FCTE, FCTM, GCTM, MCTM

One week ago, at the same time, Walch Education was exhibiting at four educational conferences: the Florida Council of Teachers of English (http://www.fcte.org), the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.fctm.net), the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.gctm.org) and the Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (http://www.marylandmath.org).

In the South and in the North, talking to language arts teachers and talking to mathematics teachers, we kept hearing the same things:

• Even the textbooks that supposedly align to state standards often miss the mark, leaving the teachers to fill in the gaps
• Hands-on learning is critical
• If it makes a teacher's life easier, it has value
• Test prep drives much of what teachers work on

That last item is particularly noteworthy. Whatever an individual teacher's -- or district's, or state's -- opinion about "teaching to the test," those standardized tests cannot be ignored.

And more are coming. According to Outsell, a research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries, "Starting in 2012, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) will for the first time measure technology literacy and proficiency among K-12 students on a national level."

The materials and programs that garner interest are those that make a teacher's life easier and help prepare kids for tests.

One of our programs that drew a lot of attention was the Station Activities series: http://www.walch.com/search.php?catid=42 We currently have versions addressing Georgia and Florida standards, as well as a national version. These are all for middle school mathematics classes; in a few months, we'll have language arts versions, too.

NCTE in NYC

This past weekend, we, along with a few thousand teachers, attended the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, http://www.ncte.org)/ at the Javits Center in New York City. If you've never been to the Javits Center before, it is truly overwhelming. The NCTE show was just one of several mammoth events occurring simultaneously within its halls. (In fact, the NCTE show itself was so large that many of its sessions took place at the Marriott, on Times Square.)

Several hundred education providers were on hand, in booths ranging from a few feet across to mega-booth pavilions that looked somewhat akin to Oz, the Emerald City. No matter their size, however, they all had something interesting to show or talk about -- and for the most part, that meant books. In fact, the number of vendors displaying video or audio materials was surprisingly small...can it be that the printed word will indeed triumph?

No question that author signings are a surefire attraction. Put an author down at a table (or better yet, an author and his/her illustrator) and the line forms almost immediately. And of course there is nothing like free books, either. For the most part, those consisted of advance copies of 2008 fiction releases, primarily for the young adult market.

But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the show was the continuing appela of an author named...William Shakespeare. In booth after booth, there were reprints of his plays (often annotated in a variety of styles), videos of Shakespeare films, audio CDs of Shakespeare readings, even a "manga" version of Shakespeare (and if you don't know what manga is, ask your adolescent or teenage son or daughter). At least among English teachers, the Bard is alive and well and flowering in a myriad of ways. (John Spritz)