Supporting NH literacy teachers across all grade levels
Virtual Social Hours
What is it?
Picture this: your favorite drink in hand, comfy loungewear on, no agenda, no pressure. Just the camaraderie of our vibrant community reconnecting and rekindling the sparks that make our profession so fulfilling. After all, it’s the conversations we have and the connections we make that often inspire the most impactful lessons in our classrooms.
Our first virtual gathering of the school year will be an excellent opportunity to share your summer adventures, your insightful books read, or your newly planned curriculum ideas. Let’s inspire each other with our stories, our hopes, and our strategies for the coming year. Please join us as we toast to the new school year, sharing in the joy of teaching, learning, and making a difference in the lives of students. We promise, it will be the best virtual event you’ll attend in your sweatpants!
2022-2023 School Year Sessions
March Session. March 23rd, at 7pm
November Session, Nov. 17 at 7pm
2020-2021 Sessions:
May Session
To register, please click HERE
April Session
March Session
ELA teachers have long known that annotating texts across genres helps students understand, interact with, and remember what they’ve read. One of the affordances of technology is that students can annotate collaboratively (synchronously or asynchronously), which opens up possibilities for shared questioning and reflection. Participants in this Social Hour workshop will learn about ways to collaboratively annotate, examine pedagogical moves specific to digital annotation, and share their own experiences with annotation.
This session is FREE and open to all educators with an interest in English instruction so please share! If your colleagues would like to become members (like you!) for the 20-21 school year, please encourage them to visit our Membership page.Remember, attendance at our March 2021 Spring Conference automatically comes with a free year of membership!
Previous Sessions:
Scroll down to see what else we’ve offered.
September Session
“Creating and Maintaining a Classroom Community Whatever the Setting” presented by Jill Pinard
Wednesday, September 9 at 7pm via Zoom
In this session we will practice routines that will establish and help maintain a positive classroom community no matter where your classroom is. For many of us, the conditions we will be expected to teach in are drastically different, and will likely change throughout the course of the year. But the necessity of building a positive community for our students is one thing that will never change. Join our community and let’s work together to find our footing.
This is the third in the New Hampshire Council of Teachers of English’s series of monthly social hours in which a presenter shares their insights on a topic the group has requested followed by a virtual roundtable discussion among the group in breakout rooms.
About the Presenter
Jill Pinard is President of the New Hampshire Council of Teachers of English. Prior to becoming an Instructional Coach for SAU 24, Jill taught English at John Stark Regional High School where she also served as a department coordinator among other leadership roles in her 26 years there. She has shared her experiences and teaching strategies in a variety of publications and national, regional, and state-wide conferences. Jill was honored as the NHCTE English Teacher of the Year and one of 25 National Teachers of Excellence by the Secondary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English in 2008.
NOTE: this social hour is FREE and open to all educators with an interest in English instruction so please share! If your colleagues would like to become members (like you!) for the 20-21 school year, please encourage them to visit our Membership page.Remember, attendance at our March 2021 Spring Conference automatically comes with a free year of membership!
August Session
“Remote Writing Workshop Strategies and Activities” presented by Liz Juster
Wednesday, August 19 at 4pm
This is the second in the New Hampshire Council of Teachers of English’s series of monthly social hours in which a presenter shares their insights on a topic the group has requested followed by a virtual roundtable discussion among the group in breakout rooms.
Liz Juster is an English teacher at Londonderry High School where she began her teaching career in 1986. She is a former president for the NHCTE and the 2004 NHCTE English Teacher of the Year as well as one of the 2004 recipients of the NCTE High School Teacher of Excellence. A frequent presenter at in-house workshops for the Londonderry School District, she has also presented at NHCTE and NEATE conferences. The recipient of many technology grants including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Technology in the Classroom grant and the Best Buy Te@ch grant, she is the author and webmaster of www.mrsjustersvirtualclassroom.com. She has been published in Language Arts and is currently working on a book about technology in the English classroom.
July Session:
Thursday, July 23 at 4 pm via Zoom
You are cordially invited to the NHCTE Virtual Social Hour: NH English Teachers’ Night In Thursday, July 23 at 4 pm via Zoom.
This is an opportunity to socialize with other teachers and share your questions and successes with remote teaching.
We hope this becomes a monthly gathering in which a presenter shares their insights on a topic the group has requested followed by a virtual roundtable discussion among the group in breakout rooms.
