Resources
The ASCD Book Bash
ASCD Annual Conference attendees are invited to attend the Books and Fun in the Sun Bash on Friday, April 1, 5–7 p.m., at the Rosen Center Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Designed as the kick-off to the 60th ASCD Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, the Bash is both a service project and a social event. Attendees are asked to bring a children's book to donate to the Orange County Public Schools, Title I schools. Pearson Education and Nova Southeastern University are sponsoring the Bash—which includes food, music, jugglers and clowns, carnival game booths, and lots of camaraderie. The Parents' Choice Foundation is donating several hundred children's books. For more information about the Bash, visit the Annual Conference section of the ASCD Web site (www.ascd.org).
Community Connections
ASCD is proud to announce its first connected community—the ASCD Atlantic Canada Connected Community. This new group provides a framework for organizing local educators under the ASCD umbrella in the four Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. ASCD connected communities bring together groups of individuals concerned with improving learning and teaching that wish to align with ASCD.
Each self-designed connected community determines its own focus and definition. This design enables connected communities to meet local needs while enriching the overall ASCD community.
For more information about how to start a connected community, visit www.ascd.org and click on About Us, or contact Jenifer Eggleston (703-575-5616; jeggleston@ascd.org).
ASCD and the Whole Child
ASCD's Leadership Council recently adopted an official position calling for a comprehensive approach to learning that recognizes that successful young people are knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for a multicultural world. Unlike the current direction in education practice and policy that focuses overwhelmingly on student achievement as measured by standardized tests, this approach reflects a complete system of education accountability. Developing the whole child requires contributions from communities, schools, and teachers that entail everything from supporting family involvement in schools to providing a challenging curriculum.
The ASCD position statement is available online at www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.1f07a81af3aa4bb6dd1b2110d3108a0c.
