Inspiration, Influence and Impact Karen Caswell

My guest this episode, Dr. Amie Fabry, shares her passionate advocacy for the early years, and her work supporting educators and leaders to provide quality early years education so that children thrive holistically.

Amie's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:
* People - Kathy Hirsh-Pasek; Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan; The Learning Future
* Books - Dare to Lead", "The Gifts of Imperfection" and "Atlas of the Heart" by Brene Brown; "The Importance of Being Little" by Erika Christakis
* Podcasts - The Learning Future with Louka Parry; Game changers with Phil Cummins and Adriano Di Prato, On Purpose with Jay Shetty; Huberman Lab

* Cause - Learn about the Early Years

* Dream Travel Destination - Italy



Connect with Amie:


LinkedIn - Amie Fabry PhD and The Learning Future
Instagram - @amiefabry_earlyyears
X - @amie_fabry
Email - amie@thelearningfuture.com

My guest this episode, Jonathan Nalder, shares his creative journey in education as a digital technologies and STEM innovator, and his mission to inspire as an 'Edunaut'.



Jonathan's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:


People - Michael Holmstrom, Chris Buswell, Susan Kilrain, Dr Michaela, Musilova, Prof Stephen Heppell
Books - Anything from the educator focused group of authors at xfactoredu.org, codebreakeredu.com, mammoth learning.co
Cause - Literacy in Northern Ghana lingproject.org
Dream Travel Destination - Iceland...and Mars



Connect with Jonathan:


LinkedIn - Jonathan 'the Edunaut' Nalder
X - @jnxyz
Instagram - @jnxyz
Website - jnxyz.net, stempunks.com.au
Threads - @jxnyz

My guest this episode, Adrienne Hornby, shares how her own life experiences, the influence of those around her and her work in school leadership roles have inspired and guided her journey to supporting schools to prioritise staff health and wellbeing.



Adrienne's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:


People - anyone who is a professional in an area you wish to strengthen.
Book - The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Podcast - My Mum Says My Memoir is a Lie: Diary of a CEO
Cause - one which inspires you
Dream Travel Destination - Greece and Spain



Connect with Adrienne:


LinkedIn - Adrienne Hornby
Website - adriennehornby.com.au
Podcast - Well Led Schools



Adrienne Hornby a Staff Wellbeing Consultant and Strategist for Schools 

Dedicated to fostering thriving school communities, Adrienne collaborates with school leaders and their staff to collect vital data and devise and implement personalised 'Staff Wellbeing Action Plans.' 

With a background as a school leader and teacher in ACT government schools, she became a Health and Wellbeing Coach in 2018. Bringing these two professions together resulted in her current role as a Staff Wellbeing Consultant where she has worked with over 45 Australian and international schools since leaving education in 2022.

Leveraging her own innovative approach, Adrienne developed the '6 Steps to Becoming a Well-Led School' - Which are those schools that lead with wellbeing in mind. Her model integrates Positive Psychology’s PERMA(H) Model, the latest educational leadership research, and insights from leading wellbeing organisations.

Her focus is on equipping school leaders, teachers, and staff with strategies aligned with personal and professional wellbeing and culture building. 

My guest this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk, shares her passion for data storytelling, how her love of data evolved and her mission to support others to shift the focus from being data driven to data informed.



Selena's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:


Person - Amy Green
Book - 'Think Again' by Adam Grant
Podcast - 'At the Table' with Patrick Lencioni
Cause - Orange Sky Australia
Dream Travel Destination - Japan



Connect with Selena:


LinkedIn - Dr. Selena Fisk
Instagram - @selenafisk
Facebook - Dr Selena Fisk - Data Storyteller
X - Dr Selena Fisk
Tik Tok - Dr Selena Fisk
Threads - Selena Fisk
Website - selenafisk.com



Selena Fisk a data storyteller and grounded researcher who works with corporates, NFPs and school systems to develop data-informed strategies that lead to action and benefit the organisation. She is an advocate for having data champions in all organisations, as she believes that data can and should be used to create positive change and impact… but we need people who see the value of data to lead the change in their sphere of influence. Selena's work is based on the notions of data literacy, data visualisation, and data storytelling. She helps people understand, communicate, and act on data effectively and ethically, using storytelling techniques and visualisations.

My guest this episode, Dimity Powell, shares her love of stories, the impact books have had on her life, and her passion for inspiring and igniting interest in reading and storytelling in children. She talks about her mission for fostering caring through sharing, and driving change in communities.



Dimity's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:


People - those with shared interests; people you've never met before.
Books - 'The Duck and The Darklings' by Glenda Miller and Stephen Michael King; 'A Gentleman In Moscow' by Amor Towles
Podcast - Your Kid's Next Read; One More Page
Cause - Peace
Dream Travel Destination - The Whitsundays



Connect with Dimity:


LinkedIn - Dimity Powell ⁠
Instagram - @dimityspowell
X - @DimityPowell
Website - www.dimitypowell.com⁠ 
Blog - Dim’s Write Stuff ; Dim’s re Views
Facebook Page - Dimity Powell Author
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com.au/dimitypowell/⁠
Amazon Author Page - Dimity Powell
Good Reads - Dimity Powell  
Twitch TV - https://www.twitch.tv/dimitypowell
YouTube - Dimity Powell



Award winning children's author, Dimity Powell who writes and reviews exclusively for children with over 30 published stories and is the Managing Editor for Kids' Book Review. She believes picture books are life essentials, like ice cream; to be enjoyed at least once a day. Her own include: Pippa and The Troublesome Twins (2023), This is My Dad (2022), Oswald Messweather (2021), Pippa (2019), the award-winning At the End of Holyrood Lane (2018) and the critically acclaimed, The Fix-It Man (2017). Several of her books are also available in simplified Chinese, Polish, Spanish and Solvenian. 

Dimity has strong convictions about the power of storytelling and loves filling every spare moment with words which is handy when it comes to advocating Kids’ Lit. She reveres sharing her accumulated knowledge with big and little kids alike and is a Books in Homes Australia Volunteer Role Model,  Hook Into Books Ambassador, Story City Community Mentor and G.A.T.EWAYS online and onsite presenter who can’t surf despite living on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Discover more at: www.dimitypowell.com

My guest this episode, Dr. Joanne Casey, shares her journey in education, her passion and interest in how the brain works and how schools are organised to foster and support collaboration, and supporting leaders to understand the cognitive and social complexities of the work teachers do.



Joanne's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:


People - Educational leaders who resonate with, and also challenge, your topics of interest
Books - Picture books - Jackie French, Shaun Tan, Jeannie Baker; Anything that brings you joy
Podcast - EduSalon
Cause - Any that supports a more peace filled humanity
Dream Travel Destination - Anywhere snow falls at Christmas



Connect with Joanne:


Linkedin - Dr. Joanne Casey
X- @JoanneCasey41



Joanne is an education practitioner and researcher. She has been working in a range of school contexts to support the implementation of system and school based improvement initiatives. She is a curriculum and pedagogy nerd! 

As an advocate for contextual, flexible and research-based approaches, Joanne draws on her extensive experience of teaching in primary, secondary and tertiary settings when bridging and boundary crossing research, policy, and practice. It helps that she has also worked across our three education sectors - Government, Catholic and Independent.

Previous studies in organisations, change and education lead to Joanne’s doctoral studies - exploring associations among cognitive limitations for interactions, collaboration as an improvement strategy, and silo mentality. 

Findings from this research affirm that collaboration is important work but is underestimated and undervalued in its cognitive and social complexity. With the social brain in mind, Joanne works with school leaders and teachers to create and refine environments where collaboration addresses the changing and evolving nature of an educator's work, usually among multiple demands vying for attention, often simultaneously, in the time available. 

Determining what is reasonable is not always a straightforward exercise. Without additional and different types of knowledge, training, and professional experience, school leaders can inadvertently contribute to further barriers to collaboration within their contexts. Joanne’s research provides an alternative framework to provide structure for a team’s planning and decision making. School leaders, in considering the nature of the relationship between human cognition and sociality, from an evolutionary point of view, can explore ways to address problems of practice that are based on their own context, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.