Last night my Education Policy Center friends were honored to be joined by a small group of local educators for food, fellowship, and lively conversation at the annual Independent Teachers Fellowship. (As always, there’s lots of great information on our Independent Teachers website.)

About a dozen public school teachers representing diverse experiences and specialties came and enjoyed an indoor picnic of sorts with sandwiches, sides, and (the best part) build-your-own ice cream sundaes. That last part makes me sad I missed the event, but I had a lot of Lego and sandbox time to catch up on. Hope those who attended can forgive me.

Anyway, I understand that everyone got to watch the illuminating 20-minute speech by retiring NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin — I’m glad to know I rate second-place in his book (don’t let me get in the way of tenure or collective bargaining)! I won’t go on, since I wrote about him before, and posted the key 2-minute video clip from the end of his speech.

Finally, Ben DeGrow introduced some education policy topics and led a lively conversation with lots of great input from many of the teachers who came. As is usual, the good conversation doesn’t allow for enough time to hit everything. So here is a copy of his PowerPoint presentation with some additional links (scroll right over them and click to follow them) he added for those of you out there who are interested in more information:

Colorado Teachers and Education Policy Trends 2009

We love feedback, so let us know what you think! We’re already excited about hosting next year’s 6th annual Independent Teachers Fellowship.