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We are living in a complex age, one in which children are overusing digital and tech, our definitions of sex and gender are being negotiated in social media, academe, and our schools, and teachers and parents feel almost desperate for tools to help the children in their care.
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 the gender spectrum.
Michael’s presentation will include PET, SPECT, and MRI scans that display sexual dimorphism (male/female brain differences) as he focuses on educating, raising, and counseling boys, and educating, raising, and counseling girls. He will also show brain scans that help us understand the whole gender spectrum.
Michael will lead two working lunch discussions, as well. The books that underlie these discussions are Saving Our Sons and The Stone Boys 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 schools, families, and communities.
Dr. Gurian’s Second keynote focuses on children’s resilience-building in school, at home, and in our communities. Michael will help us look at our role in resilience-building and provide strategies for developing trauma-informed, poverty-sensitive classrooms and environments. Participants will learn how to build strong relationships and attachments with traumatized boys and girls, as well as those raised in poverty, and how to provide resilience-building for all children.
Michael will also tell a bit of his own story, both of trauma and resilience-development. 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 childhood trauma. We hope you will read The Stone Boys ahead of time for a deep dive into boys’ potential trauma-responses in particular. Resilience-building is a crucial part of child success and this keynote explores it with brain science as a focus.
This bonus keynote, which will be available for viewing before the weekend, will focus on how to help schools, teachers, and children use tech safely and effectively. Overuse of social media and tech is a national mental health problem, yet, tech is here to stay, especially in the post-Covid era. Limiting screen time–which is necessary and important–is not the whole story.
This keynote focuses on tech use as both a positive and negative stressor. Dr. Gurian will look carefully with you at the neural connection between tech use, especially among young children, and brain issues later. Because some schools are one-on-one, he will bring parents into the equation, who may need to cut back on child tech use at home so that teachers can use it in school.
In this dynamic and moving keynote, Michael will provide insight and tools, strategies, and real-time conversations to have with boys and girls as parents and teachers help them navigate their digital world.
Former faculty in Residential Treatment facilities, now Curriculum Director for Dohn Community High School in Cincinnati, Dr. Jones-Parks has specialized in supporting teachers of disengaged learners. “When I discovered the Gurian science and strategies,” Dr. Jones-Parks said recently, “everything fell into place.” She became a GI Certified Trainer to apply science and strategies to students who had experienced absenteeism and truancy, learning deficits, trauma, poverty, food/shelter insecurity, and, as she notes, “previously unsuccessful ways of being mentored and taught.”
Dohn Community High School and Dr. Jones-Parks tackle these issues head on by addressing boys and girls in particular, with sensitivity to students presenting as gender fluid. Because the state of Ohio has designated Dohn a dropout recovery district, and because Dr. Jones-Parks and colleagues have seen concurrent mental and emotional health issues linked to school failure, Dohn has deployed a strong learning structure with specific focus on the social-emotional development of each student.
In this dynamic and strategies-filled keynote, Dr. Jones-Parks will share this leading-edge cultural responsiveness work. She will provide data showing success for science and strategies in both coed and single sex academies and apply SEL work specifically to hard-to-reach students. She will then focus on new and leading-edge programming for boys in the English/Language Arts classroom, and for girls at-risk with social and mental health issues.
To learn more about Dr. Jones-Parks, please visit the Gurian Institute Trainer Page.
In partnership with the Greater Phoenix Urban League and Head Start of Phoenix, we are proud to provide an Early Childhood Track that runs concurrent with our K – 12 track. All our keynotes will cover children from birth – college age, then the two separate tracks will focus on their distinct age groups.
We have group registration discounts available for 5 or more or 20 or more. For more information on the group options or with any questions, please email us at info@gurianinstitute.com.
Many of our boys, especially those of color, are falling behind academically and socially. Dr. Greene and her colleagues have been instrumental in facilitating the Maryland Initiative: Achieving Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys (AAEEBB). Dr. Greene is also a former Maryland School Board Member.
In this keynote, Dr. Greene will share how she and colleagues were able to transform a heartfelt initiative into a funded action plan in Maryland counties and schools. She will also share successes the Pilot schools are having after two years of focusing on this work. The Gurian Institute is honored to have trained cadres and trainers in the Maryland Pilot Schools.
Because both Dr. Greene has worked with a widely diverse group of boys from all races and socio-economic origins, this keynote includes culturally relevant and universally applicable wisdom on male development. Come prepared to learn instructional methods and structures that fit the developmental and learning needs of this demographic group,
This workshop will include anecdotes, stories, and action plans you can use right away. Dr. Greene founded a boys’ school and was a teacher and principal in public schools in Maryland. This is how the Gurian Institute met her. She became a Gurian Master Trainer in 2007. She brings decades of experience to her work. Dr. Greene will be joined in this keynote by a special guest from the AAEEBB Task Force.
Why are boys falling behind girls in every academic subject in all 53 of the largest developed nations? Why are boys’ IQs dropping, and their sperm counts declining by 60%? Why are boys committing suicide at more than four times the rate of girls? What are the vast implications of female college graduates soon outnumbering males by a ratio of two-to-one?
The boy crisis in education is integrated with mental health, physical health, boys’ economic future and their role as future fathers. Dr. Warren Farrell’s keynote will explore what educators and parents can do to keep boys focused on healthy development and education rather than on a future that seems increasingly to want to exclude them.
The New York Times bestselling author Dr. Warren Farrell is one of America’s most sought-after speakers. Fifty years ago, he was the only man to be elected three times to the Board of the National Organization of Women in New York City. Now, he chairs the Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men. He is also the father of two daughters and an advocate for women and girls.
The Boy Crisis has catalyzed international debate on boys’ issues that resulted in concrete legislation to increase father involvement. If you can get it before the event, please do. It is a very important read.
Dr. Farrell’s presentation will be followed by questions and answers. At Dr. Farrell’s request, Michael Gurian will join Dr. Farrell in this final portion of the presentation to facilitate questions and to interact on topics essential to helping boys in schools and communities.
To learn more about Dr. Farrell, please click www.warrenfarrell.com.
Dr. Gregory Jantz is the Founding Director of The Center, a Place of Hope in Edmonds, Washington and a bestselling author of more than 40 books, including his most recent, The Anxiety Reset (2022). He has been a mental health pioneer for more than 30 years, launching agencies and programs, speaking internationally, creating courses for therapists, and serving families and schools. The Center has been rated one of America’s top ten facilities for treating depression.
Dr. Jantz’ science-based work includes a holistic approach to care that blends physiological, nutritional, mental, emotional, and spiritual components. In this keynote he will explore what is happening in our own and our children’s brains right now in our time of heightened emotional and mental stress, and provide practical strategies for healing, treatment and resilience-building from a holistic perspective.
Dr. Jantz and Michael Gurian co-authored Raising Boys By Design together in 2009 and have worked together on numerous projects, including Helping Boys Thrive Summits and the Wonder of Parenting Podcast, for almost two decades. As Dr. Jantz prerecords his keynote, he will bring Michael into its last section so that Michael can ask questions of Dr. Jantz on specific topics pertaining to boys and girls, and men and women, including crucial information and strategies for helping girls and women who are experiencing anxiety today at very high levels.
To learn more about Dr. Jantz, please visit www.aplaceofhope.com.
Pay via Pay Pal or Credit Card here. After paying, please send your preferred email address to info@gurianinstitute.com so that we can send you a registration/welcome email. This button only handles individual early bird payments of $325.00 per person: if you would like to send a group, please contact Gail at info@gurianinstitute.com. Let her know the number of people you would like to register. She will arrange a group registration with you.
The Human Brain: Setting the Stage, with Eva Dwight, M.ED. and Dr. 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, M.Ed.,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.
Thinking ‘Outside the Box’: A Child-Focused Definition of Success, with Eva Dwight, M.Ed.,Gurian Institute Master Trainer. A limited picture of success, crafted by adults with good intentions, can force students face extreme pressure and a sense of failure if they don’t manage to “check all the right boxes.” Sometimes, too, students’ unique talents and thinking patterns put them squarely “outside the box.” They feel that, “I don’t belong,” or, “There’s something wrong with me.” How can we honor each student’s unique gifts and celebrate the contribution they can make to the classroom and school community? In this interactive session, we’ll explore strategies for shifting our success paradigm so that our students feel valued as they chart their own life path.
Becoming a Man: What Does it Mean to Boys, and How Do We Teach it? with Crespi Carmelite High School Staff Members and Gurian Certified Trainers, Dr. Alan Swaney and Rob Kodama. For more than 40 years collectively, Alan and Rob have worked as teachers, coaches, and administrators at Crespi Carmelite High School in Los Angeles, CA, a Gurian Model School and Center For Excellence. These two educators have also developed a leading edge “Becoming a Man” course. In this workshop, Rob and Alan will explore the experience of masculinity and manhood in boys’ lives today, and how adults can help boys live wisely, empathically, and successfully. Because they have taught the course to a widely diverse group of boys from all races and socio-economic origins, Alan and Rob have developed both culturally sensitive and universally applicable wisdom on masculine and male development. This inspiring and heartfelt workshop will include strategies, structures, and plans you can use with the boys in your school and family.
Early Childhood Track. Bringing Families of Color into the Frame: Parent, Family, and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Environments, with Marion Hill, Program Coordinator for Head Start, Founder of M.A.N.C.A.V.E. and Gurian Master Trainer. As Program Coordinator for Head Start of Phoenix, Marion has supervised local efforts to bring parents on board with a child’s early education for more than two decades. Five years ago, he founded M.A.N.C.A.V.E, (Men All Need to be Caring Actively-Engaged, and Encouraged), a Nurturing Fathers program designed to encourage fathers/male role models to be actively engaged in their child’s growth and development. In this workshop, he will share practical strategies and anecdotes from his work in the community – a how-to of what works and what does not work with busy and distracted parents, including parents whose native language is not English and parents of color.
De-escalating Angry Boys: Strategies for Handling Anger, Frustration, and Escalation, with Dodie Blomberg, ME.d, Gurian Certified Trainer. Among teachers, parents, and community members, the anger of boys and men is often frightening; when anger escalates, even more so. For thirty years, educator, Positive Discipline Lead Trainer, and Gurian Institute Trainer Dodie Blomberg has worked with children and adults to de-escalate and manage anger and frustration. In this workshop she provides a toolkit of strategies and insights to help you manage classrooms, families, and other environments in which, as she puts it, “anger signals deep need in the child but also an issue for the learning community and family system.”
How to Cultivate Habits of Excellence in Children, with Dr. Toyin Atolagbe, Archway Classical Academy Lincoln Headmaster, and Gurian Certified Trainer
Dr. Atolagbe is Headmaster of a classical and traditional academy in Chandler, Arizona, one of the Great Hearts Schools. She is also a Gurian Certified Trainer. As such, she is blending traditional school practices with science-based innovations on teaching to the male and female brain. A dynamic and inspiring presenter, she will explore the blending of tradition and science with you: how it is succeeding, what the challenges are, and how to leverage the science and strategies even in traditional settings–whether school, home, or community–for cultivation of habits of excellence in students.
Helping Girls of Color Thrive in a Post-Covid World: Drilling Deeper Down on Equity for Girls, Dr. Glynetta Fletcher, Racial Equity Coordinator, Los Angeles Unified School District and Gurian Master Trainer. In her work in LA Unified, Dr. Fletcher (“Fletch”) has drilled down into successful ways to help boys and girls of color thrive. In her work as a GI consultant in the Head Start Pilots in Phoenix, Fletch has provided an essential cultural literacy component to school room and parental education. This powerful workshop will give participants a toolbox of practical strategies that help ensure girls’ success in pre-K through 12 environments.
Early Childhood Track. Teaching a Love of Words: Best Practices for Literacy Learning in Preschool Classrooms with Dr. Ariana Lopez, Gurian Certified Trainer. As Education Director at the Greater Phoenix Urban League, Ariana leads educational innovations in early childhood literacy learning. She has worked with diverse populations, including ESL learners, for more than two decades. In the Greater Phoenix Urban League – Gurian Institute Pilots in Phoenix, Arizona, Ariana has made sure that literacy is a major classroom focus. In this workshop, Ariana 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. She will also discuss the differences in how boys and girls come to literacy and share strategies from coed and single gender classes.
Early Childhood Track. Essential Early Childhood: Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Children, with Dr. Ariana Lopez Gurian Certified Trainer. This workshop grows from the Gurian Institute Pilot programs in the Head Start and the Greater Phoenix Urban League (GPUL) classrooms in the Cartwright School District, including at Cartwright Child Care Center, a Gurian Model School. Ariana is Education Coordinator with GPUL. Her session will feature more than a dozen strategies, including single sex groupings, that 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 Gold, Creative Curriculum for Preschool, and CLASS.
By registering for this Zoom Event and its video recordings, you are agreeing to the following:
Welcome to our 2023 Summer Training Institute!
All times listed here are Pacific Time.
8:30 – 9:00 Setting the Stage, with Eva Dwight and Michael Gurian then a Brain Break
9:00 – 10:00 First Keynote, Michael Gurian, The Minds of Boys and Girls: Nurturing, Protecting, and Educating Our Children in a Complex Age.
Break
10:15 – 11:30 Second Keynote, Michael Gurian, The Resilience Code: Gender Specific, Poverty-Sensitive, and Trauma-Informed Strategies for Helping Boys and Girls Thrive.
Bonus Keynote, Watch Anytime. Rules of Engagement: Effective Strategies to Ignite Disengaged Boys and Girls of Color, with Dr. Adonica Jones-Parks
11:30 – 12:30 “Lunch” – Questions answered by Michael Gurian on his keynotes and subjects related to raising, educating, and counseling boys and girls, including questions about the gender spectrum.
12:45 – 2:00 First Afternoon Workshop, Concurrent Sessions
Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Strategies Part I, with Eva Dwight. For individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.
How to Cultivate Habits of Excellence in Children, with Dr. Toyin Atolagbe
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime: Rites of Passage into Manhood: Blending Science and Spirit to Build Good Men, with Tim Wright
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime: Helping Girls of Color Thrive in a Post-Covid World: Drilling Deeper Down on Equity for Girls, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher
Break
2:15 – 3:30 Second Afternoon Workshop, Concurrent Sessions
Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Strategies Part II, with Eva Dwight. For individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.
Single Sex/Single Gender: Teaching and Empowering Boys and Girls in Same Sex Classrooms and Cultures, with Rob Kodama and Daniel Parlato
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime. Bringing Families of Color into the Frame: Parent, Family, and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Environments, with Marion Hill
Break
3:45 – 4:15 Meeting with Michael Gurian, Eva Dwight, and people interested in becoming Gurian Certified Trainers. Renewing Trainers are also welcome.
Bonus Keynote, Dr. Gregory Jantz, Prerecorded, Watch anytime, The Anxiety Reset: How to Help Our Anxious and Depressed Children.
8:45 – 10:00 Educating Boys of Color: From School Initiative to Action Plan, with Dr. Vermelle Greene
Break
10:15 – 11:30 Second Morning Keynote, Dr. Warren Farrell, The Boy Crisis Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About it, includes Q & A
11:30 – 12:30 “Lunch” – Questions answered by Dr. Greene and Dr. Gurian on the keynotes and keynote topics.
12:45 – 2:00 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent Tracks
Becoming a Man: What Does it Mean to Boys, and How Do We Teach It? with Dr. Alan Swaney and Rob Kodama
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime. Essential Early Childhood: Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Children, with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Cynthia Reynolds
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime. The Power of Diversity: Teaching and Mentoring Latino and Dual Language Learners, with Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez.
Break
2:15 – 3:30 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent
Thinking Outside the Box: A Child-Focused Definition of Success, with Eva Dwight
De-escalating Angry Boys: Strategies for Handling Anger, Frustration, and Escalation with Dodie Blomberg
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime. Teaching a Love of Words: Best Practices for Literacy Learning in Preschool Classrooms, with Dr. Ariana Lopez
End of Day 2.
Logistics for the Recordings
You will be sent an email that includes a password protected website on which recordings of the presentations will be housed. These recorded sessions and this website are only for use by paid registrants of the SI. Please make sure we have your best email address (i.e. one that will not go to your spam folder!)
The sessions over the weekend will be recorded then available once uploaded for viewing through July 10, 2022. Thus, you won’t have to miss a single session! Sessions by Dr. Gregory Jantz, Dr. Adonica Jones-Parks, Dr. Glynetta Fletcher, Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez, and the Digital Keynote by Dr. Gurian will be prerecorded and available from June 20 – July 10.
All keynotes and workshops highlight sex and gender-friendly theory and strategies applicable to both coeducational and single sex classrooms, schools, and academies.
Schedule is subject to change.
Monday Morning – June 26 – Certification of Trainers Session, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., via Zoom, for those individuals becoming Gurian Certified Trainers with Eva Dwight. To begin the process of becoming a GI Certified Trainer, please visit the Trainer page on www.gurianinstitute.com.
Please send any questions to info@gurianinstitute.com.
Certificates of Participation
Upon request, participants who complete the two days of training (all sessions over the two weeks) are eligible for a Certificate of Participation for 20 hours via email; participants who also complete the Certification training on Monday can receive 24 hours. After you have completed your participation and viewing of the Training Institute Content, please email Gail at info@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
Single Sex/Single Gender: Teaching and Empowering Boys and Girls in Single Gender Classrooms and Cultures, with Rob Kodama and Daniel Parlato, Crespi Carmelite High School staff members and Gurian Certified Trainers. This workshop is designed for teachers, administrators, counselors, and all those interested in developing a deeper understanding of single gender environments. It features how Gurian’s work and strategies are integrated into single sex classrooms, how to set up the classrooms physically, how to facilitate student mentoring of boys and girls, and strategies for nurturing boys and girls through the sex-specific lens. Crespi Carmelite High School, an all boys high school in Los Angeles, CA is a Gurian Institute Model School and Center for Excellence. Between them, Rob (Director of Admissions) and Daniel (English Teacher and Mentor) have forty years of experience in working in single sex/single gender environments.
Early Childhood Track. The Power of Diversity: Teaching and Mentoring Latino and Dual Language Learners, with Marlene Ordaz and Shandeen Gomez, Gurian Certified Trainers. 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. Marlene is Associate Director of the Greater Phoenix Urban League’s Head Start programs and Shandeen is Director of the Urban Strategies Early Head Start Program. 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.
Rites of Passage into Manhood: Blending Science and Spirit to Build Good Men, with Tim Wright. Fifteen years ago, Pastor Tim emailed Michael Gurian to help set up Rites of Passage programs for both boys and girls in his church, Community of Grace, in Peoria, AZ. The two men built H.E.R.O.I.C. programs as ROP programs for secular communities as well. Tim is also host, with Michael, of the Wonder of Parenting podcast (www.wonderofparenting.com), which has more than two million downloads. In his workshop, Tim brings his blend of science and the sacred to explore masculinity and manhood with a special emphasis on what works for boys in rites of passage programs. This workshop includes strategies, anecdotes, stories, programs, and ideas you can use right away.
Registration Prices:
$325.00 per person.
$285.00 per person for groups of 5 or more.
$245.00 per person for groups of 20 or more.
This button handles individual payments. If you would like to send a group, please contact Gail at info@gurianinstitute.com. Let her know the number of people you would like to register, and whether you would like to pay via credit card, check, or PO. She will arrange a group registration with you.
Gurian Institute
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info@gurianinstitute.com
Phone: 509 624 0623
Fax: 509 624 4647
other Gurian sites:
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