By Nancy Kampfe, SDCTE President-Elect
How I wish all our members could have attended the
NCTE Convention in Denver, November 17-21. What a professional development opportunity it was!
The first session I attended was "Cyber English" with Ted Nellen (New York), Nancy Patterson
(Michigan), Gretchen Lee (California), and Vince Puzick (Colorado)--four teachers I had met and talked
with on NCTE- Talk; they are every bit as impressive in person as they are in my email
box. Their workshop was a demonstration of how they use networked computers, email, hypertext and web
pages to help their students--grades six through seniors--examine the ways in which the
human mind thinks, writes and reads.
Since Nikki Giovanni is a personal favorite of mine, I attended a session
by Carol Jago, a high school English teacher from California, whose book, Nikki Giovanni in the
Classroom, was recently published by NCTE as part of the NCTE High School Literature
Series. We wrote and shared poetry based on Giovanni's work, and of course, I bought the
book.
One of my 'indelible moments' was the Conference on English
Education Luncheon on Friday with Tom Romano as featured speaker. Romano's book,
Clearing the Way: Working With Teenage Writers, started me on my journey toward a new vision of teaching English, and
Romano is even more inspiring in person. His book Writing With Passion: The Multi-Genre Research Paper sold
out at the Heinemann booth, and Heinemann will publish another Romano title in March,
Blending Genre, Altering Style, his latest treatment of multi-genre writing.
Romano discussed his research model during the luncheon and following it in a session that he and several other teachers presented.
Incredibly memorable for me was a panel-roundtable discussion:
Through Texts, Talk, Tablets, and Chalk, Literacy Comes Together: Connecting Middle School Students to Reading, Writing, and the
Visual Arts. Several presenters spoke and then a variety of discussion groups
met to talk about related topics in the teaching of middle school English. Presenters included:
Janet Allen (It's Never Too Late; Leading Adolescents to Lifelong Literacy);
Gary Paulsen--Minnesota author we know and love; Jeffrey Wilhelm ("You Gotta BE the Book"; Teaching
Engaged and Reflective Reading With Adolescents); and Linda Rief (Seeking
Diversity).
At the conclusion of this session, I gathered my courage to talk with
Linda Rief, thanking her for what her book has done to help me use the reading-writing workshop with my juniors and seniors.
When I told her that my students have decided my "writing teacher cult" is really my
support group, and that they suggested I 'put in a good word for them' when I got to the cult meeting in Denver,
Rief wrote in my notebook, "Your teacher has stayed in touch! ," and signed the note.
Just being able to share that anecdote with my students made the long drive back
to Martin much shorter!
This article may seem like an exercise in name-dropping, but I don't
intend it to be. I was so thoroughly renewed and encouraged by the commonality of experiences all of us share, whether our
name is emblazoned on a textbook or printed atop our class handouts that I can't
stop sharing my excitement. I was impressed by the expertise and the down-to-earth quality of every person I
met--from gurus like Tom Romano and Linda Rief to teachers like you and me from
all over the United States. I only hope I don't have to wait another 30 years before
having the opportunity to attend another NCTE Convention! I urge all of you to join me in saving now for the
NCTE Convention in Milwaukee, November 16-21, 2000. Or how about Baltimore in 2001, Atlanta in
2002 or San Francisco in 2003? Check it out online: www.ncte.org.