NCTE Day Three

The NWP / NCTE dual convention is huge! To put it all in perspective: There are roughly 18 workshops simultaneously presented in one session at the NWP convention, with roughly three sessions per day. In comparison, NCTE hosts approximately 60 workshops in five sessions, not including special events. There could be upwards of 80 workshops simultaneously at one time between the two conventions. Think how many sessions will take place over the weekend, or how many people will attend these conferences. Consider this to be the English educator’s equivelant of the Bonnaroo festival.

Personally planning for this event is a major feat within itself. Both NCTE and NWP publish program guides for the weekend, cataloging workshops and special events. I went into this weekend unplanned for NCTE, and found myself skimming through hundreds of pages in two catalogues in order to schedule my day. It is no wonder that I missed a workshop hosted by Nancy Atwell and Donald Graves (among other literacy greats). At least I’ll know better for next time.

I kept my criteria simple for selecting what workshop to attend- choose topics on cutting edge topics. Given the 90 minute format for a given workshop, and that the workshops were all a one shot deal (in comparrison of workshops presented in a series), I thought that width, and not necessary depth was called for. To my surprise, most of the workshops delved deep into their given topic.

The technology strand of the NWP convention pure brilliance through and through. The presentors pioneered cutting edge uses of the newest technologies in the classroom- podcasts, iMovies, wiki, blogs, discussion boards, MOO’s, Inspiration, hypertext, etc. It’ll take me some time to first learn how to use these newer technolgies, much less fashion them into lessons for the classroom.

An amazing NCTE session focused on the use of graphic novels as a tool to develop specific reading and writing skills, such as inference, dialogue, and symbollism. Among the panel, was Jeffy Smith, author / illustrator of the epic graphic novel, Bone (that is a picture me with Jeff). He spoke about the conventions of graphic novels. He was able to demonstrate that graphic novels are not simply escapist literature for adolescent boys, but can be capable of pure art and literature. Take Art Spigelman’s two part series Maus for example. These aren't your father's comics!

These workshops have both widened and deepened my professional toolbox for classroom instruction. I am now inspired to go out, and incorporate these new ideas into the way that I personally approach the art and science teaching.