Community Room Podcast

Welcome to Episode 3 of Season 3. Hope you’ve been enjoying listening so far! Many educators know that the climate in a school matters. The climate amongst the staff, amongst the students and between the school and community, matters. It matters because when our needs our met – when we feel safe and cared for, we can relax into, and focus on, learning. It matters because a positive environment in...

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 2 of Community Room! Our guests today are dedicated to growing and nurturing community-mindedness and elements of community schooling in their lower-mainland district. This is a relatively small district and we will talk about that and what that can mean for new initiatives in a district. We wanted to have these two folks here today, as we thought it would be an inform...

We welcome you back to Season 3 of Community Room after an unexpected pause to Season 2. Today we have a really special episode where we will look into the effect of community schools, or community-minded schools on newcomers to the country. We will look at what role the school plays in someone’s settling into a new home! RESOURCES: https://kappanonline.org/stages-of-immigrant-parent-involvement-s...

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Episode 9 of Season 2 of Community Room! Today we talk about the importance of parent involvement and how their engagement can directly affect a kid's success in school. We talk with Bill Brassington, a Trustee and Vice-Chair of a Board of Education. We talk about his experiences in community schools, what he's seen with engaged parents and more! RESOURCES: https://www...

Welcome back for Episode 8 of Season 2! For 17 episodes we have talked about the magic that happens when we prioritize care and connection in schools, and today we get a chance to hear from those who experienced it first hand. We have two former community school students joining us to share their experiences and thoughts about the community school model and the valuable skills they took away from...

Welcome back to the Community Room! For Episode 7 of Season 2, we sit down with Safe School Specialist Noam Samet talk about restorative justice, how to maintain a safe, caring learning environment in a school and much more. We also touch on how Noam got into this line of work after graduating from SFU with a degree in Criminology, and how he uses his education to support students in his school. R...

Welcome back for Episode 6 of Season 2! Today we have an inspiring guest, who will help us explore how care, connection and community fits into and impacts high school youth, and also pre-service teachers, in their teacher education programs. We talk about Wendi's work in these programs, her PhD explorations on what it takes to be a teacher and her journey to where she is now working with student...

Welcome back for Episode 5 of Season 2 of Community Room! It is Canadian Thanksgiving and we have compiled every answer as a special episode for the question we ask every show: "what is your definition of community?" We are extremely thankful every guest we've had come onto our show to share their stories and ideas. We are also extremely grateful for you, the listener, for supporting and listening...

Welcome back for Episode 4 of Season 2! For this episode of Community Room, we have a special guest - a New York City native but joining us from Boston is Abe Fernández! Abe currently directs the Children's Aid National Center for Community Schools in New York City. providing on- and off-site coaching, training, and consultation to many community school initiatives across the country. Prior to joi...

Welcome back for Episode 3 of Season 2! Today we have Rick Bloudell and Sandhya Krishna - two community school coordinators in the Lower Mainland - to talk about the different systems and structures that help community schools both in and out of the school! We touch on the foundations of ACEBC, the different people that help keep the ship on course, and so much more! This is a fantastic conversati...

Welcome back to Community Room. This episode focuses on community partnerships as a whole. Community partnerships can enrich the care, education and wellness of our children and their families, even more. When we work together, we are stronger. Many of us cite the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”, as we believe that together, an involved community can improve safety, increase resources...

We welcome you back for Season 2 of Community Room! As we enter the 2021/2022 school year, we come back with more excellent conversations around community schools and the importance of community! For Episode 1 of Season 2, we have three community school teachers from the Lower Mainland talking about the beginning of the school year, the challenges of teaching during lock-downs, and the different w...

Welcome back for Episode 10 and final episode of Season 1 on this blistering Sunday! Today, we sit down with current secondary school principal Dave Rawnsley. He led the first Canadian school (a community school) that won the ASCD Vision and Action Whole Child Education Award. We chat with Dave about the Whole Child Education approach - what that means for schools, especially community schools - a...

Welcome back for Episode 9! We have John Talbot joining us to talk about working in groups. John has over 40 years of experience as an executive, consultant, practitioner and trainer in the public, non-profit and private sectors. He has worked in all regions of British Columbia, Yukon and has done extensive work nationally and internationally using a community development model. We talk about "the...

We welcome Peter Dubinsky to the Community Room for Episode 7! A mentor to both Gayle and Bal, he has been connected to Community Schools for 30 years, and is a current superintendent in BC, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Oregon and Simon Fraser University. We sit with him to talk about his new role as a superintendent, and in his previous capacities in community schools about the...

Welcome back for Episode 6! Today's conversation is about how kids and families benefit from partnerships between the school and community organizations, and it features Sangeeta Bhonsale. Gayle and Bal sit down with her and talk about the role her organization plays in helping foster community in the Lower Mainland of BC. Sangeeta Bhonsale comes with quite the unconventional resume for someone wh...

Welcome back to the Community Room! Today, we chat with two high school basketball coaches - Aaron Mitchell and Jeff Gourley - about how they use their role as a coaches and educators to instill values and the impact of sports on kids today. Listen as both Aaron and Jeff talk about the role coaches have played in their own lives, how they use sport as a vehicle to build and foster community within...

With no guest this week, hosts Gayle and Bal have a poignant conversation about how their own years have gone, and have a discourse on the challenges of being community school coordinators during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESOURCES: - https://acebc.ca/resources/elements-and-threads/ (Community School Elements) - Mark Lamont Hill - "We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility" https://...

Welcome back to the Community Room for Episode 4! Today's topic is "Building Capacity" and we've brought in two friends, former colleagues and former community school coordinators: Elizabeth Byrne and Larry Ryan. They talk about the different ways they build capacity in their own schools, the differences between an elementary school model versus a high school model, caring for the whole child, and...

Today's topic is "Relationships" and joining us for Episode 3 is Sue Montabello! A former principal, teacher, faculty associate coordinator at Simon Fraser University, and a mentor to many educators in the Lower Mainland, we are excited to sit down with her and talk about building community through relationships. We ask her questions about expulsion and suspension in schools, the role of community...

Welcome to Episode 2 of the Community Room podcast! Today, our guest is Kathryn Yamamoto - she is the principal at a local community school - and she is here to discuss today's theme on Social and Emotional Learning; also known as SEL. - CASEL https://casel.org/what-is-sel/ - Kathryn's Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathrynYamamoto?s=20

Welcome to our first introduction episode! We introduce our main hosts: Bal Dhillon and Gayle Beavil - two Community School coordinators in BC. We chat about the road that led us to our positions, share some heartwarming stories about the role community schools play, and introduce some segments. QUOTE: "My contention is: first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate ac...