The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) hosted the 2023 Inclusion Summit in June. The Inclusion Summit was hosted by Western Carolina University. The Annual Inclusion Summit brings various disability inclusion stakeholders together to discuss current practices and future innovations. Invited participants included presenters from among educators, school administrators, and related service providers. This year’s theme, Transitioning Across the Lifespan, reflected on the understanding that every step of life development involves small and large transitions. Events helped equip participants to practice and advocate for better inclusion of individuals with disabilities.

Teachers from across North Carolina joined us for "K-5: Literacy for Multilingual Learners" recently at NCCAT Ocracoke. The five components of effective literacy instruction are of particular importance to our Multilingual Learners and include Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension. Writing is also a key component and is one avenue for meaningful use of language. Multilingual Learners can often participate in writing activities, even when their speaking skills are limited. These Elementary ESL teachers explored these components while collaborating with colleagues and a former district ESL coach to learn how to help their students improve their literacy skills based on reading science.

The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) was proud to once again host the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership at N.C. State University Summer Institute. This year there are 38 outstanding K-12 educators from North Carolina public and charter schools who make up the 2023-24 Kenan Fellows. These educators, hailing from 25 counties across the state, represent diverse grade levels and subject areas including math, science, Career Technical Education (CTE), special education, and English Language Arts. The Kenan Fellows Program provides teachers with invaluable experiences in industry and research settings and supports them in translating their internship experiences into a wealth of instructional resources that are shared with their schools, districts, and communities.

Excited to have a great group of educations with us for The Maker Movement program at Ocracoke. The Maker Movement empowers colleagues to become inventors, engineers, and designers. A current trend in education uses the Maker mindset to encourage students of all ages to build, design, program, solve problems, collaborate, and innovate. These educators from across North Carolina learned to plan lessons that teach the Maker mindset and pull in content as diverse as engineering, reading, and math.

Twenty-four teachers from across North Carolina have been selected as finalists for the 2023 North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year Award in honor of their dedication, innovation, and ability to inspire students to achieve. One of these talented educators will be named the NCCAT 2023 NC CTE Teacher of the Year. The award is scheduled to be presented on October 19, at the Western Carolina University campus. The finalists will be at the NCCAT campus in Cullowhee for professional development the week of October 16-20.

NCCAT was pleased to host the Clinton City Schools Dark Horse Fellows to our Cullowhee campus. The school district effort seeks to encourage more students to become teachers. The Dark Horse Fellows is a teacher preparatory program designed to support Clinton High School students in Sampson County with a passion for education. The Dark Horse Fellows Program is available to successful Clinton High School rising juniors and seniors with a strong passion to become educators.

NCCAT appreciates these teachers for joining us for "Bringing High Quality Project Based Learning to Your Classroom" in Cullowhee. High Quality Project-Based Learning is a pedagogical strategy used by forward thinking educators around the world to inspire students to collaborate, think critically , and share their work. Though many educators have heard about PBL and are excited about it, they struggle to implement it with fidelity in their own classrooms. This program, designed for educators in grades 6-12 of all subjects, including Career and Technical Education, introduced educators to the HQPBL framework and help them create their own PBL units in a high energy, collaborative atmosphere.