Tuesday Live in Elluminate: Kathleen Kushman and Fires in the Mind

Join me this Tuesday evening for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Kathleen Cushman, author of Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery.

What does it take for young people to get really good at something? Teenagers from diverse backgrounds explore that game-changing question in Fires in the Mind. As they describe what fuels (or quenches) their interest and effort, they offer exciting new perspectives on why students choose to engage and persist with challenging work. WKCD writer Kathleen Cushman—whose landmark book Fires in the Bathroom brought youth voices to the national stage—here asks adolescents and their teachers to think more deeply about how we develop mastery, both in and out of school. (http://firesinthemind.org/the-book/)

Date: Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Page:  http://www.learncentral.org/event/90716

From Kathleen Kushman's Website:

"I write clear, accessible, lively prose on a wide range of subjects, most of which concern youth and their learning. Most of my time goes to What Kids Can Do (WKCD), the nonprofit I co-founded with Barbara Cervone in 2001, but I also regularly speak, consult, and write for organizations around the country.

"Starting as a printer’s devil in my high school years, over four decades I’ve worn every hat in publishing: writer, editor, and publisher for newspapers, magazines, and books in many fields. Reporting on national high school change from 1988 to 2001 gave me a solid grasp of educational issues and an active network of people in the forefront of that field. Teaching first-year writing at Harvard trained me to coach young people to think deeply and to free up and discipline their voices. Helping to start a progressive public secondary school in Massachusetts in 1995 gave me hands-on experience in setting the bar high for all students.

"In recent years, for WKCD, I have traveled the U.S. and abroad collecting the voices of youth, then bringing their words into print and mixed-media forms. Grounded in the rough and subtle realities of adolescence, these voices cut close to the bone — illuminating “best practices” in education, and revealing the fault lines that divide students along lines of class, color, and money. I aim to bring young people’s vivid experiences and insights to an even wider audience, by speaking, writing, and collaborating with you who share a commitment to equity, opportunity, and powerful learning for all."