AUDREY FISCH ELECTED PRESIDENT OF NJCTE

NJCTE is excited to announce the election of Audrey Fisch as President.

Audrey serves as Professor of English at New Jersey City University where she has taught in both the English and Elementary and Secondary Education Departments for nearly twenty-five years. Until Fall 2017, she led the Secondary English Education Program as Coordinator. She also created, secured external funding for, and led the NJCU Teacher Training Program, placing NJCU students with an interest in education into long-term paid internships in schools where they serve as teaching assistants, tutors, and mentors for their younger peers.

Audrey has written and edited books about nineteenth-century literature and culture for Oxford, Cambridge and Helm publishers. She has also written extensively about pedagogy and education, including the book series, Using Informational Text, co-authored with NJCTE Board Member Susan Chenelle for Rowman and Littlefield. Susan and Audrey’s fourth and latest volume in the series, Using Informational Text to Teach The Great Gatsby, was just published in March 2018.

Audrey is thrilled to take the helm at NJCTE, following in the large footsteps of recent past presidents Susan Reese and Laura Nicosia. She hopes NJCTE will continue to fulfill its mission: “to offer a community of practices, research, and resources, providing access for diverse educators and students to create, collaborate, and lead in New Jersey and beyond.”

If you are interested in learning more about NJCTE, including our wonderful fall and spring conferences, our journal – New Jersey English Journal, our middle school and high school writing contests, and our many other activities devoted to “applying the power of language and literacy to pursue justice and equity for the students and teachers of New Jersey,” please see our website (njcte.com). We are always interested in new members and people who want to join in the work of the organization. Feel free to reach out to Audrey at njctepresident@gmail.com.

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

Welcome to New Board Member Susan Chenelle

Please welcome NJCTE’s newest board member, Susan Chenelle.

Susan Chenelle is Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction at University Academy Charter High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she taught English and journalism for several years. Her favorite days at work are those when she escapes her office and spends most of the day working and learning with teachers and students. She is the co-author of the Using Informational Text to Teach Literature series from Rowman & Littlefield with Audrey Fisch, with whom she has presented about informational text and cross-disciplinary collaboration at schools around New Jersey and conferences across the country. She earned her master’s degree in urban education from New Jersey City University, and she is now pursuing a doctoral degree at Montclair State University in Teacher Education and Teacher Development.

Susan was also honored by NJCTE in 2017 as Educator of the Year.

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

Congratulations to M. Jerry Weiss Early Teacher Award Winner: Lisa Sambula

Please join all of us at NJCTE in congratulating Lisa Sambula, one of the 2018 M. Jerry Weiss Early Teacher Award Winners.

Lisa Sambula graduated magna cum laude from Hudson County Community College in May 2013. During her time at HCCC, she received numerous accolades for her academic achievement and service to the college and community. She worked as an Academic Mentor for HCCC’s Academic Support Services, which fueled her passion to become an educator.  Ms. Sambula was awarded HCCC’s Presidential Scholarship, a Who’s Who Among College Students award, and an Academic Mentor of the Year award. After graduation, she received a scholarship to attend New Jersey City University (NJCU), where she pursued a degree in education and graduated in December 2016. While at NJCU, Ms. Sambula received a Donald J. Silberman Award from the American Federation of Teachers.  Additionally, she was recognized with a certificate of achievement for her teaching internship, from the New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.  Ms. Sambula is presently a proud member of the Union Hill Middle School Family, where she serves as a seventh grade ELA teacher.  She also teaches SAT preparation classes for the Community Education Department at HCCC.

We look forward to Lisa’s contributions to NJCTE and to her continued success in English education.

If you have a teacher whom you would like to nominate for this or another NJCTE award, please check out the criteria and nomination process on our website.

Posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English

What I’m Reading: The Ditchdigger’s Daughters

I’m reading Yvonne S. Thornton’s The Ditchdigger’s Daughters: A Black Family’s Astonishing Success Story. Thornton will be our speaker at New Jersey City University’s Convocation on October 5, so I turned to her story to see how I could use it to prepare my students for the event.

Thornton’s story, written with Jo Coudert, is not the slick or simple tale of uplifting success that the blurbs on the book’s jacket suggest. It may be an inspiring story but it is not adequate to describe it as a “guide to success,” despite the Star Ledger‘s claims. The story of Thornton and her sisters’ journeys from girlhoods in Long Branch, New Jersey to success in medicine (Thornton is a distinguished perinatologist) and in other careers (dentist, educator, nurse, and court stenographer) is uplifting but it is also harrowing. Dangers and obstacles are a constant in Thornton’s journey.

If there is any key to her success, it is her father’s unvarnished credo: “You’re black and you’re ugly and you’re girls, and the world’s already written you off. You can grow up and be a bag lady. You can be on the streets and the world won’t give a damn whether you live or die. But if you listen to me, we can get out of this” (255). Thornton’s father’s lessons to his daughters about the realities they face are brutal and blunt, even as he pushes them towards success.

I’ve paired an excerpt from Thornton’s text with a recent piece from The Atlantic: “Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color,” by Melinda D. Anderson. Anderson explores research that “traditionally marginalized youth who grew up believing in the American ideal that hard work and perseverance naturally lead to success show a decline in self-esteem” (emphasis added) and “implode” when they are hit by “problems they can’t control.” Hard work without an understanding of the myths that undergird our American Dream can not only be insufficient in the face of obstacles, it can be counter-productive and damaging.

I’m eager to hear what my students think about these two pieces and what we will learn from Thornton in her address to us on October 5.

Written and posted by Audrey Fisch, blog editor for NJCTE

New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, the New Jersey state affiliate of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English