Unprecedented Teacher Summit at CSULB
In unison with 22 CSU campuses and 10 private colleges and universities, the CED sponsored a first-of-a-kind event—Better Together: California Teachers Summit—on Friday, July 31, 2015. The purpose of this event was to provide a unique and free opportunity for local teachers, teacher candidates, and school administrators to hear from nationally renowned speakers, network among colleagues, and have a forum to share effective resources and teaching practices led by teachers, for teachers.
The New Teacher Center co-hosted the statewide summit, in partnership with the California State University system, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU), and its member institutions. The events were supported by $3.5 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The vision of the event was to bring teachers together and develop a day that would honor, motivate, inspire, and empower them to connect with each other in order to share the most effective instructional practices in alignment with California’s new state standards.
The simultaneous event across 33 campuses featured three key elements:
- Nationally recognized keynote speakers, such as Yvette Nicole Brown, an actress and teacher advocate, and Leland Melvin, a NASA astronaut and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education pioneer;
- Ed Talks offering funny, inspiring, and poignant perspectives from teachers about their successes with implementation of the California Standards; and
- Edcamp-style breakout sessions led by teachers on effective strategies that are working in classrooms across the state.
At CSULB, one of the three outstanding Ed Talk speakers included Amy Laughlin, a graduate of the CED and a 2015 California Teacher of the Year. Amy received her Administrative Services Credential in 2013 from CSULB. She taught at the elementary level for 16 years in Anaheim, will begin a new role as an elementary school principal in the Los Alamitos School District in Fall 2015.
Unlike traditional teacher conferences with pre-determined topics that are often led by scholars and researchers in education, the Summit embraced a participatory learning style known as the Edcamp model. With this model, there is no one expert in the room—participants are the experts. For example, during breakout sessions at the Summit, topics of conversation were organically generated among teachers, which ranged from student engagement and learning motivation to first year teaching challenges and strategies.
The California Teachers Summit was also significant due to the representation of graduates attending the event. For example, among the 1,155 teachers registered, hundreds were local teachers and graduates from credential and graduate programs in the CED. Also represented among the 28 teacher facilitators were five graduates and local teacher leaders, who were critical to facilitating and engaging dialogue with attendees during the Edcamp model sessions.
As faculty coordinator of CSULB’s Summit, Dr. Nat Hansuvadha, was honored and thrilled to organize the event with Associate Dean Cindy Grutzik. One of the highlights as coordinator was placing a spotlight on the university to feature CSULB’s campus as well as personalizing the event by enlisting student ambassadors (SAMs) from the College, student volunteers, and local teacher leaders to serve as teacher facilitators. The statewide event drew local attention from the Press-Telegram, Signal Tribune, and National Public Radio.
