Thirteen blogger: Neal Shapiro, President

I’ve just returned from the two day Teaching & Learning Celebration at the New York Hilton hotel.

It’s been a long but exceptional two days for educators and administrators….dozens of short lectures and several panels in the Hilton Ballroom.

There were so many highlights but what stands out for me is how many educators were touched by what they had seen and heard:

–The teacher from the Bronx who was moved to tears by Jane Goodall;

–Another who said the Judy Woodruff panel discussion with New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and former Colorado Governor Roy Romer was the kind of discussion he wished all Presidential candidates would have

There were so many other great moments but what stands out for me is that this event goes right to the core of who we are as a public television station.

Who else would do this? Who else would be committed to a mission to bring educators and those who work with them together?

And some critics wonder if we are relevant. I guess we can teach them a thing or two!

-N.S.

Thirteen blogger: Neal Shapiro, President

I often say one of the best things about my job here is having an education department to work with and all the great things they do…things only public television can do.

That’s a long way of explaining why I will be joining thousands of teachers from all over the tri-state area at the Third Annual Teaching and Learning Celebration at the NY Hilton.

Our entire education department works on it but the man who is the center of the storm is
Thirteen’s Vice President and Director of Education, Ron Thorpe. Ron, a passionate and very skilled executive, is a former teacher himself and for the last several months he has been sweating every detail of our two-day professional development conference for educators.

Dozens of In The Classroom sessions will teach educators to plan lessons using online resources from PBS programs like Wide Angle, Cyberchase, History Detectives and others. There will be interesting, inspirational speeches from a who’s who of educators and influentials like world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall; explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau and even Sudanese supermodel Alek Wek, who serves on the U.S. Committee for Refugees’ Advisory Council.

And, this evening Governor Eliot Spitzer — joined by former Colorado Governor Roy Romer and others — will participate in a Forum called “Where We Stand: America’s Schools in the 21st Century”. We hope to make a television program out of it.

I’ll be doing some interviews with some of the famous people down there and you’ll be able to see them on Thirteen on Friday and Saturday.

As usual, our own people here can describe it better than I can so here is the website. thirteencelebration.org

N.S.