How can we as teachers bring our summer way of being into every single day of our life at school? I invited my coach, Justine Cappel, onto the show today to talk about just that. 

Justine is a certified personal trainer, level 1 Precision Nutrition Coach, pre / post natal fitness specialist, and the owner of Twenty Toes fitness.

While she focuses on working with women, her philosophy of navigating the middle ground of health and wellness I see as so applicable to teachers, regardless of their gender.

We sat down in my living room in the summer to talk about finding wellness in the daily grind of teaching, what teachers can do right now to improve their wellness, and why accountability is such an important dial mover. Justine also shares with me the health term that I apparently coined, so be sure to stay listening for that one.

I think it will become pretty clear how much I adore Justine how transformative she has been on my own health and wellness journey and I am so excited to share her work with my teaching community.

If you have been listening to the previous episodes on the show, you will notice that I switched up my final ticket out the door question for Justine, seeing as she is not a classroom teacher. But what I loved about her response is that it exactly fits what I hope the future of learning will be: responsibility, accountability, support through the online world, and getting out of that one-size fits all paradigm.

Justine is up to some pretty awesome things. If her message about moderation, accountability, and “just a little bit better” resonated with you, I encourage you join her 365 Tribe

What do you teach? Most of us would likely answer this question with a subject or a grade level. But not Garth Nichols. His answer: I teach kids. 

Garth Nichols is the vice principal of student engagement and experiential development at Havergal College in Toronto Ontario. While he is initiating exciting opportunities to redefine learning by day with the students at his school, in his “off” time, Garth started from the ground up the innovative year-long professional development experience that is Cohort 21.

If you heard Justin Medved from episode 2, you likely have a solid primer of what Cohort 21 is all about. I was lucky enough to join this year-long professional development experience in its first iteration back in 2012. While this personalized learning model has grown over the years, it can best be described as four face-to-face sessions that help educators design their own action research projects in their schools to help address an emergent dilemma that they face. Garth will get into more about what the program looks like, but if you are curious, definitely check out the show notes for the link to the Cohort 21 main page.

Garth’s humour, zest for learning, and vision for education are what makes him a truly exceptional leader and a wonderful guest to talk with. So here is what we talked about around his dining room table:

A huge thank you to Garth for recording this episode not one, but two times. The first time we rolled tape, I played it back and realized the sound quality was less than ideal. His generosity and willingness to be patient with the learners around him is, I think, what makes Garth a really exceptional educator.

After you finish this show, keep your phone in your hand or open up your iTunes window and rate this podcast. It seems like a really insignificant action, but with podcasts we don’t have like buttons or a double tap heart feature. So giving this show a rating and leaving a quick review helps us know that we are reaching you, that you are moved by what you heard, and helps us grow as a podcast.

Related Resources:

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
• Why a School Doesn’t Run (or Change) Like a Village

How can elite, historically privileged, and cost restrictive independent schools be used for the greater good of society? Today on our show Danielle Passno and I chew on this tasty thought morsel.  

Danielle Passno is the Head of The Middle School at The Browning School in New York City and was formerly the head of outreach and public purpose at The Spence School. She is an educator who, in her words, has a crazy high growth mindset, and never stops challenging herself to new levels of excellence. In our conversation, we talk about the potential that Independent Schools have to create a more fair and equitable world and her progressive vision for service learning in schools.

While Danielle will be the one running the school next year at Browning, she will also keep one foot in the world of teaching, so of course we talked about how she teaches with Mathematical Habits of Mind at the centre of her pedagogy and what she does to have students use math to change the way they see themselves as agents in their world.

It is rare to get to know someone with the level of passion and enthusiasm for teaching as Danielle, so I am so excited to have you get to know her a little more through this episode and adore her the way that I do. There are a boatload of show notes on this one, as Danielle names and lists a number of awesome articles, resources, and programs that you most certainly should check those out if something piqued your interest.

Discussed Resources:

• Jo Boaler
• Spence School outreach and public purpose
• The Teaching Institute
• Klingenstein Summer Institute
• Atul Gawande: Personal Best
• Danielle’s article for NAIS
• Dylan Williams