December 16, 2024 • 50 mins
In this episode of the Elemental Educator podcast, host Tyler speaks with Lynn McLaughlin, an experienced educator and advocate for children's mental health. Lynn shares her journey from educator to superintendent and her commitment to promoting proactive mental health strategies for children. The conversation explores the importance of core values, teacher well-being, and research-driven approaches in education. Lynn emphasizes the need for collaboration among educators and the significance of maintaining integrity in mental health advocacy. The episode also addresses the challenges of navigating resistance and driving meaningful change in schools, while encouraging listeners to take action for their own well-being.
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00:00 Introduction and Video Clips 01:55 Lynn's Journey to Advocating for Children's Mental Health 04:03 The Influence of Core Values on Lynn's Work 06:16 Reframing Success to Focus on the Whole Child 07:59 Navigating Challenges and Driving Change in Education 10:22 Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience 13:04 Establishing Effective Relationships and Self-awareness 17:50 Implementing Change and Leading from the Middle 28:47 Implementing Changes to Support Students with Learning Disabilities 31:07 Collaboration and System Well-Being 36:42 Taking Risks and Making Bold Decisions for Mental Health Advocacy 42:36 Balancing Innovative Change and Risk in Children's Emotional Well-Being 44:40 Taking Action for Well-Being: Reflection and Proactive Strategies 46:25 Inspiring Change: Cultivating a Community of Caring and Curiosity 50:04 Future Plans: Podcasting, Publishing, and Game Development education, mental health, children's well-being, proactive strategies, emotional intelligence, teacher support, collaboration, advocacy, research-driven approaches, leadershipMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Think about your last 24 hours.
(00:01):
If there's one thing you could change, what would it be?
And how can you do that and keep that in mind in the future?
So when you're about to get called into that conversation, instead you walk away.
Or instead you bring a different lens of curiosity, right?
So you bring more joy to yourself, more balance to yourself, whatever that looks like,because balance is a very different definition for all of us.
(00:22):
Alchemists, before this episode of the Elemental Educator with Lynn McLaughlin kicks off,I just from the bottom of my heart wanna say thank you for your continued support,
watching and supporting the channel, subscribing to the newsletter, checking out thedifferent social media websites.
It means so much to build this community with you and grow alongside you.
This is our last episode for the 2024 year.
(00:42):
Our next one kicks off January 6th in 2025.
So I hope you enjoy this one with Lynn and we'll see you later.
(01:06):
and welcome to the Elemental Educator podcast.
I'm your host Tyler and if you're turning in for the first time, thank you so very muchfor joining us and welcome to a place where we redefine leadership and challenge the
status quo.
Be sure to like, follow and subscribe to Elemental Educator on Apple, Spotify, YouTube orwherever you get your podcast from and check out our website, elementaleducator.com.
(01:26):
Get ready to let the alchemy of education ignite your passion for learning.
Today we're joined by Lynn McLaughlin, an experienced educator who has served assuperintendent, principal, vice principal, teacher, and educational consultant.
She's taught future educational assistance at a local college for five years.
Lynn is also a bestselling author, co -authoring The Power of Thought, children's bookseries with her niece, Amber Raymond.
(01:50):
advocating for proactive approach to children's mental health.
With over four years hosting the podcast, Taking the Helm, Lynn is dedicated to promotingchildren's emotional well -being.
She's an accomplished speaker, engaging audiences locally, provincially, andinternationally.
actively involved in her community, Lynn is a member of 100 Women Who Care, Windsor Essex,a Rotarian and serves as a trustee for the John McGivney Children's Center School
(02:15):
Authority in Windsor, Ontario.
Welcome to the Elemental Educator podcast, Lynn.
It is my pleasure to have you here.
It's my pleasure and my honor, Tyler.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely.
Lynn, I want to jump right in and because of all of the lived experience, I just want toknow how did you get to where you are now?
As a retiree with my own business?
(02:37):
Well, yeah, so it was, yeah.
So when I retired, and you see this now today, Tyler, probably much more so based on whatI'm hearing from my fellow educators, the number of students who are really in a place of
higher levels of depression.
We've got all the stats and everything to back this up to.
and anxiousness to the point where it's affecting their daily life.
(02:58):
And that was rising as I was about to retire from my role as a superintendent.
And so we put things in place, right?
child youth workers in almost every single school, we train them on how to be the safeperson.
We initiated zones of regulation rooms.
started, or areas, sorry, and programs within schools.
(03:20):
We started emotional vocabulary in kindergarten and we responded.
But I was out for a walk one day just after I retired and I was teaching at post-secondary and I saw the same things.
know, kids in junior kindergarten all the way through post -secondary are struggling.
And my niece was just about to graduate from her master of education program and I calledher and I said, Amber, why aren't we being proactive?
(03:44):
Why are we doing this backwards?
Absolutely we have to respond to the growing need.
But why aren't we giving our kids tools and strategies so that they can have all of thatbefore they struggle instead of waiting until they do?
So I said, would you write a book with me?
And it's three years later and we have a book series and a whole bunch of other resources.
And that walk was the aha moment.
(04:06):
And let's help, let's join the group of people that are moving into this proactivemovement.
And many have been there for some time, but really are not being heard.
to say, hey, we know this, we've got decades of research.
Let's, you know, if every child has 10 strategies they can pull in when they're succeedingor when they're struggling, they've got 10 more strategies than they had four weeks ago,
(04:29):
right?
That's how it all came about in terms of the business.
Absolutely.
And you know, at retirement, you could have walked away, you could have stopped, you couldhave went about everything else.
You made a decision and it's rooted in something very powerful, And Earth represents corevalues in rooting yourself in beliefs.
So Lynn how have your core values shaped your commitment to children's emotional well-being, both in your role as an educator and through your work in the Power of Thought
(04:56):
series?
Well, I think, and as a school administrator, Tyler, I'm sure you breathe this everysingle day.
Our staff needs support, right?
Our staff needs support.
Our staff need to be well themselves so they can give everything they've got to thoselittle ones and large ones or whatever children, students that are in front of them from
JK through post -secondary every single day.
(05:17):
To me, I always, and I do believe this, and I do hear this from staff, it's just not mespouting.
Empathy is so, so, so important.
And when people know you care, you genuinely care, that collaboration, that support flowsmore naturally.
When you stop by, I always said once a week, I'm gonna stop by and have a conversation,however brief that might be, with every individual staff member.
(05:43):
You get to know the things behind the scenes once that trust is built.
And then when things are happening in people's lives, you are there for support.
but you're also showing your own vulnerability when you make mistakes, right?
I own this, I blew it, let's figure out a way to do this together.
To me, it's about if you as an educator are self -aware, this goes to core values, thenyou know your strengths, you know your areas for growth, and you don't shut things down
(06:08):
because you know you're not strong in them, you're gonna move.
And I don't mean just in terms of academia, I'm talking about our whole selves.
Then you instill a sense of worth.
and self -confidence in your students because you know how to do that yourself, right?
That's where we start building self -esteem.
They know their strengths.
They know what they need to succeed.
(06:29):
They know how to bridge those things instead of fearing failure and becoming more anxiousand worried.
So I would say the whole thing is under one big umbrella of reframing our definition ofsuccess to the whole child, not just academia.
And there is a movement happening, as you well know.
We're a little slower in Ontario, but it's happening worldwide and I'm so excited to bepart of it.
(06:55):
Now, this is an incredible message to hear in what we want for teachers.
Now, in your actions, this is something you're trying to do, you're trying to promote,you're trying to help with this movement.
What value do you have in this?
What stake do you have in this?
the future of children, the future of students.
well, I'm sure it's very similar in Alberta.
(07:17):
I haven't looked up your data, but through the College of Teachers in Ontario, we haveteachers who are leaving the profession within five years.
Well, that tells us something.
And our union, our elementary teachers union, our secondary school teachers unions willtell you, Catholic school unions as well, teacher burnout has got a lot to do with it.
So how do we, with the reality,
(07:38):
of the diversity and complexities of our students that are coming us today.
They're the best our parents have got, right?
That's who we've got, those precious little beings.
How do we change what we're doing so we can better support them?
And I may not be in a position of decision -making any longer in terms of the schoolsystem, but if I can influence decision -makers to think that way and drive system change,
(08:02):
that's what I'm all about right now.
And I'll be honest,
getting in through the back door.
And I don't mean the back door because our community organizations and our school parentsare so, so, so critical.
But sometimes when we drive school change, it doesn't come from, you know, the Ministry ofEducation.
It comes from the community, whether or not that be parents or organizations or not -for-profits, et cetera, et cetera.
(08:26):
Did I just do a squirrel there?
I think I did a squirrel.
that's awesome and having a bottom -up movement there's something to be said about theurgency the legitimacy and and the power that they need to have to be able to drive those
bottom -up movements and burnout is relevant everywhere some great contacts alchemists ifyou're listening to this regardless of education if you're feeling burnt out morgan
michael's a blueprint for belonging her first book as well from burnt out to fired up andif you follow podcasts as well tim cavey with teachers on fire just some extra excellent
(08:53):
resources you don't need to be in education you can check these people out they dowonderful wonderful things
in promoting wellness and thinking of your holistic approach in advocating for yourself.
And on top of that, Lin, your advocacy for an approach to proactive to mental health iscentral to your work.
How do these core beliefs influence the way you design programs and resources for childrenand educators alike?
(09:18):
Well, it all starts with research.
I will admit it.
Those shiny objects sometimes are pretty easy to jump on.
that's exactly what I need today.
Boom, you jump on it and it turns out to be an absolute failure, total waste of your time.
So I'm always researching evidence -based strategy approaches so that we can say, look,this works.
Where is it working in the world?
(09:38):
What systems are in place?
Who's got well -being?
embedded in the curriculum.
it's embedded in the curriculum, it comes with educator training.
And I don't mean teachers, I mean educators, social work, mean, sorry, educational supportstaff, administration, people who are directly involved with students.
So to me, I start with research and I share that on my website.
(09:59):
And anybody wants to share something new, absolutely share it with me.
And I'll vet it and I'll post it.
And the information, as you do, Tyler, that I share on my podcast,
I very carefully vet my guests as well, educators and parents, and they talk about theexperiences they've had, their expertise and the resources that are available and the
(10:20):
difference it's made in their lives or the people around them lives.
So for example, I guess I had last year shared about School Mental Health Ontario, whichis a free resource for any educator, anytime during the year with lessons about wellbeing
from JK to grade 12, right?
These are the kinds of things I try to share with people.
(10:40):
We're not reinventing the wheel.
It's out there.
How do we jump on the things that are working?
We know they're working and bring that into our own schools and our own school systems.
Absolutely.
Alchemist, as you listen to this, we are talking from a lens of educators.
We're talking from a lens of within education.
This is beyond that.
(11:01):
If you work with people that you oversee in some way, or form in leadership ororganization, being well yourself lets you be well for the people that you lead and it
lets your followers thrive as well.
So Lynn, in your vast experience as a superintendent and educator, how have you maintainedintegrity in your approach to promoting mental health within the educational system?
(11:23):
I think we, what's the word, we model, we are what we model.
I mentioned vulnerability before.
I think we are not standing up in front of students any longer and teaching a content-based curriculum and expecting them to take it all in and then regurgitate the
information through old -fashioned paper tests, right?
Everything has changed so much and so it should have, but we make mistakes, we take risks,we try new things, and as I said early, we model that.
(11:50):
And then it becomes okay.
You know what I mean?
It becomes okay for other people to feel the same way.
We have so many staff and students that are perfectionists, right?
How do we start from an earlier age and say, wait, it's okay.
Try this.
All right.
So what?
Let's try this instead.
And the other piece that is so important is connectedness.
When we're connected to our students, we're connected to our staff.
(12:12):
And you take this outside of education, as you said as well.
Then those conversations can happen at any time.
If you know a student is coming from an impoverished home, from a single parent family whohasn't had a breakfast this morning, then you can do something to support that individual
student.
If you know a student is going through a bitter divorce where the parents are arguing, andmy gosh, I hope we can get past that at some point, you know how to better support them.
(12:39):
So, you know, when you first meet your students at the beginning of the year, that firstmonth of school is so, so, so important.
to get to know each of them.
So you can build your curriculum from their needs and then on and forward.
And then what happens, and you know this as well too, Tyler, we seem to have more and morestudents who are acting out, become aggressive, becoming aggressive or withdrawn.
(13:03):
A lot of that was here before COVID.
It's been exacerbated.
The loneliness has been exacerbated.
But if we know what those underlying factors are, and we don't always, know, sometimesthey're very, very complex, but if we are connected with our students, we can sometimes
put our finger on what are those underlying factors a lot more readily, and then what dowe have in place to support those students, but also the staff that support them.
(13:30):
To me, that's what it's all about, connectedness, vulnerability.
understanding our students and of course we'll talk about mentorship at another time butthat's another critical piece for me.
And the idea of collaboration and collective mindsets and approaching things as a team,it's significant.
And you would be surprised how much stress it reduces in your ability.
(13:52):
I just can't get over when I'm in my own master or doctorate classes or whatever classesit might be.
Why is that group work so inefficient when the team is supposed to be better?
So unpacking maybe something in there around how do we optimize group work?
How do we make sure?
And you hit it head on, you need to have trust.
You need to have...
reliability, you need to establish high expectations for the group that's working to be ahighly effective team.
(14:14):
Now, yeah.
may, you're always going to have the people that don't want any part of what you're doing.
They don't want part of any part of the new curriculum of the new focus on well -being andthey're going to be sitting in the back of the room.
Those are the people you need to spend time with.
Those are the people you need to say, because they've got something.
(14:34):
They've got something to give.
We have to figure out what it is and flip that mindset to one of being part of the team inwhatever way that
what's the word, Morse into for them, but they're the people you need to spend a lot oftime with.
And you need to figure out there why, why are we seeing what we're seeing?
And speaking of the pushback that you're gonna get from people, regardless of where youare, that brings us to the adversity we face, which is our air element.
(14:57):
And air symbolizes embracing and overcoming adversity.
Lynn, can you share a significant challenge you faced in your journey from classroomteacher to superintendent and how you overcame it?
Yeah, my goodness.
So, okay, I won't say my age, long story short, thank you so much.
Long story short, my husband and I were living in Paris, Ontario.
He was a police officer and I was a teacher and our families were down here in EssexCounty, Ontario.
(15:21):
So we decided for a whole bunch of reasons that we're gonna relocate.
So long story short, in January of 1999, we moved with a three month old, a 16 month oldand a four and a half year old.
We moved our homes, we relocated, he started a new role as a police officer here in thecounty.
I had applied to be a vice principal when I was very much expecting.
(15:44):
So I thought, okay, this is a day when, boy, very few women were in leadership positions.
Let's just say that.
We've changed that substantially, thank goodness.
But I'd like to think of myself as being part of that movement.
I wore a bright red suit to that interview and I thought, okay, and there was one woman onthe interview team.
I was thrilled about that.
But I thought, I'm proud of this.
(16:05):
This is who I am.
I can balance this.
Little did I know how difficult it would be.
But I just want to go through a couple of more.
When I was applying for principalship, that collaborative approach became so, so, socritical to me.
So we had a group of six women who came together and we wanted to add women as viceprincipals, well, add more vice principals, but moving us into the position of principals
(16:29):
and then more in our senior admin team.
In two years time, six of us were all successful in becoming principals.
We helped each other.
We did mock interviews with each other.
We reviewed each other's portfolios.
We got other people's opinions.
And working together is what made that difference.
And I followed a very similar approach when I was applying for superintendent.
(16:49):
The people around you lift you up and it's collaboration over competition all the way whenyou're facing those really tough decisions.
And I'll use the word proactively again, Tyler, because if you know that's going to be ablock for you, whatever that looks like, how can you strategize now in your career plan to
(17:09):
say, no, I'm going to get ahead of this?
Yeah.
This all sounds like a seven habits feature here where we're talking about proactive andthinking in the end in mind.
I can tell that you're a seven habits person just from the conversation that we're havinghere.
It's so powerful to hear that and it resonates with me so well in that collaborativemindset.
(17:30):
It's again, it's imperative to do the right thing.
Now, if you're an aspiring leader, if you're somebody that is looking to take that nextstep,
here's a little piece of advice in an interview.
You need to talk about when you're faced with a challenge and how are you responding toit.
It is perfectly acceptable and it's wanted to hear to say, I'm gonna resource my team.
(17:51):
I'm gonna use my team.
I'm gonna talk to the people around me.
I'm gonna get some collective information to make an informed decision.
They don't want the person that says I'm gonna deal with it and I'll handle it.
That's an old time thing that we're not looking for anymore.
And so be sure of that.
Now, when you make that commitment, you are holding yourself to a level of accountabilitythough.
So you need to follow through with that.
You need to use your team because the first time you don't, it's going to be apparent andpeople will know you have to resource your team.
(18:18):
Now.
of I.
It's we.
Yep.
Exactly.
Shifting gears here a bit, Jackson deals with the intense challenges of mental illnesswithin a family.
What personal adversities did you draw upon when writing this story and how did they shapethe narrative?
Yeah, so that was a really tough book to write.
(18:39):
So Jackson is a story of two paths.
It's a mom who's trying to save her adult son from debilitating anxiety, but it takes youback through childhood where something's, what's going on here?
All the way through that path and the questioning, did I do something right?
Did I do something wrong?
Should we have done this?
Should we have done that?
(18:59):
All the way through to why, why, what have I done wrong?
That guilt that parents feel, it's a natural thing.
And Jackson, who is the young adult who does like so many youth do, moves to externalgratification, can't understand why, you know, thoughts are going on the way they are in
his own mind.
And so when I started to write that book, it really did stem from what I saw as I wasretiring.
(19:21):
But at the same time, I had very good friends whose children were struggling, extendedfamily members whose children were struggling, and it just seemed to all come together at
once.
So writing from a parent's perspective, you you could draw from your own parenting inmany, many ways because, you know, and pull in that lens of anxiousness.
But what I did is I went out and interviewed parents, moms and dads, and also youth whowere struggling.
(19:44):
And I could write from the perspective of the parent really pretty free flowing, butwriting for Jackson was still so challenging.
I just could not get into that mind.
So I found a fellow writer named Yvonne Mars from
London, England, actually, who struggles with many, many challenges.
And she helped me write the narrative of Jackson and from her perspective and herchallenges.
(20:07):
And that's where it just became so real because it was from someone who understood whatwas happening and how your thoughts and your actions and your feelings are all connected.
So, but boy, it was that heart wrenching meeting with those parents who, because we allhave, we all say, you know, I could go back and say I would do things differently with my
three children.
Of course we can.
(20:27):
But we have to get past that guilt, guilt, guilt and also I need to save my child.
Well, there comes a point, and this is so hard to say, where your child has to savethemselves.
And you can be there with love and support, but you have to understand what that line is.
So that's what that book was all about and how it came to be.
(20:47):
I certainly was not able to write that on my own.
So yeah.
And there's so much to be said about, you know, even just that last statement, not beingable to write it on your own, you're bringing it back to collaboration.
You're bringing back to that collective mindset.
When you do something like write a book or you do something like host a podcast and you'recreating your own professional development.
(21:12):
And I'm not sure if you can speak to this, Lynn, but in me hosting Elemental Educator andpursuing my own book, I have learned so much more about
what I'm trying to dive into and do, then any professional development I could have signedup for, you know, at a convention or through an online workshop.
And it just has to do with your following your interest, your following your passion, yourfollowing what you want to be doing, and you're taking charge of your learning.
(21:37):
And the best leaders are always learning to lead.
They need to be seeking it out.
So on top of this though, and similar theme, promoting mental health, especially inchildren, can encounter resistance.
How have you navigated and overcome these challenges in your mission to make emotionalwellbeing a priority in schools?
It goes back to what I said earlier about sharing the facts, sharing the research.
(21:59):
One of the most powerful things I say is, okay, look where we are now.
You know, my goodness, look where we are now, asking the question, is this what you wantfor your child tomorrow in six months and in five years?
Every parent, every teacher is doing the best they possibly can.
But if something's not working, we can't continue to do that.
So I go back to the research.
(22:20):
know, we know, look at our kids are struggling.
I go to Stats Canada.
I think I shared some.
Yeah, we all know that our students are struggling.
In December of 2023, Stats Canada, here's an example, young adults aged 18 to 24 were mostlikely to report moderate to severe symptoms of depression.
33 % of the people who were questioned, anxiety 25 % and PTSD 15%.
(22:42):
That's a fact everybody.
So if our youth is struggling to this degree,
We're doing something wrong.
What do we do to change it?
And that's where I bring forth the research and people who have real life experiences.
That's what moves people.
When you hear, when I have an interview from a teacher who, you know, greetedkindergartens with, you know, in a certain way, all about the curriculum, all about play,
(23:07):
and then move to a, no, these kids are my kids.
I love these kids.
And whatever way you want to frame love, I care about these kids.
into a place where well -being became the focus of our classroom and everything becamemore joyous and wonderful.
Those real life stories make people think, wow, that resonates with me.
I'd like to move in that direction and take the first baby step.
(23:32):
I guess that's what I get.
Yeah, I think I answered your question.
I'm not sure.
You absolutely did.
And the episode right before this one is with Dr.
Mark Williams.
He's a neuroscientist out of Australia.
And he talks about a recent study where they actually hooked up children to EEG machinesand it was scanning their brain and it was scanning the teacher's brain as they were
(23:54):
talking.
And when the teacher was building that connection, when they were establishing arelationship, their brains were in sync.
And
There's something to be said about establishing an effective relationship.
And there's a reason in the province of Alberta, establishing effective relationships isone of the teacher competencies that every teacher gets evaluated on meeting.
Because we need to establish effective relationships to be there for people.
(24:14):
And it's not effective relationships for kids, it's effective relationships for staff,your organization, wherever it is, yourself.
You need to be able to establish an effective relationship.
And that first step is reflection.
You talked about it right here coming in and bringing up reflection.
What we're really trying to do is bring about a movement, bring about a difference, havethings done differently, which brings us to that water element, which is the ability to
(24:37):
implement change.
So Lynn, how have you driven meaningful change in the realm of children's mental healththrough your books, podcasts, and public speaking?
Okay, so I would say the largest measurable, so impact was my 2023 word, right?
How do I measure the impact of what we're doing?
You know, this connects with schools, right?
Your school improvement plan, what's your beginning part, how do you measure your dataalong the way, how do you do and what do you change, right?
(25:03):
So I would say the largest, and I mentioned going into schools with parent organizations,the largest impact we've had to reach that mission has been through parent and educator
engagement evenings.
They come because this is what they want.
You mentioned earlier, when you're engaged in what you want to learn, in what you want tochange, you know, you're going to be more influenced by what you hear.
(25:25):
You're going to take things to apply them.
You know, many of us grew up in that suck it up buttercup generation.
And what we say overwhelmingly, I would say the over, that's not the word I want to use.
The big message for our evenings is let's make talking about our feelings.
normalized thing in our homes and in our classrooms in whatever way that looks like.
(25:45):
It's different in a kindergarten room than it is in a grade 12 room, of course.
But if you can come home from work as a parent, as a teacher who's coming home and say, Ihad a horrible day.
I'll tell you what happened later, but right now I've got to go.
I'm going to go sit in the other room and listen to music for half an hour.
You know where to find me.
You've modeled that it's okay to have that feeling of frustration or upset.
(26:07):
What you're going to do about it.
how you bring yourself back to a calmness and then talk about it in a way where you cancome to a resolution afterwards.
That's what we're trying to model with people through the books, through the resources,through the engagement evenings.
And so it's that change is okay and it's fluid.
We all go at it in a different way, at a different pace, but we have to ignite that changein a way that touches people.
(26:34):
And it's really hard for some people and many cultures as well.
to talk about feelings openly.
So I think it's a huge, huge thing.
So yeah.
And it's bringing a movement to almost desensitize the phrase, calm down, self -regulate,right?
(26:55):
When people say those, doesn't work.
We need to get to a spot where some kind of cue can be given that correlates to it beingokay and a point of emphasis on taking care of yourself is okay.
Now,
I can see that you are upset right now.
What do you think you need to do?
And if you know your students well enough, then they've got five tools that you've taughtthem that you can say, I think this one worked for you last time.
(27:20):
Do you want to try it?
And let them work it out if they can.
They can't always.
Those are kids who need more attention and more time.
But anyway, okay.
And one of the things I've learned from that is if one kid is expressing it, there'sprobably three to four kids in the room that also need it.
So just do it whole class.
Do it holistically.
(27:41):
Do it with your staff.
That's your reminder that somebody is needing help.
That's a reminder that everybody's needing help because there's some people that are stillhiding it.
Now, your work emphasizes moving from reactive to proactive.
approaches in mental health, what strategies have you implemented to ensure this shift inschools and communities is both effective and sustainable?
(28:02):
Well, I'm not in position of influencer decision making any longer.
And as I said earlier, I'm really trying to share information and influence theinfluencers.
So, yeah.
I would say you are.
You definitely are in a position of influence.
Maybe a position of authority, a position of power.
No, but influence, yes, people listen.
So, so I asked the question, how do we get, you know, you mentioned earlier, we talkedabout top down, you mentioned bottom up.
(28:30):
There's, there's something about leading from the middle that I wouldn't mind jumping intohere because to me, this is so powerful.
How do we get the players?
And when I talk about players, anybody who's involved in the education community on boardto do something in this climate where to be blunt, well -being has to be the priority.
Well -being has to be number one because when we are well, and I mean as a whole personand our students are well, then we can start to check off those success box for academic
(28:59):
because everybody's doing okay.
So how do we get people to see that and say, I want to make change?
And one of the most powerful things I did in leading from the middle, and this is throughAndy Hargraves and Dennis Shirley, if anybody's ever heard of them out of Boston College,
Dennis was advisor to our previous, well,
a previous Minister of Education in Ontario.
And he led 10 boards in Ontario through a process called Leading from the Middle.
(29:22):
Now we all kind of morphed that into what was meaningful for us.
In our board, it was our kids with learning disabilities who were really struggling andfalling through the gaps and needing more and more services when they should be able to
succeed.
We weren't teaching them how to read the way kids with LD need to read.
So we took a huge chance, this goes to risk taking too, maybe this is the next one, and wepulled together a committee.
(29:47):
Now people will say, Lynn, you are crazy, but holy cow, did this committee make, I'll tellyou what the end result was, but we had union leaders from the Teachers Federation, we had
union leaders from the Educational Support Staff, we had community members, we hadpsychologists, people who worked in the school board, social workers, psychologists,
special education teachers, classroom teachers, vice principals, principals.
(30:10):
We had this whole group of people around the table and the first thing we did is say,let's look at what's happening.
And I had already gathered all of that, all of that information, all of that data.
This is what's happening with our kids with LD.
Okay.
And then we look at where do we want to be?
You know, where do you want to be?
We want these kids succeeding.
We want kids understanding their own accommodations and modifications so that they don'tneed as many special education services and, and, and, or as many as we can give them, but
(30:37):
you want to minimize that, right?
And then we figured out how to do it in the middle by doing a whole bunch of research.
And this is the end result.
In every single elementary school in the board that I was a superintendent with inWindsor, Ontario, there is a reading intervention program called MPower through Sick Kids
of Ontario, which is evidence and research based.
And kids with learning disabilities are being taught to read through people who've beentrained on how to do it for kids with LD.
(31:03):
It has made massive changes in the future of kids' lives and parents are just
I don't get those emails anymore, but I'm sure my successor does.
That's what warms your heart.
That's system change and that's leading from the middle.
Can I just say something though?
What could have happened if I said, we're putting in power, my team, we're putting inpower in every school.
(31:26):
That's not my job.
That's not what I'm supposed to do.
You're pulling me away from other students who need support.
We would have had all those battles, but everybody had a voice in the process.
Exactly, and you're bringing it back to that value of collaboration and that's why it'ssuccessful.
It shouldn't be necessarily even just called top down bottom up, but it is because that'sthe way the hierarchical structure is set up.
(31:48):
It's just the idea of collaboration.
You're getting everybody on board to have that same alignment towards that mission, thatvision that you're trying to drive out there.
And important...
to fire, but anyway.
That's okay.
We'll get to the fire element later.
But important with what you're saying, you know, we talk about student wellbeing, we talkabout teacher wellbeing or staff wellbeing or employee wellbeing or follower wellbeing.
(32:11):
You also need to have system wellbeing.
Look at your teacher retention rates.
Look at your employee retention rates.
Look at student dropout rates, right?
Look at how many years past retirement a potential retired teacher is staying on board.
Look at the number of applicants you're getting for postings, right?
(32:32):
Look at what kids are saying for how safe they feel.
All of that data is a multi -modal approach to analyze how well is your system.
And I've just listed a couple.
There's so many you can go into, but you need to take a look at systems analysis as welland improve your system to improve teachers, to improve kids.
(32:54):
You're there for kids.
You're there for your followers.
You're there for the work you're trying to push out.
It's only going to work if everyone is well.
Absolutely, and that has to happen on a regular basis.
You could do that system analysis this year and things are gonna look different in ayear's time, right?
Things, systems change, people change, students change.
Absolutely.
So as someone deeply involved in education, what changes have you implemented in fromteaching and leadership roles to foster greater emotional intelligence among students and
(33:25):
staff?
I think it comes down to every single one of us.
If we can, you know that how we teach emotional regulation, emotional literacy, those areterms that are kind of being put aside right now, which is okay, but really it is.
If we can teach ourselves to identify, understand and accept our feelings, because they'rethere for a reason, right?
We have fear for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes it's that horrible thunderstorm, severe thunderstorm that flew through lastnight.
(33:49):
Sometimes I'm afraid of something's gonna happen today and I'm not ready for it, right?
Those are valid emotions, we can teach our kids and our staff, every single one of usourselves, we have to start with ourselves, right?
All right, I know I'm feeling fearful, why?
And then when you can identify what it is, what are you gonna do about it?
If I'm afraid of something that's gonna happen later today, I can say, I know for me, forme, speaking, I'll just say it, I do deep breathing before I get on a stage.
(34:16):
If I don't, I literally become dizzy up there.
I know that, that's a fact.
So I put something in place so that I don't,
Avoid public speaking.
I can do it but with strategies.
If kids are feeling anxious about speaking in front of the class, well there's otherthings that we can do to help them prepare for that.
Maybe it's not speaking in front of the class right away.
All of these things is about understanding yourself and what those feelings are tellingyou so you can do something about it.
(34:44):
So many people shut down or respond with anger and negativity because they just don'tknow.
what to do about it.
So to me that's about being proactive.
The first thing we have to do is look in the mirror and do it ourselves.
If we are coming home as the previous example I gave and blowing up in front of our kids,that's what we're teaching them.
(35:05):
That's what we're modeling for them with the previous example of, you know, I already saidit.
And here's another thing.
If you talk to your kids before they go out the door in the morning and say, what'shappening today?
What are you looking forward to?
Or,
Or what are you worried about?
And then when you come back home that night, you have something specific to ask and it'sokay.
This is the piece that's hard for some of us.
(35:26):
It's okay to say, I blew it.
Wow, that really didn't go well.
But this is what I'm to do next time instead.
Or yeah, I blew it.
Maybe that wasn't for me.
Instead of, you know, writing a paper, I'm going to share it through a storyboard nexttime.
I think I'd be more engaged in that.
So that's the proactive piece that comes down to
(35:46):
for me and those students who need much more attention from us for a whole number ofreasons.
They need to learn to do these things too.
And then instead of teachers, kids coming to us, so and so did this, so and so did that,blah, blah.
You basically can give them the problems to solve by themselves.
And you said it earlier, Tyler, as small groups through conversations through, this ishow, you know, this is how you made me feel.
(36:11):
However, it's gonna look, I know that's not, that's.
But the reality is when this happened, this was the result.
And some kids don't even realize the results of their actions.
So if we are in a position to teach them these strategies, if we know them ourselves.
So first thing I would say is, hey, everybody get five strategies in your backpack,whatever that looks like.
(36:33):
Our five books teach five different evidence -based strategies that grandmas have saidthank you to us.
So yeah, that's what I think that...
emotional intelligence, whatever the words are, that's what it's all about.
And this is bold and it's out there, but it's important.
You're not great.
You're not that great to do everything perfect all the time.
(36:57):
You're going to make mistakes.
You need to put that to your kids.
You need to put that to your staff.
You need to put that to your organization.
But the hardest, you need to put that to yourself.
You are not great enough to be perfect.
We learn...
Constantly we constantly go from incompetence to competence back to incompetence again,right when you feel great at something There's something to learn.
(37:21):
There's something to go find There's something to optimize get a little bit better seewhere you can take it And you know, we've hinted at this a little bit, but we're getting
to the fire element which you know embodies that idea to take a risk and make thatdecision So Lynn what has been one of the riskiest decisions you've made in your career
related to mental health advocacy and what was the outcome?
(37:42):
Well, that whole thing with students with learning disability was absolutely related tomental health because those kids were struggling and you know what that means.
It's affecting their self -esteem.
They start to withdraw.
They don't want to participate in those subject areas where reading is a part of it, whichis almost the entire school day.
I mean, that was directly connected with well -being, shall we say.
(38:04):
But my whole piece about mental health was what can we put into our classrooms from aproactive lens?
And so things that are, you know, decades old, community circles.
So we talked to teachers about maybe well -being is not part of the curriculum in theschool or the school where that you teach at, but what can you do every single day in your
own classroom so that it just becomes organic?
(38:25):
So community circles, talking about things that are happy to start with to build thatlevel of trust.
There's all kinds of things educators can do to build those connections so that
well -being, even though it might not be measured in the academic way, it's still apriority.
So I'm not really explaining myself very well here.
(38:46):
Okay.
You did fine.
And there's something to be said with a simple, how are you?
And you know, I'm gonna put this out there.
Your followers, the kids, most of them are gonna just say fine.
I'm okay.
Upon that, they're gonna go sit wherever they need to go.
They're gonna go to their work spot, wherever they need to be.
And now they're gonna reflect on that question.
(39:06):
And that's where the magic is.
It's not necessarily in the direct dialogue with you, but by simply asking that question,a question they might not ever get asked by any other person in their life.
How are you?
How are you?
And then you could also sometimes, not always, cause you say a lot of, and you're rightTyler, a lot of students won't show you that.
I, hey, can we have a conversation and pull them out in the hallway and say, are you allright?
(39:28):
You're just something, you seem upset today.
You seem bothered, you seem sad.
Wow.
And then it's the same thing.
They might not answer you in that context, but they know you care.
Yeah.
So transitioning from private educational role to becoming a public advocate, and I'musing the word public advocate.
You said you didn't have influence, but we'll call you an influencer as well.
(39:49):
For mental health requires bold decisions.
What motivated you to take this leap and how has it influenced your mission?
wow.
So I retired on, first day of school in September and that Thursday I was teaching at thecollege and I left that day, Tyler, that's just a bit of side note to give you some
context.
I cried.
I cried on the way home because as an administrator, you still get to teach as anadministrator, but it's not the same thing.
(40:14):
And as a superintendent, I hadn't taught in seven years.
I forgot how much joy, I loved every minute teaching educational assistance at the collegehere.
I absolutely loved it and I've done that for five years now.
So that was a part of it.
But as I said earlier, I also saw those levels of withdrawal, of anxiousness, ofloneliness, of depression in post -secondary students as well.
(40:38):
And at that point I thought, okay, now I have the full authority when I start my ownbusiness to make those decisions about what I embrace and what I can walk away from.
I don't have anybody telling me what I have to do anymore.
I don't have any of those mandatory things.
I build my mission, my vision, my team, my advisory team to let's get this thing going andwhat does it look like?
(41:01):
Everything we do empowers children by helping them discover those stepping stones thatthat's always the deciding factor.
And so that means adults as part of it, because we are the ones who have to help themunderstand those stepping stones.
know, so it has been amazing over the last several years being able to say, no, that's no,no.
You know what?
(41:22):
That's not for me, but I know somebody else who's doing this.
Let me give you a referral to them.
I have people who want to be podcast guests.
Okay.
That's not really our context, but I have somebody else I can refer you to.
So that gives me, what's the word?
I don't know.
The passion to say, this is what works.
(41:42):
This is what we need.
And then to flip and to shift when new things come forward.
or and then do the research to support them or say, nope, this is not something we'regoing to talk about.
It's not grounded in research yet.
It's too new.
It's too hot off the press.
And I don't want to put out a shiny, a shiny object factor to anyone.
So those decisions.
(42:02):
Yeah.
You call them bold.
I mean, there are, there are eight of us on the advisory core board.
It's not the same thing as the school board.
but yeah, we stick to what matters.
We stick to what our business is all about, all about thoughts.
actions and feelings all being connected and how do we make it a proactive way an action.
And it's nice to hear two things here.
(42:23):
One is everything that you're doing, you're rooting it back to that idea of collaborationand communication and that effective conversation you need to have with people.
But the second one is, and it's so important to do this, establish your list of non-negotiables, things you're unwilling to compromise on, unwilling to unwaver from, and
stick to those because those are usually rooted in something very powerful and very, verystrong towards what you're trying to do.
(42:47):
So.
In your work as an author, educator, and speaker, I'd also like to dive into yourperspective as superintendent and principal, assistant principal here.
How have you balanced the need for innovative change with the risk involved, particularlywhen advocating for new approaches to children's emotional well -being?
boy, it all goes back to research, research, knowing what you're talking about.
(43:09):
And of course I'm not the expert in it.
I was so saddened to hear that Mindful Schools has closed down.
But so I go to other organizations now and I'm just looking up the name, it's Cosm, it'scalled I think, I'll get that for you.
But there's a new organization that's opened up in the U .S.
that's, here it is, it's called the Coalition of Schools Education.
(43:30):
The coalition of schools educating mindfully.
It's in full force now.
So I look to these organizations that have experts and call out that expertise to givethem that voice, to make it public, to instigate that need of, yeah, something's not
working here, we need to do it.
Get rid of those shiny objects.
That's what it goes back to.
And new approaches that are coming out are very, very exciting.
(43:53):
I like to think of them and I'm not a social worker.
I am not a psychologist, as an educator, I consider them complementary.
I would never ever want to say to anybody who's struggling with their mental health thattraditional therapy is not the way to go, right?
But other people have found that by adding in Reiki, mindfulness practices, visualization,walking in nature, yoga, these other things help people to regain control.
(44:24):
over their minds and their bodies.
So I like to think of them as hand in hand.
And as I said earlier, I am very careful about the guests that I have in my show.
And I also support people through affiliates, right?
So I really believe in the product that they're offering.
And I support them on my webpage by saying, hey everyone, this is a wonderful coach forparents.
(44:45):
I fully support what she's doing and give them, you how affiliate works.
Basically I'll get $3 or something for the referral, but that's not even what it's aboutfor me.
It's about me saying, this is someone that supports our vision and mission.
We have vetted them and we believe in what they're doing.
So.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Lynn, what are you hoping people action in their lives tomorrow from your message?
(45:07):
Here's the question.
What can you do today?
Right now for your own wellbeing.
Take 30 seconds to step back and say, just in the last 24 hours, where have your feelingsgone to?
And you're probably gonna have a gamut of them and that's okay.
Is there a situation that you've gone into where you've been an instigator and maybeyou've said something that's not kind, maybe you have pushed some buttons and instead of
(45:32):
doing that, can you move into a position of
caring or questioning or curiosity because we've become the society of right and wrong asopposed to being curious about each other.
So when I asked that question about well -being, I'm thinking about is it reciprocalgiving in a giving position, right?
Because when we give, my gosh, the joy that we give, that we receive just by giving andhelping other people is incredible.
(45:58):
So what can you do?
Because you said it earlier, when your cup is full,
you that flows out to other people.
When your cup is half empty, you're struggling and you can't give to others the best thatyou can give.
When we all come together in a community of caring and curiosity, I just think the synergyin this world can shift significantly.
(46:19):
But it has to start with us doing the reflection to say, I need to take control over thesethoughts, thoughts and feelings so that my actions change.
So my question to everybody is,
Think about your last 24 hours.
If there's one thing you could change, what would it be?
And how can you do that and keep that in mind in the future?
So when you're about to get called into that conversation, instead you walk away.
(46:42):
Or instead you bring a different lens of curiosity, right?
So you bring more joy to yourself, more balance to yourself, whatever that looks like,because balance is a very different definition for all of us.
That's my question for every listener and viewer.
And a great reflective question for everyone.
Always.
One of the things that I'm trying to implement is you often hear the speaker or thekeynote come out and say, pull out your phone and text somebody really close to you and
(47:07):
tell them how important they are to you and what they mean to you and how thankful you arefor them.
But on top of that, go to your email and schedule an email to yourself a month from now.
And title it Check In and put it as, hey, you need to take a minute today and
Think about how are you doing?
What's going well?
(47:27):
What needs to change?
Where are you at?
And you need to do that every month.
You need to schedule that email every month so it comes to you, right?
So that you see it, it pops up, and it's that reminder that you told yourself you weregoing to do this and commit to yourself.
I love that.
I love that.
that, I'll use the word accountability partners too.
You've got somebody, whatever you want to call it, you can use whatever you want.
You know, you meet once a month, you say, I'm trying this, I'm trying this.
(47:50):
How did that go?
How did that go?
And you keep each other in line with wellbeing as well, not just actions.
You know, I love that idea.
I'm going to draft an email as soon as we're done, Tyler.
you go.
And I'll tell you what, probably nine times out of 10, you are going to be well when youread that email and you're gonna delete it, you're gonna move on.
But that one time that you needed to read that and reflect is the time that it needed tobe there.
(48:11):
Then you need to do it on a consistent basis to make sure you're there for yourself.
Now, Lynn, know we're, we have a lot of lived experience here and we're in the retiredstage.
What does your future look like though?
Yeah, my future right now.
So I've just finished at St.
Clair College and with that come a huge decision I made in the last four months.
I'm going to be moving back into the background as a production specialist for my podcastand starting to have guests hosts in November.
(48:40):
And I made that decision based on I'll use the word integrity.
I want to talk about connectiveness.
I had a connectiveness with students and parents over the last, you know, since
Now that I don't, I don't feel that I'm in a position to be able to host and speak to thatas if I know what I'm talking about anymore because I don't have grand babies yet, right?
(49:00):
I'm not at that age and I'm not in, what's the word?
I'm not in the world of education anymore.
So yeah, that's going to be a really nice change moving to guest hosting.
People who are in the throes of it, who can bring a new voice to it.
We'll continue getting our books out there.
We're moving into one audio book.
And we've got a great game that's in the works called The Power of Thought that we hope toget out to market in the winter.
(49:23):
We've actually just come back from Chicago where there's this whole thing every singleyear if anybody's interested in it, where if you are a game creator, you can go and pitch
your game to companies and publishers, game publishers who know what they're doing.
So we're really excited about what happened and what that's gonna lead to.
Yeah, and so just moving forward with everything we're doing and carrying on with ourparent engagement evenings as well.
(49:48):
Yeah.
sounds incredible.
And Lynn how can our listeners get in touch with you if they'd like to connect?
Everything is at Lynn at LynnMcLaughlin.com or you can go to thepowerofthought.ca.
It's all in one place.
Everything's there.
My email, my phone, all of it.
Would love to connect.
And make sure you check out the description of this episode as that's going to be linkedin it as well.
(50:08):
Well, Alchemists, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The ElementalEducator.
I'm your host Tyler, and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to sit down with LynnMcLaughlin.
I feel inspired to start my day today with some wellness activities, going back to myworkplace, my staff, my community, and just trying to share that warmth and making sure
everybody knows that we're connected, we matter, we're here together and creating thatalignment.
(50:32):
Lynn, thank you so much for joining the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
Be well.
Think about your last 24 hours.
(00:01):
If there's one thing you could change, what would it be?
And how can you do that and keep that in mind in the future?
So when you're about to get called into that conversation, instead you walk away.
Or instead you bring a different lens of curiosity, right?
So you bring more joy to yourself, more balance to yourself, whatever that looks like,because balance is a very different definition for all of us.
(00:22):
Alchemists, before this episode of the Elemental Educator with Lynn McLaughlin kicks off,I just from the bottom of my heart wanna say thank you for your continued support,
watching and supporting the channel, subscribing to the newsletter, checking out thedifferent social media websites.
It means so much to build this community with you and grow alongside you.
This is our last episode for the 2024 year.
(00:42):
Our next one kicks off January 6th in 2025.
So I hope you enjoy this one with Lynn and we'll see you later.
(01:06):
and welcome to the Elemental Educator podcast.
I'm your host Tyler and if you're turning in for the first time, thank you so very muchfor joining us and welcome to a place where we redefine leadership and challenge the
status quo.
Be sure to like, follow and subscribe to Elemental Educator on Apple, Spotify, YouTube orwherever you get your podcast from and check out our website, elementaleducator.com.
(01:26):
Get ready to let the alchemy of education ignite your passion for learning.
Today we're joined by Lynn McLaughlin, an experienced educator who has served assuperintendent, principal, vice principal, teacher, and educational consultant.
She's taught future educational assistance at a local college for five years.
Lynn is also a bestselling author, co -authoring The Power of Thought, children's bookseries with her niece, Amber Raymond.
(01:50):
advocating for proactive approach to children's mental health.
With over four years hosting the podcast, Taking the Helm, Lynn is dedicated to promotingchildren's emotional well -being.
She's an accomplished speaker, engaging audiences locally, provincially, andinternationally.
actively involved in her community, Lynn is a member of 100 Women Who Care, Windsor Essex,a Rotarian and serves as a trustee for the John McGivney Children's Center School
(02:15):
Authority in Windsor, Ontario.
Welcome to the Elemental Educator podcast, Lynn.
It is my pleasure to have you here.
It's my pleasure and my honor, Tyler.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely.
Lynn, I want to jump right in and because of all of the lived experience, I just want toknow how did you get to where you are now?
As a retiree with my own business?
(02:37):
Well, yeah, so it was, yeah.
So when I retired, and you see this now today, Tyler, probably much more so based on whatI'm hearing from my fellow educators, the number of students who are really in a place of
higher levels of depression.
We've got all the stats and everything to back this up to.
and anxiousness to the point where it's affecting their daily life.
(02:58):
And that was rising as I was about to retire from my role as a superintendent.
And so we put things in place, right?
child youth workers in almost every single school, we train them on how to be the safeperson.
We initiated zones of regulation rooms.
started, or areas, sorry, and programs within schools.
(03:20):
We started emotional vocabulary in kindergarten and we responded.
But I was out for a walk one day just after I retired and I was teaching at post-secondary and I saw the same things.
know, kids in junior kindergarten all the way through post -secondary are struggling.
And my niece was just about to graduate from her master of education program and I calledher and I said, Amber, why aren't we being proactive?
(03:44):
Why are we doing this backwards?
Absolutely we have to respond to the growing need.
But why aren't we giving our kids tools and strategies so that they can have all of thatbefore they struggle instead of waiting until they do?
So I said, would you write a book with me?
And it's three years later and we have a book series and a whole bunch of other resources.
And that walk was the aha moment.
(04:06):
And let's help, let's join the group of people that are moving into this proactivemovement.
And many have been there for some time, but really are not being heard.
to say, hey, we know this, we've got decades of research.
Let's, you know, if every child has 10 strategies they can pull in when they're succeedingor when they're struggling, they've got 10 more strategies than they had four weeks ago,
(04:29):
right?
That's how it all came about in terms of the business.
Absolutely.
And you know, at retirement, you could have walked away, you could have stopped, you couldhave went about everything else.
You made a decision and it's rooted in something very powerful, And Earth represents corevalues in rooting yourself in beliefs.
So Lynn how have your core values shaped your commitment to children's emotional well-being, both in your role as an educator and through your work in the Power of Thought
(04:56):
series?
Well, I think, and as a school administrator, Tyler, I'm sure you breathe this everysingle day.
Our staff needs support, right?
Our staff needs support.
Our staff need to be well themselves so they can give everything they've got to thoselittle ones and large ones or whatever children, students that are in front of them from
JK through post -secondary every single day.
(05:17):
To me, I always, and I do believe this, and I do hear this from staff, it's just not mespouting.
Empathy is so, so, so important.
And when people know you care, you genuinely care, that collaboration, that support flowsmore naturally.
When you stop by, I always said once a week, I'm gonna stop by and have a conversation,however brief that might be, with every individual staff member.
(05:43):
You get to know the things behind the scenes once that trust is built.
And then when things are happening in people's lives, you are there for support.
but you're also showing your own vulnerability when you make mistakes, right?
I own this, I blew it, let's figure out a way to do this together.
To me, it's about if you as an educator are self -aware, this goes to core values, thenyou know your strengths, you know your areas for growth, and you don't shut things down
(06:08):
because you know you're not strong in them, you're gonna move.
And I don't mean just in terms of academia, I'm talking about our whole selves.
Then you instill a sense of worth.
and self -confidence in your students because you know how to do that yourself, right?
That's where we start building self -esteem.
They know their strengths.
They know what they need to succeed.
(06:29):
They know how to bridge those things instead of fearing failure and becoming more anxiousand worried.
So I would say the whole thing is under one big umbrella of reframing our definition ofsuccess to the whole child, not just academia.
And there is a movement happening, as you well know.
We're a little slower in Ontario, but it's happening worldwide and I'm so excited to bepart of it.
(06:55):
Now, this is an incredible message to hear in what we want for teachers.
Now, in your actions, this is something you're trying to do, you're trying to promote,you're trying to help with this movement.
What value do you have in this?
What stake do you have in this?
the future of children, the future of students.
well, I'm sure it's very similar in Alberta.
(07:17):
I haven't looked up your data, but through the College of Teachers in Ontario, we haveteachers who are leaving the profession within five years.
Well, that tells us something.
And our union, our elementary teachers union, our secondary school teachers unions willtell you, Catholic school unions as well, teacher burnout has got a lot to do with it.
So how do we, with the reality,
(07:38):
of the diversity and complexities of our students that are coming us today.
They're the best our parents have got, right?
That's who we've got, those precious little beings.
How do we change what we're doing so we can better support them?
And I may not be in a position of decision -making any longer in terms of the schoolsystem, but if I can influence decision -makers to think that way and drive system change,
(08:02):
that's what I'm all about right now.
And I'll be honest,
getting in through the back door.
And I don't mean the back door because our community organizations and our school parentsare so, so, so critical.
But sometimes when we drive school change, it doesn't come from, you know, the Ministry ofEducation.
It comes from the community, whether or not that be parents or organizations or not -for-profits, et cetera, et cetera.
(08:26):
Did I just do a squirrel there?
I think I did a squirrel.
that's awesome and having a bottom -up movement there's something to be said about theurgency the legitimacy and and the power that they need to have to be able to drive those
bottom -up movements and burnout is relevant everywhere some great contacts alchemists ifyou're listening to this regardless of education if you're feeling burnt out morgan
michael's a blueprint for belonging her first book as well from burnt out to fired up andif you follow podcasts as well tim cavey with teachers on fire just some extra excellent
(08:53):
resources you don't need to be in education you can check these people out they dowonderful wonderful things
in promoting wellness and thinking of your holistic approach in advocating for yourself.
And on top of that, Lin, your advocacy for an approach to proactive to mental health iscentral to your work.
How do these core beliefs influence the way you design programs and resources for childrenand educators alike?
(09:18):
Well, it all starts with research.
I will admit it.
Those shiny objects sometimes are pretty easy to jump on.
that's exactly what I need today.
Boom, you jump on it and it turns out to be an absolute failure, total waste of your time.
So I'm always researching evidence -based strategy approaches so that we can say, look,this works.
Where is it working in the world?
(09:38):
What systems are in place?
Who's got well -being?
embedded in the curriculum.
it's embedded in the curriculum, it comes with educator training.
And I don't mean teachers, I mean educators, social work, mean, sorry, educational supportstaff, administration, people who are directly involved with students.
So to me, I start with research and I share that on my website.
(09:59):
And anybody wants to share something new, absolutely share it with me.
And I'll vet it and I'll post it.
And the information, as you do, Tyler, that I share on my podcast,
I very carefully vet my guests as well, educators and parents, and they talk about theexperiences they've had, their expertise and the resources that are available and the
(10:20):
difference it's made in their lives or the people around them lives.
So for example, I guess I had last year shared about School Mental Health Ontario, whichis a free resource for any educator, anytime during the year with lessons about wellbeing
from JK to grade 12, right?
These are the kinds of things I try to share with people.
(10:40):
We're not reinventing the wheel.
It's out there.
How do we jump on the things that are working?
We know they're working and bring that into our own schools and our own school systems.
Absolutely.
Alchemist, as you listen to this, we are talking from a lens of educators.
We're talking from a lens of within education.
This is beyond that.
(11:01):
If you work with people that you oversee in some way, or form in leadership ororganization, being well yourself lets you be well for the people that you lead and it
lets your followers thrive as well.
So Lynn, in your vast experience as a superintendent and educator, how have you maintainedintegrity in your approach to promoting mental health within the educational system?
(11:23):
I think we, what's the word, we model, we are what we model.
I mentioned vulnerability before.
I think we are not standing up in front of students any longer and teaching a content-based curriculum and expecting them to take it all in and then regurgitate the
information through old -fashioned paper tests, right?
Everything has changed so much and so it should have, but we make mistakes, we take risks,we try new things, and as I said early, we model that.
(11:50):
And then it becomes okay.
You know what I mean?
It becomes okay for other people to feel the same way.
We have so many staff and students that are perfectionists, right?
How do we start from an earlier age and say, wait, it's okay.
Try this.
All right.
So what?
Let's try this instead.
And the other piece that is so important is connectedness.
When we're connected to our students, we're connected to our staff.
(12:12):
And you take this outside of education, as you said as well.
Then those conversations can happen at any time.
If you know a student is coming from an impoverished home, from a single parent family whohasn't had a breakfast this morning, then you can do something to support that individual
student.
If you know a student is going through a bitter divorce where the parents are arguing, andmy gosh, I hope we can get past that at some point, you know how to better support them.
(12:39):
So, you know, when you first meet your students at the beginning of the year, that firstmonth of school is so, so, so important.
to get to know each of them.
So you can build your curriculum from their needs and then on and forward.
And then what happens, and you know this as well too, Tyler, we seem to have more and morestudents who are acting out, become aggressive, becoming aggressive or withdrawn.
(13:03):
A lot of that was here before COVID.
It's been exacerbated.
The loneliness has been exacerbated.
But if we know what those underlying factors are, and we don't always, know, sometimesthey're very, very complex, but if we are connected with our students, we can sometimes
put our finger on what are those underlying factors a lot more readily, and then what dowe have in place to support those students, but also the staff that support them.
(13:30):
To me, that's what it's all about, connectedness, vulnerability.
understanding our students and of course we'll talk about mentorship at another time butthat's another critical piece for me.
And the idea of collaboration and collective mindsets and approaching things as a team,it's significant.
And you would be surprised how much stress it reduces in your ability.
(13:52):
I just can't get over when I'm in my own master or doctorate classes or whatever classesit might be.
Why is that group work so inefficient when the team is supposed to be better?
So unpacking maybe something in there around how do we optimize group work?
How do we make sure?
And you hit it head on, you need to have trust.
You need to have...
reliability, you need to establish high expectations for the group that's working to be ahighly effective team.
(14:14):
Now, yeah.
may, you're always going to have the people that don't want any part of what you're doing.
They don't want part of any part of the new curriculum of the new focus on well -being andthey're going to be sitting in the back of the room.
Those are the people you need to spend time with.
Those are the people you need to say, because they've got something.
(14:34):
They've got something to give.
We have to figure out what it is and flip that mindset to one of being part of the team inwhatever way that
what's the word, Morse into for them, but they're the people you need to spend a lot oftime with.
And you need to figure out there why, why are we seeing what we're seeing?
And speaking of the pushback that you're gonna get from people, regardless of where youare, that brings us to the adversity we face, which is our air element.
(14:57):
And air symbolizes embracing and overcoming adversity.
Lynn, can you share a significant challenge you faced in your journey from classroomteacher to superintendent and how you overcame it?
Yeah, my goodness.
So, okay, I won't say my age, long story short, thank you so much.
Long story short, my husband and I were living in Paris, Ontario.
He was a police officer and I was a teacher and our families were down here in EssexCounty, Ontario.
(15:21):
So we decided for a whole bunch of reasons that we're gonna relocate.
So long story short, in January of 1999, we moved with a three month old, a 16 month oldand a four and a half year old.
We moved our homes, we relocated, he started a new role as a police officer here in thecounty.
I had applied to be a vice principal when I was very much expecting.
(15:44):
So I thought, okay, this is a day when, boy, very few women were in leadership positions.
Let's just say that.
We've changed that substantially, thank goodness.
But I'd like to think of myself as being part of that movement.
I wore a bright red suit to that interview and I thought, okay, and there was one woman onthe interview team.
I was thrilled about that.
But I thought, I'm proud of this.
(16:05):
This is who I am.
I can balance this.
Little did I know how difficult it would be.
But I just want to go through a couple of more.
When I was applying for principalship, that collaborative approach became so, so, socritical to me.
So we had a group of six women who came together and we wanted to add women as viceprincipals, well, add more vice principals, but moving us into the position of principals
(16:29):
and then more in our senior admin team.
In two years time, six of us were all successful in becoming principals.
We helped each other.
We did mock interviews with each other.
We reviewed each other's portfolios.
We got other people's opinions.
And working together is what made that difference.
And I followed a very similar approach when I was applying for superintendent.
(16:49):
The people around you lift you up and it's collaboration over competition all the way whenyou're facing those really tough decisions.
And I'll use the word proactively again, Tyler, because if you know that's going to be ablock for you, whatever that looks like, how can you strategize now in your career plan to
(17:09):
say, no, I'm going to get ahead of this?
Yeah.
This all sounds like a seven habits feature here where we're talking about proactive andthinking in the end in mind.
I can tell that you're a seven habits person just from the conversation that we're havinghere.
It's so powerful to hear that and it resonates with me so well in that collaborativemindset.
(17:30):
It's again, it's imperative to do the right thing.
Now, if you're an aspiring leader, if you're somebody that is looking to take that nextstep,
here's a little piece of advice in an interview.
You need to talk about when you're faced with a challenge and how are you responding toit.
It is perfectly acceptable and it's wanted to hear to say, I'm gonna resource my team.
(17:51):
I'm gonna use my team.
I'm gonna talk to the people around me.
I'm gonna get some collective information to make an informed decision.
They don't want the person that says I'm gonna deal with it and I'll handle it.
That's an old time thing that we're not looking for anymore.
And so be sure of that.
Now, when you make that commitment, you are holding yourself to a level of accountabilitythough.
So you need to follow through with that.
You need to use your team because the first time you don't, it's going to be apparent andpeople will know you have to resource your team.
(18:18):
Now.
of I.
It's we.
Yep.
Exactly.
Shifting gears here a bit, Jackson deals with the intense challenges of mental illnesswithin a family.
What personal adversities did you draw upon when writing this story and how did they shapethe narrative?
Yeah, so that was a really tough book to write.
(18:39):
So Jackson is a story of two paths.
It's a mom who's trying to save her adult son from debilitating anxiety, but it takes youback through childhood where something's, what's going on here?
All the way through that path and the questioning, did I do something right?
Did I do something wrong?
Should we have done this?
Should we have done that?
(18:59):
All the way through to why, why, what have I done wrong?
That guilt that parents feel, it's a natural thing.
And Jackson, who is the young adult who does like so many youth do, moves to externalgratification, can't understand why, you know, thoughts are going on the way they are in
his own mind.
And so when I started to write that book, it really did stem from what I saw as I wasretiring.
(19:21):
But at the same time, I had very good friends whose children were struggling, extendedfamily members whose children were struggling, and it just seemed to all come together at
once.
So writing from a parent's perspective, you you could draw from your own parenting inmany, many ways because, you know, and pull in that lens of anxiousness.
But what I did is I went out and interviewed parents, moms and dads, and also youth whowere struggling.
(19:44):
And I could write from the perspective of the parent really pretty free flowing, butwriting for Jackson was still so challenging.
I just could not get into that mind.
So I found a fellow writer named Yvonne Mars from
London, England, actually, who struggles with many, many challenges.
And she helped me write the narrative of Jackson and from her perspective and herchallenges.
(20:07):
And that's where it just became so real because it was from someone who understood whatwas happening and how your thoughts and your actions and your feelings are all connected.
So, but boy, it was that heart wrenching meeting with those parents who, because we allhave, we all say, you know, I could go back and say I would do things differently with my
three children.
Of course we can.
(20:27):
But we have to get past that guilt, guilt, guilt and also I need to save my child.
Well, there comes a point, and this is so hard to say, where your child has to savethemselves.
And you can be there with love and support, but you have to understand what that line is.
So that's what that book was all about and how it came to be.
(20:47):
I certainly was not able to write that on my own.
So yeah.
And there's so much to be said about, you know, even just that last statement, not beingable to write it on your own, you're bringing it back to collaboration.
You're bringing back to that collective mindset.
When you do something like write a book or you do something like host a podcast and you'recreating your own professional development.
(21:12):
And I'm not sure if you can speak to this, Lynn, but in me hosting Elemental Educator andpursuing my own book, I have learned so much more about
what I'm trying to dive into and do, then any professional development I could have signedup for, you know, at a convention or through an online workshop.
And it just has to do with your following your interest, your following your passion, yourfollowing what you want to be doing, and you're taking charge of your learning.
(21:37):
And the best leaders are always learning to lead.
They need to be seeking it out.
So on top of this though, and similar theme, promoting mental health, especially inchildren, can encounter resistance.
How have you navigated and overcome these challenges in your mission to make emotionalwellbeing a priority in schools?
It goes back to what I said earlier about sharing the facts, sharing the research.
(21:59):
One of the most powerful things I say is, okay, look where we are now.
You know, my goodness, look where we are now, asking the question, is this what you wantfor your child tomorrow in six months and in five years?
Every parent, every teacher is doing the best they possibly can.
But if something's not working, we can't continue to do that.
So I go back to the research.
(22:20):
know, we know, look at our kids are struggling.
I go to Stats Canada.
I think I shared some.
Yeah, we all know that our students are struggling.
In December of 2023, Stats Canada, here's an example, young adults aged 18 to 24 were mostlikely to report moderate to severe symptoms of depression.
33 % of the people who were questioned, anxiety 25 % and PTSD 15%.
(22:42):
That's a fact everybody.
So if our youth is struggling to this degree,
We're doing something wrong.
What do we do to change it?
And that's where I bring forth the research and people who have real life experiences.
That's what moves people.
When you hear, when I have an interview from a teacher who, you know, greetedkindergartens with, you know, in a certain way, all about the curriculum, all about play,
(23:07):
and then move to a, no, these kids are my kids.
I love these kids.
And whatever way you want to frame love, I care about these kids.
into a place where well -being became the focus of our classroom and everything becamemore joyous and wonderful.
Those real life stories make people think, wow, that resonates with me.
I'd like to move in that direction and take the first baby step.
(23:32):
I guess that's what I get.
Yeah, I think I answered your question.
I'm not sure.
You absolutely did.
And the episode right before this one is with Dr.
Mark Williams.
He's a neuroscientist out of Australia.
And he talks about a recent study where they actually hooked up children to EEG machinesand it was scanning their brain and it was scanning the teacher's brain as they were
(23:54):
talking.
And when the teacher was building that connection, when they were establishing arelationship, their brains were in sync.
And
There's something to be said about establishing an effective relationship.
And there's a reason in the province of Alberta, establishing effective relationships isone of the teacher competencies that every teacher gets evaluated on meeting.
Because we need to establish effective relationships to be there for people.
(24:14):
And it's not effective relationships for kids, it's effective relationships for staff,your organization, wherever it is, yourself.
You need to be able to establish an effective relationship.
And that first step is reflection.
You talked about it right here coming in and bringing up reflection.
What we're really trying to do is bring about a movement, bring about a difference, havethings done differently, which brings us to that water element, which is the ability to
(24:37):
implement change.
So Lynn, how have you driven meaningful change in the realm of children's mental healththrough your books, podcasts, and public speaking?
Okay, so I would say the largest measurable, so impact was my 2023 word, right?
How do I measure the impact of what we're doing?
You know, this connects with schools, right?
Your school improvement plan, what's your beginning part, how do you measure your dataalong the way, how do you do and what do you change, right?
(25:03):
So I would say the largest, and I mentioned going into schools with parent organizations,the largest impact we've had to reach that mission has been through parent and educator
engagement evenings.
They come because this is what they want.
You mentioned earlier, when you're engaged in what you want to learn, in what you want tochange, you know, you're going to be more influenced by what you hear.
(25:25):
You're going to take things to apply them.
You know, many of us grew up in that suck it up buttercup generation.
And what we say overwhelmingly, I would say the over, that's not the word I want to use.
The big message for our evenings is let's make talking about our feelings.
normalized thing in our homes and in our classrooms in whatever way that looks like.
(25:45):
It's different in a kindergarten room than it is in a grade 12 room, of course.
But if you can come home from work as a parent, as a teacher who's coming home and say, Ihad a horrible day.
I'll tell you what happened later, but right now I've got to go.
I'm going to go sit in the other room and listen to music for half an hour.
You know where to find me.
You've modeled that it's okay to have that feeling of frustration or upset.
(26:07):
What you're going to do about it.
how you bring yourself back to a calmness and then talk about it in a way where you cancome to a resolution afterwards.
That's what we're trying to model with people through the books, through the resources,through the engagement evenings.
And so it's that change is okay and it's fluid.
We all go at it in a different way, at a different pace, but we have to ignite that changein a way that touches people.
(26:34):
And it's really hard for some people and many cultures as well.
to talk about feelings openly.
So I think it's a huge, huge thing.
So yeah.
And it's bringing a movement to almost desensitize the phrase, calm down, self -regulate,right?
(26:55):
When people say those, doesn't work.
We need to get to a spot where some kind of cue can be given that correlates to it beingokay and a point of emphasis on taking care of yourself is okay.
Now,
I can see that you are upset right now.
What do you think you need to do?
And if you know your students well enough, then they've got five tools that you've taughtthem that you can say, I think this one worked for you last time.
(27:20):
Do you want to try it?
And let them work it out if they can.
They can't always.
Those are kids who need more attention and more time.
But anyway, okay.
And one of the things I've learned from that is if one kid is expressing it, there'sprobably three to four kids in the room that also need it.
So just do it whole class.
Do it holistically.
(27:41):
Do it with your staff.
That's your reminder that somebody is needing help.
That's a reminder that everybody's needing help because there's some people that are stillhiding it.
Now, your work emphasizes moving from reactive to proactive.
approaches in mental health, what strategies have you implemented to ensure this shift inschools and communities is both effective and sustainable?
(28:02):
Well, I'm not in position of influencer decision making any longer.
And as I said earlier, I'm really trying to share information and influence theinfluencers.
So, yeah.
I would say you are.
You definitely are in a position of influence.
Maybe a position of authority, a position of power.
No, but influence, yes, people listen.
So, so I asked the question, how do we get, you know, you mentioned earlier, we talkedabout top down, you mentioned bottom up.
(28:30):
There's, there's something about leading from the middle that I wouldn't mind jumping intohere because to me, this is so powerful.
How do we get the players?
And when I talk about players, anybody who's involved in the education community on boardto do something in this climate where to be blunt, well -being has to be the priority.
Well -being has to be number one because when we are well, and I mean as a whole personand our students are well, then we can start to check off those success box for academic
(28:59):
because everybody's doing okay.
So how do we get people to see that and say, I want to make change?
And one of the most powerful things I did in leading from the middle, and this is throughAndy Hargraves and Dennis Shirley, if anybody's ever heard of them out of Boston College,
Dennis was advisor to our previous, well,
a previous Minister of Education in Ontario.
And he led 10 boards in Ontario through a process called Leading from the Middle.
(29:22):
Now we all kind of morphed that into what was meaningful for us.
In our board, it was our kids with learning disabilities who were really struggling andfalling through the gaps and needing more and more services when they should be able to
succeed.
We weren't teaching them how to read the way kids with LD need to read.
So we took a huge chance, this goes to risk taking too, maybe this is the next one, and wepulled together a committee.
(29:47):
Now people will say, Lynn, you are crazy, but holy cow, did this committee make, I'll tellyou what the end result was, but we had union leaders from the Teachers Federation, we had
union leaders from the Educational Support Staff, we had community members, we hadpsychologists, people who worked in the school board, social workers, psychologists,
special education teachers, classroom teachers, vice principals, principals.
(30:10):
We had this whole group of people around the table and the first thing we did is say,let's look at what's happening.
And I had already gathered all of that, all of that information, all of that data.
This is what's happening with our kids with LD.
Okay.
And then we look at where do we want to be?
You know, where do you want to be?
We want these kids succeeding.
We want kids understanding their own accommodations and modifications so that they don'tneed as many special education services and, and, and, or as many as we can give them, but
(30:37):
you want to minimize that, right?
And then we figured out how to do it in the middle by doing a whole bunch of research.
And this is the end result.
In every single elementary school in the board that I was a superintendent with inWindsor, Ontario, there is a reading intervention program called MPower through Sick Kids
of Ontario, which is evidence and research based.
And kids with learning disabilities are being taught to read through people who've beentrained on how to do it for kids with LD.
(31:03):
It has made massive changes in the future of kids' lives and parents are just
I don't get those emails anymore, but I'm sure my successor does.
That's what warms your heart.
That's system change and that's leading from the middle.
Can I just say something though?
What could have happened if I said, we're putting in power, my team, we're putting inpower in every school.
(31:26):
That's not my job.
That's not what I'm supposed to do.
You're pulling me away from other students who need support.
We would have had all those battles, but everybody had a voice in the process.
Exactly, and you're bringing it back to that value of collaboration and that's why it'ssuccessful.
It shouldn't be necessarily even just called top down bottom up, but it is because that'sthe way the hierarchical structure is set up.
(31:48):
It's just the idea of collaboration.
You're getting everybody on board to have that same alignment towards that mission, thatvision that you're trying to drive out there.
And important...
to fire, but anyway.
That's okay.
We'll get to the fire element later.
But important with what you're saying, you know, we talk about student wellbeing, we talkabout teacher wellbeing or staff wellbeing or employee wellbeing or follower wellbeing.
(32:11):
You also need to have system wellbeing.
Look at your teacher retention rates.
Look at your employee retention rates.
Look at student dropout rates, right?
Look at how many years past retirement a potential retired teacher is staying on board.
Look at the number of applicants you're getting for postings, right?
(32:32):
Look at what kids are saying for how safe they feel.
All of that data is a multi -modal approach to analyze how well is your system.
And I've just listed a couple.
There's so many you can go into, but you need to take a look at systems analysis as welland improve your system to improve teachers, to improve kids.
(32:54):
You're there for kids.
You're there for your followers.
You're there for the work you're trying to push out.
It's only going to work if everyone is well.
Absolutely, and that has to happen on a regular basis.
You could do that system analysis this year and things are gonna look different in ayear's time, right?
Things, systems change, people change, students change.
Absolutely.
So as someone deeply involved in education, what changes have you implemented in fromteaching and leadership roles to foster greater emotional intelligence among students and
(33:25):
staff?
I think it comes down to every single one of us.
If we can, you know that how we teach emotional regulation, emotional literacy, those areterms that are kind of being put aside right now, which is okay, but really it is.
If we can teach ourselves to identify, understand and accept our feelings, because they'rethere for a reason, right?
We have fear for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes it's that horrible thunderstorm, severe thunderstorm that flew through lastnight.
(33:49):
Sometimes I'm afraid of something's gonna happen today and I'm not ready for it, right?
Those are valid emotions, we can teach our kids and our staff, every single one of usourselves, we have to start with ourselves, right?
All right, I know I'm feeling fearful, why?
And then when you can identify what it is, what are you gonna do about it?
If I'm afraid of something that's gonna happen later today, I can say, I know for me, forme, speaking, I'll just say it, I do deep breathing before I get on a stage.
(34:16):
If I don't, I literally become dizzy up there.
I know that, that's a fact.
So I put something in place so that I don't,
Avoid public speaking.
I can do it but with strategies.
If kids are feeling anxious about speaking in front of the class, well there's otherthings that we can do to help them prepare for that.
Maybe it's not speaking in front of the class right away.
All of these things is about understanding yourself and what those feelings are tellingyou so you can do something about it.
(34:44):
So many people shut down or respond with anger and negativity because they just don'tknow.
what to do about it.
So to me that's about being proactive.
The first thing we have to do is look in the mirror and do it ourselves.
If we are coming home as the previous example I gave and blowing up in front of our kids,that's what we're teaching them.
(35:05):
That's what we're modeling for them with the previous example of, you know, I already saidit.
And here's another thing.
If you talk to your kids before they go out the door in the morning and say, what'shappening today?
What are you looking forward to?
Or,
Or what are you worried about?
And then when you come back home that night, you have something specific to ask and it'sokay.
This is the piece that's hard for some of us.
(35:26):
It's okay to say, I blew it.
Wow, that really didn't go well.
But this is what I'm to do next time instead.
Or yeah, I blew it.
Maybe that wasn't for me.
Instead of, you know, writing a paper, I'm going to share it through a storyboard nexttime.
I think I'd be more engaged in that.
So that's the proactive piece that comes down to
(35:46):
for me and those students who need much more attention from us for a whole number ofreasons.
They need to learn to do these things too.
And then instead of teachers, kids coming to us, so and so did this, so and so did that,blah, blah.
You basically can give them the problems to solve by themselves.
And you said it earlier, Tyler, as small groups through conversations through, this ishow, you know, this is how you made me feel.
(36:11):
However, it's gonna look, I know that's not, that's.
But the reality is when this happened, this was the result.
And some kids don't even realize the results of their actions.
So if we are in a position to teach them these strategies, if we know them ourselves.
So first thing I would say is, hey, everybody get five strategies in your backpack,whatever that looks like.
(36:33):
Our five books teach five different evidence -based strategies that grandmas have saidthank you to us.
So yeah, that's what I think that...
emotional intelligence, whatever the words are, that's what it's all about.
And this is bold and it's out there, but it's important.
You're not great.
You're not that great to do everything perfect all the time.
(36:57):
You're going to make mistakes.
You need to put that to your kids.
You need to put that to your staff.
You need to put that to your organization.
But the hardest, you need to put that to yourself.
You are not great enough to be perfect.
We learn...
Constantly we constantly go from incompetence to competence back to incompetence again,right when you feel great at something There's something to learn.
(37:21):
There's something to go find There's something to optimize get a little bit better seewhere you can take it And you know, we've hinted at this a little bit, but we're getting
to the fire element which you know embodies that idea to take a risk and make thatdecision So Lynn what has been one of the riskiest decisions you've made in your career
related to mental health advocacy and what was the outcome?
(37:42):
Well, that whole thing with students with learning disability was absolutely related tomental health because those kids were struggling and you know what that means.
It's affecting their self -esteem.
They start to withdraw.
They don't want to participate in those subject areas where reading is a part of it, whichis almost the entire school day.
I mean, that was directly connected with well -being, shall we say.
(38:04):
But my whole piece about mental health was what can we put into our classrooms from aproactive lens?
And so things that are, you know, decades old, community circles.
So we talked to teachers about maybe well -being is not part of the curriculum in theschool or the school where that you teach at, but what can you do every single day in your
own classroom so that it just becomes organic?
(38:25):
So community circles, talking about things that are happy to start with to build thatlevel of trust.
There's all kinds of things educators can do to build those connections so that
well -being, even though it might not be measured in the academic way, it's still apriority.
So I'm not really explaining myself very well here.
(38:46):
Okay.
You did fine.
And there's something to be said with a simple, how are you?
And you know, I'm gonna put this out there.
Your followers, the kids, most of them are gonna just say fine.
I'm okay.
Upon that, they're gonna go sit wherever they need to go.
They're gonna go to their work spot, wherever they need to be.
And now they're gonna reflect on that question.
(39:06):
And that's where the magic is.
It's not necessarily in the direct dialogue with you, but by simply asking that question,a question they might not ever get asked by any other person in their life.
How are you?
How are you?
And then you could also sometimes, not always, cause you say a lot of, and you're rightTyler, a lot of students won't show you that.
I, hey, can we have a conversation and pull them out in the hallway and say, are you allright?
(39:28):
You're just something, you seem upset today.
You seem bothered, you seem sad.
Wow.
And then it's the same thing.
They might not answer you in that context, but they know you care.
Yeah.
So transitioning from private educational role to becoming a public advocate, and I'musing the word public advocate.
You said you didn't have influence, but we'll call you an influencer as well.
(39:49):
For mental health requires bold decisions.
What motivated you to take this leap and how has it influenced your mission?
wow.
So I retired on, first day of school in September and that Thursday I was teaching at thecollege and I left that day, Tyler, that's just a bit of side note to give you some
context.
I cried.
I cried on the way home because as an administrator, you still get to teach as anadministrator, but it's not the same thing.
(40:14):
And as a superintendent, I hadn't taught in seven years.
I forgot how much joy, I loved every minute teaching educational assistance at the collegehere.
I absolutely loved it and I've done that for five years now.
So that was a part of it.
But as I said earlier, I also saw those levels of withdrawal, of anxiousness, ofloneliness, of depression in post -secondary students as well.
(40:38):
And at that point I thought, okay, now I have the full authority when I start my ownbusiness to make those decisions about what I embrace and what I can walk away from.
I don't have anybody telling me what I have to do anymore.
I don't have any of those mandatory things.
I build my mission, my vision, my team, my advisory team to let's get this thing going andwhat does it look like?
(41:01):
Everything we do empowers children by helping them discover those stepping stones thatthat's always the deciding factor.
And so that means adults as part of it, because we are the ones who have to help themunderstand those stepping stones.
know, so it has been amazing over the last several years being able to say, no, that's no,no.
You know what?
(41:22):
That's not for me, but I know somebody else who's doing this.
Let me give you a referral to them.
I have people who want to be podcast guests.
Okay.
That's not really our context, but I have somebody else I can refer you to.
So that gives me, what's the word?
I don't know.
The passion to say, this is what works.
(41:42):
This is what we need.
And then to flip and to shift when new things come forward.
or and then do the research to support them or say, nope, this is not something we'regoing to talk about.
It's not grounded in research yet.
It's too new.
It's too hot off the press.
And I don't want to put out a shiny, a shiny object factor to anyone.
So those decisions.
(42:02):
Yeah.
You call them bold.
I mean, there are, there are eight of us on the advisory core board.
It's not the same thing as the school board.
but yeah, we stick to what matters.
We stick to what our business is all about, all about thoughts.
actions and feelings all being connected and how do we make it a proactive way an action.
And it's nice to hear two things here.
(42:23):
One is everything that you're doing, you're rooting it back to that idea of collaborationand communication and that effective conversation you need to have with people.
But the second one is, and it's so important to do this, establish your list of non-negotiables, things you're unwilling to compromise on, unwilling to unwaver from, and
stick to those because those are usually rooted in something very powerful and very, verystrong towards what you're trying to do.
(42:47):
So.
In your work as an author, educator, and speaker, I'd also like to dive into yourperspective as superintendent and principal, assistant principal here.
How have you balanced the need for innovative change with the risk involved, particularlywhen advocating for new approaches to children's emotional well -being?
boy, it all goes back to research, research, knowing what you're talking about.
(43:09):
And of course I'm not the expert in it.
I was so saddened to hear that Mindful Schools has closed down.
But so I go to other organizations now and I'm just looking up the name, it's Cosm, it'scalled I think, I'll get that for you.
But there's a new organization that's opened up in the U .S.
that's, here it is, it's called the Coalition of Schools Education.
(43:30):
The coalition of schools educating mindfully.
It's in full force now.
So I look to these organizations that have experts and call out that expertise to givethem that voice, to make it public, to instigate that need of, yeah, something's not
working here, we need to do it.
Get rid of those shiny objects.
That's what it goes back to.
And new approaches that are coming out are very, very exciting.
(43:53):
I like to think of them and I'm not a social worker.
I am not a psychologist, as an educator, I consider them complementary.
I would never ever want to say to anybody who's struggling with their mental health thattraditional therapy is not the way to go, right?
But other people have found that by adding in Reiki, mindfulness practices, visualization,walking in nature, yoga, these other things help people to regain control.
(44:24):
over their minds and their bodies.
So I like to think of them as hand in hand.
And as I said earlier, I am very careful about the guests that I have in my show.
And I also support people through affiliates, right?
So I really believe in the product that they're offering.
And I support them on my webpage by saying, hey everyone, this is a wonderful coach forparents.
(44:45):
I fully support what she's doing and give them, you how affiliate works.
Basically I'll get $3 or something for the referral, but that's not even what it's aboutfor me.
It's about me saying, this is someone that supports our vision and mission.
We have vetted them and we believe in what they're doing.
So.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Lynn, what are you hoping people action in their lives tomorrow from your message?
(45:07):
Here's the question.
What can you do today?
Right now for your own wellbeing.
Take 30 seconds to step back and say, just in the last 24 hours, where have your feelingsgone to?
And you're probably gonna have a gamut of them and that's okay.
Is there a situation that you've gone into where you've been an instigator and maybeyou've said something that's not kind, maybe you have pushed some buttons and instead of
(45:32):
doing that, can you move into a position of
caring or questioning or curiosity because we've become the society of right and wrong asopposed to being curious about each other.
So when I asked that question about well -being, I'm thinking about is it reciprocalgiving in a giving position, right?
Because when we give, my gosh, the joy that we give, that we receive just by giving andhelping other people is incredible.
(45:58):
So what can you do?
Because you said it earlier, when your cup is full,
you that flows out to other people.
When your cup is half empty, you're struggling and you can't give to others the best thatyou can give.
When we all come together in a community of caring and curiosity, I just think the synergyin this world can shift significantly.
(46:19):
But it has to start with us doing the reflection to say, I need to take control over thesethoughts, thoughts and feelings so that my actions change.
So my question to everybody is,
Think about your last 24 hours.
If there's one thing you could change, what would it be?
And how can you do that and keep that in mind in the future?
So when you're about to get called into that conversation, instead you walk away.
(46:42):
Or instead you bring a different lens of curiosity, right?
So you bring more joy to yourself, more balance to yourself, whatever that looks like,because balance is a very different definition for all of us.
That's my question for every listener and viewer.
And a great reflective question for everyone.
Always.
One of the things that I'm trying to implement is you often hear the speaker or thekeynote come out and say, pull out your phone and text somebody really close to you and
(47:07):
tell them how important they are to you and what they mean to you and how thankful you arefor them.
But on top of that, go to your email and schedule an email to yourself a month from now.
And title it Check In and put it as, hey, you need to take a minute today and
Think about how are you doing?
What's going well?
(47:27):
What needs to change?
Where are you at?
And you need to do that every month.
You need to schedule that email every month so it comes to you, right?
So that you see it, it pops up, and it's that reminder that you told yourself you weregoing to do this and commit to yourself.
I love that.
I love that.
that, I'll use the word accountability partners too.
You've got somebody, whatever you want to call it, you can use whatever you want.
You know, you meet once a month, you say, I'm trying this, I'm trying this.
(47:50):
How did that go?
How did that go?
And you keep each other in line with wellbeing as well, not just actions.
You know, I love that idea.
I'm going to draft an email as soon as we're done, Tyler.
you go.
And I'll tell you what, probably nine times out of 10, you are going to be well when youread that email and you're gonna delete it, you're gonna move on.
But that one time that you needed to read that and reflect is the time that it needed tobe there.
(48:11):
Then you need to do it on a consistent basis to make sure you're there for yourself.
Now, Lynn, know we're, we have a lot of lived experience here and we're in the retiredstage.
What does your future look like though?
Yeah, my future right now.
So I've just finished at St.
Clair College and with that come a huge decision I made in the last four months.
I'm going to be moving back into the background as a production specialist for my podcastand starting to have guests hosts in November.
(48:40):
And I made that decision based on I'll use the word integrity.
I want to talk about connectiveness.
I had a connectiveness with students and parents over the last, you know, since
Now that I don't, I don't feel that I'm in a position to be able to host and speak to thatas if I know what I'm talking about anymore because I don't have grand babies yet, right?
(49:00):
I'm not at that age and I'm not in, what's the word?
I'm not in the world of education anymore.
So yeah, that's going to be a really nice change moving to guest hosting.
People who are in the throes of it, who can bring a new voice to it.
We'll continue getting our books out there.
We're moving into one audio book.
And we've got a great game that's in the works called The Power of Thought that we hope toget out to market in the winter.
(49:23):
We've actually just come back from Chicago where there's this whole thing every singleyear if anybody's interested in it, where if you are a game creator, you can go and pitch
your game to companies and publishers, game publishers who know what they're doing.
So we're really excited about what happened and what that's gonna lead to.
Yeah, and so just moving forward with everything we're doing and carrying on with ourparent engagement evenings as well.
(49:48):
Yeah.
sounds incredible.
And Lynn how can our listeners get in touch with you if they'd like to connect?
Everything is at Lynn at LynnMcLaughlin.com or you can go to thepowerofthought.ca.
It's all in one place.
Everything's there.
My email, my phone, all of it.
Would love to connect.
And make sure you check out the description of this episode as that's going to be linkedin it as well.
(50:08):
Well, Alchemists, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The ElementalEducator.
I'm your host Tyler, and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to sit down with LynnMcLaughlin.
I feel inspired to start my day today with some wellness activities, going back to myworkplace, my staff, my community, and just trying to share that warmth and making sure
everybody knows that we're connected, we matter, we're here together and creating thatalignment.
(50:32):
Lynn, thank you so much for joining the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
Be well.
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