April 2023
In this newsletter:
- MCELA summer PD online: Textured Teaching in August w/Lorena Escoto Germán
- Write for Northwords. Deadline extended to June 15th!
- CTCTE Conference this weekend! Still time to register.
- Summer PD in person for FREE through SpiritWorks & DOE
- Bookelicious Summer Book Club: The Joy of Reading with Donalyn Miller
- Camp Rewrite: A summer of instructionally-grounded professional revision in community with Rebekah O'Dell, Matthew Johnson, & Angela Stockman
- Book Love Summer Book Club
President's Message:
May 2020: Sent home from school for 3 months, my dad died, spent the ENTIRE summer learning and collaborating on how we would do hybrid teaching in the fall.
May 2021: Finished the difficult hybrid year, still grieved the loss of my dad, and spent MOST of the summer learning and relearning how to improve my teaching for the fall.
May 2022: Settled back into teaching without most pandemic adjustments, held the celebration of life for my dad, spent NONE of my summer learning.
May 2023: Finally feeling caught up and eager for a little summer PD.
For the past few years, we have all been through so much, and we stepped up throughout the pandemic, working HARD for a very LONG time!
I’ve often said that it was like we were running on adrenaline for a few years (2020 and 2021): long-term stress, cortisol flushing through our bodies, as we fought to take care of our families, our students, and ourselves. And then came the adrenal fatigue. We were tired and needed to recover (2022).
I was still worn out earlier this year but am finally feeling recovered this spring and ready to do some new learning. If you are at a place like I am now, where you are ready to consider some late summer PD, we have something special in the works for you that may be just the jump start you need to reshape and invigorate your thinking as you move into next school year:
August 2023, a series of four 1.5 hour Zoom workshops with Lorena Escoto Germán, co-founder of #DisruptTexts and Multicultural Classroom, Chair of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English, and author of The Anti Racist Teacher: Reading Instruction Workbook (2020) and Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices (2022). We're offering this Textured Teaching summer PD at a substantial discount for MCELA members (use your membership number as the promo code)! 8 contact hours. I'll definitely be doing this one!
If you are interested in an early summer in-person PD experience, the DOE has partnered with SpiritWorks to offer a fully funded 2-day institute at the University of Southern Maine, Gorham: Inspiration, Empowerment & Mastery...Transforming Our Classroom Leadership Begins with Ourselves. 15 contact hours for free! I'm planning on signing up for session B!
There are so many incredible learning opportunities being offered this summer! Scroll this newsletter to learn more about the summer PD opportunities mentioned above and more. I've decided to sign up for just three: MCELA's Textured Teaching, SpiritWorks leadership institute, and Camp ReWrite. The pandemic taught me the importance of learning throughout the year, but also the lesson that I can't do it all!
Looking forward to a rejuvenating summer,
Patti Forster, MCELA President
maine.ela@gmail.com
MCELA website: mainecela.org
