Thinking About Day 1 International Baccalaureate

When thinking of the trauma that our students, teachers and schools encounter, the news in the recent months has a perfect storm of contributing factors: the continued killings of people of color in the United States and Canada, made even more traumatic by COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the economic upheaval wrought by it.

In our first episode, we speak with Dr. Kathleen Minke, executive director of the association of school psychologists, and Dr. Eric Rossen, author of "Supporting and Educating Traumatized Students: A Guide for School-Based Professionals" to help us define what is trauma-informed strategies and schooling.

Our second episode is a conversation with Jamilah Pitts, an educator, consultant, and contributing author to Teaching Tolerance. Our conversation addresses how "teaching as activism, teaching as care" can help us all better support students of color and ensure our classrooms and schools are spaces of and for anti-racism.

Episode three features best-selling author Laura van Dernoot Lipsky on how to support our students, families, and especially our teachers in the“Age of Overwhelm.”

Episode four brings principals and superintendent (David Weiss, Brandi Herbert and John Wray) with significant experience in post-disaster schooling to discuss their experiences and strategies on school reopening.

In our fifth and final episode, we conclude in a conversation with IB graduate Shreya Mahasenan as she speaks to what is important as we collectively recover to our school settings at some point in the future.