From working with our partner schools, we know how much challenging student behavior is influencing teacher wellness these days. The ongoing effects of COVID has affected the way many students are interacting within their school communities and the impact of challenging behavior is real.  

For this, in our sixth episode we speak with child behavior specialist Alexandra Vann of Building Capacity, LLC about ways to meaningfully address student behavior concerns while caring for yourself as an educator.  

Over the last 10 years, Alexandra has provided positive behavior support to elementary and secondary students within the public and private educational setting as a Child Behavior and Intervention Specialist. While helping to support the success of students, Alex has consulted and coached leaders, educators, and caregivers in mental and behavioral health strategies.  

Together, we discuss: 

- The difference between a student's behavior and their attitude (not the same thing!) 

- What to do when teachers within a school have different approaches to student behavior interventions 

- How to "go upstream' to get the full picture of what is happening with a student (and yourself)

 - and much more!  We hope you enjoy this conversation and that it helps your approach to student behavior!  

*** More about Alexandra Vann:  As an expert in the field of Child Behavior Services, Alexandra Vann  has been afforded the opportunity to work with outstanding educators, administrators, school members, leaders,  students, and families from diverse cultures and backgrounds.      

 Over the last 10 years, Alex has provided positive behavior support to elementary and secondary students within the public and private educational setting as a Child Behavior and Intervention Specialist. While helping to support the success of students, Alex has consulted and coached leaders, educators, and caregivers in mental and behavioral health strategies.  Alexandra is the founder of Building Capacity, LLC and currently consults for The George Washington University and Mary’s Center for School Based Mental Health support and programming. Alex co-facilitates Crisis Response & Intervention and Suicide Prevention practice group, in addition to Teacher Wellness workgroup for the Community of Practice under the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at GWU.  In addition to supporting GWU, Alex also supports and assists with the development of the School Based Mental Health Post Graduate Fellowship Program at Mary’s Center.

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]

We all know school principals are responsible for a lot but how does this workload influence their self-care and the wellness of their staff? How can a spirit of true inclusion–both for students and teachers–create a school culture that promotes wellness rather than furthering burnout?

These are some of the questions we explored with educator Toni Barton, a former DC principal, charter network executive, and the visionary of the Spelligent inclusive school model. She shared her experience of running DC schools and her bigger vision for creating a school based on connection for both students and staff.

We also discussed:

- Why it's important for principals to be vulnerable with their staff members.

- Innovative ways to reduce the workload for school principals.

- How to hire for mindset rather than expertise to create a unified teaching team.

- and more.

We loved this conversation and hope Toni's vision helps to inspire you as well!

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]

As a teacher, are you wavering between drowning and burning out with all the demands on your time and energy? Do you think more self-care might help you but don't know how to start approaching it?  

In this conversation, award-winning DCPS World Language teacher Chiara Monticelli shares about a period of overwhelm in her life and how this difficult time helped her begin recognizing and acting from her self-care needs.   

We also discuss: 

- The particular "human giver" demands on teachers who are parents and how flexible scheduling can help.  

- How "breaking the rules" by having a deskless classroom and using more non-evaluative feedback with students can give teachers more energy. 

- Perfectionism and how it causes more stress for teachers.  

- And much more.  

We hope this conversation gives you new energy and permission to focus on your self-care as we enter this new year!

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]

In this episode, we speak with Instructional Coach Claire Shanahan and ELL Resource Teacher Catherine Heisy from Ida B. Wells MS in Washington, DC on creating a staff-led PD schedule that encourages shared teacher expertise and strengthens relationships between educators.   

Specifically we discuss: 

- How "Thinking Thursdays" (and soon "Wellness Wednesdays") came to be at Ida B. Wells. 

- Why staff-led PD can be a place for more open, curious learning than traditional PD's.  

- Ways to find the right balance of planning ahead and staying flexible to changing needs. 

- And more!  

We hope this conversation encourages you to consider more staff-led PD to feature the teacher expertise in your school!

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]

In this episode, we speak with Yazid Jackson from Restorative DC / School Talk DC about what it means to create a restorative adult culture in schools. 

Specifically, we discuss: 

- why adults need to model restorative practices for it to work with students. 

- the difference between venting our difficulties and actual restorative practice. 

- how to address the lack of time in the day to do restorative adult work. 

- and much more.

We hope you enjoy this inspiring conversation and that it sparks more restorative practices in your school communities!

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]

During our first episode of the Educator Wellness Revolution podcast, Scott and Gracy share their educator wellness vision and interview their colleague and collaborator, Gabrielle Dubose. Gabrielle also supports EmpowerEd's educator wellness work and is a full-time DCPS teacher who has worked for over 29 years. She has a passion for arts education and a deep enthusiasm for supporting teachers. We are always learning from Gabrielle and know you will too. Enjoy the episode!

Thank you for listening! Please learn more about our educator wellness work in schools at or email [email protected]