Kellee and Ricki’s NCTE and ALAN Annual Convention Reflection 2018

Kellee’s Reflection

I am sure you can tell from our countdown that this is one of our favorite events of the year. It is like a really big book club that only meets once a year mixed with the best professional development you could ask for.

During NCTE, my presentations went so well! If you are interested, you can view my resources:

But what I want to focus on in this post are the revitalizing sessions I attended. My goal for NCTE18 was to make sure to attend more sessions to fill my educator heart, and I definitely met that goal! Here are some highlights from four favorite sessions/talks:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie opened up NCTE, and I was blown away by her!

“Be courageous enough to say I don’t know.”
We need “STEM AND the language arts. It’s not an or, it’s an and.”
“To be a good teacher is not just about curriculum, it is about things that can’t be quantified.”
Narrow view of intelligence = not valuing arts
“The world is not full people like you, so diverse literature is not needed just for the diverse.”
“When telling stories well, we’re appealing to what it means to be human.”

The session Latinx Experiences in Classrooms and Communities with educators, Dr. Carla España, Dr. Luz Herrera, and R. Joseph Rodriguez, and authors, Daniel José Older, MoNieqa Ramos, Matt de la Peña, Meg Medina, and Lilliam Rivera.

Our Latinx students “move through the world as many identities.” (Medina)
Bilingual students “have language resources we should use.” No more English Language Learners, they are “emergent bilinguals.” (España)
“Kids have more going on than we want to talk about.” (Ramos)
“Acceptance feels like a hug. It is that feeling when you are home because you don’t have to translate yourself.” (Older)
“Books are tools to help people save themselves.” (de la Peña)

Kylene Beers, Kelly Gallagher, and Penny Kittle are brilliant. I wish I could do a full day PD with them!

“You cannot improve confidence without improving confidence.” (Beers)
“No models of good conversation in media. Our democracy needs to have better conversations.” (Beers)
“Meaningful talk will not happen without meaningful reading.” (Gallagher)
“We are making too many decisions for our students. Turn over the control.” (Kittle)

Peter and Paul Reynolds stand for everything I believe in!

“Great teachers breath kindness and love.”
We “need to remind humans about the best humanity can do.”
“Picture books are efficient. They are a big idea in a small book.”
“Everyone is an artist. You’re only not identifying as one because someone told you you weren’t, and you believed them.”
“Noticing a kid is the most powerful gift we can give.”
“Your brain is beautiful! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

And the ALAN workshop was amazing as always. The ALAN workshop is 1.5 days of authors sharing. It is so much book love and author love and teacher love and kindness love and just love in general. If you ever have the chance to get to this workshop, it is a must!

Some of my favorite author talks/panels/conversations were:

Cynthia Leitich Smith
Bill Konigsberg
Kierstin White, Ibi Zoboi, Elana K. Arnold
Neal Shusterman
Tomi Adeyemi
Sara Farizan and Mark Oshiro
Jarrett Krosozcka
Sharon Flake and Renee Watson
Gae Polisner and Chris Crutcher

This was just a SMALL sampling of the amazing authors at the workshop. Check out the schedule to see others who spoke!

Ricki’s Reflection

I had a wonderful time at the NCTE convention and ALAN Workshop. I was sad that I wasn’t able to go to many sessions because I signed on to participate in six sessions and introductions. I won’t be doing that again next year!

One of the highlights for me was sitting with Ibi Zoboi during the YA Lit is Complex session. She’s absolutely brilliant, and her voice added so much to the conversation. The participants at my roundtable asked her thoughtful questions. She talked about the many complex elements within her texts—the ways in which she adapts classic poetry, includes cultural pantheon for readers, etc. I am blown away by her brilliance, and she is among my favorite authors today. Quite frankly, she is a living legend.

The YA Lit is Complex session is my favorite each year. Jennifer Buehler and Cathy Fleischer bring in eight YA authors to talk about text complexity. If you missed this session, I can’t recommend it highly enough. I always leave feeling invigorated.

I also loved presenting with my colleague, Pamela K. Coke. We shared three approaches for using Genius Hour in the classroom to promote equity. The crowd for this presentation was amazing, and a few audience members have stayed in touch with us. There might be a potential research project on the horizon for this session!

Some of the most exciting talks that I saw were from: