Ellen Minter
North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) Curriculum and Instruction, Division Director, Arts Education and World Languages
Ms. Minter has served in public education since 1996 both in the classroom as a business and marketing teacher for the Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) and most recently as the Lead Technology Teacher for Middle and High Schools for ABSS. She has also taught for Alamance Community College in the business department as an adjunct faculty.
Ms. Minter served as the NCVPS Distance Learning Advisor for ABSS, prior to coming onboard as an educator-on-loan. Her experience in distance learning coupled with her vision for supporting students was highly sought by NCVPS. As a distance learning advisor, she championed the development of the ABSS
Online Student Support portal and brought together key stakeholders regularly in roundtable discussions about online learning and how ABSS students can be successful.
In her current duties as Curriculum and Instruction Division Director, she is responsible for teacher retention/recruitment, managing the “High 5 Process” for Arts Education and World language course development, serving on outreach and partnership teams, managing teacher staff development and working with other teams to develop and implement online collaboration tools for NCVPS/Learn and Earn Online operations.
Ms. Minter holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from Elon College, a Master of Science in Business Education from UNC-Greensboro and has obtained additional teaching licensure in Marketing and Journalism.
Currently she serves as the North Carolina Technology in Education Society (NCTIES) President. The past year, she served as Vice President and 2009 Conference Chair.
Statement of Educational Philosophy
Over the past twelve years in the education field, I have served in a variety of roles that have influenced my educational philosophy. From these experiences, I have learned that it is important to listen to the student. Each student has a unique way of learning and we must listen to the end user of the service that we provide. The benefit of working with the adults of the future is that we as educators can help shape their lives. We can help improve our own future by educating our children. Educating students can also bring about challenges that face us as adults. Through these challenges we become better people who can then in turn become better educators.
Educators can not do this alone. They need the assists from the family, the school and the student. The role of the parent is to be involved with their kids’ education. This requires that they understand the curriculum that is taught at each level. The school needs to provide the facility and positive environment for students to learn. The decisions that are made to provide this must include everyone including the parent, teacher, and student. The student needs to be involved in the learning process and learn to voice their own opinions about their education. Education is a process in itself that is ever changing. Teachers do not know all the answers and they must find ways to learn together with their students.
Students should be held to the standard that is best suited for them. We, as educators, must get down on our knees beside our students and find out who they really are and how they best learn. Education is not something that you can put a square into a round hole. It must be molded and shaped for each child, just like the different in their hair and eye color. All minds are not created equal so why should be educate our students the same way.
I believe that teaching is a life long process of learning. We must all continue to learn and grow in the world around us. I believe that we must think outside the box and find ways to continue to teach and grow along with our students, so we can better understand the world they live in. We are teaching them for their future not ours.