We are proud to announce that we will be holding a Winter Training Institute in the Southeast again.  YOU made this happen!  For the last two years we’ve received phone calls, emails, and personal requests from many of you that we provide a Winter Training Institute like the one we provided in Tampa, Florida for four years, and like our Summer Institute in June in California.   Thank you for requesting it, and thank you to The Lovett School, in Atlanta, for hosting it!

The Winter Training Institute will be held on January 24-26, 2020, with the extra Monday morning session for Trainer Certification on January 27, 2020.  Lovett Middle School is a Gurian Model School, and provides not only a lovely setting for the conference, but also an institutional passion for educating children successfully–both in academics and social-emotional growth.  We hope you’ll join us in Atlanta for this powerful weekend.  Please save the date!  Here’s more.

Over the coming six months, we’ll feature our Winter Training Institute (WI) speakers and presenters in blog posts, so you can get to know them better.   Dr. Vermelle Greene is one of those speakers.  She lives in Maryland and has worked for decades in schools and school systems to improve children’s educational outcomes.   For the last twelve years, as a Gurian Master Trainer, she helped develop our Model School programs and has trained professionals, teachers, and parents.  Before her tenure with us, she founded the S.A.C.R.E.D. Life Academy for Boys, and now she is also a Member of the Maryland State Board of Education.  We are honored to have her present at the WI.  Here’s more about her programs.

Educating Boys of Color:  Rules of Engagement with Dr. Vermelle Greene

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 prepared to learn strategies and discuss how to best meet this challenge in your classroom and your school.  Because Dr. Greene has taught and worked with a widely diverse group of boys from all races and socio-economic origins, she has both culturally sensitive and universally applicable wisdom on masculine and male development.  This workshop will include practical strategies, anecdotes, stories, and action-plans you can use right away.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently – Two-Part Strategies Session, with Dr. Vermelle Greene. 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 session will model the strategies as if in a classroom setting.  This 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.  Over the two hours, we will explore these, among other, bases for strategies:

• Using physical movement in classroom instruction — a critical ingredient for brain development in children, especially boys
• Incorporating a variety of teaching strategies that build upon the strengths of girls, boys, or both.
• Motivating the male brain and female brain by utilizing strategies that capitalize upon their different learning styles
• Overcoming literacy and STEM gaps with field tested, successful solutions.