As my title suggests, I'll share some of my experiences from the Kansas Area Teachers of English (KATE) Conference, where I spent a good chunk of time on Thursday and Friday. So if you missed KATE, reading this post is almost as good as attending. Almost.
Breakout sessions. The most interesting break-out session I attended was called “The 100-Word Story: A Quick, Easy, and Fun Way to Teach Narrative Standards” by John Ritchie. I favored this one because it was very practical and applicable. I would love to introduce my students to this assignment. Oh, and it also hits a few Common Core Standards. Bingo! I also enjoyed “Survivalism 101: Navigating the Jungle of an Unfamiliar School and Making It Through the Critical First 5 Years of Teaching” by Amanda Torbett and Monica Swift. They shared many wonderful tips useful for beginning teachers. However, since this conference was hosted for English teachers, I would have like for them to share more information regarding teaching ELA classes; most of the topics they discussed were applicable to any secondary classroom. Other breakout sessions I attended were “Poetry Out Loud” by Michelle Kirk, “Young Adult Literature in the Common Core Classroom” by Kelly Frederick, and “What to do When Your Students Have Reader’s Block” by Virginia Beesley.
Keynote addresses. Clare Vanderpool and Jay Asher were both phenomenal speakers, but (I’ll be honest here), I found their presentations primarily entertaining and funny (especially Jay Asher) rather than informational. Clare Vanderpool’s heart-warming story about her life as a writer, a mother, and a Kansan was charming. I also loved Jay Asher’s subtle jokes and witty remarks. In fact, everything he said was funny! I found it very impressive that he arrived in Wichita less than 24 hours before his presentation, but found the time to snap a photo of the pumpkins in the lobby and incorporate them in his presentation. Disappointingly, the only English-teacher-thing I pulled out of their presentations involve their writing processes. It’s interesting to note the length of time both authors spent writing their novels. For example, Clare Vanderpool spent fifteen years writing Moon Over Manifest. Did you read that correctly? Fifteen years. Yeah, that’s a long time. Jay Asher’s choice to have four people read Thirteen Reasons Why, one after the other, was intriguing, as well. I will share their writing processes with my students: “Class, if Jay Asher needs four people to help him revise his novel, you can benefit from having others look at your writing, too.” Showing my students that even published authors need help with revision, just as they do, will make writing more relatable to them.
Networking. Fortunately, my Cooperating Teacher, Mrs. Bradley, attended the conference and she introduced me to several KATE board members. They were very friendly and offered words of encouragement when Mrs. Bradley told them that I am currently a pre-student teacher and will student teach during the spring semester. I also talked with a few teachers whom I sat with during breakfast on Thursday. They provided some words of wisdom and thought it was awesome that I (and other pre-student teachers at the table) attended the conference as students. I’m not sure that my networking at KATE will benefit me in the future, but it was still great to gain experience talking to other living, breathing human beings who happen to teach English.
*In this post, other than the name of my Cooperating Teacher, names are NOT changed to pseudonyms.
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