The two 2023 Educator Summits were a big success; this year, the SCA will present summits across the United States and Asia.
BY J. MARIE CARLAN
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photos courtesy of Specialty Coffee Association
Following the successful 2023 Educator Summits in South Korea and Italy, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has announced a 2024 Educator Summit Series, with five one-day conferences to be held across the globe.
The Purpose
The Educator Summits are designed to provide in-depth education to coffee educators, with the purpose of equipping them with the most recent and effective teaching methods. The three key areas of focus are enhancing coffee education, teaching techniques, and coffee value assessment. Through several workshops/sessions, speakers will aim to simplify complex coffee-related concepts, provide insight into fostering effective learning environments, and create discussion around the SCA Coffee Value Assessment tool.
“Educators are a vitally important part of the specialty coffee community imparting knowledge across the entire coffee value chain. If you are a coffee educator or aspiring to be one, you will not want to miss this opportunity to learn and connect,“ said the SCA in a press release.
The Conferences in the 2024 Educator Summit Series
First up is the Educator Summit on October 1 in Philadelphia, which will be hosted at the Lavazza Training Center. The second Educator Summit will be held October 12 at Katz Coffee in Houston. Three Educator Summits will be held in Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea in December. To keep tabs on future Educator Summits, you can subscribe to SCA’s newsletter.
What’s On
Here are the key sessions at the summits:
- Making Water Chemistry Accessible with speaker Brady Butler. In this session, trainers will learn to create hands-on and sensory activities that help learners appreciate the relevance of water chemistry and evaluate water composition.
- Introducing Affective Assessments to Learners. In this session, Dr. Mario Fernandez will equip trainers to help learners understand how to use the Affective Assessment portion of the SCA Coffee Value Assessment tool.
- Teaching an Accurate History of Coffee with speaker Laurel Carmichael. This session will go over coffee’s complex history and how it has shaped the current coffee landscape, and the historiography of coffee (how it’s been recorded and taught). Further, attendees will learn the basics of critical analysis and the importance of embracing diverse voices in historical context.
- Getting in Harmony with Your Visual Aids. In this session, speaker Ben Helt will lead coffee trainers in learning how to use supporting visual aids and materials to supplement their teaching programs for the students’ benefit.
- Designing Informal Assessments with speaker Chelsea Dubay. This session will cover strategies to foster learner participation and determine where learners need more support.
Get Involved
Is there an Educator Summit happening near you? You can register for the Philadelphia Summit here and the Houston Summit here.
The Educator Summit 2024 Series USA event sponsors are Pacific Foods Barista Series, Rocket Espresso, and Bluewater Group, with hosts Lavazza and Katz Coffee. Asia’s event sponsors are BWT water+more and Stronghold Technologies, Inc.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Marie Carlan (she/they) is the online editor for Barista Magazine. She’s been a barista for 16 years and writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil. When she’s not behind the espresso bar or toiling over content, you can find her perusing record stores, writing poetry, and trying to keep the plants alive in her Denver apartment.
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