Baltimore! I believe this was the fourth NCTE I've attended. Atlanta, Kansas City, Austin, and now Baltimore. My view is pretty much as long as I'm teaching English I'll make attending NCTE a priority. I know everyone doesn't have that ability, but it's been by far the most beneficial conference related to ELA I've attended.
The information is great, but the people are gold. To meet people you've only interacted with on Twitter -to put a personality to a tweet- and have a chance to learn from and with them and then go out to eat, it's one of the highlights I look forward to every year. As I'm writing this the NCTE conference for 2020 in Denver has already been canceled due to Covid.
I'm supposed to be in Australia right now after having finished presenting at an international conference and NCTE being canceled stings a little more.
It's difficult describing what a conference experience is like if you haven't experienced similar. Imagine knowing a code and having this insider knowledge. Most days, in most spaces, there are only a few of you that know the code / all the inwords. But, then you go to a place with thousands of people and everyone knows the code and you start with this shared knowledge and understanding that you don't often get. That's what it's like!
I was a cheerleader in undergrad and trying to explain to my friends that weren't cheerleaders what we did at practice was confusing on the best of days unless we all stood up and I physically showed them. But during Nationals when everyone for 1.5 miles was a cheerleader or dancer, groups could form on the beach and throw basket tosses mixing and matching because everyone knew the routine.
NCTE is being surrounded by thousands of people just like you and still being seen. To some extent. They aren't perfect, but they are good.
The information is great, but the people are gold. To meet people you've only interacted with on Twitter -to put a personality to a tweet- and have a chance to learn from and with them and then go out to eat, it's one of the highlights I look forward to every year. As I'm writing this the NCTE conference for 2020 in Denver has already been canceled due to Covid.
I'm supposed to be in Australia right now after having finished presenting at an international conference and NCTE being canceled stings a little more.
It's difficult describing what a conference experience is like if you haven't experienced similar. Imagine knowing a code and having this insider knowledge. Most days, in most spaces, there are only a few of you that know the code / all the inwords. But, then you go to a place with thousands of people and everyone knows the code and you start with this shared knowledge and understanding that you don't often get. That's what it's like!
I was a cheerleader in undergrad and trying to explain to my friends that weren't cheerleaders what we did at practice was confusing on the best of days unless we all stood up and I physically showed them. But during Nationals when everyone for 1.5 miles was a cheerleader or dancer, groups could form on the beach and throw basket tosses mixing and matching because everyone knew the routine.
NCTE is being surrounded by thousands of people just like you and still being seen. To some extent. They aren't perfect, but they are good.
So good that I made a friend that came from (I want to say...) Palau to attend. Do you know how far that is from Baltimore?! If you flew from Baltimore to Hawai'i I believe you'd be about halfway. Listened to George Takei welcome us then went out for steak.
I don’t remember exactly what it was…. bone in ribeye maybe? With crab meat on top. And a bunch of other stuff. It was the recommendation of our wonderful server. And I probably ate more steak in that setting than I’d eaten up until then in life.
I don’t remember exactly what it was…. bone in ribeye maybe? With crab meat on top. And a bunch of other stuff. It was the recommendation of our wonderful server. And I probably ate more steak in that setting than I’d eaten up until then in life.
I won’t try to recount every impactful moment, but in reviewing pictures it was somewhat surreal to see my professor’s name cited in a session I attended. My friend Marvell lives in Baltimore and it's always great to spend time with him. Don't get to hang out nearly as much as I'd like, but it feels good to catch up and decompress a bit.
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