Howard, Sulzycki, and Botelho participated in Building Bridges Conference 2021

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Chrissy Howard, doctoral student in Language Literacy and Culture and the Director of Reading Success by 4th Grade of Springfield, a community-wide early literacy program, convened the Building Bridges Conference in mid-March 2021. As the first city-wide professional learning conference for early educators working with children birth to kindergarten, it served more than 600 early childhood teachers. The conference opened with video greetings from local and state elected officials, including remarks from Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, who declared March 19 “Early Childhood Educator Day” in the City of Springfield. The teachers engaged in over 50 sessions that were planned around their needs and interests. Ellen Sulzycki, doctoral student, LLC, the Children’s Services Supervisor of Springfield City Library, presented a session on library resources for the whole family. Dr. Maria José Botelho, presented two workshops: “We Live in the City: Representing Urban Communities in Children’s Literature” and “We Have Stories to Tell: Making Stories and Texts with Young Children.” The conference was supported by a number of community organizations and companies.