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Dr. Peter Gray’s AERO Conference Keynote (Video)

Attend this year's 25th anniversary AERO conference! Find out more here.

Dr. Peter Gray, research professor of psychology at Boston College, has conducted and published research in a wide range of fields, including neuroendocrinology, animal behavior, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He is the author of a highly regarded college textbook, Psychology (Worth Publishers), now in its 6th edition. Most of his recent research and writing has to do with the value of free, unsupervised play for children’s healthy social, emotional, and intellectual development. He has expanded on these ideas extensively, for the general public, in a blog that he writes for Psychology Today magazine and in his recently-published book, Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Basic Books, 2013).

Peter Gray grew up in small towns in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where he had a rich childhood play life, which, he believes, prepared him well for adulthood. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and then earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at the Rockefeller University, in New York City. His career since then has been centered entirely at Boston College. His play life continues, not only in the joy he derives from research and writing, but also in his enjoyment of long-distance bicycling, backwoods skiing, pond skating, kayaking, and backyard vegetable gardening.

Watch Dr. Peter Gray's keynote from the 2013 AERO conference in its entirety below:

 

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Job Opportunity

Blue Rock School has a position available for a part-time Spanish Teacher.  Applicants must be fluent, and have interest and experience in progressive educational practice, assessment and social learning.  He/she will develop Spanish curriculum and lesson plans spanning all grades (1st-8th) including experiential activities such as, cooking, crafts, songs, rhymes and games. The applicant will be able to work with young children in a hands-on way, as well as, work with older students introducing the study of grammar and sentence structure. 
 
We are a small, not-for-profit, independent and progressive school.  We are oriented towards a balanced and multi-disciplinary education, serving students in grades I through 8th.  Blue Rock School emphasizes open investigation and discovery, creativity, academic challenge with individualized attention in a stress-free environment.  Please fax or email a resume and cover letter explaining your background and your interest in the position to:  Caty Laignel, Director, Blue Rock School, 845-627-0208 or BRSOffice@verizon.net.
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Ron Miller to Keynote AERO Conference

Ron Miller
Ron Miller
We’re very excited to announce that Ron Miller, one of the leading and most frequently cited pioneers in holistic education, is briefly coming out of retirement to be a keynote speaker at the 25th anniversary AERO conference this June. Ron has always been one of AERO’s strongest supporters since our inception and served as editor of our magazine, Education Revolution, for many years. Ron Miller was involved with diverse educational alternatives from the mid-1980s until 2010, as a teacher, researcher, activist, editor and author.

Ron Miller has written or edited ten books, such as What Are Schools For?, Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy After the 1960s, and most recently The Self-Organizing Revolution: Common Principles of the Educational Alternatives Movement. Miller established the Bellwether School in Williston, Vermont and he taught at Champlain College and Goddard College in Vermont Miller founded two journals, the Holistic Education Review (later renamed Encounter) and Paths of Learning. Since retiring as an educational researcher and activist, Miller has run a bookstore, literary festival, and adult learning program in Woodstock, Vermont. You can find dozens of articles and a complete list of Miller’s books online at www.pathsoflearning.net.

Ron Miller’s talk will be entitled: 1964-2014: A Half Century Since Freedom Schools and How Children Fail. Miller offers a unique and critical perspective on the history and landscape of alternative education in the United States. Miller’s book, Free Schools, Free People, placed democratic, freedom-based schools in an historical context that enabled a more thoughtful and necessary critical analysis of the movement to take place. As schools continue to be founded out of those same theoretical traditions, Miller’s work demonstrates the relevancy of learning from these historical roots to create healthier and more successful alternatives. In the same vein, this talk will help alternative educators learn about the significance and relevancy of the 1960s and what has happened since as it relates to their schools and learning environments today.

Ron Miller's last issue of Education Revolution (read by over 40,000!) can be read in its entirety here:

 

Watch Ron Miller's 2006 AERO conference keynote "Building an Educational Rights Movement" here:

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Independent School Seeks Elementary-Grades Teacher (Long Island City, NY)

Queens Paideia School is a small, independent, highly regarded K-12 school located in Long Island City, NY. It is known for its 6:1 student-teacher ratio and innovative personalized approach made possible by a small team of teachers helping students achieve personalized learning objectives, often via projects and activities that motivate them. Instead of grades and classes, every student progresses along a customized learning plan at his or her personal best pace. We work with individual students rather than lecture or make presentations to classes. Our goal is to produce self-motivated, independent learners and to instill a long-term love of learning. 

The candidate must be familiar with available instructional resources for the K-6th grade range, and able to create and maintain individualized learning plans responsive to every student's unique learning needs and capabilities. Our teachers work with students individually and in very small groups, also mentoring them and helping them improve their interpersonal, self-management, and organizational skills. The candidate will be attracted by the opportunity to work with a small team of committed educational innovators on a demonstration project that has visibility in the educational community. 

A competitive salary will be offered to the right candidate. Responses must include an informative introductory letter and resume, and should be directed to  tqps@earthlink.net.