Culver-Stockton Spring Student Mini-Conference

The education department of Culver-Stockton College held its spring 2024 Mini-Conference for their students on Tuesday, March 26, from 9am-2pm on the Culver-Stockton campus.

This year’s conference opened with keynote speaker Darrion Cockrell welcoming all to the event and inspiring current and future students to ‘Be the change you want to see. For nearly a decade, Crestwood elementary school teacher has been living the transformative life as an award-winning educator who is committed to providing the same kind of positive teacher-student experience that saved him from heading down the wrong path while growing up in St. Louis. In 2021, Cockrell was named Missouri Teacher of the Year and was honored with the National Education Association Horace Mann Friend of Education award.

The day’s events included Q and A with education majors, breakout sessions focusing on financial literacy, transformations in elementary classrooms, a brain architecture game, and C-SC master’s programs. This year’s book club roundtable discussion focused on “Ugly Me” by J.E. Stamper. A teacher of record panel discussion was also a session students could choose to attend.

Each year, the mini-conference also hosts a Hall of Excellence Ceremony, where during lunch, a distinguished educator is honored. This year’s award was given posthumously to Culver-Stockton Alumnus and former C-SC faculty member, Ann (Stow) Hammer ‘72. Ann’s husband and children were in attendance to accept the award in her honor.

Ann attended Canton High School and earned her teaching degree from Culver-Stockton College in 1972. The well-loved educator taught elementary school before going on to finish her master’s degree in education at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State University) and became an elementary principal at Canton R-V in 1982. Ann was a natural leader and born administrator. In 1991 her administrative ability was on full display as she was honored as Missouri’s National Distinguished Principal in Washington DC. After serving for many years at Canton R-V Schools, she earned her specialist degree in education from Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University) and took on an entirely new administrative role as superintendent of Wellsville Schools in Wellsville, MO.

After retiring from Wellsville Schools, she looked forward to time spent away from school buildings; however, being the kind of woman who had trouble sitting still, she quickly found her way back to her alma mater and began to pass on her love of teaching to education students at Culver-Stockton College. In 2006, Ann came to Culver-Stockton as a professor of education and director of student teaching.

From 2010 to 2014 she also served as chair of the division of education and applied arts. In the interest of enlivening the education program and improving student experiences, she requested and received funding for two important education department projects: an Education Technology Lab and a Simulated Education Classroom.

She continued to bring vitality and experiential learning to education students in many creative ways. The highlight of such efforts was her students’ giving presentations at two notable education venues. At the conference of The Association of Middle School Level Education in Portland, Oregon, her students gave creative presentations on “Middle School in High Definition” and “Middle School—There’s an App for That.” At the conference of The Missouri Middle School Association, Professional Development, her students gave presentations on “Middle School in High Definition” and “Middle School Students in Professional Learning Communities.”

She worked hard for her students’ success and in 2012 received the Advisor of the Year award from Culver-Stockton College. When Ann first entered classrooms at Culver-Stockton, students respectfully called her Dr. Hammer. She readily informed them that she did not have a PhD. Thereafter when Ann introduced herself to new classes, she would say “Hi. I’m Dr…no.” From that time to her retirement from Culver-Stockton in 2015 and beyond, her students continued to affectionately refer to her as Dr. No.

Education students are encouraged to attend the entire day and will need permission from professors to miss classes and be responsible for any missed assignments.