T HE D EFINITIVE H ISTORY OF THE G REAT T EACHERS M…

T HE D EFINITIVE H ISTORY OF
   THE G REAT T EACHERS
         M OVEMENT
         In North Carolina




               1993-2008

        Written & Published by Steve Smith




      Copyright © 2008 by Steve Smith. All Rights Reserved.
     Non-commercial reproduction and distribution is permitted.




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P ROLOGUE

This document updates the first and only writing of the History of the
Great Teachers Movement in North Carolina that I wrote in 2003.
Since its inception in 1993, the National Great Teachers Movement
has flourished in many forms throughout higher education in North
Carolina.    This development has occurred primarily in community
college settings, but has also been adopted for use by K-12 and
four-year colleges and universities.


As there are no "how to" manuals and GTM handbooks, I initially
resisted writing about the movement as oral tradition has historically
been the method of perpetuating seminars and retreats.         However,
this   account   of   the   NCGTR   simply   serves   as   a   means   of
understanding the roots and beginnings of a form of professional
development that philosophically transformed my own teaching
practices.


IN   THE BEGINNING , THERE WAS NOTHING .              ..

In 1993, North Carolina community college faculty first experienced
a statewide, professional development seminar that has become
known as the North Carolina Great Teachers Retreat (NCGTR).
Written to document this evolution as we approach the 2008 retreat,
this writing will additionally provide some insight to this highly
effective concept in faculty and staff development and its ongoing
impact upon the quality of teaching throughout North Carolina.


The NCGTR has naturally spawned a variety of localized and single-
college seminars that are based upon the concepts and principles of



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the National Great Teachers Movement (NGTM). As this expansion
begins and as North Carolina embarks upon its 15 t h annual retreat in
2008, I believe it is beneficial to understand the people and
circumstances that have enabled the movement to flourish and
become an integral part of this fascinating, grassroots approach to
professional development.


The   GTM        is    truly     a    "grassroots"         movement       that    consists     of
professional community college teachers who wish to improve their
teaching and who seek to discover the art of teaching in themselves.
There is no head office, telephone, fax, or any one person in
charge. It belongs to no one, but yet to everyone.


In 1993, the first North Carolina Great Teachers Retreat (hereafter
referred    to        as   the       NCGTR)      was       held     at   Camp      Kanuga      in
Hendersonville, North Carolina. This retreat was a direct result of
Dr.   Kathy      Matlock         (then    Dean        of   Instruction     at     Blue    Ridge
Community        College)            deciding    to    have       Blue   Ridge     Community
College sponsor a retreat after hearing David Gottshall (founder of
the   GTM)       present         information         about    the    GTM     at    a    national
conference.


Dr. Matlock then designated Julie Thompson, Director of the Blue
Ridge      Community             College        Career       Development          Center,      to
coordinate the event. Retreats were held in 1993 and 1994 with no
retreat held in 1995. However, in 1996 the 3rd annual retreat was
held followed by retreats in 1997 and 1998.                                  Julie left her
Coordinator's position in 1998 and the responsibilities of the retreat
were forwarded to me. Julie's enthusiasm and understanding of the
retreat process were essential in continuing the retreat.                              If it were
not for her efforts, the retreat would have vanished.                             To this day,


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Camp Kanuga continues to be the location where each statewide
NCGTR     is   held.      Nearing   its   39 t h   birthday   as   a     national
phenomenon, the GTM is based entirely upon oral tradition.                 While
our North Carolina retreat is a 3-day event and called a retreat,
many states, including California and Hawaii run 5-day seminars.
However, in the 2003 seminars, both states conducted 4-day
seminars in order to cut costs but have since returned to a 5-day
format.   It should be noted that many GTM practitioners have
customized     seminars    to   address      specific   organizational       and
professional development needs.            Various seminars for faculty,
staff, and entire institutions have spanned as little as 90 minutes
and as long as an entire week.


To fully understand the North Carolina retreat and its relationship to
the hundreds of other seminars and retreats across North America
and Japan, I must include mention of the development of a periodic
event known as the National Great Teachers Leadership Colloquium.
To date, five such events have occurred with the most recent in
Santa Barbara, California in 2007. The next BIGTLC (renamed the
Biennial International Great Teachers Leadership Colloquium) is
scheduled to be held in the Atlantic Maritime Province of Nova
Scotia at Cornwallis in June 2009. Colloquia have been conducted
in each of the following locations: Sinsinawa, Wisconsin (1998),
West, Texas (2001), the Kananaskis Region (near Banff), Alberta,
Canada (2003), and Salter Path, North Carolina (2005).                 All events
have been open to the GTM leadership and interested parties from
all across the world.      However, most attendees have been from
North America.     David Gottshall has led all these quintessential
gatherings.




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The basic purpose in holding such meetings was to insure that the
GTM would continue after David's participation in the movement
ended.       He currently serves as director for about 25 or so
retreats/seminars each year.          One of those is our North Carolina
retreat.    In fact, David has directed all of our statewide retreats to
date with the exception of the 2004 retreat which I lead in his
absence.



T HE N EXT E VOLUTIONARY L INK

North Carolina's Great Teachers Retreat is patterned after and
heavily influenced by David himself, as he has been the sole
director of the NCGTR as previously noted. As coordinator, one of
my responsibilities was to insure that the spirit and intent of the
GTM continues as David originally intended and as so established in
North Carolina.


I became coordinator by virtue of circumstance.                                 Having just
experienced the National Great Teachers Leadership Colloquium in
Wisconsin in 1998, I developed a sheer passion for the basic
precepts of the GTM.         After a phone call from Julie Thompson that
following     summer        announcing             her   withdrawal        as     statewide
Coordinator, I humbly accepted those responsibilities and became
the next link in what will surely become a long chain of GT
leadership in North Carolina.                      Having left my own college in
December       2006    to    pursue        a        position    in   law    enforcement
administration,    Kay      Crouch    of           Caldwell    Community         College   &
Technical Institute agreed to serve as NCGTR coordinator beginning
with the 2007 NCGTR.            Her school will serve as the new host




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institution,    replacing    Richmond        Community      College   which      has
supported the retreat as host since 1998.


T HE R EASONS        FOR     S UCCESS

The   National     GTM      is   different    from   most    conventional        staff
development organizations/movements because its unprecedented
and continued success is due more to what has been left out rather
that what has been included. In other words, emphasizing the ideal
that "less is more," the NCGTR is characterized by the noted
absence of. . .


 Manuals or "how to" handbooks

 Organizational officials / organizational structure

 Phones

 Headquarters or national address

 Ownership

 Employees

 Politics

 Institutional or commercial interests

 Ego involvement in GTM leadership


As mentioned earlier, the GTM occurs at a grassroots level amongst
interested educators and is kept alive by oral tradition. The NCGTR
is no exception.      As a result, there is no bureaucracy present to
impede    the    creative    process    that    allows   each    retreat    to     be
successful.      True to form, the NCGTR is run as a first person
seminar, focused upon each individual's performance in his or her
classroom.      There is just enough structure so that something can
happen, but not so much that nothing happens.




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T HE RCC C ONNECTION

Richmond Community College became the "default" institutional
sponsor of the NCGTR by virtue of my employment therein.                 Each
NCGTR is run as a self-supporting retreat.           No college, local, or
state monies underwrite any NCGTR. The host college manages the
minimal   accounting      required   to   deposit   and   pay    out   monies
associated    with    retreat   expenses.     However,    this    institutional
involvement in no way impacts the retreat itself.               As previously
mentioned, Caldwell Community College will now assume this
responsibility in 2007 and beyond.


T HE S PIRIT & I NTENT          OF THE    NGTM

Cross-referenced in this document is The Spirit and Intent of the
National Great Teachers Movement written by David Gottshall in
March 1999.      This writing was published in order for those who
venture into GT leadership to maintain a clear picture of the spirit
and intent of the GTM. It also marked the observance of the GTM's
30 t h anniversary.   It can be found at the Official Web Niche of the
National Great Teachers Movement at ngtm.net as well as other
information and documents of interest.



T HE G REAT C OLLEGE P HENOMENON

I created and implemented several organizational development
activities for my own college (Richmond CC) known as the "Great
College Seminar". This organizational development model of the GT
process was highly successful for Lansing Community College in



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Lansing, Michigan.        I consulted with Pam Bergeron, a colleague in
human resources there (since retired), in order to develop a
proposal for our own series of GCS. Steeped in the tradition of the
GTM, the primary aim of these events was to provide an opportunity
for a literal cross-section of the institution to meet face-to-face in
order to become better acquainted and to examine the concept of a
single college.


RCC's Great College Seminar was perhaps the first such event in
North   Carolina    in    that   it    included   participants   that    literally
represented every aspect of the college to include students, faculty,
staff, the college president, and members of the board of trustees.
Each sample of the school's human capital and energy potential
converged at a single point in time. It was amazing to see my own
colleagues in one place all at once. We ate meals together, "small-
grouped" together, and explored our successes and problems
together as well.        Richmond's GCS was designed to integrate all
levels of the college into the collective uno as a means of starting
an organizational dialogue that had the potential to transform the
college.   Three GCS's were held over a 2-year period.                  The most
important aspect of the GCS is that it represents a beginning and
not an end. Organizational health must be maintained over time and
with much intentionality. The GCS serves as an impetus for change.
Guilford Tech (GTCC) just finished their second GCS in November
2007 that was held in Stoneville, North Carolina.



F UTURE GTM G ROWTH                   IN   N ORTH C AROLINA

At the time of this update in the spring of 2008, at least five
(perhaps even more) community colleges and one university have



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implemented their own professional and organizational development
activities as direct offshoots of the statewide NCGTR.                    These
include     Fayetteville   Technical    Community      College        (FTCC)   in
Fayetteville;    Isothermal   Community      College   (ICC)     in    Spindale;
Southwestern Community College (SCC) in Sylva; Guilford Technical
Community College (GTCC) in Greensboro; Beaufort Community
College in Washington; and Western Carolina University (WCU) in
Cullowhee.      In April 2007, I conducted a seminar held for a state-
level law enforcement agency in North Carolina.


In September 2000, ICC assembled the first ever "Great Teaching
Retreat" held at Camp Kanuga, the site of the statewide retreat.
This event effectively combined ICC faculty and administrators
together in what became the search for great teaching at Isothermal,
examining the interests of both in the teaching process.                 Shortly
thereafter, FTCC held a similar event at the east coast counterpart
of Kanuga, Trinity Retreat Center in Salter Path, North Carolina.
Both of these events were considered highly successful by those
involved.     Both colleges conducted similar retreats in the fall of
2001.     ICC put their entire college faculty and staff through an
abbreviated version of the Great College Seminar in February 2003
in a single week!          FTCC's most recent GT event was held in
November 2007.




F INAL T HOUGHTS

In conclusion, the NCGTR has become a much-anticipated annual
event that allows community college faculty a chance to learn from
each other and find the great teachers within themselves.                  It is
positive,    introspective,    and     intensely   focused     on       teaching


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methodologies    that        work.   As        its   popularity   increases,   more
adaptations of the great teachers model are used in new and
creative ways, not only to enhance teaching faculty performance,
but to build great institutions of higher learning within our beloved
state and beyond.


A BOUT T HE A UTHOR

Steven   L.   Smith     is    currently    serving       as   a   law   enforcement
administrator for an eastern North Carolina Sheriff. Prior, he served
as Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Department Chair
(1992-2006) of the Criminal Justice Technologies Curriculum at
Richmond Community College in Hamlet, North Carolina. His career
in criminal justice began in 1982 as a police officer in Hickory, North
Carolina. His most recent innovative and creative interests include
staff, organizational, and professional development activities as well
as promoting a unique approach to ethics training for criminal
justice professionals. He may be contacted at steves@ngtm.net.




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