Welcome to our National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).

In this episode of Transformative Principal, Jodi Rubin, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Partnerships at Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), discusses the "Rally to Read 100" initiative. Launched in response to declining reading frequency and motivation among children, this initiative aims to encourage children to read 100 books by the end of March. Anyone can participate, and there are incentives for schools and individuals, including book giveaways and social media contests. RIF provides various resources to support the initiative, such as videos, activity sheets, and purposeful questions for each book. Rubin emphasizes the importance of early reading experiences, reading aloud, and community involvement in fostering a love of reading in children. She also highlights the "RIF Literacy Central" website, which offers over 30,000 resources for educators and families.

• Rally to Read 100
• Frequency and motivation of reading was way down
• 100,000,000th 
• B&N storytime pick and Random House partnerships
• Read 100 books by the end of the month of March. 
• Anyone can participate
• Why community is so important! 
• Competition in individual groups. 
• Motivation - giving away 10,000 books. 
• 100 schools to win 100 books. 
• Social media contests
• Every month 2 new videos will appear for the month’s theme (community, nature, changemakers, and more).
• Packets, coloring sheets, and more activities for students to do and use. 
• 12 titles for read-alouds - Maxine Gets a Job and Built to Last, for example.
• Purposeful questions for each book they read. 
• The power of early reading experiences.
• Importance of reading aloud. 
• Enter to get your classroom sets. 
• Celebratory event live at Union Square in NY. 
• RIF Literacy Central - over 30,000 resources

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Jodi Rubin is a marketing strategy and project management leader with more than 25 years of experience in the areas of strategic marketing, brand management, partnership marketing, communications, and strategy development. Jodi currently serves as RIF’s Senior Vice President Marketing & Partnerships and is responsible for the organization’s marketing strategy, communications, and partnership marketing to drive awareness and engagement with the RIF brand and its programs.

Prior to RIF, Jodi was with Discovery Communications serving in a variety of strategic marketing roles in Domestic Distribution and Discovery Education. Jodi oversaw international educational marketing initiatives, new content provider partner efforts, and worked with Discovery’s various networks to bring key initiatives to teachers and students with unique educational content and resources to inspire and engage students.

Jodi also held prior positions at Comsat International, W.B Doner Advertising, and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Jodi holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.