The Elephant and the Teacher

In this episode, Michelle shares a simple restaurant moment — being handed a "build-your-own" bowl of pho — that turned into a bigger reflection on how we design learning experiences for students and adults alike. She unpacks what happens when we move from serving a pre-assembled "dish" (the text, the questions, the assignment) to offering a base, plus meaningful choices for engagement.

Plus, don't miss the season's first sponsor spot — a shoutout to Book Notes, the in-book note-taking booklets Michelle uses personally and in her classroom.

—------------------

SPONSOR: 

Book Notes by Dakota Hunt Studio

Shop Book Notes on Etsy by Clicking This Link and use code “MICHELLE10” for 10% off!

—------------------

HOST: 

Michelle Roundy | 2026 Wyoming Teacher of The Year

👉 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dearmrsroundy/

Have your question featured on the podcast by filling out the form Linked Here!

If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

—------------------

This podcast is produced by Dakota Hunt Studio.

Supporting a burned-out team doesn't mean absorbing their stress or fixing what you can't control — it means helping them reclaim the agency that burnout takes away, while protecting your own energy in the process.

This episode answers a listener question from Marifi Dokulan, the 2026 Teacher of the Year in the Northern Mariana Islands, who wrote in wrestling with a familiar tension: how do you support a burned-out team without burning out yourself?

Michelle digs into:

• The real roots of teacher burnout — unrealistic workload, isolation, and low autonomy, and why all three point back to a single root cause: loss of control

• "Above and below the line" — a framework from The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership for recognizing when you (or your team) are operating from a reactive, defensive place versus an open, curious one

• The hero trap — why rescuing your team from every hard thing feels noble but quietly reinforces their powerlessness, and burns you out faster than any mandate could

• The four stances of leadership — from "life happens to me" (the victim stance where burnout breeds) to "by me," "through me," and "as me" — and why your real job as a leader is simply helping people take that first step, from to-me to by-me

• Three reflective questions that shift a struggling teacher from venting into re-claiming their own agency, without you having to carry it for them

One potent reminder: being present for your team means holding space for their reality — not taking it on as your own.

—------------------

SPONSOR: 

Book Notes by Dakota Hunt Studio

Shop Book Notes on Etsy by Clicking This Link and use code “MICHELLE10” for 10% off!

—------------------

RESOURCES & LINKS: 

👉 The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp

👉 The Teacher Reflective Continuum in Building Teachers Capacity for Success by Pete Hall

👉 S1E17 – How To Be a More Conscious Leader with Stephanie Hardeman of Teton Teams | Personal Responsibility and Candor

—------------------

HOST: Michelle Roundy | 2026 Wyoming Teacher of The Year

👉 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dearmrsroundy/

Have your question featured on the podcast by filling out the form Linked Here!

If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

—------------------

This podcast is produced by Dakota Hunt Studio.

Michelle sits down with Julia Edwards, the 2026 Maine Teacher of the Year, choral director, and creator of the Cultural Context Curriculum, for a wide-ranging conversation about what it really means to lead learning rather than deliver it.

They talk about:

• Joyful chaos — reframing the overwhelm of a big year (or a big life) as a wild ride worth gratitude, not just survival.

• Co-regulation through connection — the science of why singing together synchronizes heart rates, and what that means for how we help students find belonging in an isolated, hyper-connected world.

• From "podium culture" to student agency — how Julia shifted from being the focal point of her classroom to being a mirror that reflects her students' own capability back to them.

• The Cultural Context Curriculum — an inquiry-based framework Julia built to help students research the origin and context of every piece of music they perform, rooted in curiosity rather than shame.

• Modeling mistakes — a live performance mishap that became one of the most powerful teaching moments of the year.

• The oboe as metaphor — what years of sounding like "an angry duck" taught Julia about patience, growth, and trusting the process with herself and her students.

This conversation is a reminder that teaching is an act of faith: you plant seeds you may never see bloom, and the real measure of impact isn't a perfect performance, it's what students carry with them when you're not in the room.

—------------------

Have your question featured on the podcast by filling out the form Linked Here!

If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

—------------------

GUEST: Julia Edwards | 2026 Maine Teacher of The Year

👉 WEBSITE: https://www.juliaedwardsmusic.com/

👉 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/singwithme_207

HOST: Michelle Roundy | 2026 Wyoming Teacher of The Year

👉 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dearmrsroundy/

Thank you for listening to Season 1 of The Elephant and The Teacher! Please fill out this form to help me curate my content for Season 2. Have an amazing summer and we'll be back soon!

My Summer Reading List:

• Wild Dark Shore by Charolette McConaghy

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

• Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

• North Woods by Daniel Mason

• How to Carry What Can’t be Fixed by Megan Devine

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers by Douglas Fisher , Nancy Frey, Sarah Ortega, Kierstan Barbee , Aida Allen-Rotell

Special Thanks to My Season 1 Guests:

• EP. 5 – Interview: Hallie with Think:Kids on Behavior as Skill Gaps and Collaborative Problem Solving

• EP. 9 – Morgan Hahn on The Human Side of History and AI: A Conversation with Wyoming's 2025 Teacher of the Year

• EP. 12 - A Conversation about Language with my Husband and SRO, Drew Roundy

• EP. 16 – Shifting Out of Transactional Grading and Into Curiosity-Driven Learning with Ryan Donovan (Part 1)

• EP. 17 – How To Be a More Conscious Leader with Stephanie Hardeman of Teton Teams | Personal Responsibility and Candor

• EP. 18 – Cultivating a Culture of Evidence Based Grading with Ryan Donovan (Part 2) 

My Favorite Episodes:

• EP. 2 – “Is This Graded?” What Student Questions Are Really Telling Us

• EP. 19 – Barefoot and Blindfolded: What Fear in the Forest Taught Me About Teaching

Please let me know your responses to the following 3 questions either by filling out this form, or send me a DM on Instagram!

1. What is one specific routine or practice you’re desperately trying to rethink or let go of before August roles around?

2. How are you growing as a teacher, leader or admin? What feels good or what doesn’t?

3. What’s your biggest “How do I actually make this work question?”

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

By the time June hits, most teachers' nervous systems are running on pure adrenaline. In this mini episode, Michelle offers three reflective questions to carry into your summer that are about you – the human behind the teacher. (1) When were you most authentic? (2) When did you fully receive from others? (3) When did you feel truly seen?

These moments aren't just good memories for your journal,  they're clues that can help you reveal the exact conditions where you were most regulated. Use your summer to find more of those moments, so you can bring your most rested, grounded self back into the room next fall.

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form [Linked Here].

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

When everything changes, the instinct is to grip harder. To control the outcome, manage the future, and think your way through the panic. But what if steadiness isn't found in certainty at all? In this episode, Michelle explores what it actually looks like to stay grounded when your identity is on the line.

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form [Linked Here].

If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

In this episode, Michelle shares a profound personal experience from a week-long ancestral skills course in Montana, where she found herself barefoot and blindfolded walking through the forest. What started as a physical challenge quickly surfaced something much deeper: old stories about inadequacy, toughness, and the fear of needing help. 

The lessons she carried out of that forest go straight into the classroom. Michelle unpacks what it means to stand beside someone in their fear without making them feel weak for having it.

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form [Linked Here].

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

In the second half of their deep dive into evidence based grading, Michelle Roundy and Ryan Donovan—award-winning AP U.S. History teacher and 2026 Top 50 Trailblazing Educator—tackle the "elephant" of traditional grading. 

The conversation shifts into the practical "how-to" of an evidence-based classroom, highlighting the necessity of breaking down complex assessments into manageable skill progressions. This episode serves as a roadmap for teachers looking to move away from transactional "points-chasing" and toward a cyclical learning process where students are encouraged to practice, reflect, and try again until mastery is achieved.

Check out the First Episode with Ryan Donovan Here (EP. 16)

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form [Linked Here].

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

In this episode, Michelle sits down in person with her friend and colleague Stephanie Hardeman — educator, executive coach, and founder of Teton Teams Development — to explore two powerful commitments from The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: taking 100% personal responsibility and speaking candidly. Together they unpack the "above and below the line" model, examining how fear drives us into reactive, energy-draining patterns — whether we show up as the victim, the villain, or the surprising one — the hero. Stephanie breaks down why heroing others, though it feels generous, can quietly erode confidence and rob people of the at-bats they need to grow.

The conversation then turns to the courage it takes to speak candidly — not to convince or explode, but to genuinely connect. Michelle and Stephanie leave listeners with three concrete practices to start noticing their own energy patterns, body signals, and the conversations they've been avoiding. If you've ever wondered why you feel exhausted despite working so hard, this episode will give you a new lens for understanding where your energy is actually going.

Stephanie Hardeman with Teton Teams:

• ​INSTAGRAM
• ​www.TetonTeams.com

The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership Book: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form [Linked Here].

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!

In this episode, Michelle Roundy sits down with Ryan Donovan, Arizona’s Teacher of the Year and a Top 50 Trailblazing Educator, to dismantle traditional grading. They explore why the standard 0–100% scale often fails to reflect true student mastery and how the "points game" can actually stifle a student’s natural love of learning. Ryan shares his personal pivot from using grades as a tool for behavioral control to adopting evidence-based practices that prioritize skill articulation over mere point accumulation.

The conversation dives deep into the phenomenon of "minimaxing"—where students do the bare minimum to maximize their grade—and how educators can shift the classroom culture toward curiosity and agency. From using AI as a conversational tutor to cultivating "learning walls," Michelle and Ryan discuss practical ways to empower students to take ownership of their educational journey. By moving away from transactional grading, they argue that teachers can reclaim the classroom as a space for genuine inquiry and lifelong learning.

⁠Frederick Douglas: What to a Slave is the Fourth of July

Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Ask a Question: Have a question for Michelle? Fill out the listener form.

Support the Podcast: If this episode moved your thinking, please leave a 5-star review and tag @DearMrsRoundy on social media!