CULLOWHEE—Kara Ball, an alumna of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, has been selected as one of the four finalists for the the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) National Teacher of the Year.

Ball, a 4/5 grade teacher at DeLalio Elementary School teaches science, technology, engineering and math. She attended the program “Catching Up With Your Students: Digital Learning” at NCCAT in 2015. She is the 2018 Department of Defense Education Activity Teacher of the Year.

The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a nationally recognized leader in teacher professional development, is offering teachers several programs for professional development to start out 2018.

NCCAT has identified and targeted professional development priorities for North Carolina educators. We solicited and listened to district curriculum leaders and teachers while incorporating state legislation and licensure updates when determining our programming this year.

CULLOWHEE—NCCAT's Honored Educator Scholarship (HES) program pays tribute to outstanding educators and individuals by providing scholarship funds in their names. Scholarship funds can be named in honor of classroom teachers, coaches, administrators, school board members, or community volunteers—anyone whose teaching or influence in public education has made a positive difference in the lives of others. Each fully endowed scholarship is awarded annually to a North Carolina teacher based on criteria determined by the scholarship benefactor.

The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching is offering several programs to help mathematics teachers develop teaching methods that better enable mathematics students to learn. For more on NCCAT programs visit www.nccat.org.

Deborah Brown, the 2017–2018 North Carolina Charter School Teacher of the Year, has been a participant and presenter at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a nationally recognized leader in teacher professional development. Mrs. Brown shared her thoughts below on her time at NCCAT. We appreciate her dedication to education and the chance we’ve had to work with her here at NCCAT.

CULLOWHEE—A team of Cleveland County educators worked on creating more teacher leaders in the district during a specialized program from the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, a nationally recognized leader in professional development.

For four days in Cullowhee, the 34 educators took part in a variety of efforts to help teacher leadership flourish in the district. The Teacher Leadership Institute program is a new offering designed to respond to the needs of school districts.