April 2, 2026
Literacy For A Reimagined World
Literacy is getting rewritten in real time and educators don’t have the option to sit it out. From NCRA in Winston-Salem, we sit down with Hiller Spires, Professor at NC State University and NCRA president-elect, to talk about what comes next for literacy instruction as technology accelerates and classrooms adapt on the fly.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:06 - Welcome And Host Introduction
00:16 - NCRA Leadership Role And Timeline
00:51 - Conference Theme Innovation And Humanity
02:13 - AI Focus And New ELA Standards
03:29 - Dream Speakers And Closing Thanks
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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Hi, I'm Devin Pintozzi, your host.
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We are here at NCRA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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And we are here with our special guest, Professor Emerita at NC State University, and uh the new uh who will be the president-elect for NCRA for next year, uh, Miss Hiller Spyers.
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Thank you for joining us today.
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Thank you for having me.
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Wonderful.
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Hiller, tell it tell us a little bit about uh what's going on with you here at NCRA and the things that will happen next year.
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Sure.
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So currently I am president-elect, and in July I will be president.
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So one of the things I was tasked with was coming up for a theme for next year's conference.
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And the theme that I came up with was literacy for a reimagined world, colon, innovation, and humanity.
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And I chose that theme because I think that literacy is such an important aspect of our world, and it's such an important aspect for young people to learn to be literate so that they can participate in society in a thoughtful way.
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And I think that we're in a climate right now where we need to use our imagination.
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And I also think that we have a lot of innovation going on.
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I think about what's happening in with AI and technology and how that's changing education.
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And what I want to make sure is that we're futuristic and visionary, but that we also center humanity in what we come up with.
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And I think that's so important, and I want educators to think about that.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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Are there any special points or focals of emphasis at the conference, maybe the strands or things like that that you can share?
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Sure, we're still in the planning phases, but we definitely will have a focus on artificial intelligence and how that is changing reading and writing in education, and we want to be on the forefront of that and we want to help shape it so that it can be fruitful for everyone.
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I'll tell you, in terms of AI, it really seems like education is at the forefront.
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It's at the engine, not the caboose on this particular form of technology.
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It's uh we're running running headlong into this and learning as we go.
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Absolutely.
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And then, you know, we also are very interested in North Carolina in the new English language art standards that are going to be coming out very soon.
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So our next year's conference will focus on that as well, and we want to provide great information for our teachers so that they can be armed with all the new information.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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We appreciate that.
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And as publishers at American Book Company, we really appreciate that information as well because we want to make sure that uh we are also uh as part of the education community are able to um provide that uh to the uh to the educators out there.
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Well, that's wonderful.
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So it sounds like you've got a lot of good plans for what's going on.
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I understand you may have some special speakers as well.
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Well, again, we're in the planning phases and we haven't um reached out to folks yet.
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But one of um the people on my wish list is um an author named Jason Reynolds.
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You probably heard of him.
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He's an amazing um author for middle school students, and we would love to get him, so I might be trying to figure out how to make that happen.
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Oh, that sounds like a great plan.
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So hopefully you can get him, and I'm sure that'll be a barnbuster there, getting him over here.
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Yeah.
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Um that sounds wonderful.
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Uh again, this is uh Hiller Spires, uh uh president elect of NCRA.
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We look forward to hearing more about what you're going to do in the future and uh hope for a successful 2027.
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Thank you very much.
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Thank you.
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