In November, English teacher Julie Breeden and media specialist Tara Foor will represent SHS at the National Council of Teachers of English.

The council is a national organization for English teachers and anyone that is related to the English field, such as librarians, media specialists or English education professors, according to Foor.

Breeden feels that being represented on a national level shows how SHS is like a role model for other schools and does things that other schools may want to replicate.

This year will be Foor’s first year attending and participating at the council, but she does make an effort to go to other national conventions to stay informed on how to make SHS a better place.

“Even on a national level, Southport is ahead of the game in (being) pioneers in showing that our students indeed are going to be independent thinkers in the ever-changing world,” Foor said.

Foor will give a presentation on ways that teachers can encourage students to actively participate in diverse conversations. Breeden will also present at the event. Her presentation will give information on a project she assigned to one of her classes. For the project, her students created masks after reading “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. The masks currently hang around Breeden’s classroom.

This is not Breeden’s first year attending the council meeting, but this will be her first year giving a presentation. She was excited to receive the news that she would be sharing the student projects with the council audience.

“When my presentation was accepted, I thought, ‘Wow, people think that I really have something to offer,’” Breeden said.