Presented by Valerie Zaryczny, MS, OTR/L, National Presenter & Content Specialist, Learning Without Tears; and Hilary Price, National Presenter, Learning Without Tears

Sponsored by Learning Without Tears

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The research is clear: Academic performance is integrally tied to the social and emotional skills of students. In this edWebinar, we focus on early literacy and explore how it depends on and is enhanced when we are also considering students’ social, emotional, and cultural competencies.

Viewers learn easy-to-implement strategies to start using right away in their PreK–3rd-grade classrooms to boost both literacy achievement and social, emotional, and cultural competencies throughout the school day. Finally, we explore resources that assist teachers in meeting the needs of the whole child.

Presented by Learning Without Tears with content developed in partnership with Dr. Nancy Markowitz, Executive Director of Center for Reaching and Teaching the Whole Child.

This recorded edWebinar is of interest to PreK–3 teachers, education technology leaders, and occupational therapists.

About the Presenters

Valerie Zaryczny received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University and a Master of Science degree in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a pediatric OT with experience across multiple settings including schools, clinics, early intervention, and teletherapy. She first attended a Handwriting Without Tears workshop in 2004 as a new therapist and has been in love with the products and methods ever since! Valerie became a National Workshop Presenter for Learning Without Tears in 2011.

Hilary Price received her Bachelor of Arts in education in 2002 as well as her Master of Education in 2005 from National-Louis University in Chicago. She spent the first few years of her teaching career in a bilingual Spanish early childhood classroom in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. After moving to Colorado, Hilary continued her work in the classroom until 2020 as the full-day kindergarten teacher at a local charter school. Today, she continues to positively impact the lives of children as a writing tutor, specializing in early childhood education.

Hilary has been enthusiastically utilizing the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum with children of various ages and abilities since 2002, in general education as well as special education settings in both public and charter schools. She also used the HWT curriculum at home with her own twin daughters throughout their early years, and truly saw a difference in their engagement and motivation to communicate in writing.
In the spring of 2021, Hilary was thrilled to join Learning Without Tears as a National Workshop Presenter, as she loves to share her passion for teaching and learning with others.

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

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Learning Without Tears’ mission in today’s changing learning landscape is to ensure that the path to student success remains simple and fun. We provide child-friendly, hands-on, innovative instruction for early learning, handwriting, keyboarding, and writing strategies, and our programs reach more than 31 million students in Pre-K through fifth grade.