In February, 1988, Joe Wayman and Kathy Balsamo sat at the Ramada Inn Restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, to discuss the possibility of joining forces to begin a consulting venture that would also include Nancy Johnson. All had been consultants for the Illinois Gifted Program, involved with Good Apple’s Challenge magazine, and authored activity books.
Creative Learning Consultants made its debut in Beavercreek, Ohio, in March, 1988. A logo was designed to symbolize that everyone is a piece of the education puzzle, always a piece coming in or leaving, and that our customers and clients – YOU – are important pieces of the education puzzle.
By October of 1989, the three founders were ready for the first conference sessions and exhibit at the Iowa State Gifted Conference at Hotel Ft. Des Moines.
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Original Logo
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Current Logo
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Our background in gifted education had taught us to be creative, risk taking, and PERSISTENT. Learning had to be individualized – differentiated – to meet the unique needs of students. We knew what we offered was and always will be of the highest quality and practicality for teachers and students. Our products will always make kids and educators THINK at a higher level. Gradually we realized that we were offering many “pieces of the puzzle” – consultants, books, CDs, conference presentations, our website www.piecesoflearning.com, and our e-mail newsletter, Piece by Piece. Our name became Pieces of Learning.
Pieces of Learning Headquarters
Although Joe, Kathy, and Nancy are no longer involved in the day-to-day operations, their legacy left an impact on everyone at Pieces of Learning. We are evolving with the changing times in education from products that align to the CCSS, STEM/STEAM activity books, our new Pieces of Learning Downloads page, www.minipiecesoflearning.com (a searchable by standard activity site), and much more! We are doing all of this while keeping with the original vision of providing high-quality, easy-to-use differentiated activities to improve every teacher’s classroom and improve students’ critical and creative thinking skills.
Pieces of Learning Downloadsis a necessary addition to the changing times in education. For years we have offered products with enclosed CDs containing customizable and reproducible pages for teachers to easily access within their own classroom. We will slowly phase out CDs and direct customers to our new Download site (www.piecesoflearning.com/downloads/). This change has occurred because many access points to our products such as iPads, other tablets, and even laptops no longer have CD/DVD drives and cannot use our CDs! You will now have access across all your devices.
We welcome questions, comments, and suggestions of all kinds!
