Mark your calendar

INDEPENDENT TEACHERS PLAN GATHERING

Ravenscroft School will host the N.C. Association of Independent Schools teacher conference Thursday and Friday, bringing more than 1,000 educators from across the state.

The theme of the conference is "Think Globally, Teach Locally," and the keynote speaker is teacher, writer and futurist Ian Jukes, who has written or co-written six books, nine educational series and more than 200 journal articles. Jukes will be joined by Carl Hobert, founder of Axis of Hope, a nonprofit organization that offers international conflict resolution workshops to children and adults worldwide.

In addition, educators from NCAIS schools will give more than 150 workshops to fellow teachers and administrators on a wide variety of topics.

For more information, go to the Ravenscroft Web site, www.ravenscroft.org, or the N.C. Association of Independent Schools Web site, www.ncais.org.

LANE HOUSE TALK IS ON CEMETERY RENEWAL

The Joel Lane Museum House will present a lecture on "Promoting Heritage Tourism Through the Preservation of City-Owned Cemeteries" in its visitors center Thursday at 7 p.m.

Jane Thurman, president of Raleigh City Cemeteries Preservation, will focus on the group's goals of restoration, GIS mapping, database collection and publication for the cemeteries and the promotion of heritage tourism. Thurman's group was started in 2006 with a goal of helping Raleigh raise money for the restoration and conservation of three city-owned cemeteries: City Cemetery, Mount Hope Cemetery and O'Rorke Cemetery.

The cost of the lecture is $15 for the general public and $10 for members of the Joel Lane Historical Society. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. To make a reservation, call 833-3431. For more information, e-mail joellane@bellsouth.net or see www.joellane.org.