I can now shut up about the fact that when I was in high school I was not selected to go to Governor's School in the summer. In the last week I got my own mini-Governor's School.About 25 years ago, North Carolina Teacher of the Year Jean Powell suggested in a speech that there be a sort of Governor's School for teachers. The (few and fortunate) high-performing high school kids chosen each year to attend this advanced and fabulously enriching boarding school session always came back so excited about learning.
So, Powell said, why not do the same thing for teachers? And send them back to the classroom re-excited about teaching and learning.
Then-Governor Jim Hunt jumped on the idea and the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching was born.
This week I've been teaching a class here called "Write from your Roots."
I feel I'm the one who is refreshed and re-excited about learning...and about my own teaching and writing and living.
The 22 guests--teachers, counselors, and librarians--and the staff I worked with here (Jane Dalton, author of The Compassionate Classroom and Tara Melton-Miller) could teach anybody anything.
I hope the "students" have gotten even a fraction of the good from the experience that I have. If you happen to work for the NC public schools, take a bold step and apply to come here. There's a magic chemistry happening on this 30-acre mountain campus--and no doubt at the coastal Ocracoke site as well.
If you aren't eligible, TAKE A BOLD STEP AND FIND YOUR OWN SABBATICAL SOMEWHERE. Even a few days can be a small lifetime tucked into the big one.
Thanks to Jean Powell who boldly spoke up about a good idea and to Jim Hunt who said: let's do it. And to the Legislature that helps it continue. And of course to NCCAT.
Woohoo! I'm coming back! Take that, Governor's School selection panel of 1965-66!
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