The CharacterStrong Podcast

Molly A. Gosline, EdM, MA is the Coordinator of Social Emotional Learning at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois where she works with academic divisions and teacher teams to develop instructional practices that integrate social emotional learning into their classrooms to support students' SEL growth. Ms. Gosline collaborates with SEL and school climate colleagues throughout the country, has...

Alex Clark is a young, passionate and committed leader who has served most of his adult life making a strong impact on student-athletes across the northeast region. Alex has worked with students of all ages from K-12, to D1 athletes, to pros. Alex has expertise coaching many sports since he was a teenager that he wanted to work and inspire young people to be their best, and his philosophy teaches...

Houston & John celebrate #SELday! They talk about how our current times have shown us why SEL is crucial, the importance of student voice in SEL, and how research, reality, & relevance come together in teaching and supporting SEL.

We talk with Lindsay about the 2021 Whole Child Virtual Summit happening March 22-26th, and she shares a few powerful highlights from some of this years speakers.

Kelly has been in education for the last 15 years. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Portland, majoring in Political Science and got her Masters in Teaching through Concordia University. Kelly began her career teaching pre-school in Ireland and when she moved back to the states, she began teaching Kindergarten. Kelly spent the last two years before becoming a principal working as...

Bryan Slater is an experienced classroom teacher and has spent the last 15 years teaching high school Social Studies in Tacoma, WA, Lagos, Nigeria, and Sumner, WA. He currently teaches at Sumner High School.

Michele Borba, Ed. D. is an internationally-recognized educator who has spoken to over one million parents and educators. She is recognized for her solution-based strategies on raising resilient kids, and has appeared over 150 times on the TODAY show and featured in New York Times, Washington Post, Time, and Dateline. Her 24 books are translated in 20 languages and her latest (March 2021) is Thriv...

Houston talks to Isaac Hurtado & Mark Hugo from the Teenager Therapy Podcast about the role that the podcast plays in their lives, things that can prevent students from thinking about mental health at school, and they also share about the practical things that some of Isaac and Mark's teachers have done to put a focus on mental health.

Andrew Jordan Nance has been an educator since 1990. He is the author of four published books; The Barefoot King, The Lion in Me, Mindful Arts in the Classroom, and the bestseller, Puppy Mind. He also adapted Puppy Mind, into a series of five episodes that will show on KTVU and distributed to school districts around the country. He is the founder of Mindful Arts San Francisco; a program of the San...

Founding President of YV Educational Resources Inc., Yaritza Villalba has eleven years of experience in education. She started her career teaching Social Studies to high school students in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. Throughout the years she has developed numerous curriculum materials and conducted a variety of professional developments. She is currently a lead teacher of an alternativ...

Tyler Bastian is an educator, filmmaker, father and the founder of Roots Charter High School. Tyler loves to teach and has a passion for discovering and developing potential in everything around him. For four years Tyler taught Character Education at a local High School and believes positive character is the greatest indicator of success. In 2012 Tyler began to develop the concepts that have becom...

John talks with CharacterStrong Co-Founder Houston Kraft & Team Member Don Bartel about the recent CharacterStrong leadership conference, and the role and impact that student leadership has in school culture & climate.

John shares a powerful reminder of a teachers impact thru perseverance, a short reading from Jacob Riis, and he gives some encouragement as we live, teach & work during this season.

We celebrate our 200th episode! John and Houston look back at some good things in the midst of the hard over last 12 months, they look forward to what is needed in 2021 & share some hope.

Monte Syrie is a high school ELA teacher at Cheney High School in Cheney, Washington. A 25 year veteran in the classroom, Monte is committed to finding the better in education and contributing to the humanization of students' experiences in classrooms around the globe. You can join his journey on his daily blog at www.letschangeeducation.com  and on Twitter: @montesyrie

Susy is an Oregon gal, born and bred. After her schooling at the University of Oregon and Linfield University, she was hired at McMinnville High School (her alma mater) in 2012 and began advising the ASB Leadership program in 2014; her position at MHS is now split between ASB and 9th/10th grade AVID. Susy was recognized as McMinnville's Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2017. Outside of school, S...

Alicia has been a secondary administrator for 13 years at both the middle and high school levels. She has had the privilege of holding nearly every administrative position at a secondary site including, Vice Principal of Activities, Vice Principal of Student Support, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction and finally a Principal. To say Alicia loves what she does would be an understatem...

Ms. Barton was born and raised in Fort Worth, TX and graduated from Texas Wesleyan University. Her 21 years of teaching have all been with Crowley ISD where she was named "Teacher of the Year" in 2008 and was chosen as the Crowley ISD Heartbeat Award winner (district employee of the month) in 2015. Over the course of 21 years, she taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades before accepting a new positio...

Daphne uses books as though they are EpiPens and every student who walks into her room has a mouth full of shrimp. The more books she can get inside of a student the more apt they are to fight the apathetic trap that snares so many of their peers. Daphne  spent seventeen years teaching with class sets of Hatchet and Esperanza Rising until 2007 when a friend told her to read The Book Thief by Marku...

Ebone Kimber is a licensed Master's level social worker who has been working in child welfare for over 13 years. She received her Bachelor's degree in Social Work at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and her Masters at The University of Alabama. She spent her early years in the field on the front lines offering case management and basic living skills to children in foster care and their fost...

Each day this week we are counting down the Top 5 episodes of 2020!  #1: Season 2 Ep. 56 - CharacterStrong Co-Founder John Norlin shares a recent experience from a training, and talks about why we can't wait to infuse social emotional learning and character development into the daily fabric of our schools.

Each day this week we are counting down the Top 5 episodes of 2020!  #3: Season 3 Ep. 11 - We talk with Dr. Bikowsky about her work with educators helping students reframe thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and some practical strategies that staff can use while teaching virtually.

Each day this week we are counting down the Top 5 episodes of 2020!  #4: Season 3 Ep. 18 - We talk to Angelica Rodriguez about how we can put a focus on taking care of ourselves as teachers, the importance of self care & mental health especially in this season, and she shares some simple strategies that can positively impact our classrooms.

Each day this week we are counting down the Top 5 episodes of 2020!  #5: Season 2 Ep. 108 - We talk with Maddie Bogart about virtual student engagement, how she used one of her weekly meetings to focus on relationships, and she shares some of the creative ideas that she did with students.

John talks with new CharacterStrong team member and veteran educator Don Bartel about the topic "The Way Out Is Through", they discuss the new CharacterStrong student leadership conference, and they share why the topics of purpose, influence, and obstacles are so important.