Villa Grove, Illinois with her husband, Dennis.
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| Cindy Wilson was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois where she spent most summers reading in the hayloft and on the back of a slow old horse, and most nights reading under the bedcovers with a flashlight. In fourth grade she was chastised by her teacher for including a reference to a beer-drinking horse in a poem she wrote, and in seventh grade for reading a novel inside her history text during class. She eventually straightened out enough to receive three degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and taught various levels of 5 – 12 band, library skills, social studies, and detention in addition to the bulk of her teaching: reading, literature, and language arts. She lives north of Springfield on six acres with her husband and cat, and spends her summers gardening, reading, freezing vegetables, reading, canning, reading, fishing, reading, mowing, and reading in her hammock. The rest of the year she teaches literacy and seminar classes for preservice teachers K-12 at the University of Illinois at Springfield and supervises student teachers, making sure they all know about the benefits of belonging to the Illinois Reading Council and the International Reading Association.
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| Patricia Ann Braun’s teaching career began in 1970 in a third-grade classroom where reading was the main area of instruction. Six years later, she earned a master’s degree in reading, and taught reading in the first through eighth grades in suburban, urban, and rural communities. Programs and methods she taught included basals, phonics, class novels, readers’ theater, oral interpretation of literature, and reading workshop. After 15 years of classroom teaching, she started teaching reading methods to master’s level and undergrad students. At this time, she began doing Illinois Writing Project workshops focused on reading and writing methods as well as on content-area reading. After 30 years of teaching, she earned a doctorate in reading. Currently, she works with two teachers in a collaborative classroom dedicated to developing 21st century literacy skills. In a flexible open space students read, research, write, and share stories every day. In an effort to include oral interpretation in the reading curriculum, Patricia started the annual West 40 Speech and Drama Festival, at which students recite and interpret poetry, plays, oratories, and stories. Even before her formal education, neighbors would send their children to “The Club,” where Patricia would read aloud daily. Because reading aloud is a tradition in her classroom and her family life, Patricia focused her doctoral studies on reading aloud in the content areas. Teaching reading is more than a job or career for Patricia: It’s her life.
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| An avowed
“reading warrior,” Christine believes in teaching students to love to
read-not just how to read. Because of her efforts to nurture the love
of reading, she received the ICARE for Reading Award from the Illinois
Council for Affective Reading Education in 2003 and the Illinois
Reading Council’s Reading Educator of the Year award in 2005. In her
24 years in the classroom, Christine has taught in Wisconsin, Iowa,
Ohio, and Illinois. She is the author of ten professional books for
teachers and one children’s book. She has published in the IRC Journal
and NCTE’s journal, Voices in the Middle. She is a regular contributor
to ALA’s magazine, Book Links. She has presented at local, state, and
national reading conferences and is a speaker-consultant with a
nationally-known staff development organization. Christine has been a
member of IRC since 1991—seven years longer than she’s actually lived
and taught in the state of Illinois. She is an active member of ICARE
(Illinois Council for Affective Reading Education), has served on the
review board for the IRC Journal, has served on the IRC grants
committee, and served on the review and nominating committee for the
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award. She currently teaches 7th
and 8th grade language arts in Dakota, Illinois, where she is also the
grade 7-12 literacy mentor. She is an adjunct associate professor of
education at Rockford College where she teaches a course in young adult
literature. Most importantly, she is a wife to her husband Tom, mother
to her children Ruth and Alex, mother-in-law to Morgan and a
deliriously happy grandmother to Katelyn! You can visit Christine’s
Web Site at www.chrismoen.com.
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| Diana L. Woods currently serves as a Title 1 Reading Teacher at East Richland Elementary School in Olney, Illinois. She has been instrumental in the success and recognition of the reading program. The IRA recognized the ERES Reading Program as the Exemplary School in 2003. ERES continues to be a Spotlight School and a demonstration site for Aspire. Diana L. Woods received her Bachelor’s Degree in Education/Special Education from Eastern Illinois University in 1976. In 1977, she began her career in Danville, Illinois working with Learning Disabled students at Northridge Jr. High School and Danville High School. After leaving Danville, she was employed for brief times in Elwood, Braceville, and Gibson City. She has taught in various capacities including special education, music, Title 1 and kindergarten. After moving to Olney, Illinois, she worked a short time as a teacher’s aide. She was approached by the primary school principal as to her interest in becoming a trained Reading Recovery teacher. This training occurred during the 1991-1992 school year in which she served as a part time Title 1 Reading Teacher. The following years she worked as part time Title 1 and part time First Grade teacher. In 1995, she began her current position as full time Title 1 Reading Teacher. Mrs. Woods serves in a leadership role for the East Richland Elementary School RtI Team. She has provided staff development within the district, region and state. Mrs. Woods has been extremely successful in writing grants to expand reading opportunities for the students and staff. She has created Fourth Grade Book Clubs, established a Comprehension Strategies Read Aloud Library and been able to purchase additional books for first grade classrooms. She has served as treasurer and currently serves as President of the South Eastern Reading Council in which she has been instrumental in the survival of this council. In addition to her school responsibilities, Mrs. Woods is active in her church serving as Secretary and Treasurer of the Mission Team, providing weekly missionary reports and playing the piano for worship services.
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| Cheryl Walker is currently a Literacy Specialist/Reading Recovery Teacher at Douglas School for Belleville #118. Presently she works with grades 1-3, but has worked with grades 1-6. Mrs. Walker is a member of the RtI Team and is the school’s representative for the district Young Author Committee. She works closely with the faculty members to create a strong literate environment for all. Mrs. Walker also helped implement the BLAST program at her school, an early intervention literacy plan for differentiated instruction in grades 1-2, similar to the Anna Plan. She was instrumental in acquiring a Literacy Grant from the Verizon Foundation to provide materials for this program. Mrs. Walker enjoys reading current research and trends in literacy instruction and modeling lessons for the teachers she works with.
She was trained in Reading Recovery at a former position in Sapulpa, Oklahoma in 1993-1994. While in Oklahoma, she also was a Title I reading teacher in a K-5 school. She received her M.S., with a reading concentration, from Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville and completed the literacy specialist certification. She also did literacy coursework with various universities while in Oklahoma. Before becoming a reading teacher, Mrs. Walker also taught second grade and was a Reading Improvement teaching assistant.
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Karen Ringas began her career in education ten years ago as a reading teacher at Indian Prairie School District in Naperville. She pursued her Reading Specialist Master’s Degree from National Louis University, graduating in 2003. When she observed the changing populations in classrooms, she decided to complete an English Language Learning approval at National Louis University in 2007. She helped to reform the reading curriculum and teaching at the Indian Prairie schools as a District Leader. Karen started a program called “Breakfast with Books” at her elementary school and had great success bringing parents and students together for discussion. This new program was recognized at the 2008 conference held by the Illinois Reading Council where she received the Parents and Reading Award. In 2008 she received special recognition from a former student who had a perfect GPA in middle school at an awards ceremony. Karen was honored as the student’s Most Influential Educator. In the fall of 2008, Karen left Naperville to become a reading specialist in District 200; the same district in which she had attended Kindergarten through High School. Other awards and recognitions of Karen’s work include presenting at the IRC conference, working with the Victory Project in Aurora and assisting with the LIFE program (Literacy in Families Empowers.) Karen has served as Publicity Director, Vice-President and President of the Fox Valley Reading Council. During her time as president, the council achieved the Illinois Council of Excellence and International Reading Association’s Honor Council. Currently, Karen is serving as the Membership chairperson for Fox Valley Reading Council. Her professional development and growth has been profoundly influenced by her active membership in the Illinois Reading Council.
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| Roberta Sejnost, who received her Doctorate of Education in Curriculum
and Instruction from Loyola University, Chicago, has been a high school
teacher and a university professor and is currently literacy consultant
to the Kane County Regional Office of Education. Roberta has been a
member of the board of directors for the International Reading
Association’s Secondary Reading Special Interest Group, as well as a
member of the Executive Board of the Illinois Reading Council, and has
served as an officer in several of the Illinois Reading Council’
special interest groups. A nationally recognized staff developer and
presenter, Roberta is a certified trainer in Authentic Assessment,
Brain-Based Learning, Portfolio Assessment, Multiple Intelligences, and
Reading and Writing Across Content Areas. She has won numerous awards
including IRC’s Reading Educator of the Year and the International
Reading Association’s Contribution to Literacy Award for the State of
Illinois. Her published book includes Reading and Writing Across Content Areas is in its second edition. Two additional books, Teaching Adolescents in an Extended Time Period : Strategies to Entice, Enlighten, Engage and Extend, and Promoting Literacy: Strategies for the Adolescent Learner will be published soon.
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