Conference Aims to Increase Teacher Retention by Supporting New Teachers

With thousands of educators leaving the profession, the University of Texas at El Paso is working to motivate new teachers to stay in the classroom throughthe 5th annual “A Better Beginning Conference.”

The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Tomás Rivera Conference Room, 3rd floor, Union Building East.

The latest figures from the Texas Education Agency show more than 30,000 teachers left the profession in 2008.

In El Paso, the Center for Teaching Quality reports that approximately 14 percent of teachers with less than two yearsofexperiencedropped out of the classroom between 2004 and 2005.

The free conference, hosted by UTEP’s College of Education, will use various methods to mentor and support teachers who have been on the job three years or less.

Event organizers expect the largest group ever, with more than 400 educators and administrators participating in activities geared toward teacher success. They include sessions on parental involvement, teaching strategies, classroom managementand diversity. Speakers will also promote subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The event objectives are important to our community, said Josie Villamil Tinajero, Ed.D. dean of UTEP’s College of Education.

"The hope is that these beginning teachers will leave this event with an increased knowledge of teaching skills and activities for the classroom, as well as an enhanced desire to improve student learning and achievement while creating life-long career bonds with others,” Tinajero said.

The keynote speaker will be LouAnne Johnson, a former Marine officer who became a teacher and noted author of several books, including The New York Times bestseller My Posse Don’t Do Homework, the basis of the 1995 film Dangerous Minds. She is an ESL teacher with extensive time in the classroom, a passionate student advocate and an education consultant. She will speak at 8:30 a.m.

Each teacher who registers for the conference will receive a free copy of Johnson’s book, The Queen of Education: Rules for Making Schools Work.

The conference also boasts an interactive teleconference led by Michael Kolitsky, Ph.D., who teaches a distance learning course for UTEP from his home inNew Jersey. He will show educatorshow technology– and learning – can be fun, interactive and allow for global reach.

Carolyn Awalt, Ph.D., assistant professor of teacher educationat UTEP, will present information about NASA’s Space Camp, which she attended this summer, and the program’s teaching opportunities.

The conference will end with anawards luncheon, during whichtwo mentor teachers and two novice or innovative teachers will receive prestigious awards from UTEP’s College of Education.

The event is sponsored by UTEP’s College of Education, Boeing, State Farm Insurance, Teachers Federal Credit Union, and UTEP’s Teachers for a New Era and Project Action for Equity/Mother-Daughter programs.

For more information: Mary Ann Couvillion at macouvillion@utep.edu or at 915-747-6072.