Extra+Credit+Opportunities

= **I'm wondering if anybody is interested in getting a group together to go to the Ohio Council of the International Reading Association Conference at Kent State October 22 and 23 of this year. If anyone wants to go, please email me at Lisa's email [|Ocira Conference info]=

**“Creative Expression through Language, Literature, and Literacy,” the fifteenth annual Ohio Kentucky Indiana Children’s Literature Conference, will be held Saturday, November 6, 2010 at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, KY. Keynote speakers will be author Gail Carson Levine, Newbery Honor winner, and Chris Raschka, author and Caldecott Award-winning illustrator. The full-day conference will also include a wide variety of workshops useful to teachers, writers, librarians, illustrators, and parents, on subjects including “Using Children’s Books to Integrate Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Science, and Math” with Cincinnati author Andrea Cheng; “Middle School Book Clubs” with school librarian Sandra Lingo; and “Improving Community and Critical Thinking through Improv” with Jennifer Yuenger and Janet Mitchell of Villa Madonna Academy. Rotem Moscovich, Editor at Scholastic/Cartwheel books will discuss the process by which an editor chooses a manuscript for publication, and local author Linda Leopold Strauss will join her for a second workshop about how they worked together to produce Strauss’s new picture book, __Preschool Day Hooray!__. Director Benjamin Sapp of The Mazza Museum at the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio will offer a virtual tour of the museum, and keynote speakers Levine and Raschka will hold informal Meet the Author sessions. In addition, Linda Leopold Strauss is offering a limited manuscript critique option to conference-goers. The 2010 conference is sponsored by The Dearborn Highlands Arts Council in cooperation with The Blue Marble Children’s Bookstore, Clermont County Public Library, Kenton County Public Library, Kenton County Schools, Madeira City Schools, Northern Kentucky University, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Thomas More College, University of Cincinnati, and Xavier University. The conference will begin at 8:00 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. Early bird registration (including a continental breakfast and lunch) is $75; after October 22, $85. Registration for full-time students with valid student ID is $35. Manuscript critiques are $35. Registration and additional information are available at http://oki.nku.edu or by contacting Jennifer Smith (859-572-6620 or smithjen@nku.edu)