Thriving Matters Podcast

Social And Emotional Learning And Social Justice Education Through The #COVID19 Lens.

Joanne McEachen is CEO/Founder of The Learner First (USA/Australia/New Zealand), a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar (Austria), on the Executive Committee for Karanga The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills (Global) and a Board Member for Partners for Youth Empowerment (PYE) Global.

 

A social entrepreneur and a leading voice in the global education community, Joanne brings years of whole system leadership experience, working with and within all levels of education to offer insights and strategies that support communities to discover their strengths and bring them to the surface. The perspective she works from is that people and communities hold the answers and not the experts.

 

Her experience as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and whole-country school-system leader and working with over 10 plus countries has enabled Joanne to focus on what matters, on humanities development of SEL and deeper learning outcomes––self-understanding, knowledge, competency, and connection––that lead to meaning, fulfillment, and lifelong success. She has co-authored multiple books and these can be found in schools and homes around the world.

 

Joanne insights are illuminated by continued, hands-on experience, partnering with people- diverse groups around the world.

 

She was co-founder of NPDL (Global). 

 

Louka Parry is the CEO + Founder of The Learning Future, an organisation that supports schools, systems and companies to thrive in tomorrow’s world. A former teacher, he became a school principal at only 27 years old and was named Inspirational Public Secondary Teacher of the Year for South Australia. Louka works globally (in English and Spanish) and has supported tens of thousands of educators and leaders globally to increase their positive impact.

 

A rapid learner, he speaks five languages, has visited over 80 countries, and holds two Masters degrees, one in Instructional Leadership from the University of Melbourne and another in Applied Linguistics, and has also completed executive studies at Harvard University. Through his work, he has acquired expert knowledge in leadership, communication, wellbeing, future learning models and organisational change. He is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and of the Stanford d.school, working at the forefront of the future of education, innovation and social emotional learning to empower children, educators and communities all across the globe.

 

Louka brings a range of deep strategic insights as a learning architect and as a sought-after speaker and facilitator. He has worked across all Australian Education Departments and sectors, across international systems from the Dominican Republic to Romania, with corporates like PWC, Microsoft and Apple, and with not-for-profits such as Social Ventures Australia, CASEL and TED. In this age of rapid change, he is driven to transform structures, systems and societies to empower individuals to do their best work and maximise wellbeing, ultimately making our world a better place for all.

 

 

The Remote Learning 'Road Trip' Around Rural School Communities

Post pandemic lockdown, three School Performance Leaders started out on

 

a 'Remote Learning Road Trip' around north western NSW. My panel for this School Performance Leaders, Rod Whelan, Jason Hanrahan and Justin Matthews visted every school in the Diocese of Armidale, listening and observing 'lockdown' learnings and insights from students, teachers, school leadership teams and parents

 

Listen on as our conversation covered the insights and observations of these rural learning communities as they shared 'action research' on leadership, wellbeing, school support for learning and voice during the 'lockdown.

 

Connectedness to each other, for each other and onbehalf of each other is a strong theme coming from this enlightening experience.

 

Listen on as we hear more from Rod, Jason and Justin as they share the care, social contracts and autonomy of decision making at local level that they acknowledge openly.

 

For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

 

Systems Thinking And Collaboration In Education

Education Matters panel guests are Summer Howarth and Andrea Downie, two experienced Australian educators. A fascinating conversation about wellbeing science, holistic wellbeing ecosystems, leadership and learning design that has tipped 'rigid' systems upside down during our education response to Covid19. www.carriebenedet.com

Culture Change For School Improvement - What Have We Learnt During #Covid19 That Can't Be Lost For Learning And Wellbeing?

Chris Smyth is the current Director of Catholic Schools Diocese of Armidale and Catherine Jackson is Principal Consultant at Leopard Tree specialising in Leadership Coaching, Team development and Facilitation. 

Both Chris and Catherine have experienced careers in educational leadership and are focused on helping leaders and their teams build effectiveness to serve learning communities progress their mission.

Conversations that matter are essential to the core organisational needs of learning communities that connect students, teachers, staff and parents. 

We share insights of school improvement across this system of schools that have a clear coaching for leadership and wellbeing focus. An intriguing look at some of our rural educational communities who aspire to building the best learning and leadership environment possible. 

Listen on as we hear more from our speakers, both educators of expertise and experience, about their thoughts on how we can make education better for each child and our education system as a whole. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

 

COVID-19 Education Series: Lifting Others Up With Kindness

In this episode, my guests are Sarah and Daniel, both Year 11 students and Mrs Kerry Paxton, Leader Inclusion and Student Engagement from The Catholic Learning Community John XXIII Stanhope Gardens.

 

Our topic focuses on Learning at Home: What was it like for learning and how did it affect the wellbeing of learners during the educational response to COVID-19. The Learning Community at Stanhope Gardens has an extensive Wellbeing Framework that encompasses all stakeholder's - students, teachers, support staff, leaders, parents and families.

 

We get to hear student and teacher insights and suggestions about their experiences with 'learning from home' and how they believe we can adapt and change to make sure learning is more impactful in an altered learning environment.

We also talk about nurturing a community in the times of abrupt change and challenge and the ways we can create a culture that will help everyone thrive. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

Futuristic Thinking In Education

In this episode, Eddie Blass and Nick Burnett, both keen learning futurists share their insights and observations about the kind of impact education should be making in the next 2-5 years. We focus on a futuristic view of how education can be delivered to maximise student and teacher engagement with learning design that is adaptive, creative and future focused.

 

You will hear both Nick's and Eddie's commitment to the diverse learning needs of students, to developing teachers capacity and to leadership in times of abrupt change and uncertainty. Highly experienced in many education systems and leadership roles, these two exceptional educators have a strong evidence based approach to solutions, inclusion and collaboration.

 

We get to share some insights and suggestions from working closely with learning communities and leaders in our recently altered education learning environment across Australia. We also focus in on what 'thriving learning' can look like. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

Connecting People In A Turbulent World

In this episode, I sit down with Annette Gray, a leadership coach who has spent more than 1500 hours on coaching for executives and high profile managers, and Louise Barnott-Clement, Principal of Ambarvale High School for the last 15 years. Following my discussion with Australia's top educators in the previous episodes, we discussed practical methods that schools are adopting to help all educators and students adapt with the pandemic and all of its effects. Our conversation, however, elaborated to what all employers, and managers can do at the moment, and that is connecting with people and connecting people together.

 

Listen on as we hear more from a leading coach in her field and a well-experienced educator. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

COVID-19 Education Series: Australia's Lack Of Equity in Education & Why It Matters

In this episode, I sit down with Jane Caro, Walkley Award winner, novelist, and feminist, and with Polly Dunning, a teacher, writer, and speaker. We had a comprehensive discussion on the current state of education in Australia, more specifically the gap in access to quality education among students, and how this gap has become larger with the effect of the pandemic. We also talked about problems that educators countrywide are dealing with, including but not limited to issues with anxiety and depression.

Listen on as we hear more from our speakers, who are both educators and mothers, about their opinion on how we can make this better for our children, and for our education system as a whole. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

COVID-19 Education Series: Understanding And Empowering Educators

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Adam Fraser and Roisin O'Reilly, two of Australia's leading educators to talk about their understanding and research on how parents, schools, and students are responding to COVID-19. We get to hear insights from education professionals about their experiences with the current situation, and how they believe we can adapt and change to make the work better and more impactful for everyone, including teachers, students, and parents.

We also talk about leadership in the time of turbulence and the ways we can create a culture that will help everyone thrive. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com

Compassion leads to Connection, Contempt leads to Disconnection

In this episode, I sit down to talk with Meg Price, who has had over twenty years of experience in the people development and human resources fields and is now Director at HR Inside. We had a comprehensive talk about her journey to entrepreneurship and the notion of C.A.R.E (Compassion, Autonomy, Relationship, Equity) and how it can transform your life. As a researcher in neuroscience, Meg also shared her thoughts on young people's anxiety due to excessive use of social media and how the knowledge in neuroscience has enabled her to give great value in her work as an HR and human development professional. Listen on as we also chat about the key mindsets that we believe will help us tremendously in these difficult times. For more about me and my work, visit www.carriebenedet.com