The first meeting of the Pacific Coast Teacher Innovation Network will be held at the UC Davis Conference Center on May 17, drawing K-12 teachers from Del Norte to Ventura counties.

Participants, including teachers from the Davis Joint Unified School District's Patwin Elementary School and Harper Junior High School, will present projects that showcase creative and innovative approaches to engaging and motivating students. Presentations will take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Featured projects range from teaching Spanish to native speakers in Sonoma County to teaching science and math to at-risk youth in Yolo County.

The projects were funded through a $1 million grant to the UC Davis School of Education from the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Through the program, faculty from UC Davis and Humboldt State University work with teams of teachers at public, private and charter schools to improve teaching skills and mastery of the subjects they teach. In all, 51 teacher teams have received two-year grants of up to $30,000 each.

"The meeting is an opportunity for teachers to network and to tell us a little bit about what they are up to. We want the teams to have an opportunity to showcase the early results of their efforts and to begin thinking about how to expand and sustain the great ideas, energy and best practices they are already putting into place,” said Joanne Bookmyer, a research affiliate with the UC Davis School of Education.

Researchers from Humboldt State will also present findings from their evaluations of the projects’ impact in the classroom. California Postsecondary Education Commission administrator Marcia Trott will also be present.