Osceola County will host a conference this week featuring conversations about moving education forward and making an impact in schools and districts.
NeoCity Academy east of Kissimmee will host the Impact Conference 2022 today and Friday.
The Impact Conference will feature conversations being led by educational thought leaders who are also practitioners — a sort of progressive think tank of, and for, educators. And the event will get lots of local input — the keynote address will be co-delivered by Joe Malfara, and Jon Motta, Osceola County’s last two Teachers of the Year.
If spots remain, registration for the Impact Conference is $50, and Osceola School District employees can register for $20 using code “SDOC” at www.impactatneocity.com.
If there’s a place to host such an event, it’s the county’s technology-based charter school that gets students immersed in technologies they’ll need for a future job as early as ninth grade.
“The idea, like the title says, is to make an impact,” said NeoCity Academy Principal Michael Meechin. “We’re excited about having our local education practitioners kicking off our conference with a call to action to make an impact in our schools and classrooms.”
The conference’s sessions are designs to provide its participants with tangible strategies to take action on that they’ll deliver back to their schools or districts, ready to be implemented.
And it won’t be just talking heads talking to talk. A group of NeoCity Academy students will be leading at least one student panel, helping teachers find effective strategies from the other side of the learning station.
“The question they’re answering is, how can teachers improve their craft? Why would you not want to learn from them?” Meechin said.
“And beyond that, educators need to share what works for them with other educators. We only have four years with these kids. We need to have programs in place for them, like, tomorrow. So I want to learn from people doing the work in effective locations.
“Often times our greatest resources are in our schools and districts already. Impact Conference is about the sharing of ideas that will move schools forward by practitioners. There is nothing more powerful than educators teaching other educators. They don’t need to hear it from me,” Meechin said.
Many of those ideas will come form what has helped NeoCity work in its fourth year. Motta currently teaches at the school, who’s concept is much like a college campus.
“Our students learn how to make “big-kid” decisions, learn how to make mistakes and how to then learn from them,” Meechin said. “We’re preparing them to get into high-tech companies, who themselves aren’t preparing them. We’re strategic in our work and where we spend our dollars. A normal school will have a pre-packaged curriculum, we break it apart and only spend on what we’re going to use.”
