Maria Walther, who earned a doctorate in elementary education from Northern Illinois University, taught first grade for 34 years. Along with teaching young learners, Maria inspires her colleagues through engaging professional learning experiences. The ideas she shares reflect her continued commitment to teaching, researching, writing, and collaborating. What teachers appreciate most about Maria is her enthusiasm for teaching and her realistic approach toward classroom instruction. Maria was honored as Illinois Reading Educator of the Year, earned the ICARE for Reading Award for fostering the love of reading in children, and was named The Outstanding Literacy Alumni by Department of Literacy Education at Northern Illinois University. The award that Maria cherishes the most is The Most Influential Educator given by one of her former first-grade students who is now one of her colleagues. Maria is a prolific professional writer. She strives to create practical resources for busy teachers. Her best-selling book,The Ramped-Up Read Aloud, promotes joyful read aloud experiences. Her latest book,The Literacy Workshop: Where Reading and Writing Converge, was written with Karen Biggs-Tucker. Maria is also the co-author of Scholastic's Next Step Guided Reading Assessment with Jan Richardson. Learn more her books at mariawalther.com and follow her on Twitter @mariapwalther. Karen Biggs-Tucker is a teacher in St. Charles, IL where she has taught both second and fifth grade for 34 years. She feels that she learns the most from being in the classroom with students and takes what she learns with her students to other educators in a variety of other venues. When she is not working with her students at Wild Rose, she teaches both masters and doctoral students at Judson University. She has earned a master's degree in reading from Northern IL University in 1992 and a doctorate in education from Loyola University in 1999. She was named the Reading Educator of the Year by the Illinois Reading Council in 2013 and received the Light of Literacy Award from Judson University in 2010. She published her first book for teachers with co-author, Brian Tucker, entitled Transforming Literacy Teaching in the Era of Higher Standards (Grades 3-5). She has recently finished her second professional book with Maria Walther for Stenhouse Publishers titled The Literacy Workshop: Where Reading and Writing Converge . She enjoys sharing her teaching ideas with educators at conferences at the local, state, and national level. She believes in lifelong learning through reading, writing, researching, and then sharing that learning with others-just like her own students do in literacy workshop.
