Community Room Podcast

We welcome Peter Dubinsky to the Community Room for Episode 7! A mentor to both Gayle and Bal, he has been connected to Community Schools for 30 years, and is a current superintendent in BC, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Oregon and Simon Fraser University. We sit with him to talk about his new role as a superintendent, and in his previous capacities in community schools about the idea of trust and openness between members of the community. An amazing conversation that really should be its own TED Talk, we hope you enjoy this episode!

QUOTE:

"“If I make deposits into an Emotional Bank Account with you through courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping my commitments to you, I build up a reserve. Your trust toward me becomes higher, and I can call upon that trust many times if I need to. I can even make mistakes and that trust level, that emotional reserve, will compensate for it. My communication may not be clear, but you’ll get my meaning anyway. You won’t make me “an offender for a word.” When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.” - Stephen R. Covey

Welcome back for Episode 6! Today's conversation is about how kids and families benefit from partnerships between the school and community organizations, and it features Sangeeta Bhonsale. Gayle and Bal sit down with her and talk about the role her organization plays in helping foster community in the Lower Mainland of BC.

Sangeeta Bhonsale comes with quite the unconventional resume for someone who works in a community setting. She started life in a middle-class family in India where her parents taught her the values of hard work and ethics while pushing her to achieve her dreams and financially extending themselves to put her through university in Michigan. She took those values and excelled at her academics at Michigan Tech University and kick-started her career working for a multinational corporation, Mercedes-Benz. Her journey from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector was greatly influenced by her experiences as a mother. Becoming a parent was a gift that gave her deep insight into some real-life lessons and has led her to her true calling, that is working towards building communities where every child can flourish and thrive. She has spent the last twelve years in learning and understanding the challenges and joys of raising healthy and confident children and the impact of community programs on parents, caregivers, and children.

RESOURCES:

- Association for Community Education in BC (ACEBC) http://acebc.ca/

- Alison Gopnik: Developmental Psychologist and Philosopher (http://alisongopnik.com/)

- Urie Bronfenbrenner: “Ecological Systems Theory” https://www.simplypsychology.org/Bronfenbrenner.html


QUOTES:

"The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure how our children grow up today."- Margaret Mead

Welcome back to the Community Room! Today, we chat with two high school basketball coaches - Aaron Mitchell and Jeff Gourley - about how they use their role as a coaches and educators to instill values and the impact of sports on kids today. Listen as both Aaron and Jeff talk about the role coaches have played in their own lives, how they use sport as a vehicle to build and foster community within their teams, within their schools and out in to the broader community. What role does sport play in fostering a sense of community? Aaron and Jeff guide us along this journey from their specific perspectives. In addition, this is a special little "crossover" episode - producer Corbin and Aaron together host "A Hoops Journey" podcast - that has featured our very own Bal Dhillon on their second episode, and our other guest Jeff Gourley for Episode 18.

QUOTES (POST EPISODE):
- “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
- Aaron's response: This quote covers a lot in a few words. Within teams and schools, it becomes a collective effort to strive for excellence on all levels. As a team, you must make an effort to have your "last" player as fully invested as your first, maybe not skill wise, but mentally and emotionally. When teams are invested in each other and not themselves powerful things happen. I firmly believe the same for schools; if we flip our leadership model upside down, with families and students being the top of the pyramid and teachers / admin at the bottom, empowerment happens, accountability happens, open feedback happens............and well, a whole bunch of really good stuff happens."

RESOURCES:

- SAFETEEN: www.safeteen.ca - "Safeteen is an internationally recognized violence prevention strategy that cultivates a radical transformation from a youth culture of fear and survival to one of empathy, safety and empowerment."

- "A Hoops Journey": Hosted by Aaron Mitchell and Corbin Castres https://linktr.ee/ahoopsjourney

- "A Hoops Journey": Episode 2 featuring Bal Dhillon = https://open.spotify.com/episode/5LwLzZPzs2AgiK4bZGkg1g?si=KeF-k8pkQTifgWoZkc5k4Q

- "A Hoops Journey": Episode 18 featuring Jeff Gourley = https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qOQvPgrcpSrBurwdRFBAT?si=y7onKNrdSaSS8OQDn3NFRg

With no guest this week, hosts Gayle and Bal have a poignant conversation about how their own years have gone, and have a discourse on the challenges of being community school coordinators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESOURCES:

- https://acebc.ca/resources/elements-and-threads/ (Community School Elements)

- Mark Lamont Hill - "We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility" https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08HW78VNC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

- Bettina L. Love - "We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom" https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07FG27G6H/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

- Rinaldo Walcott - "On Property: Policing, Prisons and the Call for Abolition" - https://www.amazon.ca/Property-Field-Notes-Book-ebook/dp/B08K55GD3G/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=On+Property%3A+Policing%2C+Prisons+and+the+Call+for+Abolition&qid=1622428926&sr=8-1

- Mariame Kaba - "We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice" -
https://www.amazon.ca/This-Til-Free-Abolitionist-Transforming/dp/164259525X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Mariame+Kaba-+We+Do+This+%27Til+We+Free+Us%3A+Abolitionist+Organizing+and+Transforming+Justice&qid=1622429037&sr=8-1

- Angela Y. Davis - "Are Prisons Obsolete?" -
https://www.amazon.ca/Are-Prisons-Obsolete-Angela-Davis/dp/1583225811/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Angela+Y.+Davis-+Are+Prisons+Obsolete%3F&qid=1622428982&sr=8-1



QUOTES:

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Lilla Watson

“Connecting with others gives us a sense of inclusion, connection, interaction, safety, and community. Your vibe attracts your tribe, so if you want to attract positive and healthy relationships, be one! Staying connected and getting reconnected feeds the flow of goodness which empowers our humanity.” - Susan C. Young

Welcome back to the Community Room for Episode 4! Today's topic is "Building Capacity" and we've brought in two friends, former colleagues and former community school coordinators: Elizabeth Byrne and Larry Ryan. They talk about the different ways they build capacity in their own schools, the differences between an elementary school model versus a high school model, caring for the whole child, and much more.

Larry Ryan has been in education for over 25 years. From his role as a school Youth Worker, Teacher, Community School Coordinator, and a Vice Principal in a middle school, he has been part of the school community from a variety of vantage points. He believes that the key to enhancing student learning and outcomes is to engage all stakeholders in the community. As a vice principal, Larry focuses on servant leadership and building a sense of community among students, staff, parents and other stakeholders. He strives to make his school a place that students and staff want to attend every day because it is a place of safety, connection, and fun.

Elizabeth Byrne has been a social studies teacher in British Columbia for 25 years and is all about connection and community. She is passionate about social justice, writing, connecting people, developing curriculum resources, creating space for others to succeed, and providing opportunities and experiences for people to thrive.

She holds a Masters in History and in her career so far she has taught social studies at five high schools and three elementary schools. She has also taught teacher candidates at university and been a Community School Coordinator at both high school and elementary level.

Her writing projects focus on social justice and critical thinking, and include Pivotal Voices: Exploring Identity, Inclusion and Citizenship, resources for Learning In Depth, Tools for Thought, The Critical Thinking Consortium, and the Learning about Homelessness Project, among others. She was editor for Dimensions while on the British Columbia Social Studies Association executive, and she has also written and implemented the curriculum for courses such as Innovative Curriculum Design, and the Leadership Program in her district.

QUOTES:

"The world does not need leaders to better define issues or to orchestrate better planning or project management. What it needs is for the issues and the plans to have more of an impact, and that comes from citizen accountability and commitment. Engagement is the means through which there can be a shift in caring for the well-being of the whole, and the task of leader as convener is to produce that engagement.” - Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

"The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make others powerful. " - Benjamin Zander, TED Talk

Today's topic is "Relationships" and joining us for Episode 3 is Sue Montabello! A former principal, teacher, faculty associate coordinator at Simon Fraser University, and a mentor to many educators in the Lower Mainland, we are excited to sit down with her and talk about building community through relationships. We ask her questions about expulsion and suspension in schools, the role of community officers, how she built community in her schools, and much more!

QUOTES:
- “Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people–they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.” - Paolo Freire

- "It was when I began my work teaching student teachers at the university and embarked on my Master's Degree, that this consciousness began to find words. I remember vividly my first attempt to give voice to what I knew. It was a graduate class in Philosophy. We were discussing what was necessary to be a good teacher. 'Content knowledge', 'pedagogical understandings', 'critical thinking', 'curriculum', were the words bantered around the table. There was, I knew, something missing, and yet I was hesitant to speak. This was not a class for tentative thinking; it was a class where definitive statements and clearly thought out propositions were expected if one was to be considered a rigorous thinker. I began slowly, 'relationships. Relationships with our students are key. Our students need to feel cared for'. There was silence for a moment, and then the reply came. Those were the kind of teachers I didn't really respect. I could wrap them around my finger. They didn't really challenge me with my thinking; I was appropriately, silenced'." - Sue Montabello

Welcome to Episode 2 of the Community Room podcast! Today, our guest is Kathryn Yamamoto - she is the principal at a local community school - and she is here to discuss today's theme on Social and Emotional Learning; also known as SEL.

- CASEL https://casel.org/what-is-sel/
- Kathryn's Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathrynYamamoto?s=20

Welcome to our first introduction episode! We introduce our main hosts: Bal Dhillon and Gayle Beavil - two Community School coordinators in BC. We chat about the road that led us to our positions, share some heartwarming stories about the role community schools play, and introduce some segments.

QUOTE: "My contention is: first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others" - Nel Noddings

Produced by: Corbin Castres
Sounds and Music by: Storyblocks