MCTE’s Spring Conference
Every Voice
Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1, 2026
Breezy Point Resort
9252 Breezy Point Drive, Breezy Point, MN
This year’s theme, Every Voice, invites us to embrace dialogue, diverse perspectives, inclusivity, and the joys and challenges of teaching ELA in this time—and what better place to do so than on the shores of Pelican Lake at Breezy Point Resort, where reflection and connection come naturally.
There will also be 30+ Breakout Sessions over this 2-day event—including topics such as writing, media literacy, diverse books, rural issues, and implementation of the standards and READ Act. Strands include elementary, middle level, high school, and college-level presentations on a variety of reading and literacy related topics each day. Come join in the fun!
Mollie Blackburn
Thursday Morning Keynote Speaker
Mollie Blackburn is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University. Her research focuses on literacy, language, and social change, with particular attention to queer youth and the teachers who teach them. She is the author of Moving across Differences: How Students Engage LGBTQ+ Themes in a High School Literature Class and Interrupting Hate: Homophobia in Schools and what Literacy Can Do about It, the editor of Adventurous Thinking: Students’ Rights to Read and Write, among other co-authored and co-edited books. She has received NCTE’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Leadership Award; WILLA’s Inglis Award for work in gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, and young people; AERA’s Queer Studies Special Interest Group’s Body of Work Award; and the Alan C. Purves Award for an article in the Research in the Teaching of English deemed rich with implications for classroom practice.
Ari Tison
Thursday Lunch Keynote Speaker
Ari Tison (Bribri) is the award-winning poet and the author of YA hybrid poetry & prose novel Saints of the Household (2023) with FSG/Macmillan. Saints of the Household was the winner of the 2024 Walter Dean Myers Award, the winner of the 2024 Pura Belpré Award, the winner of the Amelia Walden Award, the winner of the Américas Award, and a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the International Literacy Award. Ari’s work has been widely anthologized. Her poems and short works have been published in a number of national magazines including POETRY’s first ever edition for children. Her poem “The Storyteller Gets Her Name” is a part of national K-4th ELA curriculum reaching over 3 million young readers. Her next YA novel Together We See (FSG) is slated for 2026 and her debut picture book When I Was A Little Girl (HarperCollins) is slated for 2027. Ari teaches at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Ari belongs to the Bribri tribe, one of the eight federally and globally recognized tribes of contemporary Costa Rica. She lives in the Twin Cities with her sons.
Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Friday Morning Keynote Speaker
Allison Wynhoff Olsen is an associate professor of English at Montana State University, where she prepares secondary English teachers and mentors graduate students. Her scholarship includes explorations of rural English teaching, with a focus on teachers’ affective experiences and rural sense of belonging (or lack thereof); a development of listening argument; and pre-service teacher preparations. She seeks to bolster teachers’ professionalism and is invested in promoting dignity in schools. Wynhoff Olsen creates and thrives in community. A former Minnesota high school English teacher, Wynhoff Olsen also serves as a Yellowstone Writing Project director and president of the Montana Association of Teachers of English Language Arts.
Tracy Byrd
Friday Lunch Keynote Speaker
Tracy Byrd, a ninth-grade English language arts teacher at Washburn High School in the Minneapolis school district and the recipient of the 2024 Minnesota Teacher of the Year award. A graduate of Washburn, Byrd entered the field of education later in life after leaving a career in finance in 2008. He began working in the Wayzata School District as a hall supervisor and coach for football and track and field. Through these roles, he discovered a deeper interest in education and decided to pursue teaching as a profession. He enrolled in a teacher licensure program and worked as an achievement specialist, gaining experience that prepared him for the classroom. After earning his teaching credentials from Metropolitan State University in 2017, Byrd returned to his alma mater to teach. Central to Byrd’s teaching philosophy is a commitment to fair access to education—something he felt was missing in his own schooling. He views education as a powerful force that can reshape a student’s future by opening doors they may not have known existed.
| Tentative Schedule Thursday | Tentative Schedule Friday |
|---|---|
| 7:45 – 8:45 – Registration and breakfast 8:45 – 9:45 – Opening Keynote: Mollie Blackburn 10:00 – 11:00 – Breakout Session 1 11:10 – 12:10 – Breakout Session 2 12:15 – Lunch 1:00 – 2:00 – Lunch Keynote: Ari Tison 2:15 – 3:15 – Breakout Session 3 3:25 – 4:25 – Breakout Session 4 4:30 – 5:30 – Happy Hour | 7:45 – 8:45 – Registration and breakfast 8:45 – 9:45 – Opening Keynote: Allison Wynhoff Olsen 10:00 – 11:00 – Breakout Session 5 11:10 – 12:10 – Breakout Session 6 12:15 – Lunch 1:00 – 2:00 – Lunch Keynote: Tracy Byrd 2:00 – 2:30 – Prize drawing and closing |
Breezy Point Resort reservations can be made using this link and entering code 483009, or by calling the resort directly at (800) 432-3777. Refer to the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English block for a room rate starting at $169 per night ($181.46 including taxes).