2021 Iowa Council of Teachers of English Fall Conference

This conference proves to support Iowa English teachers in what they need most right now. We are excited to gather and learn literacy practices for vibrant, inclusive classrooms from Lorena German, who will join us in person,  and Sara K. Ahmed, who will join us virtually. 

We also have a top priority of keeping you, your students, and your families safe with the spread of the COVID Delta variant. To that end, we plan to utilize the following mitigation strategies at this year’s conference:

• We will require masks in all of our meeting areas. 
• We will cap registration at 100 in-person participants to ensure adequate distancing.

We also recognize that this may not be enough for some of you to feel comfortable, or you may be facing limitations on out-of-district travel. Because we think it’s so important to offer you access to this year’s conference, for the first time, we are piloting a limited virtual option, which will include the following:

• Access to recordings of Lorena German’s keynote and breakout session
• Access to recordings of Sara Ahmed’s keynote and breakout session
• Access to handouts in Sched of additional breakout sessions
• A live Zoom Q&A/roundtable gathering on Thursday afternoon to connect with Iowa English teachers across the state.

You’ll see this option added as an additional registration option and will cost $95 for teachers, coaches, and administrators. The student rate will remain $45 for the virtual option.

We know these decisions will come with some new challenges, but we are confident we can gather in a safe and meaningful way.  We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to accommodate andi include as much of our membership as we can. 

Sincerely,

Nikki Smith and Brenna Griffin 

Conference Co-Chairs

See you on Oct. 14-15 in Johnston, Iowa!

COVID PROTOCOLS WILL BE TAKEN

Register for the fall conference at this link: FALL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

Look at the conference schedule: CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Propose a breakout session here: SUBMIT SESSION PROPOSALS

Nominate teachers for awards: AWARDS AND NOMINATION FORMS

Apply for a CONFERENCE GRANT FOR ENGLISH TEACHING PROFESSORS

Imagining Our Future Together

While you may want to throw your shoe at us for using this word, the 2020-21 school year was certainly unprecedented. We’ve traded seeing students’ full smiles and frowns for inferring moods from eyes alone–or even small black boxes on a computer screen. We’ve modified scope and sequence for a hybrid schedule, desperately trying not to lose too much richness and rigor along the way. We’ve owned and understood what schools mean to communities, and we’ve shouldered our share of criticism for the times we’ve missed the mark. Through it all, we’ve shown up day after day for our students.

The challenges of this year have been bittersweet. We learned new resources and reimagined engagement for our students, internalizing the freshness of taking risks in our classrooms, in person and virtual. However, the pandemic laid bare the problems with equity and access in our systems, forcing us to deeply question: how are our choices serving all of our students?

These are big, hard questions. None of us want to go back to being the teachers we were before the pandemic, but this heart work is intense, vulnerable, and overwhelming. 

The good news is that we don’t have to do it alone. We can be intentional and thoughtful, and we can do it all with the support of our English teacher community. 

ICTE’s Fall 2021 Conference asks us to Reimagine our Future in ways that will support teachers and students in a lifelong journey of opening doors through literacy. Sara K. Ahmed’s work focuses on teaching Social Comprehension, asking important questions like “How do we create learning conditions where kids can ask the questions they want to ask, muddle through how to say the things they are thinking, and have tough conversations? How can we be proactive and take steps to engaging in the types of conversations where risk is high but the payoff could be even greater?” Lorena Germán, a co-founder of Multicultural Classroom and #DisruptTexts, will support us in creating language arts classrooms that are inclusive and equitable.

With more flexible breakout session options and more intentional opportunities to connect with English teachers across the state, our 2021 Fall Conference will fill your head and heart as you work to become the best version of yourself in a post-pandemic educational landscape. We cannot wait to gather with our members with the lofty goal of Reimagining our Future Together. See you there!

–Brenna Griffin and Nikki Smith, 2021 Conference Chairs

Register for the fall conference at this link: FALL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

Propose a breakout session here: SUBMIT SESSION PROPOSALS

Nominate teachers for awards: AWARDS AND NOMINATION FORMS

Apply for a CONFERENCE GRANT FOR ENGLISH TEACHING PROFESSORS