SEL in Action

On this special guest episode, Matt Clarke interviews Randie Sykes about how they integrate mindfulness into their classrooms and schools. Matt Clarke is the department head of English Language Learning at Fraser Heights Secondary in Surrey, British Columbia. Throughout his diverse experience as a classroom educator he has worked to integrate mindfulness in meaningful ways that support students’ social and emotional development. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Education at the University of Ottawa while working to ensure diversity and equity-mindedness within education. Randie is a busy mom, wife, sister, and school counsellor. Experiencing the postive affect that mindfulness can have in one's life, Randie is passionate about using her experience to help others. In addition she completed her Master's in School Counselling Degree in 2017 with a focus on Mindfulness and its efficacy in the school setting. Randie is currently supporting youth and families within the public school system. As a YMCA trained Mindfulness facilitator, Randie runs group teen mindfulness sessions in her high school where she works as a school counsellor. You can connect with Matt on Twitter at @mrclarke7 [https://twitter.com/mrclarke7?lang=en].

This week, I spoke with Adra Young, founder of Ardannyl. Adra is an educator, speaker and author focusing on building connections through creativity. She has over 24 years of educational experience and is passionate about creating space for students. We speak about her experiences and strategies for building connections with students and strategies for implementing in the classroom. You can find out more about Adra's work at @Ardannyl on Twitter.

This week, I spoke with Ellen Mahoney, CEO and founder of The Circulus Institute. Ellen is passionate about fostering educator's social and emotional learning so they can support themselves and their students. We talk about the gaps in education for teachers and implications in the classroom. You can find out more about Ellen's work and The Circulus Institute at @CirculusInst on twitter.

This week, I speak with Brenda Dunn (aka Art in Jest) about the skills developed through art and being a community-engaged artist. Brenda discusses the importance of relationships and social awareness in art and valuing yourself and those around you! Brenda Dunn's bio: "I make things. I also make things happen." Brenda Dunn has been getting in trouble for crayoning on the walls for as long as she can remember. She eventually went to art school at the University of Guelph and drew on whatever she wanted. She works and plays in Ottawa where she came for grad school and stuck around ever since. She learned lots of busy words during her Masters in English Literature, but it turns out she prefers the visual to the verbal when it comes to communication. You can see the things she makes at artinjest.com [https://www.artinjest.com/], or rifle through her digital sock drawer on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/artinjest/], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/artinjest/], and Twitter [https://twitter.com/artinjest] all @artinjest. She was hired into a corporate environment straight out of grad school and spent six years being a high-performing fish out of water. When the opportunity to change careers presented itself, she ran full tilt back to the arts and she promises never to stray again. She’s still super scared of cubicles. She also doesn't totally get why these things are always written in the third person but concedes that it does just sort of feel right."

This week, I discuss some of the common challenges that we face with remote teaching and learning. I delve into the challenges of fostering trust, communication, setting boundaries, and engaging in a lot of reflection, perspective-taking and empathy.