Cherokee Educators Gather Together First Time In 26 Years

WOODSTOCK, GA — Cherokee County School District educators today gathered together as a whole for the first time in 26 years.

Nearly 3,000 educators, administrators and other staff attended CCSD’s first “CCSD Ed Talks” professional development session held at First Baptist Church of Woodstock. Not since 1993 have all of CCSD’s teachers, administrators and education support staff attended such an event together.

The two-hour program, entitled “A Celebration of Teaching and Learning,” included brief remarks by Superintendent of Schools Brian Hightower and a keynote address by nationally renowned educator, speaker and “Bold School” author Weston Kieschnick. Both spoke about the importance of relationships and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).

Hightower said the national movement in support of SEL to ensure students’ emotional and mental health and well-being is valued as much as their academic success is exciting and inspiring.

“When I was a teacher, it was all about ‘teaching to the whole child,’” he said, noting that public education then was overtaken by demands for more and more testing and increased pressure to improve those results. “We’re talking about the whole child again, and it’s so awesome… kids are not data points. Our kids are so much more.”

Kieschnick, who taught high school for 15 years before beginning his full-time career as an author and speaker, emphasized the importance of building positive relationships with students to encourage success. As part of his session, he outlined 12 classroom strategies and encouraged interaction among audience members.

“Our character manifests itself in the words we say to kids,” said Kieschnick, who was thanked by the crowd with a standing ovation. “There is an incredible amount of power in a single sentence.”