Inspiring Students to Identify Their Strengths
Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions. How amazing is that?
Classroom teachers in California serve more than 6 million students.
Our members work in 1,100 school districts across California and help students achieve academically and learn the skills needed to be successful and productive citizens. Their expertise is called upon for implementing best practices in our schools or to improve the learning conditions of the profession. People trust teachers!
Getting involved with CTA can provide new and veteran educators with information and training on educational leadership, classroom management, parental involvement and more topics to enhance ones’s professional growth.
Centering Teacher Voices in the California Educator
Our California Educator magazine is where we learn about our amazing members and offer resources to help teachers do what they do best — teach!
Read teacher stories, get informed about education advocacy, community events and dates, and learn about other CTA chapters.
Day of the Teacher
California’s Day of the Teacher honors the instructional excellence in our public schools, community colleges and universities each year in May with a special theme.
Our Conferences and Trainings Help Educators Learn and Grow
CTA offers a wealth of conferences and training opportunities. Our Good Teaching Conference supports excellent teaching and learning practices for classroom teachers via peer-to-peer instruction. Through a variety of diverse workshops focused on curriculum content areas for classroom teachers, the conference provides opportunities for professional development and time to network and share ideas with colleagues and experts in the field of education.
Other conference topics include LGBTQ+ issues, social justice and equity, new educator-focused, communications, bargaining, school finance, community engagement and more.
Classroom Resources
We are passionate about educating! CTA members constantly strive to provide the best learning environments for our students. Check out opportunities for educators to learn from fellow educators and other experts in our profession.
Introducing the 2023 Teachers of the Year
The California Teachers of the Year (CTOY) Program highlights educational innovation, student learning and the rewards of teaching. Its purpose is to bring attention to the teaching profession and to heighten interest in teaching as a career. It honors teachers who successfully employ strategies to increase academic success.
Many of California’s Teachers of the Year have gone on to become National Teacher of the Year recipients or finalists. Learn more about the 2023 honorees.
“Great teachers are the core of a great educational system. Teaching changes the lives of individual students, but beyond that, teachers show us all that all children can achieve, no matter who they are.”
— Tony Thurmond, California Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jason Torres-Rangel, United Teachers Los Angeles, is a high school AP English teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the LA Unified School District.
Catherine Borek, Compton Education Association, is an AP English literature and drama teacher at Dominguez High School in the Compton Unified School District.
Lauren Camarillo, Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District Teachers Association, teaches Spanish and the Ambassador Class and serves as an advisor for the Ambassadors Club and the Spartan Dance Club at Mountain View High School in the Mountain View–Los Altos Union High School District.
Ben Case, Irvine Teachers Association, is an instrumental music and music theory teacher at Northwood High School in the Irvine Unified School District.
Bridgette Donald-Blue, United Teachers Los Angeles, is a fourth-grade multiple subject teacher at Coliseum Street Elementary School in LAUSD. She deferred law school to fulfill a two-year commitment to Teach for America, and 30 years later, is still teaching in the classroom.
Learn more about the 2023 honorees.
