The Call for Proposals for the 2026 NCTE Annual Convention focuses on innovative practices in English language arts education. The #NCTE26 theme of “Imagine. Innovate. Inspire.” encourages discussions on how to enhance ELA teaching and learning through creativity and imagination. Submissions are due January 27, 2026.

Register for a Proposal Workshop with BLTN Colleagues!
BLTN members are invited to join an NCTE proposal-crafting workshop with Dr. Kayla Hostetler (MA '24) and Alfredo Celedón Luján (MA '87, M.Litt '18) on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 7 pm Eastern. The workshop, held via Zoom, will begin with advice from these two experienced presenters (and in Alfredo's case, the perspective of a past-president). 

Please review the Call for Proposals and come with an idea for a session, or even a draft of a proposal. We'll break into groups for supportive feedback and ideally, get you ready to submit ahead of the Jan. 27 NCTE deadline. We ask that you register for the workshop as soon as possible. 

Editor's note: In each month's newsletter, Kurt Ostrow will share teaching ideas gleaned from BLTN fellows. We hope you'll find these useful. Reach out to Kurt at ostrowk@gmail.com if you have a teaching resource to share with BLTN colleagues. 

I'm always on the hunt for mentor texts that will inspire excellent student writing. Last year, I tried Hanif Abdurraqib's "Defiance, Ohio is the Name of the Band" for the first time in my junior AP Lang class, and I knew I'd found a winner. It's a short essay/prose poem, made up of only one sentence, about a band, town, and loss. Before we read the piece, I had students brainstorm a list of artists and artworks that are meaningful to them. After we read and discussed it, students chose one item from their lists and followed their stream of consciousness. I found that they loved mimicking Abdurraqib's long ampersand sentence; I think it felt both freeing and rule-bound in a productive way. And I was genuinely moved by the stories that attention to beloved TV shows, movies, books, etc. generated. Check out the text and a sample of student work, and let me know if you try it out!  

Kurt Ostrow teaches at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia.

Have you received a Change Action Grant, or a BLTN Fellowship that asks you to share the work you've planned with students? BLTN editors Tom McKenna and Kurt Ostrow are ready to help you find creative and succinct ways to share your work in the BLTN Journal. While we're especially eager to help develop pieces collaboratively authored by students and teachers, we'd also love to work with you to share work in other formats (teacher-authored pieces, annotated slides, video work, etc.).

Please reach out to us (Kurt and/or Tom) with your ideas, however tentative or well-developed. As we approach mid-year report deadlines, we'd love to help you craft something that shares your students' work with a wide audience. 

If you received a Goswami or Change Action Grant grant this year (2025) please submit all related receipts by December 31, 2025. If receipts are not submitted on time, your grant award will be treated as income, and you will receive a 1099 from Middlebury College for tax purposes. Send questions and receipts to Clarissa at bltn@middlebury.edu.

There's still time to register! One weekend. 13-15 hours of professional development.

Join us in Vermont this February for the Bread Loaf Winter Institute, a weekend teacher professional development workshop that will empower you to deepen your teaching practice with innovative, relevant workshops and activities.

Teachers will come to our mountain campus in Ripton, Vermont from February 27 - March 1, 2026 and earn 13-15 professional development hours though workshops and creative exercises led by renowned Bread Loaf faculty and focused on this year’s theme: Expanding the English Classroom.

Workshop focuses for 2026 include...

When the session concludes, you can choose to cross-country or downhill ski at Middlebury’s Rikert Nordic Center or Snowbowl at a discounted rate. Participants can stay on campus in our historic Inn or commute to Ripton.

Discover more on our Winter Institute website or reach out to us at blse@middlebury.edu with your questions.

We hope you will join us!

Please notify us of accomplishments you’d like to share in the monthly newsletter. Contact Tom McKenna if you’re interested in publishing in the annual BLTN Journal.

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