A MESSAGE FROM KAY -

Lead the Way

With apologies to Ghandi, be the professional development you wish to see in the world.

Your TCTELA Board hopes you’ll take that to heart throughout the coming year. Since we’re all better practitioners when we have the benefit of shared thinking, I hope you’ll regard this year as your time to share your expertise, your ideas, your concerns, and your challenges.

If you’re anything like me, you return to your job post-conference feeling energized and inspired. You get back to your district or campus and somewhere during fire drills, seating charts, parent conferences, and lunch duty, the momentum begins to wane. While we’re proud of the top notch conferences TCTELA hosts each year, the truth is that our professional growth needs to happen during the other 362 days of the year as well.

What can we do about it?

Join a committee and be part of a think tank. Collaborate through Twitter. Submit a proposal for the conference in 2014. Join the Local Arrangements Committee and help plan the conference. Join the Multicultural Awareness Committee and help us become a more culturally responsive and diverse organization. Tweet or email us your idea for an online chat, a conference keynote, or a bit of information you want to share with our membership. Ask a question, start a conversation, challenge your own thinking. Professional development happens in the small moments of each day.

We’re all better educators because of who you are. This is the time to become more involved in TCTELA.

Kay Shurtleff
TCTELA President