This blog is about the role of schools in the ways families educate their kids, and the role of families in the ways schools educate kids. Though the Providence Schools blog has no formal association with the Providence Public Schools, all of my children attend public school in Providence. Our youngest is in kindergarten. His older brother is in third grade and their oldest brother is in sixth grade in middle school. We’re right there with many of you, visiting schools when it's time for our kids to make transitions and making decisions about what’s best for our kids.
I am also former teacher who has gone on to a career as an education writer/researcher/non-profit administrator passionate about finding ways to improve the learning and lives of young people through the connections between families and schools.
I believe that while there’s no one right way for young people to learn meaningfully, face challenges, and learn to use their minds well, the process tends to work best when schools and families are communicating, actively participating, and focused what’s best for the young people in their care in specific, personalized ways. I also believe that young people always need to have a voice and a stake in what happens in their formal and informal learning.
Currently and happily, I am the Director of Publications and Communications at Educators for Social Responsibility. Before this job, I spent many years at the Coalition of Essential Schools in various roles and was also a self-employed education and communications consultant. I helped organizations initiate and coordinate projects, including conducting fundraising-related research and/or writing grants; developed and/or sustained social media projects; designed and implemented marketing and outreach campaigns; and wrote and edited reports, descriptions, guides, website copy, book chapters, articles, and whatever else needed to be done quickly, professionally, accurately, thoroughly, with whatever degree of collaboration is needed and always with style. My clients included Rhode Island After School Plus Alliance, Big Picture Learning, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. I also write "What Happened at School Today," East Side Monthly's education column and am a contributing writer to Kidoinfo.
I'm @dazzlingbetty on Twitter (sort of - not very active right now). Find me there or email me at jill.davidson at gmail-dot-com.
