2024 ICTE Fall Conference

Kids like talking. Kids have opinions. Kids like talking about their opinions. But have them brainstorm about a topic for an essay or a project and they stare at you blankly and mumble "ah-uh-no." In this session, Skip Olson - second runner up of the 67th annual "Is It a Pumpkin or a Baby?" contest of Humboldt County in 1992 - will be your guide on how to get kids from weak, spoon-fed, intermittent drops to a torrential downpour of ideas (or maybe just a nice shower which, according to any Midwesterner, is something we could always use). Come for the strategies, stay for the increasingly bad puns.

Come learn about how a rural English teacher brought a True Crime podcast into her curriculum and enhanced her students ability to openly discuss their opinions, accurately research, work as a team, and create their own podcasts.

We will share our experience delving into the Science of Reading at the secondary level. Participants will experience a structured literacy lesson and leave with resources for rigorous, low prep routines to build reading skills. This is a session for ALL teachers of ALL grade levels. No prior experience necessary!

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Science tells us play improves optimism, perseverance, connection, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. Play, too, can guide students to higher-level, analytic thinking. In this session, two teachers will share how we've used play in our classrooms, from those full of reticent readers and reluctant writers to the AP classroom. Students (and adults) benefit from play as an onramp to creativity. Come to play, and leave with dozens of at-the-ready play ideas to enhance the learning in your classroom!

Link to Presentation
Link to Poems

Contact Us:
Haley Moehlis: moehlish@wdmcs.org
Allison Berryhill: aberryhill@atlanticiaschools.org

As Megan Mayhew Bergman observes in _The Kenyon Review_, “While nearly all writing observes and processes the world around us, overtly socially-conscious writing is risky.” Many of the writers from the English Renaissance were as courageous as they were cunning, but current pedagogy often ignores the crucible of political intrigue and personal peril in which their witticisms were wielded. The Elizabethans’ affections for cryptology, rhetoric and wordplay created a synergy that often allowed them to avoid not just book bans, but beheadings! Come join in a celebration of risky writing as we sleuth the puns and politics of Shakespeare, Lanier, and Marlowe and find new appreciation for contemporary social poets like Gwendolyn Brooks.

An interactive glimpse of how "gamification" can supplement curriculum while engaging students. Can you level up? 

Participants in this session will learn how to effectively collaborate with community organizations on impactful service learning projects that enhance student learning. Regardless of which texts students study, there are ample opportunities to take their learning beyond the classroom, bring what they read to life, and make a difference in their wider communities. Exploring high school students' experiences learning about the Syrian Civil War through literature and assisting with a home makeover for a refugee family in their community will provide both inspiration and a template for similar service projects.