Presentations & Workshops
Tonya loves speaking to children and adults. She’s presented at numerous conferences, schools, public libraries, summer church camps, and bookstores. She’s an energetic speaker with over twenty-five years’ experience as an educator. She was selected as a 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year and a district finalist. She is committed to promoting reading and strives to inspire all children to see themselves in books.
Tonya offers both in-person and virtual visits to schools, libraries, festivals, and conferences for educators and librarians. Scroll down to view her full list of presentations and programs. Use the contact form to tell her your needs and availability. Please know, that she is an educator, so she conducts a limited number of workshops during the school year but will do her best to work with your schedule.
Programs for Schools and Libraries:
“Becoming an Author” – Calling all aspiring young authors! Participants will see my journey from an idea to writing a nonfiction book. This workshop offers easy to follow steps for effective nonfiction writing, including understanding primary sources, taking notes, writing a draft, editing, revisions, and a finished manuscript. Students will learn valuable tips to use for research projects. Students should come ready to write.
Grades: 3rd – 8th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
1 hour session (Includes nonfiction book reading with parts of a book, presentation, and Q&A)
“Figurative Language in Poetry” – Unleash your inner poet! Write it. Rhyme it. Create It! Join me for a fun, interactive writing workshop where young writers will discover figurative language in poetry, play an engaging matching game, explore rhyming and shape poems, and create and share their own original poem. Come ready to play with words, spark your imagination, and have fun writing! No prior poetry experience is needed – just bring your imagination and a love of words!
Grades: 2nd – 8th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
“Words, Pictures, and Poetry, Oh My!” - Get ready to imagine, create, and write! Come learn how to use words and pictures to form unique haikus and free verse poems. This interactive poetry workshop allows students to collaboratively create a haiku and free verse together and then write one by themselves. Students should come ready to write.
Grades: 2nd – 8th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
“Biographies and Text Structure” - Get ready for an exciting, interactive learning adventure! Children will discover what a biography is and explore different non-fiction text structures. They will listen to a short biography and become text-structure detectives to identify the text structures they hear. Then, put their learning into action with an engaging timeline activity. By creating a timeline, children will demonstrate their understanding of sequence and order while having fun learning about a real person!
Grades: 2nd – 8th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
“Figurative Language in Literature” – Bring words to life! This fun, interactive writing workshop lets young writers explore figurative language in several stories, put their skills to the test in an interactive matching activity, discover why writers use figurative language, and encourages participants to use their creativity to create their own imaginative sentences.
Grades: 2nd – 8th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
“What Time Is It? Writing Toward Your Dream!” – What do you dream of doing with your life? Not sure? This interactive workshop guides participants to use poetry and writing to manifest and create their dreams.
Grades: 4th – 12th
Duration: 45-minute session (Includes presentation and Q&A)
Workshops for Educators:
“A Recipe for Reading Success: Building Reading Stamina Using Picture Books to Chapter Books”