NCFL kicked off the 19th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy yesterday in San Antonio, Texas. With more than 100 sessions offered at the conference, it’s hard to recap everything, but here are some of the highlights from Day One.

- Sean Tuohy and daughter Collins Tuohy, the real life heroes of The Blind Side, shared their story at the Opening General Session. They spoke about power of family and how we can make a difference to those who need us most.

- Kay Brown was named the 2010 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year. “Family literacy changes lives,” she said. “It has changed mine – making me a better teacher. It has changed the community’s – getting them more involved in the education of all our children. And it has changed the families themselves – transforming them into eager learners who are motivated by the possibilities it provides.”

Kay’s program, the Northeast Louisiana Family Literacy Consortium (operated by the Ouachita Parish School Board), serves parents and their children up to age 8 for adult basic education including English as a Second Language instruction, civics education, and life skills assistance; early childhood education; parent education; and parent-child interactive literacy activities.

- Family literacy student Indira Perez shared how family literacy impacted her life.  She came to the United States when she was 16 and expecting her first child, Raul. She dropped out of school to take care of her child and her husband. A second son, Hector, subsequently joined the family. When her husband was deployed to Iraq in 2002, Indira and both boys moved to San Antonio where she joined the Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP) at Sky Harbour Elementary School. In May 2008, she received her GED® certificate. She currently works with the Dragon Family Literacy Program and is enrolled at the International Academy of Design and Technology, studying graphic design.

Stay tuned this week for more updates from San Antonio!