This past Saturday, May 19th, 2007, Green River was the host institution for the 8th Annual Future Teachers Conference (FTC). The event is planned and conducted by students in Green River’s Teachers of Tomorrow Club, with support from the Project TEACH Center, the Center of Excellence for Careers in Education, and the Green River Foundation.

This FTC was the largest ever! Approximately 220 future teachers, along with current teachers who served as speakers and advisors, met on the Green River campus to share their teaching and learning strategies. Participants came from all over the region and represented high schools, other community colleges, and four year colleges.

Jonathan "Mac" Macaranas, Vice President for Washington Mutual’s Community & External Affairs Division (Corporate & Employee Giving), opened the event with an inspirational welcome. This year, WaMu joined the Washington Education Association as one of the FTC’s premier sponsors. WaMu provided $5000 that helped pay for 25 student registrations, stipends for three student planners, and the keynote speaker. The registration stipends helped promote the conference at high schools and colleges around the region and were responsible for the much larger than normal attendance. This is the 3rd year that the Washington Education Association has provided funds that help offset expenses and keep the registration fee low for the students who attend.

This year’s theme was Around the World in 180 Days – Teaching with a Multicultural Approach. In keeping with the tradition of connecting future teachers with current teachers, K12 school teachers and administrators from area schools and universities came to speak on a variety of topics. Session titles included Creating Caring Classrooms for Multicultural Youth, Using Multicultural Literature in the Classroom, Mapping Your Future - Teacher Certification Requirements, Developing & Reinforcing Mathematical Understanding Using Games, and What Principals Look for When Hiring. Three Green River’s instructors were among the very popular speakers. Leslie Heizer Newquist, Director of our Center of Excellence for Careers in Education, led a session about how knowledge of child psychology can help create a fun and effective learning environment. Keith Clay and Brett Carroll from our science division showed the future teachers some “cheap and easy” science demonstrations.

In addition, Patty Thomas, Coordinator for the Interurban Center for the Arts, joined Mary Mulkey, a retired art specialist and teacher, to lead a session on hands-on arts projects. It is also worthy to note that some of the speakers were former Project TEACH students who returned to help inspire the future teachers by talking about their first years in the classroom.

The event ended with an inspirational and emotional keynote by Jeff Yalden, author, life coach, and personality from MTV’s hit show, MADE. Jeff’s talk was titled, “Take Time to Think”. His message was about life as much as it was about the teaching profession. Jeff took the future teachers on an emotional roller-coaster that was designed to inspire them to teach for the right reasons beyond standardized tests and no child left behind.

The date for the 9th Annual FTC has already been set, Saturday, May 17th, 2008!

Thanks go out to the Project Teach staff including Marilou Christiansen, Jennifer Scanlon, and Leslie Heizer Newquist, the Teachers of Tomorrow Club faculty advisors Pam Reising, David Nelson, and Steve Kinholt, and our premier sponsors.