Hello, October

First, I need to say PUMPKIN!

It's my favorite flavor. I particularly love pumpkin-flavored coffee or coffee creamer. I drink much more coffee this time of year not because of the temperature, but the flavor. Love it!

And now to ReadWriteThink-related topics.

The Android version of the Trading Card app is still in the works--I received a couple emails about that previously, and if I told you that it would be out by the end of September, I apologize. I think we will be closer to mid-October. Sorry. At least we have pumpkin-flavored coffee to hold us over, right?

Word Mover has moved to beta testing, so that is crushing right along. I'll share another Wes original with you after I do my test run.

I will down at the Diamond State Reading Association (DSRA) meeting tomorrow in Dover, DE. They are one of IRA's affiliate councils. This gives a chance to interact face-to-face with teachers and talk about ReadWriteThink.

And speaking of face-to-face, last week...no, two weeks ago...the editors of RWT had one of our face-to-face meetings between the NCTE team and the IRA team. I always love our in-person team meetings. I feel like it fosters a better work environment and improves communication. It's always fun, and I do enjoy getting to see Lisa and Christy and to catch up.

We went over site traffic (up 16% overall!) and where RWT is getting hit, what the trends show as areas to improve. We've come up with some interesting ideas for future fixes. We plan on revamping some older lessons, and we'll of course keep fixing the old interactives (Venn Diagram is already in the works).

The Professional Development side received a lot of traffic this year, which we like to see. We're now discussing how best to improve this section: what's work? What isn't? What's there that shouldn't be? What are teachers looking for when they go to that page?

If you've gone to the Profession Development section of ReadWriteThink, what did you think? Did you find what you were looking for? If you have any thoughts on what RWT can and should be providing, let us know!

More big things to come as we design the work plan for 2013. I'll keep listing out the cool things as they come up. It's an exciting time of year.

Because pumpkin flavor is back in season!

Wes

5Ks, Conventions, Resumes, and Small-Group Reading Instruction

So my last post was a "September is right around the corner" post. Jeez, was that really 4 weeks ago? Feels like less, and I didn't even have vacation in there!

OK, so now October is right around the corner. Teachers and students are kind of in their groove. The first issues of The Reading Teacher and JAAL are out. The first Reading Today was sent (and it does look good!). The IRA Convention webpage is up and running. Did you check out the Convention Insider? You should. <wink, wink>

So what's up around IRA for next month?

Well, first off, I'm going to tell you about what I'm up to. Oct 1 I'm running a 5K. It's not my first 5K, but it's over a really large bridge, so likely it will be my hardest 5K.

See the big bridge? Over that!

What does that have to do with IRA? Well, nothing, but it is my blog, so I thought I would mention it,

In other news, I will be at the Diamond State Reading Association conference in Dover, DE, on Oct 7th. I'll be there to talk about ReadWriteThink.org and IRA. I enjoy it because it gives me a chance to interact with local teachers on an one-to-one basis, and I like supporting the state affiliates. I'd love to go to more! (I'm sure I can be booked for state affiliate conferences in some way or another, if you really want me there.)

What else have we got coming in October? Our Resume Generator will be live by then. The second new interactive, Puzzle Me Words, will be live, we think. I suppose I could link to the current, beta-version here in the this blog. Sure, why not? I doubt my boss will read this. Here is the link to the beta-version of Puzzle Me Words, a word-sound game for very young students.

It's not finished yet; we still have some bugs we are working on and some improvements, but if you want to play around with it and let us know what you think, enjoy!

The Interactive K-W-L Chart Creator is in early testing, but it looks good so far. I'll share a link to that when it's a bit further along.

As for IRA, we have a new book publishing in October: Small-Group Reading Instruction by Beverly B. Tyner and Sharon E. Green. Beverly I've had the pleasure of meeting on a few occasions--she's talked a few times at the IRA Marketplace at convensions. I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting Sharon.

And that is pretty much that for now! I'll see about scoping some new info out in Oct for you for my next update...and I won't be delayed a whole month to get the info to you!

Wes