July 18, 2017 — Professor of English and the former Second Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, Ph.D. will be the keynote speaker for the third annual “Better Together” California Teachers’ Summit.
The event will be held Friday, July 28 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Grand Salon at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI). This is the third year that CSUCI will host one of the statewide events.
“Better Together” coordinator Dianne Wilson-Graham, Executive Director for the California Physical Education-Health Project, said more than 300 educators are expected at the event, which will run simultaneously with Better Together Events on 35 campuses throughout California.
“We are expecting to reach our full capacity,” said Wilson-Graham. “This is a wonderful opportunity for local teachers to come together and talk across schools, across grade levels, and across districts about those things that matter to teachers.”
The Summit is a collaborative effort among the California State Universities, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, and New Teacher Center. The event is open to all California Pre-K-12 teachers, teacher candidates, and school administrators.
The morning will begin with a welcome followed by Biden’s address, which will be live-streamed to all 35 campuses from where she will be speaking at St. Mary’s College in the Bay Area.
“In her 30 years in education, she has taught at community colleges, a public high school and a psychiatric hospital for adolescents,” Wilson-Graham said. “As the Second Lady, she highlighted the importance of community colleges to America’s future. We are looking forward to her insights on how teachers can change the lives of students for the better.”
At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Biden said: “For me, being a teacher isn’t just what I do — it’s who I am.”
After Biden’s keynote address, teachers will hear two “Ed Talk” sessions from local teachers.
Fashioned after the popular “TED Talks,” the speakers give poignant, inspiring, funny, penetrating stories about their journeys into the teaching profession and share tales of the classroom.
The “Ed Talk” speakers will be Fawn Nguyen, a teacher at Mesa Union Junior High in Somis, and Language Arts teacher Daryl Myers from Monte Vista Middle School in Camarillo.
The morning will also include two “Edcamp sessions”, during which teachers will pick their own topics-ranging from addressing bullying in the classroom, to celebrating diversity, to helping students learn to be critical thinkers. The “Edcamp” sessions are always a popular feature of the Summit.
After lunch, participants who elect to attend the afternoon sessions will choose two of four sessions to attend.
The afternoon sessions were developed by CSUCI’s School of Education faculty in partnership with the Ventura County Office of Education.
The topics of the afternoon sessions will be: 1) evidence-based strategies for educating children with autism; 2) 21st century lesson design; 3) 10 tips for proactive classroom management; and 4) social and emotional health education for elementary students.
The theme of this year’s event is “Better Together: Now More Than Ever”, which reflects the importance of bringing teachers together to listen and learn from one another.
Registration is still open and those who are interested in attending should register soon as the event is filling up quickly.
To register visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/better-together-california-teachers-summit-at-csu-channel-islands-tickets-33571634663.