KCTE Updates

Now accepting proposals for the 2025 KCTE Conference at Ignite Institute in Erlanger, KY!

Visit our conference webpage to submit a proposal to present at our 2025 summer conference. 

PROPOSALS DUE FEBRUARY 28, 2025.

Visit our conference webpage to hold your spot for our 2025 conference featuring author, educator, and innovator, Penny Kittle!

Join us in Boone County, KY on the campus of Ignite Institute on June 20th & June 21st!

Conference theme:

Passion, Promise, & People: 

Reignite your passion, and promise to make tomorrow better by surrounding ourself with the best people.

Visit our writing contest webpage to see the winners recognized in the following categories:

• Multimodal Writing

• Narrative Writing

• Informational Writing

• Opinion/Argument

• Editorial

• Poetry

Congratulations to our 2023-2024 writing contest winners. Their work will be published in an upcoming edition of the Kentucky English Bulletin. 

Now accepting proposals for the 2024 KCTE Conference at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY!

Visit our conference webpage to submit a proposal to present at our 2024 summer conference. 

PROPOSALS DUE FEBRUARY 29, 2024.

Visit our conference webpage to hold your spot for our 2024 conference featuring Kentucky author, educator, and Affrilachian poet, Frank X. Walker. 

Join us in Louisville, KY on the campus of Bellarmine University on July 12-13!

Conference theme:

Conscious Connection: Making a Conscious Effort to Communicate, Collaborate, & Create with Colleagues

Kentucky educator Kristen Heckel was honored at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention on Sunday, November 19 in Columbus, Ohio as an NCTE Affiliate Intellectual Freedom Award Winner. 

To learn more about the Affiliate Intellectual Freedom Awards, see the NCTE awards website. 

Congrats to Kristen for her commitment to supporting students and literacy in her community. 

KCTE observed Banned Books Week the first week of October by cosponsoring a virtual event, A Conversation about Intellectual Freedom with NCTE Affiliates for Banned Books Week.

Special thanks to KCTE member and librarian (Jefferson Co. Public Schools) Kate Barrows for creating and sharing this infographic to spread awareness about the importance of intellectual freedom in public schools. 

To learn more about the current work of NCTE towards intellectual freedom, see the Intellectual Freedom Center website for resources and ways to advocate locally. 

Welcome back to school! Here are the latest professional learning opportunities around Kentucky.

As another school year begins, mark your calendars for these upcoming professional learning opportunities in literacy and language arts education this fall:

August 23: Application due for the Kentucky Department of Education’s K-12 Interdisciplinary Literacy Practices Video Series Cohort ($600 stipend available for selected participants)

August 31: Deadline to register for the Kentucky Reading Academies (K-5) LETRS Training (free)

September 16: Murray State University’s Teaching High School Literature and Writing Workshop (free)

September 21-23: Kentucky Reading Association’s Annual Conference at the Louisville Marriott East  ($195)

September 29: Louisville Writing Project Fall Mini-Conference ($75 for teachers, $25 for students)

Year-Round: The 8 regional educational cooperatives offer a wide range of professional learning throughout the school year! See your region’s offerings!

Application opening September 27: The first 50 to register for KDE’s Developing Skilled Adolescent Readers workshop will receive a free color copy of the Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 Practice Guide. 

November 16-19: NCTE in Columbus, OH! See the full speaker line-up including authors Angie Thomas and Jacqueline Woodson. 

Want to be featured on this list? Contact kcte.la@gmail.com  to partner with KCTE members!

Join us in November 2023 in Columbus, OH for the next NCTE annual conference! 

Due to the proximity of this upcoming national conference, our next state conference will take place July 2024 at Bellarmine University in Louisville. Stay tuned for more updates. 

We are so excited to invite you to attend the 2022 KCTE Conference on March 18 & 19, 2022 at Berea College. Check out the conference page for details on registering and check the live schedule of presentations here for more details. Here is a list of the session titles & presenters:

1. Adapting the Teacher Toolkit for Linguistic Diversity in Language Arts and Literature Courses: Trini Stickle, Alison Youngblood, Jessica Link, & Kylie Bray

2. We’re Gonna Be All Right: Digital Pedagogy in an Uncertain Age: Jared Criswell & William K. Sewell

3. Anti-Racist Teaching in the Literacy Classroom: Winn Wheeler, Synthia Shelby, Edith Yarbrough, & Kristen Harris

4. Flipping the Script: Reimagining the Composition Classroom: Dr. Kristie Hofelich Ennis, KCTE Conference Chair

5. Cultivating Students’ Calmness of Mind and Creativity Through Mindfulness Poems: Dr. Penelope Wong

6. Digital Storytelling in the Time of COVID: Winn Wheeler & Kevin Thomas

7. Black Texts, White Teachers: Kennita Ballard

8. Use Your Voice: Publishing Opportunities in the KY English Bulletin: Winn Wheeler, Mary Ann Cahill, & Caitlin Murphy, KY English Bulletin Editors

9. Using Storytelling in Secondary English Language Arts – Cultivating Humanity, Community, Empathy, and Learning: Dr. Leslie Burns & Evan Barker

10. Teaching about the Holocaust in the English Classroom: Kim Blevins-Relleva

11. Promoting Social Engagement through Collaborative Writing: Dr. Hollye Wright

12. Nurturing the Creative Spark in Teacher-Writers: Lois Sepahban

13. Google Ed Training: Sarah Webster

Our keynote will be presented on Friday evening by writer and educator, Dr. Troy Hicks.

Dr. Troy Hicks is a professor of English and education at Central Michigan University and focuses his work on the teaching of writing, the intersections of literacy and technology, and, more broadly, teacher education and professional development. A former middle school teacher, he collaborates with K–12 colleagues and explores how they implement new literacies in their classrooms. Hicks directs CMU’s Chippewa River Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, and, previously, the Master of Arts in Learning, Design & Technology, leading the program to become the first ed-tech program to reach 100% alignment with the ISTE Standards for Educators. An ISTE Certified Educator and certified facilitator through StoryCenter, Dr. Hicks frequently conducts professional development workshops related to writing and technology. During the 2020-21 school year, he is serving as the leader of a Teaching with Primary Sources grant through the Library of Congress, and as a co-editor of the Michigan Reading Journal.

November 23, 2020

The Kentucky Council of Teachers of English Board of Directors has agreed to offer two scholarships for Kentucky literacy teachers to attend the Morehead Writing Project’s 2020 Online Winter Institute.

The scholarships recognize the long-standing partnership between the National Writing Project and the National Council of Teachers of English and their shared mission of supporting literacy education and developing literacy education leadership. The goal of the scholarships is to improve literacy education in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and to support the development of our next generation of literacy education leadership.

Scholarship applications are now open and will be reviewed as they are submitted due to the impending start of the Morehead Writing Project’s 2020 Online Winter Institute (Dec. 14-Jan. 8). If several worthy applications are received the application may close early so apply now.

The application and scholarships are available to any K-12 literacy or language arts teacher in the Commonwealth of Kentucky although preference will be given to KCTE members.

July 20, 2020

To replace the Summer Reading Conference and offer support to educators in this time of turmoil and uncertainty, KCTE is bringing you its first virtual conference this October! The conference will run from October 5 – 10 on Edmodo and will offer both synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to engage in facilitated discussions, keynotes, and KED Talks (like a TED Talk) with KY Educators in two strands: Best Practices in Online Instruction & Culturally Responsive Teaching. Participants can earn up to 12 hours of professional learning credit and will become part of an online community that will continue to offer support throughout the school year. Register today!

July 10, 2020

The Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English has produced a series of educational videos for teachers in order to motivate us all to anti-racist teaching. Join us as we push toward righting wrongs and engaging students in necessary conversations. Check out the blog post here: https://ncte.org/blog/2019/11/being-an-anti-racist-educator-is-a-verb/

 June 4, 2020

The 2020 Student Writing Contest has been extended due to the crazy end of the school year. Please consider choosing some of your best student work to showcase by June 30th. Must be a current member to submit. Visit our contest page for more information: www.kctelala.org/contests

March 11, 2020

Submit a proposal and register today to attend the 2020 KCTE Summer Reading Conference in Bowling Green, KY on Saturday, July 18th. We will offer reading-focused sessions that will help you plan for the best school year ever in 2020-2021. Six hours of professional development will be offered and KCTE members receive a drastically reduced rate to attend. Visit our conference page for more information about submitting a proposal to present, registration, and vendors.

January 28, 2020

The 2020 KCTE Awards have all been accepted and we are pleased to say that we are recognizing several of them at the 2020 KCTE Conference in Berea, KY on February 29, 2020. Check out the amazing list of KY educators on our awards page.