It’s time to say farewell 2023 and welcome 2024.
Farewell 2023…
Well, I don’t know about you, but I found 2023 to be more normal than 2020, 2021, or 2022. I attended my first in-person conference, facilitate my first face-to-face training, and took my first flights (to Maine, Canada, and Oregon). I hope you also had some wonder-filled moments in the past year. Taking a moment to recall them with gratitude is a great mental health care strategy.
Top 9 Highlights
Let’s look at nine Puberty: The Wonder Years highlights from 2023:
- Increased international reach: Puberty: The Wonder Years was purchased by schools in Croatia and Indonesia for a total of 11 countries outside the U.S. See the map.
- Updated Puberty: The Wonder Years based on feedback from the field: Updates for 2023 were designed to make the curriculum even more inclusive and increase student safety. Quick updates are a benefit of implementing a digital curriculum.
- Created a Teacher Help Center: This Teacher Help Center provides helpful information about accessing your curriculum and/or online training course, collects your feedback, and lists curriculum updates.
- Launched the new Hybrid Teacher Training: This new training design includes two parts: Part 1 is asynchronous prework, and Part 2 is a synchronous webinar. Learn more here.
- Updated book lists for parents and kids: Take a look at the updated book lists here.
- Prepared to update the “Preparing Parents for Puberty” online parent course: Once it’s ready, the new online parent course will have new content and a new look, making it even more parent and caregiver friendly.
- Facilitated “Teachers Talk Puberty” webinars: These free, monthly, live webinars were part education and part conversation. Twelve webinars were facilitated for 261 people over 18 months, with 261 participants. What a great time we had!
- Expanded the “Teacher Talk Puberty” Facebook group: This private group is for puberty educators to share ideas, topics, and events related to puberty education. Learn more here.
- Added more Spanish resources: Additional teaching resources have been translated into Spanish to engage more learners and families.
As we close the book on 2023, we open a brand-new opportunity to thrive in 2024.
Welcome 2024…
Personally, I feel very optimistic about the coming year. I feel the pendulum beginning to swing.
Take heart! I continue to be inspired by you, educators. You continue to connect with and teach your students. You continue to model the best in education with your passion, creativity, flexibility, and innovation. In doing so, you elevate your colleagues and me. Thank you.
As we welcome 2024, the Puberty: The Wonder Years team looks forward to partnering with you to make it easier and more effective to teach your students about puberty and relationships. Please contact us to share your thoughts, questions, requests, and suggestions.
Stay tuned for more details about big plans for 2024.
