Presenter Schedule & Details
Opening Keynote: 8:30 – 9:45
The Art of Knowing Yourself: The Meta-Cognition Skill for the 21st Century
Dr. Anabel Jensen
Description of Presentation
Effective leadership is amplified by accurate self-knowledge. Come to this interactive keynote to discover the secrets of combating self-misperception, as well as how to garner useful feedback from others in order to become an inspiring and motivating administrator, teacher, leader, as well as a collaborative team member. Learn how mistakes and errors can be turned into talents and gifts that lead to success. The ancient art of kintsugi is the metaphor for illustrating this transformation.
Objectives:
1) share self-awareness formula ( V + P (second power) X OPOV = Leadership) for promoting self-knowledge;
2) introduce several techniques for gathering/improving self-data by gathering information from others’ perception. The “cult of self” can be defeated.
Objectives:
1) share self-awareness formula ( V + P (second power) X OPOV = Leadership) for promoting self-knowledge;
2) introduce several techniques for gathering/improving self-data by gathering information from others’ perception. The “cult of self” can be defeated.
Biography - Anabel Jensen
Recognized for her work utilizing emotional intelligence, Anabel Jensen co-founded and is President of the nonprofit Six Seconds, known for a model that puts the skills of emotional intelligence into action. Anabel earned her Ph. D. from the UC Berkeley. She has been a professor in the School of Education/Leadership at Notre Dame de Namur University; Executive Director of Nueva School; and co-founder of Synapse School.
Named by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the “Top 100 Women of Influence” in 2015, Anabel has received accolades including a Kellor Teaching Award from NDNU, Educator Award from the California Association for the Gifted; Outstanding Achievement Award from both Pocatello Foundation and Morrisey-Compton.
Author of numerous books and articles, Anabel has trained 30,000 educators and leaders. She is committed to developing 1 billion change makers who will inspire others to be the best in themselves and for each other.
Named by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as one of the “Top 100 Women of Influence” in 2015, Anabel has received accolades including a Kellor Teaching Award from NDNU, Educator Award from the California Association for the Gifted; Outstanding Achievement Award from both Pocatello Foundation and Morrisey-Compton.
Author of numerous books and articles, Anabel has trained 30,000 educators and leaders. She is committed to developing 1 billion change makers who will inspire others to be the best in themselves and for each other.
Period 1: 9:50 – 10:40
Organically Charged EQ Learning
Jila Malek
Description of Presentation
Advances in technology happen every hour, minute and second. However, if you go inside some of the college classrooms today, nothing has changed compared to 150 years. Come participate in a hands-on activity that demonstrates how to create a college classroom where the learning is organically charged through emotional intelligence. This workshop will explore growth mindsets and how emotional intelligence helps students thrive, engage, connect and explore new meaningful content.
Biography - Jila Malek
Jila Malek, M.Ed., Ed.D., is an adjunct professor in the School of Education and Psychology at Notre Dame de Namur University, where she works with the students in their Liberal Studies, Teaching Credential, and Graduate degree programs. Dr. Malek has also been working as an adjunct Child Development and Education professor at De Anza College for the last six years. Dr. Malek’s expertise includes educational leadership and management, faculty mentorship, safe spaces in the classroom, student engagement, and adolescent development.
What’s Art Got To Do With It?
Laura Rupenian
Description of Presentation
This is an arts-centered EQ lesson where participants put into play their critical thinking skills using the work of surrealist artist René Magritte as the learning channel. Through drama-based improv exercises and artistic inquiry, participants will investigate and attempt to solve a mystery behind Magritte’s “Evening Falls.” They will ask questions, evaluate data, and transform their findings into a creative writing or visual arts piece, which will shed light on the unresolved scene in Magritte’s painting.
Biography - Laura Rupenian
Laura Rupenian is a former practicing attorney, an integrated learning specialist, and a lifelong learner. She was a partner at two major US law firms, where she practiced law for over 15 years and discovered the importance of emotional intelligence and soft skills to achieve professional goals and overall success in life. Laura is originally from Argentina, loves modern art and world languages, and has a passion for the impact bilingualism and the arts can have on individuals’ executive functioning skills and the fulfillment of one’s potential in life.
How Innovative Is Your Neighborhood School?
Noa Mendelevitch, Britnei Merckle, Macarena Sosnik
Description of Presentation
In this workshop, three Visual Arts & Design teachers will share best practices for EQ and Arts integration into the classroom. Participants will be invited to contribute to a lively discussion on how we might increase creative confidence in our students, as well as take part in a hands-on, integrated curriculum exercise. The session will conclude with a reflection exercise where participants identify actionable steps for themselves and their school communities.
Biography - Noa Mendelevitch
Noa is a passionate educator dedicated to cultivating a lifelong passion for innovation and the skill set necessary to achieve fluency in creativity. Noa’s interdisciplinary teaching methodology enables students to experience the interconnectedness of all things and arrive at multiple solutions to every problem. Noa is a professional mixed media artist (her work can be seen at the Main Gallery in Redwood City) and has taught at both public and private schools on the Peninsula. She has studied architecture, multimedia, fashion, marketing, and design thinking in the United States and abroad. Noa expresses her love of fine art through her ever-growing body of creative work, but her greatest inspiration comes from spending time with her husband and two boys, a Synapse 8th grader and a recent Synapse graduate, along with the family’s beloved pooch, Alfie.
Biography - Britnei Merckle
Britnei received her MA in Art Education in 2012 from NYU Steinhardt in New York City. She also holds a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Ohio University with a minor in Theater Arts. Britnei is a New York State Certified Arts Educator and has taught art at a variety of private schools including the United Nations International School, where she designed and implemented lesson plans for a digital photography class. She has developed a theme-based curriculum for art classes and curated exhibitions of student work. She also has a great deal of studio experience. Britnei looks forward to her fourth year at Synapse supporting the arts and innovation programs.
Biography - Macarena Sosnik
Macarena is a graphic designer by training from the Universidad Finis Terrae in Chile and a crafter by passion. A native Spanish speaker, she seeks to inspire children to create the things they use, wear, and play with. She was most recently a curriculum developer and instructor at EQV, a mobile classroom SEL program benefiting underserved youth in the Bay Area. Macarena brings together the worlds of design and SEL in her unique educational art and communication classes, and offers students empowering Maker opportunities during the school day and after school. Macarena coordinated Synapse’s first booth at the Maker Faire last year. She is a mom of two, a four-year-old and a Synapse fifth grader, and she enjoys camping and spending time outdoors.
Parenting With an EQ Compass, A Roadmap
May Duong
Description of Presentation
Our kids are growing up in a world where there is no limit to what individuals can achieve. The only limits are the ones that come from within themselves. How can emotional intelligence help you to be the parent you want to be? To build yours and your child’s resilience and optimism to navigate and thrive in an ever-changing complex world?
In this workshop, you will explore what it means to parent with emotional intelligence (EQ). After this interactive and thought-provoking workshop, you will:
• Increase awareness of your own emotions and those of others
• Gain insights into how to navigate the range of emotions to make better choices
• Renew your confidence in leading your family toward greater peace, joy and connection
In this workshop, you will explore what it means to parent with emotional intelligence (EQ). After this interactive and thought-provoking workshop, you will:
• Increase awareness of your own emotions and those of others
• Gain insights into how to navigate the range of emotions to make better choices
• Renew your confidence in leading your family toward greater peace, joy and connection
Biography - May Duong
May is passionate about helping individuals connect with their emotions to find calm, joy, and meaning in their lives. Blending her expertise in emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and coaching, May develops deeply impactful programs for individuals, families, and schools. For the past several years, May has been a leader in the local parent communities through her parenting workshops, EQ Cafes, and Raising Humans podcast. Prior to joining Synapse School as Director of SEL, May held the position of Director of Parent Education with Six Seconds. When not working, May enjoys reading, cooking, and yoga. Alongside her husband, she enjoys looking at the world through her children’s eyes and discovering new beginnings every day.
Student Panel: 4th – 6th Graders
Facilitator: Cherilyn Leet
Description of Presentation
Coming Soon!
Period 2: 10:50 – 11:40
Pick Me Up When I Fall Down: Identifying, Encouraging, and Building Resilience Through Purposeful Goal Setting
Gretchen Stanerson, Keiko Sato-Perry
Description of Presentation
We live in a world that gives up easily when things get tough or don’t go as planned. Imagine a world where we encourage each other to be resilient and keep going even when it is tough. Join us in this fun, hands on experience of helping children identify times when they are already being resilient through story telling. Find out how the Daruma doll can help children learn to build resilience and set goals for themselves.
Biography - Gretchen Stanerson
Gretchen is an early childhood educator, curriculum consultant and developer, and is currently the Auxiliary Program Director at Presidio Knolls School, San Francisco. As a preschool teacher, curriculum developer, and preschool director she understands that the emotional education for children is more important than learning to read or write. She is currently also serving as the Bay Area Educator Representative for the California Association for the Gifted. Gretchen lives to find the joy in life and to make meaningful connections with others.
Biography - Keiko Sato-Perry
Keiko serves as an SEL specialist for Synapse School in Menlo Park. She is also a Parenting by Connection instructor, and consultant at Hand in Hand Parenting. She started her teaching career as a foreign language teacher during college where she studied English Literature in Tokyo. She holds two Master’s degrees in education (Educational Psychology from Keio University in Tokyo and Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford University in California). Keiko believes in the power of respect, connection, listening, and play.
A Teacher’s Daily Dose of Optimism: Infuse Your Students With Your Improved Attitude
Aline Kaprive
Description of Presentation
Come, learn, and celebrate yourself! In this workshop attendees will learn how to tap into their own emotional intelligence, strategies for handling really stressful days in teaching, and will learn how to use their own gifts and talents to accentuate their teaching style.
Biography - Aline Kaprive
My name is Aline Kaprive and I am very proud to share with you that I am a special
education teacher working at Sequoia High School. I teach English and Science to students with very emotional trauma. What helps me stay positive and connected is self-care, and having my own EQ prescription, especially when teaching becomes difficult. After 20 years, I still enjoy my job, and I put my heart and soul into teaching.
The Battle of the Artists: Using Project-Based Learning to Identify and Manage Emotions
Heather Chester
Description of Presentation
Immediately when a person hears the words “group projects,” most students and educators feel a sense a dread. Group projects often-times come with conflict, misunderstanding, and perhaps even a battle. Despite these preconceived ideas, project-based learning environments that implement group work are the best environments to develop EQ and community within a classroom. Join us as we explore using art, creativity and project-based learning to develop children’s EQ.
Biography - Heather Chester
Heather Chester is an artist, educator and intern with Six Seconds. She has taught and worked in a variety of international settings including refugee camps in the Middle East, a school owned by the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates, and in a remote village in the Arabian Peninsula. Currently she is an art educator at Pacific Bay Christian School and studies psychology and education at Notre Dame de Namur University. Her research specializes in the comparison of social and emotional intelligence across cultures.
TREE-Q: Applying EQ Skills to Nature
Ann McCormick
Description of Presentation
We will pretend to be a nearly 2000-year-old redwood tree, and explore what it feels like to be so still and present. We will share our experiences of having our own Big Old Tree from childhood, and use all our senses (including smell) to “be here now” with a Big Old Tree On Skyline that has its own website. We will see drone flight videos around that tree, consider what people created in the world to inspire and amuse people in each of the centuries that the tree has lived, and explore what delights us in the eco-zones around the tree. We will draw the tree any time in its past, its present, or its future (from any view), up to a million years.
Biography - Ann McCormick
Ann H. McCormick, PhD is an educator (preK to grad school), entrepreneur (founded a series of companies, including one sold for $640M), Certified EQ Trainer, grandma, tutor, researcher (early reading) and award winning software and app developer, most recently of ReaderBee.com, a series of reading apps for young children that won 15 national awards, including Parents’ Choice Gold.
Period 3: 11:45 – 12:35
Boston Massacre, 1770: How to Integrate EQ into History
Julie MacArthur
Description of Presentation
Our Thoughts and Feelings guide our Actions. They also guide the actions of historical and literary figures. Explore both history and literature through the lens of TFA to discover ways to develop history and literature lessons with a fresh new perspective. In this session we will look at the Boston Massacre, and other historical events, through the lens of the Thoughts, Feelings and Actions of important historical figures.
Biography - Julie MacArthur
Julie MacArthur has been an educator for more than 25 years. She has a M.A. in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and is passionate about bringing SEL into classrooms through both direct instruction and integrated instruction of EQ concepts into literature and history. Julie serves as President to the San Mateo Elementary Teachers Association, and is on the San Mateo Foster City School District’s Labor Management Initiative Steering committee. She is dedicated to spreading EQ practices throughout her district and beyond. In her spare time, Julie enjoys spending time with her three children and participating in triathlons.
Multiply Your Trust Factor
Katie Gibbons, Anabel Jensen
Description of Presentation
Drawing from their co-authored book, TRUST or DOUBT: Essential Strategies to Co-Create Thriving Teaching Teams, Anabel and Katie will define the five key pillars that build trust and the five pitfalls that erode it. They will then guide the workshop participants through exercises for each audience member to practice with a partner. The exercises include aligning values, improving listening skills, and recognizing ineffective default patterns. Overall, the workshop aims to be highly interactive, hands-on and memorable with many take-home strategies and insights to co-create successful and thriving teams.
Biography - Katie Gibbons
Approaching education with great purpose and passion, Katie has devoted over seventeen years of her career to devising the best tools to unlock students’ intellectual, creative, and emotional potential. Specializing in learner-centric, inquiry-driven, differentiated, and project-based curriculum, Katie makes learning come alive so that it becomes a transformative experience. For more than ten years, she has taught K-5 classes in a variety of educational settings — an urban charter school in Pennsylvania, a public school in a rural Yupik village in Alaska, and private schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the last seven years, Katie has served as an administrator at two K-8 independent schools that she has helped to establish in the Bay Area: She was the Founding Teacher and Associate Head of School at Synapse School in Menlo Park and the Founding Head of School at AltSchool, Fort Mason campus in San Francisco. Recently she stepped up from being the Head of Lower School at Alta Vista in San Francisco to act as the Interim Head of School upon the retirement of their Founding Head of School this past fall. Committed to creating a safe and innovative learning environment for students and faculty, she co-authored the book, “TRUST or DOUBT: Essential Strategies to Co-Create Thriving Teaching Teams.”
Inside the Locked Treasure Chest: Cracking the Riddle of Businesses Adopting Schools
Steve Sandis
Description of Presentation
Administrators, teachers, parents… Imagine that—at the end of a long, arduous quest—you had finally deciphered all the mysterious codes, recovered the lost keys, and unlocked the treasure chest. You open the lid, and, instead of the gold and jewels you had been expecting, you discovered a business willing to provide an ongoing flow of resources, time, and expertise to your school. Learn the why’s and how’s of businesses adopting schools. Acquire tools and checklists. Get started on the process of seeking and forming your first partnership. Do not miss this.
Biography - Steve Sandis
Steve Sandis is a master in the art of being former-things. He is a former teacher, administrator, school founder, web designer, corporate learning architect, financial advisor, attorney, birthday party magician, and balloon artist. Steve is now committed to supporting Six Seconds’ billion-person quest, specifically by harnessing the field of organizational development to infuse emotional intelligence into corporate cultures. Most of all, he enjoys laughing with his weird and wonderful family and crafting enchanted experiences for them.
A Community Partnership Built on Emotional Intelligence
Facilitator: Todd Armstrong
Description of Presentation
Channeling their empathy, optimism and increasing self-awareness, students at Sequoia High School began working with the Life Moves Vendome Residency in San Mateo in the spring of 2018. Committed to ending the cycle of homelessness, Life Moves – Vendome, the Sequoia students and members of the San Mateo police have formed a partnership to support their fellow community members. From art work to care packages for those on the street to just relating over a hot lunch, students learned about themselves as they endeavored to create positive community earning them recognition as outstanding volunteers by Life Moves.
Biography - Todd Armstrong
With 20 years in the tech sector at IBM including an assignment in France, Todd moved into education joining Synapse School in Menlo Park where social and emotional learning (SEL) is part of the school’s fabric. Responsible for creating and directing the middle school SEL program, Todd taught at Synapse for three years. Co-founder of the EQ Vehicle, a NFP collaborative devoted to the development of SEL, Todd mentors the social and emotional development of students, teachers and parents in the San Francisco Bay Area, consults with schools on SEL integration and speaks regularly at conferences. Committed to community activism and fitness, Todd is board member of the East Palo Alto Rotary Club, teaches indoor cycling at Crunch Gyms and is a drummer. Todd is a graduate of Colgate University.
Period 4: 1:50 – 2:40
Assessment Jeopardy: Play, Laugh, Learn
Barbara Fatum
Description of Presentation
Psychoeducational Assessment for children often puts them in “jeopardy.” Labels, poorly written reports that are full of jargon, misunderstanding of qualifying categories for Special Education, recommendations that don’t translate to the classroom are all a part of the process of qualifying a child for services, or, worse yet, not qualifying them for services. Rather than understanding the child as a learner, psychologists, principals, and teachers often want to know if the child “qualifies so they can receive appropriate remedial services.” Come to this workshop on “Assessment Jeopardy” and change your point of view. Assessment is meant to shine a light on a child’s learning style, help teachers and parents understand how the child learns best, and provide data to the educational team so supportive recommendations can be made, whether the child “qualifies” for Special Education or not!! We will be playing an “EQ Assessment Jeopardy” game during the session to spark discussion and test your EQ and psychoeducational knowledge!!
Biography - Barbara Fatum
Dr. Fatum is a California Credentialed School Psychologist with 25+ years of experience in working with students (Pre-K through Grade 12), parents, and faculty members in public, private, and international schools. She has completed the Advanced Trainer with the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network, where a strong focus is placed on developing individual Emotional Intelligence (EQ) skills during coaching sessions. Dr. Fatum’s research interests include the effect of EQ skills on academic achievement and using EQ skills to prepare students for standardized testing.
TBD
Kids Speak!
Description of Presentation
Coming Soon!
Biography -
Coming Soon!
Administration Panel Discussion
Anabel Jensen, Susan Charles
Description of Presentation
Coming Soon!
Closing Keynote: 2:50 – 3:40
Keynote: Finding Our Purpose Makes the World Go Around
Susan Charles
Description of Presentation
Coming Soon!
Biography - Susan Charles
Susan Charles worked in the Palo Alto Unified School District for 30 years in varying capacities and her last position was as the Principal of Ohlone Elementary School. She was an adjunct instructor at Santa Clara University and then became the Director of the M.A. in Educational Leadership/Administrative Services Credentials. Presently, she is the Director of the M.A. in Education and Curriculum and the M.A. in Administration/Preliminary Administrative Service Credential. Dr. Charles is on the Board of 6Seconds and is trained by the 6Seconds Organization.
Susan Charles is the Director of the M.A. in Education and Curriculum and the M.A. in Administration/Preliminary Administrative Service Credential at Santa Clara University. She worked in the Palo Alto Unified School District for 30 years in varying capacities and her last position was as the Principal of Ohlone Elementary School. She was an adjunct instructor at Santa Clara University and then became the Director of the M.A. in Educational Leadership/Administrative Services Credentials. Dr. Charles is on the Board of 6Seconds and is trained by the 6Seconds Organization.