Category: Events

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German Doin To Keynote at the 2017 AERO Conference.

Bio:

German Doin is one of the most well-respected alternative education researchers in Latinamérica. As an independent filmmaker, he released in 2012 the film "The Forbidden Education" (La Educación Prohibida), which revolutionised the education conversation in LatinAmérica and Spain, putting the alternatives into the big discussion regarding learning and public education. His film, which has reached online over 15 million views, is still today a reference for the education debate in every major university in LA, used as a source for critical perspectives to educación.

Since then, Doin cofounded the nonprofit Reevo, the Alternative Education Network which registers, researches, connects, and actively supports the alternative education movement in the region. Reevo mediates between educators, alternative schools, movements, governments and national/local networks all over LA with the purpose of transforming education. It also promotes the raising and developing of alternative learning communities and schools through online platforms, workshops, content production and events.

In the last years German and his team were responsible for the Alternative Education Week in Colombia in 2015, held by the Secretary of Education of Bogotá; and the 4th Encounter of Nuestra América, held in Brasilia in June 2017. Both events gathered the most respected alternative educators of LA and were key for the building of networks in the region.

As a father of 2 children, he founded and participates in the coordination of a learner-centered education community in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

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Peter Gray To Keynote AERO Conference

As you know, we took a break from the publication of the e news to reevaluate the newsletter, the conference and AERO. Adler Yang, film maker and entrepreneur and free school graduate from Taiwan is visiting us for a few weeks to help out with conference promotion and organization. You can expect some interesting announcements from him soon.

 

As many people have discovered, the AERO Conference is unique in the world and the most important gathering for learner-centered education. Many new education initiatives have grown from the AERO conference.

This week we reexamined many aspects of the conference and we are happy to announce several new facets that are planned for this year:

We have a theme for the conference: If Learner-Centered Education is the Answer, What is the Question?  We'd like to hear your responses to this.

 

EXCITING NEWS:

* Peter Gray now plans to do a keynote at this conference and will be organizing a mini-conference for his Alliance of Self Directed education. Furthermore they are bringing Akilah Richards, a world-renowned speaker and expert on Self-Directed education, especially as it relates to minority students. More info coming soon.

* Also, Manisha Snoyer, founder of Cottage Class, will be bringing teachers.  parents and students from her program to the conference. They have created dozens of micro-schools and developed many services for them. More info coming soon.

*At the request of past participants, we will have activities and discussions in the lunch room during meals.

All people who register this week can do so at the $225 low income rate. After that they will have to make special arrangements to get discounts.

This conference is shaping up to be a spectacular event. We already have people coming from 25 states and 6 countries. You can see a partial list below of schools and organizational already registered. You should register right away to take advantage of it or at least contact us as soon as possible with any special needs or questions. 

 

LIST OF SOME ORGANIZATIONAL ALREADY REGISTERED TO COME TO THE AERO CONFERENCE

University of Toronto

cityLIFE nature kits

Wildwood Agile Learning Community

Liberty Soil

Liberated Learners

SelfDesign Learning Foundation

Academic Experiences Abroad

Embark Center for Self-Directed Learning

MHLA

The Highland School

True North

Alma Education International/Ojai Village Academy 

J Stein and Associates

ECG resources

Bremerton School District

Great and Small Inc.

Urban Homeschoolers

Angeles Workshop School

1975

RSU 35

Pono

Melissa Sornik, LCSW PLLC

Natural Creativity

Eliad Group

JP Green House

Reach Out Arts

Dehesa Charter School/Element Education

Institute for Music and Health

Arts of the Spirit

Cottage Class

Alliance for Self Directed Education

New School (Maine)

 

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Letters From Two Of Our AERO Conference Presenters

Hi, I'm Carol Nash, one of the founders of Alpha II Alternative School, a public democratic school in Toronto, Canada for young people ages 12 to 20 to self-direct their learning in relation to what they personally value in a community based on consensus where each person's voice counts in developing that consensus.  Alpha II was founded the first year our family was part of its sister school ALPHA Alternative School, an elementary school based on articles 26.2 and 26.3 of the declaration of human rights:

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

As a co-founder of an alternative school, I first became aware of the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) through the teachers at ALPHA.  They let me know that membership to AERO, and attending the yearly conference would be invaluable to helping to found Alpha II.  I joined AERO in 2007 and participated in the online discussions for the first few years until our family had enough money for me to attend the conference at Long Island University in New York.  In those years when we had to be very careful about our finances, what was attractive about the AERO conference was its low cost and that the stay in the residence at LIU was included in the cost.  This is still true of today's conference.

After the first year of attending as a participant, I became a yearly presenter at AERO.  What was important to me changing my status at the conference was that I now had an appointment in History of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  Since 2012, this has involved facilitating a weekly group that helps people take the stories of why they do health-related research and, with the equal help of all members of the group, develop their stories into narratives with a particular point of view to help sustain their research throughout their careers.  Since developing narratives can be seen as an important basis to self-directed learning in communities based on consensus, I see my work as an extension of why I helped to found Alpha II Alternative School and why I see this same work as relevant at the AERO conference.  

Over the years at the AERO conference, I have endeavored in my workshops to provide participants with tools and techniques for developing their narratives related to education.  I have heard from participants that these tools and techniques have been very useful to them as founders of other self-directed schools and programs.  This year, I plan to use my own narrative for why I helped co-found Alpha II to help members of my workshop develop similar narratives related to why they want to found their schools or programs.

The AERO conference is the only place I know of in North America where people throughout the world who have, or want to, found democratic, self-directed learning opportunities can meet to discuss what it is like to be a founder and how we can proceed to encourage democratic, self-directed learning for all young people. 

If you see yourself as part of developing democratic, self-directed learning for all young people, I suggest you join me at the next AERO conference at Long Island University in New York from the evening of August 2 to the afternoon of August 6.

I look forward to seeing you at the AERO conference!

Sincerely,

Carol

 

From Presenter Aaron Eden

"School as we have inherited it is actually reducing human capacity. Come to the AERO conference to explore and share ways to augment instead of reduce human potential. Do it for a sustainable future."

-Aaron Eden, Co-founder and Principal of the Eliad Group

 

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Joanna Faber To Be AERO Presenter Her Mother Co-wrote “How To Talk So Children Will Listen.” She Just Wrote a Follow-up Book

I first heard about the book, "How to Talk so Children Will Listen, and Listen so Kids Will Talk" about 50 years ago. The book has sold millions of copies. My mother was a good friend of one of the authors, Elaine Maslish, who wrote the book with Adele Faber. Now Faber's daughter, Joanna, who grew up experiencing her mother's ideas, has written a best selling follow-up book, "How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen, a Survival Guide to Life with Children 2-7." We are fortunate to have just arranged for Joanna to be a major presenter at the upcoming AERO conference. She wrote the book with Julie King, who also grew up in my community and is the daughter of one of my mother's fellow piano teachers. – Jerry Mintz

 

Joanna Faber grew up in the Long Island home/laboratory of internationally acclaimed, best-selling author and parent educator Adele Faber. Her father was a leading educator and director of innovative guidance programs in the New York City Public Schools. Joanna was graduated from SUNY Purchase in 1981 with a degree in Language and Culture, which included a year of study in Mexico. Convinced that she could use her unique background in language and communication skills to inspire children in the classroom, she went on to earn a degree in Education from Lehman College.

She taught elementary school children at PS 161 in West Harlem for 10 years while completing post-graduate work in math and science at the City College of New York. During this time her bilingual, special education students published books of poetry and stories, wrote and performed plays, started a school newspaper, and won top honors in the district-wide science fair two years in a row. Joanna was selected as an outstanding teacher in her science teacher education program at City College and sent to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh to share her expertise with other inner-city teachers in a series of workshops on middle school science. She contributed heavily to her mother's most recent award winning book, How To Talk So Kids Can Learn – at Home and in School, with her frontline experience in the classroom. She recently contributed a new section titled The Next Generation to the 30th anniversary edition of How To Talk So Kids Will Listen And Listen So Kids Will Talk.

Joanna lectures on communication skills around the country, from Columbia Teacher's College in New York, to the Marion County Children and Family Department in Oregon, and conducts workshops based on her mother's work and her own experiences as a parent and educator. These workshops have enabled many parents and teachers to have less stressful, more joyful relationships with children. Her own book, entitled "How To Talk So LITTLE Kids Will Listen" was just released by Simon and Schuster in January of 2017.

Joanna lives in Putnam Valley, NY with her husband, three children, dogs, cats and an assortment of chickens.
 

You can still register for the early bird rate of $225 for the rest of February. If you have applied to be a presenter you can register at the sale presenter rate of $175, which is also the student and volunteer rate.