Geraldine Carter
UK
AUTHOR, LITERACY EXPERT
https://piperbooks.co.uk/

Founder of Piper Books.
Proud to call my good friend. Geraldine (G to me) has been a constant source of inspiration as I have developed in my learning journey. I would be nowhere near where I am in my thinking without G's, support, care and love.

Piper Books provides reading instruction material (books and teacher guides) for all learners to really get how to read.
BRI
ARI
MRI

They are the materials I use to show ITT teachers about how reading needs to be taught and are the materials I would use for any tutoring I give and advise others to give.

https://twitter.com/ged10

Ernest 'Tre' Hadrick III
USA, PENNSYLVANIA
LITERACY CHAMPION, AUTHOR

My friend and my inspiration for getting all YP to read. What a pleasure and honour it is to know 'Tre' and to provide any additional help I can to his mission to help all kids to read.

Last year Tre set up a decodable bookstore in a local barbershop with his team of long-term friends, he has championed the use of sound charts and decodable books for local parents as well as penning two of his own books 'Cheese-steaks and Clippers' based on helping young people to learn about their own responsibilities as they grow.

Please do support him in any way you can in his continued efforts to help all children to read- and, as Tre says in his iconic phrase, Be Lit!

https://linktr.ee/mrlitedu

Ann Sullivan
UK
PHONICS AND SEND EXPERT

Ann is a literacy expert from the UK with extensive experience in teaching pupils with additional learning needs. She has written a number of books and guides for teaching students with additional needs to read and spell using phonics as well as books to help parents understand how they can help their child to read and spell (one of which I am very proud to be the co-author of!).

Do have a look at her linktree links and website where you can find the links to all her very important work.

https://linktr.ee/phonicsforsen

https://www.phonicsforpupilswithspecialeducationalneeds.com/

https://twitter.com/PhonicsforSEN

Rod J. Naquin
USA, LOUISIANA
EDUCATION LEADER - DIALOGIC LEADERSHIP

Boy have I been lucky to make this recent connection with Rod! An absolute gentleman and a true lover of learning in all its guises - and what a voice! When we spoke on zoom recently it was great to hear that gentle, southern lilt coming through the airwaves - melodic and imbued with a rich, deep and friendly charm. 

Rod leads the ELA program at Training Labs and is also a doctoral student studying teacher collaborative discourse - an area close to my heart too. Educators of all kinds would really benefit from  getting to know much more about this vital area for their own professional development.

He writes a great substack and posts some brilliant content on twitter too.

Cheers to you Rod!

https://twitter.com/rodjnaquin

https://rodjnaquin.substack.com/

Donald Clark
AUTHOR, SPEAKER, BLOGGER, LEARNING EXPERT

I could not say enough about Donald and I will keep it brief here as a huge amount of my PhD work is based on Donald's incredible body of work on learning theory and I reference and credit his work extensively in my research.

Suffice to say that without learning from Donald I would not be anywhere close to where I am today with my own learning.

Buy his great books here (all 3 can be accessed on this link):
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Technology-Complete-Guide-Professionals/dp/1398608750

Read his incredible Learning Theorists blog series here:
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

Listen to his brilliant Learning Theorists podcast series (From Greeks to Geeks) here:
https://greatmindsonlearning.libsyn.com/

Oliver Caviglioli
UK
LEARNING DESIGN SPECIALIST
Difficult to summarise the awesomeness of this consummate gentleman. Oliver has inspired my deeper understanding of the incredible work of Merlin Donald through his postings on twitter, showing the infographics he has created to summarise Donald's work and how it connects with learning.
Below is an example of one of his Merlin Donald posters to get a flavour of the incredible learning design work Oliver does.

Here is the website of this truly inspirational learning designer:
https://www.olicav.com/

https://twitter.com/olicav

Tom Sherrington
UK
EDUCATION SPEAKER, TRAINER, AUTHOR, CONSULTANT, EXPERT

I have probably gained more insights into education, pedagogy, behaviour, coaching, leadership, assessment, professional development and a whole list of other areas related to education than anyone else over the past ten years.

I have had the pleasure of hosting Tom for a school day of professional development when I was leading a school and he did not disappoint with his brilliant in-person training.

Since moving into HE and starting my PhD, Tom's work has become an invaluable source of insight as I research learning in more detail. For me, the important thing about all his work is that it constantly marries theory and research with practical application for the school and classroom (see his incredible body of work with regards to Rosenshine) and now taking that to the next level with the work he has created with Oli Caviglioli on Walkthrus. For my money, the number 1 PD platform for schools in the world.

Wherever I can I try to reference Tom's work and I will be doing so a lot more as I progress with my PhD.

Read Tom's incredible blog here:

https://teacherhead.com/

Listen to Tom (with co-host Emma Turner) here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mind-the-gap-making-education-work-across-the-globe/id1516532537

Take a look at the incredible Walkthrus PD platform here:

https://www.walkthrus.co.uk/

Debbie Hepplewhite
UK, WALES
AUTHOR OF MULTIPLE STRUCTURED PHINCS PROGRAMMES, TRAINER, ADVISER, ADVOCATE

When I was looking to transform the teaching of phonics in a school I was leading I discovered Debbie's incredible body of work in this field. It came a little too late for me to put in place the transformation Iw anted in that school to shift the practice to using Phonics International as the sxchool-wide programme but it has led me to both a deep friendship with Debbie and a much deeper personal understanding of everything connected with reading, literacy and the global literacy challenge that is faced across the English-speaking world.

I had the pleasure of taking Debbie's on-line phonics training course in 2019 - and if anyone is looking for a solid grounding in phonics and teaching you can take this self-paced online course for 20GBP any time ! Why wouldn't you!

Debbie has tirelessly spearheaded both UK and global campaigns to promote effective reading instruction and has set up the International Foundation for Effective  Reading  Instruction, of which I am honoured to be an advisory member. IFERI is there for all who are passionate about effective reading instruction and I really would urge anyone who shares this passion to visit the site and see what is there. It is all free, there is a forum to post comments and read previous posts - a truly collaborative space which should be used more.

Thank you Debbie for all you continue to do!

The links to Debbie's work are here, including a link to the IFERI website.

https://phonicsinternational.com/

https://debbiehepplewhitehandwriting.com/

https://debbiehepplewhite.com/main-blog/

https://iferi.org/

Anne Glennie
UK, SCOTLAND
AUTHOR, LITERACY EXPERT

Anne has campaigned tirelessly in Scotland for a change to evidence-informed reading instruction. One of the kindest, most passionate literacy champions I have the very good fortune to know.

Website of the inspirational literacy champion from Scotland, Anne Glennie

https://www.thelearningzoo.co.uk/

Anne's peptition to the Scottish government to change reading practice in Scotland:

https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2037

https://twitter.com/anneglennie

Nicky Parr
Author, trainer and handwriting expert.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Nicky for nearly four years now, having come across her postings on twitter, and what an incredible person Nicky is.

Her work and passion is handwriting (my passion too) and she has developed a body of work )training, consultancy, website and soon to be released book) that stands out as the best work in this field that I know of.

On top of that, Nicky is an incredibly kind, supportive and positive human - making others feel better and more positive about themselves and their work. I am incredibly fortunate to know Nicky and have her as a friend.

Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/nicky_parr

Check out her amazing work and training courses on her website: https://www.betterhandwritten.com/

Ally Lewis
UK, N IRE
Ally is a learning support specialist working in Northern Ireland with a particular focus and passion for helping dyslexic learners, being a co-founder of DANI which was set up to advocate for dyslexic learners. She works tirelessly to raise the importance of having evidence-based literacy practices in all schools across Northern Ireland, despite strongly entrenched balanced literacy curriculum practices that are still prevalent.

Ally links the important work of the Reading Reform Foundation UK https://rrf.org.uk/in much of her advocacy work.

Do try and support her important work in any way you can. Ally cannot change literacy for the better in N. Ireland on her own!

https://twitter.com/Allylewistt

Rob Randel
UK, WALES
Primary School Teacher and Literacy Champion

I will not forget how Rob took the time out of his busy teaching schedule to attend the small international online literacy conference I arranged during the pandemic. Rob attended all 3 days and gave some truly great feedback about the conference.

Since then I have tried to champion the work Rob is doing in Wales with trying to get systematic  synthetic phonics reading instruction into Welsh schools. It is a daunting task and supporting him in any way I can is an honour for me.

The field of education needs genuine, on-the-ground classroom practitioners to contribute their voices and experiences in order for change to happen. Teachers listen much more to other tecahers who are doing the job - and Rob is, definitely, doing the job expertly.

Do try to support him in his work.

https://twitter.com/robrandel

Cora Young
HONG KONG
ED TECH MASTER PRACTITIONER AND TRAINER

It has been a pleasure to get to know Cora after following the brilliant work she regularly posts on-line about the use of tech for learning at the schools she works with in Hong Kong.

What impresses me most about Cora's work is that she just does it - she shows the practical learning work she does with teachers and learners so that you can see the learning that is taking place. No showing off, no selfishness, just pure joy in celebrating learning.

Please do follow Cora and enjoy the work she is doing - we can be quite anti-tech at times, seeing it as a threat to proper learning - but Hong Kong isn't doing too bad in having young people learn the basics as well as use technology.

Follow Cora here:

https://twitter.com/CoraEdTech

https://linktr.ee/CoraEdTech

Allen Tsui
UK, LONDON
SCHOOL COMPUTING SUBJECT LEADER, TRAINER AND EXPERT

It has been wonderful to connect with and get to know Allen. Allen has an infectious positivity on twitter that is a rare thing! I even had the great fortune to interact with Allen on a recent TeacherTalkRadio twitter broadcast where we had a great mini-discussion about the international digital technology and pedagogy scene.

Connections such as this are really important in our lives - we may not know someone in person but we can share a commonality of interests and it is even better with a good dose of London humour! Thank you Allen for this important connection.

https://twitter.com/TsuiAllen

Stephanie LeLievre
AUS
Principal of Serpentine Primary School in Perth, Australia

I have connected with Steph for a long time now over social media (although with her change to Principal she has, quite wisely, ended her personal presence there).
Steph has led an incredible body of work for teachers professional development in literacy: the grammar project. Really worth taking a good look at all that is availabe for PD.


Steph's school website:
http://www.serpentineps.wa.edu.au/index.php

The Grammar Project
https://thesyntaxproject2022.squarespace.com/

Purnima Valiathan
INDIA
E-LEARNING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER
It has been an absolute pleasure to get to know Purnima. She has been a pioneer for e-learning instructional design in India for 30 years or more and her on-line courses are really worth a look at - clear and very well designed for the learner.

Having a connection in India has always been a long-held dream of mine, it is a country so huge, so full of history and opportunity that holds a special place in my imagination and thoughts. Having Purnima as a personal connection is, hopefully, going to lead to opportunities in the future to visit India and help do some great work there with helping many understand about learning and teaching.

https://purnima-valiathan.com/

https://twitter.com/Pvaliathan

Megan Gierka
USA
Literacy Specialist working for AIM insitute (US)

Megan is a tireless champion for getting all YLs to read. In the academic year 22-23 Megan posted about all her visits and trips to schools, districts across the US where she has championed the implementation of effective literacy practices through sensible, practical, evidence-based methods supporting teachers and leaders in their journey to better literacy practices to help all YP. A real inspiration for what human connections can do to help raise achievement.

https://linktr.ee/megangierka

https://twitter.com/MeganGierka

Geri Kipp
USA, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
How lucky I have been to have met Geri online and got to know her through a number of zoom calls as well.
Geri started linking my posts a couple of years back and saw my passion for changing the literacy landscape. We have talked and shared a lot about empowering parents - which is exactly what Geri does herself as a parent and literacy advocate.

We have kind of reached an impasse with what to do next - not unusual in the world of educational change - but I am certain that connections such as the one I have formed with Geri are the way forward. We have to keep joining the global dots. Louisville, Kentucky...what a dream it is to get to visit there. One day, I hope!

UPDATE
Geri let me know that she has a position on the Board of Directors of this non-profit that is teaching structured literacy in some of the city's lowest performing schools. Brilliant news!
Link here:
https://decodeproject.org/

https://twitter.com/GeriKipp

Elizabeth Brown
(PhonicsMum)
USA
NON-PROFIT DIRECTOR, VOLUNTEER LITERACY TUTOR

Elizabeth is a truly inspirational presence on twitter. her knowledge of phonics and reading instruction is incomparable and she shares her knowledge with such grace and kindness. Elizabeth has her own non-profit organisation to help young people learn reading through her phonics program as well as Math. Her unique approach is that her work is guided by her deep and abiding Christian faith, which, in my opinion, adds a deeper and more profound aspect to the learning experience that is often too readily dismissed in this day and age.
I am always grateful for the interactions I have with Elizabeth, and, semi light-heartedly, I often add the hashtag #elizabethforedsec to my replies because education across the US could really be transformed with Elizabeth in charge!

http://www.thephonicspage.org/

https://twitter.com/PhonicsMom

Dr Nathaniel Swain
AUS
LEARNING EXPERT, SPEAKER, CHANGE MAKER

I haven't yet had the pleasure to chat to Dr Swain online but I have followed his work now for a number of years. It has been impressive to see what he (and others) have been developing and leading in Australia in the field of evidence-based learning and teaching.

Dr Swain is a founder of Think Forward Educators https://thinkforwardeducators.org/ a really great new organisation in Australia empowering the move towards evidence-based instruction and learning.

His website is full of great work and is well worth a visit
https://www.nathanielswain.com/

https://twitter.com/NathanielRSwain