The 13th Annual Teacher 2 Teacher Conference

March 5, 2024
8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
ON CAMPUS

Registration is Closed.

The $40.00 Registration fee includes parking, lunch, and a full-day of professional development!

The Cato College of Education  is pleased to present the annual Teacher 2 Teacher Conference.  The purpose of this conference is to provide affordable yet meaningful professional development opportunities to North Carolina educators. This mini-conference is designed by teachers for teachers. P-12 teachers are invited to participate as well as present at the conference. 

Participants are eligible to receive 0.65 continuing education units (CEUs) or 6.5 hours of contact towards professional certification.   

2024 Conference Theme: Looking to the Future and Living in the Present: Embracing the Joy of the Classroom

“What would happen if making the world a better place and developing student joy were the ultimate goals for education?” – Gholdy Muhammad, 2022

As educators, we must constantly consider our sphere of influence. There are lots of things we can’t control, and some of those things (like politics, budgets, cultural conversations, etc.) impact us and our students significantly. What if we did make our focus joy in our classrooms? What would that look like? 

Focusing on joy does not mean ignoring problems or pretending as though we’ve solved all of the problems of historic marginalization and oppression. It does mean living in the present, loving ourselves and our students, and finding our meaning in the moments when we can. 

At this year’s Teacher 2 Teacher conference, we are inviting proposals that find innovative, creative ways to encourage joy in teaching and learning. This year we are planning four conference strands:

• Happy students are stronger learners: what do you do to make sure students are happy to come to your classroom or school building? How does joy foster learning in your spaces? 
• Celebrating success in our schools and communities: what engaging strategies and ideas are you trying out in your classroom, PLC, school, or district? 
• Teacher leadership and mentoring: how is your school or district cultivating teacher leaders? How are you reimagining mentorship? 
• High-impact strategies: how are you personalizing structured curriculum? What are some of the best practices you are using to engage diverse student needs? 

Introducing our Keynote Speaker: Kimberly Jones, NC Teacher of the Year!

Kimberly Jones is the 2023 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. She has been a high school English teacher in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools since 2006. 

Kim earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education with a focus in Secondary English Education from Wake Forest University. 

Kim has spent the majority of her career teaching World Literature courses and has a special dedication to Holocaust and Human Rights education. She serves as a North Carolina Site Director for TOLI (The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights) and works as an education consultant with PBS North Carolina. These positions allow Kim to lead and support fellow educators throughout the state and country in building lessons and units that help students better understand complex cultural and historical events, establish their relevance to diverse 21st-century learners, and empower students to use their learning to build productive, positive, and empowered futures for themselves and their communities. 

Kim has won numerous awards in her teaching career including the 2021 Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Multicultural Student Action Network Equity Equals Excellence Award, the Chapel Hill Public School Foundation Bernadine Sullivan Chair for Excellence in High School English Education, and a WCHL Chapelboro Hometown Hero Award. 

Kimberly has been married to her husband, Joshua, since 2019 and is the proud stepmom of two sons. She enjoys serving her community in a number of equity and advocacy-focused non-profit organizations. She also loves traveling with her family, quality time with wonderful friends, reading, true crime podcasts, crafting, and helping her husband renovate their new home. Kim values every opportunity she has to talk about the life-changing power of education and the lifelong impacts of dedicated educators!

If you have any questions about the conference, please reach to Lucy Arnold at lucy.arnold@charlotte.edu.