September 6th, 2023

To kick off the Fall 2023 Semester, we had a small social gathering to welcome new members into NCTE. Executive board members had a chance to speak with the newcomers and get to know them as well as answer any questions they had about the organization and the English BSEd major.  

August 28th, 2023

Greetings, Golden Rams, and welcome back to West Chester University! We hope you had a relaxing summer that was filled with reading and writing! We also hope you are ready for everything we have in store for the semester!

If you are interested in joining us, then come out every other Wednesday to Sykes Student Union, room 10 B, from 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM. 

We look forward to seeing everyone there, and good luck with your semester!

April 19th, 2023 

Tonight. NCTE members had the opportunity to meet with current West Chester student teachers! These guest speakers shared their experiences, successes, and challenges, some advice for the future, and answered our questions about what it's like to student teach. 

April 4th, 2023 

At this week's NCTE meeting, we talked about the growing crisis of censorship in the classroom. We examined what texts tend to be challenged and discussed what themes they had in common. We also had the opportunity to converse with a guest speaker, a teacher who has dealt with challenges to text and curricula, and received advice on how to challenge blatant censorship. 

March 22nd, 2023 

At tonight's meeting, members talked about the Writing Portfolio - something all English BSEd majors must submit, and pass, prior to student teaching. We looked at examples from different students and talked about the portfolio's grading procedure. 

March 1st, 2023 

Tonight, Social Media Coordinator, Veronica Nazarewycz, led us to discuss the necessity of fiction in the classroom. Many times, fiction is written off as "unimportant" or "unnecessary" to bolster a student's mind as nonfiction and argumentative texts can - which is not true! At tonight's meeting, we discussed the many practical uses of fiction and what students can take away from the texts. 

February 15th, 2023 

Tonight, Vice President Andrew Rubas, led us in a discussion about the importance of representation within the texts we give to our students. Having a diverse classroom library is crucial for making sure students feel seen, and heard and letting them know their identity matters. Andrew proposed alternative texts to replace the ones found most commonly in classrooms today, and we all shared our ideas and hopes to diversify our classrooms.  

February 1st, 2023 

At our first meeting of the semester, we discussed the literary canon. We talked about the books assigned to us in school, specifically which ones we enjoyed, detested, and why. We then had a debate about which required texts we would keep in the curriculum, citing their importance and what lessons they could teach our students, and which texts we would get rid of and what would replace them. 

January 23rd, 2023 

Greetings, Golden Rams, and welcome back to West Chester University! We hope you had a relaxing winter break and are ready to hit the ground running for the spring semester! 

If you are interested in joining us, then come out every other Wednesday to Anderson 311 (or over Zoom) from 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM. 

We look forward to seeing everyone there, and good luck with your semester!

November 30th, 2022

For our final meeting of the semester, we decided to decompress with Abbott Elementary bingo! We created multiple bingo boards that mixed stereotypical teacher tropes and things educators deal with in real life that is not as Hollywood glamorous. We then watched Abbott Elementary and checked our bingo boxes to see what the show portrayed about education! 

November 9th, 2022

At tonight's meeting, we had the opportunity to meet with current West Chester student teachers! They shared their experiences, successes and challenges, some advice for the future, and answered our questions about what it's like to student teach. 

October 26th, 2022 

Tonight, we had the privilege to meet with the Executive Director of the Office of Advocacy and Reform and Child Advocate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Maryann McEvoy! Maryann spoke with us about the importance of politics and education and how educators can get involved to ensure a successful future for their students. 

October 21st - 22nd, 2022

WCUPA NCTE hit the road and headed to Pittsburgh for the annual Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts (PCTELA) conference! There, we got to network and hear from educators about grading policies, strategies for lesson plans, inclusivity practices, tips for successful writing workshops, and so much more! What's more impressive is that WCUPA's NCTE advisors, Dr. Pauline Schmidt and Dr. Matthew Kruger-Ross, presented the importance of multimodality and how to reinvigorate lessons to be better suited for the digital age. WCUPA's NCTE President, Abby Boquist, Recruitment Coordinator, Andrew Rubas, and general member, Zachary Zajkowski, presented their mini-workshops with activities to small groups, too! 

(And maybe not as important, but we also received plenty of books for our future libraries and a ton of swag!)

October 12th, 2022 

Tonight, over some pizza, we discussed and looked at examples of the writing portfolio! The writing portfolio is something all English BSEd majors must submit and pass to graduate. Students have to submit it one year, or two semesters, prior to student teaching. The portfolio includes a personal, persuasive, and research piece of writing and a self-reflection about how the person's writing has changed during their time at WCU. To learn more about the writing portfolio, contact your advisor!

September 28th 2022

At tonight's meeting, social media coordinator Veronica Nazarewycz discussed the importance and benefits of creative writing in the classroom! We had the chance to talk about our most creative moments and try some simple writing exercises that we could easily incorporate into the lessons. 

September 14th 2022

Tonight, we had the chance to enjoy a cup of tea and meet the major! We had the opportunity to speak with some English and education professors, talk about specific courses, and address milestones unique to English BSEd majors. 

April 20th 2022

Tonight we had the chance to meet with current WCU student teachers and ask questions about what it's like to be in the field. 

April 6th 2022

During the Professionalism in the classroom meeting, we discussed how we can present ourselves as teachers both physically, and virtually without losing your identity.

March 23rd, 2022

ESL & Cultural Awareness Night! We discussed the ways you can be culturally sensitive in your classroom. Ultimately having a great conversation about how we can create lessons for ESL students.

Abby Boquist, our current vice-president, took over our second meeting of 2022 and introduced writing games and gamification inside the classroom. We got a chance to play a few games during the meeting, both in-person and on zoom! 

Our first meeting of the semester started off with an introduction to the major. A few professors English B.S.Ed. students may have for class attended, sharing what classes they teach and why they choose the profession, and attendees held a discussion about their own experiences in the major so far.