I had an idea last spring...  And, it was a good one!  Six other teachers from my school district and I were able to attend the NCTE convention in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.  My professional life will forever be defined as pre-NCTE 2011 and post-NCTE 2011.  I have never experienced such beneficial professional development in my career, nor have I seen the level of professionalism and commitment to kids and the teaching of English/Language arts that I saw in the sessions I attended.

We got to see famous teachers in our field such as Carol Jago, Kelly Gallagher, Penny Kittle, and Jim Burke.  We got to hear Judith Ortiz Cofer read some of her poems.

 Gallagher, Burke, Kittle -- very blurry... sorry!

Judith Ortiz Cover -- something happened during the upload.

We listened to authors Anthony Horowitz and James Patterson speak at the Secondary Section luncheon.


Horowitz and Patterson


We also had a downtime every evening and were able to take in some of what Chicago has to offer.  Can I just tell you I love that city?  I really could be a city girl. 

I'll post more pictures of our adventures in the city later.  Right now I'm having issues and some of those are really good photos, so I don't want them to look ugly!