Last Thursday and Friday I, along with my pre-student teaching classmates at WSU, attended the KATE (Kansas Association of Teachers of English) conference. For most of us, this was our first professional conference as (soon-to-be) teachers. I believe it was a beneficial experience for several reasons, but the top of my list was the opportunity to spend time with other English teachers talking about what we do, how we do it, and how we can do it better. "Better" is a subjective term, of course. I think for most of us, we want ways to engage students, teach more effectively, and maybe even have some fun. I think I can put a check mark next to all of those!
The two keynote speakers were both authors of young adult fiction, and they were both great in different ways. Brent Crawford, author of Carter Finally Gets It and its sequels, spoke from the point of view of a former "bad kid." He was a jock in high school, not a great student, and if the content of his books is any indication, he and his friends pretty much spent their time thinking about girls and goofing off. Yet, he credits his teachers with planting the seed that grew into his career as an author. He writes books that might appeal to kids like him. We as teachers can learn something about reaching out to every student from his stories. We never know what little spark may grow into a flame, now, tomorrow, or long in the future. The other keynote speaker, Rachel Hawkins, is a former English teacher. She said that the characters in her books (Hex High and sequels) are inspired by former students. Her time spent with teenagers informed her writing of teenage characters. She understands our struggles as teachers and spoke at length about her time as a teacher and the challenges she faced. Some of us may even see a little of ourselves in her.
The breakout sessions were very informative. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a session in every time slot. My favorites were the sessions that gave me concrete ideas of things I can use in my classroom. Grammar Strip Tease gave some fun and effective ideas for teaching grammar using fortune cookie sentences. The session on using comic books in the classroom gave me some great resources for where to get more information about comics and some recommendations on what comics to use for different purposes. Fiction to Non-Fiction was part presentation, part brainstorming session. I left with some wonderful suggestions on ways to select informative texts to pair with literature, as well as some great examples of real ways real teachers have done so in the past. I may even be using some of these ideas in the next few weeks at my pre-student teaching placement. Finally, the session on using children's books with high schoolers and community college students gave me not only some fun and genuine ideas, but actual copies of lesson plans to use and/or adapt for my own use. I love how this lesson uses the writing of children's books to assess grammar in a more interesting and genuine way.
On Friday, I was honored to be one of the students chosen to do a reading of my genre reflection. My work Discovery was my most recent post here on my blog. Being given the opportunity to share my work with other teachers and hear their reactions to it was an honor, a joy, and a wonderful way to close out the conference.
I thought it was interesting to hear Brent Crawford's perspective as the "student" and Rachel Hawkins's perspective as the "teacher." It was a great pairing. Also, you are an excellent writer and an eloquent speaker. Great job presenting your work at Friday's conference!
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