Thursday, December 13, 2007

CLASSES FOR TEACHERS




When I was teaching school I always loved snow days. Teachers have one of the hardest and most important jobs in the world so they need unexpected breaks.

The state of North Carolina knows how important down time is to teachers. That's why we have NCCAT (pronounced N Cat) It stands for North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
But what is it really? Every 3 years, NC teachers can sign up for a week of classes. There are never more than 24 people in one group. They meet in at a lovely place in the mountains or down at Ocracoke Island. The classes are about anything from art to history to science to literature and probably a whole lot more.

The teachers also get lots of time to relax, share stories, and eat good food!

This week I was a guest speaker at one of the seminars. Joyce Sievers taught the class which was on bookmaking. In additon to stitching beautiful papers into books, the teachers listened to guest authors like me talk about writing books.

I love hanging out with teachers because they love books as much as I do!

2 comments:

  1. So were you in the mountains this yr or O. Island? Congrats on your guest speaker invite to such a special occasion.

    It's nice that NC recognizes the importance of the teachers and pampers them with some fun down time.

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  2. Thanks! I was in the mountains!

    It really is a wonderful program. When I was teaching I had a dream to go but you have to teach 3 years before you qualify and I quit after the 3rd year!

    But hey this is a fun way to get there.

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