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Virtual Conference on June 22 - 23, Videos Available through July 8
All presenters will focus on the healthy social-emotional growth of our students and children as emotional, academic, digital, and mental health issues are on the rise all around us.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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, violence surrounds us, 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 targeted to sex on the brain
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. Some of Michael’s recent books are Saving Our Sons, The Stone Boys, Portrait of a Mother and Son, and The Minds of Girls. We hope you will read one or more 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 resilience-building of children in school, at home, and in our communities. Michael’s new memoir, The Storm In My Mother’s Eyes: A Journey of Forgiveness and Resilience, explores the science of resilience in story form, including a key psychological source of resilience: forgiveness. Without the journey of forgiveness, Michael argues, children and adults lack a primary building block for thriving.
A product of childhood trauma, Michael scores a 7 out of 10 on the Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE survey. The publication of his previous book, The Stone Boys, made public some of his own childhood trauma, and his memoir continues that exploration with brain science connected to story. We hope you will read The Stone Boys (available on amazon.com and other outlets) and/or The Storm In My Mother’s Eyes (available via subscription at michaelgurian.substack.com) ahead of time for a deep dive into the potential trauma-responses of both males and females, and the call of resilience.
Michael’s wife of 37 years, Gail Reid-Gurian, died this last year from pancreatic cancer. Her death further compelled Michael to learn and share more about the walk of resilience that every human being will have to make during childhood and later in adulthood. Obstacles are built into life as elemental motivators of both maturity and of a good life. This keynote, focusing on the development of resilience in children, will also help heal adults on their own journey.
Bonus Keynote, Saving the Digital Child: Strategies for Protecting and Empowering Boys and Girls in the Digital World, with Michael Gurian
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 in children’s lives. Dr. Gurian looks carefully at the neural connection between tech use, especially among young children, and brain issues later. Because some schools are one-to-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.
Some schools are going to a no-phone-during-the-school-day policy, and Michael will endorse that, with brain science to show why it is a good plan. Other schools are going toward more hands-on, project-driven, and nature-based learning. Michael will provide brain research that supports this direction in education.
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.
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 member of the Maryland State Board of Education.
In this keynote, Dr. Greene shares 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 three years of focusing on this work. The Gurian Institute is honored to have trained cadres and trainers in the Maryland Pilot Schools.
In addition, this keynote will include anecdotes, recommendations, and practical strategies to educate boys of color that you can use right away. Dr. Greene was a teacher and administrator in public schools in Maryland, and after her retirement, founded a school for boys. The vision and mission of the school led her to the Gurian Summer Institute in 2007, and she became a Gurian Master Trainer in 2010. She brings decades of experience to her work.
To learn more about Dr. Greene, please visit the Gurian Institute Trainer page.
We encourage groups to come to our events because that can bring systemic change to buildings, schools, and communities. Our keynotes and workshops cover children from birth – college age.
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.
For more than two decades, Dr. Fletcher (“Fletch”) has been teaching in Los Angeles urban schools where she became a Director for Racial Equity Programs. She has worked with some of the nation’s toughest, most traumatized, and impoverished students. Fletch is herself a product of childhood trauma and poverty, scoring a 10 out of 10 on ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
Fletch is a testimony to the power of relationships, neuro-plasticity and resilience. She will share part of her own personal story. Her most recent school site was located in one of the highest homicide areas and where students experience high levels of trauma. As Fletch puts it, “my mission is to help educators and students understand how to move their difficult circumstances from a cause of paralysis to a trauma advantage.”
This keynote focuses on science-based approaches that help teachers, counselors, and parents develop trauma- and poverty-sensitive classrooms and environments. Fletch will discuss the impact that trauma can have on teachers, students, and parents. Fletch will share practical strategies that participants will walk away with tools to support students.
A dynamic and inspirational speaker, Fletch changes hearts and changes minds. 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 in this powerful keynote.
To learn more about Dr. Fletcher, please visit Dr. Fletcher’s Gurian Institute Trainer page.
A former coach and youth mentor, Marion Hill is Program Director for Head Start and a Gurian Certified Trainer with the Greater Phoenix Urban League. Dynamic, visionary, and deeply committed to social change, Marion founded M.A.N.C.A.V.E. (Men All Need to be Caring Actively-Engaged, and Encouraged), a fathering and male-friendly program designed to encourage fathers/male role models to be actively engaged in their child’s growth, education, and development.
In his morning keynote, Marion Hill will present some of his own powerful, developmental story as an African-American boy growing up in a military family around the world. He will also use anecdotes from his two decades of work in child development, athletic coaching, and male engagement to bolster audience understanding of the crucial role men play in children’s lives.
As he tells his own powerful story, Marion will bring to life evidence-based success strategies M.A.N.C.A.V.E. is using as it works to help children and schools in under-resourced neighborhoods and classrooms. Because of his work in Hispanic/Latino communities in Arizona, Marion will also provide culture-specific success strategies for engaging Black and Latino fathers and male role models in their children’s social-emotional development.
To learn more about Marion, please visit Marion’s Gurian Institute Trainer page.
Bonus Keynote, with Sean Kullman, The State of Boyhood in America: a Practical Vision for Solving the Boy Crisis.
Director of the Global Initiative for Boys and Men, award winning educator, and expert in various states and around the world on what is happening with boys and boyhood, Sean Kullman has co-pioneered political efforts to help schools, states, and government agencies create policies that help boys without harming girls. His substack, In His Own Words, often features these efforts, and is always a compelling read.
In California, Washington, New Mexico, Iowa, and other, Sean has joined local and organizers to “study the data” in state and county institutions. His compelling keynote will share what Sean has found, in powerful words and equally powerful graphics and stats. Boyhood in America has become our nation’s most pressing internal problem, but we barely recognize it. Sean helps us recognize it.
Sean also focuses on practical strategies for solving the issues boys and their caregivers, teachers, and community members face. A long time advocate for the Gurian Institute’s school-focused programs, Sean will explore how effective and useful the Boys and Girls Learn Differently work has been in schools he has worked in. His research, data, and passion will powerfully affect your perceptions of what is going on and what is needed.
To learn more about Sean Kullman, visit The Global Initiative for Boys and Men.
Register Now!
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 $350.00 per person: if you would like to send a group, please contact Dakota Hoyt at info@gurianinstitute.com. Let her know the number of people you would like to register. She will arrange a group registration with you.
Early Childhood Emphasis Workshops
Because of our long-standing work with Head Start of Phoenix, we are again featuring workshops with an Early Childhood Emphasis. Some may be pre-recorded so that you can watch them anytime between June 17 and July 10.
What Participants Have Said About Summer Training Institutes
“The Gurian Institute people are always strategic and practical. I come to this event every year to get recharged in helpings boys and girls thrive and to learn the latest and greatest science. This is the best PD I go to all year.``
``We've incorporated GI into our early childhood programs with great success. Systems are not set up well for boys but GI has solutions we can use immediately, and solutions that help girls, too. It is a win-win.``
``I brought my administrators to the GI Virtual event and they loved it. One of them said, 'No filler at all, very practical and strategic, and brave speakers.' There is a truth being told at the GI event that needs to be heard. It changes schools and communities.``
“I usually dread PD but not the GI Summer Institute. This is powerful, inspiring, and filled with immediate help for me and my colleagues. I come back every year and bring new groups with me.”
THE GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE
VIRTUAL AND ONLINE
Ensuring Academic and Social-Emotional Success for All Children
To register, scroll down to the button.
To register groups of five or more, email info@gurianinstitute.com
Featured Speakers and Workshops
The Human Brain: Setting the Stage, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher 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 Dr. Glynetta Fletcher, Gurian Institute Program Director and 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.
Helping Girls Thrive in a Post-Covid World: Drilling Deeper Down on Girls, Dr. Glynetta Fletcher, Gurian Institute Program Director and Former Equity Coordinator 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.
Becoming a Man: How One School Teaches It to Diverse Boys, with Crespi Carmelite High School Vice Principal and Gurian Certified Trainer, Dr. Alan Swaney. Alan is one of GI’s first Certified Trainers. Crespi is GI’s first Model School (2005 – present). Crespi is in Los Angeles, CA, and this last year became a Gurian Center For Educational Excellence. For ten years, a co-developed “Becoming a Man” course has been taught at the school. In this workshop, Alan will explore the experience of masculinity and manhood in boys’ lives today, and how adults can help boys live wisely, empathically, and successfully. This inspiring and heartfelt workshop will include strategies, structures, and plans you can use with the diverse boys in your school, family, and community.
Early Childhood Emphasis. Starting Early: The Success of Minds of Boys and Girls Training in Early Childhood Family and School 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. He spearheaded the Gurian Institute programs in Phoenix Head Start programs and founded M.A.N.C.A.V.E, (Men All Need to be Caring Actively-Engaged, and Encouraged), a Nurturing Fathers program. In this workshop, he will share how the Gurian Institute work came into Head Start and parent engagement networks, the success of the programs in helping with child mental health as well as academics and parent support, and practical strategies from his work in the community, including what does not work with busy and distracted parents, including parents whose native language is not English and parents of color.
Helping Boys and Girls Thrive: Dealing with Angry Students, and Putting It All Together, with Gurian Institute Managing Director, Dakota Hoyt. Join Dakota for this concluding workshop in which she will 1) provide essential strategies for managing student anger and aggression, and 2) synthesize the Gurian strategies you have learned during this Institute in an easy “take away” format. She will clarify any questions that may have come to mind, and she hopes you will share your best “go to” strategy that you will be implementing immediately. Dakota has worked with students PreK-college in the role of a teacher, administrator, Director of Professional Development, and an Independent Contractor.
Solving the Classroom Management Puzzle, with Diane Roberts, Retired Principal and Gurian Certified Trainer
Diane Roberts is trained in restorative practices, AVID, positive behavior intervention and supports, youth mental health first aid, and she serves a member of the Charles County Public Schools Equity Task Force, Superintendent’s Task Force on the African American Employee Experience, and group facilitator and pilot school leader for the Task Force on Achieving Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys for the Maryland State Department of Education. As a Gurian Institute Certified Trainer, she provides Boys and Girls Learn Differently training as well as Classroom Management training for Pilot schools in the Maryland Initiative to Help Children of Color. Her strategies work in all classrooms and work from a science-based perspective. A dynamic and inspiring presenter, Diane will explore the challenges teachers face, how to leverage the science and strategies in classrooms and buildings, and how to reach out to parents to ensure parent involvement in student self-management.
Early Childhood Emphasis. 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 Emphasis. 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:
- I will not share the videos, links, or materials unless the other person has paid for the event.
- I will not record any of the sessions in any way (screen shots, personal video or audio recordings, and/or similar capturing of content, people, or discussions).
- I understand that the Gurian Institute is not responsible for my connection to the internet.
- I understand that my face or image may be used without compensation by GI e.g., via a group screen shot used in the future on its website.
Training Schedule
Welcome to our 2024 Summer Training Institute!
All times listed here are Pacific Time.
Saturday, June 22
8:30 – 9:00 The Human Brain: Setting the Stage with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher and Dr. Michael Gurian, then a break before the keynote.
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 Advantage: Maturing Children in the Journey of Forgiveness and Resilience.
Bonus Keynote, Watch Anytime. The State of Boyhood in America, with Sean Kullman
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
Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Strategies Part I, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher. This workshop is for all participants in the Summer Institute, and for individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.
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
Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Strategies Part II, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher. This workshop is for all participants in the Summer Institute, and for individuals becoming certified trainers, it is a required course.
The Success of Minds of Boys and Girls Training in Early Childhood Family and School Environments, with Marion Hill
Bonus Workshop on Video, Watch Anytime: Storytelling, Heroic Models, and Rites of Passage: What Boys Need To Be Good Men, with Tim Wright
Break
3:45 – 4:15 Meeting with Michael Gurian, Glynetta Fletcher, Dakota Hoyt, and people interested in becoming Gurian Certified Trainers. Renewing Trainers are also welcome.
Sunday, June 23
Bonus Keynote, Dr. Vermelle Greene, Prerecorded, Watch Anytime, Educating Boys of Color: The Mandate and the Methods.
8:45 – 10:00 The Trauma Advantage: Gender-Specific, Poverty-Sensitive, and Trauma-Informed Strategies for Helping Children Learn and Grow, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher
Break
10:15 – 11:30 Second Morning Keynote, The Fathering Advantage: How Men Matter to Education, and How to Engage Men Deeply with Marion Hill
11:30 – 12:30 “Lunch” – Questions answered by Dr. Fletcher, Mr. Hill, and Dr. Gurian on the keynote topics.
12:45 – 2:00 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent
Becoming a Man: How One School Teaches It to Diverse Boys, with Dr. Alan Swaney
Solving the Classroom Management Puzzle, with Diane Roberts
Essential Early Childhood: Boys and Girls Learn Differently Strategies for Our Youngest Children, with Dr. Ariana Lopez and Cynthia Reynolds
Break
2:15 – 3:30 Afternoon Workshops, Concurrent
Helping Boys and Girls Thrive: Dealing with Angry Students, and Putting It All Together, with Gurian Institute Managing Director, Dakota Hoyt
Single Sex/Single Gender: Teaching and Empowering Boys and Girls in Same Sex Classrooms and Cultures, with CJ Kruska and Daniel Parlato
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!) for correspondence and access.
The sessions over the weekend will be recorded then available once uploaded for viewing through July 8, 2023. Thus, you won’t have to miss a single session! Some sessions will be prerecorded and available from June 16 – 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 24 – Certification of Trainers Session, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., via Zoom, for those individuals becoming Gurian Certified Trainers, with Dr. Glynetta Fletcher. 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 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 CJ Kruska 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.
Bonus Workshop. Storytelling and Rites of Passage: Gifting a Story Line to Our Boys and Girls, with Tim Wright. Almost twenty years ago, Pastor Tim emailed Michael Gurian to help set up Rite-of-Passage programs for both boys and girls in his church, Community of Grace, in Peoria, AZ. The two men built the H.E.R.O.I.C. (for boys) and W.I.S.D.O.M. (for girls) programs as Rites of Passage for secular communities, as well. Tim is host, with Michael Gurian, of the Wonder of Parenting Podcast: A Brain Science Approach to Parenting (www.wonderofparenting.com). Tim is also the author of the middle school age fantasy series, The Adventures of Toby Baxter. In this workshop, Tim offers insights into how we can use powerful stories to help shape the positive story lines of our sons and daughters.
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Registration Prices:
$350.00 per person.
$300.00 per person for groups of 5 or more.
$270.00 per person for groups of 20 or more.
This button handles individual payments. If you would like to send a group, please contact Dakota 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.
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GURIAN SUMMER TRAINING INSTITUTE 2024 - GURIAN INSTITUTE