The Podclass

Elizabeth speaks with Dr. Kate Storey, associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, about how teachers can promote wellbeing in small but real ways. She focuses on the need for a good night’s rest and how we can encourage our students to prioritize sleep to improve their health and academic success.

Additional Resources:

• CSEP Guidelines
• ParticipAction
• Kate Storey's Website

Jamie and Elizabeth share their unique experiences of teaching in alternative school programs and student leadership initiatives in this episode that focuses on how school can be a site for skill development, social belonging, and positive mental well-being. Jamie talks about how a student-led volunteer project, Joy4All, landed his class in the media spotlight.

Additional Resources

• Joy4All
• Maskwacis School of Rock (formerly the Hobbema School of Rock)
• Cadbury commercial of Jamie’s students and their Joy4All project

Elizabeth talks with Dr. Teresa Fowler, assistant professor at Concordia University, on how trauma can affect student learning and behaviour. She shares stories and strategies on how to respond with compassion when students who have experienced trauma are in our care.

Additional Resources:

• Tanen, N. (Producer) & Hughes, J. (Producer and Director) (1985). The breakfast club. [Motion picture]. USA: A&M Films.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847
• Perry, B. D., & Szalavitz, M. (2008). The boy who was raised as a dog : and other stories from a child psychiatrist's notebook--what traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. Basic Books.
• Alberta Family Wellness Initiative: The Brain Story Certification Program
• ACES Study Questionnaire

Elizabeth talks with Lianne Lee, Director of the Alberta Healthy Youth Relationships Strategy, about social-emotional learning and how key relationships are to youth development. Lianne shares how teachers can help students who may be experiencing teen dating violence.

Additional Resources:

• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
• PrevNet
• Love Is Respect
• The Fourth R
• Paul Gorski speech on “Ideologies of inequity: Towards a structural view”

Jamie speaks with Caroline Gosling, a former educator and current board member with the Alberta Restorative Justice Association, about restorative justice. Caroline shares proactive ways to build restorative cultures in schools and how restorative justice works in a school setting.

Additional Resources:

• Relationships First
• Evans, K. & Vaandering, D. (2016). The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education: Fostering Responsibility, Healing, and Hope in Schools. Good Books. ISBN 1680991728, 9781680991727
• Roffey, S. (2020). Circle solutions for student wellbeing (3rd ed.). Sage Publications. ISBN 1526491168, 978-1526491169
• International Institute for Restorative Practices Canada

Elizabeth talks with Krista Dumba, a teacher and nurse who currently works with Alberta Health Services on mental health promotion, on the many health benefits of kindness. She shares inspiring ideas and examples of teachers who have helped their students to experience the benefits of spreading kindness.

Additional Resources:

• Dr. Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain
• Random Acts of Kindness
• Buddy Bench example
• Kindness Ninjas
• Rita Pierson’s TEDTalk
• Video of Coquitlam BC Breakfast Club
• Dr. Stuart Shanker
• Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
• Understood.org
• Dr. Kirsten Neff
• The Dalai Lama Center For Peace and Education

Elizabeth talks with Grade 3/4 teacher Tracey Tinley, recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, on how flexible seating can impact multiple areas of wellbeing for students. She shares practical, budget-friendly strategies on how to incorporate flexible teaching approaches in your classroom.

Additional Resources:

• Tracey on Instagram
• Tracey’s flexible classroom on Twitter
• Other example of a flexible seating initiative

Elizabeth and Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew, a psychologist who researches weight-based issues as a professor at the University of Calgary, talk about weight bias and how to promote holistic health at school. They share how to respond to weight-based bullying and how to make schools more accepting of everyBODY.

Additional Resources:

• UConn Rudd Center
• Piran, N. (2004). Teachers: On "being" (rather than "doing") prevention. Eating Disorders, 12, 1-9.
• Nutter, S., Ireland, A., Alberga, A. S., Brun, I., Lefebvre, D., Hayden, K. A., & Russell-Mayhew, S. (2019). Weight bias in educational settings: A systematic review. Current Obesity Reports, 8, 185-200.
• Health at Every Size in the school setting

Jamie chats with Chris Fenlon-MacDonald, a specialist with the Calgary Board of Education, on ways to incorporate physical activity and movement into the school day and why all teachers share in the responsibility to help students move more.

Additional Resources:

• Ever Active Schools
• Be Fit for Life Network
• Active for Life
• Health and Physical Education Council

Dr. Shannon Kell, associate professor at Mount Royal University, joins Jamie to discuss the benefits to both students and teachers of being outside and connecting with nature. Dr. Kell shares ways to gradually incorporate the outdoors into your teaching practice and lessons learned from the (literal and figurative) field of outdoor education.

Additional Resources:

• Childhood by Nature
• Take Me Outside
• Facebook groups: search “Nature Resources” and/or “Nature Learning”