No moment of teaching is an island, entire of itself. Every move the author makes, every decision to speak or keep silent, every utterance emerges out of a larger ongoing professional conversation, as unfinished now as it was a hundred years ago when that first "English Journal" ("EJ") appeared. His specific moves as a teacher are turns at talk in that conversation, and in each chosen move, he asserts his present theoretical commitments and his identification with particular other individuals and communities in the field. From this ongoing dialogue with literacy educators, he takes not just teaching methods but a specific, affiliated professional identity. NCTE, for him, represents that conversation, and every moment of his teaching arises out of a confluence of histories, ideas, and energies that he often thinks of as represented by NCTE. Using a reading conference with a student as a springboard, the author details the influence of the NCTE professional community on his teaching.