ONLINE CONFERENCE

EDUCATION: NEXT GENERATION

Welcome to the Speaker Notes from:
#EdNextGen Conference – May 2016

presented by Happily Family – Cecilia and Jason Hilkey

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Day One

Scott Noelle

The Power of Partnership with Kids and in Relationships

Scott is a coach, mentor, writer, and speaker. His passion is helping people develop their parenting, relationship, and self-empowerment skills, so they can raise confident, connected, creative children.
He collaborated with the late Jean Liedloff, author of The Continuum Concept, and Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn. His background as a voice teacher helping adult singers overcome inner and outer obstacles to creative expression laid much of the foundation for his work as a parenting/life coach beginning in 2003. Scott created The Daily Groove, a free short daily email, when he realized that parents need reminders to change their way of thinking about children and parenting. He lives in Portland with his wife and two children.

Summary:
Scott talks about what partnership looks like in a committed relationship, parent-child relationship, and a teacher-student relationship. He talks about his PATH parenting philosophy, which stands for partnership, authenticity, trust, and heart. Scott believes that true power doesn’t come by attempting to control our children and that children can be trusted to direct the course of their own education.

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Tony Wagner

Educating Kids in the Innovation Age: Why Creativity and Passion Matter

Tony currently serves as an Expert In Residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab and as a Senior Research Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute. Prior to this, Tony was the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, and the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.
Tony has authored six books. Tony’s latest, Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for The Innovation Era, was made into education documentary, “Most Likely to Succeed,” which had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Tony earned an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Summary:
Tony talks about the 7 skills that executives in major companies consistently search for in new hires, and the problem of our educational system not doing enough to help students develop these 7 skills. He speaks about how we are now in an innovation economy and how to foster innovation and creativity in children, including allowing kids time to play, supporting them to find a passion, and to foster their internal motivation.

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Ted Fujimoto

Relationship with Kids is the Key to Building Schools

Ted is the president of Landmark Consulting Group, Inc., a management and investment consultancy for scaling innovations in learning. He is the founder and co-chair of the Right to Succeed Foundation, a nonprofit focused on transforming public education worldwide and through the creation of at least 6,000 American Dream Schools within the next 10 years. Ted helped to design and create the replication systems and strategy for several of the largest scalable, fastest growing, highest performing public school designs in the country that created over 400 schools, including New Tech Network and Big Picture Learning.

Summary:
Ted talks about the importance of relationship in education and how relationship is the foundation to creating programs that are relevant to students and have rigor. He talks about the schools that he has helped start and how business practices can be used to scale whole child schools.

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Jennifer Miller

Emotional Safety Plans

Jennifer has twenty years of experience working with adults to help them become more effective with children through social and emotional learning. She is a regular expert contributor NBC Education Nation’s Parent Toolkit. She is the author and illustrator of the site Confident Parents, Confident Kids, which has 22,000 followers from 152 countries around the world. She has contributed articles to popular publications such as Parent Magazine, The Huffington Post, Thomas Vander Ark’s Getting Smart; Smart Parents series, Ashoka Changemaker Series, Edutopia, Responsive Classroom, and The Community Psychologist. In 2015, she contributed to the book, Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning. She offers webinars and workshops, and coaches parents and educators. Jennifer has her Masters Degree in Education with a focus on social and emotional development from the University of Illinois. She lives with her husband and eight year old son in Columbus, Ohio.

Summary:
Jennifer talks about why, as parents and teachers, our emotions can be overwhelming at times and what happens in our brains during intense emotions. She gives simple steps to create an emotional safety plan in a family or in a classroom, a plan so that parents and kids know what to do when someone is experiencing big feelings. She also talks about how to be like a coach to help our children develop their emotional and social skills.

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Michelle Gale & Aaron Schiller

Mindfulness in the Home and School

Michelle Gale and Aaron Schiller are the founders of the Family Awareness Project.
Through her career Michelle worked in tech startups, as an elementary teacher, mindfulness educator, and as an executive & family coach. She also serves as an advisor to the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, the Mindful Schools, and Tilt365. Michelle is finishing her Masters in psychology. As a mother of two sons, she sees every moment as an opportunity to wake up to herself a little bit more.
Aaron developed an in-home, whole family model through his work as a Coaching & Counselor because he saw how when one person is suffering the whole family is affected. He is also the founder of the Mindful Father Experience, a training designed to support dads in their journey to be more involved, patient, accepting, and loving parents. He has over 15 years of experience working as a Special Education Teacher, Group Home Counselor and Youth Sports Coach. He is the father of two daughters.

Summary:
Michelle Gale and Aaron Schiller talk about their professional work with families and in their own families to become more mindful and aware. They share how the Family Awareness Project was born and how they are creating community through the project. They discuss the importance of being authentic with your children, repairing the relationship, and helping children make sense of their world by “making the implicit, explicit” – an important skill for parents and teachers.

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Day Two

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Daniel Rechtschaffen

Using Mindfulness to Handle Unpleasant Thoughts and Feelings

Daniel is a Marriage and Family Therapist and the author of The Way of Mindful Education: Cultivating Well-Being in Teachers and Students. He founded the Mindful Education Institute and the Omega Mindfulness in Education conference. He leads trainings at the Omega Institute, Esalen, and California Institute of Integral Studies. He has helped create curriculum for Mindfulness Without Borders, Mindful Schools, and The Mindful Mothering Project. Daniel leads mindfulness trainings around the world, in schools including the Phucket International Academy in Thailand and even to high-school basketball and baseball teams. Daniel also has a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Summary:
Daniel talks about how to handle unpleasant thoughts and feelings. He defines mindfulness and offers practical tools for beginning a mindfulness practice. He also talks about the importance of self care for teachers and parents.

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Dr. Peter Gray

How Play Helps Kids Develop Empathy, Curiosity, and Cooperation

Peter, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, has conducted and published research in neuroendocrinology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. His recent research focuses on the role of play in human evolution and how children educate themselves, through play and exploration, when they are free to do so. He has expanded on these ideas in his book, Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (Basic Books). He also authors a regular blog called Freedom to Learn, for Psychology Today magazine. His own play includes not only his writing and research, but also long distance bicycling, kayaking, cross country skiing, and vegetable gardening. He earned his undergraduate degree at Columbia College and Ph.D. in biological sciences at the Rockefeller University.

Summary:
Peter Gray talks about what we can learn from our heritage as descendants of hunter-gather societies. By examining these so-called primitive cultures we learn that they prized autonomy, play, and cooperation, rather than ownership or work. Fostering play–inside and outside–in children’s lives (and ours) leads to social emotional growth, creativity, empathy. Peter also talks about the importance of dangerous play and video game play.

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Ruth Beaglehole

The Developing Brain, Empathy, and Nonviolent Parenting

Ruth has spent her life considering the needs of children and their parents, using the principles of respect, healing, and connection. Ruth created a new paradigm of unconditional parenting starting with a playgroup in the Echo Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, later as a parent education teacher for Los Angeles Unified School district, and in the Teen Mother Program also at LAUSD. She founded the Center for Nonviolent Parenting and Education, now known as the Echo Center, to work with parents, train parent educators, and teachers throughout Southern California. Ruth, a New Zealand native, has a BA in Education from Victoria University in New Zealand and a MA in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Summary:
Ruth talks about how to use stories, empathy, and current brain science to handle challenges like separation anxiety, parenting style differences, trauma, kid’s anger, getting out the door in the morning, and repairing the parent-child relationship. She demonstrates how to make an empathy book–a powerful and easy tool–as well as how and when to use it.

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Eric Nelson

Cultivating Outdoor Learning

Eric is the Founding Director of the Child Educational Center at the Caltech/JPL Community, which he and his wife, Elyssa (its current Executive Director) established in 1979. the CEC serves children, ages 6 weeks through 5 years, has a certified Nature Explore playground, and is the model site for the Outdoor Classroom Project.
He does consulting and training services in the field of early care, facility design and construction, and education, including the Outdoor Classroom Project®, at conferences, colleges, and workshops. Nelson has consulted in over 40 projects requiring play yard, building analysis, design and construction.
He completed his Masters studies in Human Development at Pacific Oaks College and he has a Masters degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, He has worked as a teacher of preschool and elementary children, taught courses for several colleges, and is the author of Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms.

Summary:
When Eric started a preschool with his wife in the 1970s he didn’t intend to start a movement for outdoor play in the education world. Eric talks about the importance of playing outside, giving children freedom, allowing them to learn from failures, and how parents and teachers can overcome obstacles to give kids more free range.

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Cathy and Todd Adams

Self Awareness in Parenting and Teaching

For five years Cathy and Todd Adams have hosted Zen Parenting Radio, where they focus on self-awareness, empathy, connection, pop culture, and humor. They are the parents to three girls ages 13, 11, and 8.
Cathy is an award-winning author, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Parent Coach, Certified Elementary School Teacher, Certified Yoga Teacher, and she teaches in the Sociology Department at Dominican University.
Todd is a relationship and finance coach, a co-creator/facilitator of a Chicago-based men’s group, staff member for The Mankind Project, blogger for The Good Men Project, and a certified instructor for the Institute of Heartmath.

Summary:
Todd and Cathy talk about how to become more aware as a person–parent or teacher and how to reconnect after there has been a rupture in the relationship. They discuss self forgiveness, self care, and teaching children about their emotions.

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Day Three

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don Miguel Ruiz, Jr.

The Five Levels of Attachment

don Miguel Ruiz, Jr., is a Toltec Master of Transformation. He is a direct descendant of the Toltecs of the Eagle Night lineage, and is the son of don Miguel Ruiz, author of New York Times bestseller The Four Agreements. He is the author of the newly released book The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec Wisdom for a Modern World. Along with his family, he teaches workshops and offers transformational journeys around the world.

Summary:
don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. talks about how we can become more present, let go of attachment and see what is really in our life. His work is about creating happiness, loving unconditionally, and letting go of illusions. He talks about how he’s learned to be responsive as a father of two children. He shares personally about how he experienced the parenting style of his own father–don Miguel Ruiz–change as his father grew spiritually.

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Dr. Joseph Lee

Understanding Anger: How to Help When Kids are Mad

Joseph is a psychiatrist with a practice in Southern California. Early in his practice he saw that his patients were clearly getting better, but didn’t seem to be quite “well.” His search to help people truly thrive, led him to a truth-based perspective that he’s been applying personally and professionally, built around developing self-worth, meaningful relationships, and lifelong optimal healthiness. Becoming a parent, made him more intentional about every aspect of his own life – trying to figure out the best way to raise his kids, while maintaining his own health and wellbeing.

Summary:
Anger is unpleasant to experience, but if parents and teachers understand anger’s purpose then it’s easier to handle. Joseph teaches us that anger–as with all our emotions–has a predictable trigger and predictable resolution.

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Naomi Aldort

Empowering Children, Sibling Rivalry, Self Forgiveness

Naomi is the author of Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, published in 17 languages. She facilitates self-realization through parenting workshops in Skype sessions, conferences and speaking events internationally. Her guidance is not about understanding our children so they can do their best, not because they fear us or seek our approval, but because they want to, of their own free will. She works holistically toward a peaceful and powerful parent-child relationships from infancy through teens. Her SALVE communication formula has been praised as providing the best of The Work of Byron Katie and Nonviolent Communication combined.

Summary:
Naomi explains her SALVE formula. She talks about self forgiveness, handling sibling rivalry and how to empower kids to solve their own problems. She also talks about how to reframe your thoughts if a child is not listening.

Links:

Victoria Kindle Hodson

Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids

Victoria, consultant, trainer, teacher, and internationally recognized author, is a passionate proponent of respectful interaction between adults and young people. For four decades she has been sharing compassionate practices from the fields of parenting, education, positive psychology, and brain science with tens of thousands of parents and teachers.
As well developing The No-Fault Zone Game—a hands-on communication and conflict resolution tool, Victoria, in partnership with Sura Hart, has written three books based on Nonviolent Communication that have been translated into numerous languages: Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids, The Compassionate Classroom, and The No-Fault Classroom. She lives in Ventura, California and is currently developing personalized learning and social-emotional skill development programs for schools.

Summary:
Victoria gave examples for the home and classroom about how to speak with respect, without using punishments or being permissive. She described how to use agreements with children and why agreements are more effective than imposing rules. She demonstrated how to use the No Fault Zone game. She talked about what “protective use of force” is and when you use it.

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Ali Smith

Yoga and Mindfulness in Underserved Communities

Ali and Atman, with Andres Gonzales co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation a Baltimore-based nonprofit committed to the wellness of children and adults in underserved communities. The foundation helps children develop their inner lives through evidence based programs in yoga, mindfulness and self-care. For the past four years, they have partnered with The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and Penn State University’s Prevention Research Center analyzing the effectiveness of yoga and mindfulness on urban youth in Baltimore City Public Schools.

Summary:
Ali Smith talks about how the Holistic Life Foundation was created out of their desire to give back to their Baltimore neighborhood. He talks about the importance of love, mindfulness and yoga practices so children can regulate their feelings. Ali shares what he does with his own son to teach him mindfulness.

Links:

Day Four

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Katie Hurley

Reducing Stress in Kids, Helping Kids Find Their Passion

Katie is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, writer and speaker in Los Angeles, CA. Katie earned her BA in psychology and women’s studies from Boston College and her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. Katie has extensive experience treating children and adolescents with learning differences, anxiety and low self-esteem. She is also trained in Play Therapy. Katie has written for The Washington Post, PBS Parents, mom.me, Everyday Family, Momtastic, and The Huffington Post. She is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World (Tarcher/Penguin) and a forthcoming parenting book exploring how mean girls are developing much younger with tips to proactively raise kind, confident girls (Tarcher Perigee/Penguin).

Summary:
Katie talks about reducing stress in kids with 3 practical tools, how to limit overscheduling of children, and how to help kids find their passion. She addresses why it’s counterproductive to force apologies, and what you can do instead that will help kids learn social skills and resolve conflict.

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Jeremy Stuart

Documentary Movie Tackles Myths about Homeschooling

Jeremy’s involvement in the television and film industry has spanned over 25 years. As an editor he has worked on hundreds of music videos, commercials, and corporate projects, as well as award winning documentaries and short films for clients such as Lucasfilm,
Dolby Laboratories, National Geographic Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Yamaha,
Virgin America, Sony, Dave Matthews Band, Acura and GoPro.
Class Dismissed, his directorial debut, has been screened in 7 countries and has received great acclaim in alternative education circles around the world.

Summary:
Jeremy talks about his movie Class Dismissed–why he made it and what parents and teachers can learn from it. His movie and personal story are helpful for parents of children who attend school, and also classroom teachers. For the homeschooling parent, his movie and this interview are reassuring and inspiring

Links:

class dismissed dvd case

Jeanne-Marie Paynel

Setting Up the Physical and Emotional Environments

A parent of two children, Jeanne-Marie launched Voila Montessori in response to the overwhelming demand from parents for advice and guidance for raising children in a gentle, peaceful, and supportive environment that's conducive to their full development – psychological, academic, artistic, spiritual, physical, cultural, etc.
Her mission is to help parents appreciate the true importance of their role – not as servants or teachers, but as supporters and guides of their children's natural development.
Read More about Jeanne Marie and Voila Montessori

Summary:
Jeanne-Marie talks about how to set-up the physical and emotional environment for children. She says that observing children without judgement, allowing children uninterrupted time and following the child’s lead are essential for learning.

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Tim Brownson

Feel Better and Do Better: How to Choose Your Thoughts and Feelings

Tim has written 9 books including Aligning With Your Core Values, How To Be Rich And Happy, And 70 Amazing Facts About Your Brain. Prior to becoming a life coach he spent 20 years in sales and sales management. As a coach he works to help people manage stress, get unstuck, and live a meaningful life.

Summary:
Tim talks about how to choose our feelings and responses even when we are in a tough situation. He gives practical tools for breathing, meditation, self care, and aligning our actions with our values. He covers some of the neurology behind how we think, why we behave certain ways, and how we change.

Links:

Pat Farenga

Trusting in Children to Direct Their Own Learning

Patrick brings more than 34 years of fieldwork, advocacy, and personal experience to help parents and children learn in their own ways. Farenga is a writer and education activist who worked closely with one of the founders of the modern homeschooling movement, the late author and teacher John Holt, and published Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS) which was the nation’s first periodical about learning without going to school, was started by Holt in 1977 and ending in 2001.
Farenga speaks at education conferences around the world and he has been featured on The Today Show, and Good Morning America.

Summary:
Patrick talks about the importance giving kids uninterrupted time, creating community, having patience, allowing kids to play outside, trusting in children to read at their own pace and direct their own learning. He talks about homeschooling, including homeschooling children with disabilities.

Links:

Day Five

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Vicki Davis

Using Projects to Teach Compassion and Technology

Vicki Davis is a full time classroom teacher and IT director at a small school in Georgia. She has been writing the Cool Cat Teacher blog for over 10 years and has been an Edublog award finalist for Best Teacher Blog for the last nine. Vicki was voted a top 5 twitterer in education by the Edublog awards.
Vicki hosts the podcast Every Classroom Matters on the BAM Radio Network which consistently trends in the top 10 in the K12 iTunes store podcasts. Vicki is well known for her creation of more than twenty global collaborative projects including the Flat Classroom Project.
Vicki’s books Reinventing Writing and Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds, empower teachers to connect their students to technology and the world. She has spoken at Google, Microsoft, and other technology companies about innovative classroom technology use.
Vicki has 3 three children, 4 dogs, 3 cats, 105 students, and 1 husband.

Summary:
Vicki Davis talks about how to use project based learning and technology to teach compassion and empathy. She is a visionary high school teacher who helps her students make change in the world, by using their hands, working in groups, and following their passions.

Links:

Alfie Kohn

Encouraging Collaboration Rather Than Competition

Alfie Kohn is the author of 14 books on education, parenting, and human behavior, including Punished By Rewards (1993), The Schools Our Children Deserve (1999), Unconditional Parenting (2005), The Homework Myth (2006), and The Myth Of The Spoiled Child (2014).  He has appeared twice on “Oprah,” as well as on “The Today Show” and many other TV and radio programs. His articles include: “Five Reasons to Stop Saying ‘Good Job!’”, “How Not to Teach Values,” and “Atrocious Advice from ‘Supernanny.’ ” Kohn works with educators and parents across the country and speaks regularly at national conferences. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org

Summary:
Alfie Kohn advocates for children to have a voice in the home and the classroom, for collaboration to be more valued than competition, to “work with” children rather than do things to them. He talks about what changes need to be made in schools and how to make change happen. Alfie challenges parents and teachers to think not only about how to prepare kids for the road but also to ask the more fundamental question, “Is this a road that we want to prepare kids for?”

Links:

Sura Hart

The Compassionate Classroom

Sura is an internationally recognized trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication and is the contact person for integrating non-violent communication into U.S. schools. She designs and facilitates trainings for students, parents, teachers, and school administrators around the globe including Teach for Life a 6-day residential training in the US.
She has experience as a classroom teacher in public and private schools; creator and director of after-school programs for at-risk youth on leadership, healthy sexuality, and conflict resolution. She has co-authored 3 books with Victoria Kindle Hodson, Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids, The Compassionate Classroom, and The No-Fault Classroom.

Summary:
Sura talks about how to use Nonviolent Communication with children and shares examples. She describes how fear, shame, and guilt cut off empathy, our natural language. She tells stories about her recent visits teaching communication workshops in China and how parents there–and in the US–are eager to make changes. She discusses how the No Fault Zone game is helpful for anyone who wants to practice speaking with compassion.

Links:

Dr. Maurice Elias

Socially Intelligent Parenting

Maurice is a professor, in the Psychology Department, at Rutgers University and director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab. He lectures nationally and internationally to educators and parents about students’ emotional intelligence, school success, and social-emotional and character development. Dr. Elias blogs at Edutopia and has written numerous books for teachers, as well as a book for parents, Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, and a book for children called Talking Treasure.

Summary:
Maurice talked about the importance of social emotional learning and character development in the home and classroom. He has easy, practical tips for the home and school to help kids identify feelings, develop gratitude, cooperation, and goal setting. He talks about teen brain development and how to help teens develop compassion.

Links:

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