Grants by Kaplan Early Learning Company
1-800-334-2014
Laura Beaver and Jill Nolen, natives of North Carolina, have a combined 30 years experience in education. They have worked as regular classroom teachers as well as specialists for struggling and gifted students. While teaching across the hall from each other, Beaver and Nolen together pursued their dream of writing a book. In 2004, they published "Into the Tub," a children's book that includes research-based reading strategies for parents to use during story time.
Beaver and Nolen began spending time outside of the classroom after-hours doing book signing to promote their book -- and soon, this engergic pair found themselves traveling across the nation training educators on how to empower parents with the tools they need to help their children become successful readers. They also became consultants for the award-winning KidSenses Children's InterACTIVE Museum and began creating literacy activities for Kidsville News!, a children's newspaper distributed to schools.
Over the past few years, Beaver and Nolen have created a variety of materials that are now being used by schools as part of their parent involvement iniatives. They have conducted school-based and district-wide staff developments across the U.S., sharing their vision and inspiring educators to become better partners with their parents.
Their vision of parent involvment is much more than simply having a school full of parents... it is also about making sure that all parents walk away from the school empowered to use research-based reading strategies with their children. Their message applies to any parent -- from the poverty-stricken teenage mother to the middle-class father.... from the grandmother raising her grandchidren to the busy, well-educated lawyer. Beaver and Nolen's passion is contagious and continually leads educators to view parent involvement in a whole new light.