April 13, 2015
Educators Gather to Gain Super Teaching Powers
On March 31, 2015, 220 clinical teachers, university supervisors, faculty and staff gathered for the 2015 Spring Clinical Teachers’ Conference at the Greenville Hilton sponsored by East Carolina University’s College of Education and the Latham Clinical Schools Network. The theme for the conference was iTeach: What’s Your Superpower? and included a keynote address by Ms. Jami Dickerson, Pitt County teacher and Northeast Region Teacher of the Year. Ms. Dickerson challenged teachers to develop their superpowers by building relationships with their students, making their classroom engaging, and through displaying passion for the profession.
Participants could select from sixteen different breakout sessions where they learned about technology, teaching methods, and ideas to support their students at a variety of grade levels. The professional development sessions were offered by ECU faculty and guest presenters and were designed to assist teachers with enhancing their “superpowers” as teachers. One participant commented, “I enjoyed learning new ideas in a fun, engaging way.”
Along with the superhero theme of the day, participants were asked to name a super teacher they knew and why they considered these individuals to be outstanding educators. These comments were shared throughout the day on Twitter and on presentation screens as a celebration of the wonderful educators within the East.
The clinical teachers who participated in the event have been assigned interns that are completing their educator preparation programs and will graduate this spring. The student interns served as unpaid substitutes in the clinical teachers’ classrooms so that these individuals could attend this professional development opportunity. An intern commented about her clinical teacher, “I’m glad to take over my teacher’s classroom for the day since she has done so much to help me. She deserves this day!”
The College of Education was proud to sponsor this event as a way of saying thank you to the clinical teachers who work tirelessly to support teacher education interns during their year-long internship. We are grateful for their efforts in preparing the next generation of “super teachers!”
For more information about teacher education at East Carolina University, please visit our website at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-educ/
View the full Photo Album of the event at http://www.coe3.ecu.edu/coeweb/Albums/2015_CTC/
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