Julie Hastings, Park City School District elementary curriculum specialist, was honored with the PC READS Elevating Literacy Award Friday, May 3.
Park City READS is a local nonprofit advocating for recognition and education of dyslexic students that promotes literacy through early identification of struggling readers, effective reading interventions and appropriate classroom accommodations.
Many will know Hastings from McPolin Elementary where she taught first and fourth grades, was the media specialist, and later the instructional coach. She has elementary school in Colorado, and Idaho.
“I am honored to be the recipient of the 2019 Elevating Literacy Award from PC READS. The kindergarten, first, second, and third grade teachers, interventionists, and elementary principals in Park City School District continue to prove their dedication towards improving early literacy efforts for all students,” Hastings said. “PC READS, The Hall Family Fund, and the Park City Education Foundation have supported our district with making this lasting impact.”
She has a sociology degree and elementary education certificate, as well as an administrative degree and a master’s in educational leadership.
Hastings is passionate about leading communication and visioning efforts with the community concerning the importance of literacy and identifying struggling readers. Earning training certificates in multi-sensory education from Orton Gillingham and Wilson language have increased her desire for bringing evidence-based instruction to every classroom.
She developed and leads an early literacy initiative across all elementary schools in the district and has focused on bringing reading research to the forefront of decision-making. She wrote a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Literacy Guidebook for Park City School District, designed to help teachers identify why students may struggle to read and how to provide effective and targeted instruction to ensure growth and learning. The core of her work is about creating and implementing systems and providing teachers the training necessary to ensure they have the knowledge and confidence necessary to do the hard work of teaching all students to read.