The Awakening Educator: Recent Episodes
Megan Sweet
Dive deep into topics relevant to education with your co-hosts Susan Andrien & Dr. Megan Sweet, two lifelong educators who bring their skills, curiosity and unique perspectives to the topics most relevant to educating our youth in today’s complex world.
The Awakening Educator is a biweekly podcast on topics related to education where we explore topics in detail, covering:
Policy/Research
Practitioner Journey and Perspective
Parent and Student Voices and Experiences
Models from the field with tools our listeners can apply to their contexts
Listeners can join us live to ask questions and to comment on the topics we’re discussing on the show
Mathew Anderson shared his experience working with children and families in the Foster Care system and how we can reimagine Child Welfare with Neurobiology in mind.
In this episode, The Awakening Educator speaks with Brantley Turner-Bradley about her experiences founding and leading a school in China, and what it was like to lead through the pandemic.
This show is brought to you by Your3Eyes and Hope Reimagined.
https://www.your3eyes.com/join-the-movement.html
https://hopereimagined.org/
Welcome to season 4 of The Awakening Educator. Catch up with Susan and Megan and hear about the amazing work they are doing and what you can look forward to this season.
This show is brought to you by Your 3 Eyes and Hope Reimagined:
https://hopereimagined.org/
https://www.your3eyes.com/join-the-movement.html
We talk with Tricia Roos about the powerful impact sports coaches can have on students. Tricia also tells her story of how she changed her own life as she discovered that her wishes had changed.
We meet with Dr. Sam Nix, a seasoned educator who shares his approach to leading change with equity, compassion, and intentionality.
Join the Awakening Educator as Megan talks with two of the grantees from her School Stories project: Nature and Nurture with Smriti Sharma, who shares how she is bringing mindfulness to students in Kenya. Disrupting systemic racism with Anashay Wright, who shares why we need to build a new table, rather than creating a space for BIPOC at our current "table."
Join us for our talk with Cherie Bridges Patrick, owner of Paradox Cross-Cultural Consulting and Training, Paradox relies on neuroscience to help educators to heal racial and social trauma, repair internal disconnects, and build relationships. Cherie will talk with us about social/racial trauma and the critical role of safety in justice and antiracist work.
We talk with Sonia Lewis, founder of Ascribe Consulting about why conversations about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are so prevalent right now, and how we can make lasting changes in our schools.
We talk with Megan Marcus, founder of FuelEd, and Kelley Munger, who is a researcher who specializes in bringing Social-Emotional Learning to our educational environments. We need this information now more than ever before!
Lois Letchford has developed an innovative approach to teaching students with learning difficulties how to read. She gained this passion through supporting her own son, who was deemed to be 'unteachable' by his teachers. With persistence, love, and creativity, Lois found a way not only to teach her son but also to make learning accessible for others who do not follow the traditional learning path.
Lorea is the author of Teaching with the Heart in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning. We will discuss ways that educators can bring SEL into their classrooms and schools right now!
Lauren will join us to talk about how conscious parenting can support parents to guide their children through their K-12 experiences.
We talk with author, podcast host, and teacher Kathleen Pelley about the power of storytelling, the magic that happens when stories are read aloud, and how listening to stories establishes lifetime links to literature.
We will talk with Lindsay Lyons about steps educators can take to address social justice and equity in their classrooms and schools.
We talk with Marlin Barton about his work teaching creative writing with youth in the juvenile justice system. He will also share some poetry written by his students.
We meet with the founders of A Long Talk--a transformative program whose goal is to create an anti-racist at every dinner table.
Dr. Rachelle Rogers-Ard and Chris Knaus discuss their book, Black Educational Leadership: From Silencing to Authenticity. They’ll share insights from their book, but also what makes their collaboration so powerful and one that others can learn from.
We will talk with teaching artist Rebecca Potts about why arts education is important to youth and what it was like to teach art during the Pandemic.
Rebecca Potts Aguirre is a teaching artist from Montana currently living in Los Angeles. Her work is inspired by the intersection between ecological concern and the female experience, especially that of motherhood and trauma, often using unconventional materials that connect to childhood and “women’s work.” She is represented by Stay Home Gallery for 2021. She is also a member of Spilt Milk Gallery and is listed in the curated directories All She Makes and Visionary Art Collective.
Her practice consists of 3 spheres: art-making, teaching, and community building. She has worked in art education for 15 years and founded and hosts Teaching Artist Podcast, highlighting artists who teach young people. She coordinates the Art Educator’s Lounge, a community support group for art educators, in collaboration with Victoria Fry. She also runs Play + Inspire Gallery in partnership with Maria Coit.
Rebecca earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and her BA in Studio Art & Geography from Middlebury College. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Australia at spaces including The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Zhou B. Art Center, New York Studio Gallery, Art Share L.A., and SoLA Contemporary. In 2010, her essay on art and climate change, “Creating a Fourth Culture,” was published in 20UNDER40: Re-Inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century. Rebecca’s MFA Thesis in 2009 also addressed the role of art and artists in addressing climate change.
She has also worked as an arts administrator, community organizer, and school co-founder. She participated in the Artist Residency in Motherhood from 2015-2019, which was the time it took to fully resume her art practice after becoming a mother.
Following the pandemic, some school districts are choosing to retain online learning as an ongoing option for their students. We will hear about one school district’s experiences and why they have decided that online learning is here to stay.
Following the pandemic, some school districts are choosing to retain online learning as an ongoing option for their students. We will hear about one school district’s experiences and why they have decided that online learning is here to stay.
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Hosted by Megan Sweet and Susan Andrien
Edited by Kai Estrella Kowal
Susan and Megan are back in person at the studio! In this episode of the Awakening Educator, Susan and Megan discuss their experiences with the lockdown and what is next for them and for the podcast.
Hosted by Susan Andrien and Megan Sweet
Edited by Kai Estrella Kowal
Susan and Megan are back in person at the studio! In this episode of the Awakening Educator, Susan and Megan discuss their experiences with the lockdown and what is next for them and for the podcast.
Hosted by Susan Andrien and Megan Sweet
Edited by Kai Estrella Kowal
Alternative Schools provide instruction to students that need different learning opportunities than those provided in “traditional” schools. In this episode, we talk with Alysse Castro, Executive Director of Alternative Schools for San Francisco Unified School District, whose mission is to ensure educational outcomes for even the most marginalized students.
Budgets have a powerful influence on the programming that schools can provide, yet they remain a mystery to most people. In this episode, we talk with a seasoned school leader on how she used budgets to transform schools and build community buy-in for the changes she envisioned for her students.
We speak with Assemblymember Rob Bonta about educating our youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll talk about the policies that schools must follow, some of the bright spots he sees, and the equity and educational implications we can expect after prolonged distance learning.
We talk with the creators of Story Time with Mr. Limata, a live storytime created by a teacher when COVID-19 quarantine began. While the show began as a way for Mr. Limata to connect with his own students, it has taken off and now has viewers worldwide.
We speak with Troy Flint, who will discuss how school boards are getting involved, and the kinds of decisions districts are needing to make in the face of Covid-19.
We speak with four educators from across the United States who tell us what their experience with distance learning has been like, and how they are making it through this challenging time.
We speak with Lisa Jimenez, an experienced school and district leader and parent organizer about how to effectively implement equity initiatives in schools, districts, and organizations. Lisa will share many of the problems of practice she has seen as people have attempted to address equity in schools, as well as some strategies for systematically changing organizations to be grounded in equity.
We speak with Dr. Rachelle Rogers-Ard about her upcoming book, Black Educational Leadership: From Silencing to Authenticity, which explores Black educational leadership and the
development of anti-racist, purpose-driven leadership
identities. Rachelle will also share perspectives from her career as a teacher and leader in our public schools.
We speak with Leroy Gaines, a successful long-time principal, and current Executive Director for New Leaders for New Schools, about his perspective on how to promote more equity in our education system, and what role leaders can play.
We speak with Crystal Gix, one of Megan’s former students, to understand how she experienced bias and equity as a student growing up in the 2000’s. Crystal also spent time as a classroom teacher. Crystal is an actor, model, and outspoken advocate for equity.
We meet with Macheo Payne, who tells us about Freedom Schools, a summer reading recovery program that gets remarkable results for students of color.
Megan and Susan recap the highlights from Season 1 and preview what is ahead in Season 2.
Leading a school district is complex, challenging, and rewarding work. We meet with a seasoned district administrator to learn what educating our youth looks like from a leadership perspective.
Join us as we speak with our guest Meena Srinivasan about how Mindfulness, Social-Emotional Learning and leadership form a powerful combination for our schools
Megan Sweet is a NJ/NYC based comedian, improviser, and new member of the storytelling community. Megan currently works as a freelance improv instructor with elementary students, and is the founder of her new business, IMPROVed Mind, LLC. Megan is an active member of the Applied Improvisation Network, working with professionals globally to bring the tenets of improvisation off the stage and into various professional settings, and EdWellNet,
working with professionals across the U.S. to help foster wellbeing for teachers and help to eradicate the epidemic of teacher burnout. Additionally, Megan is SUPER excited to be connected to the Improv Therapy Group in Chicago, bringing communication techniques and applied improv to therapists to use in individual and group settings.
With a background in Child, Couple & Family Therapy and School Counseling, Megan is passionate about utilizing a multisystemic lens when working with and designing programming in schools and communities, and helping bridge the relationship between families and schools.
Megan is also a mental health advocate
working hard against the mental health stigma. After intensive therapeutic treatment after the birth of her second son, Megan recognized that though she was always passionate about
empowering others, she was not doing the same for herself or paying attention to her own mental wellbeing.
In order to balance life as a mother, professional, and living with a mental health diagnosis, Megan started her own business, IMPROVed Mind. IMPROVed Mind ’s mission is to empower individuals to build positive relationships with self and others through improv, humor, mindfulness, and social and emotional learning. Megan believes that helping people connect with their creative and silly side, and understanding the power within one’s own story, will lead to more mindfulness and connection with others. Megan is also hoping to use her own story to influence
leadership in educational settings and beyond to lead with emotional intelligence and learning to embed wellbeing practices in the workplace. Megan once had a fortune cookie message that read, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” It has been her mantra ever since. Megan currently lives in Bloomfield, NJ, and when she is not working she can most likely
be found testing out her stand up or silly humor on her two sons, and husband.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Angela Harris LCSW and Jama Mauldin, a team working together to promote trauma informed practices in a public school setting.
Nearly half of US children have experienced serious trauma. With such an overwhelming number of children facing trauma, it can be easy for educators to lose hope or burn out. They can face "vicarious trauma," more commonly known as compassion fatigue—the cumulative, detrimental effect of working with survivors of traumatic life events. In this episode, we speak with Jacquelyn Ollison about Compassion Fatigue and what we must do to support our educators.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview,
Bruce Perry, M.D.,
Ph.D., recently featured on CBS's 60 Minutes with Oprah Winfrey,
is a neuroscienti
st and child psychiatrist, Principal Member of the
Neurosequential Model Network and the Senior Fellow at the Child
Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas. He is also the author of the
best
-
selling book, 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, and also
wrote Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential
--
and Endangered.
Both are co
-
authored with journalist Maria Szalavitz.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Jennifer LeBarre, Executive Director of Student Nutrition Services in San Francisco Unified School District. Jennifer will talk with us about the often unnoticed but vital role that nutrition services play in our schools.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Eric Barenfeld, founder of Groovy Heirlooms and a designated global educator in the upcoming 2020 Children’s Festival in DC. Eric’s mission is creating youth think-tanks and teaching practical and sustainable urban farming practices.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Delaine Eastin, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction in California. Amongst Delaine’s many accomplishments, she was the forerunner of introducing gardens and fresh foods to schools. In this show, we’ll talk with Delaine about the Gardens in Every School Initiative and why she remains a fierce advocate of school gardens almost 25 years since that initiative was passed.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Lauren Markam, New York times best-selling author of The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life. Lauren is also the Community Schools Manager at Oakland International Highschool, an Oakland Public School serving newcomer students from around the world.
Lauren Markham is a writer and reporter based in Berkeley, California, and the author of The Far Away Brothers, a chronicle of unaccompanied minor migrants from El Salvador to the United States. Drawing on her expertise, Markham speaks about global refugee issues, Central American child migration in the U.S., environmental issues, and urban education and education policy.
Having spent over a decade working with refugees and immigrants in nonprofits and schools, Lauren began reporting on unaccompanied minors from Central America in 2013. She continued reporting on this issue while supporting access to legal counsel, social services support, and mental healthcare for an influx of hundreds of unaccompanied minors at the school where she was working in Oakland, California, many of whom were fleeing the region’s brutal violence. She began working on The Far Away Brothers to examine the root causes of this mass youth migration—to understand why all of these children were suddenly, alone and under extremely dangerous conditions, making their way from Central America to the United States. In 2019, she published a version of The Far Away Brothersadapted for young adults.
An expert in migration, an educator, and an accomplished journalist, Lauren’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in outlets such as The Guardian, Harper’s, Orion, Guernica, VICE, Pacific Standard, The New Yorker.com and VQR, where she is a contributing editor.
She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in writing program and has been awarded fellowships from the Mesa Refuge, the UC Berkeley 11th Hour Food & Farming Journalism Fellowship, The French American Foundation, The Rotary Foundation, and the Middlebury Fellowship in Environmental Journalism.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Gustavo Garcia Rojas, a Counseling Psychology student at HNU, an Intern with OUSD and a DACA recipient.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Nicole Knight, a school district leader who oversees the district’s sanctuary program and the multi-language learning needs of students in Oakland, California.
Join the Awakening Educator as we interview Myrna Alvarez, an immigration attorney who will share with us the implications of our current US Immigration Policy on migrants and their children. Myrna Alvarez is an immigration attorney who also doubled as an elementary teacher in East Oakland when she was just starting out. Myrna has built a successful practice as an immigration attorney who fights for people navigating the US Immigration system.
Susan and I are lifelong educators who bring our skills, curiosity and unique perspectives to the topics most relevant to educating our youth in today’s complex world.