The Whole Child Podcast: Changing the Conversation About Education

What does a whole child education look like in a school setting? Four ASCD leaders share elementary, middle, and high school projects, student outcomes, and lessons learned.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ASCD in spring 2014 is the next evolution for coordinated school health. In this episode, we look in depth at the new model: its rationale, objectives, and potential to develop a collaborative cross-sector approach to learning and health.

Learning and health are symbiotic—what boosts one boosts the other. In this episode, we discuss the potential for education to utilize the benefits inherent in a healthy learning environment and how unifying the fields of education and health in the school and community setting aid the growth, development, and learning of the child.

In this episode, ASCD's Sean Slade speaks one-on-one with author and veteran educator Baruti Kafele about how knowing your students, intentionally creating a positive school climate and culture, and making learning relevant sets the stage for students to be motivated to succeed.

Teachers know that engaging and inspiring students initially requires building positive relationships and creating relevant learning experiences. In this episode, our guests take a look at how teachers can spark inner motivation in all students and create meaningful connections that get students excited about learning.

Ask educators why they went into teaching, and the majority will respond that they wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people. In this episode, our guests will share what led them to teaching, what inspires them, and how they make a difference in their students' lives and learning.

In this era of school reform, turn around, and educational change, it is easy to overlook the basics of why we educate and what we want for our children. What are the fundamental elements and habits that bring us together and set the stage for lasting, comprehensive school improvement?

The decisions we make today -- for our systems, our schools, and our classrooms -- will affect what all of our tomorrows will look like tomorrow. This month ASCD launches its inaugural Whole Child Symposium -- a conversation about the future of education comprising three events over eight weeks that includes not only some of the leading educators and thinkers, but also you and your voice.

School cultures should support, reinforce, and reflect the well-being of everyone in it, ensuring that students and adults feel valued, respected, and cared for and are motivated to learn, lead, and teach. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we take a look at how we build school morale so that administrators, teachers, students, and parents are energized and positive about learning.

How do we help each student succeed? One promising way is to personalize learning and put each student at the center of her learning experience. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we take a look at personalizing learning on the ground and in schools and the importance of relationships in activating students to take charge of their learning.

How do we help each student succeed? One promising way is to personalize learning and put each student at the center of her learning experience. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, host Sean Slade, director of ASCD's Whole Child Programs, speaks one-on-one with professor and author Yong Zhao.

The standards are not a curriculum. Standards are targets for what students should know and be able to do. Curricula are the instructional plans and strategies that educators use to help their students reach those expectations. A whole child approach to education is essential to realizing the promise of the standards. Only when students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged will they be able to meet our highest expectations and realize their fullest potential.

What does "education" mean for our youngest learners? The first years of school are as important for an educated population as any other period, perhaps more. With the current focus on standards and academic achievement, is learning and testing coming too early? Curriculum and assessment should be based on the best knowledge of theory and research about how children develop and learn with attention given to individual children's needs and interests in a group in relation to program goals.

Resilience is more than a trait: it's a process that can and should be taught, learned, and required. Being resilient helps youth navigate the world around them, and schools and classrooms are becoming more attuned to providing the cognitive, emotional, and developmental supports needed for resilience to prosper and grow in each of us.

Summer for educators is often a time to look back on the past year -- and look forward to the coming one. What worked, what didn't, and what will you change?