Teacher, author, janitor… (Okay, “assistant principal”), principal, ukulele player – you name it, Neale Pitches has probably done it. Neale is a New Zealand educator with special insights into literacy learning honed in the schools in which he has taught – rural, suburban, and inner city – and a special interest in developing learning materials for principals, teachers and students.

Currently, Neale is the Chief Executive Officer of South Pacific Press in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a co-developer of CSI Literacy, an intermediate and secondary comprehension resource that combines 21^st century media (digital shared reading and audio texts) with books and graphic organizers. In a 2011 case study, CSI kits were shown to helps students make remarkable gains in literacy achievement at Bader Middle School in Auckland.

Neale also co-developed The Literacy Leader, professional development for school principals and literacy leaders. Furthermore, Neale recently led the development of Literacy to You a 21st Century on-line literacy PD with CORE Education.

Neale has a deep aversion to “death by PowerPoint”, so is determined to educate and entertain, and is one of the world’s leading presenters on literacy and comprehension learning, teaching, and leadership.

If you’d like to invite Neale to your school or district for professional development, please e-mail us at info@pacificlearning.com.

More interesting tidbits about Neale:

• He was honored by the Queen in 2003 for his contribution to New Zealand Education
• He has addressed educators all over the world at education conferences
• He was a keynote speaker at the Asian Children’s Festival (2000), the Virginia State Reading Conference (2002) and the Colorado Chapter of the IRA (2004, 2009)
• He will make his 7th appearance at IRA in 2012 (Chicago, watch out!)

What topics would you like Neale to address?

You can submit questions or feedback to Neale by sending a message to neale@literacybraintrust.com.