Conference Snaps

Posted on June 30, 2026

Filed as: 2026 Conference Daily | Updates

Media: The images posted below may be used in news stories attached to the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference. Please credit the photo: Photo © with permission from Educators Rising.

We want to sincerely thank everyone who made this year’s Educators Rising National Conference a memorable and educational experience. Thanks go out to our sponsors, our competition judges, teacher leaders and chaperones, to our amazing keynote speakers, to our Educators Rising Champions, and to our students and their families. We wanted to share here some of our favorite snapshots from this year’s conference. These represent contributions from our student influencers and staff. Finally, congratulations to those who placed across our competitions & contests.

We hope to see you next year in Columbus, Ohio!

Where do you fit in? Educators Rising can help you decide.

Students often tell us that they joined their school’s Educators Rising chapter because they were invited. A friend or a classmate may have said, “Hey, this group has a lot of fun.” It could be that a teacher suggested the chapter would be a good fit. Some...

Becky Rowe on Costa Rica, Courage, and Coming Back Changed

Travel, it's said, can change you. Educator Becky Rowe recently traveled to Costa Rica thanks, in a small part, to a PDK travel scholarship. "Teaching is a universal language of love." — on meeting teachers at the school in La Fortuna Becky Rowe teaches Teaching...

Rapid Responders for 2026-2027 School Year

Educators Rising’s Rapid Responder program is an active corps of students willing to opine and respond to a variety of timely topics related to public education. The questions asked are a mix of topics developed by our student leadership team and Educators Rising’s...

Connecticut Grants Update

On June 15, 2026 we opened up grant applications for 2026-2028 exclusive to districts and schools within Connecticut to support an Educators Rising program. Through a Connecticut-based private foundation, we are able to offer grants to schools to subsidize the costs...

Young People Are Ready to Lead. Are We Ready for Them?

In just ten days, 3,300 young people will gather in Portland for the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference. They're coming to compete, to connect, and to be inspired. But something larger is also happening: they're showing up to claim their place in the future of...

2026 Conference Program Book

We're pleased to announce that our upcoming conference's official Program Book is now available for download (PDF). Inside, you'll find the full conference schedule with all the breakout sessions, in addition to learning about our student officers, our "star"...

Meet the Keynote Speakers at #EdRising26

Two Teachers Worth Listening To If you're heading to Portland this June for the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference, you already know the energy in that room is going to be something. But before you get there, it's worth getting to know two of the people who...

Chaperoning at the National Conference

Taking students to a conference out of state can be an exciting and enriching experience. If you are a teacher leader, school administrator, or parent who will be coming with students at this year's national conference in Portland, we've developed a tips guide for...

Conference Attire

We want you to look your best—ensuring confidence—when you arrive on sight in Portland. This post is going to cover the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference Attire Guidelines for participating students and competitors. Our goal is to create a professional,...

Eight Pennsylvania Colleges are now awarding credit for Educators Rising Micro-credentials

This post has pricing information that is accurate at the time of publication. This was updated on 13 May 2026 with more clarity in the table below. Pennsylvania’s teacher shortage is no accident — it's the result of a decade-long erosion of the educator pipeline....

Is the Screen the Problem, or the Lesson Plan?

Something striking landed before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in January. Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, drawing from decades of international assessment data, delivered a finding that has since rippled across education policy circles: Gen Z is the first...

Something New for Curriculum Subscribers

If you've been thinking about bringing the Educators Rising Curriculum into your school or district — or you're already using it and want to get more out of it — here's news worth reading: curriculum subscribers now have access to a brand-new online training center,...

The education workforce is bigger than you think. Your students should know that.

When we say "education career," most people picture a classroom teacher. And teaching is a remarkable career — one where a single professional can impact over 3,000 lives and boost a classroom's cumulative lifetime earnings by $250,000. But here's what...

Student Perspectives on Classroom Environments

Rapid Response Survey March 2026: Spring Cleaning One of the joys for some during the spring season is the opportunity to roll up your sleeves and pull out the gloves and supplies to “spring clean” your home. The ritual we call spring cleaning became the topic for our...

Classroom Environments & Spring Cleaning

Spring Forward: Start Building Your Future Teacher Pipeline Today

Across the country, school districts are facing the same challenge: finding and keeping great teachers. Recruiting new educators is increasingly difficult, expensive, and uncertain. Yet one of the most effective long-term solutions is already sitting in...

PO Box 13090
Arlington, VA 22219
(812) 339-1156 (10am-4pm ET)
info@educatorsrising.org
media@pdkintl.org

Payment Remit Address:
P.O. Box 745955
Atlanta, GA 30374-5955

About Us
Donate
Careers
Podcast
Store