Arkansas Governor Michael Beebe signed a new bill into law that promotes a whole child approach to educating the state's children. The legislation (PDF) establishes a Whole Child Whole Community recognition program and aims to measure the comprehensive well-being of children and how well stakeholders are meeting their needs according to the five whole child tenets (healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged) and their indicators as identified by ASCD.
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 third annual Whole Child Virtual Conference is a free, online event that provides a forum and tools for schools and districts working toward sustainability and changing school cultures to serve the whole child. Built on the theme, "Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture," the conference will be held May 6–10, with international pre-conference sessions held on Friday, May 3, for Australasian and European audiences. The conference features presentations from renowned speakers, educators, authors, and education experts who have successfully implemented a whole child approach in schools around the world, including ASCD Vision in Action award-winning schools and Whole Child Network schools.
Below, we hear from Finnish educator, ASCD Board member, and Whole Child Virtual Conference presenter Pasi Sahlberg, whose session, "The Finnish Experience and the Whole Child," will be held Wednesday, May 8, 10:00–11:00 a.m. eastern time.
As we've said many times across this blog and in our newsletters and podcasts, we believe that a whole child approach to education is the only approach that prepares young people for long-term educational, civic, and work-life success. We believe that most educators know that to be true, but sometimes act in ways quite contrary to their beliefs. We believe a whole child approach is a relatively simple concept that is quite complex to put in place.
For those reasons and more, 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.
Nestled between the Gila River and Ak-Chin Indian Communities 30 miles south of Phoenix, Ariz., the city of Maricopa had a population of 1,060 in 2000, according to U.S. Census Data. In 2010, the population was 43,482. This exponential growth of more than 4,000 percent created new challenges and opportunities, including transitioning a small one-campus school district into a successful medium-sized district. Today the district has nine school sites with state-of-the-art facilities, including top-rated athletic fields, a state-recognized performing arts center, and a community facility for large forums.
Using ASCD's Whole Child Initiative framework, the Maricopa Unified School District (MUSD) has reached a new level of success. The staff and community in Maricopa are focused on ensuring that each child in the district is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged with a written, sustainable plan to continue the students' success.
Recently, I dropped off more than 100 certificates for our principal, Mat McRae, to sign for winners in our high school's March Into Reading challenge. For the contest, students could draw or paint a new cover for their favorite book; create a book out of metal, wood, clay, or the medium of their choice; or create a graphic design that promotes reading. When all the entries were in, we had nearly 300 projects to judge, out of a school of 650 students. Our principal's response to the overwhelming participation in our school was, "It's all about the leadership."
The qualities and skills required of today's principals have shifted quite dramatically over the past decade. It was not long ago that principals were expected to manage the building, and those hiring principals looked for individuals who were organized and knowledgeable about building operations. Those individuals who were never taught the skills that are needed for today's principal are now caught in the shift in priorities. This shift has made it very difficult for principals who were appointed under the previous expectations.
The topic of principal effectiveness and its role in comprehensive, sustainable school improvement has been on our minds as we bring our ASCD Forum discussion to a close. We asked readers of ASCD SmartBrief, a free daily e-mail news service that provides summaries and links to major education stories and issues, what best defines effective principals. More than a third (34 percent) of readers agree that the most important standard is for principals to have a clear vision and inspire and engage others in developing and realizing it. At a secondary level, about one in six educators felt that one of the following four standards were equally important and most descriptive of an effective principal:
ASCD's third annual Whole Child Virtual Conference is a free, online event that provides a forum and tools for schools and districts working toward sustainability and changing school cultures to serve the whole child. Built on the theme, "Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture," the conference will be held May 6–10, with international pre-conference sessions held on Friday, May 3, for Australasian and European audiences. The conference features presentations from renowned speakers, educators, authors, and education experts who have successfully implemented a whole child approach in schools around the world, including ASCD Vision in Action award-winning schools and Whole Child Network schools.
Below, we hear from educators and Whole Child Virtual Conference presenters Walter McKenzie and Thomas Hoerr, whose session, "Grit: Multiple Intelligences and Instructional Technology in the Classroom," will be held Thursday, May 9, 4:00–5:00 p.m. eastern time.
In elementary school I could not imagine why I was being tortured by Latin or math, and my perception of soccer was chiefly that of being a crashee.
But I loved starting things, especially newspapers. Once I had saved enough to buy a mimeograph machine, which was an improvement over my prior mass reproduction method of typing hard on as many carbon copy sheets as possible, I was unstoppable.
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