In this episode, Franchesca Warren interviews Jamilah Pitts and discusses why wellness can essentially be liberation. To find out more about Jamilah's quest for self-care visit www.jamilahpitts.com. 

My name is Jamilah Pitts, the Founder, and CEO of Jamilah Pitts Consulting, a firm designed to support the liberation, intergenerational healing and holistic development of students and communities of color through an emphasis on education and wellness.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Chandra Joseph-Lacet and Gorgette Green-Hodnett from Real Talk, Real-Time Educators Forum and discusses the bi-product of self-care, teacher advocacy. 

Chandra Joseph-Lacet has spent the last 27 years working in the field of education. She began her career in Higher Education working in various Student Affairs Departments. After 5 years in Higher Ed, Chandra decided to transition to K-12 education and began her teaching career as an Elementary School Teacher with the Boston Public Schools. In addition to working as an Elementary School Teacher, Chandra has also served as a Special Education Teacher, Literacy Coach, Special Education Coordinator and Assistant Principal. Currently, Chandra serves as a coach for teachers across the district of Boston.  In this capacity, Chandra works with teachers and teacher mentors across the district to elevate instructional practices and create highly engaging, student-centered environments focused on strengthening student learning outcomes. This summer, Chandra had the pleasure of joining the faculty of Brandeis University as a Lecturer in Education in their Teacher Leadership Program.

Gorgette Green-Hodnett after completing a non-traditional program towards teacher certification, Gorgette joined Charles County Public Schools in 1998.   She spent 13 years as a math teacher and served as a math department chairperson and as a full release Mentor Teacher for 3 years.  Currently, Gorgette is an Instructional Resource Teacher at General Smallwood MS. As the school-based instructional leader in math, Gorgette leads professional development of  best practices in math instruction and the integration of instructional technologies along with coordinating math interventions. Gorgette is also responsible for county-wide course content and professional development for the CCPS 7th Compacted Math Course.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Dr. Renee Heiberger and Vanessa Hardaway as they discuss the realities of teacher burnout and dispel the many myths around this topic. Prior to Covid-19, the statistics of teachers leaving the profession within five years was around fifty percent. However, since the nation entered a pandemic this year, the amount of stress and burnout is on the rise. Teachers are now being asked to take on two roles (face-to-face and online) at the same time every day and it is taking a toll on educators across the nation. Based on these statistics, retention is clearly a serious concern. The educational system must continue to develop ways to appeal and draw in new teachers, but it is just as important for the system to retain the high-quality teachers who are still in the profession. When leaders and teachers can identify and address compassion fatigue and burnout, then powerful conversations can help to improve staff retention and reduce anxiety and stress.

In a dynamic and entertaining way, Dr. Renee Heiberger and Ms. Vanessa Hardaway will discuss the symptoms and causes of burnout as well as give solutions they believe will help leaders and teachers deal with stress and beat burnout. Dr. Heiberger’s research from her doctoral dissertation on teacher burnout lays the foundation for describing the consequences of burnout teachers face and Vanessa’s sense of humor, numerous stories, and real-life examples make her ideas clear and accessible to her audiences. As experienced and esteemed public speakers, Renee and Vanessa aim to deliver education, inspiration, and entertainment to a variety of audiences. They inspire educators in an authentic way that leaves them revived and rejuvenated.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews JaTorra Patterson around the moment that self-care hit in hard. 

JaTorra Commodore is a native New Yorker who resides in Connecticut and is a proud wife, mom and veteran elementary school teacher. When she is not educating her doting students she enjoys writing about life's twists and turns, her travels, and the importance of self-care. Being an educator for twenty years, she understands the challenges educators face today. Her mission, after dealing with her own struggles in making herself a priority which led to teacher burnout, has been to help teachers manage and take care of their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being so they can be the best version of themselves inside and outside of the classroom. Her vision for helping women and bringing joy into their lives is being brought to life through her work as a Certified Transformational Life Coach and her Priority You Passion Project for educators. She is creating a movement to help teachers all over the globe take back control so they can live a more fulfilling life beyond the school walls.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Tanya Boucicaut- a college professor as she discusses how the 18 months in solitude forced her to go to therapy and address her mental well-being. 

Tanya Boucicaut, M.F.A., M.Div. (she/hers), is Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a licensed Baptist clergywoman. Prior to her appointment at VCU, she founded a faith-based non-profit youth theatre education organization called Perfect Love Community Youth Theatre. Boucicaut co-founded the Graduate Writing Center for Theological Studies at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union (STVU). At STVU, she has also served as project director of STREAM, a high school youth theology institute, a member of the editorial team for the school’s 2017 accreditation process, and a database consultant. She is currently a Writing and Rhetoric Ph.D. student at George Mason University focusing on the intersection of Black Church Studies, Hip Hop Pedagogy, and Community Building.  Boucicaut is a lover and student of hip hop with rose gold bottoms, rapped her first rhyme in Mr. Magee's 6th health case for a presentation to the beat of Puff Daddy and Mase's "Been Around the World", and she was a playwright at 17.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Kwame Sarfo-Mensah from Identity Talk for Educators to discuss how toxic school cultures weigh on the mental health of educators.

Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is a 14-year veteran urban educator and the founder of Identity Talk Consulting, an independent educational consulting firm that provides professional development and consulting services to K-12 school districts, educators, colleges & universities and educational non-profit organizations. He is also the author of two books: "Shaping the Teacher Identity: 8 Lessons That Will Help Define the Teacher in You" and "From Inaction to 'In Action': Creating a New Normal for Urban Educators".    As a staunch ambassador and advocate for teacher empowerment, Kwame has spoken at numerous national education conferences and worked diligently to support the recruitment and retention of teachers of color in the education system. In January 2019, he was selected to be in the inaugural cohort of the InSPIRED (In-Service Professionals Increasing Racial and Ethnic Diversity) Fellowship, an initiative organized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education for veteran teachers of color to recruit students of color to teach in Massachusetts.   As an InSPIRED Teaching Fellow, Kwame facilitated professional development workshops for aspiring teachers at universities such as Boston College, UMass Boston, and Worcester State University and has served as a guest speaker for non-profit teacher pipeline programs such as Generation Teach and Worcester Public Schools’ Future Teachers Academy.  A proud graduate of Temple University, Kwame holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and a Master's Degree in Elementary Education.  He was honored as the 2019 National Member of the Year by Black Educators Rock, Inc. for his unwavering commitment to the advancement of the teacher profession.  Kwame's work has also been featured in Teaching Channel, Edutopia, Education Post, WGBH News, The Educators' Room, and Medium.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Lisa Baylis and discusses self-compassion, autoimmune disease, and self-care for educators. Lisa is a high school teacher and counselor in British Columbia in Canada with a passion to support the well-being of educators through self-compassion. She has seen first hand, for myself, with my colleagues, and when presenting across the country, how powerful the mindset of compassion can be in growing resilience. 

See more of her work at https://lisabaylis.com/

In this episode, Franchesca interviews D'Essence Grant and discusses the crippling effects of anxiety and how teachers can move forward. 

D’Essence is a young woman aspiring to make a difference in the education system. This podcast would be great for networking with like-minded people and bringing awareness to this topic in a major way. Coming from “The Delta”, rural Arkansas wasn’t the best place for education. Her grandmother and mother, who were both educators, helped instill all of the qualities that make her the teacher she is today. D’Essence has been a single mother for 11 years and has battled the education system since she first got pregnant at 16. Taking care of her son when she could barely take care of herself, now makes self-care a necessity.

In this episode, Franchesca interviews Nicole Quintana-Wolf around the misconceptions and myths when it comes to self-care. Teachers are constantly being told “take care of yourself” by the administration yet frequently they’re not given the structures or supports in which to do that. That’s why they need to take self-care into their own hands! We debunk some of these myths (such as “just take a bubble bath if you’re stressed out”) and share with listeners the key to creating a shift when it comes to implementing self-care techniques that work: mindset. Specifically, how to cultivate a positive mindset through setting intentions, affirmations, and having a gratitude practice; also honing in on the most powerful self-care techniques, such as morning routine, movement, and mood-boosting foods.

Nicole is a  teacher with teaching experience, including in Florida, London UK, southside Chicago, and most recently in the Bronx, NYC.  

In this episode, Franchesca interviews educational psychologist, Dr. Tish Jennings as she presents a matrix of stress-causing factors that lead to burnout, and shows how teachers can tackle the sources of stress at each pressure point. From the development of social and emotional competencies—so important to teachers and students alike—to the achievement of systemic change through collective efficacy, she offers hope and practical remedies for overcoming a toxic trend in education.

Dr. Jennings is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of social and emotional learning and mindfulness in education and a Professor of Education at the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. Her research places a specific emphasis on teacher stress and how it impacts the social and emotional context of the classroom, as articulated in her highly cited theoretical article "The Prosocial Classroom." Jennings led the team that developed CARE, a mindfulness-based professional development program shown to significantly improve teacher well-being, classroom interactions, and student engagement in the largest randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based intervention designed specifically to address teacher occupational stress. She was awarded the Cathy Kerr Award for Courageous and Compassionate Science by the Mind & Life Institute in 2018 and recently recognized by Mindful Magazine as one of the "Ten Mindfulness Researchers You Should Know." Earlier in her career, Jennings spent more than 22 years as a teacher, school director, and teacher educator. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters and several books: Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom, The Trauma-Sensitive School: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching, Mindfulness in the Pre-K-5 Classroom: Helping Students Stress Less and Learn More, part of Social and Emotional Learning Solutions, a book series by WW Norton of which she is the editor. Her latest book, Teacher Burnout Turnaround: Strategies for Empowered Teachers, is forthcoming next week.