Resilient Schools

• Bringing Humanity Back to Schools
• Four mistakes instructional leaders make

Notes:

• Had everything, but things were still falling apart. 
• Workplace wellbeing - too expensive, geared for corporate. 
• Resilience from BigImpactMixer.com. 
• Resilience is being the little light that encourages you to take the next step. 
• 3 main things that the app provides. 
• Athletes - Their job is to do a physical activity. What being a Division 1 Athlete really looks like
• Recovery is important too. 
• We all have different experiences and knowledge, because not one thing is going to work the same for everyone. 
• Apps, challenges, and resources to help teachers with mental fitness. 
• Within the group plan, principals can help prescribe
• The power of check in. 
• Teachers are exhausted, and they need help! 
• Dragging their bag to the car, and it totally makes sense. 
• “I can’t do one more thing!”
• Most of the content is audio so people can listen when they are doing something else. 
• Wellbeing has to come before school improvement. 
• We can do so much more than we think we can. 

About Amber Dembowski

Amber Dembowski is a dynamic leader in school improvement and educator wellness, and the driving force behind Dembowski Consulting EDU, EudoLeadership, and the TeacherWell app. With 27 years of experience in public education, Amber is passionate about reshaping schools into thriving communities through human-centered, innovative approaches. Her newsletter and downloadable app offers actionable insights and inspiration for educators looking to prioritize well-being and empowerment.

• Safety vs. self-awareness. 
• A prescription for safety.
• We never ask the question, “What makes you feel safe?”
• Self-awareness: presence, values and identity. 
• Focusing on polarizing things that make us different.
• Siloed efforts on SEL, PBIS, etc. 
• More info about PRISM
• Start with adults first - to generate buy-in and help them learn how to do it also.
• We can use it better with kids when we 
• Growth mindset - and other mindsets.
• It’s not a training, it’s a continual process. 
• When we beef up the self-awareness skills
• Stem, Limbic system and cortex
• Kids who are living in their brain stem - constant state of toxic stress
• Regulation spaces and activities
• How to support families with self-awareness
• Provide educational opportunities for families. 
• Social emotional skill building starts at home. 
• The importance of partnering with families. 

About Dr. Leslie Anway

Currently the Director of Resilient Schools for the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office, Dr. Leslie Anway’s biggest focus over the last several years has been on assisting with the creation of educational systems that streamline and integrate proactive initiative work to create foundationally safe learning spaces that foster belonging and connection and prioritize educator wellness. Leslie is a national presenter who trains and consults with practitioners, schools, and districts around the state, but she remains an educator at heart with over 25 years of direct experience in the schools as both a teacher and a school psychologist. She is the co-founder of Flourish Learning Group, LLC and PRISM© and she participates on multiple state and national committees. Leslie adores being a lifelong learner who learns on a daily basis from the hardworking humans and kindred spirits she interacts with, as well as from her three spirited grandchildren. 

• Thriving vs. Resilience
• Thrive: to grasp to oneself
• Thriving in the valleys. 
• Resilience is thriving in the valleys. 
• Centered or grounded. 
• You’re in a bubble, and things are happening around you, but you’re doing it from the grounded place. 
• Your well being is dependent on your bubble, not the circumstances around you. 
• Mission, vision, values help teachers, students, and families connecting to the vision. 
• Resilient schools are rooted in their purpose and values 
• Clarity of purpose and courage to go forward when we are aligned. 
• Burnout is a real barrier to resilience. 
• How stress and ineffectiveness contribute to burnout. 
• Feelings of “Things we do don’t matter” exist when our actions don’t align to our values. 
• It’s the work of all of us to define success’
• We need to be concrete and explicit about what success looks like. 
• High Trust - Brene Brown Daring to Lead - The Anatomy of Trust
• Being Reliable. 
• Accountability
• Generosity
• THRIVE Design Principles - things that help us move from burnout to resilience. 
• Trust
• Human centered
• Responsive (as opposed to reactive, and be curious)
• Incremental - next right action. 
• Values driven
• Empowered - what you can control, not what you can’t control; let go of what you can’t control
• Go below the surface when there is friction to help you determine what issues are arising.
• Being clear takes away the judgment and distracting questions and justification. 
• How to make staff feel valued. 
• Look and watch and see what people are really doing, then give them appropriate praise.
• Part of resilience is awareness.
• Resilience comes back to self-awareness and community-awareness. 
• Well-being continuum -10 to +10 how are you doing right now? 
• School Leaders that THRIVE Summit

About Allison:
Alison Smith is an author, speaker, and coach dedicated to empowering leaders to build unshakeable resilience, foster deep-rooted confidence, and create meaningful impact by aligning their actions with their core vision and values. She helps her clients to leverage the power of small acts of resilience to design thriving personal and professional lives. Her work has been featured in various publications, and her book, “Drawing Your Line: Setting Boundaries Step by Step”, guides many to healthier living. Outside of work, she enjoys a good book with a glass of wine and spending time with her husband and two kids.

Check out School Leaders that THRIVE Summit

• Mississippi Miracle
• Prior initiatives
  • Barksdale Reading Academy
  • Reading Universe 
  • Reading First - Literacy block was protected, pockets not the entire state
  • Literacy-Based Promotion Act - 3rd grade assessment
  • Mississippi Kindergarten Readiness
• Focus on Teacher Capacity on Literacy
  • State literacy programs
  • 3 Consortiums throughout the state to help teachers learn more
  • AIM Pathways partnering with the state
  • Lots of training and support for all teachers. 
  • If we focus on learning to read from Pre-K to second
• Empowering Teachers
  • State literacy coaches were teachers
  • Teacher advisory committee - created by state supt. 
  • Teachers take ownership of their professional learning
  • TEDx talk for teachers
• How to be a transformative principal? Go in classrooms and observe what students are doing and be a learner. Even district personnel are learners too

About Trish Stoll

Dr. Trish Stoll is a dedicated and experienced educator who currently serves as the ELA Curriculum Specialist for the Gulfport School District in Gulfport, Mississippi. With over two decades of experience in the field of education, Dr. Stoll has held various roles including general education teacher, Visual Arts Instructor, Literacy Coach and Instructional Coach. Her passion for implementing best practices in literacy education has made her a valuable asset in improving literacy for students in Mississippi and beyond. Dr. Stoll's commitment to continuous learning, research, and collaboration with other literacy professionals across the nation ensures that students receive the most effective literacy instruction possible. Holding an Ed. D in Educational Leadership, a Specialist Degree in Instructional Leadership, a Master of Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, Dr. Stoll has a strong educational background that informs her work in the field. Furthermore, Dr. Trish Stoll is a Middle and Early Childhood Art National Board Certified Teacher, showcasing her expertise and dedication to the field of education. With her wealth of experience and qualifications, Dr. Stoll continues to make a significant impact on the literacy education landscape, striving to enhance learning outcomes for students and promote excellence in education.

Welcome to our National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).

In this episode, Jethro welcomes Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan, host of the De Facto Leaders podcast. They discuss the role of related service providers in literacy, avoiding black-and-white thinking in educational interventions, and the multifaceted nature of vocabulary and comprehension in literacy development. Dr. Dudek-Brannan emphasizes the importance of structured service delivery planning and shares insights from her research on vocabulary, syntax, and their impacts on reading and writing comprehension.

• Getting everyone on the same page from different service providers. 
• We’re not ignoring your discipline! 
• Service delivery planning vs. lesson planning. 
• Having a lot of experiences is what kids need to build vocabulary
• Need to have about 90-95% of vocabulary 
• Phonics are essential, but if you don’t give them that explicit instruction, it becomes very difficult. 
• Biologically primary and biologically secondary - we are wired to speak
• Fluency is one way to measure automaticity. 
• Syntax Queen - metacognition and vocabulary. 
• Content and structure. 
• Sentence Structure

About Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan

Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan is the founder and owner/operator of Dr. Karen, LLC, a company focused on empowering therapists and educators to design interventions that support language, literacy, and executive functioning. She has a doctorate in Special Education and Director of Special Education and Assistive Technology credentials from Illinois State University, as well as a master’s and bachelor’s from Illinois State University in speech-language pathology. She spent 14 years in the school systems and has held various roles in leadership and higher education teaching and mentoring clinicians. She is the host of the De Facto Leaders podcast, where she shares evidence-based practices, her own experiences, and guest interviews on topics relating to education and healthcare reform. She currently holds a management role with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.