Five NCHS teachers, a guidance counselor and an administrator attended a two day artificial intelligence workshop on February 26 and 27 at the Kaskaskia College Extension Center in Vandalia. It was organized by Regional Office of Education #13, according to NCHS teacher Sara Kollbaum.
Kollbaum said the seven NCHS faculty and staff members that attended were teachers Kollbaum, Derek Miller, Michele Goostree, Paul Welte and Colleen Seaton, guidance counselor Tesha Maschhoff and NCHS principal Mark Begando. She said three individuals attended one day and four individuals attended the following day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
The workshop was led by Joe Fatheree. According to the Association of Christians in Student Development, Fatheree is an award-winning author, educator and filmmaker. He was named one of the Top 10 Teachers in the World in 2016 by the Varkey Foundation. He is the 2007 Illinois Teacher of the Year and the 2009 recipient of the National Education Association’s National Award for Teaching Excellence.
Fatheree was a founding board member of Advance Illinois, an independent education advocacy and policy organization and served as the director of strategic projects for the National Network of State Teachers of the Year. He has served as an innovation specialist at Oak Ridge Schools in Oak Ridge, Tennessee since June 2023. Prior to that, he served as an instructor of creativity and innovation at Effingham High School since August 1989.
According to Kollbaum, Fatheree provided instruction on creating education-specific artificial intelligence prompts, examples of classroom lessons and assessments that could be enhanced through artificial intelligence, hands-on practice of sound pedagogical instruction and clear directions on developing school policies for artificial intelligence in the educational setting.
