Education Suspended Intricate Roots

In this episode we sit down and connect with Dr. Monica McHale-Small. Monica shares with us her experience as a Superintendent and how that has impacted her lens on the larger educational system. She highlights the importance of supporting the whole child; especially when thinking about students with specific learning disabilities. Monica also talks us through the challenges that come with navigating the special education realm as a parent.
Dr. McHale-Small is an Adjunct , Associate Professor of School Psychology at Temple University and the Director of Education for the Learning Disabilities Association of America. Dr. McHale-Small has long advocated bringing sound research into practice in public schools and advocates for responsible inclusion and equity for historically underserved students including racially, culturally and linguistically diverse students and students with disabilities. She co-founded the Greater Lehigh Valley Consortium for Equity and Excellence and she currently consults with the ACLU of Pennsylvania on School to Prison Pipeline issues. Intro song: Poet’s Row, Young Bones

In this episode we are joined by Chris Barfield. Chris is such a great story teller and shares with us how using sports helps the students he and his team work with at their school. He highlights the importance of dosing the stress appropriately to match the developmental level of the students; knowing students show up in different places. Chris also reminds us that we need to remember for many of our students, school has been a place of negative experiences and it’s our job to help rewrite their scripts.

Chris Barfield is the School Leader at Urban Dove Team Charter School in Brooklyn, a network of high schools serving under-credited students through a curriculum centered around sports, youth development, and academics. Prior to joining Urban Dove in 2018, Barfield worked for 11 years as a physical education teacher and coached a variety of sports.



Intro song: Poet's Row, Young Bones

In today’s episode we sit down and connect with Tu David Phu. Chef Tu shares his personal story about why understanding the connection between schools and food matters. When you have consistent access to food that provides nourishment it’s easy to minimize just how important it is for learning. Chef Tu reminds us that the playing field is not equal and we must advocate for free access to healthy foods for all students at school.

Top Chef Alumnus, Tu David Phu, is a Vietnamese-American, SF Chronicle Rising Star Chef, Author, and an Emmy-nominated filmmaker from Oakland. His extensive resume reflects a wide range of exciting experiences ranging from cooking with incarcerated men in San Quentin prison; to cutting his culinary teeth in the kitchens of some of the nation’s top restaurants.



Intro song: Poet's Row, Young Bones

Welcome to season three of Education Suspended! We kick off the season with Justin Toomer. Justin dives into the role curriculum should play in opening doors and uncovering new content. He highlights the reality that the better school experience students have, the more likely they are to consider becoming educators. And, Justin reminds us to use data in a way that doesn’t just tell the story that has already been written for so many of our students. 

Justin Toomer is a Senior Consultant at Education Elements. He is driven by the science of learning, the art of teaching, and pushing others to think differently. He was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and is a first-generation college graduate from Williams College. Based upon the transformational impact his experience afforded him, Justin entered the field of education with an intention to increase the opportunities for all students to access a quality and equitable education. He brings his student-centered approaches, understanding of equitable school systems, and relationship-driven mindset to the educational settings he’s in partnership with around the country.



Intro song: Poet's Row, Young Bones

In our last episode of Season Two we connect with William Tucker, who challenges all of us to stop, and ask ourselves, why do we educate? William focuses on shifting our archaic system away from memorization and aims to provide students an educational system that promotes understanding. He specifically specializes in literacy and shares why equipping students with a solid foundation of literacy and comprehension is vitally important to all future disciplines.

William Tucker is the Co-Founder of Charity United, a U.S.-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to children and civilians in need, and helps ensure children receive food, clothing, shelter, and education. He discovered, through on-the-ground experiences, a significant problem that kids often face while living in the slums is a lack of educational opportunities. In collaboration with charities and volunteers in India, Africa, and Latin America, Charity United provides educational tools to children with the aim of giving all children an equal opportunity for a promising future.



Intro song: Poet's Row, Young Bones

In today’s episode we sit down and connect with Malika Ali, the Chief Innovation Officer at the Highlander Institute. Malika’s transgenerational story is rooted in the pursuit of education, and she shares with us how the passion of past generations drives her own desire to empower students. She connects that curriculums need to provide both, windows and mirrors, for students so they can see themselves and better understand how they fit into the world. Malika highlights the importance of letting students “drive more” and the need to create relevant learning environments around them.

Malika is passionate about community-driven change management to scale and sustain culturally responsive education driven by a liberatory data approach. As the Chief Innovation Officer at the Highlander Institute, she leads program visioning articulated through a comprehensive model for school change. She was a Rhode Island District Teacher of the Year, served on Governor Raimondo’s STEAM and Equity in Educator Preparation Committee, and was named one of the nation’s top emerging and inspirational Black leaders in education innovation by Learn Launch. Malika holds an M.Ed. in Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Public Health from Brown University. As a daughter of strong and brilliant Eritrean refugees, Malika has spent her life critiquing the systems that perpetuate educational inequity, and she is proud to be a part of the struggle to ensure that all children have access to, and can take advantage of, an empowering education.



Intro song: Poet's Row, Young Bones