2023-2024 EOY Report DRAFT - Flipbook - Page 14
#TeachinginColor Summit
April saw our third-annual #TeachingInColor Summit, a gathering for educators of color from across North Carolina to exchange ideas,
engage in fellowship, discover best practices, and uplift each other. The Summit featured a keynote conversation with Tyler James
Williams of ABC’s Abbott Elementary, who discussed his representation of a young Black male educator in the television series.
“When people don’t have the resources and the funding that they need to do the job, you’re not giving them the tools. So, the job is
going to be done a certain way. But what we try to do with Abbott speci昀椀cally is we try to humanize the experience of those who are
doing this with less tools. Right? It’s easy to talk about how you think a school or school system is failing, but it’s very di昀케cult to say
‘Barbara Howard is failing.’ It’s very di昀케cult to say ‘Janine Teagues is failing.’ And that’s what we’re trying to break down like, ‘No,
when you say this, you’re talking about people who go to work every day and are doing the best with what they have. You can’t say
that they failed.’”
The two-day event in Charlotte also featured our 昀椀rst-ever “Educator of the Year” award ceremony, celebrating the achievements of
three North Carolina educators. The award recipients were CiCi Weston, founder of the Christine Avery Learning Center in Asheville;
Franchone Bey, English/Language Arts teacher at West Charlotte High School in Charlotte; and Angela Uribe Romero, Graham High
School Spanish teacher and 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year.
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