#NCTE14: First-timer Report

What a day!

What a day!

What a day!

I cannot even count the number of times that I heard, “Oh, Fran! I follow you on twitter!” Thanks, all, for helping me out!  It’s truly a pleasure to “meet face to face” and sometimes I can manage to locate folks all by myself!

Obviously, I am not matching names and faces very well. Also not very quickly. I already tweeted out that I would be more successful (if you all enabled me) and posted your pictures daily so I could just match the clothes for the day with the pictures.  Or a second option would be to have name tags with shorter strings so they would be in closer proximity to the faces of the wearer.  Too often the name tags become hidden under layers of clothing.

What a fabulous first full day for the NCTE14 Conference!

The day started early with coffee and a fire alarm in the hotel (and yep, no teachers followed the directions and left the building) but it was ONLY a false alarm.

The sessions ended with our presentation at 4 pm.  What a privilege to be on a panel chaired by Vicki Vinton with rock stars:  Julieanne Harmatz (CA) and my two new friends Mary Lee Hahn and Steve Peterson (met them both face to face yesterday for the first time).  Our session was full with 65 participants who laughed and cheered with us.  What a fun time as we shared a variety of “What Ifs?” based on the “Know and Wonder” charts in What Readers Really Do by Vicki Vinton and Dorothy Barnhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for three of us it was a really big “first day” of many “first times”.

• First time to meet.
• First time to attend #NCTE14.
• First time to present at #NCTE14.

But yet our evening was reminiscent of earlier times.  Remember this photo from summer #TCRWP Reading Institute? Six of seven were present again tonight!

Who was missing at this evening’s Loft gathering? 

Ryan

Who were some of the new faces?

• Clare and Tammy
• Jan and Kim
• Mary Lee  and husband AJ
• Steve
• Melanie
• Mary E

The community of friends continues to grow and our lives are enriched by the stories shared by each new addition.  What validation of the need to continue to meet face to face to share our learning and our lives!

Schedule Recap

• 7 – 8  First Timer’s Breakfast
• 8-9:15 General Session    Marian Wright Edelman – “OUTSTANDING”     Panel:  Rudine Sims Bishop, Christopher Myers, Matt de la Pena, Mitali Perkins, Ruchsana Khan
• 9:30 – 10:45    A.06  “Revising the Story:  Reluctant Readers Overcoming Shame” with Justin Stygles, Kara DiBartolo, Melissa Guerrette, and Lynda Mullaly Hunt and Lisel Shurtliff who both overcame predicted obstacles on their path as they became published authors.   Shaming reluctant readers could result in students being bodily present but mentally absent.
• 11 – 12:15   B.16  “The Nerdy Book Club: Shaping Reading Identity through Community, Story and Choice”     Great titles and recognition of authors and teachers!
• 12:30 – 1:45  C.13 “What the Common Core Forgot:  Community, Collaboration, and Social Justice” with Harvey Daniels, Sara Ahmed, Nancy Steineke, and Steven Zemelman
• 2:30 – 3:45  D.05  “Developing Strong Literacy Practices in Content-Area Instruction to Support Reading and Writing Development and Deep Content Knowledge” with Amanda Hartman, Celena Larkey, Emily Butler Smith, and Anna Gratz Cockerille
• and of course our session from 4 – 5:15 under #teacherswonder E.09 It’s Not Just for the Kids: Stories of Waht Can Happen When Teachers Embrace Curiosity, Openness, Creativity, and Wonder in the Teaching of Reading.

The equivalence of seven sessions.  No wonder I am exhausted!

Did you attend any of these sessions?

Where did you have “new learning”?