New York State Great Teachers Seminar
June 7-9, 2004
White Eagle Conference Center
Hamilton, New York
Presented by:
The Institute for Community College Development (ICCD) at Cornell University and the Center for Professional Development at Corning Community College.
THE SEMINAR
The New York State Great Teachers Seminar is an energizing and relaxing summer retreat. It brings teachers together to explore teaching and learning innovations and solutions to problems. In spite of what the name might suggest, the seminar is not so much a gathering of teachers who are already great, as it is a group of dedicated educators in search of the great teacher within themselves. The seminar is based on the principle that educators learn best from each other. Participants prepare for the seminar by identifying one of their own successes or innovations as well as an unresolved problem they face in their work with students. Seminar staff lead discussions centered on the special interests and topics identified by the participants.
- To celebrate good teaching.
- To cause educators to venture beyond the limits of their own specializations and colleges in search of transferable ideas and the universals of learning.
- To promote an attitude of introspection and self-appraisal by providing a relaxed setting and straightforward process in which participants can seriously review and contemplate their attitudes, methods and behavior as teachers.
- To practice rational analysis of educational problems and find realistic, creative approaches to their solution.
- To stimulate exchange of information and ideas by building an expanding network of communication among faculty.
- To renew the commitment to student learning.
BACKGROUND: THE GREAT TEACHERS MOVEMENT
In 1969, David B. Gottshall founded the Great Teachers Seminar based on earlier staff development experiments of the late Roger H. Garrison.
The many state Great Teachers Seminars that have taken place throughout North America have had a profound influence on faculty development in higher education.
The seminar was created to improve their skills and to ponder and adjust their methods, behavior and attitude as teachers of diverse teaching fields, experience levels and interests. The focus is not on the teaching of specific disciplines, but rather on the art of teaching itself. The emphasis is on the universals of teaching and on the special nature of those who are and will be great teachers. It is based also on the notion that, if properly tapped, the collective wisdom, experience and creativity of any group of practicing educators far surpasses that of any individual expert.
The structure of the seminar evolves from an ongoing agenda that builds as the program progresses. Underlying all activities of the seminar is the perpetual challenge to characterize and to define the Great Teacher.
Any college educator, experienced or inexperienced, is invited to take advantage of this unique professional development opportunity.
