MINNEAPOLIS — Thursday kicks off the first day of MEA weekend, but the annual educators conference is going to be all virtual this year.
The Minnesota Educator Academy, aka MEA, is a long weekend for students and learning period for educators.
This year, they've got a lot of ground to cover.
Dozens of live webinars and online seminars will be available to teachers, allowing them to access the materials at any time.
Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said the conference was built to address the current times teachers are in, so there will be plenty of courses on navigating distance learning and other challenges related to the pandemic, like workloads and standardized testing.
There is also a big focus on courses to help teachers educate students about racial justice. Since the death of George Floyd, much needed discussions about race have been a focus both locally and nationally.
"We also have a number of courses that speak to, 'How do we talk about race? How can we have conversations around equity? How do we create safe and welcoming schools?'" said Specht. "Because we are in the middle of a pandemic, but we're also in the middle of a racial reckoning."
Mental health is also a big topic for both teachers and students.
"So I don't know that we ever, ever imagined that we would need to use a conference like this to not only brush up on our skills, but to provide a place for ourselves to get the training we need to destress, to take care of ourselves," Specht said.
A survey released earlier this week from Education Minnesota found that 73% of the teachers who responded reported feeling overwhelmed.
Twenty nine percent of the 9,700 teachers surveyed said they were thinking about quitting or retiring.