March 19 – 21, 2010

Cambridge, MA

To register ONLY for the Keynote Address Click Below

Events

• Daniel Siegel Keynote Address: From Me to We: A New Look at Resilience and Well-Being: Friday, March 19
  ***The Venue of the Keynote Address has Changed to University Hall (Lesley University), 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA***

• Mindfulness in Education Conference: Saturday, March 20

• A Day of Courage and Renewal: Sunday, March 21

Click here to download a flyer of the conference

Mindfulness meditation has been practiced for thousands of years as a way to reduce suffering and cultivate inner peace. Research shows that mindfulness also enhances learning and attention. There is growing interest in the possibility that this ancient meditative practice can support education and learning for both children and adults. Many educational institutions, including UCLA, Stanford, UCSF, and PENN have embraced mindfulness as an educational intervention by introducing it into their curricula and conducting research in the field. This three-day event will explore the uses of mindfulness in education.

Daniel Siegel Keynote Address

From Me to We: A New Look at Resilience and Well-Being

Friday, March 19th 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

University Hall (Lesley University)
1815 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA

Cost $35* (Includes a copy of Dr. Siegel’s new book Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation, Bantam, 2009)

Sponsors: Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, Lesley University

Questions about the keynote address only, contact Laura Montijo: lmontijo@prajnopaya.org or 617.324.6030×1

Dr. Siegel, clinical psychiatrist, researcher, writer, and award-winning educator, will speak about reflective skills of mindsight and the role their cultivation plays in activating brain circuits that underlie resilience and well-being and empathy and compassion as well.

Dan Siegel, MD, is a clinical psychiatrist, researcher, writer, and award-winning educator. He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine where he is a Co-Investigator at the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development and is Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center. He is the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational organization that focuses on how the development of insight, compassion and empathy in individuals, families and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed text, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience (Guilford, 1999). His book with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (Tarcher, 2003) explores the application of this newly emerging view of the mind, the brain, and human relationships. His latest book is The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being (W.W. Norton, 2007) and his next book Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam) is due out in December 2009.

Mindfulness in Education Conference

Saturday, March 20th 9:00 am – 4:30 pm

University Hall (Lesley University)
1815 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA

Cost: $80* (includes breakfast and lunch)

Sponsors: Lesley University, Mindfulness in Education Network, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Friends Council on Education, Association for Mindfulness in Education, Courage & Renewal Northeast

Questions about the conference only, contact Richard Brady: mindfulnesseducation@rcn.com or 301.651.6118

Mindfulness-Based Education (MBE), a powerful tool to decrease stress, deepen learning, enhance academic performance, and promote emotional and social well-being, is increasingly recognized as essential for students, educators and parents. MBE may help to develop the capacity for attention and awareness, creating optimal conditions for teaching and learning. This day-long conference will include a plenary panel consisting of leaders in the field, interest group break-out sessions, and mindfulness practice sessions.

Conference Schedule

8:30 – 9:00 am Conference registration and breakfast

9:00 – 10:30 Conference opening and Plenary Panel Presentations

10:45 – 12:00 Interactive discussion with panel members

12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch

1:00 – 2:15 and 2:30 – 3:45 pm Break-out sessions

4:00 – 4:30 pm Conference closing

Break-out sessions tentatively include:

Early childhood education

Teaching young children in elementary school

Teaching children in middle school

Teaching young adults in high school

Teaching university students

Teaching teachers

Research on mindfulness

Developing a personal practice

Integrating personal practice and work

Parenting

Plenary Panel

Sara W. Lazar, PhD, is a neuroscientist in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. The focus of her research is to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying meditation, both in clinical settings and to promote and preserve health and well-being in healthy individuals. One main focus of her work is determining how yoga and meditation influence brain structure, and how these changes influence behavior. She has been practicing yoga and mindfulness meditation since 1994, and is a Board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.

Amy Saltzman, MD, is a holistic physician, mindfulness teacher, wife and mother. She has been teaching mindfulness for over 14 years. She is the founder and director of the Association for Mindfulness in Education. Her passion is supporting children and adults in discovering the Still Quiet Place within. She has two research studies through the Stanford Department of Psychology: evaluating the benefits of teaching mindfulness to child-parent pairs and to children in elementary school. Dr. Saltzman offers lectures and courses for schools, parenting organizations, and education and medical conferences. She also provides individual mindfulness instruction and holistic medical care to children and adults.

Paul Wapner, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics Program in the School of International Service at American University. His books include the award-winning Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics (SUNY 1996) and forthcoming book, Living through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalism (MIT Press 2010). Paul has has developed two courses focused specifically on contemplative practices: “Contemplation and Political Change,” and “The Practice of Environmentalism” and has been teaching a three-week, summer workshop at the Lama Foundation in San Cristobal, New Mexico, titled, “Contemplative Sustainable Design.” Paul has been a Contemplative Mind in Society Fellow and member of the Fetzer Institute-sponsored Inter-generational Mentoring Community.

A Day of Courage and Renewal

Full-day workshop, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

University Hall (Lesley University)
1815 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA

Cost $60* (includes lunch)

Sponsors: Lesley University, Courage & Renewal Northeast, Friends Council on Education

Questions about the Sunday workshop only, contact Lisa Sankowski: lsankows@wellesley.edu or 781.283.2861

In this full-day retreat, emerging from principles described in Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach, participants will engage in a wide range of contemplative practices to explore the inner landscape of the teaching life. Facilitators will support experiences engaging heart and mind in reflection and insight. Individual and group activities will include personal experience, the power of poetry and teaching stories, journaling, and art, as the stimuli for reflection and dialog on our lives and our teaching.

Workshop Facilitators

Sharlene Voogd Cochrane, PhD, is Professor and Dean of Faculty at Lesley University. An educator for over 25 years, her research and writing focus on cultural identity and responses to institutional racism, especially the interplay of gender, race, class and religion in women’s lives. She recently co-taught “Mindfulness and Professional Practice” at Lesley. She has been a Courage & Renewal Facilitator for eight years, facilitating a variety of multi-session and shorter Courage to Teach and Courage to Lead retreats.

Irene McHenry, PhD, is a psychologist, school consultant, author/editor of numerous publications including the 2009 Tuning In: Mindfulness in Teaching and Learning. She consults with organizations nationwide providing professional development and teaching mindfulness for administrators, faculty, trustees and aspiring leaders. Irene is a founder of several schools and initiated the founding of the Friends Council’s SPARC program – Spirited Practice and Renewed Courage, based on Parker Palmer’s teacher formation principles. She is the Executive Director of the Friends Council on Education and Board President for the Council for American Private Education.

Pamela Seigle, MS, is Executive Director of Courage & Renewal Northeast. Based at Wellesley College and built upon the work of Parker J. Palmer, Courage & Renewal Northeast provides retreat-based programs — Courage to Teach, Courage to Lead, and Circles of Trust — to educators and others in serving professions. Pamela is the founder of the nationally recognized Open Circle Program, a social and emotional learning program based at the Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley College. She is co-author of the Open Circle Curriculum.

*Additional services charges will be applied.

To register ONLY for the Keynote Address Click Below

Hotel Accommodations: A limited number of overnight accommodations are reserved at the Mary Prentiss INN in Cambridge for $169 + tax/night, including breakfast. To reserve a room and receive the group discounted rate, please call 617-661-2929 before February 1st and mention the Mindfulness in Education Conference. You might also check the Doubletree Guest Suites in Boston (a cab ride away from the events) on www.expedia.com.

Here’s the abstract:

There is growing interest in the integration of meditation into higher education (Bush, 2006). This paper reviews empirical evidence related to the use of meditation to facilitate the achievement of traditional educational goals, to help support student mental health under academic stress, and to enhance education of the “whole person.” Drawing on four decades of research conducted with two primary forms of meditation, we demonstrate how these practices may help to foster important cognitive skills of attention and information processing, as well as help to build stress resilience and adaptive interpersonal capacities. This paper also offers directions for future research, highlighting the importance of theory-based investigations, increased methodological rigor, expansion of the scope of education-related outcomes studied, and the study of best practices for teaching meditation in educational settings.

• Forbes: Finding the Zone
• Half Inner Journey
• Huston: Mindfulness in Teaching Communication
• Peter Kaufman: Giving Voice
• Patterson: Mindful Writing
• Pantelaleno: Is, Is Not
• Pantelaleno: Present
• Pantelaleno: COPE Letter to Parents
• Pantelaleno: Mindfulness Article
• Meyer: IDL Paper 1
• Meyer: Glossary
• Meyer: Appendix A
• Meyer: Appendix B
• Meyer: Appendix C
• Meyer: Appendix D
• Meyer: Appendix E
• McHenry: Mindful Parenting Resources

You can download the Conference Report here (Conference Report.pdf)

Materials and Resources from the Conference

Morning Introduction & Plenary Session.pdf

Connell Stress Management Workbook.pdf

Pichot Handout.pdf

Rouse Story.pdf

Irene McHenry’s Pebble Meditation.pdf

Irene McHenry’s Practicing Goodwill.pdf

Afternoon Session Presenters

Baccala Handout 1.pdf

Baccala Handout 2.mht

Solloway Dissertation.pdf

Solloway Handout.pdf

Solloway Paper 1.pdf

Solloway Paper 2.pdf

Solloway Paper 3.pdf

Solloway Paper 4.pdf

Weierbach Handout.pdf

Presenter Links

Steven Emmanuel: Here is the link to his Web pages on Service-Learning and Community Service. Here is the link to his work in Vietnam (“Making Peace With Vietnam”)

Irene McHenry: Forthcoming is the link to her version of pebble meditation on the Friends Council on Education Web site.

David Levy: Here is the link to the syllabus for his course Information and Contemplation on the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society’s Web site. Here is the link to his faculty Web site where you can find his paper “No Tine to Think.”

Kimberly Post Rowe: Here is a link to the page of downloads from her Five Seeds Web Site:

Richard Brady: His article, “Schooled in the Moment,” about his class on stress reduction can be found on the resources page on his Minding Your Life Web Site. Here is a link to a preliminary version of his article, “Learning to Stop, Stopping to Learn,” about his path as a contemplative educator and his use of contemplative learning in his high school geometry course on the Mindfulness in Education Network’s Web site.

Forthcoming: A link to Irene McHenry’s version of the conference closing lovingkindness (metta) meditation from the Friends Council on Education’s Web site.

Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) for Educators — A credit course for pre-K through PhD educators

Combining current research and practical application, this course is designed to provide teachers, administrators, parents, and mental health professionals the tools to develop their own personal mindfulness practice, the science behind it, and an introduction of tools to bring mindful awareness into educational settings. Exercises, activities, and approaches for all age groups are included. When taken for credit, this course combines two classroom-based workshop sessions geared toward educators (one introductory and one at midpoint), with six online sessions to provide a maximum opportunity for both guidance and personal practice. A noncredit option also is available for those interested only in participating in the online sessions for the development of a personal practice (without tools for children provided).

Presenters

Susan L. Smalley, Ph.D., Director, Founder, MARC and Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute
Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education, MARC, UCLA Semel Institute
Susan Kaiser-Greenland, JD, Director, Co-Founder, The InnerKids Foundation

For more details click here.

Two workshops at UCLA:

Sunday, July 13 – 8:30am-4:30pm,
Saturday, August 2 – 8:30am-4:30pm

Six Online sessions:

July 15-August 19

Registration opens April 30th. Call 310-206-7503 or email marcinfo@ucla.edu for more information.

August 3 – 8, 2008
Smith College, Northampton, MA

This residential summer session will provide an opportunity for teachers in universities and colleges to research, prepare, and evaluate curricula that integrate contemplative practices into courses in any discipline. Participants will devote the week to rigorous investigation, reflection, writing, and discussion, guided by distinguished scholars who have already developed such courses. The summer session aims to prepare participants to return to their classrooms with a deeper understanding of the practice of contemplative teaching and a fully developed course. The summer session builds on the work of the Center’s Contemplative Practice Fellowship Program

I. The Summer Session Offers

• Sessions on pedagogical issues, including the relation between course content and contemplative practice and the benefits of stabilized attention and other qualities of mind fostered by meditation;
• Discussions on evalution, grading options, instructional techniques, course design, development, and how contemplative practices in the curriculum are affecting teaching and learning nationwide;
• Contemplative practices from a variety of traditions adapted for the classroom by experienced faculty.

II. Faculty

Arthur Zajonc: Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Physics, Amherst College and Director of the Academic Program at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

Mirabai Bush: Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

Sr. Linda-Susan Beard: Associate Professor of English, Bryn Mawr College

Gurleen Grewal: Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, University of South Florida

David Haskell: Associate Professor of Biology, University of the South

David Kahane: Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Alberta

David Keiser: Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Montclair State University

Joanna Ziegler: Professor of Art History, College of the Holy Cross

III. Requirements

Cost is $650.00 (includes tuition, room, all meals, plus a closing banquet).
Open to professors at two and four year colleges.
Previous experience with contemplative practices is helpful, but not required. 

Apply Online (Application deadline: May 15th, 2008)

IV. For Further Information Contact: Beth Wadham, Academic Program Associate

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
199 Main Street, Suite 3
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
413-582-0071

The Mindfulness in Education Workshops features:

Mindfulness Goes to School
Trish Broderick, PhD and Diane Reibel, PhD

Peace Work: A Mindful Awareness
Program for Schools and Community
Midge Kinder, MAT, RYT, Wynne Kinder, BA, and Christen Coscia, BSE

Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society
University of Massachusetts Medical School
April 7-8, 2008
Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resort
Worcester, Massachusetts

During this interactive training, participants will:

review current research regarding teaching mindfulness to children,
observe and discuss an 8-session curriculum for 4th to 7th graders from beginning to end, with variations in curriculum for slightly younger and older children, learn and discuss skillful adaptations for teaching mindfulness to young children, analyze and explore the specific use of language and mindfulness practices that are inviting and accessible to children, explore and understand specific strategies and methods that appear to facilitate children’s firsthand experience of mindfulness, and reflect upon and address the qualities and qualifications for teachers intent on teaching mindfulness to children.

For more information and details on how to apply, click here

Mindfulness as a Foundation for Teaching & Learning
A Day-Long Conference for Educators, Counselors and Administrators

Co-Sponsored by:  Association of Independent Maryland Schools, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and Friends Council on Education

Saturday, February 9th, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm
Sidwell Friends School (get directions)
3825 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

For questions, email:  mindfulnesseducation@starpower.net

Cut-off date for Online Registration: February 1, 2008

Accomodations

William Penn House

515 East Capitol Street, SE, DC (15 minute walk to Union Station/the Metro) (202)543-5560
Two dormitory style rooms each with bunk beds for ten people have been reserved for the night of February 8. The cost is $30/per person. People wanting to stay there can arrange to do so through MiEN by sending their request to mindfulnesseducation@starpower.net. Information on William Penn House is available at their web site: (http://www.wmpennhouse.org/).

Savoy Suites Hotel

Ten rooms have been reserved with a cost of $109.00 + 14.5% tax per night, double occupancy for 2/8 and 2/9 at Savoy Suites Hotel, 2505 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. (a short cab or bus ride from Sidwell Friends). Rate includes- free parking, shuttle to metro and internet. Conference attendees should book these rooms directly by calling 202-625-5410 and ask for a room reserved by the Mindfulness in Education Network. More info on the hotel is available by clicking here (www.SavoySuites.com).

Cut-off date for Online Registration: February 1, 2008

Download the Conference Flyer! (in .pdf