The Needle’s Eye, the VATE newsletter, is published quarterly and contains information about the group’s current work. If you are interested in submitting an article or a notice, contact the editor.

Deadlines

• Deadline for Fall publication: October 31
• Deadline for Winter publication: December 31
• Deadline for Spring publication: March 31
• Deadline for Summer publication: August 31

Needle’s Eye Editor: Tori Otstot

From The Virginia Writer’s Club website:

The 2011 Golden Nib writing contest is officially open. The Golden Nib is the Virginia Writers Club annual writing competition in three categories: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with cash prizes for first, second, and third place finishers. Contestants must be members in good-standing of a VWC chapter as well as a member of the state organization. Each chapter submits one representative in each category to the state finals, where first, second, and third place winners are announced at the annual meeting (usually held in November).

Find out more about their annual contest here, which also has a Young Writer’s version of the contest. They also have information about their annual scholarship online.

Meg Medina’s official bio:

Meg Medina has written for adults and children for over fifteen years. Her stories and poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines. Milagros: Girl from Away (Christy Ottaviano Books: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers) was her first novel for young readers. Meg is also the author of the picture book Tia Isa Wants a Car (Candlewick Press), which earned her the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Award, and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind (Candlewick Press). Her forthcoming Young Adult novel, Finding Yaqui Delgado, is due in 2013, also from Candlewick Press.

A Richmond-based writer, we are proud to have Meg join us for our Sunday brunch, especially because her latest book, The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind is hot off the presses. The book was released in March of this year,  and tells the story of a miner’s daughter who is rumored to have special powers to heal and save others. But what if those rumors aren’t true?

Sonia’s entire village believes she has a gift, but it’s only in leaving home that she finds out who she truly is. A compelling tale from a rich new voice in young adult fiction.

Sixteen-year-old Sonia Ocampo was born on the night of the worst storm Tres Montes had ever seen. And when the winds mercifully stopped, an unshakable belief in the girl’s protective powers began. All her life, Sonia has been asked to pray for sick mothers or missing sons, as worried parents and friends press silver milagros in her hands. Sonia knows she has no special powers, but how can she disappoint those who look to her for solace? Still, her conscience is heavy, so when she gets a chance to travel to the city and work in the home of a wealthy woman, she seizes it. At first, Sonia feels freedom in being treated like all the other girls. But when news arrives that her beloved brother has disappeared while looking for work, she learns to her sorrow that she can never truly leave the past or her family behind. With deeply realized characters, a keen sense of place, a hint of magical realism, and a flush of young romance, Meg Medina tells the tale of a strongwilled, warmhearted girl who dares to face life’s harsh truths as she finds her real power.

You can read Meg’s continuing thoughts on her blog at Meg Medina.com or follow her on Twitter! Be sure to register for the Sunday brunch to see Meg’s presentation at this year’s VATE Conference!

Information about the mini-conference:

“Writing is the Thing: Can Your Students Argue?”

April 24th, 2012

Agenda

4:00-4:30 Welcome and Exhibits

Sign in at the welcome table, register to be a PATE / VATE member, renew your membership, enjoy some refreshments, and connect with old friends. Take a few minutes to visit the exhibits of book sellers, vendors, and the regional Blue Ridge Writing Project.  (If anyone is interested in displaying as a vendor at our mini-conference, please contact Wendy Bryant (wbryant@rcps.info)

4:30-5:45              Paul Heilker, Presenter

“Writing is the Thing:  Can Your Students Argue?”

Paul Heilker will lead us through information and practice in research/writing.  His hands-on workshop will help us prepare our students for the DOE’s latest requirement to test the standards of research/writing.

Paul Heilker’s first real job was teaching 9th grade English in New York. He was the Director of the First-Year Writing Program at Virginia Tech from 1994-2004 and has delivered over 50 faculty development workshops. He is proud to be a Teaching Consultant for the Blue Ridge Writing Project.

5:45-6:00    Sharing Session / Door Prizes / Professional Development Certificates

Bring ideas to share with other English teachers in the same boat as you.  What ideas have worked for you?  Which didn’t?  Share your lessons to help each other prepare our students for the research strand on the latest Virginia SOL English tests.  Can we work on a stronger connection among the colleges, community college, public schools, and the Writing Project to bring more effective teaching to the area’s students for college and/or career readiness?

If you stay until the end of our mini-conference, you will be eligible for a door prize.  Professional Development credit is also granted.  Receive your certificate of attendance by way of an enjoyable evening of learning and fun together.

For directions to Northside High School

6758 Northside High School Rd, Roanoke 24019 (Or call 540-561-8155)

Contact current PATE President, Wendy Bryant for more information

Stonewall Jackson Middle School at  540- 853-6040 or by email (wbryant@rcps.info)

Professional Connections

PATE / VATE  Membership and Goals

PATE, District-P of the Virginia Teachers of English, is the local organization of English/language arts teachers in our nine-member district, which includes Alleghany, Botetourt, Covington, Clifton Forge, Craig, Franklin, the City of Roanoke, Roanoke County, and Salem. Our state organization is VATE (Virginia Association of Teachers of English).

Both VATE and PATE are committed to enhancing the quality of the teaching of English and language arts in the Commonwealth. Our professional organizations want input and involvement from anyone concerned with instruction from preschool to graduate school, public and private instruction.

To join PATE / VATE, teachers complete an application and pay annual dues of $25. Applications are available online at www.vate.org.

To support your local affiliate, join by sending your application to Amy Hodges, our current PATE treasurer, at Hidden Valley MS, 4902 Hidden Valley School Road, Roanoke, VA 24018.  Five dollars of the dues goes to PATE to fund local activities. Among other benefits, members in VATE/PATE receive two publications, The Needle’s Eye and the Virginia English Bulletin.

There were 58 digital artifacts in the following categories:  Scene It, Book Trailer, Glogster, Book Cover, Podcast, and Photo Essay. Winners received gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Our Literacy Explosion winners by category are as follows:

Scene It
Jordan Stewart- Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Savannah McLawhorn and Isabel Mastrangeli- Plaza Middle, School, VA Beach
Averi Witt- Henley Middle School, Crozet, VA

Book Trailer
Teonja Tatum- Crittenden Middle School, Newport News
Ryan Sheehy and Greta Bollmeier- Henley Middle School, Crozet, VA
Adrianna Bland and Annie Grover– Henley Middle School, Crozet, VA

Glogster
Grace Jeffrey-Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Aubrey Allen-Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Miranda Scheetz-Plaza Middle School, VA Beach

Book Cover
Matt Gump- Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Tripp McQuire and Bryan Vasta- Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Tatiana Gervise, Plaze Middle School, VA Beach

Podcast
Chika Osuchkwu- Plaza Middle School, VA Beach
Nikayla McCray- Crittenden Middle School, Newport News

Photo Essay
Madison Perry- Kempsville Midde School, VA Beach
Alyssa Naidoza- Kempsville Middle School, VA Beach
Trinity Mitchell- Crittenden Middle School, Newport News

Highest Participation Award (plaque)- Plaza Middle School, VA Beach

Congratulations to all of the winners. We would like to thank everyone who participated for making this a successful event!

Registration is now open for this year’s conference. You can either register online (with payment accepted through PayPal) or print out the registration form below and send it in with your check. As usual, advanced registration is cheaper than registering on site, so there is an advantage to getting your registration in sooner rather than later. Advanced registrations must be postmarked by October 12, 2012. At that point, advanced registration will close and registration will only be available on site.

The meal events are a particular highlight of the conference, but meal registration must be handled in advance. Please note that no refunds for meal events can be given after October 12th.

If you have any questions, contact President-Elect Kirk Dolson.

Register Online

or

Download Registration Form

Download Flyer

Download Flyer

Interested in attending the conference? Here’s what to do next:

• Register for the conference
• Register for your hotel room
• Propose a presentation for the conference

We welcome all proposals and give each serious consideration. Please note the conference theme and ensure that your proposal addresses the theme. You are encouraged to submit your proposal early. As a professional, nonprofit organization, VATE cannot reimburse program participants for travel, hotel, or other conference expenses. All presenters must register for the conference.

Proposals are due by July 31st, 2012.

Download Conference Proposal Form or Submit Your Proposal Online

Download Conference Proposal Form or Submit Your Proposal Online

The Needle’s Eye, the VATE newsletter, is published quarterly and contains information about the group’s current work. If you are interested in submitting an article or a notice, contact the editor.

Deadlines

Deadline for Fall publication: October 31

Deadline for Winter publication: December 31

Deadline for Spring publication: March 31

Deadline for Summer publication: August 31

Needle’s Eye Editor: Tori Otstot

For the technologically savvy, we’ve moved from a hand-coded website that has won our retired webmaster, Linda MacCleave, numerous awards and valuable recognition, to a more streamlined engine with WordPress. For the non-technologically savvy… well, I’ll stick with “the website has changed.”

It will take a few days to get all of the content moved to the new site, but don’t despair if you aren’t able to comb through past issues of The Needle’s Eye (now VATE Voices) or pictures from conferences of years past. Those things will appear back on the site very soon. Along with those things, it is also my hope to help use the VATE website to spotlight some of our profession’s notable members across the Commonwealth, to help share ideas and thoughts. In many ways, we hope to see the new design blossom into something that helps our members come together more often than our annual conference allows and find a similar experience of refreshing ideas, debates, stories, and excitement.

For now, however, there is some dust. Please excuse it. If something doesn’t quite work properly, please let me know – but do so gently, please. Linda leaves behind some awfully big shoes to fill. As the above picture of me from this year’s conference shows, I’m a bit intimidated by it – my confidence feels up to it, but my ego isn’t quite certain.

- Rafe Telsch
(webmaster@vate.org)