Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/348932
10 Fall 2014 x AEA Advocate AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA AROUND AEA Delegates from around the state gathered at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield, Arizona, April 25 – 26, 2014, for the annual AEA Delegate Assembly. This business meeting is the top- decision-making body of the AEA, debating and voting on the direction of the organization near the end of April each year. Delegates are selected through local association elections to represent their members' interests when deciding on new business items and resolutions that shape the work of the AEA. AEA President Andrew F. Morrill welcomed delegates on the first day with a speech about the difficulties members have overcome in Arizona and the signs of change for a brighter future through AEA members' leadership and action. "For every student across Arizona, it is time for us to remember the enormity and the importance of the work that we do. Not as a retreat, but just remember how important it all is because then we have to go quickly to what it will take for all of us to stand together and build the education world we need now, for the world that we want to create for all those students tomorrow because that's what the education world today does." First time delegate and Mesa EA member Joe Goglia enjoyed his first delegate assembly and found Morrill's speech to be inspiring and motivating. Goglia attended delegate assembly at the urging of his colleague and fellow Mesa EA member, Josh Buckley, who sees participating in the annual meeting as a way of taking a more active role in the Association and being an engaged AEA member. Another newcomer, Deer Valley EA member Alexandria Ettling appreciated getting a better sense of the organization and who is the AEA president. "It's more low-key than I was expecting. I think it's cool to be in a big group of people who are very much like me, only more experienced." The keynote speaker for the event was NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, past AEA president and math teacher from Paradise Valley. Van Roekel spoke about the organic movement growing across the nation to tear down the system of accountability using student test scores to evaluate, label, and punish teachers and schools. He laid down a challenge to the audience to define what it means for accountability for the whole system that addresses what a quality public education for every child in America looks like, how it Hundreds of Arizona Educators Gather for Annual Delegate Assembly