March 24–26, 2018, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

The ASCD is comprised of advocates, educators, principals, and superintendents from all over the world who all have one common goal. There are over 115,000 members! The ASCD is committed to the excellence of education, and making sure that all children are safe, healthy, challenged, supported, and engaged. The ASCD members utilize each other’s strength to achieve their common goal.

At Empower18, there will be three amazing General Session Speakers - Jill Biden, Manny Scott, and General Colin L. Powell, who will change your way of thinking about certain topics. Dr. Jill Biden, ‘has dedicated her work to highlighting the importance of education, sacrifices made by military families, and issues surrounding women's health. She manages all this while continuing to teach as a full-time professor and serving as the U.S. chair of Save the Children.’ Manny Scott, is an original Freedom Writer and founder of Ink International Inc., who will be ‘sharing life-changing lessons he has learned from teachers and loving adults who helped him and from the work he has been doing with kids for the past 18 years, the presenter will show how, together, we can transform our schools into safe, positive environments where all adults are equipped to reach kids and all kids are empowered to reach their destinies.’ Finally to top off the speakers is, General Colin L. Powell, who ‘understands the power of diplomacy and the universal human ideal of democracy to build trust and transform once-unstable regions into areas where societies and cultures prosper. As well, he understands that the power of persuasion, reason, and building trust are immeasurably effective in getting governments to cooperate for the overall common good of their people and the rest of the world.’

Along with these speakers, there are many innovative learning sessions, a few being on curriculum design, managing behaviors, bullies, etc. There will be activities based off of the six areas of focus that support the whole child, which is an approach that goes from a focus on academic achievement that is narrow to one that instead focuses on the long-term success and development of all children. At this conference, you will be empowered to extend your students skills beyond memorizing and doing mathematical calculations, and instead be able to give them skills to help support them as they engage in figuring out their career paths, how they can help their communities, and finding out who they are and what interests them.

At this amazing conference, you want to make sure you make the most of your experience. You will be discovering interactive, invigorating new ideas to bring back to your schools. You can then turnkey these ideas to your colleagues, thus allowing more children to find success from these methods. You will also have the chance to network with colleagues from around the world, which can help foster classroom connections for your students. Additionally, you can learn about the new education-specific products that are available now, which can help achieve the success students are striving for. With all the learning opportunities available, the more you make of them, and utilize as many opportunities as you can, the greater return you will get on your investment. You can use this knowledge to advance yourself as an educator as well as to gain knowledge about leadership roles and other directions your career path can take.

To keep connected while at the ASCD Empower 18: The Conference for Every Educator, follow @ASCDconf on Twitter and use the #Empower18 hashtag. You can see up-to-date information regarding the schedule and speakers. Furthermore, it will be a great way to connect with the people attending, along with continuing a global connection after the conference.

Don't forget to visit GradeMaster at booth 1639.