15,000 California teachers gather for education summit

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ByChris Nguyen KGO logo
Saturday, August 1, 2015
15,000 California teachers gather for education summit
Over 15,000 California teachers came together on Friday with the goal of sharing best practices and resources as they get ready to begin a new year.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Teachers from all across the state came together on Friday with the goal of sharing best practices and resources as they get ready to begin a new year.



It was part of the California Teachers Summit, a first-of-its-kind gathering.



"It's not about covering a certain number of topics within an amount of time, it's really developing students' ability to think critically, to think analytically, to read and write in a much higher level, to see connections between disciplines," San Jose State University's Elaine Chin said.



The summit was an opportunity for educators to listen, talk and connect with their colleagues.



"It's stimulating to be talking to other teachers about teacher issues. We're self-reflecting, we're learning much form each other. We're excited with each other, and we're problem solving," San Jose teacher Kimberli Doty said.



Friday's event in Silicon Valley was one of the 33 held across the state. Overall, more than 15,000 teachers signed up to attend and nearly 600 of them came to San Jose State.



"We truly are refining our practice. We're raising the integrity and the excellence of our profession and, truly, we are better together," Mountain View teacher Esther Wu said.



Teacher-driven topics ranged from lesson planning to parental involvement, as well as time management and collaborative learning.



"Just little shifts in our instructional practice can have a really great change in the impact that we have on our students' ability to succeed," San Bruno teacher Dan Wekselgreene said.



Teachers are looking ahead, hoping to have their students meet the common core.



"We often underestimate the amount of time and energy teachers really put into their work, and no amount of money can really compensate for that kind of passion and commitment," Chin said.



These teachers gave up a day of their summer break but got so much more in return.



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