Make Your Case to Attend

Why You Should Join Us at #NCTE22

NCTE’s Annual Convention is the premier professional learning experience for the English language arts community. By attending, you’ll engage with and have access to the newest innovations and research, brightest thinkers, hundreds of authors and illustrators, and most robust networking available anywhere in the field.

Customize your learning: You can attend the sessions that are most relevant to your development, aligned to the topics and issues that are most pressing to your professional setting or teaching level. Topics include, but are not limited to: intellectual freedom, media literacy, innovative writing practices, inclusive teaching, using critical pegagogy to teach YA literature, antiracist teaching, support for preservice teachers, leading the way to critical inquiry, traumainformed pedagogy, critical reading methods, culturally sustaining texts, raising student voice, teacher voice post-pandemic, nurturing student engagement through poetry, and so much more!

Bring the learning back: Develop bonds that lead to sustained professional learning groups in your school and across digital networks to embrace and implement the ideas gained during #NCTE22.

Get credit for your learning: Check with your school or district to see if participation in the 2022 Annual Convention will count toward your recertification or continuing education credits. NCTE offers credit by partnering with an accredited university, and more details will be posted on our website as soon as they are available.

Suggestions for Funding Your Convention

Directly ask your supervisor or administrator for funding/ reimbursement by following these best practices:

Informally inquire about the possibility: Example: NCTE’s Annual Convention happens this November; it’s the premier professional learning opportunity available for ELA educators. You can learn more about it on this website: convention.ncte.org. Attending will help me serve students and retain my passion in the classroom. It’s a fast way for me to meet leading teacher voices, research scholars, and authors to continue my growth in service of students and literacy. Can we find funds to support this important experience for me?

State your case formally and intentionally: Example: A best practice is to lift up the anticipated impact that attending will have on your practice and that of your colleagues (by presenting back to them key takeaways from the professional learning upon returning), and therefore, on student achievement.

If not approved for full funding/reimbursement, propose

partial support: Example: I understand the reasons why fully funding this opportunity is not possible. Would you consider partially funding this PD for me so that I may still be able to attend?

Ask if COVID funding, i.e., ESSER funding, has increased the allocation toward professional learning in your

department: Example: I know that ESSER funds, as the result of COVID, can be used for professional development. Has the allotment for our department changed as the result of these funds?

Register by October 19 to take advantage of early bird pricing; see convention.ncte.org/registration

Plan your budget: You can get a very clear picture of exactly how much this event will cost by looking at the registration and hotel and travel pages on the website.

Get creative and use crowdfunding sources to cover

registration: The support for getting teachers the PD and experiences they deserve is out there—make public your wish to attend and explicitly state your need(s).

I especially love attending the NCTE Convention with educators I work with. We often deliberately go our separate ways, taking careful notes as we attend different sessions so we can report back and teach each other what we learned. We can hardly wait to share! — Ted Kesler