ASCD Invites Educators Worldwide to Attend Free Whole Child Virtual Conference

Alexandria, VA (04/16/12)—ASCD invites educators from around the globe to participate in this year’s free Whole Child Virtual Conference, held May 3–11, 2012. This year’s theme is “Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture,” and focuses on highlighting the great work of ASCD-associated schools, providing a forum in which educators who implement the whole child approach to education can learn from one another and presenters, and expanding awareness of a whole child approach to educators worldwide.

ASCD’s 2012 Whole Child Virtual Conference is provided at no cost to participants as part of the association’s Whole Child Initiative, and all sessions will be archived for future use. Twenty-four conference sessions will be held over seven days, starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern time and ending at 4:30 p.m., with 30-minute breaks between sessions.

In addition, ASCD will host two international sessions. These sessions will run for an Australasian time zone (May 4: Sydney 10:00–12:30/Singapore 8:00–10:30) and a European time zone (May 4: London 14:00–16:30/Paris 15:00–17:30) and will bring together experts from each region to discuss health, education, policy, and a whole child approach to education around the world.

Some of the featured sessions of this year’s Whole Child Virtual Conference include

• The Well-Balanced Teacher, presented by Mike Anderson, Monday May 7, 1:00–2:15 p.m. eastern time—Anderson is a teacher, writer, and consultant who works with teachers and schools across the United States and Canada. His book The Well-Balanced Teacher helps highlight the challenges that today’s educators face as they struggle to maintain their love and passion for teaching in the midst of increasing stress and pressure in education, and offers suggestions for how teachers can take good care of themselves personally and professionally. Learn from Anderson about the importance of healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged teachers who work to implement the whole child approach to education.

• The Byrne Creek Story, presented by Principal David Rawnsley, Byrne Creek Secondary School, Tuesday May 8, 3:00–4:14 p.m. eastern time—Byrne Creek Secondary School, located in British Columbia, Canada, is the 2012 winner of the Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award. This annual award recognizes schools that have moved beyond a narrow focus on academic achievement to take action for the whole child, creating learners who are knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically active, artistically engaged, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling. Hear from Rawnsley as he outlines the Byrne Creek success story.

• FitLit—Connecting Fitness and Literacy, presented by Michael F. Opitz, Wednesday May 8, 1:00–2:15 p.m. eastern time—Opitz is a former elementary school teacher and reading specialist, and currently professor of reading at the University of Northern Colorado. He is well known to teachers, instructional leaders, and researchers as the author of numerous professional and curricular resources and through extensive professional development work in schools nationwide, including his most recent publication FitLit—Connecting Fitness and Literacy. Hear Opitz outline how and why literacy and fitness can and should be combined and how this takes place in the classroom, gym, and across the school.

Additional sessions include presentations from international experts such as Deb Wortham on school improvement, Charles Haynes on understanding and empathy, and Maurice Elias on school climate, as well as authors Bob Sullo, Mike Anderson, and Peter DeWitt. Additional school-site presenters include Kim Klepcyk, principal of Quest Early College High School in Houston, Tex., which in 2011 was awarded the Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award, and Jim Roberts, superintendent of the Batesville Community School Corporation. In 2004–05, Roberts began a coordinated approach to improve both student and staff wellness in his school system. To see the entire schedule of presenters and topics, visit the Whole Child Virtual Conference web page. The official hashtag for the Whole Child Virtual Conference is #WCVC12.

“ASCD is pleased to offer this unique learning opportunity to educators from around the globe,” said Dr. Gene Carter, executive director and CEO of ASCD. “It is ASCD’s mission to ensure that each child, in each classroom, in each community, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, and our free Whole Child Virtual Conference is one of the crucial components of our multifaceted effort to support educators worldwide as they implement a whole child approach to education.”

For more information about ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative, visit www.ascd.org/wholechild. For more information about ASCD and all of its programs, products, and services, or to join, visit www.ascd.org.

Contact Information  

• Katie Test, communications specialist, 1-703-575-5608 or by e-mail.
• Stephen Wakefield, communications director, 1-703-575-5764 or by e-mail.