- Their spill on Liz Simon
Of all the correspondence I received at the time I received my Teacher Excellence Award, nothing touched me as much as a very poignant letter from an unknown parent who became aware of the award from the media coverage:
Dear Liz Simon
Congratulations on your reward, which I read in the Advertiser on 4.4.95. It’s always encouraging to hear that there are people like yourself who really care for children with learning difficulties. Your right about how it can effect children when they are growing up and even when they are adults.
My name is … and I am 32 years old. As a child I grew up knowing I had reading and spelling problems too. It wasn’t easy at school. You get treated as a freak. Even today my schooling and schools haunt me in some ways. Since school I have done adult Lit, and a number of
courses which has helped me a lot.
I am a mum now and have a lovely 3 year old boy who gives me a lot of happiness. Anyway I wish you luck with the kids and keep the good work up. I just hope that if my son will need help he wont have to go through with what I did.
Yours sincerely
Of course, the Elizabeth Downs staff could not resist poking fun at me by giving me a further award,
Aword off merret
for
Les Semmons
Four hes skulls un liztrucee an beyun able to rit gud.
So this is where all the learning I have done over the last years has got me!
From a Literacy coach Jersey City Education Department, USA:
December 17
To Whom it May Concern,
I’m writing to recommend my friend and mentor Liz Simon for a consulting position with your school district. I first met Liz when I was a third grade classroom teacher in a failing inner city school. Although at that time I wasn’t mandated to teach Balance Literacy, I attended many presentations given by Liz. She answered my questions and heard my concerns. Her demonstration lessons and explanations made it possible for me to implement the components of balanced literacy in my own classroom. From there I moved on to my present position as Literacy Coach in grades K-3, where for two years I had the pleasure of working closely with Liz.
When she asked for this letter, I was both flattered and apprehensive. The apprehension came because I’m not sure I can capture a true picture of Liz and all she has to contribute to the teachers in your school district. She is extremely knowledgeable and a published author. While working with Liz, I observed her dealing with resistant participants. She not only had answers for the impossible scenarios they spoke of but offered demonstration lessons in these respective classes. Liz understands the daily struggles of classroom teachers and has developed many teacher friendly resources. After attending one of her presentations or working with her you come away with something that you can quickly implement. I continue to share these resources with the teachers I am working with and have teachers who had the pleasure of working with Liz asking me if they could look through the binders of information Liz left behind for copies of things that Liz shared with them but they weren’t ready to take on at that time.
Liz also collaborated with district supervisors and other consultants to prepare and present district workshops for Shared and Guided Reading and Writing. Liz was called upon numerous times to present her ideas at meetings for literacy coaches, other district consultants and supervisors. The district has ordered many of the books and resources she recommended. Almost more important, teachers have purchased books written by Liz because they found them so useful.
I only hope I did Liz justice. I highly recommend her without reservation for your school district. She has so much to contribute and is a pleasure to work with.
Should you need any further information, please feel free to contact me.
Yours sincerely
[name], Literacy Coach
Jersey City Public Schools
New Jersey 07057-2224
2nd year Students at Flinders University:
Liz was engaging and informative in her teaching practice, which allowed me to walk away from class with a greater knowledge of the readings and core theories of the subject. Class activities were fun and appropriate as a means of engaging students further with the curriculum. Through the course of this subject, I have gained a better knowledge of literacy and numeracy as a practice, principle and theory.
Liz’s personable qualities made all teachings interesting, even in traditional dry areas.
Liz was a great tutor who was always available to talk to students.
She was really easy to talk to and very understanding. She had heaps of knowledge and gave some great knowledge and hints as to how to complete assignments. I would love to be in her tutorials again. She made me excited to come to the tutes. She had heaps of information and gave feedback which helped me to understand where I went wrong in certain aspects of my assignments.
Teachers feedback from workshops:
Comments from teachers about workshop:
Its great the enthusiasm you exude and pass on to us all re reading/language teaching (Hillcrest Primary School)
Easy to listen to, clear explanation of what Guided Reading is. Straight to the point. (Para Hills East Primary)
An excellent day. Highly motivational (Elizabeth North Primary)
What new/worthwhile teaching did you learn:
New ways to teach reading. Came away with how to use reading packs (Hillcrest Primary School)
To spend more time on telling children about the book before reading the story to them. (Para Hills East Primary)
Using small groups. Group work activities focus on text. Critical literacy component. (Elizabeth North Primary)
From information, what would you try in your classroom:
You’ve reminded me of the ESL in the Mainstream strategies and I will re use these. E.g. give a précis of the book etc. (Hillcrest Primary School)
Organise the groups of children better and tie them in with the unit of work I will be doing next term. (Para Hills East Primary)
Reintroduce big books. More activities reading/literacy based (Elizabeth North Primary)
Letter about Conference presentation:
Department for Education and Children’s Services [South Australia]
Curriculum Services
Dear Elizabeth
Thank you very much for your great contribution to the Literacy in Practice conference on the 1st and 2nd June.
The conference seems to have generated a lot of energy to take up the debate and issues in literacy teaching and to think through some of the possibilities for literacy learning in the future.
We are very grateful to you for making the time to prepare and present some really challenging ideas as well as practical strategies for teachers.
Once again thank you very much for being part of the conference!
Yours sincerely
[name]
For the Conference Planning Committee
Email from a Literacy Coach in Jersey City commenting (August, 2010) about my latest book, ‘Thinkers and Performers Making Critical Thinking Come Alive’.
Hi Liz,
I've been reading your book, it feels like you and I are having a conversation. If only we can get our teachers to think critically and believe that the students have the ability to do the same. The information is so clear, practical and written to make implementation a breeze!
First Steps Literacy (Second Edition) (Western Australia) has referenced my book ‘Strategic Spelling Every Writer’s Tool’ in their Writing Resource book.
Email from the principal of West Beach Primary School (August, 2010), where I worked with teachers for a term to help them implement Guided Reading and Independent Activities, Critical Thinking Book Clubs /the asking of open-ended questions.
Hi Liz just a quick note to say we held a Parent Literacy evening the other week and the teachers presented. We had 35 parents attend and it was great. I got the opportunity to hear the staff explaining Guided Reading, Book Clubs and open ended questions to the parents. Here was the evidence that they had taken it on board at their own pace and were using these strategies in their classrooms.
Professional reference from a colleague, principal and Literacy Consultant (I was applying for Churchill Fellowship):
Liz Simon has been a professional colleague of mine for the past 18 years. She is someone with a passion for education who is continually looking for innovative ways to impact upon the learning of teachers and students. In 1991 Liz and I were among a group of educators from the state, Catholic and independent systems who lobbied for the development of a tutoring system, Reading Recovery in South Australia. The group met with politicians and senior educators and facilitated conferences to highlight the benefits of this programme that had been created in New Zealand by Dame Professor Marie Clay. Liz presented at the conferences and when the center was established was one of three public school teachers to be trained. As she implemented Reading Recovery at her school Liz welcomed teachers, principals and senior education personnel to view the teaching and peruse the assessment results. As a member of the committee that included members of the three education systems and the University of South Australia, Liz played a pivotal role in hiring of tutors and the ongoing management of the training of Reading Recovery teachers across the state. In 2002 Liz joined AUSSIE, Inc, a professional training provider in NY City and other places in USA. Again we were able to work together to develop professional development for teachers. Her deep knowledge and understanding of what constitutes high quality teaching and learning enabled her to be a respected leader in the AUSSIE consultancy team. Liz’s beliefs and knowledge have been refined and shared through her books, which I use as references for my work in NY City schools and through workshops and other professional support she provides to educators during her time in Australia.
[name]
Educational Consultant, self employed, currently obtaining work through AUSSIE Inc New York.
