In addition to hearing from people who are currently inside the classroom, I enjoy meeting, and hearing the stories of, people who are using their experiences and skills to try to make the educational system better in some way. Dr. Bryan Hale's career in the educational system spans over 25 years. He has been a high school math teacher in Ohio, an assistant principal in North Carolina, and a Principal of a K-8 school and then a charter high school in the Chicagoland area, where he considered becoming a superintendent. His doctoral research on Holistic Wellness in Education and the six domains of wellness eventually led him to shift direction. Now he uses his research and experience as an educator to support school communities. He works with school leaders on building school culture through a wellness lens. 

In this episode, Bryan shares about the challenges and rewards of his years in the educational system, as well as the student who was his inspiration to research the six domains of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental. He discusses how helpful it can be for the intellectual wellness of a school environment to identify areas of (un)wellness for students and how those can impact learning. In his work with schools, through qualitative and quantitative data, Bryan helps adults identify the driving forces behind student behaviors. This can lead to increased awareness of student and educator needs.

For more information about Bryan’s work, or to schedule a call or zoom chat, he can be reached at [email protected] .

We’re ending Season 2 with insights from a statewide-recognized coach of the year. Amanda Wolff is an English teacher and the Head Coach of both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cross-Country and Track programs at Cyprus High School, a Title I school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under her leadership over the past five years, the team has grown from 55 participating athletes to 130. The Girls’ Cross-Country team took Regionals last year, and the team placed 6th overall in the State. The Girls’ Track and Field team took Regionals for the first time since 1978! Amanda was named the Utah Track and Cross Country Association (UTCCA) 5A Coach of the Year, and was also recognized as the statewide Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) Girls’ Cross-Country Coach of the Year in 2024.

In this episode, Amanda shares how it’s an ongoing process learning to balance full-time teaching and being a head coach. She describes how her athletes shifted their mindset, from feeling defined by the stereotypes they faced as a high school on the “west side,” to believing in themselves and becoming a team that can compete with any other team in the state. Though her roles take a lot of time, as a former high school and college athlete herself, with coaches that changed her life, Amanda appreciates the opportunity to be a trusted adult in her students’ lives, someone who guides and believes in them. “We’re a family,” she says about her program. Her philosophy of teaching and coaching is that relationship-building is key, so that kids feel safe and keep showing up, in order for learning to happen. She credits bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress for inspiring that philosophy.

Rachel Bartholomew is currently an instructional coach for both an elementary school and a Title I junior high school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that Rachel taught reading for 20 years in all three levels of school: elementary, middle school/junior high, and high school, and in three different states: North Carolina, Washington state, and Utah. Rachel also coached volleyball, basketball, and track and field at the junior high level for 10 years. 

In this episode, Rachel shares about what has kept her going through 20+ years as an educator. She discusses how instructional coaching differs from teaching, how we can benefit from a “culture of coaching” that can help us improve and grow, and the particular skill set that she brings to it from her own experiences as teacher and athletics coach. She describes how teaching has shifted in the last 20 years, and gives examples of how she has and has not been able to help various educators in her goal of making it easier for them so students know what they’re supposed to be doing and more learning can occur. Throughout the episode, Rachel addresses questions about the feedback cycle, evidence, growth, proficiency, resistance, and shares what she has found to be the most powerful question she can ask educators (and they can ask themselves). Ultimately, Rachel says, her work comes down to relationship, and connection is everything. 

Find about more about collective efficacy: https://ascd.org/blogs/three-actions-for-building-a-culture-of-collective-ef-cacy

Kids These Days https://www.drjodycarrington.com/

Teachers These Days  https://www.drjodycarrington.com/

Jimmy D. Hart, Chief Empowerment Officer of Hart Global Industries  is an author, coach, speaker and trainer. He has been involved in education for 31 years, in roles ranging from teacher and coach, to site administrator, middle school and high school principal, and district administrator. Now he uses his extensive experience to help school districts put the R.A.I. framework, which stands for Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion, into practice. He offers leadership training and coaching for adults, and is committed to facilitating consistent and equitable access to resources and interventions for all students, regardless of their background or circumstances. 

In this episode, Jimmy discusses how the R.A.I. framework provides actionable words that give administrators, educators, and students alike the opportunity to self-reflect on unselfish practices–how they can use Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion to be better versions of themselves. They help school leaders ask, How are we serving the people within the organizations that we’re responsible for leading? Jimmy shares how Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion put the emphasis on human capital, and provide an atmosphere for connectivity. At the heart of the framework is a sense of community and belonging because it helps us to consider, Who’s not at the table?

Find out more about Jimmy and Hart Global Industries and subscribe to the email list at https://www.jimmyhartglobal.com/

For more about the impact of the RAI framework for Tanque Verde Unified School District in Southern Arizona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onH2KChBOW4

Hailey Anderson is a registered nurse at the University of Utah hospital. She is a parent of three kids in the Salt Lake City School District and a fierce advocate for their human rights. I reached out to Rainbow Club of SLC after hearing about it from an educator at Bonneville Elementary School in the Salt Lake City School District. Hailey helped start an Equity Committee at Bonneville about four years ago, and then, in partnership with one of the elementary teachers, helped start Rainbow Club of SLC there. As described on their website, Rainbow Club “is a safe supportive space for young people of all identities to celebrate, connect, learn, and grow.” The Club meets once a month and their activities include: reading diverse books, creating art, connecting with peers, and learning LGBTQ+ History.

In this episode Hailey describes her role in getting Rainbow Club started, how parents in the community responded, the challenges and rewards of the work, and where things stand now after a few years. "My spot in this was to fight with and for them so they didn't have to do it alone." She shares her perspective on safe spaces and how important it is to be proactive in age-appropriate ways with children at early ages. 

For more about Rainbow Club SLC: https://www.rainbowclubslc.org/home

Helpful Resources from their website https://www.rainbowclubslc.org/resources

Age-appropriate book lists from their website https://www.rainbowclubslc.org/book-lists

GLSEN, a national organization that focuses on making schools safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. https://www.glsen.org/about-us

See National School Climate Surveys at https://www.glsen.org/research/2024-national-school-climate-survey

Under the Umbrella Bookstore: https://www.undertheumbrellabookstore.com/

The Trevor Project’s most recent survey on the 2024 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2024/

The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ+ Mental Health in Utah specifically: 

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The-Trevor-Project-2022-National-Survey-on-LGBTQ-Youth-Mental-Health-by-State-Utah.pdf

Coach Dru Jones is a special education teacher in English and biology, the Head football coach, and the Head Unified Sports Coach at Viewmont High School in the Davis School District in Utah. He has been teaching since 2008 and was recognized recently as the Davis School District’s Teacher of the Year. He was also named one of the finalists for the 2025 Utah Teacher of the Year.

In this episode Coach Dru shares about the challenges he faced throughout his own education, and how that motivated him to break the cycle and be the first on his father’s side to graduate from high school and college. He credits the “family” of coaches, teachers, and principals who guided and supported him and knows he couldn’t have done it without those relationships. Now he tries to do the same for his students, through supporting their dreams and goals, with patience, modeling community-building, sharing life lessons, and practicing gratitude. 

https://utahpolicy.com/news-release/71786-usbe-announces-finalists-for-2025-utah-teacher-of-the-year

https://www.davisjournal.com/2024/05/16/491655/viewmont-football-coach-and-teacher-named-davis-school-district-teacher-of-the-year

Man in the Arena Speech - Theodore Roosevelt

Find out more about the role of an educational consultant through this conversation with Carrie Miller, who is a Vice President for MGT of America in their Education Solutions Group, on the team for Academic Transformation. Carrie was an educator in a number of roles for 12 years, from an English and French teacher, to a Dean of Students, to a Director of Admissions, at various school settings, including rural, urban, Title I, and independent schools in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Since 2015 she has been working in management consulting. In 2022 she earned her doctorate of education (EdD) from Johns Hopkins University, where she explored how teachers can engage in collaborative lesson study to improve graduation rates for students who identify Navajo. 

In this episode Carrie describes the ins and outs of educational consulting, what motivates her, how she defines student outcomes, and the challenges and rewards of the work. She conveys a deep respect for educators, students, and all of the people she works alongside, with an emphasis on collaboration and building relationships.

Dr. Courtney Hattan is an assistant professor in the science of reading with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s School of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Maryland and her reading specialist degree from Johns Hopkins University. She has seen many facets of the educational system, having started out as a language arts and social studies teacher at the elementary and middle school levels. Hattan’s work centers on equitable and evidence-based instruction that supports students in activating and building their background knowledge during reading. She was the 2019 recipient of the Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award and was named a Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholars Fellow. Her research is published in outlets such as Review of Educational Research, Reading Research Quarterly, and Journal of Educational Psychology.

In this episode, Courtney provides insights into the life of a tenure-track professor at a top research university. She shares how her teaching experiences with the KWL chart informed her dissertation research. She describes how she combines both qualitative and quantitative research methods to form a fuller picture of the whole story. Courtney also shares about the research she is conducting in partnership with certain rural schools in North Carolina and Illinois to help bridge the gap between research and evidence-based practices that educators can use. She is committed to telling the full story on literacy assessment in particular, in order to best support students’ needs.

Find out more about Courtney’s education, areas of expertise, background, and research at https://ed.unc.edu/people/courtney-hattan/

And you can read Courtney’s dissertation study at 

Hattan, C. (2019). Prompting rural students’ use of background knowledge and experience to support comprehension of unfamiliar content. Reading Research Quarterly, 54(4), 451-455. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.270

Donda Hartsfield has been an outdoor specialist for a Montessori school in Salt Lake City for the last 16 years. She has worked with children ages 3 through 12, and over the years has developed an outdoor curriculum for each age grouping (3-6, 6-9, 9-12). In recent years she has expanded her outreach and has facilitated a connection with nature for high school students and adults as well, through her work with Tree Utah and through her own nature journaling on her website: beecurious.bio.

In this episode Donda discusses the many hats she wears, the challenges and rewards of her work, and the primary motivation and philosophy for why she does what she does. She shares examples from her outdoor curriculum for each age level, from developing a sense of awe with invertebrate insects to field work in the various ecosystems in our state (wetlands, desert, forests). She also shares how her work with TreeUtah, a nonprofit organization that raises awareness and plants trees throughout Utah, has led to nature journaling opportunities for the greater community at their EcoGarden, and to educational outreach with students at the charter high school, Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE). Donda is an inspiring example for anyone who would like to create more of a connection with nature for themselves and/or the young people in their lives.

Find out more about:

Donda and her reflections: beecurious.bio

Biomimicry: https://www.learnbiomimicry.com/blog

TreeUtah: https://www.treeutah.org/

And their EcoGarden: https://www.treeutah.org/programs/ecogarden

Brief overview of Montessori education: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/what-is-a-montessori-school

Rebekah Cummings is a candidate for Lt. Governor of Utah, running on Brian King’s ticket for Governor in November. She brings a unique perspective to another facet of the educational system through her experiences as a librarian, educator, and advocate. 

In this episode, Rebekah shares about the progression of her involvement in local advocacy to state politics, and the rewards and challenges of advocacy work. She provides an insider perspective of the history of book banning legislation in the state of Utah. She describes the value of assuming good intentions in other people, and the importance of “communicating across the aisle” in the State legislature. She and Ramira discuss what we lose when we limit the stories we read, and how finding an issue you care about and feel you can make a difference in can be an “antidote to despair” in politics. Rebekah offers suggestions for how we can get involved in the school library book ban issue, through organizations like letutahread.org, or how we can support libraries in general, through organizations like EveryLibrary.

Rebekah has been a librarian for 15 years, for the last 11 at the University of Utah Marriott Library, where she is the Director of Digital Matters, a lab that provides resources to students and educators in how to use technology with a humanities approach. Rebekah served as the President of the Utah Library Association (ULA) in 2018-2019, which led her to build ties between the Association and the Utah legislature. She is currently Chair of the Utah State Library Board, Co-Chair of the Advocacy Committee of the ULA, and a founding member of the Let Utah Read Coalition. Rebekah views libraries as democratic institutions that serve our youngest populations all the way through to our eldest, invaluable resources, and community centers.  K-12 school librarians have a vital role in connecting readers with books they will love, helping young readers gain literacy skills, and showing students how to research. At the college level, that work continues as librarians educate both students and educators on data management, information literacy, research, and technological issues.

Find out more about Brian King and Rebekah at their campaign website: kingforutah.com

Support Rebekah with the "Readers for Rebekah" virtual fundraiser on Thursday, 8/29, from 6-7pm. Here is the link where you can donate to attend.

Since this episode was recorded on the 16th of July, there has been news coverage on how Utah is implementing the new law Rebekah talks about, HB29:

 It’s official: these 13 books are now banned from all public schools in Utah

More states are passing book banning rules. Here’s what they say.