Welcome to the 20th National Conference on Family Literacy!

NCFL welcomes everyone to the 20th National Conference on Family Literacy! We’ve got a great day of sessions ahead of us, as well as a fantastic opening general session planned!

Here’s just a handful of the many informative concurrent and feature sessions on deck for today. Check your conference program for a full list of sessions and for room information.

  • 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. — Conference Orientation Session
  • 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. — Chiming in on Technology: Family Literacy Teachers Share Perceptions from the Field
  • 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. — Partner for Success – GEDs to College Degrees
  • 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. — Final Results from the Eight-Year Evaluation of the First 5 LA Family Literacy Initiative
  • 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. — Narrowing the Gap Between Home Literacy and School Literacy Environment
  • 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. — Parenting Toward Literacy – Increasing Parent Knowledge, and Engagement
  • 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. — Family Literacy and the 112th Congress
  • 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. — World Views from UNESCO (What’s New in Education at UNESCO? and Bridging the Gender Divide – Boosting Family Literacy)

Don’t miss the opening general session at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon! Our distinguished speakers include NCFL President & Founder Sharon Darling, award-winning actress Marlee Matlin, Toyota Motor North America Group Vice President Patricia Pineda, student speaker Elizabeth Pino and 2011 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year Patricia J. Urdialez.

When you have some downtime, don’t forget to visit the NCFL/Wonderopolis® booth in the Exhibit Hall, and take your turn sharing your thoughts on family literacy or telling us what you’re wondering about in the NCFL/Wonderopolis® Video Booth!

And don’t forget to check out the Exhibit Hall Reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., sponsored by the GED Testing Service®. Enjoy refreshments, and get to know vendors and colleagues. And you can meet co-author of The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series, Marcia Thornton Jones at the Scholastic booth – and get a free signed copy of her latest book, Champ.

Have you joined the Wonder Quest yet? Visit Wonderopolis.org to read Wonder of the Day® #182: How Many Stars Are In the Universe? Post your best guess in the comment session for a chance to win valuable prizes such as a FlipTM video camera or an iPod® touch. We’ll announce today’s winners at Monday morning’s general session at 9:00 a.m.

It’s going to be an exciting first day!