A TICKET TO THE MOVIES!

SCIRA's theme this year is fun: A Ticket to Adventure. We all know literacy is such a ticket. We're going to try to make our BCRC meetings all related to a ticket somewhere...this time to the movies. So let's pop some corn, grab a snack and get started!

We welcome you to a whole new school year! We'll be sharing so much with you this year . So, our first meeing will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at 4:15 at the new Pritchardville Elementary. We thought you'd appreciate getting a peek at the beautiful new school and Principal Charles Johnson was excited to have us! There will be tons of plans for the new year shared, great refreshments and doorprizes. Come and join us! We hope to see you there.

The End of the Year

The end of the school year is in sight and we're all under a lot of demands! Hang in there. :)

Thank you to everyone for all of your support this year. We've enjoyed all of our meetings and especially the Mini-conference.

We'd like to call for all books collected as a part of our community outreach this year. If you have any books to donate to our book drive, please send them to us. You can either forward them to a literacy coach if you're a part of a BCRC elementary or middle school or email me and I will arrange to get them from you. We'll be cutting off donations on May 1st so we can sort and assemble our gift to CAPA and hopefully some graduating seniors from USCB Beaufort.

In the next few weeks the BCRC officers will be attending a leadership workshop at the state level and the BCRC board will be meeting in the weeks that follow to develop a long range plan for next year. If you have any input, please email. It's your council....make it yours!

Thank you everyone!
Cynthia Laizer, BCRC President

March 18th - Our Next BCRC Meeting

Our next Beaufort County Reading Council meeting will be held at Robert Smalls Middle School on Thursday, March 18th at 4:15. We have many wonderful things planned for the evening.

We will begin with a celebration of students' writing. All school-level winners of the state superintendent's writing award have been invited to be honored with certificates.

Following those awards, we will have featured guests to include a local author and a local bookstore. Then, for our member's idea share "Hooking Kids on Books," effective book talks will be presented.

As always there will be fun, fellowship, door-prizes and refreshments. We hope to see you there!

Catching Up

Getting a first-ever conference up and running took a lot of work, energy and dedication. The board and I want to thank everyone who attended and all of the wonderful feedback we've received. With over 100 participants, it was a huge success. Thank you to USCB and Belinda Eggen, Dr. Truesdale, Kay Newsome, and everyone who worked so hard on this endeavor.

As you can imagine, we're all a little bit wiped out and will be refreshing our minds and souls with a little bit of R&R and a LOT of learning at the SCIRA conference this week. If you haven't already registered, consider attending. It is really a wonderful opportunity to learn and meet collegues with like interests. As always, thank you for your support or the Beaufort County Reading Council.

A Sign of Good Things to Come!

Well, folks...here it is. This is our new car magnet. We'll be giving these to each person registered to attend our Mini-Conference on Saturday, January 30th. We have some big names planned, such as Dr. Valerie Truesdale and Natalie Daise. If you'd like more information and a registration form, please send an email to
cynthia.laizer@beaufort.k12.sc.us or cynd1234@hotmail.com.

Gearing Up for a Miniconference!

Plans are well underway for our first ever BCRC Miniconference. We're still confirming our keynote speaker, but we have many confirmed session presenters that range from preschool through middle and high school areas. They include reading, writing, technology integration and so much more!

We still have a few open slots, so if you're thinking about presenting, we're extending the deadline until December 15th. Email for a form: cynthia.laizer@beaufort.k12.sc.us

Our First Meeting of the Year

Membership was the focus of our first meeting. In fact, if you haven't renewed your membership, please continue to support our organization. We need you.

For membership information, please email suelyn.brooks@beaufort.k12.sc.us

In addition to membership, we had a wonderful presentation by Robin Cox. Robin works with literacy coaches in Beaufort County. She spoke on the topic of assessment of writing. She asked, “How can we help our students become critical readers and writers?” Robin related how to use the state standards and support documents to inform instruction in writing. She showed a kindergarten teacher and her students conferencing about writing. Robin shared supportive handouts on the topic of writing assessment for grades k-5.

More than 50 were in attendance. Door prizes, refreshments, great information and lots of good conversation among colleagues was shared by all. We look forward to more great meetings, as well as community projects and one sure-to-be fantastic conference this year. We hope you'll jump in and "dig into literacy" with us.