My guest this episode, Raffaela Grasso, shares her passion for supporting students reading development and using quality, diverse literature as both a window and a mirror. She also shares her advocacy for well resourced school libraries staffed by qualified teacher librarians.
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My guest this episode, Jordyn Green, shares how the cultural influences in her life have guided and shaped who she is, inform her mission of protecting First Nations knowledge, and ensure it is accurately, authentically and respectfully passed on to future generations, and fuel her vision of ensuring every single student experiences an education where First Nations cultures, histories and perspectives are valued, respected and clearly visible in the lessons they participate in.
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My guest this episode, Mick Jones, shares the origin of his passion for photography and how his time in the Australian Defence Force has shaped his life experiences and motivated the inception of the Reluctant Heroes project.
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You can support the Reluctant Heroes - Veterans Portrait Project through the 'Buy a Coffee' campaign.
My guest this episode, Cameron Ross, shares how feeling safe to make mistakes and seeing failure as learning opportunities has shaped his own learning and how he nurtures and fosters the learning of his students, and helped him be a lifelong learner.
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My guest this episode, Aleesah Darlison, shares how she uses stories to empower children and champion the cause of animals and the environment. Aleesah talks about the inspirational power of observation and our own life experiences.
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My guest this episode, Ramya Deepak, shares how her own life experiences and the people in her life have guided, motivated and galvinised her journey as an educator.
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My guest this episode, Kelly Hollis, shares her many passions, including teaching science, technology in the classroom and rugby league, and talks about her current role as a curriculum specialist.
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My guest this episode is...myself! In honour of the 50th podcast episode, Catherine Williams sits back in front of the microphone to help me celebrate. I share my passions, my purpose and personal journey of discovery and growth.
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My guest this episode, Dr. Amie Fabry, shares her passionate advocacy for the early years, and her work supporting educators and leaders to provide quality early years education so that children thrive holistically. Amie's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations: * People - Kathy Hirsh-Pasek; Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan; The Learning Future * Books - Dare to Lead", "The Gifts of Imperfection" and "Atlas of the Heart" by Brene Brown; "The Importance of Being Little" by Erika Christakis * Podcasts - The Learning Future with Louka Parry; Game changers with Phil Cummins and Adriano Di Prato, On Purpose with Jay Shetty; Huberman Lab
* Cause - Learn about the Early Years
* Dream Travel Destination - Italy
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My guest this episode, Jonathan Nalder, shares his creative journey in education as a digital technologies and STEM innovator, and his mission to inspire as an 'Edunaut'.
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My guest this episode, Adrienne Hornby, shares how her own life experiences, the influence of those around her and her work in school leadership roles have inspired and guided her journey to supporting schools to prioritise staff health and wellbeing.
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Adrienne Hornby a Staff Wellbeing Consultant and Strategist for Schools
Dedicated to fostering thriving school communities, Adrienne collaborates with school leaders and their staff to collect vital data and devise and implement personalised 'Staff Wellbeing Action Plans.'
With a background as a school leader and teacher in ACT government schools, she became a Health and Wellbeing Coach in 2018. Bringing these two professions together resulted in her current role as a Staff Wellbeing Consultant where she has worked with over 45 Australian and international schools since leaving education in 2022.
Leveraging her own innovative approach, Adrienne developed the '6 Steps to Becoming a Well-Led School' - Which are those schools that lead with wellbeing in mind. Her model integrates Positive Psychology’s PERMA(H) Model, the latest educational leadership research, and insights from leading wellbeing organisations.
Her focus is on equipping school leaders, teachers, and staff with strategies aligned with personal and professional wellbeing and culture building.
My guest this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk, shares her passion for data storytelling, how her love of data evolved and her mission to support others to shift the focus from being data driven to data informed.
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Selena Fisk a data storyteller and grounded researcher who works with corporates, NFPs and school systems to develop data-informed strategies that lead to action and benefit the organisation. She is an advocate for having data champions in all organisations, as she believes that data can and should be used to create positive change and impact… but we need people who see the value of data to lead the change in their sphere of influence.
Selena's work is based on the notions of data literacy, data visualisation, and data storytelling. She helps people understand, communicate, and act on data effectively and ethically, using storytelling techniques and visualisations.
My guest this episode, Dimity Powell, shares her love of stories, the impact books have had on her life, and her passion for inspiring and igniting interest in reading and storytelling in children. She talks about her mission for fostering caring through sharing, and driving change in communities.
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Award winning children's author, Dimity Powell who writes and reviews exclusively for children with over 30 published stories and is the Managing Editor for Kids' Book Review. She believes picture books are life essentials, like ice cream; to be enjoyed at least once a day. Her own include: Pippa and The Troublesome Twins (2023), This is My Dad (2022), Oswald Messweather (2021), Pippa (2019), the award-winning At the End of Holyrood Lane (2018) and the critically acclaimed, The Fix-It Man (2017). Several of her books are also available in simplified Chinese, Polish, Spanish and Solvenian.
Dimity has strong convictions about the power of storytelling and loves filling every spare moment with words which is handy when it comes to advocating Kids’ Lit. She reveres sharing her accumulated knowledge with big and little kids alike and is a Books in Homes Australia Volunteer Role Model, Hook Into Books Ambassador, Story City Community Mentor and G.A.T.EWAYS online and onsite presenter who can’t surf despite living on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Discover more at: www.dimitypowell.com
My guest this episode, Dr. Joanne Casey, shares her journey in education, her passion and interest in how the brain works and how schools are organised to foster and support collaboration, and supporting leaders to understand the cognitive and social complexities of the work teachers do.
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Joanne is an education practitioner and researcher. She has been working in a range of school contexts to support the implementation of system and school based improvement initiatives. She is a curriculum and pedagogy nerd!
As an advocate for contextual, flexible and research-based approaches, Joanne draws on her extensive experience of teaching in primary, secondary and tertiary settings when bridging and boundary crossing research, policy, and practice. It helps that she has also worked across our three education sectors - Government, Catholic and Independent.
Previous studies in organisations, change and education lead to Joanne’s doctoral studies - exploring associations among cognitive limitations for interactions, collaboration as an improvement strategy, and silo mentality.
Findings from this research affirm that collaboration is important work but is underestimated and undervalued in its cognitive and social complexity. With the social brain in mind, Joanne works with school leaders and teachers to create and refine environments where collaboration addresses the changing and evolving nature of an educator's work, usually among multiple demands vying for attention, often simultaneously, in the time available.
Determining what is reasonable is not always a straightforward exercise. Without additional and different types of knowledge, training, and professional experience, school leaders can inadvertently contribute to further barriers to collaboration within their contexts. Joanne’s research provides an alternative framework to provide structure for a team’s planning and decision making. School leaders, in considering the nature of the relationship between human cognition and sociality, from an evolutionary point of view, can explore ways to address problems of practice that are based on their own context, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
My guest this episode, Lyn Sharratt, shares her passion for equity and excellence for all students and all teachers, and the power of putting faces to the data to increase student growth and achievement.
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Lyn Sharratt is a practitioner and researcher working in remote and urban settings worldwide. Lyn is an Adjunct Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada; an Honorary Fellow at University of Melbourne, Australia; an author consultant for Corwin Press; an advisor for International School Leadership with the Ontario Principals’ Council; and consults internationally, working with system, school, and teacher leaders at all levels in Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Lyn focuses her time and effort on increasing each student’s growth and achievement by working alongside leaders and teachers to put FACES on their data, taking intentional action to make equity and excellence a reality for ALL students.
Visit www.lynsharratt.com for articles, video clips, and podcasts; on Twitter: @LynSharratt; on Instagram: lyn_sharratt; and on LinkedIn where Lyn owns the “Educational Leadership” LinkedIn group made up of 104,000+ members.
Lyn’s authorship includes Realization: The Change Imperative for Deepening District-Wide Reform (with Michael Fullan); Putting FACES on the Data: What Great Leaders Do! (with Michael Fullan); Good to Great to Innovate: Recalculating the Route, K–12+ (with Gale Harild); Leading Collaborative Learning: Excellence (with Beate Planche); CLARITY: What Matters MOST in Learning, Teaching and Leading (International Best-Selling Education Book in 2020); and Putting FACES on the Data: the 10th Anniversary Edition (with Michael Fullan).
Lyn is proud of the recent co-development of the CLARITY Learning Suite (CLS)—a web-based collaborative Professional Learning opportunity that mirrors the text, CLARITY. Lyn and her team believe that everyone’s a leader, thus CLS provides guidance to Learning Leaders on how to do this work of system and school improvement—together—to make a difference for all students. Visit www.claritylearningsuite.com.
My guest this episode, Annick Rauch, shares her writing journey and how being vulnerably honest about her struggles resonated with others. She talks about her desire to help others with their own challenges by inspiring reflections and offering tips to pursue your dreams while still being your best self.
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Annick Rauch is the author of PheMOMenal Teacher. She is a passionate grade 1 French Immersion teacher who truly loves what she does. Outside of school, Annick is a very busy mom. She and her husband Chris have four energetic boys and a silver lab. Annick loves to go camping with her family, and she also makes it a priority to carve out time for trips with friends. Although busy, Annick doesn’t let that stop her from pursuing her dreams outside of her work and home life. She is an avid runner, and she blogs at annickrauch.ca. Annick is a lifelong learner who continues to follow her passions.
My guest this episode, Liz Benson, shares her passion for middle leadership and how her own journey drives her work to support middle leaders to thrive. She discusses her mission to elevate the perception of middle leadership to be seen as a complex and complete role.
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