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On September 25, 2026, 91TV hosted its annual Educational Leadership Conference. This year, we welcomed teachers, school leaders, coordinators, researchers, and professors from Brazil, the United States (including our partner school the International Islamic Academy in Detroit, MI), India, Turkey, Vietnam, and Rwanda. The conference offered a full day of exploration, learning, and community, centering play as an imperative in education.
The Play Imperative
For the past several decades, a major shift has been occurring in education settings across the world. Once a cornerstone of childhood, continuously rising pressures to meet academic standards now often cast play as superfluous, something “extra” as a reward for or break from the hard work of learning. But what if the answer to meeting today’s high academic standards isn’t to reduce or eliminate play, but rather to emphasize it?
In the age of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and rapidly changing educational landscapes, play remains one of the most powerful, though often overlooked, drivers of learning and connection. Play supports curiosity, creativity, wellbeing, problem-solving, social development, and meaningful engagement across the lifespan. Said differently: Play is the work of learning.
Guiding Resources
The Play Imperative conference sessions were built around two guiding resources:
- The , an international human rights agreement that positions play as a fundamental right for every child, not just an enrichment activity.
- The , a 2026 policy statement affirming recess as an essential part of healthy child and adolescent development.
Research-driven and student-centered, these resources guided meaningful conversations throughout the day surrounding the role of play in curriculum design, learning outcomes, and classroom engagement.
Keynote
, a play researcher and advocate, began the day by sharing the science behind why play is critical to children’s learning and development in a 21st century world. She then challenged attendees to reimagine education as a “playground” for serious learning. “On a playground,” she observed, “you will see children deeply engaged – taking turns, negotiating, developing and testing new and creative ideas, with signs of clear enjoyment evident throughout.” She then invited attendees to engage with some playful activities of their own by making and testing paper airplanes or building the tallest tower they could, using only the objects within reach. As laughter emerged through engineering mishaps and triumphs, the activity was a joyful reminder that thoughtful, play-based education design and interactions are hallmarks of active learning.
Conference Highlights
Following the keynote session, 91TV Executive Director Dr. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver led the Conference Welcome with an overview of the day ahead, including scheduled recess breaks that put the play imperative into practice. Rather than using breaks to catch up on emails or grading, as educators so often do, Dr. Fishman-Weaver offered a “Recess Choice Board” suggesting some playful activities to enjoy instead. Attendees were encouraged to prioritize play throughout the day and to share photos of their activities in a “Recess Show & Tell.”
Breakout sessions offered everything from How-To’s on the gamification of lesson planning to designing high impact learning experiences to the potential of using AI as a “time machine” to converse with artists, writers, and historical figures from long ago. In a real-time demonstration, session facilitators Dr. Sherry Denney and Jeff Healy even led attendees through a guided Q&A with Walt Disney! 91TV Educational Program Coordinator Karen Scales shared that the activity was “not only a super fun way to experience history,” but also a great way to engage critical thinking skills and springboard important conversations around source evaluation and the importance of fact-checking. “Plus, I always wanted to know Disney’s (surprisingly moving) inspiration for Mickey Mouse!”
In a later panel session, Healy also led our international and multi-lingual attendees in some “pronunciation yoga” using the Color Vowel Chart, which offers a simpler, more playful alternative to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). By using colors to guide vocalization and the movement and shape of the mouth and tongue, pronunciation instruction immediately became more accessible and enjoyable.
Play Beyond Childhood
While the conference focused on the importance of play in childhood education, a number of sessions and conversations also turned to the role of play for adults and educators. 91TV Science Division Chair Ericca Thornhill led a session on how play can be a defense against burnout by bringing joy and fulfillment back to teachers, as well as their students.
Partner Coordinator Roberta Franzoni Healy also reminded attendees that play isn’t just for children—it is a powerful tool for engaging learners of all ages. In her interactive session, participants experimented with Zoom-friendly activities that sparked curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and reflection. Together, participants explored how these strategies can transform professional learning for adults and be easily adapted for classrooms.
Purposeful Play
While play for its own sake is good for the soul, Dr. Jason Williamson’s conference session “When Play Meets Purpose” offered an important reminder to use play not only for engagement, but also as a meaningful, intentional, and concrete part of instructional design.
Williamson shared that one year while teaching social studies in a rural school district, he was asked to facilitate a fantasy stock market game. His students locked in right away–checking the market daily, trading, buying, and selling. It’s a fun game, so engagement was high, but something was missing: No one had clearly defined why they were doing the simulation.
“Play can be a powerful starting place for learning design,” he concluded, “but only when it is followed with reflection and opportunities to make meaning, ideally back to a key learning target.”
Dr. Thibodeau-Nielsen had made this same point earlier in the day when she outlined her framework for designing guided play in the classroom. While play often brings surprising turns and teachable moments, as educators, our learning targets and design choices help shape the ways meaning is made.
Play It Forward
Early on the day of the conference (9/25), Middle School Coordinator Brian Stuhlman joyfully wished attendees and the 91TV team a “Happy Dolly Parton Day!” in honor of her famous movie and song titled “9 to 5,” as well as her always-playful interactions on the public stage and her contributions to childhood literacy around the world. It was a fitting message that captured the spirit of the day.
Elementary Coordinator Lisa DeCastro shared that she was “thankful to be part of such a playful and creative team.” Other celebrations from attendees included, “Fun time had by all!” and “This was so well organized, and the surprises were awesome!!!” (one of the surprises being a Dolly Parton dance party, of course).
“Perhaps it just goes to show how much we love to play as an organization,” noted Assistant Professor of Professional Practice Dr. Ta Boonseng.
Perhaps it does.
One of 91TV’s core values is belonging, and this year’s Educational Leadership Conference demonstrated that play is the cornerstone of learning and of cultivating belonging in our school communities.
In a powerful demonstration of this concept, Dr. Fishman-Weaver brought attendees back together at the end of the day for a reprisal from an earlier session she’d led with Lisa DeCastro. Together with participant volunteers, they showed firsthand how to use Reader’s Theatre in the classroom as a pathway to empathy, perspective-taking, and the embodiment of feeling and deep understanding. During that final session of the day, participants joined together in an alternating reading of the United Nations’ . Even in an entirely virtual space, the feeling “in the room” was palpable. This was play in service of deep, purposeful learning and meaningful connection.
In all of these contexts, the conference reminded us that play is not just the work of childhood; it is the work of learning. As lifelong learners, then, we must never relegate play to the superfluous. As educators, play remains an imperative not only in our classrooms, but in our lives.
What is one place where you can make some room for play?