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GURIAN INSTITUTE > EVENTS > GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2021

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In this dynamic keynote presentation, Dr. Gurian will explore how the minds of boys and girls learn and grow, including brain differences that impact K – 12 education, early childhood, and social emotional development throughout the lifespan.  He will provide insight into best teaching, parenting, counseling, and mentoring practices for both girls and boys, and safe, effective electronics and technology standards for various stages of child development.  

Michael’s presentation will include PET, SPECT, and MRI scans that display brain differences, and he will bring the latest research in both of his newest nonfiction books, Saving Our Sons (2017) and The Minds of Girls (2018), focusing on educating, raising, and counseling boys, and educating, raising, and counseling girls.

Michael will also lead two working lunch discussions.  The books that underlie these discussions are Saving Our Sons and The Stone Boys (2019) for Saturday and The Minds of Girls for Sunday.  We hope you will read these books ahead of time.  In these working lunches, we will study and strategize regarding violence/suicide prevention, and mental and emotional health in our school communities.

Dr. Gurian’s Second keynote focuses on poverty- and trauma-informed classrooms, with a powerful eye towards empathy and resilience-building.  Michael will help teachers, counselors, parents and others to develop trauma sensitive classrooms and environments across the socioeconomic and school spectrum.  He will discuss the impact trauma has on the brains of children at various ages, and boys and girls specifically, including hidden trauma from the Covid crisis, and in nutrition issues,  sleeplessness, food allergies, and endocrine disruptors that constitute cellular and brain trauma.  Participants will learn practical strategies for building strong relationships and attachments with traumatized children, as well as those raised in poverty.

Michael will also tell a bit of his own story.  A product of early childhood trauma, he scores a 7 out of 10 on the Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE survey.  The publication of his newest book, The Stone Boys, made public some of his own trauma.  We hope you will read The Stone Boys ahead of time for a deep dive into boys’ potential trauma-responses in particular.

With sponsorship from the Greater Phoenix Urban League, we are introducing an Early Childhood track this year.  It will run concurrent with our normal K – 12 track.  All of the keynotes will cover children from birth – college age, then the two separate tracks will focus on age groups.   Because this is a Tele-summit in which you have 2 days of workshops then six more days to watch the sessions you could not get to over the weekend, you can participate, if you wish, in every workshop, every talk, and each piece of both tracks.

A youth football coach, mentor, and child advocate, Marion Hill has worked with children and educators throughout his professional life.  He currently serves as an administrator for Head Start and a Gurian Certified Trainer with the Greater Phoenix Urban League.  Dynamic, visionary, and deeply committed to giving back, Marion is the founder of M.A.N.C.A.V.E. (Men All Need to be Caring Actively-Engaged, and Encouraged), a fatherhood program designed to encourage fathers/male role models to be actively engaged in their child’s growth and development.

In his morning keynote, Marion Hill will focus specifically on how to bring fathers, male role models, and other essential men into the learning experiences of boys and girls.  As he tells his own powerful story, Marion will bring to life compelling anecdotes from his two decades of work in this field.  He will also provide success strategies based in successes M.A.N.C.A.V.E. is having as it works to help boys and girls, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods and classrooms, get the paternal nurturance they need.

To learn more about Marion, please visit Marion’s Gurian Institute Trainer page.

Dr Glynetta Fletcher

For two decades, Dr. Fletcher (“Fletch”) has been teaching in Los Angeles urban schools where she is now the principal of Augustus F. Hawkins High School.  In her keynote, she will focus specifically on the learning and life-needs of children of color.  Issues of culture and conflict will be explored, including ways that boys of color escalate anger, and are not understood.  Dr. Fletcher will feature success strategies for helping young men and women de-escalate after being involved in a conflict, and identify triggers that make things worse.

Emboldened by her work with GI in the Greater Phoenix Urban League’s Head Start Pilots in Phoenix, Arizona, Fletch will integrate early childhood strategies with K – 12 strategies.  Overall in her professional work, Fletch is masterful at supporting students with building resiliency.  A testimony to the power of relationships, neuroplasticity and resiliency, Fletch will share part of her own personal story in her keynote.  

The learn more about Dr. Fletcher, please visit Dr. Fletcher’s Gurian Institute Trainer page.

What Participants Have Said About Our Summits and Virtual Training Institutes

“Amazing. Powerful. To see the brain scans and understand differences between the male and female brain is a game-changer in education.”

``The applications of this work in early childhood are stunning. I was especially moved by what is happening with our boys in preschool. No one is at fault, but we must face a systemic issue.``

“The keynotes and workshops on helping children of color were powerful in their own right, and they worked together with the understanding of male/female. Very helpful and needed, especially in our present time.”

“Every year I come back. This is the best conference anywhere for understanding the brains of males and females, and how that understanding can positively change classrooms and communities.”

``Covered each element on the gender spectrum very well. Great tools, great training!``

``Understanding our birth - five kiddos from a gender brain perspective is mind shifting and so important. As an early childhood administrator, I leave this training with new tools in my toolbox and a priceless understanding.``

``I came as a therapist and mother and found myself energized and excited in both areas. This work universally taps into what we are all thinking and feeling every day.``

``I especially like the Gurian approach to STEM--it is brain-based in a way I have not seen anywhere else. I'll take it back into our STEM school with confidence.``

``This training is for everyone--administrators, teachers, leaders, parents, and our kids themselves. Eye-opening, and so practical!``

``The brain-based approach to trauma-informed teaching adds a powerful layer to trauma training. This gender-brain perspective is the missing piece. Thank you!``

“The sessions were diverse and the presenters kept us focused not only on scientific theory but especially on Strategies! This was so important, so powerful for me.”

``I think of myself as 'zoomed out' these days, but Michael Gurian, Eva Dwight, and the whole GI team really know how to translate the material to the online format. The Tele-Summit worked very well.``

“I am becoming a Gurian Certified Trainer so that I can keep bringing this information to my school and our parent body. This weekend prepared me very well to keep the work going!”

“I came as a parent first and mental health counselor second, but I ended up learning a lot in both categories. I now believe this Gurian theory and strategies can change our counseling systems for the better, and I have a lot to take home with me.”

“The Gurian Institute consistently provides some of the best professional development I experience, and I have been teaching more than 25 years!”

THE GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE - TELE-SUMMIT 2021

Ensuring Academic and Social-Emotional Success for Boys and Girls

To register, scroll down to the button.
To register groups of five or more, email gail@gurianinstitute.com.

Featured Speakers and Workshops

The Human Brain:  Setting the Stage, with Eva Dwight and Michael Gurian. Body, mind, and soul are not three isolated systems.  Intricately woven together, they give us the human experience.  In our culture now, our children’s bodies, minds, and souls are experiencing significant stress.  This opening session of the conference will link our weekend of training to the deep issues of our time in schools and neighborhoods, and provide a primer on the amazing human brain–both its natural resilience and its potential fragility.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently – Two-Part Strategies Session, with Eva Dwight, Gurian Institute Master Trainer.  This two-part session will give participants a tool box full of practical strategies that can be adapted for use in any classroom to increase teacher effectiveness and make sure the needs of both boys and girls are being met. The workshops will model the strategies as if in a classroom setting.  This two-part session is a requirement for applicants for Gurian Institute Trainer Certification and includes specific innovations for coeducational classrooms and for single sex classrooms and academies.

The Digital Girl:  What Teachers and Parents Need to Know about Tech Use in Girls’ Development, with Eva Dwight, M.Ed. This workshop will focus on how to help schools, teachers, tweens, and teen girls use tech most effectively and safely.  Overuse of social media and tech is a national problem, yet, tech is here to stay, especially in the Covid era.  Limiting screen time–which is necessary and important–is not the whole story.  Especially with the stress our girls are under constantly today, this workshop focuses on tech use as a positive and negative stressor.  Eva Dwight provides tools, strategies, and real-time conversations to have with girls as parents and teachers help them navigate their digital world.

Rob Kodama

Becoming a Man:  What Does it Mean to Boys, and How Do We Teach it? with Gurian Master Trainer, Rob Kodama.  For more than 20 years, Rob has worked as a teacher, coach, and Director of Admissions at Crespi Carmelite High School for Boys in Encino, CA.  With his colleagues, he has developed a leading edge “Becoming a Man” course for the young men.  In this workshop, Rob will explore the experience of masculinity and manhood the boys are living and trying to live, and how adults can help boys live it wisely, empathically, and successfully.  Because Rob has taught the course to a widely diverse group of boys from all races and socio-economic origins, he has developed both a culturally sensitive and universally applicable wisdom on masculine and male development.  This workshop will include strategies, anecdotes, stories, and action plans you can use right away.

Best Practices for Working with Learning-Different and Anxious Students, with David LePere and Christy Todd of Cherokee Creek Therapeutic Boys School, a Gurian Model School.   Cherokee Creek Boys School specializes in working with learning different boys, boys who present with anxiety and depression, boys on the ASD spectrum, boys with ADD/ADHD, boys with sensory integration difficulties, and boys diagnosed as behavioral challenges in mainstream schools.  David, Christy, and the CCBS staff have developed a powerful holistic model for educating this population that they will share in this workshop, one that is brain-based and uses boy-focused strategies.  Be prepared to explore exciting ways to get your challenging, “difficult,” and anxious boys in sync with the mission and values of your classroom and community.  

Early Childhood Track.  Parent, Family, and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Environments, with Phyllis Aro-Trejo, Booker T. Washington, Caseworker Supervisor, and Marion Hill, Head Start Program Coordinator. A case worker supervisor at Booker T. Washington School, Phyllis has worked to bring parents on board with a child’s early education for more than two decades.   Marion Hill has worked in this same sphere during that time as well.  Both Phyllis and Marion are Gurian Certified Trainers.  In this workshop, Phyllis and Marion will share practical strategies and anecdotes  – a how-to of what works and what does not work with busy and distracted parents, including parents whose native language is not English.   Many of the strategies they will share and model have been successfully used in the early childhood Pilots in the Greater Phoenix Urban League Head Start programs.

Mary-Olszewski

Strategies for Successful Executive Function, with Mary Olszewski, Gurian Certified Trainer and The Lovett School Executive Function and Athletics Coach.  For decades, academic research has indicated that students who have difficulties with Executive Function skills struggle with thinking flexibly, maintaining self-control, and accessing working memory.  This creates many challenges for students when learning in the classroom, on the field, or at home. In this fun and dynamic workshop, executive function coach Mary Olszewski tells and invites stories from her own coaching experiences, and then provides proven strategies for coaching boys and girls most successfully toward high level executive functioning, from bonding mechanisms to coaching rituals to verbal cues, and much more.

Tremaine-CANTEEN

Helping Boys and Girls in Poverty Thrive Through Virtual Learning, with Dr. Tremaine Canteen, Principal of the Virtual Academy in the Cumberland County School District, and a Gurian Certified Trainer. The needs of children raised in poverty are profound and sometimes not served in traditional settings.  Virtual academies, however, are showing great promise for leveling playing and learning fields.  This session will give participants a toolbox full of practical strategies that grow from ensuring the needs of both boys and girls in virtual academy settings.  Dr. Tremaine Canteen is the Principal of The Cumberland Virtual Academy in the Cumberland County School District in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with over 16 years of experience in education.  Dr. Canteen was selected to serve as the Teacher of the Year in 2007 and 2012. In 2017, she served as Cumberland County Schools’ Assistant Principal of the Year. Dr. Canteen believes that education is still the great equalizer, and virtual education is an important choice.

Early Childhood Track.  Best Practices for Literacy Learning in Preschool Classrooms with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Jennifer Kirksey, Gurian Certified Trainers.  As Education Director at the Greater Phoenix Urban League, Ariana leads educational innovations in early childhood literacy learning.  Jennifer joins her as a coach in the Head Start programs.  They have worked with diverse populations, including ESL learners, for more than three decades collectively.  In the Greater Phoenix Urban League – Gurian Institute Pilots in Phoenix, Arizona, Ariana and Jennifer have made sure that literacy is a major classroom focus.  In this workshop, Ariana and Jennifer will share and model programs and strategies that have worked to augment and improve early literacy at the Cartwright Child Care Center, a Gurian Model School.  They will also discuss the differences in how boys and girls come to literacy, and they will share strategies from coed and single gender classes.

Early Childhood Track.   Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Boys and Girls, with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Martina Andrews, Gurian Certified Trainers.   This workshop will grow from the Gurian Institute Pilot programs in Head Start and the Greater Phoenix Urban League classrooms in the Cartwright School District, including at Cartwright Child Care Center, a Gurian Model School.   Ariana as director and Martina as teacher will feature more than a dozen strategies they have used successfully in early childhood environments for meeting the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of boys and girls.   The chosen strategies successfully integrate into Teaching Strategies Goals and CLASS.

Training Schedule

Welcome to our Summer 2021 Tele-Summit!  All times listed here are Pacific.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

8:45 – 9:15 The Human Brain: Setting the Stage, with Eva Dwight and Michael Gurian

Brain Break

9:15 – 10: 00 Keynote with Michael Gurian, Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys and Girls.

10:00 – 11:15 Keynote with Michael Gurian, Trauma, Poverty, and Learning: Gender Specific and Trauma-Informed Strategies for Helping Children Learn and Grow.

11:30 – 12:30 “Lunchtime” – Questions answered by Michael Gurian on subjects related to raising, educating, and counseling boys, including questions on the Boy Crisis, Saving Our Sons, Suicide/Violence Prevention, and more.  Please submit your questions during the morning keynote to info@gurianinstitute.com.

12:30 – 1:45 First Afternoon Workshop, Concurrent Sessions

Boys and Girls Learn Differently, with Eva Dwight, Part I.  For individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.

Strategies for Successful Executive Function, with Mary Olszewski

Best Practices for Literacy Learning in Preschool Classrooms, with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Jennifer Kirksey

 

Break

2:00 – 3:15 Second Afternoon Workshop, Concurrent Sessions

Best Practices for Working with Learning-Different and Anxious Students, with Beth Black and David LePere

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Environments, with Phyllis Aro-Trejo and Marion Hill

Boys and Girls Learn Differently, with Eva Dwight, Part II.  For individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.

Break

3:30 – 4:00 Zoom meeting with Michael Gurian, Eva Dwight, and people interested in becoming Gurian Certified Trainers.  Renewing Trainers are also welcome.

 

Sunday, June 27, 2021

 

9:00 – 10:00 Keynote, Marion Hill, The Paternal Nurturance Asset: How to Bring Fathers and Other Essential Men into Our Children’s Education.

Break

10:15 – 11:30 Second Morning Keynote, Dr. Glynetta Fletcher, The Equity Solution:  How to Help Children of Color Do Their Best in School and Life.

11:30 – 12:30 “Lunchtime” – Questions answered by Michael Gurian, Marion Hill, and Fletch on subjects related to raising, educating, and counseling girls, including questions on The Minds of Girls, Girl “Drama,” Girls and SEL, Girls and STEM, and your other questions for any of the speakers.  Please send your questions into info@gurianinstitute.com during the morning keynotes or before.

12:30 – 1:45 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent Tracks

 Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Children with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Martina Andrews

Becoming a Man:  A New Approach to Masculine Development, with Rob Kodama

Helping Boys and Girls in Poverty Thrive Through Virtual Learning, with Dr. Tremaine Canteen

Break

2:00 – 3:15 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent

The Digital Girl, with Eva Dwight

Empowering Boys and Girls in Single Sex Classrooms and Cultures, with Amy Coe

The Power of Diversity:  Teaching and Mentoring Latino and Dual Language Learners, with Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez

Break

End of Day 2.  Please go online over the next seven days for workshops you missed.  Each workshop will be supported by a private link that is only for registrants of this conference.  These workshops/links will be available through July 3, 2021.

All keynotes and workshops highlight gender-friendly theory and strategies applicable to both coeducational and single sex classrooms, schools, and academies.

Schedule is subject to change.

Monday Morning – Certification of Trainers Session, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., for those individuals becoming Gurian Certified Trainers, with Eva Dwight.  To begin the process of becoming a Gurian Certified Trainer, please visit the Trainer page on www.gurianinstitute.com.

Please send any questions to info@gurianinstitute.com. 

Online Address for the Tele-Summit:

You will be sent Zoom links for each session.  Please make sure we have your best email address (i.e. one that will not go to your spam folder!)  Any sessions you did not join during the weekend can be accessed through July 3 on a private link page you can request during or after the weekend up through July 4 at eva@gurianinstitute.com.  After July 3, the Summer Institute will be complete, and the event will no longer be available for viewing.

Certificates of Participation

Upon request, participants who complete the two days of training are eligible for a Certificate of Participant for 14 hours via email; participants who also complete Monday morning’s certification training can receive 18 hours. After you have completed the Summit please email Gail at gail@gurianinstitute.com to request your certificate.

Learning and Training Objectives

Describe how the field of gender neuroscience is altering what you know about the psychology and education of children in early childhood, K – 12,  and later adolescence.

Discuss specific needs and issues of boys and girls from birth to adulthood, including analysis of the gender spectrum, with focus on both academics and social-emotional development.

Assess how generally institutionalized educational, counseling, and parenting models do or do not fill the specific developmental needs of preschool through high school age girls and boys.

Identify new logic models and strategies for motivation, learning, and behavioral intervention beginning at birth and proceeding into emerging adulthood.

Summarize key stressors and social-emotional factors that differ between girls and boys beginning in early childhood.

Demonstrate new strategies for learning, counseling, and assessment, including strategies for working with highly sensitive girls and boys of all ages.

Implement new strategies and practical tools beyond the training institute, in your own curricular areas and environments.

 

Target Audience:  educators, administrators, counselors, social workers, early childhood specialists, coed and single sex educators, parents, mentors, coaches, government agency professionals, and policy makers working with children and young adults.

 

More Featured Workshops

Empowering Boys and Girls in Single Sex Classrooms and Cultures, with Amy Coe, Assistant Dean of Academics, Army and Navy Academy.  This workshop is designed for teachers, administrators, counselors, and all those interested in developing a deeper understanding of what works in single sex school cultures, and why.  The workshop is divided into three sections: useful brain-based sex differences based on Michael Gurian’s work; practical classroom strategies for teacher and student mentoring of boys and girls; and strategies to nurture the nature of boys and girls in single sex school “emotional” cultures (the hidden worlds of both boys and girls). 

Early Childhood Track.  The Power of Diversity:  Teaching and Mentoring Latino and Dual Language Learners, with Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez, Gurian Certified Trainers and Cartwright School Educators.  For over 40 years collectively, Marlene and Shandeen have worked in early childhood populations and built bridges into elementary and secondary education, focusing specifically on learning, literacy, and cultural climate strategies that work with Latino populations and dual language learners.  They work now at Cartwright Early Childhood School in Phoenix, Arizona, which is our newest Gurian Model School.  Their workshop explores barriers of language and culture on both the student and teacher and ways to address the needs of our Latino and dual language populations.  Participants will learn techniques and strategies for  engaging students in a culturally and linguistically diverse learning community.

Download pdf flyers for easy sharing. One flyer is for the conference in general.  The other flyer is specifically for potential ECE participants.  Thanks for spreading the word!
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For Flyer specific to Early Childhood Participants click here:

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Registration is $250.00 Per Person
*After paying, please send your preferred email address to gail@gurianinstitute.com so that we can send your registration and logistics emails to that preferred address.
*Please check your spam folder in case our registration and logistics emails with the Zoom links end up there.

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Group Discounts for 5 or more: $225.00 per person.

Email us at gail@gurianinstitute.com or call Gail at 509 624 0623 to set up a group discount.

To pay via check, mail to:

The Gurian Institute, 417 W. 32nd Ave, Spokane, WA 99203

 

Refund Policy:  Because this is a Tele-Summit with 8 days to watch the videos, refunds are not available.  If you have registered but cannot participate in this year’s event, please let Gail know at gail@gurianinstitute.com. We will credit your registration toward next year’s event.

The Gurian Summer Training Institute can be cancelled and if cancelled, registration tickets will be refunded to each registrant within seven (7) days of cancellation. The Gurian Institute will not be liable for any other costs.

GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2019 Video

GURIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE 2021 - GURIAN INSTITUTE