A little over a year ago my RESA mentor told me about this conference that I should check out. Sharon Draper was going to be speaking and she thought it would be awesome for me to have this opportunity. Little did anyone know at the time that it would become one of the most important and influential pieces of a first year teacher who was barely making it, and questioning everything.
Fast forward to now and I find myself sitting in a similar position. For teachers, February seems to be the shortest number of days but the longest month of the school year. For me, it's where I feel I get into a rut. I get discouraged. I feel like I can't do anything right. This conference changes all of that.
OCTELA is a chance to meet other English teachers from all over the state of Ohio. It's a chance to network and connect with new people. As teachers, we like being able to hear from other teachers who are going through similar situations, or the teachers who've actually made a break through into an issue that we have had. We get to hear from authors on how they got their start, how for most, they were that reluctant reader hiding in the back of the room. No matter the situation, there's a way to connect to it no matter what it is.
This weekend has been no different. The theme, diversity. Appropriate with everything that is going on around us. Diversity. It's not something that we can push under the rug, it's something that we need to accept and bring to life in the classroom.
A.S. King said "We don't grow or feel if we don't express." If we don't give our students opportunities to speak or write their stories down, we are restricting them. She left us with, "It's time to build our own common core of compassion and put it in every lesson." They need us to be that outlet of expression. Yes, there are standards and there are lessons to teach, but first and foremost we teach students.
The many breakout sessions I was able to attend taught me many different things, strategies, ideas, stories and so much more that I can bring back and use in my own classroom. It's such a refreshing weekend with fellow English teachers, past, present and future.
The Keynote speakers have been phenomenal is their own ways. This year, I didn't know much about any of them before getting here. Which turned out to be a mistake. Why hadn't I heard of these extraordinary people before? They inspired me to get back into my classroom and give my students their voices back, to give them as many opportunities to write and express and to give them a safe place to do all of this. Matt de la Pena said, "Sometimes when you give someone a book, you're not just giving them a book, you're giving them a way to live."
There's so much more that I could say, but as I'm still digesting all the information myself, I will leave it here for now.
Love from the girl who is currently adding more books to her ever long reading list.
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