We invite you to participate in ASCD's third annual Whole Child Virtual Conference. Entitled "Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture," sessions will offer educators around the globe leadership discussions and strategies to support their work to implement and sustain a whole child approach to education.
ASCD's Whole Child Network: The Importance of School Leadership
10:00–11:00 a.m. eastern timePanel Discussion
Join Donna Snyder, manager of Whole Child Programs at ASCD, as she introduces a few school leaders from the Whole Child Network of Schools. The schools involved come from across the United States and Guam and have used the ASCD School Improvement Tool to help assess and guide their progress. Hear about the schools' experiences navigating this first year and moving the initiative along the continuum from implementation to sustainability. Panel members include
- Marla Dean, principal, Drew-Freeman Middle School, Suitland, Md.;
- Kevin Enerson, principal, Le Sueur-Henderson High School, Le Sueur, Minn.; and
- Vicki Schulenberg, principal, Fredstom Elementary School, Lincoln, Neb.
Understanding How Young Children Learn:
Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom
Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom
12:00–1:00 p.m. eastern timePresenter: Wendy Ostroff, associate professor, Curry College, Milton, Mass.
How children learn is the single most important subject for future teachers to understand. To understand learning in all its complexity, we need to examine how it develops. Children's learning as revealed in the latest developmental science research—including that on motivation, attention, memory, cognition and action—are the topics of this presentation. Processes that inspire or propel learning, such as play, confidence, self-regulation, movement, mnemonic strategies, metacognition, articulation, and collaboration, are highlighted. Critical findings and frameworks on children's learning are distilled into a synthesis of the important ideas for teachers to take away and to reference as they design their curriculum and pedagogy.
The Whole Child Approach Needs a New Strategy for Working
Within Education Systems
Within Education Systems
2:00–3:00 p.m. eastern timePresenters: Doug McCall, executive director, International School Health Network, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada; Dan Laitsch, director, Centre on Educational Leadership and Policy, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; and Peter Paulus, Institute for Psychology, Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany
If health, social service, and other agencies intend to truly support the whole child approach in education, they will need to reform their fundamental strategies in approaching school systems. In the past, health and social advocates have tried to involve educators in their many programs by documenting their health, economic burdens, and value in improving student achievement. This reform has led to competition for attention, as well as valid perceptions among educators, that these programs are an "add-on" to the core functions of schooling. This session will discuss how more successful strategies entail deeper understanding of school systems so that health and social concerns can be better integrated into the mandates and constraints of schools.
Grit: Multiple Intelligences and Instructional Technology in the Classroom
4:00–5:00 p.m. eastern timePresenters: Walter McKenzie, director of Constituent Services, ASCD, and Thomas Hoerr, head of New City School, St. Louis, Mo.
The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) has been used as a tool to give students more ways to learn. How can MI and instructional technology (IT) be used to gain 'grit'? Duckworth's Grit is a key to success in any endeavor, and MI and IT can help develop it. This session will focus on how intelligences and technology can enable teachers to elicit and reinforce grit.