NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference
We are excited to announce the NM PED 2026 Literacy and Humanities Summer Conference. The New Mexico Public Education Department (NM PED) invites you to attend. The event will be held in Albuquerque, NM at the Albuquerque Convention Center on June 3-4, 2026. This conference will host local presenters, leading national experts, and educators and administrators from across the state. This conference will include keynote sessions, panel discussions, workshops, and activities aimed at reigniting teachers' passion for literacy and humanities instruction. This event will serve as a platform for all attendees to reconnect with the core purpose of their profession and to renew their commitment to fostering literacy development in their students.
SPECIAL GUESTS
Stay TunedKEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Mickey Smith Jr. is a Grammy Music Educator Award winner, 8-time Teacher of the Year, and full-time educator who helps staff reconnect with the purpose behind their profession. When he is not working in his classroom as a full-time teacher at a K–12 preparatory school, he spends time delivering his unique combination of message and music with thousands of students and a teacher, all-state conductor, and clinician. Additionally, he also travels across the country to hundreds of educational conferences, school district meetings, and leadership development stages to share his “Keep On Going” approach. Mickey seeks to empower educators to build genuine relationships with students in order to discover the unique sound of every child in their class. Throughout Mickey’s career, he has experienced firsthand that every child is just one sound adult away from achieving success. He believes that modern day teaching is a relationship-based approach, and that more than ever, teaching cannot simply be about subject matter, but also about showing students that they matter.
Dr. Timothy Shanahan
University of Illinois at Chicago, Professor Emeritus
Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Previously, he was director of reading for the Chicago Public Schools, and Visiting Research Professor at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is author/editor of more than 300 publications including the book, Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives (Harvard Education Press, 2025). His research emphasizes the connections between learning to read and learning to write, literacy in the disciplines, and improvement of reading achievement. He was recently recognized as one of the top 2% of scientists in the world, according to a study published by Stanford University. He played a leading role in the National Reading Panel, and chaired two other federal research panels (National Early Literacy Panel, National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth). Shanahan has received several prominent awards for his teaching, research, and public research. He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a former first-grade teacher.
Performances
Throughout our event we will have several special performances that include:
Stay Tuned!
