 Sally Haughey
Founder and CEO of Fairy Dust Teaching (now Wonderled™)
With a teaching journey that began in 1996, Sally draws inspiration from many approaches like Waldorf and Reggio Emilia. In 2010, she established Fairy Dust Teaching in the midst of one of her most challenging years in a public school setting. Today, it has grown into a vibrant global community of over 240,000 educators across 120 countries. Sally’s strong dedication lies in empowering educators to unlock the transformative power of play, nurturing children’s imagination and curiosity.
Sally Haughey began Wunderled™ in 2010 from a desire to share her own journey, bringing play-based education to public school settings that often left little room for imagination, curiosity and wonder. After 20 years working on the frontlines, Sally knew there was so much work to be done – so she began sharing what she had learned
about how to bring play-based practices into even the most traditional learning environments.
Wunderled™ has now grown into a thriving team that supports a community of over 240,000 educators — and a worldwide movement that is changing the face of childhood education, day by day.
In her newly published book, Nurturing Brilliance: Using Play-Activated Learning to Awaken Children's Potential, Sally has distilled decades of research and experience to create the Play-Activated Learning model for understanding children’s play and learning. The Play-Activated Learning model gives educators and families an understanding of a child’s behavior in the classroom during free play, including the growth unfolding in the brain. It also offers a view of the role of the educator in supporting the child’s learning and development. The model explains the incredible unfolding and blossoming that happens during play and provides a science-based approach to communicating that growth and development to parents. |
Stuart Stotts
Author, Storyteller, Educator, SongwriterStuart Stotts is an author, storyteller, educator, and songwriter. He’s sung with and performed for kids and families in schools, libraries, and community settings around the world since 1984. Stuart is a Kennedy Center teaching artist and a frequent presenter at educational events, keynoting conferences and leading workshops for early childhood and elementary school teachers, librarians, and social service professionals around the country.
His keynote presentations are funny, practical, engaging, and based in everyday practice and experience. Although the topics may vary, Stuart always emphasizes the importance of story, relationship, brain-based research, and on-going learning in striving for improvement and success.
Stuart offers school assemblies, family concerts and student writing workshops. Stuart gives many concerts every year and has released several recordings. He’s also the author of six books for children. When he’s not traveling, he lives in Deforest, Wisconsin with his wife, Heather Terrill Stotts, and various assortments of offspring, depending on the day and season. |
