Better Together: California Teachers Summit Unites Educators at CSUEB
CSUEB alumnus Nick Zefeldt was an Ed Talk speaker at the Better Together: California Teachers Summit.
- July 31, 2015
Nearly 600 pre-kindergarten through12th grade educators gathered at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ on Friday to share ideas, collaborate and get inspired for the upcoming school year. The unique professional development experience was part of Better Together: California Teachers Summit, a statewide event attracting 20,000 teachers at 33 locations.
The goal of the summit was to help teachers build a powerful and lasting network of peers, share best classroom practices, and access effective resources to implement the new California Standards, including Common Core.
A mixture of veteran and new educators from the Bay Area attended the event at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥, which featured three local Ed Talk speakers as part of its program, including alumnus Nick Zefeldt (MS ’09, Education).
“This was an extraordinary and empowering day of learning and networking in terms of putting together teachers that normally don’t have an opportunity to interact,” said Zefeldt, a former elementary school teacher at Live Oak in San Ramon who now coaches teachers in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
Zefeldt, who earned his teaching credential and master’s from CSUEB, shared poignant yet humorous anecdotes about his experiences in the classroom. The 2013 San Ramon Valley Educator of the Year told fellow teachers that failures lead to opportunities for growth, and that ambitious and accomplishable goals lead to success.
He valued the opportunity to connect and share ideas with a diverse group of teachers. “I’ve made so many connections that I’m going to really make an effort to follow up and try to create relationships that can be mutually beneficial,” Zefeldt said.
The overriding theme of the event was right there in the name: Teachers truly are better when they work together, as several speakers, organizers and educators at the event noted.
ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥’s College of Education and Allied Studies coordinated the event on the university’s Hayward campus. In addition to the local Ed Talk speakers, the event also featured remote keynote addresses from actress Yvette Nicole Brown and former NFL player/astronaut Leland Melvin.
Teachers also broke off into small groups for EdCamp sessions, where they discussed specific topics such as STEM+Art education in elementary classrooms and classroom management in high schools.
“The most common feedback I received is that it was inspirational and a great way to start the new school year,” said Carolyn Nelson, dean of the College of Education and Allied Studies at CSUEB. “I think it was a fabulous thing to know that you were a part of the same event going on across the state with 20,000 teachers. There is this sense of unity about the importance of the profession; it really did feel like a celebration of teachers.”