WISR SEMINARS

SEPTEMBER ~ 2008

All SCHOOL GATHERING

Saturday, September 20, 9:45am - 1:15pm

The WISR All School Gatherings are held about twice each year. All students and faculty are expected to make every effort to attend. Board, alumni and prospective students are enthusiastically invited to participate as well. Each person will be invited to share, for three minutes or so, what they've been doing, thinking about or planning to do, related to WISR and otherwise. There will be a pot luck snack and refreshment social hour just before Noon. Following this, we will spend about an hour discussing ideas for implementing the new requirement that all students contribute an hour per week to aid WISR's development. Volunteers will be needed to help set up and clean-up. ***For MFT students, attending this seminar will count as having attended an MFT seminar for the month of September.

I. INTERDISCIPLINARY SEMINARS

(open to all WISR students and other interested persons)

Translating Social Theory Into Practical, Meaningful, Public Agendas

Wednesday, September 10, 6:30-8:30 pm

Ellen Furnari, WISR PhD Student, Vera Labat, MPH, & John Bilorusky, PhD, WISR Faculty, Facilitators

Ellen Furnari, WISR PhD Student; Vera Labat, MPH & John Bilorusky, PhD, WISR Faculty: Facilitators. This seminar's topic has grown out of recent seminar discussion pertaining to readings about and theories of social change. To prepare for this seminar, each participant is asked to imagine that they have an important practical responsibility for the candidate of their choice who is running for President of the United States-namely that they are both a policy advisor and a campaign advisor, and then to articulate in tangible, understandable detail their candidate's position/perspective on some current "hot topic" (e.g., oil prices, Russian-Georgian conflict, etc.). The emphasis of this seminar is to try to translate some broad ideas about social change into practical agendas-that are doable, have integrity and are comprehensible in a meaningful way to the American public.

Movie Night ~ It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School

Friday, September 19, 7:00pm

Cynthia Lawrence, PhD, WISR Faculty and Noah Stein, WISR BA Student, Facilitators

In It's Elementary, we witness first-hand how Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual (LGBT) education can be appropriately and effectively integrated into elementary and middle school curriculum. The film portrays educators in a variety of public, private, and charter schools across the country in action, with a focus on how students respond to the LGBT and anti-bias lessons. It's Elementary challenges the notion that young learners are not ready to be introduced to LGBT issues, and shows us children are not only ready for such education, but that it is a necessity in today's classrooms.

II. MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPY (MFT) SEMINARS

These seminars are designed for students pursuing an MFT license. Other interested persons are welcome to attend but are requested to RSVP. They will be held at WISR from 10am to 2pm with a short break. Attendees may wish to bring a bag lunch.

Child & Teen Therapy I: Difficult Children

Saturday, September 13, 10:00am-2:00pm

Ronald Mah, MA, MFT, WISR Faculty

This is the first of a series of seminars on child and teen therapy. Therapists are often presented with "difficult children" to "fix." However, there are often complex issues and circumstances that make a child or teen "act out" or become moody. Effective treatment comes from appropriate assessments of these issues and circumstances that lead to theoretical clarity that subsequently imply treatment approaches and interventions. Several diagnostic tools (in the form of short written guides or worksheets) will be presented that the presenter has developed over years of working with children, teens, parents, and teachers and other school personnel. ***This seminar will be held at WISR and not at Ronald Mah's office as during the summer months. (Upcoming monthly Saturday seminar(s) with Ronald Mah will be October 11th and November 15th.)

All SCHOOL GATHERING

Saturday, September 20, 9:45am - 1:15pm

See above for description. All students are expected to make every effort to attend.

***For MFT students, attending this seminar will count as having attended the MFT seminar for the month of July. (Upcoming MFT seminar(s) with Carole Morton will be October 25th and November 22nd.)

III) OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

WISR Students are reminded to send in the new WISR work requirement forms as soon as possible! Contact WISR if you need another copy of the forms.

WISR Tshirts with the WISeR owl logo and Berkeley, California, printed below Western Institute for Social Research, are available for $15.00 at WISR plus postage by mail. Contact WISR for colors and sizes available.

If you would like to receive this flyer by email only, let us know but please keep us updated with email and snail mail addresses so we can keep you updated on WISR events in case your email changes. If you prefer being on just an occasional list, let us know that too.

*If you prefer to receive this announcement by email, please contact WISR and keep us updated with your addresses for monthly emails and occasional snail mails.

**Prospective students and others wishing to learn more about WISR are invited to attend these seminars. WISR is located at 3220 S Sacramento Street at Harmon, one block north of Alcatraz

***Contact WISR if you need a ride or can offer one

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