Iowa Council of Teachers of English

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 that is far more politicized than I ever experienced? When I decided to become a teacher educator, I knew it was partially because I had felt underprepared for my own first job. As I entered my first classroom, I found there was much more to teaching than...

Continue Reading
Safe Classrooms, Unsafe Schools

Abby Heggen
December 27, 2022

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

Continue Reading
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 furnace flue from my home, from Sharon’s home, from our homes.   There is a skin of ice over  the rusty wheelbarrow water, and frost spawns in my exhalations as I walk the garbage out,  returning to lift the leashes  from...

Continue Reading
BookMarks

Skip Olson, Teacher Writer
November 23, 2022

I. Some of my favorite things to hear    “I need a new book.” “Do you have any other books by this author?” “I need a bookmark.”   II. A Bookmark Means   You found a story you want to come back to.   A story was so good that  you’re willing to wait for it  until the next day.   You don’t want to miss a thing,  you...

Continue Reading
Rooted in Truth, Reaching for Light

2022 ICTE Fall Conference Attendees
November 3, 2022

Rooted in Truth, Reaching for Light A Community Poem by ICTE teachers–Fall Conference 2022 I’m rooted in truth. I’m rooted in playdough and beanbags, where to play is to learn and to learn is to be human Letting kids explore helps them understand That we are all human, And reinforces my belief that I’m making a difference -   I am rooted in the belief that students...

Continue Reading
GG: A Poem

Brandon Baggett, Teacher Writer
October 28, 2022

GG Entering engulfed in darkness, once illuminated by your presence.    Coats still hang in the closet candy still sits in the secret stash a sweet sound still in my ear a tear. Love still on my heart and in my head, I’m holding on by a thread.   Scouring this empty place for blurred illusions of once-occupied space: Just watching television  or...

Continue Reading
Activate Search
Teacher Writings