Three Poland Middle School teachers selected to speak at National Conference

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EVA SULLIVAN

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HALEY SHAFFER and ABBY AEBISCHER

Poland Middle School announced that Haley Shaffer, Abby Aebischer and Eva Sullivan will be speaking at The 2015 National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. They will present as members of the panel, “Rescuing Our Integrity: Creating Islands of Collegial Support.” The session will take place from 2:45-4 p.m. on Nov. 21.

The National Council of Teachers of English, with 30,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

Each year, the NCTE Annual Convention draws thousands of elementary, middle level and secondary educators, college faculty, administrators and other educational professionals from around the world to participate in four days of professional learning and programming. NCTE convention attendees hear presentations from award winning speakers, attend thought-provoking sessions, share best practices and test the latest teaching materials. The 2015 NCTE Annual Convention will take place Nov. 19-22 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

“It is attended by approximately 9,000 educators. We go to be inspired by the great thinkers of our profession — and they’re all there,” said Shaffer. “There are hundreds of sessions to choose from, starting at 8 in the morning and ending at 10 in the evening. It is our habit that we come back and share what we’ve learned at department meetings and with our Workshop Survival group held at the MCESC.”

In addition to networking with colleagues from across the country, schools make connections with authors. Because of networking at past conferences, Shaffer has been able to set up free Skype visits with many of these authors. So far, she and Aebischer have four Skype author visits scheduled for this fall.

Poland’s proposal to present was one of about 700 selected from more than 5,000 submissions. Their proposal states: “On a battlefield of mandates, maintaining professional integrity proves difficult. While our NCTE shot in the arm helps, we need lasting local connections to sustain this energy for the long haul. We will engage participants in a small scale ‘survival’ meeting, then share nuts and bolts to allow others to create and sustain them.”

This will be Shaffer’s third national presentation, Aebischer’s second and Sullivan’s first.