Wealthy Elementary 5th grade teacher Tim Saunders is one of the most respected teachers in our district. In 2012, he was recognized with the James and Georgia Nicholas Endowed Award for a Teacher of Math, Science, or Technology.
So last fall, when Saunders had an opportunity to speak at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference, and he applied for a mini grant to pay for his trip, it was easy for our grants committee to approve his request. What was hard was getting him to include all his expenses. When it was pointed out that he hadn’t included any expenses for lodging, Saunders said he would cover it. We also had to tell him we could reimburse him for his meals. He just wanted to go to the conference, learn, and share his knowledge.
Goal achieved, it sounds like: “This trip completely exceeded my very high expectations,” Saunders says. “It's so invigorating and inspiring to be with other literacy teachers, and then to collaborate and converse with trade authors like Carl Anderson, Matt Glover, Ralph Fletcher, Colleen Cruz, Mark Overmeyer, Penny Kittle, Elin Keene, Mary Ehrenworth, Coley Conter, and Lucy Calkins all within a weekend made my head spin in the best way.
“I had a chance to sit and listen to a wild amount of presentations including genre writing, incorporating phonemic awareness into the daily schedule, helping students select their own mentor texts, and finding essential questions to power book clubs.
“On top of this, I had a chance to present on a panel with published author Carl Anderson. We shared strategies on how to world build, develop characters, and what craft moves are effective with fantasy writing. It was a highlight of my career to be in this position to share what our East writers are creating here at Wealthy, and the reception from attendees was very validating.
“Any conference where I'd get to chat with the keynote and current author of Batman comics, Scott Snyder, would be a successful conference on its own, but NCTE held one more huge surprise for me. I had the chance to meet children's author and megastar Katherine Applegate, where she shared that she attended Breton Downs from 2nd through 5th grade! East gets to claim a giant in the world of children's literature, and hopefully we can invite her back to East for an author visit. I was able to make a video with her where she speaks to East students. It's amazing!
“Attending NCTE is a total shot in the arm of adrenaline for literacy teachers of all ages! You get to learn, create, collaborate, and grow with a dedicated group of passionate educators. It was a stunning weekend, and I'm still buzzing off of it. THANK YOU for supporting this experience!!!”
Yeah, sounds like it was a pretty good trip.
