Annual MEA Conference returns Oct. 15
With more relicensure classes!
Education Minnesota’s annual MEA conference will be held Thursday, Oct. 15 at the St. Paul RiverCentre. This event, which is the union’s largest professional development conference, will feature dozens of workshops and exhibitors.
Details
- The MEA conference is only open to aspiring educators and Education Minnesota members.
- All attendees must register by Friday, Oct. 9. Classes fill up quickly, so we recommend registering as early as possible.
- Attendee check-in begins at 7:30 a.m.
- General session: 9 a.m.
- Workshops: 10:45 a.m.-4:45 p.m.
- Parking: the closest parking ramps are RiverCentre Ramp, 150 W. Kellogg Blvd.; Science Museum of Minnesota, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd.; Lawson Ramp, 11 5th St. W. More parking options are available at www.stpaul.gov/parking-saint-paul
- For MEA attendees, free childcare is available for children ages 6 months-12 years. You can register when you register for the conference.
- Attendees may be able to earn continuing education credit for attending MEA and some workshops may help fulfill relicensure requirements. After MEA, Education Minnesota will email you an attendance certificate for the sessions you attended. Please check with your district on whether you will receive credit.
Don’t miss keynote speaker Jessica Hawk
Jessica Hawk, known on social media as Myteacherface, will be giving the keynote speech at the 2026 MEA conference. Hawk was a public school educator for 32 years before retiring in 2024. She began her teaching career in Prince George’s County, Maryland, but spent 29 years as a high school English teacher in southern New Jersey, where she was a proud member of her local union and the New Jersey Education Association for her entire career.
While at the high school, Jessica taught everything from basic skills to advanced placement, sophomores to seniors, literature to film analysis—often all in the same day. As she was teaching, she completed two masters degrees, a doctorate and National Board Certification, while also being an advisor to various clubs and classes. The most special to her was the Gay-Straight Alliance. She was the adviser for 20 years and was recognized as the New Jersey State Equality Champion of the year in 2015.
As much as she loved teaching, she knew it was best to leave before she didn’t love it, so she moved on to full-time content creation in 2024, which is also when she became a member of the New Jersey Retired Teachers Association. Because of her humor and her brutal honesty about the teaching profession, Jessica has amassed more than 1.7 million followers across platforms and over 200 million views of her content. She is a regular guest on the Teachers Off Duty podcast and makes content for Bored Teachers social media pages as well.
You can find her on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok: @myteacherface.
