What's New at #NCTE18?

Whether it’s your first time or your tenth time at Annual Convention, these tips shared during our November #NCTEchat can …

The NCTE Convention -- this gathering is a transformative one!

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Don't miss the NCTE Convention -- a place for inspiration and hope!

NCTE offers opportunities to connect and learn with members all throughout the year.

Last week I had the privilege of attending and presenting at NCTE’s annual convention. The theme this year was “The First Chapter,” which suggested that, as literacy educators, we…

NCTE offers opportunities to connect and learn with members all throughout the year.

Looking for tips as you submit your #NCTE19 proposal? The NCTE community is here to help!

This week the Convention Preview started hitting everyone’s mailboxes, and it has been so exciting to watch the enthusiasm grow …

NCTE offers opportunities to connect and learn with members all throughout the year.

In Hierophant by Heather Licano, Gabriella ‘Gabbi’ Hayden is a witch and a hired demon assassin. She receives a request from a priest who runs a parish in Clyde, California, claiming that they are experiencing horrible demonic incidents. A girl was tortured to death and he worries that the town is in great danger. The manner of death piques Gabriella’s interest as it reminds her of the death of her parents. As she arrives in the small town, where everybody knows everybody, she realizes that there’s more to the case, and it threatens humanity itself. I like the premise, and the world-building is a familiar one for the genre. The story starts with Gabbi in the middle of a hunt. We see her dynamism as a hired demon assassin, or HDA, as she baits her targets into a fight that they lose. One of them states how she doesn’t realize her own ‘true form’ before his demise. It’s a great way to instill intrigue right away for readers. As the story moves on, we learn more about her gift, her family tragedy that led her to became a hunter, and that her dreams are clues to her true origin. Some parts of the narrative are more ‘tell rather than show’. That said, the plot pace overall is satisfactory. Gabbi is not quite the stoic protagonist that I expected her to be. She has her adolescent moments. On the other hand, it gives her a quirky persona for one that hunts demons for a living. Her fellow HDAs, Jessie and Danny, add more humor and camaraderie aspects to an otherwise gory supernatural tale. All in all, it's an eccentric but enjoyable supernatural fiction from Licano.

Are you considering submitting a proposal for the 2016 NCTE Annual Convention? You should! We’ve been getting some questions about …

NCTE offers opportunities to connect and learn with members all throughout the year.

The NCTE Convention -- learning, connecting, and having fun!

This post was written by NCTE member Grace Eunhye Lee. As a first-time attendee at the NCTE Convention, I …

The following is an excerpt from Ernest Morrell’s Presidential Address at the 2014 NCTE Annual Convention. (An audio clip is at …

NCTE offers opportunities to connect and learn with members all throughout the year.

The NCTE Annual Convention is a source of renewal!

Our first full day at the 2018 Annual Convention, we kicked into high gear! Today was packed with everything from …

A recap of blogs that authors and members have written about their #NCTE17 experiences.

By Tricia Ebarvia Speaking on a panel at the NCTE Annual Convention last fall, author Cris Crutcher commented, “Reading Shakespeare is an academic exercise. It’s not one that’s go…

Kate Walker describes the rippling effect of extending generosity or "paying it forward" at her school and at the 2017 NCTE Annual Convention.

This year’s Annual Convention in Houston, Texas, was an inspired gathering of over 7,000 educators, authors, and exhibitors. With more …

I've been avoiding writing about my NCTE experience for the past 2 days. I do that when I'm overwhelmed - avoid things. I've never been good at confrontation, what can I say. But in this case I'm overwhelmed in a good way. Overwhelmed by the learning, by the friendships I've formed, and by what an empowering experience it is to be part of the NCTE family. The first year I attended NCTE was in Chicago in 2011 and I barely knew anyone then. Out of all the people I follow on Twitter I think I met three of them. I was still very shy and leery of putting myself out there. But 2013 in Boston was a different story. Every corner I turned it seemed I was running into people I knew. Hugs were wielded out with enthusiasm and given to people I'd never met in real life (only on Twitter) because well, that's what you do when you're excited to be somewhere and surround yourself with like-minded people. You give hugs. The excitement and hug-wielding all started on Thursday afternoon when I ran into a group of Nerdy Book Club friends and we had an impromptu lunch together - one of many impromptu meals I shared with friends in Boston. Top: Colby Sharp, Me, Katherine Sokolowski, Donalyn Miller Bottom: Donalyn Miller, Jen Vincent, Alyson Beecher, Paul Hankins Later that evening in a last minute change to the program due to Tony Danza (who was originally the keynote speaker) being injured and in the hospital, Judy Blume stood in for him as an informal interview with her longtime editor Beverly Horowitz. Judy was planning on attending NCTE to receive the intellectual freedom award but she graciously agreed to stand in for Danza with virtually no notice. As always, she was a class act. A highlight of the convention for me was when I stood in line to get one of her books signed and she recognized me from Twitter since I had emailed her in September and asked her to be a part of our #nctechat for Banned Books Week. On Friday the general session was something different than the typical keynote speaker, it was a hip-hop/spoken word poetry performance troupe from the University of Wisconsin - Madison known as First Wave. First Wave - photo credit: Ernest Morrell All I have to say is that I should have known better. I should have been prepared with tissues because spoken word poetry always affects me emotionally. And this performance was no different. It's a good thing they were performing in a darkened ballroom because I was a sniffling, teary mess. Especially during this moment (excuse any errors or omissions, I was sitting toward the back and a few words were hard to hear): Mr. Garrison was his name. Nicknamed me J Dub like I wasn't just his student... Said Listen up J Dub I see you got your Jay Z thing goin on but when you step in my class I wanna see Shawn Carter... You skip out my class means I've failed my lesson. I'm not gonna call your dad. I'm not gonna call your mom. I'm gonna call you. You understand J Dub? I'm gonna call YOU. I will forever remember that performance as a highlight of my NCTE convention experience, not just of 2013, but of all my years attending (past, present, and future). Kudos to NCTE for thinking outside the keynote box. After First Wave I had to get myself together and meet with the group I was presenting with at 12:30. This was my first year presenting at NCTE and I presented with Kellee Moye, Jen Vincent, and Audrey Vernick. Our topic was using picture books as mentor texts for middle school and high school students and I was amazed that our session was standing room only - and most people stayed to the very end of the session which contradicted a dream (more like a nightmare) I had that our session started off standing room only and by the time it was my turn to speak there were two people left in the room. Excited and humbled that our session was a full house - people were standing along the sides and sitting on the floor Me gushing over why Jon Klassen's THIS IS NOT MY HAT is perfect for high school students (photo credit: Jen Vincent) Jen Vincent, Kellee Moye, Audrey Vernick, and me If you're interested, here is the link to my Slideshare of our presentation: Rethinking Picture Books After the session and all throughout the weekend I had so many people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed it. That made me feel so proud of our group and excited about the possibility of presenting again at NCTE, either on a similar topic or something completely different. Whatever the topic is, I've clearly got the bug. Since this recap is getting ridiculously long, I will bullet point the rest of my NCTE 2013 highlights: Hearing Temple Grandin speak for the first time, not only about the autistic brain, but also of her desire for legislators to stop making laws about issues they are too far removed from - like, oh, I don't know, maybe education? She said she'd love for the show Undercover Boss to become Undercover Legislator. The room burst into applause when she said that. Having lunch with my cousin Mariana whom I rarely get to see Getting to hang out and share meals with my hotel-mates Cathy Blackler and Cindy Beggs. Cathy's stories are downright hilarious. She needs to write a book, that's all there is to it. Sharing a theater with enthusiastic English teachers and book lovers at the Scholastic screening of Catching Fire Attending my first Ignite presentation and the wheels began turning as to how I could use this format in the classroom. Seeing #ncte13 trend on Twitter Meeting Jack Gantos. He is one of the coolest people on the planet. Laurie Halse Anderson and Chris Crutcher's keynote at the ALAN workshop. I wish book banners could be forced to sit in a room with these two inspiring authors. If Chris and Laurie can't change their minds then no one can. A.S. King's beautiful and compassionate speech as part of the Walden award panel at the ALAN workshop Discovering that Rainbow Rowell was on my flight home to Detroit and excitedly texting Sarah Andersen from 17 rows ahead of me before the flight took off. There are so many little moments from the convention that I could go on and on but it would take me days to write it all down. So I will leave with this thought: NCTE expected 6000 people to attend the convention in Boston but almost 7500 showed up. Many of those teachers pay their own way to come and be inspired by the great thinkers of their profession. Schools should be more willing to invest the time and money in their talent to allow their teachers to attend this convention (as Donalyn Miller says, professional development isn't an expense, it's an investment). But the fact that so many schools won't pay a teacher's way and STILL so many come on their own dime is a testament to the passion and dedication of these teachers. Next year the NCTE convention will be in Washington DC. I really hope that the politicians responsible for making these "far removed decisions" as Temple Grandin would say, will come and listen to the concerns of REAL teachers. That they will look teachers in the eye and see a person, not a value-added score that determines whether they're effective or ineffective. Because anyone willing to pay their own way to a teaching convention and travel across the country on a teacher's salary is going above and beyond the call of duty and deserves to be heard - no matter what their value-added score says. My #NCTE13 Storify (tweets I archived for myself)

I returned from three wonderful days at the NCTE Annual Convention in Boston late last night. I learned from authors, poets, classroom teachers, literacy coaches, PhD students, university professor…

The NCTE Convention gave me strategies, but also the inspiration to do the work of teaching!

On Friday morning at the NCTE Annual Convention, I sat in a session that featured Tom Romano, Mariana Romano, and Linda Rief. My hands failed me that session. I simply could not get all the ideas d…

Before I attend a conference, I always map out a plan. I have some "I want to's" mixed with some "I must's). Having been to NCTE last year, I had some ideas of what I wanted to accomplish my second time around. And since I was going to present at my first national conference here, I knew this would be part of my learning. (Presenting at my first national conference was something I never thought I'd do. And now it's done!) But now that the conference is over, and the books and clothes have been unpacked, I know that I sought for--and got--exactly what I needed. Here were my takeaways: First, I reaffirmed my commitment to writing instruction. Yes, learners will write in the library, and I am not done with writing conferences just because my classroom is bigger. Can a librarian do that? Have I done this? Yes to both. I love working with learners as they write because they always inspire me. I love working with another writer (no matter how old) to make a piece better. It's a privilege and a gift when children share their writing with us. Second, any teacher who promotes reading/writing MUST read/write himself/herself. (I've said this before.) When WE read and write, we are better equipped to help our learners because we've been there! I wrote during this conference, and I shared my writing. I'd almost forgotten how rewarding it is to see words I've written on a page, and then to consider them for revision. My pink notebook and I also did some analyzing and close reading. I love great books and studying why they are so great. What did the writer do to create the effects I remember? How did the illustrator add to the story? Read, read, read I must! Write, write, write I must! Both challenging and exciting at the same time! Third, I am resolved to read even more children's books than before. I sat at several book events and talked with authors, teachers, writers, publishers, and editors. The conversations were rich and filled with critical thinking, and I walked away with new book friends and many, many book titles. I love knowing about books and figuring out recommendations for others. And lastly, it was such a treat to see my PLN in real life. I love learning with them and from them. There are too many to name here. I'd inadvertently leave someone out and I wouldn't want anyone to feel left out. (They include teachers, authors, editors, professors, librarians, and other educators who all share my passion for literacy.) They were kind to me throughout the conference, looking for me to chat and connect, and even in the briefest of moments, we learned from one another. I can't wait to see them again. Here's an Animoto I made about my time at NCTE: See you all in TwitterVerse. What I'm reading now: SERAFINA'S PROMISE by Ann E. Burg (Scholastic, 2013)

Once again I couldn’t quite get this out before the turkey was done. But as I did last year, this Thanksgiving weekend I’d like to share some inspiring words and ideas from NCTE as a wa…

The 2023 NCTE Annual Convention, November 16–19, in Columbus, Ohio, will feature hundreds of sessions for literacy educators at all levels, workshops, author talks, and more.