CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman believes that “teachers are the most important school-based factor in academic success.” To help that chance of success in the Charlotte region, area educators are embarking on a new endeavor to help public school teachers strengthen their professional development and increase their effectiveness in the classroom. The Charlotte Teachers Institute is the first of its kind in North Carolina and one of only a handful around the U.S. CTI has been formed as a partnership between UNC Charlotte, CMS and Davidson College that offers seminars on subjects that the teachers have chosen. We’ll find out how the project came to the region and what leaders hope will come from it.
Guests
Ann Clark – Chief Academic Officer for CMS
Dr. Joan Lorden, Ph.D. – Provost, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UNC Charlotte
Jeff Joyce – National Board Certified Teacher at Northwest School of the Arts
Dr. Ann Fox, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of English and Gender Studies Concentration Coordinator at Davidson College

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Part One: South Pacific
On this Veteran’s Day, we take a closer look at a Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical based on James Michner’s writing about World War II in the South Pacific. The first revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific takes a fresh look at that period in our history. We’ll meet the star and director.
Guests
Carmen Cusack – Nellie in South Pacific, (also Elphaba in the U.S. tour of Wicked)
Bartlett Sher – Director of the revival of South Pacific

• South Pacific is at Belk Theater November 10th – 15th. More information.

Part Two: 38th Evacuation Unit
We remember Veterans, specifically veterans from WWII’s Charlotte 38th Evacuation Unit today. Not all veterans are in the midst of the combat. Some serve behind the scenes, in makeshift hospitals, working to save the lives of others. We’ll meet two nurses from the World War II 38th Evacuation Unit out of Charlotte, NC and talk about their experiences, which has been made into a documentary film called If They Could See Us Now. The director of that film also joins us. 
Guests
Chris Hudson – Director of the film If They Could See Us Now
Martha Pegram Mitchell – Nurse in the 38th Evacuation Unit from Charlotte in WWII

• More information about If They Could See Us Now

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On Election Day last week, for the first time in 14 years, Pat McCrory was not on the ballot as a candidate for Mayor of Charlotte. Anthony Foxx, the winner of that election, is now gearing up for his term as Mayor of the Queen City. As Mayor McCrory packs up the boxes in his uptown office, we talk with him about his decade and a half as Mayor, politics and we’ll ask about his plans for the future.
Guest
Patrick McCrory – Outgoing Mayor of Charlotte

• Charlotte Talks  |  Charlotte: On the Way to Becoming…?

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Epilepsy affects millions of Americans and each year 200,000 people are diagnosed with the affliction. People living with epilepsy must deal with radical lifestyle changes as well as a stigma that is often attached to the condition. A Monroe man is learning to live with epilepsy and he is spreading the word on how others can interact with each other, learn from each other and teach all of us a deeper understanding of the condition. He’s bringing his Epilepsy Advocate “Take Charge” tour to Charlotte, and he shares his story with us.
Guests
Don Buswell - Epilepsy Advocate, Lecturer at “Take Charge”
Dr. Robert Nahouraii – Pediatric Neurologist, Mecklenburg Neurological Associates
Dr. Derek Chong – Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Columbia University

• The American Epilepsy Outreach Foundation website

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Thursday night, Charlotte Talks headed to Lenoir Rhyne University in Hickory for an evening with Jeannette Walls, writer and journalist. She wrote a memoir called The Glass Castle about her turbulent childhood with eccentric, nomadic parents. In it, she describes how she and her siblings learned to care for themselves, grew up, moved to New York, but were followed by their parents who chose life on the streets. We’ll hear that conversation today.
Guest
Jeannette Walls – Writer and journalist best-known as the former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com and author of her 2005 memoir, The Glass Castle

• Amazon  |  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Web Extra  |  The conversation continued after the show. Listen here.

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Schools are the center of learning in our country and the school library is at the epicenter of the learning experience in our schools. The American Association of School Libraries comes to Charlotte for an annual conference and we’ll meet some of the leaders of a group that represents 77,000 school libraries and over 62,000 certified media specialists. We’ll learn some of the history of the school library as well as how they’ve changed over the history of our education system, how they are keeping up with technology and how they’ve weathered challenges to some of the material they carry. We’ll hear all about school libraries.
Guests
Cassandra Barnett – President, American Association of School Libraries
Deb Christensen – President, North Carolina School Library Media Association
Gerry Solomon – School Library Media Consultant, NC Dept. of Public Instruction

• Charlotte Talks  |  Libraries and Books in the Digital Age

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Longtime Charlotte area religion writer, Ken Garfield, recently took on a new project to find and interview Holocaust survivors still living here in the Charlotte area. He was able to speak to nearly all of the twelve remaining survivors in our area and compiled his conversations into a new feature that appears in this month’s Charlotte Magazine. For Garfield, born and raised Jewish, the project is the fulfillment of a promise he made to himself long ago. We’ll talk to Garfield and two of the survivors featured in the piece.
Guests
Ken Garfield – Former Religion Editor at the Charlotte Observer, he now writes occassionally for Charlotte Magazine
Irving Bienstock – 83 years old, Holocaust survivor from Holland
Dr. Susan Cernyak-Spatz – 87 years old, Holocaust survivor from Vienna who survived Auschwitz, Theresienstadt and Ravensbruck

• Charlotte Magazine  |  All That Remains by Ken Garfield

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It’s election day and, as new leaders are being elected to offices across the state, we’ll look at the growing story of what may turn out to be a scandal ridden term for Governor Mike Easley. From possible campaign violations to a questionable job appointment for his wife, Governor Easley’s story is complex and fraught with allegations. We’ll speak with a reporter who has covered the scandals from the very beginning to find out what has happened to this point and what may still be to come for the former North Carolina Governor.
Guests
Andy Curliss – Staff Reporter, The Raleigh News and Observer
Steve Riley – Senior Editor of Investigations, The Raleigh News and Observer

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Today we explore an industry that fuels nearly $2 Billion in economic impact, creates near 20,000 jobs, is larger than the furniture industry in our region and does not involve race cars or banking. The equine industry in North Carolina is vast and growing. We are the tenth largest horse state in the nation and neighboring Union County alone has over 11,000 horses. Forces are coming together to grow and protect the current industry and some advocates want to bring back horse racing to North Carolina. We’ll explore an in-depth study on the Equine industry in our state with one of the researchers who conducted it.
Guests
Jim Cogdell – Owner, The Fork Farm and Stables Equine Training and Event Facility
Susan Grey – Executive Director, North Carolina Horse Council
Mike Yoder – Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Animal Sciences at NC State University

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Changes in leadership, questions about student assignment and problems with budget will have a major impact in voters’ minds when they make their choice for members of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board next week. We’ll talk about the issues, the candidates and the overall picture of the school system.
Guests
Simone Orendain – Education Reporter for WFAE
Ann Doss Helms – Education Reporter for The Charlotte Observer
Kathy Ridge – Executive Director of MeckEd: Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education

• Map  |  CMS School Districts

Voting Resources

• WFAE  |  19 candidates running for CMS board seats
• Charlotte Observer  |  School Board Profiles
• Charlotte Observer  |  Education
• Mecklenburg County Board of Elections  |  Candidate List
• Meck Ed  |  School Board Candidate Profiles

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