ECI KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

WEAVING CONNECTIONS...

Thursday, January 10

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed. D.
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor at Lesley University, has taught teachers for more than 30 years and is currently a research affiliate at Lesley's Center for Children, Families, and Public Policy. Since the mid-1980s, Nancy has researched and written about the impact of violence, especially in the media, on children's lives and social development, and she is a recognized national expert on this subject. Nancy also teaches and writes about how children learn to be peacemakers--how the skills for caring relationships and positive conflict resolution can grow in children and young people.

Nancy has co-authored four books and written numerous articles on media violence, conflict resolution, peaceable classrooms and global education. She is an ongoing consultant for several PBS kids' shows including Arthur, Postcards from Buster, Zoom and Fetch. Her new book, Taking Back Childhood: Helping Your Kids Thrive in a Fast-Paced, Media-Saturated, Violence-Filled World comes out in early April from Hudson Street Press

Saturday, January 12

Vivian Gussin Paley
Play is the means by which children set about to study each other and their world, sentence by sentence, scene by scene, while they figure out what comes next. The game of discovery begins: where is the story going and how do we include ourselves—teachers, parents, caregivers—alongside the children in its progress? Our search takes us beyond the doll cribs and the blocks. We are exploring the very nature of the human imagination.

Vivian, a kindergarten and nursery school teacher for 37 years, primarily at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, writes and teaches about the world of young children. She examines their stories and play, their logic and their thinking, searching for meaning in the social and moral landscapes of classroom life. She brings her storytelling/story acting and discussion techniques to children, teachers, and parents throughout the world.