Are you looking for a hands-on, easy-to-use, and exciting professional development experience that fits your budget?  Do you work with boys and girls as an educator, counselor, parent, or agency?   Have you noticed issues boys and girls were each facing before Covid and now in the Covid era?  Do you want immediate practical strategies and solutions at your fingertips, no matter your profession?

If your answer to any of these questions is “Yes,” then our Winter Training Institute is for you.  It targets classrooms, schools, educators, and counselors primarily, but will be of interest to anyone raising, educating, and working with boys and girls, including parents.  In their keynotes, both Dr. Gurian and Joseph Moody will not shy away from controversial topics, with practical strategies integrated into each talk and workshop.  For more information and to register, check out:  https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-winter-institute-2021/.

Dr. Michael Gurian’s Saturday January 23 Keynote, Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys and Girls, with special sections on the Digital Brain (screen time, social media, video games, and smartphones) and on Raising and Educating our Children during the Covid Crisis

In this dynamic keynote presentation, Dr. Gurian will explore how the minds of boys and girls learn and grow, including brain differences that impact education and social emotional development throughout the lifespan.  He will provide insight into new genetic resources available to schools and families, the impact of environmental and cultural neuro-toxins on the learning brain, 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 his newest books, The Stone Boys (2019), The Minds of Girls (2018), and Saving Our Sons (2017),  focusing on educating, raising, and counseling boys, and educating, raising, and counseling girls.

Two primary topics will be social-emotional development tools for teachers, parents, and others, including ways to help boys open up their emotions in boy-friendly ways, and successes and implications of the digital brain on education and parenting of all children.  As Michael looks at the growing brain through the lens of gender science, he will explore themes on everyone’s mind today, including transgender questions and gender fluidity, what constitutes “toxic masculinity,” girl drama and relational aggression, girls and STEM learning, boys’ empathy development, and brain-based boy-friendly learning strategies.

As Covid 19 continues to create the need for online and hybrid schooling in some areas of the country and world, Michael will provide strategies and insight to help educators and parents create the best possible “education during Covid” for this generation of children.  The Gurian Institute has been conducting action research since the pandemic began, and now provides training and outreach on this topic worldwide.

Michael will also lead two working lunch discussions.  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 school communities.

Michael Gurian’s Sunday Keynote, January 24: Trauma, Poverty, and Learning: Gender-Specific and Trauma-Informed Strategies for Helping Children Learn and Grow

Dr. Gurian’s Sunday keynote focuses on poverty- and trauma-informed classrooms, with a powerful eye towards empathy and resilience-building.  Michael will help teachers and others, including parents, 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 on boys and girls specifically.  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 some of his own story.  A product of 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.

Sunday Keynote, January 24, Joseph Moody, Assistant Head of Middle School for Student Life, The Lovett School, and former Juvenile Court Educator:  Working Successfully with Boys and Young Men of Color

Many of our boys, especially those of color, are falling behind academically and socially.  With training and commitment, dedicated educators can make a difference by utilizing instructional strategies and methods that fit the developmental and learning needs of these youngsters.  Come to this keynote prepared to learn strategies and discuss how to best meet this challenge in your classroom and your school.

Because Mr. Moody has taught and worked with a widely diverse group of boys from all races and socio-economic origins, he has both 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.  Joseph will bring to bear his previous experience working in the juvenile justice system to contextualize his profound sense that change is possible throughout our educational system.

Joseph Moody is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and Assistant Head of Middle School for Student Life at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia.  He has been an educator since graduating from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina in 1994.  Joseph taught and coached in public high schools in Georgia for 16 years, and worked in Juvenile Court, before becoming a Middle School science teacher at The Lovett School in 2010. After three years, Joseph transitioned to the role of Middle School Dean of Student Life for the boys. Outside of his Dean role, Joseph has coached football, wrestling, and track at Lovett.  He has an MS in Psychology and is working towards a PhD in Educational Psychology.

What Participants Have Said About Our Virtual Summits and Training Institutes

“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 thoroughly enjoyed these two days and learned so much about how to help my students, especially my girls in the areas of girl drama and STEM and my boys in areas of social-emotional development and motivation to learn.”

“Boys are a particular challenge in my classrooms, and this weekend training was right on point. This is one of the best professional development experiences I have ever had.”

To learn more and to register, please click:  https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-winter-institute-2021/.  Group discounts are available.