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WVEA’s Annual Professional Issues Conference

November 6 - 7, 2009

Charleston, West Virginia

 

 WVEA’s annual Professional Issues Conference will be held November 6 - 7, 2009 at the Marriott Hotel in Charleston, West Virginia. The theme of this year’s conference is “West Virginia’s Public Schools Work.”


The conference will begin with dinner and keynote speaker at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and will conclude at approximately 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Taylor Mali, an award winning poet, former educator and author, will be the keynote speaker on Friday and will conduct a break-out session on Saturday.  Arrangements for speaker/topic for the luncheon on Saturday are ongoing.

Session topics and presenters for Saturday are being finalized. Once confirmed, the complete agenda will be posted (click here for tentative agenda).  You may also go to the registration page or print out a PDF registration form.

 

Deadline for registration is October 21, 2009. All participants must pre-register through the WVEA. Your registration fee will include Friday night lodging (if applicable), dinner on Friday night, lunch on Saturday and all handouts and conference materials. Space will be limited to the first 250 who register. Checks for the conference registration fee must accompany your form in order for room reservations to be made. 

 

If you have any questions about the conference, contact Kym Randolph at 1.800.642.8261 extension 211 or Anita Maxwell at 1.800.642.8261 extension 116.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 
 

Featured Speaker

Taylor Mali

Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement.  Eloquent, accessible, passionate and often downright hilarious, Mali studied drama in Oxford with members of The Royal Shakespeare Company and puts those skills of presentation to work in all his performances.

 

Mali is a vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, having spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math and S.A.T. test preparation.  He has performed, lectured and presented workshops for teachers all over the world. Mali’s New Teacher Project has a goal of creating 1,000 new teachers through “poetry, persuasion and perseverance.”

 

He is the author of two books of poetry, The Last Time As We Are and What Learning Leaves as well as four CDs of spoken word.  He received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001 to develop Teacher! Teacher!; a one-man show about poetry, teaching and math which won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 Comedy Arts Festival. His poem What Teachers Make is a must hear for all educators!