Monday, June 23, 2014

NTCTELA Conference--Matt de la Pena

Although school hadn't even been out for an entire week, I started my summer professional development on Friday, June 13, in Hurst at the North Texas Council of Teachers of ELA (NTCTELA) conference. I am not a member of the organization, but when I saw who they had lined up to speak--well, I had to go! The keynote speaker was author Matt de la Pena. Other featured speakers included Donalyn Miller (the Book Whisperer), Teri Lesesne, Penny Kittle, and Matt Glover.

I had read lots of buzz about Matt de la Pena on social media and on blogs, but I had not read any of his work prior to the conference. I felt a little guilty about that. Our gift for attending the conference was a free copy of one of Matt's books. I received his novel Mexican White Boy.

Matt was quite an engaging keynote speaker. He spoke about how his book We Were Here was based on Of Mice and Men (another classic I need to read.) He told a great anecdote about how he changed the name of his main character after he witnessed a boy selflessly give up his seat for a girl at an assembly in Queens.

Matt spoke about how people have all kinds of definitions--parental-definition and educational-definition. The hardest definition to break away from, he said, is "self-definition." Matt shared that he was a reluctant reader growing up because he wasn't exposed to a literary world growing up. He said that he never saw another adult male (other than a teacher) read. The book that made the difference for Matt was one he read while in college--The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Soon, novels became Matt's "secret place to feel."

Matt closed by challenging us educators to pay attention to the kids in the back of the room. Those little seeds that you are planting, he said, might not bloom until years later.

Matt de la Pena definitely planted some seeds in me. Because of his keynote speech, I decided that I needed to read some of Matt's books and The Color Purple. I finished The Color Purple yesterday. I  see some parallels with Matt's story. The main character, Celie, after much heartache and pain broke away from her definitions--from society's definitions, from gender definitions, and finally, like Matt, from self-definition.



1 comment:

  1. I absolutely LOVED hearing Matt de la Pena! I enjoyed even more his mini writing session. I got some great ideas that I can't wait to share with my teachers. It also made me pay attention to dialogue and format of books I read as well as how I might move forward in my own writing.

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