Dr. Eryigit-Madzwamuse has been an Associate Professor of Human Development, Learning and Culture in the  department of Education at UBC since 2022. Before that she was a faculty member at the University of Brighton, in the School of Sport and Health Sciences. There she served as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Resilience for Social Justice at the University of Brighton since 2017. Her current research focuses on understanding the risks and protective mechanisms associated with youth development and wellbeing.

In this episode she helps to orient us in the fast-growing field of Resilience research, defining what it shares with Wellness Theory and where these two fields diverge. Our conversation revolved around the situation of young people, and especially teenagers, whose deteriorating mental health outcomes are indicative of broader deficits in our schools and cultures, the insufficiency and toxicity of online communities, and the missing meaning in their developing lives. Suna’s research and message about how communities thrive and how youth can be made to feel like they matter are not to be missed.

Some topics and resources to listen for and take further:

• • The Characteristics of Wellbeing:
    • Freedom from intolerable pain and stressors
    • Developing strengths and positive attributes
    • The health, wellness and coherence of relationships and community
    • The expectation of further mobility, progress and improvement
  • Carl Rogers’s Humanistic/Holistic Self-Concept Approach
  • Positive Psychology’s Strength-Based Approach
  • Public Health’s influence on “Wellness”
  • The Growing Mental Health Crisis for young people
  • The Adultification of young people
  • Impacts of Climate Change threat on teen Mental Health
  • 50% of adult-life Mental Illness indicators emerged between ages 10-16
  • The Need for a Trusted Adult
  • Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory
  • Erikson’s Stages of Development
  • Dr. Suna’s research on Blackpool’s “Bounce Forward”  and “Resilience Revolution” program
  • Isaac Prilleltensky’s work on Mattering

If you haven’t listened to our last episode click here

In addition to being a kind, smart and charismatic conversation partner, Dr. Shaffer is an educator, learning coach, resilience consultant, wellness writer, and public speaker. She has recently taken on the new role of Director, Office of Student and Academic Services (OSAS) in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change at York University.

In this episode, Dr. Shaffer helps us to look more clearly and compassionately at the ways that humans learn, the obstacles that can prevent us from doing so, and the roles that nature and personal wellbeing can play in our reception and retention of new knowledge. Young or old, wherever you are, if you’re interested in learning better, this episode is not to be missed!

And if you’re intrigued by Deena’s #LearnThat project, you can record your own “learn that” story of “what was the hardest thing you ever had to learn and *how* did you learn that?” and email your 60sec videos to info@awakenedlearning.ca

A few of the stand-out programs, references and quotes to look out for in this episode:

 Programs

Awakened Learning – Strategies to Learn and Live Well

@AwakenedLearning (Instagram)

TMU’s Portage Program

Assignment Calculator example

References

Erich Fromm – Biophilia

E.O. Wilson – Consilience

Dacher Keltner – The Science of Awe

Johann Hari – “Stolen Focus” and “Lost Connections”

Quotes:

“That’s a linear story made out of a non-linear life. It’s a lot messier than it is ‘wow’”.

“What are the Health Determinants of Learning?”

“We can be not just both, but all.”

“Prioritize the Relational.”

“The body is all the way there with you.”

“Be 15 things when you’re introduced”.

“It’s not simple, but it’s interesting”.

“I’m a late-onset learner”

If you haven’t listened to our previous Podcast click here

Episode Guests:

• Kate Mossop: Director, Community Programming
• Long Pham: Recreation Supervisor
• Martha Nguyen: Children’s Program Coordinator

One of the things most educators learn early in their careers is that the school is not an island. It is a nexus that connects the families, organizations, natural environment, values and history that comprise the culture in which it resides. If the stability or health of one of these suffers, the whole network suffers, and must martial resources to support the flagging member.

Different communities have different nexuses; locations where their various subjects, interests and expressions meet. Sometimes these forces conflict. Sometimes they combine. At our best, we find compromise and coordination between them. But the interaction often relies on the quality of the space provided for it. These spaces come readily to mind: parks, town halls, pubs, sites of worship, and the afore-mentioned schools that most of us grew up in. In the early 20th century, the value of spaces like these was made explicit when Community Centres began to appear in the north-eastern U.S. (and maybe it’s not so coincidental that the first of these were hosted in school buildings). Since then, the presence of Community Centres in even small towns and villages has become nearly ubiquitous.

It’s a real joy, and a lesson in humanity, to speak with the folks who give their time, energy and care to the operation of these centres. Listening to people like Kate, Long and Martha talk about the truly dizzying range of services, resources and spaces they offer our community is both humbling and inspiring.

In this episode, we discuss how the University Settlement Community Centre in downtown Toronto strives to meet and adapt to the needs of our unique neighbourhood. The proportion of our neighbours who are newcomers and/or English-Second-Language (ESL) is larger than in most places, and the challenges they face are wide-ranging. Kate, Long and Martha spend their lives providing for these people, offering them routes to participation, contribution, recognition and, ultimately, belonging in our shared home.

Anyone interested in community-building, whether in an educational context or otherwise, will find some actionable ideas and general wisdom in this episode to help them move their community in the direction of health, interconnectedness, openness and reciprocal care.

And if you’d like to learn more about some of the specific ideas discussed in this episode, you can use the links below as your starting point:

• University Settlement Community Centre
• Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles
• Maslow’s Hierarchy
• Dr. Susie Wise – Design For Belonging
• “Design for Community”

Dr. Diana Brecher is a clinical psychologist who has been working in the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Centre for Student Development and Counselling (CSDC) since 1991.  Diana’s long-standing interest and certification in Positive Psychology led to a shift in her role in 2016, whereby she started the ThriveTMU (formerly ThriveRU) initiative and co-founded the Thriving in Action program. She is adjunct faculty in the Psychology dept. and in the MBA program.

In this episode Dr. Brecher helped us to cover a range of topics that fall under the umbrella of Wellness theory, many of which are framed within the context of the recent global pandemic. Among these, we talked about the nature of Positive Psychology vs. Pathology-Oriented Psychology, the concepts of Languishing vs. Flourishing, the PERMA-V framework for wellness, Dr. Brecher’s Five-Factor model of Resilience, willpower strategies to help overcome procrastination, and how one might distill an awareness of one’s strengths using the example of previous challenges.

Other topics and figures referenced in the episode can be found below, linked to resources for further exploration:

• Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Founders of Positive Psychology)
• Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis
• Emilia Zhivotovskaya – The Flourishing Centre
• Tim Pychyl – Procrastination
• Kristin Neff’s work on Self-Compassion
• Angela Duckworth’s concept of Grit
• Christine Padesky’s “Personal Model of Resilience” from Mind over Mood
• Dan and Chip Heath – The Switch
• Anti-Procrastination device: Assignment Calculators

Delving into the psychology of wellness, learning and personal growth can be daunting, but we’re lucky to have experts like Dr. Brecher to help guide us through the wealth of materials that are proliferating in these fields. The BLSA podcast is committed to providing as many conversations in this area as possible, and we look forward to much useful learning to come!

If you haven’t listened to our previous Podcast click here

Rebecca addresses student and client needs by leveraging their strengths, building confidence, curing overwhelm and preventing burnout.

In this episode, Rebecca unpacks the concepts of overwhelm and burnout, two expressions of what is increasingly understood as Chronic Stress. The conversation focusses on definitions, causes, symptoms, consequences, and a variety of solutions available to help anyone heal from these conditions.

Especially as our students head into assessment periods, it is crucial that we know how to identify the indicators of inordinate, toxic stress in their lives, and to be able to intervene effectively. It could mean all the difference for an aspiring student in an increasingly complex world. We hope you find this episode useful in your ongoing efforts to care for your students and create positive change in their lives!

If you haven’t listened to our previous Podcast click here

It’s always enlightening to be around people with a different cultural background than oneself, getting a daily sense of how your attitudes, values, expressions, assumptions and identities compare with theirs. One of the countries that Braemar regularly welcomes students from is Deutschland, known to many of us as Germany. And this year we’ve been lucky to be able to compare our Toronto culture with those of our German students Nike, Lucy and Moritz.

Each of these young people brings an energy and a maturity to their academic lives which can impress and even intimidate those of us who work with them. They are remarkably outgoing, well-spoken, enthusiastic, healthy and motivated. We sat down with them for a podcast conversation to dive deeper into their previous experiences growing up and going to school in Germany, and comparing their academic system with our own here in Canada.

As always with folks like these, the conversation was lively, informed and helpful, especially for those of us looking for indications of what we might learn and borrow from the system that produced such admirable students. If you’re interested in what growing up in Germany is like, you’re sure to enjoy this episode!

One of the most important contexts in which young people develop a sense of self and a social behaviour-set is the world of games and sport. This is often the first situation where they are able to have a say in the making (and sometimes the breaking) of rules, in the selection of groups, and in the consequences of their activities. Studies demonstrating the crucial importance of unsupervised play in early life continue to proliferate in Education scholarship, but you don’t need to be a social scientist to grasp their conclusions. Play is our first practice for autonomous socializing, community-building, and competing in public, and should be regarded with the same seriousness that we treat the other academic disciplines with.

This fact becomes clear as soon as you start talking to young athletes like Matilde and Amir. These two teenagers, one from Portugal and the other from Iran, came to Toronto alone and immediately found themselves surrounded by unfamiliar people and ideas. But where others may have succumbed to the forces of Culture Shock and suffered the alienation and torpor that go with it, these two have used sport as an avenue to identity, health, community and confidence. Today, they are recognized as caring friends, successful students and influential leaders in our school.

Check out this episode to learn more about how games and sport can transcend the barriers that divide us and inform a purpose-driven life no matter what level we play at!

Among his many initiatives, James has spear-headed the creation of a student Entrepreneur’s Society which assists students in the development of personal business and product ideas, and a Fitness Club that helps students develop their physical fitness in an informed, collaborative space.

This episode features discussion of a range of topics related to personal development and the role that school plays in helping teenagers find health, identity and purpose. Whether you’re an educator, administrator, parent or student, you’re sure to find something to build on here!

This episode’s guests exemplify this experience perfectly: two young gentlemen with vastly different backgrounds who have nonetheless discovered common ground beyond the coincidence of their shared nickname, Sacha. Their discussion sheds light on the cultural dynamics at play every day in our school and in our city, and on how young people can adapt and benefit from new settings and challenges regardless of where they come from.

We’re proud to introduce students like these, and to highlight their insights and expressions as representing the best of Braemar’s values and purpose. And we look forward to featuring more interviews with our wonderful students in the future!

In our conversation, we focused on the concept and theory of “Creativity”: what it is, what is does for us, why it’s necessary, and how schools can be a place where it is encouraged and nurtured. We also discovered a mutual source of inspiration in the work of Ken Robinson, discussing his legacy as an education reformer, and the implications of his work showing how creativity is often destroyed and lost in our adolescent years.

Nicole’s approach to her students and her insistence on the sovereignty of the creative, artistic space will be an inspiration to all who listen. Enjoy!

Rebecca addresses student and client needs by leveraging their strengths, building confidence, curing overwhelm and preventing burnout.

Amirah Gilani is an outstanding Braemar student who has participated as a Student Leader in numerous programs dedicated to student wellness. She is also the founder of SoulSparks, an interactive course for kids and teens that uses Positive Psychology techniques to encourage authenticity and self-esteem.

In our conversation with these two wellness advocates, we discussed a range of perspectives on how Mental Health may be preserved and improved. We touched on a number of related concepts, including “work/life balance”, stress management, toxic productivity, and the connection between personal interests and altruistic efforts.

Whether teen or adult, student or teacher, we all need help keeping ourselves well. Give your wellness efforts a boost.

Mr. Dov Shapiro is a long-time educator, camp director, and is the founding CEO of ConnectU*, a digital Social-Emotional Learning platform that provides educators with the tools to nurture and assess Growth Mindsets, Self-Awareness, Empathy and Metacognition in their students.

Our conversation digs deeper into topics like the nature of Social-Emotional learning, the “EdTech” (Education Technology) industry, Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, and how schools can become more integrated into their local communities, all in service of addressing one of BLSA’s primary questions: why are today’s teenagers so much more likely to suffer from poor mental health, and what can we do about it?

*ConnectU is currently being used at Braemar College to assist and track new students as they seek to establish their identities within our vibrant and diverse student culture.

Jess Paul – Bringing Braemar to Life

Miss Jessica Paul is one of the longest serving teachers at Braemar College, and one of the most dynamic! A lover of theatre, fashion, language, travel and cooking, she brings her passion and talents to everything she does. Over the years, she has been responsible for designing and coordinating a truly massive range of events, trips and student clubs, and has helped untold numbers of students to discover new routes to wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

In our conversation, Miss Paul helps to outline the types of extra-curricular programs offered to students at Braemar, and the developmental theories that underpin them. She shows us how what looks like simple fun on the outside can be transformative on the inside, for students and teachers alike.

Check out this episode if you’re interested in finding inspiration for your next project with your children, students or friends!

Miss Jessica Paul is one of the longest serving teachers at Braemar College, and one of the most dynamic! A lover of theatre, fashion, language, travel and cooking, she brings her passion and talents to everything she does. Over the years, she has been responsible for designing and coordinating a truly massive range of events, trips and student clubs, and has helped untold numbers of students to discover new routes to wellbeing and personal fulfillment.

In our conversation, Miss Paul helps to outline the types of extra-curricular programs offered to students at Braemar, and the developmental theories that underpin them. She shows us how what looks like simple fun on the outside can be transformative on the inside, for students and teachers alike.

Check out this episode if you’re interested in finding inspiration for your next project with your children, students or friends!

Our conversation digs deeper into topics like the nature of Social-Emotional learning, the “EdTech” (Education Technology) industry, Fixed vs. Growth Mindset, and how schools can become more integrated into their local communities, all in service of addressing one of BLSA’s primary questions: why are today’s teenagers so much more likely to suffer from poor mental health, and what can we do about it?

*ConnectU is currently being used at Braemar College to assist and track new students as they seek to establish their identities within our vibrant and diverse student culture.