The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) Convention 2012 is rockin’ the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem.  I suspect that substitute teachers were in short supply around the state.

Here are some highlights of the conference (courtesy of various Twitter feeds):

  • Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson tells attendees, “When we have hard decisions to make, we call NCAE and [NCAE President] Sheri [Strickland].”
  • Governor Perdue gives NCAE president Sheri Strickland the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
  • In a speech to NCAE members, Perdue reports, “I’ve been born again with fire for public education” and admits, “I go to bed at night worrying about all the children.”
  • Perdue intends to include raises for teachers (presumably by unfreezing the state salary schedule) in her proposed budget.