The 93rd annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) was held at the newly minted Moscone Center West in San Francisco on November 20-25, and despite initial jitters, all systems were go. “We’re hoping to reach 6,000 attendees with 5,000 pre-registered,” said Charleen Silva Delfino, Convention Co-chair. “We were worried earlier in the year with the economy being so bad, and budgets being cut, but it looks like we’ve lucked out with the weather and attendance.”
Indeed, the blinding sun of San Francisco was a welcome change from last year’s very dreary Atlanta, and the new convention center’s bright halls were a relief for exhibitors who had braved the basements of two hotels last year. Booth traffic was phenomenal on Friday from noon till six, but much lighter on Saturday, and virtually nil on Sunday. The obvious suspects had the most traffic: Scholastic, Penguin, Harper, Holt, and Random House sported numerous author signings with teachers lining up. The more plush booths hosted by the big educational publishers were more sparsely attended. The two most ubiquitous giveaways, however, were a stunning red and black WGBH Masterpiece Theatre tote bag, and the SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare t-shirt in black and orange. And, having given away over a thousand of the aforementioned garments, PT’s correspondent can attest to how much more grateful teachers are about giveaways than booksellers: equally hungry, but pleasantly shocked when faced with publishers’ largesse.
In addition to the trade show, the predominantly high-school teachers (with some college and middle-school) shuttled back and forth between zillions of panel discussions and seminars. Sessions were varied, from the vanilla “How Timed Writing Tests Shape Our Teaching of Writing” to “Romeo & Juliet Through Drama-in-Education: A Gay Straight Love Story” (it was essentially about how intolerance can lead to star crossed deaths). Yes, there was “Socratic Partnerships For Teaching and Learning in College English Classrooms” (judging from the panels, the Socratic method is alive and well), but our favorite was “The Canterbury Toons? Adding a Little ‘Toon’ to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.” Attendees and exhibitors would do well to store up the sunshine and good-will from San Francisco, as next year’s confab is in Indianapolis, and is then followed in 2005 by Pittsburgh.
We thank Robert Riger, Associate Publisher of SparkNotes, for contributing this report.
