Wanda McClure

Wanda McClure, president and co-founder of EdCamp Atlanta, is a leading professional in education. Her experience includes being a classroom teacher, campus leader and curriculum specialist. Currently, she is the elementary director at Amana Academy, Coca-Cola Foundation’s Georgia Charter School of the Year for 2011.

Words that would best describe her include dynamic, connector of people and ideas, and catalyst. Catalyst means “innovative transformation” to Wanda and this makes her a perfect fit as one of our speakers since this year’s theme is Catalyze.

“The catalyst in my work that has brought me to this moment in time has been forward thinking, innovative people who have brilliant ideas,” she said. “The brilliance of collaborative thought energizes me to think differently, particularly about education.”

Wanda’s life unexpectedly changed when she joined Innochat, a Twitter chat on innovation. “The innovative ideas and creativity that are shared weekly inspired me to find ways to use social media to network and connect with other educators and offered me the opportunity to glean ideas from business,” she said. The “mentoring relationship” she shared through Innochat eventually connected her with EdCamp Foundation, and it led her to the founding of EdCamp Atlanta.

Founding EdCamp Atlanta meant Wanda was able to tie in her idea of perfect happiness–belonging to a community–to a place for educators from different affiliations to come together, collaborate, and exchange ideas to shape the future of education. “I’m a champion of educators,” she said. “Students matter and teachers matter. What greater work can be there than helping others reach their best potential and being better champions?”

She considers teachers to be “the single most important factor” in student success, and enjoys “mentoring teachers to reach their best potential and build efficacy.” An ideal education system to Wanda would be a place where each person (staff, faculty, students and parents) is intentional about “educating,” where they value and respect each other. They are focused on a common goal–fostering creativity, critical thinking and curiosity to create citizen scholars.

Wanda goes on to address her main concern with today’s education system. Her concern is “the lack of respect and value given to teachers,” she stated. “There is no easy ‘fix’ or one single educational reform that will drive improvement in education. There is, however, plenty of opportunities for everyone to value the people who shape minds and train citizen scholars to become leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs of the future.” Wanda believes creating value within each school and district is a big part of the answer, not bashing education and the educators.

At Amana Academy, students are valued and engaged through an innovative model of education known as expeditionary learning, a model that focuses on high academic achievement, stewardship and responsibility.

She shares the same motto in life as Amana Academy: We are crew, not passengers. “It reminds me that I am doing life with other people. I’m not on an island by myself. It also reminds me that I have to participate in my life–life happens to you if you do not go about life intentionally.”

Wanda is not one to keep her thoughts and ideas to herself either and can be found blogging about education, technology and leadership at Think.Innovate.Educate.

Come listen to Wanda speak about her passion for education at this year’s TEDxPeachtree on November 8 at the Buckhead Theatre. Tickets are now available here.

Emily Yang is the communications coordinator for Leadership DeKalb and is looking forward to her first TEDxPeachtree event on November 8.