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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 1999

News Release

NEA Conference Spotlights Quality Teaching

Teachers and Education Experts Will Share Most Effective Practices With Peers

Washington, D.C. -- Boosting student achievement though effective teaching will be the focus of a day-long National Education Association (NEA) conference on Wednesday, June 30 at the Omni Rosen Hotel in Orlando, Fla. "Quality Teaching: The Key to Student Achievement," will bring together teachers from across the nation to share ideas about how to help students read more productively, motivate them to reach high standards, make technology count in the classroom, and upgrade low-performing schools.

The NEA's annual Instructional Issues Conference is a forum of workshops and discussions of the most effective methods of teaching and learning. Open to more than 9,000 delegates attending the Representative Assembly, this year the conference will offer a wide selection of professional development opportunities, designed to help beginning teachers as well as experienced educators interested in becoming National Board certified.

NEA President Bob Chase will use his keynote address to discuss the changing role of teachers in the school improvement effort, stressing the new emphasis on collaboration and cooperation, risk-taking, and personal responsibility for quality education. "The new teacher is reshaping our profession," Chase says, explaining that being a new teacher has nothing to do with age or years of service, and "everything to do with a teacher's state of mind. The new teacher understands that you constantly rebuild your teaching craft - dumping what doesn't reach your students and adding what you hope will." Chase will highlight various programs the NEA has initiated to assist all teachers do their best by their students.

Conference attendees will also hear from Desi Williamson, known as "Mr. Impact" for his motivational remarks. Williamson is widely recognized for his powerful programs on change, diversity, team building and the empowerment of individuals to achieve greater productivity. Despite a childhood surrounded by poverty and violence, Mr. Williamson has built a successful career as an entrepreneur and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. He credits public school employees for making a difference in his life.

Other speakers include Maureen Dinnen, president of Florida Teaching Profession-NEA; Barbara Kelley, Chairperson of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and an elementary school teacher in Maine; Barbara Taylor, Guy Bond Chair in reading and professor of reading education at the University of Minnesota; and E. Lea Schelke, chair of the NEA Professional Standards and Practice Committee and a language arts teacher in Trenton, Michigan.

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