Council Chronicle - Volume 30, Issue 1, 2020

The Orbis Pictus Committee is shown meeting during the 2019 NCTE Annual Convention. COVID-19 concerns brought additional challenges to the work of the Orbis Pictus and Charlotte Huck award committees this year, but they still managed to meet regularly to discuss the books in consideration.

While acknowledging a lot has been taken from students as a result of the current crisis, these two proponents of the maker-based classroom find that the freedom from test-prep and rigid schedules has also produced a sense of flow and an explosion of creativity.

We invited recipients of 2019 and 2020 NCTE awards to reflect on how the current pandemic is affecting their teaching—the challenges, concerns about their students, surprises and discoveries, strategies that help them cope, and things that give them hope.

Two recent state teachers—one from 2019 and one from 2020— have been NCTE members. We invited them to talk a little about their experience of the shift to online teaching last spring, and their hopes for the upcoming year.