Update: The 2021 MACTE Symposium is going virtual!
For more information, view the announcement here.
Introducing the 2021 MACTE Symposium Keynote Speakers
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Peter Mishler
Author and High School Educator
“What We’re Listening For: Where Advocacy and Self-Care Meet"
Peter Mishler is an award-winning educator, literary editor, and author of two books including the recent For All You Do: Self-Care and Encouragement for Teachers. His first book, a collection of poems, won the prestigious Kathryn A. Morton Prize. His writing appears in U.S. and international publications including the American Poetry Review, and in 2013, he was included in the University of Virginia’s influential Best New Poets anthology. His exclusive interviews with contemporary American poets and artists are read widely. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Creative Writing MFA program as well as its School of Education, he has been named teacher of the year at schools in New York and Kansas. Now in his thirteenth year of teaching, he chairs the school leadership team and English department for his district's new virtual school.
Craig S. Bailey, Ph.D.
Director of Early Childhood at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine
“Your Emotions Matter When Teaching Young Children Emotional Intelligence"
Craig S. Bailey, Ph.D., is Director of Early Childhood at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center in the Yale School of Medicine. As a co-developer of R.U.L.E.R, the project targets emotional intelligence by focusing on five social-emotional skills remembered using the acronym: RULER (recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions). Dr. Bailey and his team facilitate professional development workshops and develop content for practicing and teaching emotional intelligence. As a researcher, Dr. Bailey conducts psychological, educational, and intervention research, and in general, his research explores children’s social and emotional learning in early childhood classrooms with an emphasis on how educators support and promote the development of empathy and emotion regulation. On one of his projects, Dr. Bailey and Yale have partnered with Northeast Normal University, Hunan Normal University, and Fujian Preschool Education College to pilot R.U.L.E.R in Chinese Kindergartens with an emphasis on cultural adaptation.
Special Presenters
Geoffrey Bishop
Executive Director - Nature's Classroom Institute and Montessori School
“The Sissy Duck” and other such dilemmas
Geoffrey E. Bishop grew up in North West NSW, Australia. His childhood was spent on his family's sheep station and then to an Agriculture Boarding school for his high school education. He studied Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in universities in both Melbourne and Sydney. After graduating he spend the next six years travelling and backpacking around the world, visiting over 80 countries, where he spent most of his time trekking in rural areas, learning cultures, and understanding his place in the world, Geoffrey started Nature's Classroom Institute of Wisconsin, in 1996. The Nature's Classroom Institute Environmental Education program serves schools throughout the US, it helps students understand the natural environment, participate in ecosystem exploration, and work together with their peers and teachers as a community. The program serves over 4,000 students each year, across the Midwest, Texas, California, and Florida, which includes over 90 Montessori schools.
In 2001, after developing a strong academic and environmental outdoor based curriculum he formed Nature's Classroom Institute’s Montessori School, that blends the core philosophy of Montessori with his environmental principles.
Geoffrey's passionate and sustained focus over the past years has been on organics and sustainability in schools while promoting getting children back outdoors and helping adults understand the importance of instinctive play in the natural world. Geoffrey is a dynamic speaker and lectures, speaking all over the world and the in United States. He is Past Chair of the Wisconsin Montessori Society and now sites the Board of Directors of the American Montessori Society on which he performs several roles including Chair of the Montessori Life Advisory Board, Global Committee, Development, Finance and Member Engagement.
In his free time, Geoffrey with his dog Zoey, is an avid gardener, farmer and traveler and is working on his first book.