Oct. 13: Education Summit for educators, administrators to feature National Teacher of the Year

By Maegan Murray, WSU Tri-Cities

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities will hold a comprehensive education summit for teachers and other educators on Saturday, Oct. 13, beginning in the Consolidated Information Center (CIC) on campus, which will welcome National Teacher of the Year and Washington resident Mandy Manning as its keynote speaker.

National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning

The summit will run from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. where educators will explore topics within several strands including STEM education, English language learning, school safety and social and emotional learning.

Registration costs $12 and will include morning coffee, a full lunch, six clock hours and three sessions of the participant’s choice. Individuals may register at tricities.wsu.edu/stcu-register.

Manning teaches English to newly arrived refugee and immigrant students in the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington. In her classroom, she uses experiential projects like map-making to help her students process trauma, celebrate their home countries and future and learn about their new community. As 2018 National Teacher of the Year, she encourages educators to teach their students to overcome their fears and seek out new experiences.

During the individual education summit sessions, participants will learn about innovative techniques that WSU researchers and other experts are studying and developing as current and future tools and strategies to use in the classroom:

STEM education:

• Virtual Reality in K-12 Classrooms
• Cybersecurity in K-12 Classrooms
• Preventing Fraud and Identity Theft, Promoting Safety
• Thinking About STEM and Standards

English language learning (ELL):

• Engaging with Parents, Families & the Community to Support Student Success
• Academic Language: Important for All, Essential For ELLs?
• Engaging ELL Students with Comic and Trade Books

School safety:

• Suicide Prevention and Support
• Panel: Creating a K-12 Student-Based Health Center
• Panel: Integrated Approaches to School Safety: A Community Discussion

Social and emotional learning:

• Communities in Schools of Benton-Franklin (Student Support)
• Socioemotional Learning and Bullying Prevention
• Panel: Community and Classroom Support for Refugee and Immigrant Families and Students (with National Teacher of the Year)

This is the first year that WSU Tri-Cities has held and hosted a summit of this kind.

“We are thrilled to offer a comprehensive education summit where our local educators will be able to develop their awareness of strategies and gain tools to take back to their own schools and classrooms,” said Judy Morrison, WSU Tri-Cities academic director of the College of Education.

“We worked to cater the sessions to focus on the future of education,” she said. “The fact that we get to hear and learn from the National Teacher of the Year on the strategies that she has utilized in her classroom is an immense asset.”

For more information, individuals may contact Morrison at 509-372-7176 or jamorrison@wsu.edu, or Lindsay Lightner, WSU Tri-Cities College of Education coordinator, at 509-372-7366 or llightner@wsu.edu.

The WSU Tri-Cities Education Summit is sponsored by STCU and WSU Tri-Cities.