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Gather Together, Grow Together
We are looking forward to returning to Kiawah Island for the 2025 SCCTE conference. The conference theme "Gather Together, Grow Together" hopes to bring you inspiration as well as challenge, support as well as advocacy, and instruction as well as discussion. As educators ourselves, we know that it takes collaboration, research, and innovation to support our students and to develop our craft. You can access the conference program here.
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Partnering with The SCEA's Center for Educator Wellness and Learning (CEWL) we are excited to offer our first pre-conference workshop on Thursday, January 30, 2025. Click here to add this registration to your experience.
For the first time at our annual SCCTE conference, we are collaborating with the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture to offer an exclusive off-site session. Hosted by Dr. Tamara Butler, this off-site session is sure to inspire and engage those who attend. Register for this free off-site session here.
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Our focus on growth is about embracing sustainable change for ourselves, our profession, and our students. The goal is about giving us the space, time, and nurturing needed to help us grow each day. We look forward to collaborating and learning with you at Kiawah Island West Conference Center on January 31-February 1, 2025!

Lorena Germán
Lorena is a three time nationally awarded Dominican American educator focused on anti racist education. She has taught English Language Arts from 6th through 12th grades in both public and private schools. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, PBS, Rethinking Schools, EdWeek, Learning for Justice Magazine, and more. She published The Anti Racist Teacher: Reading Instruction Workbook, and Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices about curriculum & lesson development focused on social justice. She’s a co-founder of #DisruptTexts through which she encourages teachers to work toward an inclusive ELA curriculum. As Co-Founder and Academic Director at Multicultural Classroom she leads professional development for teachers and creates teaching materials with and for leading literacy organizations. Lorena is also the Chair of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. She lives in Tampa, Florida.
Susan Barber
Susan Barber teaches AP English Literature and Dramatic Writing for TV, Film, and Theatre at Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as the co-chair of the Test Development Committee for College Board's AP Literature. She has offered training at NCTE, GCTE, and the Folger Shakespeare Library and frequently leads ELA workshops across the country. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Edutopia, and she is the co-author of The Norton Guide to AP Literature and 100% Participation, a forthcoming book from Corwin. Susan, however, is most proud of the work she does on a daily basis in E216 and never tires of the beauty and chaos of the classroom. You can find her along with Brian Sztabnik sharing their thoughts on their site MuchAdoAboutTeaching.com.

Melissa Smith
Melissa Alter Smith is a College Board APⓇ Consultant and a National Board Certified high school English teacher in Charlotte, NC. She is the founder of #TeachLivingPoets and co-author of The Norton Guide to AP Literature: Writing & Skills (W.W. Norton, 2022) and Teach Living Poets (NCTE, 2021). She is featured on LitHub.com, in The New York Times, MindShift KQED, NCTE’s Council Chronicle, ASCD’s Education Update, and more. Melissa earned her M.A. in English from Ohio University. Her work is focused on complicating the canon, supporting teachers, and empowering students through poetry.
Jay Ward
Junious 'Jay' Ward is a poet and teaching artist from Charlotte, NC. He is a National Slam champion (2018), an Individual World Poetry Slam champion (2019), author of Sing Me A Lesser Wound (Bull City Press 2020) and Composition (Button Poetry 2023). Jay currently serves as Charlotte's inaugural Poet Laureate and is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. Ward has attended Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Watering Hole and Tin House Winter Workshop. His work can be found in Columbia Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Diode Poetry Journal and elsewhere.

Rebecca Harper
Dr. Rebecca G. Harper is a Professor of Language and Literacy in the College of Education and Human Development at Augusta University where she teaches courses in literacy, qualitative research, and curriculum, and serves as the EdD program director. Her research focuses on writing and critical literacy, and the ways in which authentic literacy can foster engagement, agency, and empathy in students. She is the Director of the Augusta University Writing Project and the author of Content Area Writing that Rocks (and Works)!, Write Now and Write On: 37 Strategies for Authentic Daily Writing in Every Content Area, Writing Workouts: Strategies to Build Students’ Writing Skills, Stamina, and Success, and Literacy Practices in Sports and Coaching: Developing Literacy Competencies in Interdisciplinary Environments.
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Palmetto State Teachers Association
