A 26-year Veteran Teacher’s Experience (Heather)

We have our first teacher guest on the podcast - Heather! 

First we discuss Hallie’s experience of presenting at the WEAC Professional Development Institute in November 2021. She’s still thinking about it, feeling good from the connection, and overall feeling hope!

Then we get into talking with Heather, a “cowboy” of electives in education, and advocate for a just public education system. Listen to our conversation about: student/staff exhaustion, how challenging teaching is now, the increase of eating disorders of youth (especially in our “high-achievers” in school). We ponder if people are willing to work towards systemic change, what that looks like, and how schools should shift to a “power with” structure. We highlight how teachers and students are treated more similarly than we may realize within this “top-down” system. 

And amidst all of it - we still have hope for the future in education!

Additional resources about teens, mental health, and eating disorders:

Newsclip Heather references in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6sxULjDYuU

Other related articles: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/well/family/teens-eating-disorders.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/well/mind/covid-eating-disorders.html

https://milwaukeenns.org/2021/07/29/some-health-providers-see-surge-in-eating-disorders/

https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2021/11/23/holidays-plus-pandemic-could-be-a-dangerous-mix-for-eating-disorder-risk--experts-say