Guest Speakers for the 2011-2012 School Year

Positive Discipline with Lori Onderwyzer - Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 8:15 a.m.

Positive Discipline: growing relationships that nurture trust and build responsibility, resourcefulness, resilience, and of course...confidence, capability, creativity, and compassion.

• Do you want to bring more joy back into your parenting, families, and home life?
• Do you want to learn some respectful and effective tools to replace shouting, nagging, bribing, threatening, and punishing? 
• Do you want help understanding why kids do what they do?
• Do you want to put an end to power struggles?

Join us for this workshop and you are guaranteed to leave with lots to reflect on and some powerful strategies and tools that can be used right away. Be ready to be actively involved and engaged-no lecturing here. You will leave with re-newed hope and energy and stand taller in your commitment to having more joy in your parenting, family, and home life!

Lori Onderwyzer is a Certified Positive Discipline Lead Trainer and is an inspiring and genuine facilitator who lives and models the Positive Discipline principles she teaches.

Her greatest passion is to help families create the life they want together--one that is filled with connection, love, joy, and as few power struggles as possible. She loves to provide encouragement and teach strategies and tools that help people seek mutually respectful solutions to everyday challenges.

Lori has been working with children and the adults that care for, and educate them for over 23 years. She is a certificated teacher and has taught kindergarten through eighth grade in such diverse settings as the inner city, migrant farm communities, international schools and charter schools, and in small group and one on one educational environments. These experiences have given her a keen insight into the challenges and concerns experienced by people from diverse communities. She understands there is a different "culture" in each community and is sensitive to the differing needs.

Lori shares her own "learning from mistakes" stories playfully and has a special ability to create a safe environment where participants feel comfortable to practice new skills.

Lori facilitates experiential Positive Discipline workshops for school communities and parent groups and has presented at educational and professional conferences in the U.S. and Canada working with teachers, administrators, counselors, support staff, parents,and coaches in creating encouraging communities in schools and homes. Her practical experience with Positive Discipline is extensive, and she raises her two children using these principles.

What is Typical Adolescent Development Anyway? with Lisa Hardy - Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 6:30 p.m.

Adolescence is a time of enormous physical, cognitive, emotional, and social change. This evening, Lisa will describe the changes that occur during adolescence. As a psychiatrist and mother, she can offer insight and advice to support you and your daughter during this important and challenging time of life.

Lisa Hardy is a psychiatrist with a private practice in San Ramon providing therapy and medication management for children, adolescents, and adults. Previously she was the Director of the Psychiatry Division at Children's Hospital in Oakland. Her interests include adolescent issues and trauma in the lives of children. She graduated from Medical School at UCSF and completed her residency in Psychiatry at the Stanford University Hospital where she received a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Currently she is Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In her spare time, Lisa enjoys spending time with her husband, two children - a daughter age 12 and son age 10 - , and her 2 1/2 year old Boston Terrier.

From Princesses to Pop Tarts: What the New Culture of Girlhood Means for Girls and the Grown-Ups Who Care About Them with Peggy Orenstein - Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 6:30 p.m.

Ten years ago, concerns about premature sexualization, and its attendant risks to girls, focused on twelve or thirteen year olds. No more. The new pink and pretty “girlie-girl” culture encourages girls from infancy onward to believe that how they look matters more than who they are. Bestselling author Peggy Orenstein discusses the upsurge in princess products among preschoolers, the rise in cosmetic use among 6-8 year olds, the role of “tween” pop culture for elementary and middle school girls and the impact of social media on their emerging senses of self. Even as new educational and professional opportunities appear before today’s girls, so does a path equating identity with image, self-expression with appearance, pleasure with pleasing and sexuality with sexualization. Orenstein underscores the potential negative impact of the new girlie-girl culture, but argues persuasively that with awareness and recognition, parents and advocates can effectively counterbalance its influence.

Peggy Orenstein is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture and the memoir, Waiting for Daisy. Her previous books include Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Kids, Love and Life in a Half-Changed World; and the classic SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. A contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Peggy has also written for such publications as The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Vogue, Elle, Mother Jones, Salon, O: The Oprah Magazine, and The New Yorker, and has contributed commentaries to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She lives in Berkeley with her husband, filmmaker Steven Okazaki, and their daughter, Daisy.

Separation and Individuation in Adolescence w/ Patty Contaxis - Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 6:30 p.m.

The presentation will include:

If you would like to read a book in advance to her presentation in November, Patty suggests Hold On To Your Kids by Neufeld and Mate.

RSVP by clicking here.

 Patty Contaxis, M.A. is a Marriage and Family Therapist with 22 years clinical experience. She is on the faculty of Diablo Valley College and a former adjunct professor of psychology at John F. Kennedy University.  Ms. Contaxis consults to Bay Area schools on social, behavioral and community issues. She was a school based counselor at Walnut Creek Intermediate School and Oakland's Ralph Bunche School, and has been a staff therapist for The Ann Martin Children's Center, La Cheim Residential Treatment Centers, and the Bay Area Youth Development Agency. She is currently the consulting clinical director to Building Futures, an East Bay agency providing emergency shelter, domestic violence programs and transitional housing to women and children. She maintains a private practice in psychotherapy with middle school and high school age youth, parents, couples and individual adults.

Tech Time with Katie Topper, Director of Technology - Wednesday, December 14th, 8:15-9:45 a.m.

This hands-on workshop will include:

Note: Parents with laptops are also welcome to bring them.
Otherwise we will provide a computer for every attendee.

Please RSVP if you will be attending by clicking here.

Katie has been the Director of Technology at JMSG since the first year. She teaches technology to the girls as well as supports teachers with using technology in all classes. Katie received her B.A. from Trinity College and her California teaching credential from Chapman University. She also holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. In addition to her teaching experience, Katie worked at the Associated Press in Rome, was the senior planner for Western International Media, traded stock, taught brokers computer systems at Kidder, Peabody and was a founding member of the Media Guaranty software company. Her favorite class to teach is Movin' It!, a Lego Kinetic sculpture class. She often bribes her two daughters, aged 6 and 9, to accompany her to her favorite vacation spot - Legoland, CA!

Girls and Leadership with Simone Marean - Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Please join us for an evening with Simone Marean, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the internationally recognized Girls Leadership Institute (GLI). Simone will share with parents how to help girls practice assertive self-expression, emotional intelligence, and healthy relationships, preparing them for a life of personal and societal leadership.

Simone Marean will discuss:

• How and why girls are aggressive with one another
• The "Good Girl" phenomenon
• What girls need to avoid victimization
• The power of emotional intelligence
• The importance of mistakes
• The limitations of blame
• Seeing conflict as an opportunity for change

Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Girls Leadership Institute, Marean is a passionate educator of girls and their main support system of parents and teachers. She has a Masters Degree in Educational Theatre from NYU and taught the GLI programs internationally, including at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She taught theatre at The Young Women's Leadership School, The Brearley School, The McCarter Theatre, and schools across the country. Simone Marean grew up on the north shore of Boston and graduated from Bryn Mawr College Magna Cum Laude. She teaches and speakes inthe San Francisco Bay Area.

"Simone has a very effective way of communicating that is clear and engaging. Parents appreciated her humor and candor and were encouraged by her personal stories. It is obvious that she understands girl dynamics and is passionate about facilitating change. Her knowledge and experiences are extremely valuable to this community and we enjoyed having her speak at our school."

- Jenny Morgan, Program Coordinator for the Family Resource Center
 

Risky Behavior in Adolescence w/ Patty Contaxis - Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 8:15-9:45 a.m.

Patty Contaxis returns to JMSG to host a parent morning in January. You will have the opportunity to discuss in an intimate setting, ask specific questions related to the topic, and learn more. The talk will include:

Ms. Contaxis has presented at JMSG Parent Education nights for the past two years. Parents have commented that her talks have been informative and enlightening. (see Ms. Contaxis' bio above) Please RSVP clicking here.

Past Guest Speakers have included:

How Girls Thrive w/ DR. JOANNE DEAK

Thrive. It's the one word that captures all of the things you would
want for a girl you love to have while growing up..."

-- Dr. JoAnn Deak

How do girls thrive? What protects them from cyber-bullying? What about the latest brain research really matters? How can parents
and educators work together? And what does all of this have to do with green frogs, green fingernails, and green marbles? Look for the answers, along with a synthesis of current research, solid theory, and diverse strategies, all told in Dr. Deak's storytelling style in the newly revised and expanded edition of How Girls Thrive.

“Although humans are born with all the neurons they will ever have…the formative teen years are designed to have the greatest
impact on the brain. In the layering of environmental, family, and school experiences,” says Dr. Deak, “it is the father-daughter
relationship that has the greatest impact on lessening girls’ anxieties and in developing a faster and easier resiliency in the face of a risk or a challenge. In a world that is growing exponentially, it is imperative to cultivate and strengthen self-esteem, perseverance, and fortitude in girls.”

  Dr. JoAnn Deak holds a Ph.D. in Preventative Psychology from Kent
  State University and is the recipient of numerous awards in her field.
  The author of Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous
  Daughters (2002) and How Girls Thrive (new edition 2010), Dr. Deak
  has contributed to another three books and recently published a
  children’s book, Your Fantastic Elastic Brain.