Upcoming Professional Development

January Book Club
01/05/26, 01/12/26 & 01/26/26

This Book Study is built for lovers of poetry, teachers of Creative Writing, or any educator who wants to improve their instruction and/or their own writing.

Dates/Time:
Monday, January 5, 2026, 7-8pm
Monday, January 12, 2026, 7-8pm
Monday January 26, 2026, 7-8pm
Location: Online, via ZOOM
Register: Click here to Register
Note: You are not required to attend all three sessions. We will cover one third of the book during each session.

About: Maggie Smith’s viral poem “Good Bones” made its debut on social media in 2017. Maggie Smith, accomplished poet and poetry professor, was thrown into the spotlight and her four poetry collections remained at the top of every poetry lover’s TBR. In her newest memoir, Dear Writer, Smith speaks directly to educators and poets as lovers of verse. She brings practical thought to our creative practice and has a bounty of advice in the realm of attention, wonder, vision, vulnerability, tenacity, and hope. The sessions will be set up as a 10-minute discussion, 10-minute writing session, 20-minute lesson and 10-minute share-out. We hope to break out into small groups as needed and encourage both small and large group discussion. Each session will review about 1/3 of the text and the last session will offer longer writing and planning time for classroom implementation.

Young Adult Literature Book Study
01/22/26, 02/26/26 & 03/26/26

Join us for a great discussion about some of our favorite, new YAL books and how they may be useful to our instruction and work with young adult readers.

Come for one session, or come for them all

Dates/Time:
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 6pm-7:30pm
Thursday, February 26, 2026 – 6pm-7:30pm
Thursday, March 26, 2026- 6pm-7:30pm
Location: Online, via ZOOM
Register: Click here to Register
Cost: FREE for NYSEC members, $15 non-members / $10 PSTs
Earn CTLE credit

About:
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 6pm-7:30pm
The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson
Jordyn is excited to finally be on her own at a top HBCU in Washington, DC, but things get complicated when her roommate’s older brother, Devonte, moves into their dorm after getting out of prison. As Devonte’s charm starts to feel dangerous and one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, Jordyn must work with the school’s only white student to figure out what’s really going on before it’s too late.

Thursday, February 26, 2026 – 6pm-7:30pm
(S)kin by Ibi Zoboi
Marisol is a fifteen-year-old girl in Brooklyn who comes from a family of fireball witches, forced to change every new moon even though she wishes she could leave that life behind. When she meets seventeen-year- old Genevieve, who feels a strange hunger and uncovers a secret linking their families, both girls learn that their hidden power could change their lives and relationships in dangerous ways.

Thursday, March 26, 2026- 6pm-7:30pm
A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff
After lockdown ends, A feels more trapped than ever as a trans teen forced to attend a scary support group where his parents refuse to accept him. When his friend Yarrow disappears and A learns the group is run by a real demon feeding on kids’ pain, he must decide if he’s brave enough to fight back and save his friend and maybe the world too.

Note: You are not required to attend all three sessions.

2026 NYSEC Spring Conference: Planting Seeds of Hope
04/25/26

2026 NYSEC Spring Conference: Planting Seeds of Hope

Our fully-online spring conference will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2026 from 9:30am to 1:45pm.

Date: Saturday, April 25, 2026
Time: 9:30am to 1:45pm
Location: Online, via ZOOM
Register: Click here to Register
Call for Proposals: Click here

About:
We will have three concurrent sessions with several presentations to select from in each session.

Dr. Sawsan Jaber will keynote our conference.

Past Workshops

Upcoming
January 5, 12 & 26: January Book Club
01/22/26, 02/26/26 & 03/26/26: Young Adult Literature Book Study
April 25, 2026: 2026 NYSEC Spring Conference: Planting Seeds of Hope

Dec 10, 2025: Reframing Attendance and Engagement: Diagnostic Thinking and Practical Strategies
Oct 8, 2025: Pedagogy of the Black Child: An Evening with Dr. David E. Kirkland
Sept 18, 2025: Setting Intentions and Goals as a New Teacher
May 1, 2025: Everything You Wanted to Know About Landing Your First Teaching Job
April 28, 2025: Forging Paths between Pop Culture, Current Events, and Secondary ELA
Mar 26, 2025: Literacy is a Restorative Practice!
Mar 22, 2025: Writing Retreat
Mar 13, 2025: Everything You Want to Know about Student Teaching
Feb 25, 2025: I Am the Boss of THIS! Cultivating Ownership in Writing
Jan 30, 2025: Workshop Your Workshop Proposal: Graffiti Your Dreams-NYSEC Conference
Jan 22, 2025: Close Reading and the Oppositional Gaze: Teaching to Empower and Engage
Jan 13, 2025: Write with the English Record workshop

Jan 18, 2024: To You Know Who You Are? An Exploration of Personal Stories through AncestryClassroom™
Feb 3, 2024: Unpacking the NYS Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework
March 5, 2024: Dialog and Dignity: Creating Classroom Belonging with Touchstones®
April 15, 2024: Advocating for LGBTQ Texts in a Time of Book Bans
May 14, 2024: Inspiring Creative, Narrative, and Argumentative Writing with Art
July 28, 2024: Lazy Summer Sunday Book Club-July
Nov 14, 2024: Green is the Color of Hope: Developing Student Agency through Emulation

Jan 12, 2023: NYSEC Connection and Conversation: Life as a Literacy Leader
Jan 14, 2023: A Journey to Educational Leadership
Feb 4, 2023: Pairing Poetry and Art for Analysis and Creative Writing: Ekphrasis!
March 4, 2023: Writing Towards Anti-Racist Education
March 9, 2023: Literacy Leaders Networking Session 2
May 11, 2023: Literacy Leaders Networking Session 3
Aug 2, 2023: Workshop in the Parks Lake Erie State Park
Aug 4, 2023: Workshop in the Parks Cayuga Lake State Park
Aug 7, 2023: Workshop in the Parks Letchworth State Park
Oct 2, 2023: A Conversation about Intellectual Freedom with NCTE Affiliates for Banned Books Week
Oct 3, 2023: An Evening with Laurie Halse Anderson
Nov 30, 2023: Journaling: A Gateway Into Student Thought & Independence
Dec 16, 2023: Decoding Literacy: Understanding the Reading Wars

Jan 8, 2022: Conversations Around Culturally Responsive Classrooms
Feb 5, 2022: The Power of Spoken Word Poetry in the Classroom
March 5, 2022: Culturally Responsive Education for Internationalization
March 22, 2022: Pop-Up Gathering: Life as an ELA & Literacy Leader
April 2, 2022: Teaching Against Misinformation, For Justice, In a Time of War
April 28, 2022: NYSEC Connection and Conversation: Literacy Leaders & Book Clubs
May 7, 2022: Building Trustworthy Writing Communities: A Culture of Care
June 4, 2022: Unraveling Complex Text: Using Socratic Circles to Create a Culture of Voice and Thought
Nov 5, 2022: Culture of Reading: Daily Reading Practices That Work
Nov 15, 2022: Creating Community in the Classroom — and in Our Lives
Nov 15, 2022: Writing & Conversation, presented by Chris Mazura
Dec 3, 2022: Giving A Voice to All Students

Oct 2, 2021: An Intimate Conversation with Nic Stone
Nov 6, 2021: Classroom Practices for Multilingual Learners and English Language Learners and The Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards
Dec 4, 2021: Addressing the Writing Gap: Democratizing Writing Instruction