Yes! All Can!

What if . . .

• All could learn to read? 
• Self-esteem and confidence weren’t damaged by the humiliation of not being able to read as well as others?
• Students developed conflict resolution and leadership skills?
• Students developed character and learned to be compassionate toward others and our planet?

Yes! All Can! is one teacher’s true story of three classes she creates and her students’ accomplishments. Through tutoring struggling elementary readers, mentoring students, stop bullying presentations, completing green projects, and much more, Elaine Briggs shares a roadmap for her Reading, Peer Mediation, and Leadership classes. 

When some high school special education classes are eliminated, Elaine learns about Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction – a method that revolutionizes the teaching of reading for all ages. She develops two general education reading classes and teaches EBLI strategies that dramatically raise reading levels of high schoolers and the elementary students they tutor – and wins the Excellence and Michigan’s Best Awards.

Yes! All Can is for teachers, parents, and those who care about making a lasting difference. Join Elaine on this uplifting journey as she learns that changing the way things are done can be both challenging and exceptionally rewarding – and confirmation that Yes! All Can!

Joe Dew A Glorious Life

Joe Dew’s inspiring story is one of hard work, adventure, and family. Raised in rural Iowa in the 1920s, the son of a struggling blacksmith during the Great Depression, he learned to survive. After graduation, he traveled the country, riding the rails and finding work in the wheat fields of the Great Plains, and panning for gold in Idaho.

   Helping in the war effort from Alaska to the European Theater of WWII, he fought with the 741^st Tank Battalion. Joe risked his life to break through the Siegfried Line crossing into Germany and earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic effort. During the Battle of the Bulge, he received the Bronze Star and later the Purple Heart.

   Joe returned to Iowa to marry, finish college, and join the work force for General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Elaine Briggs brings her father’s journey to life and tells his story as only a daughter could.