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We facilitate deep connections & professional learning for ELA teachers.

Iowa Council of Teachers of English

We facilitate deep connections & professional learning for ELA teachers.

Iowa Council of Teachers of English

We facilitate deep connections & professional learning for ELA teachers.

Iowa Council of Teachers of English

Tracy Tensen
First Impressions Can Be Painful
Tracy Tensen, Teacher Writer • April 22, 2025

I hadn’t had a student teacher in the last eighteen years. I had a tough experience with one—her end goal was to be a sub and work at McDonald’s....

thoughts and prayers
thoughts and prayers
Rex Muston, Teacher Writer • January 13, 2024

Guilty or Not Guilty: The Case for Impromptu Teaching
Guilty or Not Guilty: The Case for Impromptu Teaching
Brandon Baggett, Teacher Writer • November 26, 2023

While attending our Fall ICTE conference, my classroom was managed by a well-qualified substitute teacher. Aside from a short phone call on my...

Ninth-graders in action in Danae Dieken's classroom.
Five Paragraph Death Punch, Revisited
Danae Dieken, Teacher Writer • November 17, 2023

She is so disappointed.  She is also a bit of a judgey know-it-all.  She is me, in my last year of my teaching degree. Her self-congratulatory...

Bubbles Up: A Path Forward
Bubbles Up: A Path Forward
Nikki Smith, Teacher Writer • October 29, 2023

On our first date, my now-husband asked me, what is one thing I should know about you.  I bravely proclaimed: I am a writer.  I remember being...

The poet's children equate bedtime with books.
Three-year-old Bedtime
Nikki Smith, Teacher Writer • May 27, 2023

Pick a book  (Read 2 pages) I need drink of water Not that book—this book No I have to climb up the chair this way  (Read...

Darkened School
Outside the Darkened School
Rex Muston, Teacher Writer • April 17, 2023

I Struggle
I Struggle
Erika Bass, Teacher-Writer • February 7, 2023

I struggle because the world has changed so drastically from when I started teaching nearly 15 years ago. How can I prepare teachers for a career...

Safe Classrooms, Unsafe Schools
Safe Classrooms, Unsafe Schools
Abby Heggen December 27, 2022

    My classroom becomes unsafe. My students become unsafe. I become unsafe.    We all become...

November Morning
November Supplication
Rex Muston, Teacher Writer • December 13, 2022

NOVEMBER SUPPLICATION   I step out into the raucous caws from the crows in the neighborhood, piercing over the hum of the...

April 2025
Read the April Newsletter
Nikki Smith, President • April 22, 2025

  Letter from the President Earlier this month,...

ICTE 2025 Fall Conference Registration Is Open!
ICTE 2025 Fall Conference Registration Is Open!
Deneen Nelson, Conference Chair • April 12, 2025

In an era where artificial intelligence generates articles, false images and videos blur the lines of reality, and social media spreads misinformation...

Register at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDOkHPTYMsTaT257seGN2jtEhf_KveFZBP29onKzUexR8Mrg/viewform
Iowa Writing Project Offers Writing Retreat April 26
April 12, 2025

Register Here

Join IWP for a Writing Workshop
Join IWP for a Writing Workshop
April 11, 2025

Join the Writing Workshop presented by the Iowa Writing Project May 10, June 12, and June 24, from 9-11 a.m. Register here. https://bit.ly/IowaWP

ICTE Presents: Wins and Woes!
ICTE Presents: Wins and Woes!
April 10, 2025

Join us Wednesday, April 30, to meet virtually with like-minded friends and colleagues who share your concerns and celebrate your successes!...

Submit a Proposal to Present at NCTE!
Submit a Proposal to Present at NCTE!
December 17, 2024

Submit a proposal for NCTE’s 2025 Annual Convention. NCTE's 2024 Convention may have just wrapped, but we are already looking ahead...

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