About the Podcast
The Whole Child Podcast: Changing the Conversation About Education seeks to inform and engage educators, parents, community members—and you—about what works in today’s schools. Guests include educational leaders, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and students from around the globe who share their insights about sound education policies and practices that ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
Your host, Sean Slade, is director of Whole Child Programs at ASCD. The Whole Child Initiative is part of a broad, multiyear plan to shift public dialogue about education from an academic focus to a whole child approach that encompasses all factors required for successful student outcomes, enhancing learning by addressing each student's social, emotional, physical, and academic needs through the shared contributions of schools, families, communities, and policymakers.
During his more than two decades in education, Slade has written extensively on topics related to the whole child and health and well-being and has been at the forefront of promoting and using school climate, connectedness, resilience, and youth development data for school improvement. He has been a teacher, head of department, educational researcher, senior education officer, project manager, and director. He has taught, trained, and directed education initiatives in Australia, Italy, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Since joining ASCD, Slade has led the Healthy School Communities program; coauthored The Healthy School Communities Model: Aligning Health and Education in the School Setting (PDF); and is a regular columnist for The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and the Whole Child Blog. He currently serves on the steering committees for the International Alliance for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Schools, International School Health Network, National Coordinating Committee on School Health and Safety, National School Climate Council, Coalition for Community Schools, Human Rights Campaign's Welcoming Schools Program, Let's Move in School, and has participated in both the U.S. Department of Education's Bullying Summit and the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention.
Archives
2013
- May: The New Poverty: Dealing with Economic Change
- Special Edition: Walking in a Principal's Shoes
- April: Leveling and Raising the Playing Field
- February: How Can We Make Our Schools Safer?
- December/January: Great Expectations: Transforming Practice Through Common Core Implementation
2012
- November: Fair and Effective Teacher Evaluation
- October: Leading and Changing School Culture
- October: Respecting and Reflecting School Culture
- May: What Does It Take for Children to Be Mentally Healthy?
- April: Coordinated and Collaborative Responses to Diverse Student Needs
- March: Whole Child Around the World: A Good School Is a Good School
- February: Using Engaging Learning Strategies to Connect School to the Real World
- January: The Future of Assessment
2011
- December: Assessment 101
- November: More Than Just Gym: Integrating Movement Across the School Day
- October: Building a Better School Community: Using PLCs to Support Student Success
- September: Partnerships Between Home and School: The Real Missing Link?
- August: Inclusive Learning: Meeting Each Student’s Special Needs
- June/July: School Environments: Transforming Learning Spaces
- May: Beyond Our Halls and Walls: Getting to Community Engagement
- April: The Middle Grades: Zits, Braces, and Hormones
- Special Edition: Ready and Able: A Q&A with Jay Mathews
- March: Ready and Able: College, Career, and Citizenship in the 21st Century
- February: Teaching in a Digital World: Connecting and Empowering the Whole Child
2010
- December/January: PE, Recess, and Beyond: The Implications of Movement
- November: Applying Developmental Science to Impact Teaching and Learning
- October: The Critical Role of the Arts Throughout a Whole Child Education
- September: A Whole Child Approach to Addressing Bullying
- August: The Whole Child Needs a Whole Teacher
- June/July: Summer Learning and Development
- May: Developing Principals to Lead a Whole Child School
- April: Future Directions: Examining the Blueprint for Reauthorizing ESEA
- March: Putting Vision into Action for the Whole Child
- February: School Climate: Developing the Quality and Character of School Life
- January: Meeting Students Where They Are: Preparing Them for What’s Next
2009
- December: Rural Education: Challenges and Opportunities
- November: Supporting Students to Succeed: Keeping Kids from Checking Out and Dropping Out
- October: Engaging Stakeholders Through Community Conversations
- September: Preparing for H1N1
- August: Partnering to Transform the Conditions of Learning: Families and Educators Together
- July: Data: What We Don’t Know May Hurt Us
- June: Schools + Communities = Success for the Whole Child
- May: Supporting Student Voice for Meaningful Change
- Special Edition: Understanding the Education Stimulus Package
- April: Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners
- March: Closing the Believing, Doing Gap
- February: How Urban Schools Work Beyond the Boundaries of Social and Economic Conditions
- January: Education and the New Administration
