FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 26, 2009
Kathleen Alape Carpenter, Director of Promotions
Phone: (888) 430-TEACH
E-mail: kathleen@teachers.net
Prolific writer, pioneer and lecturer in the field of parent involvement will advise and support teachers to build better, more productive level of home and school collaboration
SAN DIEGO, CA--Teachers.Net announces the addition of columnist Dorothy Rich, Ed.D, pioneer in the field of parent involvement in schools, to the monthly lineup of education experts writing for the popular Teachers.Net Gazette webzine. Rich will write her “More Than an Apple” column exclusively for Teachers.Net, advising and supporting teachers as they pursue productive working relationships with students’ parents, writing under the subtitle, “What Teachers Really Need to Survive and Thrive in Today's Schools.”
An acclaimed author, lecturer and pioneer in the field of parent involvement in education, Rich is the founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute (HSI) based in Washington, DC. During her lifetime of work in education reform, she has focused on helping families and educators team together to build achievement for school and beyond.
Dr. Rich's work has been tested and found effective in raising student achievement, decreasing discipline problems, increasing homework time and decreasing TV time and has received the A+ for Breaking the Mold Award from the US Department of Education and recognition from the MacArthur Foundation. She has been featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NBC Today, Education Week, Good Morning America and Reader's Digest.
Dorothy Rich has served on the National Assessment Governing Board, created mentor programs for the National Education Association, developed Seminars by Satellite for the NTN Network, designed grant award programs, received the Washingtonian of the Year Award, created the plan for Learning City, developed the School and Family/Community Involvement Master's Degree Programs at Trinity College and Catholic University, receiving the Alumni Medal for her work.
Also among her honors are selection by the National Association of School Principals as Distinguished Lecturer, Who's Who in America and keynote presentations for state and district systems.
Rich is author of the original MegaSkills® books and developer of the MegaSkills training programs used by over 4,000 (primarily Title I) schools across the United States and abroad. Her newest work is Improving Student Achievement through MegaSkills.
According to Rich, her major concerns in education are focused on building all children's capacity to learn and to want to learn more. That, she says, is key to her work with MegaSkills, which develops children's "inner engines for learning." Dr. Rich defines the MegaSkills as: Confidence, Motivation, Effort, Responsibility, Initiative, Perseverance, Caring, Teamwork, Common Sense, Problem Solving and Focus.
Among Dr. Rich's books are MegaSkills: Building Children's Achievement for the Information Age (Houghton Mifflin) and What Do We Say? What Do We Do? (Tor). She speaks and writes about education issues across the nation and extending MegaSkills Programs internationally.
The child of immigrants, Dorothy grew up in a small town in Michigan where, as a small girl, she raised chickens. Now a parent, teacher and grandparent, Rich began her work on how families help children learn over four decades ago.
In honor of MegaSkills' 20th anniversary, Dr. Rich has launched five new initiatives: MegaSkills Site Awards, MegaSkills Leader Corps, MegaSkills for Children's Health, MegaSkills for the Early Years, and a new book for educators, More Than An Apple, What Teachers Really Need To Survive and Thrive in Today's Schools.
The Teachers.Net Gazette debuted in March 2000. The current issue and all Gazette back issues are available at http://teachers.net/gazette/. Interested educators may subscribe to receive by email a newsletter version containing the cutting edge articles, lesson plans and teaching tips featured in each issue of Teachers.Net Gazette.