It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do a workshop or presentation about reading instruction, so I was happy to finally get the opportunity to do one last night. I truly love the process involved in sharing valuable information with people for the sake of helping kids read. We had our first Reading Roundtable Workshop for homeschooling parents in our local community of Knoxville, TN.
I’ve done plenty of workshops and presentations about reading in my career, but this one was different. I think my natural tendencies as a presenter to include and interact with my audience, combined with my own desire to learn from others led me to offer a different type of workshop. I’ve dubbed it a Reading “Roundtable” because I had the desire to do more than just the typical dissemination of information to a group of people. Instead I wanted to present the information to the group (with questions and answers inserted as they came up, of course), but then opening up “the floor” to the participants in the hopes that they would share their knowledge, experiences, and/or concerns as they related to reading, curriculum, and homeschooling. Well, the results were awesome!
Although there were few in attendance for our first Reading Roundtable Workshop, the amount of information that flowed freely between everyone in the room was amazing! Connections were made, suggestions were taken, experiences were shared, concerns were aired, light bulbs were turned on, and ideas were born. I’m really excited about how it all went down and the possibilities that are possible!
I’ve had plenty of responses and requests for future sessions, so I’m happy to report that there will be many more of these in the future!