At the end of this past week I was fortunate to attend the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference in Boston. While I do not teach as many English courses as I once did, I appreciate the fact that I have stayed in the classroom during my eleven years as principal. I truly value my teaching time and have wanted to stay active in the field, including attending NCTE when I can. In Boston I joined three other CA faculty, as well as thousands of other independent and public school colleagues from all over the country attending this conference.

On Friday, English teachers Tom Thorpe and Betsey Coleman, along with their collaborator Jen Kulik of the Northwest School, presented on a community engagement project that they developed last year. Many will recall the first iteration of this oral history project when ninth graders last year worked with senior citizens in Denver. Students interviewed these elders and created several pieces of writing based on their oral histories. This particular project is a great example of the interdisciplinary and innovative kinds of things we are doing on a regular basis at CA -- which was clearly recognized by the NCTE organizers when they selected this program as an exemplar of strong practice.

That same day, Betsey Coleman and I presented on our recently designed cultural studies course called "Contemporary Voices from the Middle East." We both felt the course was a tremendous success last year and wanted to share our perspective and help others launch similar electives. Our co-presenter was Omar Hakim, a teacher and PhD candidate from Michigan with whom we have collaborated and corresponded after he traveled with Tom Thorpe and other educators in Turkey last spring. Omar shared his experiences teaching other "voices" of the Middle East--specifically novels from Egypt and Iran--while also helping students improve their critical thinking skills. The presentation was well received by the audience, and we were happy to share the many resources we have been gathering over the years.

Meanwhile, longtime CA English teacher Anne Strobridge also attended the conference and reviewed high school literary magazines as part of the annual contest NCTE sponsors. Anne has served as a reader for many years and has looked through hundreds of literary magazines during that time. She has been the faculty sponsor for CA's own lit mag, Kokopelli, even longer. Teachers are not allowed to "judge" their own school's submission, but once again Kokopelli was in the running to receive the highest award. Contest winners will be announced in the near future.

These sorts of conventions are enormous gatherings of people with at least one thing in common -- in this case, their interest in best practices in English instruction. It is a marketplace of good ideas. (Not too far away was Faneuil Hall where vendors of all sorts sell their goods on a site that has been devoted to mercantilism for more than 300 years.) From our usual small school neighborhood in Denver, it was good to be part of the bigger mix for a day or two.