Hayes Greenfield, an award-winning jazz musician, notable film composer, and innovative educator joins the podcast to discuss his background and his latest sound curriculum. Hayes began working as a teaching artist in public and private K-12 schools. Over the last 30 years, he has created and implemented various curricula for K-12 students and professional development workshops for New York City teachers of children with disabilities. He developed a pre-K program for PNC Bank’s “Grow Up Great Initiative,” has consulted with Head Start programs, and started the Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz school assembly program that has reached over 300,000 young people.

His upcoming book, Creative Sound Play, is an entirely play-based educational tool and resource for teachers that offers techniques and ideas that reach every child, including those who are verbal, nonverbal, or have disabilities. The guide invites teachers to use sound-making as a collaborative, play-based practice in the early childhood classroom, first to transform tricky transition times and ultimately to support children's development of executive function skills and social-emotional learning. 

In this episode, Hayes shares about how growing up with dyslexia impacted who he is as a musician and led to his interest in educating through sound and silence. He points out the difference between sound and music, and urges us to stop being “sound asleep.” He shares how you never know what will inspire a student, and how the children he worked with throughout the years inspired him to find ways of reaching them through the curriculum he has developed and shared in the book, Creative Sound Play.

Learn more about Creative Sound Play here.

Find out more about Hayes Greenfield at his website.

Find out more about the Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz program here.

Jennifer Haak is a school counselor at Meadowlark Elementary, a Title I school in the Salt Lake City School District here in Utah. She has a graduate certification in Applied Educational Neuroscience (AEN) and is currently working towards a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership. 

Learning to ask the question, "What experiences does this individual (colleague/student) need?" through the AEN framework empowered Jenn to understand and heal from her own traumatic encounter with a student in fight or flight that resulted in multiple injuries for Jenn and in her hospitalization, before moving to Utah. 

After the year of COVID closures and hybrid teaching, Jenn again applied that question, this time in support of her colleagues at Meadowlark. In this episode, Jenn shares about that experience and about the AEN framework. Through optional monthly professional development meetings, the participants learned about how the brain is impacted by trauma and how the nervous system works, about touch points that can lead to meaningful relationships, and co-regulation. They learned to consider their own needs, and gained self-efficacy in asking for what they needed, and a greater consideration of their students' needs. They practiced embodied experiences, and focused attention and energizing practices they could use for themselves and with their students. 

Combined with a few other initiatives and the systemic support of the administration, the changes in staff morale and student outcomes by the end of the 2021-2022 school year surpassed expectations. Among other powerful data Jenn shares here, Meadowlark moved out of a CSI (Comprehensive School Improvement) designation for the first time in over a decade. And they moved to #2 in the district for overall growth, out of 17 Title I schools.

For more about Intentional Neuroplasticity, AEN, and other resources from Dr. Lori Desautels: https://revelationsineducation.com/

Where you can find the digital books Jenn mentions, giving focused attention practices and resources for “building the nest”: https://revelationsineducation.com/free-lesson-plans/

For more on restorative justice:  https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/do-restorative-practices-work

Through sharing her experiences in teaching, Kelli Brown provides valuable insights into why some teachers may be leaving the profession. Right after college and the completion of her teacher certification, Kelli became an assistant and then an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at an inner city public high school in Columbia, South Carolina. Only two and a half years later, she felt overwhelmed and burned out, and  was relieved to leave the profession to start a family, which did not seem possible while teaching. She is one of a third of new teachers who quit their jobs within the first five years.

In this episode, Kelli vividly describes the overwhelming expectations, the eye-opening disparity in access to facilities and resources, the pressures from the administration without enough support or autonomy, and how much she juggled as a 23-year-old ESOL teacher with 5 sections of seniors and 1 section of juniors and varsity girls’ soccer coach, with very little compensation. Her experience raises the question, "What more could we be doing for teachers?" As you will hear from her stories, there are many factors that contributed to her burnout, and no easy answers. 

Ultimately, however, Kelli credits the experience with developing her sense of empathy for students (“you never know what somebody has going on”) and teachers (“I think people’s minds would be blown to hear the ins and outs of what each teacher goes through on a daily basis”). Now she makes sure her kids know that “You can learn something from everyone…if you will give them the opportunity to teach you.”

Here’s What Teachers Say They Need Most to Manage Stress, Mental Health

Don't Forget the Adults: How Schools and Districts Can Support Educator Mental Health 

Some Thoughts on Teachers Crying in the Classroom (Cult of Pedagogy Blog and Podcast)

Kellen Akiyama is a high school English and history teacher in Southern Oregon who proposed and implemented an African-American Studies course for history credit at his school a few years ago and was recently nominated for Oregon Teacher of the Year by the Oregon Department of Education. In this episode he shares the story of getting the course approved in a historically conservative town, some historical context of that town, and his own philosophy about teaching and connecting history to the lives of his students. He talks about his influences and motivations, the importance of relationships in teaching, and his views on the changes in education over the last 20 years and the reconciliation period he sees us in now.

Don't miss a great interview with "Aki" and a couple of his students about their perspectives on his class and how they have connected with it, and the experience of studying Black history in a rural small town, in this episode with Zachary Stocks on The Detour, a podcast version of the magazine, Oregon Humanities. 

The education culture war is raging. But for most parents, it's background noise (NPR)

"Who I am as a human really informs my practice as an educator...and my path to education." Cindy Parks is a neurodivergent learner, a scholar, researcher, parent, advanced stage breast care survivor, and community advocate for inclusion and executive function skills education. After many years of working in preschools and as an advocate for her children, she went back to school for an early childhood credential at the age of 35, which she finished up while battling advanced stage breast cancer. Soon after, she decided to extend her reach and influence by enrolling in the Master's/Ph.D. program for Learning & Mind Sciences at the University of California Davis. Cindy currently teaches a self-regulation class to adults with intellectual disabilities at UC Davis, does extensive research in the Collaborative Autism Research in Education (CARE) lab at UC Davis while working on her Master's degree and soon her dissertation, promotes the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles with educators in the area, and volunteers with the non-profit organization, Common Ground Society, which provides support to families who receive life changing diagnoses for their children--all while actively supporting her own children and family. In this episode we hear about what lies at the heart of Cindy's determination and motivation to balance so much, and her vision for connecting research, policy, and practice.

What Does 'Neurodivergent' Mean? 

What is Neurodiversity? Definition and Resources for Teachers, Counselors and Schools 

What Are Executive Functioning Skills and Why Do Students Need Them? 

An Introduction to Universal Design for Learning

Common Ground Society

Yevgeny Pevzner is a science and STEM teacher at Kearns Junior High in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this episode, Yev shares some of the biggest challenges he faces now after 26 years of teaching. Last fall he was featured on our local FOX News station in a story about his commitment to making sure his students have snacks in the classroom if they are hungry, which also explains why he was dubbed the “Pop Tart King” by one of his former students. His own educational background both in the Soviet Union and in Utah after his family immigrated here shaped the kind of teacher he wants to be for his students. He explains how he tries to treat each student as unique, how he employs different hands-on activities, why he has stayed at the Title I junior high where he has worked for 23 years, and why he feels that “every child should have an equal opportunity, regardless what backgrounds they come from.” 

Utah Teacher Goes Above and Beyond (FOX News story)

Why School Absences Have 'Exploded' Almost Everywhere (NYT)

"I can't assume if they had food or not...I can never assume if they had lunch." (11:40)

"I will never give up on any kid. I believe that every kid has the opportunity to be successful." (22:38)

"I don't believe there's [such] a thing as smart kids.... Every kid is smart in their own way.... We all have different skills. And our education system should provide equal opportunity for all those kids, regardless of backgrounds, regardless if they had a meal or not, we should be equal to them." (24:07)

Ever wondered what our current school system is doing to meet the mental health needs of young students? Find out what school-based mental health looks like. In this conversation, Bobbi Morgan, a school social worker in the Salt Lake City School District in Utah, describes the tools teachers, counselors and social workers use in school settings in order to provide students with a web of support for trauma and its impacts, helping students develop coping skills and increased well being.

Tier I Interventions: Classroom and Schoolwide presentations description and Tier 3 Intervention: Individual Therapy (6:55) 

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates between 70-75% of children who receive any kind of mental health services receive those services in their schools (9:20)

Description of child-centered play therapy at the elementary level (10:39)

Description of sand tray therapy at the middle school level (17:15)

Examples of (Big T) Trauma and (little t) trauma and their varying effects on students in the classroom (20:16)

Integrated approach of weekly well-being team meetings (26:27)

How Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are used (28:10)

Different types of Social Emotional Learning programs (SELs) that schools can choose from for their populations (29:40)

The role teachers play in the integrated approach to students' mental health (33:27)

Jeremy Chatterton is the principal of a large public high school in the Salt Lake City school district here in Utah. He brings what he's learned from his experiences as a basketball coach, middle school and high school math teacher, assistant principal, and elementary school principal to his vision for setting the tone and a positive culture as a high school principal. His persistence in the face of setbacks and his drive to continually improve have shaped his approach to his current role. He shares some great insights about how important it is to support teachers, the usefulness of data, like test scores, for a variety of purposes, and how he has used test scores and professional teaching coaches to help teachers and students bridge gaps in reading proficiency, which they have done successfully at his school in the last few years.

"The best decision we can make for kids is to put the best teachers in front of them." (11:27)

"How do we help kids find some success so they can start to build more success?" (14:10)

Invidual students who were reading at 3rd-4th grade level as 9th and 10th graders are now reading at a 9th-10th grade level as 11th and 12th graders. We're talking 4-5 years of reading development in 2 years. (16:57)

"PD" = Professional Development

"PLC" = Professional Learning Community 

What Is a Professional Learning Community? (from ACSD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Title I School: The Title I, Part A program provides financial assistance each year to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to meet challenging state academic standards. Funds are used to provide supplemental educational services and resources to meet the needs of economically and educationally disadvantaged students.  (From https://schools.utah.gov/eseastateinitiatives/improvingprograms)

Thanks for listening! If you have any thoughts or questions that you'd like to share, I would love to hear them at [email protected]. If you have current experiences in the educational system and an interest in sharing your story on the podcast, please reach out! 

Kristin Allred is a first-grade teacher in the Salt Lake City School District in Utah with over 20 years of experience. In this episode Kristin shares some of the challenges facing teachers today, why she considered leaving after the pandemic as many teachers have, and why she chose to stay. She also talks about the rewards of teaching and why she loves teaching first grade. She gives an invaluable long-term perspective on how the teaching profession and students have changed over the last 20+ years, and how much her school district is doing right now to support the evolving needs of its students.

Article Kristin referenced about teacher shortage in Utah:

Is there still a teacher shortage in Utah?

Articles about nationwide teacher shortages:

Teachers, Facing Increasing Levels of Stress, Are Burned Out

Teachers are calling it quits amid rising school violence, burnout, and stagnating salaries

6 things to know about U.S. teacher shortages and how to solve them

Thanks for listening! If you have any thoughts or questions that you'd like to share, I would love to hear them at [email protected]. If you have current experiences in the educational system and an interest in being featured on the podcast, please reach out! 

Host Ramira Alamilla introduces the podcast and shares her own perspective and intentions for the podcast before opening up future episodes to hear the stories and voices of people in different roles in the educational system: teachers, counselors, administrators, and eventually students and parents.