I recently attended the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (OCTELA) Conference in Worthington, Ohio. The conference was from March 1-2, 2019, and it was two days packed with information for teachers to take back to their school. The purpose of the conference was to gather educators to share ideas and best practices within the language arts curriculum. This year’s theme was “Lighting the Fire: Inspiring Creativity in Teaching and Learning” and it was a very fitting theme due to the keynote speakers and sessions. This was my second time attending; the first time was in 2010. I attended to gain more best practices in language arts and to network with fellow teachers.
I attended the two-day event, and I left with so much information that I felt reenergized. The keynote speakers were engaging, and the sessions were excellent. If there was one suggestion I could give, it would be to have more rigorous topics. For example, my school focuses on rigorous, independent learning strategies. I thought some of the topics were not challenging enough. However, my overall opinion is that it exceeded my expectation.
Friday, March 1, 2019
The first session I attended was titled, “’His Story Could’ve Been Mine’: Exploring Social Justice through Nonfiction.” The lesson’s objective was to create an anticipation and background of the book the students were going to read. The facilitator had the group of teachers walk around and look each other in the eyes without saying a word. Then she placed photographs on the floor and had us walk around the room observing the photographs. All the photographs were pictures from Baltimore in the 1980s. There was one picture of a black young man standing in front of a backdrop with an airbrushed Mercedes. Another picture had several abandoned houses in it. The facilitator had us stand by our photo, and we had to discuss it. She revealed that the photos represented Baltimore, which is the setting of the nonfiction book The Other Wes Moore. She continued to state a summary of the text and how she used the strategies we completed with her class of seniors. The lesson was emotional, thought provoking, and engaging because we were made to walk around and discuss our thoughts about the photos.
Morning Keynote Speaker
The first keynote speaker on Friday was Dr. Alfred W. Tatum. He was a highly esteemed guest speaker, based on the audience’s applause. I hate to admit it; I was not familiar with his work, but many teachers in the conferences were. His lecture focused on how he was able to get below reading level, low income, black boys to read and write above grade level. He used a technique where he gave students a challenging science text that they used as a guide to rewrite above level pieces of work. It was quite impressive observing how students could model eloquent writing by imitating multiple disciplinary texts.
Sessions
I attended a session named, “Do You DBQ? Using Document Based Questions in the ELA Classroom.” This session was presented by a publishing company that creates social studies and now language arts binders for teachers. The binders provide lessons and close reading passages for teachers of all grade levels. My school district is testing this product with several of the social studies teachers in the district. The session could have been very informative for someone on the curriculum committee.
Lunch Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker for lunch was Marc Tyler Nobleman. His story was engaging and provoked high interest. Marc researched for many years the story of Bill, the co-creator of Batman. During his journey, he interviewed Bill’s ex-wife, stepson, and granddaughter until he found the truth about who created Batman. Marc was completely invested in this secret story of an underdog and fought hard to give him the recognition. Due to Marc’s determination, Bill was finally given his honor and recognition. Marc was an excellent speaker and kept everyone engaged with his tale of finding out the truth. Also, during lunch, teachers were honored with the Bonnie Chambers Grants, Dr. Bowman Presenter’s Award, and Teacher Diversity Recruitment Program.
Sessions and Vendors
One session that I had a personal interest in was “Teacher-Writers Unite!” This session’s focus was to seek out new writers for the Ohio Journal of English Language Arts (OJELA). I was able to network and meet Beth, the new editor of the journal. For many years, I have wanted to publish a piece of my work in the journal. Now, since I have this blog, I feel more confident to submit a piece to the journal. Also, I offered my services to be on the journal’s committee. Today, March 26, I received a call from Beth about assisting with editing submitted work. I’m pretty happy, and I hope I can complete my own piece of work (which I am retyping since I can’t find the saved document) by the April 15, 2019 due date. The session was great, and I was able to network with fellow writers.
While window shopping the vendors, I purchased stationary, a picture book, and two primary novels for my daughter for a deal of buy one, get one free at the Scholastic table. I also purchased the popular teen novel The Hate You Give and a teacher book The 6 Academic Writing Assignments by Jim Burke. Ironically, Thursday afternoon before the conference, I threw another one of Jim Burke’s book into my book bag without considering I would come across another one of his books and I had it at the conference. When I went to Heinemann’s vendor, I instantly recognized his name and purchased his new book. Also, the vendors informed me that Heinemann has a cohort program that helps teachers publish a book. I went to Heinemann’s website and was impressed with their previous cohort. Go check them out and tell me what you think.
Afternoon Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker for the afternoon was Auerilia Davila de Silva, NCTE Executive Committee member, who reminded the audience of storytelling. Her speech was titled “Making Sense of the World through Storytelling: Community Studies.” Dr. Davila de Silva used her words to engage the audience in reliving her childhood as a migrating family in Texas. She told a tale of being in kindergarten and living with her family. Her storytelling was vivid and honest with tales in a little bit of Spanish and a lot of English. Dr. Davila de Silva motivated me to return to a story I began writing about coming to age.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
On Saturday, I was eager to attend the conference because the sessions were so fun and reignited my love for language arts. The first session I attended was “Escape OCTELA!” I had seen many escape lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers, but this was my first time actively participating in an escape room. The room was filled with teachers from all over Ohio, and we were divided into groups to find the final answer to the last puzzle. A timer with an anticipation type background music was playing, and we were in a rush to break the first code. The introverted people in my group were shy to read the directions and answer any questions. Then an extrovert from my group broke the first code and became the leader. He helped everyone break their first code and began leading the way to the final puzzle. I’m glad a leader showed up (note for my classes). I enjoyed “Escaping OCTELA” and I hope to incorporate one of the strategies within my class.
Morning Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker for Saturday morning was another popular speaker, Kelly Treleaven from the blog “Love, Teach.” I heard fellow teachers raving about Kelly’s blog, and some teachers were wearing her t-shirts. I could not wait to hear her speak, and I was not disappointed. Her speech was titled, “Imitating Greatness: How Students and Teachers Can Get Better By…Copying?” Treleaven discussed step by step directions on how to teach students to imitate writing skills. She used a close passage technique, and her lesson related to Dr. Tatum’s speech on Friday. Hey, these people must be on to something-imitation must really work. I loved how she encouraged students to view photographs and write from them and used a poem to model imitating. I will be viewing her blog more often.
Day Two Sessions
One session I attended, titled, “Creating a Pedagogical Mirror: Contextualizing the World through Literature,” was an unexpected surprise. I read the title thinking it would be about pedagogical strategies through world literature. However, it was a lesson about using Kanye West’s song to relate to Catcher in the Rye. I see the connection, but using Kanye’s profane-laced lyrics isn’t going to go well in my class. Teachers can still incorporate songs, artwork, and other forms of media to relate a novel.
As I was leaving the last session, I noticed that most of the African American attendees were walking into the room. They were on a mission. One even said hello to me as though I must have missed the memo. I headed to my next session, but I noticed that the next session was scheduled for an hour, not thirty minutes. I would walk into the next session thirty minutes late and I did not want to do that. I looked at the next page and realized why all the African American women were heading to the last room. The session was “Skin Color and Other Hues: Promoting Diversity and Honoring Students Voice.” Author Sharon Flake was one of the speakers of the session. I read The Skin I’m In title, and I instantly thought about the first time I attended OCTELA. I had purchased the book for my students. The book had been on my nightstand and my office’s shelf. I was happy to attend the session because I was able to hear, in Sharon’s words, how the book can be taught and why it’s important to discuss colorism within the class using the novel.
Lunch Keynote Speaker
The lunch keynote speaker was Dave Stuart, Jr., teacher and blogger. His keynote addressed examining the five beliefs under student motivation. He included that students need care, competence, and passion. After Stuart’s speech, several awards were given to dedicated teachers in the middle school, secondary, college, and special distinction division.
My Highlights
My personal highlights from the conference were the last session I attended “Critical Theory: Digging Deeper into Texts” and the closing session. I was so happy to attend the critical theory session because it reminded me of a lesson that would be modeled at a staff meeting. The focus of the session was the literary lens. The facilitator gave each teacher a poem, and we tried to evaluate it. Then she showed us an apple. We were instructed to analyze it using four categories: gender, structure, Marxism, historical context. It was a challenging activity because we had to devise phrases or questions about the apple using those categories. My group had gender. We discussed if the apple is male or female and then explored how an apple is represented with media and books. I was so engaged because it made me think. I immediately used the strategies within my classes, especially when we discussed the topic of classism. I also enjoyed the closing session because of the raffle of expensive baskets and the silent auction. I had entered both categories. There were over thirty gift baskets, and one had a hundred-dollar gift card to Walmart, while others had cute beach bags and wine. My eye was on the Walmart gift card because I shop there for household items every month. I won a gift basket for my daughter that included books for primary students. I thought I had a chance to win the silent auction for a paid conference registration or paid hotel accommodation for next year. I didn’t win, but I was happy to win my daughter’s gift basket.
My overall impression of the conference was great! The presenters were knowledgeable and engaging. I truly loved the critical theory session. The only suggestion I would give is to provide more rigorous sessions, such as how to teach students how to write an argument, strategies for higher level thinking, strategies for researching content to support your debate, or test taking strategies for the SAT. At staff my meetings, the facilitators have us complete a strategy, and from my experience, the strategies have been challenging. We typically have articles written by professors or passages from a teacher’s book then we have to read and discuss it with other teachers. I was expecting the same level of rigor for most of the sessions. However, I the loved the keynote speakers, the food was delicious, the location was comfortable, and the vendors were great. I truly enjoyed myself, and I network with the editor of OJELA, my regional facilitator, and the teacher diverse recruitment chairperson. If you have a teacher organization such as OCTELA within your state, reach out to them and attend their conference. It is a wonderful experience to learn best practices and network with fellow teachers.
Leave me comment below. Have you ever attended a conference in your content area? Tell me about your experience.
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