I am still processing all that just happened in Baltimore but Melanie Meehan’s TWT post HERE inspires me to share three things here today. Then after turkey-eating day, I’ll have time and brainpower to add more.
My Top Three NCTE Moments:
1. I got to present twice!!!
Making Invisible Thinking Visible – Reading Workshop: As my two colleagues and I walked to our room 30 minutes before our 2:30pm start time on Thusday, we saw people gathered around our room. I saw one lady motion and point and say, “This is the notebook one” and we suddenly realized they were gathered for us! We were presenting about our work to help students place their invisible thinking as they read into a reading notebook page, making it visible and helpful when readers talk about a book. We shared our WHY and our process and then we invited the participants to give it a try. Amazing author, Lulu Delacre, read aloud her short story, Burrito Man, from her collection of short stories, Us in Progress. What a treat to have the author read aloud her story! What a treat to have a packed room choose to come learn from us! Here’s the padlet linkwe shared. On it is the link to our powerpoint presentation, as well as resources we use with our students.
Take Charge of Your PD through Teacher Research – For the past 15 years, I have spent each school year choosing a topic I want to study and do so as a Teacher Researcher. Two of my colleagues and I spent Friday morning sharing our process and we invited the participants to give it a try. They reflected, wrote a question related to a topic they want to learn more about and then they actd as critical friends. All got up and walked around the room and added a suggest to the posted questions. We were honored to have Ellin Keene be our Respondent. She had us pause midway to mention “I am hearing in this presentation a theme of conflict. A teacher researcher embraces the conflict. It is at the heart of the research and the catalyst.” At the end, she reemphasized the importance of teacher researchers being open and allowing their question to evolve because it will change through the process. If you want to know more about teacher research, check out my blog and here is the link to our presentation. FYI – I call my TR group, ROTA TR CLUB, because “rota” is Latin for wheel and it also stands for Reflect Often, Then Act.
2. Sara Ahmed’s Moderated Discussion with Five Authors – I used Sara Ahmed’s book ideas as I started off my school year. So when I saw she was moderating a discuss, I went. Plus the title sounded interesting; From Curiousity to Civic Engagement: Using Literature to Create Social Comprehension and Changemakers. What a gift to learn about five YA books that I can easily add to my Social Issues Book Club Unit. I especially liked the questions Sara posed for the authors, questions I will use with my students.
Authors – Book:
Cynthia Levinson – Fault Lines in the Constitution
Katherine Marsh – Nowhere Boy
Laura Resau – Tree of Dreams
Tamara Ellis Smith – Another Kind of Hurricane
Andrea Wang – Magic Ramen
3. Crictical Reading, Thinking and Teaching in a Digital Age: Using Inquiry to Make the World a Better Place – I went to this because Maggie Bettie Roberts taught me years ago at TCRWP, Katherine Hsu has taught me in my district and is a briliant presenter, and the other 2 presenters, Katie Muhtaris and Kristin Ziemke, I knew of as great tech teachers. This was a win, win, win, win, win presentation. My biggest take away was about learning a new way to structure my padlets (I already love using padlets!!). It was modeled to move from column to column to read and react. Here’s a link showing how to do an inquiry around my favorite city, Venice – LINK.
More to add….but must go teach today and enjoy Thanksgiving. It goes without saying, I am thankful for smart educators and organizations like NCTE and TwoWritingTeachers who provide gathering spaces.
Wow, thanks for sharing all of this. The crowd at your presentation- you are famous, wow! I am so grateful to learn from you from afar (and my son is moving to DC in July, so I look forward to some in-person time at some point again). I can’t wait to spend more time with the links and look forward to the future posts! Happy Thanksgiving.
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Hurrah to son in DC. I look forward to getting together this summer. Until then, I’m glad I can connect virtually with you!!
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Watching the posts on Twitter from NCTE2019 made me so envious and committed to attending at least once in my career! Thank you for sharing this view from such a rich conference, and for the generosity in sharing with others.
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It is so fun to be with SO many people who all love to read and write and teach. Next year – Denver!!
I recommend attending.
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How did we miss each other? It was a great conference! – Thank you for sharing your resources — I love the padlet idea and your notebook ideas. Happy Thanksgiving!
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YAY, learning and loving that I found myself in the picture . . . Thursday was for sitting on the floor in packed rooms! Such great learning from teachers and librarians. Loved how you had us do the work while you did as well in the notebook session! ❤
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Fran, So great to be together at NCTE. When you get a chance, look at my Teacher Research link and website. SO much of your presentation matched mine. I also like how you had us do the work of writing a question and talking it out with a partner and group. Powerful times in Baltimore!!
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Thanks for sharing these take aways. I was following the happenings at NCTE through all sorts of social media. It wasn’t the same as being there, but I feel as though I learned a few things through the willingness of others, like you, who shared their experiences.
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Great to meet you in person, Sally! And thanks so much for sharing all of this. I’m sorry I didn’t get to your presentation, but it sounds wonderful! Have a great Thanksgiving.
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Rose, SO lovely to dine with you and hear about your writing life in retirement. Very inspiring!! And thanks for my lovely quote!! I’ll be sure to look for your blog posts!
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What an awesome snapshot of NCTE this year! Have an amazing Thanksgiving!
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I enjoyed meeting you and wish we could have chatted more. This is just my 3rd year teaching 6th grade so I plan to stalk your blog. I place my 6th grade reflections on this blog – https://msreadingandwritingfun.wordpress.com/
Let’s both stay connected virtually until the next conference and both enjoy litening to the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast!!! Happy Thanksgiving!
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Ah yes—let’s definitely stay connected! I’ll totally follow you. We should keep in contact!
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WOW! Thank you for sharing your amazing learning and takeaways from NCTE! I’m so bummed I missed these and it looks like your session was amazing! Way to go!
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Betsy,
Take a look at my Teacher Research presentation and website because it is so similar to what you presented, which I loved being a part of!! SO glad to meet you in person and have dinner with you, too!!
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