Date & time: December 16, 2021 7:00–8:00 PM ET

Description & Goals:

January welcomes endless opportunities to refresh well-known classroom rules, revive everyday routines, and revisit and renew individual hopes and dreams. In this panel discussion, school educators will reflect on the challenges of returning to school after winter break and share ways to help students center their attention on strengthening a positive learning community.

Participants will:

  • Hear panelists’ personal experiences and reflections about the challenges of returning to school after days of unstructured vacation time
  • Explore ways to recapture the rhythm of the school day
  • Examine the need to rethink hopes and dreams in light of student growth and development

 

Kerry O’Grady, Host and Lead Panelist

Kerry is an educational consultant and coach for Center for Responsive Schools. For over ten years, she has partnered with public, independent, and international schools in fourteen countries and forty-two states, helping to bring social-emotional learning to their students. As a skilled facilitator of adult learning, Kerry designs and presents engaging conference sessions, in-person workshops, and online learning for educators around the world. Prior to joining the organization, she was a classroom teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools. She holds a master of arts in educational transformation from George Mason University.

 

 

Amy Wade

Amy is a school counselor for Canandaigua Primary School in Canandaigua, New York, where she began her career almost thirty years ago. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and her elementary teaching certification from SUNY Geneseo. Immediately following, she went on to pursue a master’s and certificate of advanced study in counseling from SUNY Albany. In addition to her work as a school counselor, Amy teaches at the college level and has taught courses in education, human services, and psychology. Amy has been a consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools for twenty years and has trained countless teachers from a variety of settings including urban, suburban, rural, private, charter, and parochial schools. In addition to being a Responsive Classroom trainer, Amy is coauthor of the new publication Empowering Educators: A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching Grades K, 1, 2. Amy’s greatest accomplishment is her family, and her most treasured time is spent with her husband and two daughters.

 

Beth Osgood

Beth is a consulting teacher for Center for Responsive Schools. Prior to her work with CRS, Beth was an elementary educator for twenty-five years, teaching both second and third grade in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. In addition, she has extensive experience working with students who have a variety of academic, social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. Beth cocreated an SEL summer program for multiaged autistic students for her district and served as the program’s head teacher for several years. She holds a master’s degree in education and a certificate in autism spectrum disorders from Antioch University New England.

 

 

Sara Kramer

Sara currently teaches a mixed-age pre-K/K class in New York City. Previously, she served as a music teacher for over ten years. She has been a practitioner and advocate of the Responsive Classroom approach since her second year of teaching, when she began to develop the tools to build joyful, safe, and academically challenging classrooms. She loves being a part of a community of educators who seek to develop and nurture the humanity of the learners we get the opportunity to work with.