New Feature: Writers as Positive Influence
A couple of weeks ago, a friend was contemplating the amount of negative information that flows through the various avenues of social media. He suggested that more of us should focus on positive messages. He issued the challenge to his friends to post a brief comment about a person who does positive work five times a week for a year. I thought about it and I realized I can participate. I decided to focus on people who write in some way connected to Education. My first focus will be young adult writers, but I will also post about academic writers as well. I won't only focus on YA authors, or living authors for that matter. If you are interested in helping let me know. If you can think of an author or writer that I should highlight let me know. I will post it on Facebook on Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday Page and I will also list it on a new page within Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday Webpage. You can find it here. This has been interesting so far. I am taking the opportunity to look at writers who are well established and new authors who are doing positive work through their writing. Once again, looking at the body of young adult literature reminds me of the wonderful people involved with this large community. I feel fortunate to associate with so many great people. The authors below are the first five.
Attending the KidLitCon 2017
I am attending and presenting at the 2017 KidLitCon in Hershey, PA. It is this Friday and Saturday November 3-4. I am trying to learn a bit more about blogging. The Conference in in its seventh year and I am looking forward to meeting a host of librarians and readers who blog about young adult literature. I will be presenting with teacher and Nerdy Book Club Blogger, Cindy Minnich and Media Speicalist, LeighWoznick. This years organizer has put together a great program and a remarkable number of authors will be presenting. You can read the program and wish you were here as well. Some of the authors that will be there are in the gallery below.
Looking Forward to NCTE 2017 and the ALAN Workshop
The NCTE Conference is just around the corner. I hope you are going. The blog will post more about events at the conference over the next two weeks. I hope you are planning to attend. I want to point you to two session: One with Benjamin Alire Saienz and one with R Byron Stringer and his troupe of actors with the Toe Tag Monologues.
First, who doesn't want to be in a session with Benjamin Alire Saienz. He will be the keynote speaker for the session and then we will have a number of roundtable sessions with experts talking about "Recapturing the YA Voice in Literature: Culture, Family, and Identity."
First, who doesn't want to be in a session with Benjamin Alire Saienz. He will be the keynote speaker for the session and then we will have a number of roundtable sessions with experts talking about "Recapturing the YA Voice in Literature: Culture, Family, and Identity."
Second, when I arrived in Las Vegas. I meet a great educator. R. Byron Stringer is a retired police officer who is spending his retirement helping kids. He is the founder of the Vision Theatrical Foundation. As part of that foundation, he writes, produces school and community performances through Toe Tag Monologues. Each monologue discusses an issue that kids face that can cause death if they don't get help. We know these issues, body image, bullying, gang violence, domestic violence, and sexual orientation. I invite you to attend our session and look for impromtu performances as the young toe tag actors help us see the possibilities of including drama in classrooms so that kids can write, act, and discuss these issues in an open and safe environment.
Thanks for following and there will be more next week.
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