And conference season begins. Actually, I’ve been in it for a week, having attended a number of sessions from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference. And while some might think that there’s nothing for an English educator to get out of a mathematics conference, I’ve learned so much. It’s really exciting.

I suppose I should admit that I approach professional development trainings from the “What is at least one thing I can take away from this” perspective. I don’t particularly like having my time wasted, so if I’m going to sit in a training, I want to make the most of it.

I’m more appreciative of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE than I ever have been. I’ve talked about it here before – the two friends I made at last year’s conference – and I have no shame in talking about them again.

I learned a lot last year from the sessions I attended. And I walked away with some project ideas that my colleague and I have not yet managed to get off the ground.

But my most valuable takeaways were in Morgan and Yinka, two other English educators who decided to take on a project with me – presenting a workshop at ALAN on diversifying classroom libraries beyond the single story. I count them as my very good friends. And I’m grateful for that every day. Really, it’s amazing we managed to get anything done when we put together our presentation – I laughed so much my cheeks hurt.

I look forward to whatever our next project is. And I look forward to just spending some time with them cutting up on Zoom.

I also look forward to the time when I get to dig into this massive stack of books.