CEL Annual Convention
Sunday, November 20-Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Chicago, IL. Chicago Hilton Hotel.
Sunday Luncheon Speaker
Mawi Asgedom
"Mental Karate" was founded by Mawi Asgedom, an educator who has written six books, spoken to over 750,000 students, and trained educators at the Harvard School of Education and many international conferences.
As a child, Mawi fled civil war in Ethiopia and survived a Sudanese refugee camp for three years. After being resettled in The United States, Mawi overcame poverty, language barriers and personal tragedy to graduate with honors from Harvard University.
For the last decade, Mawi's mission has been to inspire students and educators. Mawi's bestselling memoir,
Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard, has been read as a one-book, one-community reading selection by hundreds of schools and communities including the cities of Philadelphia and Green Bay. His teen-success guides, The Code, Win the Inner Battle, and Nothing is Impossible, have also been used in thousands of classrooms. Citing the impact of his work, The Illinois Association of Teachers of English named Mawi the 2006 Illinois Author of the Year.
Sunday Opening Session Speakers - Dominic Belmonte, Cathy Fleischer, and Carol Jago
Dominic Belmonte
Dominic Belmonte was named Golden Apple Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer in May 2006. He had previously served as Director of Teacher Preparation. Belmonte, a former English teacher and department chair at York Community High School in Elmhurst, received the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1987. He was named Director of Teacher Preparation in 1996.
Belmonte co-created the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois in 1989, now the largest pre-service teacher-support program in the nation, with more than 1,000 Scholars teaching or on their way in high-need schools throughout Illinois. Belmonte is the author of two books, Teaching From the Deep End and Teaching on Solid Ground, both published by Corwin Press, California. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Cathy Fleischer
Cathy Fleischer teaches courses in English education to pre-service and practicing teachers at Eastern Michigan University, where she also serves as co-director of the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, coordinates a long-standing teacher research group, and co-directs the Family LIteracy Initiative. Professor Fleischer also serves as special imprint editor for NCTE's Principles in Practice series. She is the author of many articles and six books, including Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone: Helping Your Students Navigate Unfamiliar Genres, and her most recent title, Reading & Writing & Teens: A Parent's Guide to Adolescent Literacy.
Carol Jago
Carol Jago has taught English in middle and high school for 32 years and directs the California Reading and Literature project at UCLA. She is currently past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Carol served as AP Literature content advisor for the College Board and now serves on their English Academic Advisory committee. She has published six books with Heinemann including With Rigor for All and Papers, Papers, Papers. She has also published four books on contemporary multicultural authors for NCTE's High School Literature series. Carol was an education columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and her essays appeared English Journal, Language Arts, NEA Today, as well as other newspapers across the United States.
Hey! Check This Out...Member-Bring-a-Member and SAVE ON YOUR REGISTRATION!
CEL has a new program this year called "Member-Bring-a-Member." Each CEL member that brings a non CEL member to the CEL Annual Conference in Chicago will receive a $25 certificate to be used toward the registration for the 2012 CEL Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Don't miss this opportunity to bring a colleague to become a part of the Conference on English Leadership and receive a $25 savings on your next CEL convention registration. It's easy to do. Just email FelisaMann at NCTE and give her the name of the person whom you invited to the conference.
After the CEL convention in Chicago, a $25 certificate will be mailed to you. You may use this certificate toward the registration for the 2012 CEL convention. The certificate is not transferrable, and cannot be used toward any other NCTE events or purchases.
Are you excited? We are, too! We can't wait until you spread the word about this wonderful opportunity for you and the education leaders with whom you work.
Monday Breakfast Speaker
Pat Mora
Ms. Mora's poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes," wrote The New York Times of Pat Mora's poetry collection, Agua Santa: Holy Water. Her most recent collection is Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love written in the voices of teens. Other collections include Adobe Odes, Aunt Carmen's Book of Practical Saints, Communion, Borders and Chants.
Pat's new book of nonfiction is Zing! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students. The Washington Post described her acclaimed memoir House of Houses as a "textual feast...a regenerative act...and an eloquent bearer of the old truth that it is through the senses that we apprehend love." Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle was reviewed by Choice as, "Twenty inspiring essays written in a very poetic prose...A valuable contribution to American literature."
A former teacher, university administrator, consultant and the author of many award-winning children's books, Pat is the founder of the family literacy initiative El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Children's Day / Book Day ("Día") , now housed at the American Library Association.
Monday Luncheon Speaker
Steve Zemelmann
Steven Zemelman has worked in many capacities to promote the sustainability of innovative schools in Chicago. For eight years he directed the Center for City Schools at National-Louis University, and he is a founding director of the Illinois Writing Project. He has spearheaded the start of a number of innovative small high schools in the city. And he now helps guide the Chicago Schools Alliance, a network of diverse Chicago schools learning to work together in new ways to strengthen teaching and learning, build teacher leadership, and reduce the isolation that schools and teachers so often experience. His experiences and research in these areas led to his latest Heinemann book,
13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment, coauthored with Harry Ross.
Steve has been a frequent collaborator with Harvey "Smokey" Daniels. They have coauthored six books and videos with Heinemann, including
Best Practice: Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools,
Third Edition; Content-Area Writing; Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading; Rethinking High School and its companion video; A
Community of Writers. These books are filled with practical strategies for making writing, reading, the content areas, and indeed the life of a school itself into a deeper and richer learning experience for kids.
Tuesday Breakfast Speaker
Sara Kajder
Sara Kajder is an assistant professor of English Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). A former middle and high school English teacher, she received the first National Technology Fellowship in English/Language Arts. A nationally-known consultant and speaker, she is also the author of
The Tech Savvy English Classroom.
Tuesday Luncheon Speaker
Kylene Beers
Kylene Beers, author of When Kids Can’t Read/What Teachers Can Do, is interested in helping struggling readers. The Senior Reading Advisor to Secondary Schools for the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Kylene has published numerous articles in state and national journals, served as editor of the national literacy journal, Voices from the Middle, and was the 2008-2009 President of the National Council of Teachers of English. She is an invited speaker at state, national, and international conventions and works with teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools across the US. She is completing a new book, co-authored with Bob Probst, titled Book-by-Book: Lessons for Unlocking Literature which will be published 2011.
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