Some 13,000 teachers throughout California celebrated the coming of the new year — the new school year, that is — by gathering at 38 venues, including Cal State San Bernardino and the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus.
The late July meeting, the second annual Better Together: California Teachers Summit, sought to help educators share resources and build networks to help them teach their students more effectively, “and to energize ourselves before our students come back to the classroom,” said Lybroan James, an instructional designer for New Teacher Center, one of the organizers of the statewide summit.
A unique partnership between the center, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, and the California State University formed to host the free day of learning.
The day included keynote speeches by actor Ernie Hudson and teacher Kelly Gallagher livestreamed to all 38 venues from Cal State Fullerton, as well as local TED Talk-styled “EdTalks” and breakout sessions called “EdCamp,” where teachers discussed topics of interest such as the California Standards in English/Language Arts and Math and the Next Generation Science Standards.
“I think if you can come together and learn something new to make your classroom a better place, it’s going to be a better place for the kids that you teach,” said Mick Verdi, interim associate dean of CSUSB’s College of Education who led the team that organized the summit at the university and its Palm Desert Campus. “I hope they leave here inspired to try new things in their classrooms, that they get out of their comfort zone and try something new.”
Mischa Tacchia, who has taught in the San Bernardino City Unified
School District for 10 years, presented an EdTalk about “21st Century Teaching in the IE.” He encouraged fellow educators to be positive role models for their students, many of whom come from single-parent families.
“Our kids just love a teacher who is personal, and quirky, and someone who is going to care about them,” Tacchia said. And example of quirkiness: Tacchia said that he integrates music and theater into his lessons, and once brought out his guitar to sing a poem during a lesson on analyzing poetry. “And they hung on every word. Then we analyzed it.”
And the next thing he knew, the students wanted more lessons presented that way, Tacchia said.
Krista Richardson, also a teacher in the San Bernardino school district, spoke during her EdTalk of reaching out to all students. As one who teaches half her lessons in English and half in Spanish, Richardson told of one student who seemed bright but tended to withdraw when called upon in class. In researching ways to reach similar students, she learned that she needed to teach for a diverse group, then group them in ways their diverse ways of learning would benefit each student.
It even meant using non-academic activities, such as having students discovering each other’s favorite ice cream, describing what their dream house might look like, and even dancing. Richardson said if she could encourage them to have fun together, they will likely learn together as well.
For Amber-Star Lund, a new teacher who earned her teaching credential from CSUSB this year, it was a chance to connect with veteran teachers. She said she learned how technology can be used effectively in the classroom, and that she was encouraged to try new things to inspire her students.
“I love to teach because I want children to know they can do anything they put their mind to,” said Lund, who teaches in the Rancho Cucamonga school district.
James Tasso, a teacher at Brentwood Elementary School in Victorville, said echoed that. “I teach because I really want to help kids,” he said. “I want to reach out to kids who feel like they don’t have the support at home or support around them, and show them that they’re really worth something and that they’re meant to do great things.”
Actor Ernie Hudson, in his keynote presentation, told of the obstacles he had to overcome growing up and attending schools in an era when black students like him weren’t giving much opportunity to succeed, as well as the challenges one of his sons, who has a mild form of autism, had to conquer. In both cases, there was one teacher who took an interest in them, and that inspired them to persist. Hudson went on to study at the Yale University School of Drama and has had a successful acting career, and his son is now a successful writer.
He told the story of a man locked in a dark room, paralyzed because there was a snake in the room with him. Then a light flashed, Hudson said, and the man saw that the snake was really a rope. “The light went back out. But the room was never the same. You guys are the light in these kids’ lives for the brief moment that you have them. You have a chance to turn on a light to show them a perspective they may never get anywhere else in life. It’s not a small task, I know. But it’s a really important role.”
As the day drew to a close, summit organizers encouraged teachers to keep in touch with each other, and also through social media events during the school year aimed at getting teachers to continue sharing ideas and resources with each other.
“Classrooms can be a lonely place, and teaching is a very lonely job sometimes,” said Verdi. “You close the door and you’re there with 30 kids and just you. But there’s another teacher at another school with the same problem and I can call them and say, ‘How did you solve this,’ or ‘Didn’t we talk about this at the summit, what do you think we should do?’
“And if you can make those connections with other teachers, your teaching is going to get better,” Verdi said. “You always want to get better, and these are ways to get better.”
For more information, visit the Better Together: California Teachers Summit website at www.cateacherssummit.com, and use the hashtag #BetterTogerherCA on Twitter at @CATeacherSummit and on Facebook for up-to-date information.
Visit the CSUSB College of Education’s website for more information on its programs.
California State University, San Bernardino is a preeminent center of intellectual and cultural activity in Inland Southern California. Opened in 1965 and set at the foothills of the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains, the university serves more than 20,000 students each year and graduates about 4,000 students annually.
CSUSB reflects the dynamic diversity of the region and has the most diverse student population of any university in the Inland Empire, and it has the second highest African American and Hispanic enrollments of all public universities in California. Seventy percent of those who graduate are the first in their families to do so.
For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu