In this episode, host Jethro Jones welcomes Amber Dembowski, creator of the Teacher Well app, to talk about teacher wellness. They discuss the importance of self-care for educators, the challenges teachers face, and how the Teacher Well app provides tools and resources to help teachers manage their wellbeing. Amber shares insights on mental fitness, recovery time, and how the app fosters support and resilience among school staff.

Link to Amber’s episodes on Transformative Principal

• Bringing Humanity Back to Schools
• Four mistakes instructional leaders make

Notes:

• Had everything, but things were still falling apart.
• Workplace wellbeing - too expensive, geared for corporate.
• Resilience from BigImpactMixer.com.
• Resilience is being the little light that encourages you to take the next step.
• 3 main things that the app provides.
• Athletes - Their job is to do a physical activity. What being a Division 1 Athlete really looks like
• Recovery is important too.
• We all have different experiences and knowledge, because not one thing is going to work the same for everyone.
• Apps, challenges, and resources to help teachers with mental fitness.
• Within the group plan, principals can help prescribe
• The power of check in.
• Teachers are exhausted, and they need help!
• Dragging their bag to the car, and it totally makes sense.
• “I can’t do one more thing!”
• Most of the content is audio so people can listen when they are doing something else.
• Wellbeing has to come before school improvement.
• We can do so much more than we think we can.

About Amber Dembowski

Amber Dembowski is a dynamic leader in school improvement and educator wellness, and the driving force behind Dembowski Consulting EDU, EudoLeadership, and the TeacherWell app. With 27 years of experience in public education, Amber is passionate about reshaping schools into thriving communities through human-centered, innovative approaches. Her newsletter and downloadable app offers actionable insights and inspiration for educators looking to prioritize well-being and empowerment.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, host Jethro Jones interviews Dr. Leslie Anway, the Director of Resilient Schools for the Pima County School Superintendent's Office. They discuss the nuances of creating safe learning environments, the importance of self-awareness and self-management in both students and staff, and the PRISM framework that Leslie developed to integrate proactive restorative practices in schools.

• Safety vs. self-awareness.
• A prescription for safety.
• We never ask the question, “What makes you feel safe?”
• Self-awareness: presence, values and identity.
• Focusing on polarizing things that make us different.
• Siloed efforts on SEL, PBIS, etc.
• More info about PRISM
• Start with adults first - to generate buy-in and help them learn how to do it also.
• We can use it better with kids when we
• Growth mindset - and other mindsets.
• It’s not a training, it’s a continual process.
• When we beef up the self-awareness skills
• Stem, Limbic system and cortex
• Kids who are living in their brain stem - constant state of toxic stress
• Regulation spaces and activities
• How to support families with self-awareness
• Provide educational opportunities for families.
• Social emotional skill building starts at home.
• The importance of partnering with families.

About Dr. Leslie Anway

Currently the Director of Resilient Schools for the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office, Dr. Leslie Anway’s biggest focus over the last several years has been on assisting with the creation of educational systems that streamline and integrate proactive initiative work to create foundationally safe learning spaces that foster belonging and connection and prioritize educator wellness. Leslie is a national presenter who trains and consults with practitioners, schools, and districts around the state, but she remains an educator at heart with over 25 years of direct experience in the schools as both a teacher and a school psychologist. She is the co-founder of Flourish Learning Group, LLC and PRISM© and she participates on multiple state and national committees. Leslie adores being a lifelong learner who learns on a daily basis from the hardworking humans and kindred spirits she interacts with, as well as from her three spirited grandchildren.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, Jethro Jones interviews Alison Smith, an author, speaker, and coach dedicated to empowering leaders to build unshakeable resilience. Alison shares insights on how to foster deep-rooted confidence and create meaningful impact by aligning actions with core vision and values. The discussion dives into human-centered leadership, building trust, and defining success within schools. Alison also introduces her Thrive Design principles as a framework for building resilient schools.

• Thriving vs. Resilience
• Thrive: to grasp to oneself
• Thriving in the valleys.
• Resilience is thriving in the valleys.
• Centered or grounded.
• You’re in a bubble, and things are happening around you, but you’re doing it from the grounded place.
• Your well being is dependent on your bubble, not the circumstances around you.
• Mission, vision, values help teachers, students, and families connecting to the vision.
• Resilient schools are rooted in their purpose and values
• Clarity of purpose and courage to go forward when we are aligned.
• Burnout is a real barrier to resilience.
• How stress and ineffectiveness contribute to burnout.
• Feelings of “Things we do don’t matter” exist when our actions don’t align to our values.
• It’s the work of all of us to define success’
• We need to be concrete and explicit about what success looks like.
• High Trust - Brene Brown Daring to Lead - The Anatomy of Trust
• Being Reliable.
• Accountability
• Generosity
• THRIVE Design Principles - things that help us move from burnout to resilience.
• Trust
• Human centered
• Responsive (as opposed to reactive, and be curious)
• Incremental - next right action.
• Values driven
• Empowered - what you can control, not what you can’t control; let go of what you can’t control
• Go below the surface when there is friction to help you determine what issues are arising.
• Being clear takes away the judgment and distracting questions and justification.
• How to make staff feel valued.
• Look and watch and see what people are really doing, then give them appropriate praise.
• Part of resilience is awareness.
• Resilience comes back to self-awareness and community-awareness.
• Well-being continuum -10 to +10 how are you doing right now?
• School Leaders that THRIVE Summit

About Allison:
Alison Smith is an author, speaker, and coach dedicated to empowering leaders to build unshakeable resilience, foster deep-rooted confidence, and create meaningful impact by aligning their actions with their core vision and values. She helps her clients to leverage the power of small acts of resilience to design thriving personal and professional lives. Her work has been featured in various publications, and her book, “Drawing Your Line: Setting Boundaries Step by Step”, guides many to healthier living. Outside of work, she enjoys a good book with a glass of wine and spending time with her husband and two kids.

Check out School Leaders that THRIVE Summit

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.