2024 ICTE Fall Conference

​Every Teacher’s Journey​​​

The 2020s haven’t been easy for many educators. Having to guide students through staff shortages, rapid societal shifts, and a pandemic and its aftermath put a great strain on many teachers. Further, the news around education has so often been overwhelmingly negative, with each new news report making the current political disputes, increasing student mental health challenges, and funding issues feel intractable.
These struggles and issues are real, and yet lost against this backdrop is that the 2020s have also quietly offered more innovation and fresh solutions to old problems than ever before. Losing the face-to-face classroom for a while gave us a better sense for what matters, and recent years have seen a renaissance in our understanding of learning, the brain, and best practices. 
Lessons from the 2020s—led by full-time classroom teacher and author Matthew Johnson—looks to share what we’ve learned from this decade so far to take on the multitude of challenges we face in a better, more balanced, and, with some luck, a more joyful way. 

Gather with interest-based groups to discuss the chaos you're currently facing and process ways to move forward with hope and joy.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16t1V0IHAoFO-N4L_Y3eRNSRV-Z3uhaDcTFU0MI8cn4I/edit#slide=id.g24c2ee36dc1_0_21

Grammar and language instruction has long been, in the words of Brock Haussamen in Grammar Alive!, “the skunk at the garden party of the language arts" that turns many eager learners into disengaged participants. But why? How does grammar—something so relevant and essential that we use it in the creation of every syllable we say, write, or think—often become one of the dullest and most disconnected parts of the ELA classroom?
Good Grammar will explore this question and offer practical, on-the-ground solutions from a full-time teacher for how to make grammar and language instruction more accessible, practical, and connected to students’ reading, writing, and most importantly, the deep well of language knowledge they bring with them already. The title—Good Grammar—seeks to remind us that grammar doesn’t have to be boring or feel punitive. Instead, it can be a force for good for more students, affirming who they are, honoring the language expertise they bring with them, and helping them to bring their unique voices to the page.