Understanding Diversity: Building Trust, Culture and Reflective Practice
Dear NYSEC Membership,
We hope that you and your families are well. As we’ve spent the winter working on the conference, newsletter, and journal, we had no idea that at this time we’d be at home trying to figure out teaching virtually, social distancing, and feeling anxiety about a world that seems to be changing everyday and at times every hour. We didn’t know that phrases like “abundance of caution” and “flatten the curve” would become a regular part of our vocabulary.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NYSEC board has discussed how we can best serve our membership moving forward. After careful consideration of our members, keynotes, vendors, and executive board, we have decided to postpone our annual conference until October 2021. Please save the date for our 70th conference, Understanding Diversity: Building Trust, Culture, and Reflective Practice, which will now be held on October 20-22, 2021. For those members that have already submitted workshop proposals or awards applications, please note that we will hold all that information for 2021. While we all hope that life will go back to something that resembles normal well before this fall, we also understand that people may still have reservations about large group gatherings in the near future.
In the meantime, we are going to spend the upcoming months planning new ways to provide resources and professional development for our members. If you have any ideas, please contact us through our website at www.nysecteach.org. In addition, I think we can all agree that during these difficult times the work/home line is either very blurry or completely gone as we’re all trying to support our students in an environment that is new to everyone. Therefore, we hope that you are finding ways to support and care for yourself. Take the time to read some of the titles listed in my President’s message, write about your quarantine or virtual teaching adventures and share it on our blog, or finally take the time to write an article for our journal the English Record. On behalf of the NYSEC Executive Board I hope that you and your families are safe and healthy.
Be well,
Michelle Peterson-Davis NYSEC President
Keep up to date on what’s happening and the latest NYSEC news on our social media pages.
Join NYSEC and reap the rewards. Included in our Members Only section are current issues of our publications, handouts and other materials from our conference presenters, and many more exciting features coming your way! NYSEC helps explore current critical issues affecting English Language Arts education statewide and nationwide. Learn more about the benefits of membership.
New York State English Council Honored with 2020 NCTE Affiliate Newsletter of Excellence Award NYSEC News, edited by Christine Furnia of Wappingers…
The New York State English Council, edited by Michelle Bulla, has been named as a recipient of the 2020 NCTE Affiliate Website…
The New York State English Council has been named one of nineteen recipients of the 2020 Kent D. Williamson Affiliate Membership Recruitment…
It’s 6:02am and I’ve been awake since 4:30. Maybe you are, too. I’m guessing you’re with me, if not physically, then likely…
My classroom is an extension of my heart. Everything I have put into it: the furniture, the background music, the posters on…
In my last blog post, Part I, I shared student thoughts and sentiments that they produced in a letter-writing activity for a…
So, NYSEC colleagues, here are unedited excerpts of what our charges have on their minds, courtesy of my high school group who…
This year I decided that my personal professional learning and development was going to focus on writing: teaching writing, being a writer,…
A few weeks ago I got into a conversation about YA books with a dear friend who’s a mom to two young…
The New York State English Council website, edited by Michelle Bulla, Monroe-Woodbury High School, has been named as a recipient of the…
Last Thursday I skipped class with three of my English teachers. We did not sleep in, have cocktails with lunch, or squeeze…
March is a month of change. It is a month of winds blowing – some bringing snow and ice, some sleet and…
The New York State English Council has made generous donations to other NCTE affiliates in support of students impacted by natural disasters.
In my previous post – Part I of this two-part blog – I wrote about how my teaching has evolved over the…
With all the hoopla around renewals, revisions, and resolutions, I found myself looking back over my newest journal begun a few months…
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has awarded the 2018 High School Teacher of Excellence Award to Marilyn Norton from…
Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is to take a first step. First serious interview, first day of a new workout, first…
If you’re anything like me, you’re a tad overwhelmed at a conference. Some or all of these questions might race through your…
Regardless of your personal perspective on who is or is not truthful, how we present ourselves for public consumption is part of…
NYSEC Honored with 4 NCTE Awards for 2018: Affiliate of Excellence, Newsletter of Excellence, Journal of Excellence, Website of Excellence
I am lucky that I live only 1.9 miles from the school where I teach. I mean, who can beat that commute,…
Teachers look forward to summer for many reasons: a time to reflect and rejuvenate, a time to spend with family, a time…
I have never broken a leg. When one of my students walks into my classroom on crutches, I do not know the…
I remember going off to college and looking for posters to hang in my dorm room, and when I came across All…
I’ve been fortunate to have had a go-to person throughout my life, offering to review a resume or provide tips for an…
As I write, Dick’s Sporting Goods has just announced they will no longer sell assault rifles, and they will require all gun…
The New York State English Council is proud to present our first annual creative writing contest for students in grades 9-12. We…
Do you YA? I’m reminded of the old Yahoo commercials that projected searching through this engine was an adventurous phenomenon one ought…
Teachers know that some years are better than others. When we look back over our careers, we remember some years as “good,”…
I’ve been thinking about this a long time – probably, in some ways, since I started teaching: students need to be taught…
I was recently on a Twitter chat with #aplitchat where the moderator posed a question related to his focus – beginnings, middles,…
Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc and destruction in the Caribbean and battered the Southeast, where my in-laws, cousins, and millions of others sheltered…
New York State English Council Honored with 2017 NCTE Affiliate Journal of Excellence Award
Driving north on the Thruway, I take a deep breath and am conscious of my heavy sigh. After squeezing in last minute…
New York State English Council Honored with 2017 NCTE Affiliate Newsletter of Excellence Award
I know you. You became an English / ELA teacher – most likely – because you love to read, and because reading…
Michelle G. Bulla recognized as a High School Teacher of Excellence by the NCTE.
NYS English Council is proud to be recognized as an Affiliate of Excellence by NCTE.