Allison McDonald is a preschool teacher and author.  Allison has been working with preschool aged children since 1993, as a day camp leader, ballet teacher, reading tutor, childcare center director, curriculum writer and preschool teacher.  Of all these jobs her favorite has been being in the classroom as a preschool teacher.  Allison stepped out of the classroom in late 2006 to stay home with her children but missed early childhood education, which resulted in her creating her popular early learning website www.notimeforflashcards.com.   Allison has been a contributing writer for Scholastic and PBS Parents and featured in many online and print media.  In 2014, Allison returned to the preschool classroom teaching

2-3 year olds.  In November 2015 her first book for parents, Raising A Rock - Star Reader was published by Scholastic and in June 2019 her second book in the series Setting the Stage for Rock - Star Readers was published for early childhood educators.  Allison lives on Bainbridge Island Washington with her husband and two children.

​

Allison's keynote presentation is titled STEM For Everyone.  This session will inspire early childhood educators to make room for STEM in their classrooms or childcare settings and feel more confident about facilitating STEM learning for our youngest students.  We will dive into what STEM really looks like for ECE and how to make STEM learning possible in any setting.  It will address the challenges early childhood educators face with STEM and how to overcome them.  Early childhood educators will leave feeling inspired and confident that they can make STEM part of the learning in their ECE settings daily.