Janice Toben, M. Ed., Curriculum Development, is an education innovator whose work focuses on the design and teaching of SEL practices that promote positive school climate. 

Her work spans three decades, and has touched the lives of educators, students, administrators and parents at public and independent schools worldwide.

Janice has conducted seminars and delivered presentations at Teacher's College, Columbia University, Wheelock College, Learning and the Brain, Innovative Learning, National Association of Independent Schools, Northwest Association of Independent Schools, California Association for the Gifted, and the San Francisco Unified School District.

She also appeared in the video “Emotional Intelligence: A New Vision for Educators,” based on Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman (Bantam, 1995). 

Janice’s work includes the following accomplishments:

    · Designed “Open Session,” a student-driven problem-solving inquiry format for middle-schoolers and adults. 

    · Authored a library of lessons on SEL practices for early- and mid-elementary grades.  

   · Initiated "Constructing Learning: The Nueva Forts Experience,” based on imaginative, cooperative outdoor play, which flourished through student agreements and sensitive supervision.

    · Developed innovative approach to professional and personal renewal for teachers that was a centerpiece in more than 20 programs she designed and facilitated with the Center for Advancement and Renewal of Educators at the San Francisco Unified School District.

    · Authored a collection of lessons for teachers that foster SEL by aligning the teacher-self with creative pedagogical practices and ideas.

     · Designed and implemented models for curriculum design and comprehensive lessons that creatively foster both interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. 

Janice taught at the elementary school level for 27 years. She is the former director of the SEL program at The Nueva School.

She earned a B.A. from Whitman College, and holds an M.Ed. from Bowling Green State University.

Janice loves contemporary poetry, growing vegetables, and yoga. She is married with two grown sons.