What We Did on Our Summer Vacation!

If summer is supposed to slow down, no one told us!

Summer is always our busiest time of year. When the school year ends and teachers finally have a little more space in their schedules, many of them use that time to learn, grow, and prepare for the students who will walk through their classroom doors in the fall. And we love being part of that.

In June, educators from several Dane County school districts came together at Centro Hispano for three days of in-person training. There was a lot packed into those three days. Teachers learned new strategies, practiced together, asked questions, shared ideas, and built connections with other educators, all with one goal in mind: helping more children become strong, confident readers.

Throughout the summer, we also supported educators through live online training cohorts, while three teachers took the next step in their learning through intensive Advanced training. Since June, we’ve supported 30 teachers through structured literacy training, and have one final cohort starting this week!

But some of our favorite moments this summer happened outside of training.

At Centro Hispano’s Mercadito, we had the chance to connect directly with families and distribute free bilingual early literacy kits, filled with resources and simple ways families can build early literacy skills at home.

We also joined the kickoff of Read Dane: 3,000 Strong, an initiative led by One City Schools and United Way of Dane County, and spent time connecting with educators at Madison Reading Project’s Classroom Kickstart.

And now comes our favorite part. Watching all of the summer learning make its way into classrooms.

Because when a teacher learns something that helps them reach a striving reader, that knowledge doesn’t help just one child. They carry it forward to the next student, and the next classroom, and the next school year. That ripple effect is exactly why we do this work.

We are so grateful to the educators who gave up part of their summer to become even better teachers, and to the donors, funders, and community partners who make these opportunities possible.