Carmen Farina Gives Keynote at Everyone Reading Conference!

Dear Commons Community,

This morning, I had the pleasure of attending the Everyone Reading Conference on Dyslexia and Related Learning Disabilities, being held here at the CUNY Graduate Center.  Carmen Farina, NYC Schools Chancellor gave the keynote address.  She was introduced as a “breath of fresh air” by NYC City Councilman Daniel Dromm, Chair of the NYC Council Education Committee.

Chancellor Farina was in in good form and spoke for thirty minutes on a variety of public education topics including:

  1. The importance of Pre-K in diagnosing learning disabilities as early as possible.
  2. Phonics and reading comprehension.
  3. English Language Learners.
  4. Principal/Teacher/Parent Interactions.

I thought her best two lines were “teaching is messy and good teachers need to constantly clean up what they are doing” and “children need social and emotional attention in addition to  instructional attention”.

In sum, it was a pleasure to hear a chancellor who has such deep knowledge about the issues. A breath of fresh air for New York City indeed.

Tony

 

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