The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program will conduct its annual summer enrichment conferences for current Fellows in the rising junior and senior classes at Elon University in Elon. The conference for seniors was held last week and the conference for juniors will be Friday, through Sunday.
The annual conferences are a part of the program requirements for the Fellows. In addition to the scheduled enrichment experiences, the conferences give Fellows the opportunity to network with members of their cohorts from across the state. This year the conferences have extra significance in that they will provide the first opportunity for Fellows to interact in large numbers with their peers since the General Assembly passed legislation beginning the phase out of the program.
Both conferences are designed to be the type of professional development style conference that Fellows might expect to attend when they enter the workforce. The Senior Conference was themed ěSurvive and Thrive!î It was designed to help Fellows think about and prepare for what they might encounter as they begin student teaching during the coming year and land their first job the following year. The Junior Conference, July 22-24, is themed ěExploring the Power of Diversity In and Out of the Classroom.î It is designed to foster an awareness of the types of diversity issues professional educators must navigate in order to thrive within the profession. Fellows return to campus in the fall and expand upon areas of need during the ensuing school year.
Both conferences will be facilitated by Leading to Change, a nationally recognized training, consulting, and facilitation firm based in Charlotte. Additionally, the Senior Conference will feature keynote speeches by the 2011 National Teacher of the Year, and Ron Clark, an ECU TF alumnus nationally renowned for his two best-selling books and private academy for talented though disadvantaged youth in Atlanta. The Junior Conference features a keynote address by inspirational teacher and author Brad Cohen best known for his efforts to educate the world about Tourettes Syndrome.
Schedules and agendas for each conference are available online via the Teaching Fellows website at www.teachingfellows.org. Touch the ěCurrent Fellowsî link and select ěEnrichment Programsî to view the appropriate conference website. Program contact information is available online as well.