Places to see Dr. Helm this spring

National School Board Association, March 29, What Brain Research and Neuroscience Tell Us About Educational Facilities and School Design  Set against a backdrop of the world economy and the skills necessary for success in the 21st century, this presentation highlights our current understanding of the burgeoning realm of neuroscience and its implications for school facilities. Photos and design plans show practical applications. Leave with a checklist for evaluating your own facilities based on research implications.  with Steven Turckes, Perkins+Will

National School Board Association, March 30, Beyond Test Scores: Build Positive Relationships Between Your School and the Community -- Show Them How Students Are Learning! Student work has the power to supplement or counteract the impact of test scores on your community's beliefs about the effectiveness of your schools. Learn from professional communicators how to incorporate evidence of student learning in newsletters, notices, press releases, websites, and both school and community displays. A checklist enables school board members to evaluate their district's capacity for effective strategic communication and create communicator/educators who know how to share student achievement. with Amanda Helm, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Open Door, April 11, A Day to Reflect, Organize and Implement, See project work in action, an outstanding environment for learning, and participate in seminars with staff. Dr. Helm's seminar  is Implications from Brain Research for Early Childhood Environments.

South Dakota State Early Childhood Conference, April 24   South Dakota Association for the Education of Young Children & the South Dakota Head Start Association Annual Conference,  Keynote Address: Contegrity: Continuity and Integrity in Education, We face many challenges in our schools and centers today- demands for greater quality of care and standards in our schools. At the same time that brain research challenges us to integrate and focus on meaningful learning experiences, some parents demand back to basics. Are we doing what is best for children? This keynote is about continuity and integrity. What it is, where it is, and what we need to do to get it and keep it. It is a humorous look at what we do with children all day but at the same time a hard hitting confrontation about what we ought to be doing and maybe aren't.

Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, April 25, Keynote Address: Keynote Address: Contegrity: Continuity and Integrity in Education

New Edition Windows on Learning: Documenting Young Children's Work
This new book combines an expansion of Windows on Learning along with a new revised version of Teacher Materials for Documenting Children's WorkClick here on Windows on Learning: Documenting Young Children's Work to preorder this book

Energize Your Professional Development by Connecting with a Purpose:  Building Communities of Practice  in the June issue of Young Children the journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.  pages 12 - 16. Read an excerpt from the article here.

 Coming soon:  Breaking new ground: The evolution of the community school concept in one city. Helm, J., and Clark, D. In M. Cornish (Ed.), Promising practices for partnering with families in the early years: Family, school, community partnership monograph series. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. (In press).

Documentation of Children's Spiritual Development in a Preschool Program: What Teachers, Parents and the Congretation Learned. Christian Education Journal, Volume 4, Issue 2, Fall, 2007.