So I'm sitting in the CEC Leadership Institute in DC and I'm helping create the program for the next CEC national conference in Philadelphia in 2014. I was proud to hear from the CEC staff that the preconvention workshop that Lisa Dieker and I did last year was the 2nd most attended and well received session at CEC last year and that my Co-teaching strand was in the top 3 of strands! That said, I look at the list of proposed strands, invited sessions, and townhalls for next year and co-teaching is not even on the list. WTH? Luckily for me, Lisa Dieker is here virtually as well, representing the Collaboration and Inclusive Practices group, and she has TONS of proposals on co-teaching. We have brought this up to Russell Gersten, the 2014 Conference Chair, and he has agreed that co-teaching needs to be included more prominently. SO........we've requested a strand on co-teaching as well as some invited sessions. Lisa and I were asked to do our Preconvention Workshop again (which we are going to do).
I was also talking with Janette Klingner about the focus of the CEC conference. We need to keep it focused on TEACHERS & PRACTITIONERS, and not try to have CEC become a research-focused conference like AERA. We will lose our constituency. I love CEC because you not only get to see the hugest names in the field but you really get to get practical strategies and best practices. But the way we are going, we are losing teachers and I think we need to be careful of this! Janette is going to bring this up today and I hope it is well received. We shall see. Do any of you go to CEC? What are your thoughts on this?
Anyway, be assured that I am doing my best to ensure that collaboration and co-teaching are represented at the next conference. There are so many GREAT experts in the field and I want to be sure that their voice is heard at this conference. We need to keep moving forward and learning from one another.
Hmmmm....maybe Lisa and I could facilitate a Town Hall discussion at CEC on co-teaching practices.....?