NCTE Standing Committee on Affiliates

Resolutions as Formative Assessment: Formative Assessment that Truly Informs Instruction is this month’s NCTE Position Statement. The statement focuses on working toward progress, reflection, and growth at the classroom, building, and district levels. The web page defining the approach offers a wide range of pragmatic information, including

• audio files from the NCTE Task Force on Assessment (members Cathy Fleischer and Scott Filkins),
• a booklet containing the findings of the task force (html and pdf), and
• a table contrasting what formative assessments do and do not: “teachers and administrators together can choose and create tools and strategies that will truly inform practice, support students, and improve learning.”

Affiliate Website Contest: As affiliates plan entries for this year’s affiliate website competition, designers might browse the site of the award winnerfrom 2015: English Language Arts Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association. See also the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts website that received an honorable mention. The criteria for judgment privilege content yet also judge interactivity, structure/navigation, visual design, functionality, and overall experience. The May 1 deadline for entries allows time for developments and revisions of existing sites.

Advocacy Day Is a Month Away: Lu Ann McNabb invites everyone to join NCTE Thursday, February 25, 2016, in Washington, DC, to go to Capitol Hill with fellow teachers for Literacy Education Advocacy Day. (See Advocacy Day and Month for details.)

Affiliate Leadership Meeting July 8-10: Leaders from regions 2, 4, 5, and 6 can plan to attend this year’s annual leadership (with NCTE’s cost-share). As soon as the SCOA knows the location, it will appear in a subsequent newsletter.

Philanthropic News from Oregon: The estate of Oregon CTE past president Roland Bartel (1967-68) made a donation to the Oregon Council of Teachers of English (OCTE) to be used for scholarships for teachers in their first three years of teaching to attend an OCTE conference. This generosity has inspired the Council to establish the Roland Bartel President’s Fund for ongoing donations by presidents, officers, and board members to continue to send beginning teachers to OCTE conferences.

Profile of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English (GCTE)–an Excellent Affiliate: (by Julie Rucker, GCTE President) The Georgia Council of Teachers of English has been Georgia’s professional home for English/language arts teachers since 1923. Our membership is comprised of pre-K teachers to university professors, pre-service teachers to retirees. (Pictured, from left, are Merrill Davies, Julie Rucker, Emily Mowery, and Jean Boreen.)

In February 2016, we have our annual conference which features concurrent sessions led by teachers as well as keynote speakers. This year’s conference will be at Lanier Islands Legacy Lodge, February 19-20. This year’s keynote luncheon speaker will be Judson Mitcham, Georgia’s current poet laureate.

In 2015, GCTE received several NCTE awards including the Affiliate of Excellence Award for the 13th year in a row. We also received the Future Teachers for the Dream Award as well as an honorable mention for our affiliate newsletter, Scribbles n’ Bits.

We recently revived our affiliate journal, Connections, and will celebrate the 50th anniversary of this journal at our conference in February. A current call for manuscripts can be found on our GCTE website.

GCTE also sponsors annual awards for teachers of the year at the elementary, middle, secondary, and college levels. We also recognize preservice teachers with the Future English Teachers of Color Award and provide scholarships as well as grant opportunities.

Additionally, we sponsor an annual writing competition for students, the Young Georgia Authors Award. Students in Georgia’s public schools, grades K-12, are eligible to submit a piece of writing for the contest. Winners of the 2015 contest have their works published on the GCTE website and were recognized by State School Superintendent Richard Wood at a reception where they also received a certificate and Barnes & Noble gift card from GCTE.

In November 2016, GCTE will host the NCTE Annual Convention in Atlanta. This will mark the third time GCTE has hosted the Convention in as many decades, and we look forward to this year’s being the best one yet.

A Verse for Those Averse to New Year’s Resolutions:
Once a year (at least) we try
To waste less time, become more spry.
We plot our paths; we harbor hopes—
We’ll o’rturn leaves and more trite tropes.
Mid-month we marvel to our alarm
We’ve lost our way, so we’ll re-arm.
We’ll fight those foes within our reach,
Allied for learning with those we teach.