TEACHERS TO GATHER FOR ANNUAL MEETING FRIDAY

Teachers from throughout the region will gather for the 124th annual Missouri State Teachers Association district meeting Friday.

Approximately 6,000 teachers have been invited to attend. Cape Girardeau School District will dismiss classes for the day. Jackson schools will be in session, but teachers will have the choice of attending the district meeting or local in-service professional development training.

The purpose of the meeting is to provide academic resources to educators regarding general and departmental professional development. Teachers and administrators meet to discuss relevant educational topics, and speakers are invited to address the general assembly on educational and motivational issues.

The group has been assembling since the first meeting was held in Piedmont in 1878.

The general session will begin at 9 a.m. at Southeast Missouri State University's Academic Auditorium. Sandy Queen, founder and director of Lifeworks Inc., will be the keynote speaker at the event.

"We're not certain how many will attend the meeting, but we've had some good weather so we're hoping for about half," said district coordinator Sheryl Smith-Woeltje.

A series of departmentalized meetings will be held following the general session for teachers to share information regarding their specialized subject area. New to this year's schedule is a workshop designed to increase regional participation in the state Teacher of the Year competition.

The workshop will be led by current Teacher of the Year Nancy Petersen and former recipients Carol Reimann of Cape Girardeau School District and Cindy Thresher, formerly of St. James School District.

MSTA delegates from local chapters will meet Thursday night to elect officers and consider resolutions for the state meeting. The delegates also will attend a banquet recognizing winners of the Meritorious Service awards.

Meritorious Service honorees are vocational school teacher Stuart Reed Bain of East Prairie School District; elementary school teacher JoAnn Hahs of Oak Ridge School District; and elementary school teacher Janice McCane of Dexter School District.

Bain is a 24-year teaching veteran. He has served as president, vice-president and parliamentarian of his local Community Teachers Association and has chaired many CTA committees. He has served as MSTA delegate for many years. He has earned the Missouri Vocational Distinguished Service Award and has been granted the Missouri Honorary State FFA Degree and served on the state FFA Degree Selection Committee. He serves on many local civic organizations and has promoted his school district with entries in state competitions in Kansas City and Jefferson City and at the Memphis, Tenn., Mid-South Fair.

Hahs has been a teacher since 1964 in Nell Holcomb and Oak Ridge school districts. She has served as CTA president five times and also has served as vice-president and secretary-treasurer. At the district level she has served on the MSTA executive committee as second vice-president, vice-president elect, president and past president. She also served on the credentials committee and public relations committee. At the state level she has served MSTA on the Teacher Education and Professional Standards (TEPS) committee, the Credentials Committee and as a teller counting votes.

She has been an officer of the Elementary Teachers' Association and holds memberships in the Southeast Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics and National Science Teachers of America. Other memberships include Beta Upsilon chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa, Superintendent Search Committee, Centennial Parade Committee, alumni group, Lamplighters Club, 4-H and Oak Ridge Baptist Church.

McCane, a 31-year teaching veteran, has taught in the Risco, Ferguson-Florissant and Dexter school districts. She has helped to implement Extended Day Kindergarten, Early Childhood Education programs in Dexter and the Remedial Language Arts program in Richland. She has held various leadership roles in the Dexter CTA and has served on various district committees. She also serves as a mentor to teachers new to the district.

McCane has served as a church school superintendent for four years, organized a teacher training workshop, taught Sunday School and worked in Children's Church. She is a member of Alpha Delta Kappa and the Stoddard County Retired Teachers Association. In 1986, she was nominated for the Phi Delta Kappa Teacher of the Year award, and in 1999 she received the Christian Education Award.