About the Author

Welcome to Say Goodbye to Summer Slide!

Hello and welcome to Say Goodbye to Summer Slide.  My name is Lisa and I created this site as a place for parents to find tips on how to engage their children with literacy during the summer and beyond.  Each week, I'll share 2 - 3 ideas that you can try out with your child(ren) to promote reading and writing at home.  When we integrate literacy into the framework of our daily lives, we model for children the real purpose that reading and writing serves for us.  This will help them to become better readers, writers, thinkers and ultimately, responsible, confident and independent human beings.

More about me...

I am a mother of two children (ages 7 and 9) and a teacher.  In my time spent as an educator, I have worked in various roles: 2^nd and 3^rd grade teacher, graduate education adjunct, interim reading specialist and a literacy coach for an urban non-profit.  In the latter role, I had the pleasure of working with dozens of teachers in the Philadelphia area, supporting their instruction, interacting with students and learning from their teaching.  This experience was one that greatly impacted my thoughts and philosophy on literacy instruction and education in general.

I also enjoy reading and writing in the field of education and have contributed to Heinemann’s Digital Campus Library, www.heinemann.com/PD/digitallibrary/default.aspx, Children’s Literacy Initiative’s online site for teachers, www.cliontheweb.org and have also created Literacy with Lisa, a literacy blog for teachers.  Please check it out at www.literacywithlisa.com and click on the Home Connection to read posts that are relevant for parents.

What else???

I love reading, writing and water-skiing, not necessarily in that order.  Running, mindfulness and yoga are also on my list of favs.  So you might find mention of lakes, slalom skis and buoys, scattered throughout these posts.  If so, I hope that you will find the connections to make sense.   

I also love to travel and during this past year visited Waterski Costa Rica (a really cool place if you like to water-ski!) http://www.waterskicostarica.com/  and also Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  My hope is to visit Turkey within the next five years.  We’ll see!   

One last thing…this site is meant to inform entertain and inspire action in an interactive way.  So please share your feedback, as well as suggestions for future topics.  I truly value your ideas and would love to hear from you.

Until then…