The Whole Child Podcast: Changing the Conversation About Education

A school and community that do not address bullying cannot ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Bullying influences each critical dimension of a whole child approach to education because it compromises students’ physical and emotional health and safety; affects their relationships with peers and adults in the school; creates barriers that prevent them from engaging in learning and connecting to the school and broader community; and affects their academic performance. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we learn how to address bullying locally and nationally so that all students learn in a positive school climate that ensures they are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

A Whole Child Approach to Addressing Bullying

Educators who start off the year with energy and enthusiasm often find that it fades gradually or dramatically. Teaching is one of the more stressful professions, and it can be one of the most rewarding when educators are able to strike a balance and schools create the conditions that allow them to thrive. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, learn how educators and schools can work to create the conditions that allow teachers, and subsequently students, to thrive.

The Whole Child Needs a Whole Teacher

Summer Learning and Development

On this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we look at how schools and communities are working to ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged throughout the summer and why it's so critical. Our guests discuss summer learning research, policies, and practices that expand the traditional conversation about 'summer school' to encompass the kind of summer activities and programs that ignite a passion for learning and prevent learning loss.

Download the May Whole Child Podcast to learn more about building the capacity of principals to lead effective and systemic school reform. Our guests discuss what kind of principal development leads to results for students and discuss the current landscape of principal leadership and future directions of leadership development.

Developing Principals to Lead a Whole Child School

The federal government recently released the blueprint for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, learn more about the direction of the ESEA Blueprint and what it means for the whole child, educators, and families.

This episode of the Whole Child Podcast was recorded live at ASCD's Annual Conference on March 7, 2010, and features the winning school of the first-ever Vision in Action: The Whole Child Award, the University of Northern Iowa Malcolm Price Laboratory School. The award recognizes schools that move beyond a narrow focus on academic achievement to take action for the whole child, creating learners who are knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically active, artistically engaged, prepared for economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond formal schooling.

How can schools develop a positive school climate that fosters teaching, learning, and the development of the whole child? Research and common sense reaffirm that focusing on the social and educational atmosphere is critical to student success, yet many schools and districts do not assess climate or include it in school improvement plans.

Each student brings a unique set of interests, needs, strengths, and circumstances to school and teachers often struggle to connect with students, especially those facing the greatest challenges. On this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, our guests share strategies for meeting students where they are now, while preparing them for the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

Rural schools are very diverse -- ethnically, socioeconomically, and geographically -- and often face a complex set of challenges. In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, our guests share their research and experience to help us understand the diversity of this population of ten million students, nearly one fifth of the U.S. student population.

How and why do schools and communities succeed when they focus on supporting students? Creating personalized learning environments where students are supported by qualified, caring adults is crucial to keeping kids from checking out and dropping out. Research and common sense reaffirm that not only educators, but communities must invest in supporting students to stay in school because we all pay the price when students drop out.

Join us as we explore how schools and communities are using community conversations to ensure that schools and communities are working together to support the whole child. Our guests share how community conversations have increased the understanding of the whole child approach to learning, improved decision making that is informed by community input, and created a shared commitment to pursue recommendations that focus on the whole child.