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The second annual International Education Conference: Teaching & Learning –Connecting
the World was held in Charlotte, North Carolina May 1 and 2, 2008. The event was
hosted by the British American School of Charlotte and took place at TIAA-CREF.
200 people attended the two-day event.
Attendees included teachers and administrators from the leading Charlotte independent
schools, teachers and senior-level administrators from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,
administrators from public schools in surrounding counties, representatives from
the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, educators from local universities
Wingate University, University of North Carolina Charlotte, educators from a private
college in North Carolina, also joining us this year were representatives from independent
schools in North Carolina, Rhode Island and Colorado.
The 2008 International Education Conference was designed to address the need for
creating curricula throughout all levels of our school systems based on international
education standards. The conference was organized to give educators and administrators
the tools they needed to give their classrooms and school a global perspective.
In short, it would create a forum for discussion of new techniques and ideas.
Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University served as the keynote speaker as
well as conducting a Thursday site visit at the British American School and a breakout
session on Friday. Gardner was ranked one of the top five business thinkers in the
Wall Street Journal on Monday, May 5.
Speakers were from organizations such as Fieldwork Education, The International
Primary Curriculum, British American School of Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools, APPLES at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and World View
at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Conference attendees were surveyed at the end of the 2008 IEC on their experiences
and asked for feedback for future conferences.
Evaluations returned upon the completion of the conference ranked the conference:
Overall conference – very valuable – 97%
Keynote speaker – very valuable – 98%
Breakout sessions – very valuable – 94%
Comments:
"Great conference once again!"
"This was an excellent conference. Inspirational!"
"Very impressive to have Howard Gardner!"
"This was the best education conference I have been to! Very high level thinking! Yeah!!!"
"Dr. Gardner and the discussions surrounding his talks were absolutely refreshing and thought-provoking."
"I enjoyed the learning-centered approach to the conference. I like the push towards action and an opportunity to share the practical ways we will apply these."
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