A Socially-Distanced Gathering to Semi-Make Some of the @NCTE #NCTE2020 Conference Seem Traditional and Real

Two of my favorite people in the world called an outside, backyard, distanced gathering last night to tip a glass to everything that has made this semester. Rebecca Marsick and Kimberly Herzog. They are the two incredible educators who were with me in Texas when we had the irreplaceable experience at the North Texas Teen Book Festival by the invitation of Dr. Rose Brock. We also were able to collaborate with the incredible Dr. Susan James. Although we've had partial ZOOMs, we haven't seen each other since that incredible event. 

Because Rebecca had a stellar presentation at NCTE with Tracey Flores and Shawna Copollo, we decided last night might be a good time to meet - a high five for her work. We're all highly aware, especially now, about face-to-face shenanigans, but Jeff, Rebecca's husband, had a great porch warmer (heater) and the table was superb to tap glasses and distance a meet-up from the four coners. 

I needed to capture the food tray that Rebecca provided (and thank Jeff for the delicious bourbon, before I had to run home for my last meeting of the night - some things are the same with NCTE, even though we are all in our own spaces). I am so fortunate to know these educators and to be able to keep up with the magnificent work they do in their classrooms and with their colleagues. 

Driving home, however, I reflected on how much crazy and intensity is on our teachers right now. I knew this before, but the weight from this year has been extra-intense. Perhaps next year's conference will be a collection of "how we did this work in a time of Covid" and I imagine it will be extremely cathartic if we can actually gather. I simply think that colleagues need colleagues to process everything that is going on. It's always been day-to-day survival, but this year the extremities have been tremendous. Every educator I know is pushing forward with grace (such integrity), but there will need to be time to process and reflect when this all ends - the field is waiting to exhale, to borrow a term from Terri McMillan. 

Kudos to all educators, especially those that have school-aged children at home. Kudos to administrators who are seeing their teachers and providing them support. Kudos to those in higher education that are throwing their resources to those most in need and Kudos to the authors who continually show grace with their work and nurture the educators who teach their words. 

There are two more days of digital presentations to go, and so far it has been awe-inspiring and mightily impressive. With that noted, I will be the first to say, "Whoa. This is a lot." Even so, I'm beyond impress by the drive, passion, professionalism, and intelligence of our network.

I do believe all of us will come out of this period to see the field has changed, and perhaps some of this will be for the better. I'm also thinking about the privileges that come with the life we live in the United States, virtually (pun intended) by the abundance of resources that we have. We are in our homes gathering as a nation of literacy educators via technology - this at a time where almost 80 million people are displaced world wide because of famine, poverty, war, and violence.

I am very thankful, as we all should be.