North Carolina’s 2016–2017 Teachers of the Year are invited to join us on Ocracoke Island to examine educational leadership and positive responses to institutional change. Teachers of the Year have heard the call to leadership, but what is the next step? Discover how to continue your growth as an educational professional. True leadership emerges naturally from the integrity and identity of the leader. Explore your own integrity and selfhood in a community of other dedicated teachers who are embracing leadership in their own lives. Look into your leadership strengths and areas of growth by focusing on challenges inside and outside the educational realm. This program will not focus on management principles. Rather, taking our own lives as text, we will explore our inner character to become more conscious of the foundation from which we lead. Join in our dialogue about how teachers can spread their enthusiasm for learning to other members of the school community.

Invitations will be mailed to system level Teachers of the Year in March 2017.

Designed for teachers of the elementary grades.

Today’s classrooms are filled with diverse students who have unique learning needs. Students identified with special needs have specific learning goals as mandated by their IEPs. This program is designed for elementary teachers who would like to enhance their repertoire of literacy strategies to meet the various needs of all students in their classroom, including students who are identified with special needs. Teachers will investigate various exceptionalities and explore ways to accommodate and modify literacy assignments and instruction to meet their specific learning goals.

Open to teachers in their first, second, or third year of teaching, this program supports motivated beginning teachers by strengthening their knowledge base and classroom expertise. Through experiential learning, teachers will explore pedagogical concerns including differentiated instruction, brain-compatible teaching, assessment, the effect of poverty on achievement and behavior, and classroom management. Come prepared to build professional competence and confidence, improve student achievement, and reinforce your commitment to this critically important profession.

Designed for teachers of grades K–6.

On Monday afternoon, August 21, 2017, all of North Carolina will experience a partial solar eclipse. A sliver of the western part of the state will experience a total solar eclipse for approximately two and a half minutes. NCCAT will partner with Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) to present a training opportunity at our Cullowhee campus that teaches participants a variety of methods and strategies to host a successful community solar eclipse event.

30 kindergarten through sixth grade teachers (15 teams, two teachers per team) will be selected to participate in the training. Each team will be provided with a kit to take back to their school. Participants must commit to hosting a community event on the day of the solar eclipse, August 21, 2017, and must submit a post event evaluation. The training will include topics such as mythology and misconceptions about the sun and our solar system, moon phases and how eclipses happen, solar observing safety measures, activities and planning ideas.

Canvas, North Carolina’s Learning Management System (LMS), is your place for one-stop learning and course management. Teachers will become familiar with the features of Canvas such as the settings, notifications, and tools in building a course. Create modules using a variety of items such as discussions, assignments, quizzes, and content pages. Set up generic or tailored rubrics for use with a variety of content. This program is designed for beginning users and will allow time to experiment, collaborate, and build at your own pace. Teachers will have a module or more ready to implement on returning to the classroom.