Thank you for considering our blog for your writing. We welcome any topics that our membership and contributors feel moved to share. The goal of this blog is to feature educator/student/school community members’ stories and voices. The list below is flexible. We are open to topics and suggestions that do not appear on the list, however, the list includes topics in which our members have expressed interest. We welcome your suggestions and ideas. We welcome interviews and student writing, too. Feel free to reach out to our Voices of NYSEC blog editor, Holly Spinelli, click to email.
We look forward to reading your contributions.
General Topics Accepted Year-Round:
• Antiracism and Antibias Pedagogy– This can include lessons, texts, reflections.
• Artificial Intelligence/ChatGPT– How are you (or your school/community) approaching it in classrooms?
• Book Banter– What book do you feel passionate about sharing with others? Is it a new title? One you’ve read/re-read? Share a bit about it. What was your experience like as you read it? What do you want others to know about it? Why should they read it? Who is the best audience for it? Book Banter pieces usually range from 100- 350 words in length. Click here to see an example of a Book Banter post.
• Literacy/Reading/Writing Instruction in the “Post” COVID educational space.
• Personal Goals and Victories– Think Joy!
• Reflections– Consider when your teaching/classroom/colleague experience wasn’t so great. Think about when it was awesome! What did you learn? Where do you go from here?
• The Interview Process: If you’re on either side of the interview process, tell us about it. What has been your experience? What are some tips/strategies that you recommend and why?
• The Teacher Shortage– Do you have any experience with this where you’re teaching? We’d like to hear about it from your perspective.
January
Mid-year reflections
New Year’s Resolutions
MLK Day
Long Winter Days/Pick-Me-Ups
NCTE/Affiliate Partnerships
Literacy and Reading (Lessons, Approaches, Texts, Strategies)
February
Black History/Presence/Futures Month
Book Banters
Creative Writing Prompts/Reflections
March
Women’s History Month
The Interview Process
Job Searching
April
National Poetry Month
Summer PD/Workshop Opportunities
May
Mental Health Awareness Month
AP/IB Exam Posts
Summer PD Opportunities
June
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
End of the year reflections
Summer PD/Workshop Opportunities
July
Disability Pride Month
Author spotlights
Summer PD/Workshop opportunities
August
Back to School Posts:
Curriculum, Self-Care, Professional Learning, Resources
September
Banned Books Week
NYSEC Pre-Conference Post— Keynote Speakers
NYSEC Pre-Conference Post– What NYSEC members are looking forward to at this year’s conference
NYSEC Pre-Conference Post– A Write-up about the session you’ve planned/will present!
October
Pre-Conference Post: The Joy of Professional Learning with NYSEC
National Dyslexia Awareness Month
November
NYSEC Conference Reflections
Indigenous Peoples Day Posts/National Native American Heritage Month
Teaching Nonfiction: The Election
NCTE Spotlight
December
HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Holidays/Winter Posts
Mental Health Awareness/Services (NY/National) Posts
Book Banters Are Always Welcome Any Month of the Year!
Word Count: Blog posts tend to be anywhere from 650-850 words. Of course, we will use discretion and allow for posts that are slightly longer than 850 words, too. If you wish to turn a blog post into a longer piece, we encourage you to consider submitting your writing to our journal, The English Record. If you wish to publish something shorter, in a creative writing format, or a piece that can be published in a quarterly time-frame, then we encourage you to submit to our NYSEC Newsletter .
Timelines: Blog posts are often published twice a month– usually around the 6th and the 21st. We ask for you to submit your work at least 4 weeks prior to publication.
Editing Process: The editing process is mostly asynchronous. We read and leave comments, questions, and suggestions in the margins of your work. We ask for writers to submit their work via a Google Doc with editing/commenting permission. We can accept a Microsoft Word document, but Google Docs is preferred. We can schedule a phone call or a Zoom meeting to discuss your piece if necessary. These conversations are designed to be an avenue for us to help you achieve your goals for your writing. We want to support your work and your writing process.
Photos: If you wish to include photos or images with your blog post, please send them as separate jpeg files. Please do not embed them in the blog post itself.
Compensation: NYSEC does not offer monetary compensation for blog contributions.
Short Bio: If your submission is accepted, we ask that you send along a short bio with any information about yourself that you wish to share with readers. Please note, the Voices of NYSEC blog is open access for the general public to view and read.