Pressroom: Make Your Mark Professional Development Series

FableVision Announces "Make Your Mark" Professional Development Series

Innovative Courseware Helps Educators Facing Overwhelming Classroom Challenges

BOSTON, MA. FableVision, the internationally-acclaimed advocate for innovative student and educator resources, has launched a series of professional development “retreats” for educators across the nation, which will help introduce innovation and creativity in the classroom. Based on a successful pilot program this past spring, the first of the “Make Your Mark” Professional Development Series will be offered August 23rd and will feature award-winning author/illustrator/educator Peter H. Reynolds who has spent over two decades in classrooms around the world. FableVision’s “Make Your Mark” professional development series also includes The North Star: A Blend of New Thinking about Learning and Creativity, Inspiring Writing with Young Children, Writing Beyond Paper, Pencil, and Essay Tests, Academic Achievement: Does One Size Fit All?, and The Power of Expression.

Peter Reynolds, who also serves as FableVision’s CEO and founder explains, “Our educational system can squeeze the life out of great, innovative teachers – FableVision’s mission is to inspire them not to give up.” As education researcher Richard Ingersoll (Is There Really a Teacher Shortage?) has reported, 14 percent of first-time teachers quit in the first year; within three years, 33 percent will leave; and after five years—the average time it takes for teachers to maximize their students’ learning—half of all new teachers will have exited the profession.

Indeed, the U.S. Office of Educational Technology’s recently released 2005 National Education Technology Plan is calling for creative new approaches to wrestle the myriad of classroom challenges we face. The report explains that there is “a new fervor in American education, a new creativity that bodes well for the future of our country,” along with “creative new teaching models [that] are emerging that embrace technology to redesign curricula and organizational structures.” FableVision aims to help meet that challenge.

As Peter adds, “Educators aren’t getting creative strategies and practical “go-and-use-these-on-Monday” tools they need to make their classrooms more wonderful places – instead their days are consumed with endless standardized testing and administrative pressures.” The “Make Your Mark” Professional Development Series provides a unique blend of technical, creative and emotional support that has already made a critical difference for educators who experienced the program. As Pam Krambeck, an educator in Nebraska Public Schools notes, Peter Reynolds’ “ability to communicate and speak from the heart has touched my soul as an educator and inspired me to reach further, work harder, and to try and make a difference in the lives of the students and teachers I work with on a daily basis”.

Peter H. Reynolds will be leading the first professional development offering in the “Make Your Mark” series called The Creative Journey Retreat at the historic Dedham Community House in Dedham, MA from 9am to 3pm on Tuesday, August 23. The Creative Journey Retreat is especially designed for “educators under pressure” looking for creative ways to spark learning in their classrooms, but it is also offered for anyone looking to nurture creativity in their own professional pursuits. The day-long professional development seminar will introduce participants to “no tech, low-tech and high-tech” ways of making learning more meaningful, including book readings, animated films and hands-on activities especially designed for the “creatively-challenged adult.”

Reynolds, who speaks across the country and around the globe, is known for many of his best-selling books about authentic learning, creativity and self-expression. His books include The North Star, Ish and The Dot, in which a creative teacher encourages a reluctant little girl how to “make your mark and see where it takes you.” The Dot, published by Candlewick Press, has already been published in over twenty languages and has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Oppenheim Platinum Toy Award, Borders Books’ Original Voices 2004 Award, and the Christopher Medal, as well as the 2005 Carnegie Medal of Excellence for the film’s animated adaptation. Reynolds’ award-winning publishing work also includes the best-selling Judy Moody series written by Megan McDonald, Eleanor Estes’ The Alley and The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Judy Blume’s Fudge series, and Ellen Potter’s Olivia Kidney books.

Reynolds shares, “I travel around the country and listen to the pain and frustration of so many wonderful educators who are being drained by the demands of implementing high-stakes testing, less money for support & resources, and pressures to “teach to the test” - what I offer is hope that there is still a way to infuse meaning into the learning journey as long as we stay open to the creativity needed for the mission.” If this past spring’s sold-out seminars held in Boston and Palm Springs, California at the California Computer-Using Educator Conference are any indication, the need for more educator support is nationwide.

For the last two decades Peter has also made his mark in media and technology-delivered learning for children. Along with his identical twin brother Paul Reynolds, Peter founded the award-winning children's media company FableVision in 1996. FableVision's mission is to use media, storytelling and technology to reach all learners, especially the reluctant or challenged ones. FableVision’s award-winning educational technology products include the K5 writing software Stationery Studio, the BrainCogs Cognitive Strategy System line of software that teaches foundational learning strategies across the curriculum, Get a Clue online vocabulary program, as well as The North Star Inspiration Kit and the North Star Musical.

More information about FableVision’s Make Your Mark Professional Development Series and registration is available at www.fablevision.com/professionaldevelopment or by calling Bill Norris at 1-888-240-3734.

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