Schoolin' Around

Recently it has been reported that more than 80 Percent of U.S. Public Schools say the pandemic has negatively impacted student behavior and socio-emotional development.   Our guest today is the perfect person to give us some insight into how the system and school culture can help teachers with these issues.  Trudy Bender previously served as the Coordinator of District Behavior Intervention for t...

Now more than ever, a spotlight is being shined on our education system. Requiring states to make decisions to help support educators. Schools, teachers, and students need help. In this episode, our two guests are working to connect and build relationships with policymakers, researchers, and those who can help change the system for better student outcomes. Abigail Woodworth, VP of Communications a...

Often, as a teacher using educational technology, I had frustrations about its uses in the classroom, its functionality, and its purpose. I wish I had known our guest back then to discuss how to make technology work FOR me, not against me. In this episode, we talk with Emily-Rose Barry, the VP of Product at Branching Minds. Much like many of our guests, her journey began in the classroom as a stud...

Recent research around students’ mental and emotional health has revealed a dire need for educational professionals to do something to help. More than 15% of students have had a depressive episode in this last year. And many parents believe their students would benefit from mental health assistance. Our guest today, Dr. Essie Sutton, an applied developmental psychologist, has made it her job to le...

Have you ever thought about how you can think different thoughts and how your brain works? Beginning from childhood, this week’s guest loved to think about how people think. Dr. Eva Dundas and I sat down to chat about how a Dr. of Developmental and Cognitive Psychology became a Chief Product Officer for an Edtech company. We dive into how she went from being an academic research scientist to seeki...

The best leaders are the ones that know they can’t be an expert at everything. They often continue to learn and seek out other experts to join their team. In this episode, Part 2 of our conversation with former educator turned Edtech CEO, Maya Gat shares how she continues to lean into the idea of humility and the power of learning. She expands on how she is always a learner and how she translated...

Every compelling story has an unlikely hero, someone on an adventure to solve a problem, find a treasure, or save the day. For this episode, we have the privilege of hearing one of these great stories. Former teacher Maya Gat shares with us how she became the CEO and Co-Founder of Branching Minds. This episode is part one of the conversation. We cover where it all started, her journey to be a teac...

Since the purpose of this podcast is to bring you conversations with practitioners and experts from the field, to discuss the challenges of supporting students and schools, we had to share a special episode featuring Dr. Alan Coulter and Dr. Eva Dundas. In this episode, originally recorded for our 2022 MTSS Summit, Dr. Eva Dundas, Branching Minds Chief Product Officer, sat down with Dr. Coulter to...

We are excited to share our conversation with Tiffany Studivant, who is in her 11th year with Clark County School District in Athens, Georgia. Her energy and enthusiasm for her work are contagious. Tiffany has extensive experience in supporting students and families at the school level as well as supporting building leaders at the district -level. After nine years as an elementary Special Educatio...

For our final episode of the “Voices from the Field” series, we chatted with Jenna Blank, an educator at Livonia Elementary School in the small, rural community of Livonia in Western New York. Jenna has been an educator for 14 years and three years ago took on a new position of coordinating the RTI/MTSS process for her school and loves being about to work closely with teachers and families in supp...

For our third installment of “Voices from the Field,” we have the opportunity to hear from another excellent educator, Dr. Lydia Williams, from Long Island, New York. Dr. Williams is an educational leader, administrator, and scholar with over 17 years of experience in elementary education. Her prior roles as a classroom teacher, academic intervention specialist, and International Baccalaureate Pri...

Continuing our series highlighting “Voices from the Field,” we chatted with another superb educator, Trisha Senne, from Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Trisha started her career as a special education teacher, then transitioned to be a behavior and learning consultant for the district before landing her current role as the coordinator of assessment & MTSS in the Community Consolidated School District...

To kick off our podcast, we are featuring a few remarkable educators in a series called “Voices from the Field.” These are education rockstars, leaders in their school communities, and serving to support students and teachers. Today, we begin our podcast with Donna Cross, the Director of MTSS and SEL in Evanston Skokie School District 65 in Illinois. We talk about how MTSS or a Multi-Tiered System...

Don't miss out on our upcoming podcast! Schoolin' Around is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by Branching Minds, featuring prominent leaders, subject-matter experts, and thought innovators with their perspectives on the current challenges facing K-12 education.