Wholehearted Teaching with Adrian Del Monte

If you're a teacher who is a parent or a spouse, this is a wonderful conversation for you!

Today's guests are Dan and Rachel Vigliatore, a wholehearted husband and wife who both teach in the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Dan is an elementary PHE teacher and Rachel is a secondary Guidance Department Head. They are also the parents to two lovely girls.

Together, we talk about the many many parall...

In this week’s conversation I’m talking to one of the most wholehearted educators I’ve ever met: Skye Bowen. Skye is an activist, a community builder, a champion, and is working actively to dismantle systems that oppress racialized students. 

This conversation will give you confidence to engage in those conversations that can shift thinking and change systems. One by one, Skye addresses some common reactions and objections we hear w...

How often do we let our students (and our own children) just tell their story? That is the question I'm discussing today with Jael Richardson,  author and Executive Director for The Festival of Literary Diversity.

So often as teachers and parents we have certain expectations of what "learning" ought to look like. I hope that today's conversation will help you see the power of letting go and letting our...

When I first reached out to Kimberly Dixon, Superintendent in the Toronto Catholic DSB, I was hoping we would talk about intersectionality for much of the conversation. I assumed that because Kimberly is only the second black, female superintendent in the TCDSB, her story would be full of examples of how she had to rise above obstacles in what has been called the "dinosaur" of education systems.  

But this conversation tur...

Today's episode is the story of one teacher's journey to allyship.

We speak with Anthony Perrotta, a Vice Principal and a documentary filmmaker.  Like many first or second generation European immigrants, Anthony grew up  up in a white, suburban neighborhood where, as he says, “white was normalized” Anthony was never really pushed to become self aware.

But when he travelled to one of the most ethnically diverse nei...

Today's episode is all about how hard it is to build anti-racist classroom. It's not just hard for our racialized students, but it's also hard for white teachers (myself included) doing the hard work of examining whatever biases we hold.

But we have to do it.

In this episode, Asante Haughton tells us his own story of becoming a father, a mental health advocate, a 2XTed Talk speaker and an inspirati...

"This is a love story" are the first words of Penny Kittle's  book, Book Love.  They are words that may change how you see the students you teach.

No one has been more influential on my classroom than Penny and I was so honoured that she was willing to sit down with me.  In our conversation, we speak about the wonder of the classroom, the necessity of developing lifelong readers, the opportunities of challe...

In this episode, my students from this quadmester will share their own, occasional poems with you. This has been a wonderful group of teenagers and I have loved learning and growing with them.

I want to especially thank them for their bravery and courage. Sharing something as personal as poetry takes incredible risk.

Thank you for our time together. It's meant so much to me.

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This week's conversation is meant to help teachers-- particularly white teachers-- move from feelings of shame that immobilize us to connecting with healthy guilt that can guide us forward.  Guilt moves us to anti-racism work and that work is full of love.

Our guest, Registered Psychotherapist Kristen Hodges, helps us understand the difference between shame-- the feeling that makes us feel like there is something wro...

This question-- WHY ARE YOU IN EDUCATION??-- frames our conversation today.  If you stop to think about that, what would you say?

My guest, Salima Kassam is a principal with the Toronto District School Board and has given her life to the work of anti-racism and anti-oppression. She is as wholehearted as they come. In this episode, Salima reminds  us that anti-racism is not a lens (that can be taken on and off) but is actua...

The second episode in our Anti-Racism series made me nervous.

Lavinia is the most lovely person, but her role as Humanity Equity Advisor at the Toronto Catholic District School Board is to look at problems in the education system...and advise things that need to change.  I knew what she would say was going to challenge me to now go out and be brave enough to take and demand action.

Lavinia's experiences worki...

In this conversation, we speak with TCDSB Superintendent of Equity, Diversity, Indigenous Education and Community Relations, Derek Chen. 

Superintendent Chen speaks about the importance of being brave enough to have courageous conversations about anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, white fragility, and systemic problems that oppress non-white students in the education system. 

It's a powerful conversation,...

Welcome to 2021, a year that has so much potential for teaching!

We launch Season 2 through a wonderful conversation with Chey Cheney and Pav Wander, two Toronto teachers and hosts of The Staffroom Podcast who are just crushing it. Both Chey and Pav have taken huge risks,  put themselves out there to inspire their students and, as we discuss, are daring  greatly in the arena of classroom teaching.  I left this conversatio...

In our Christmas Special, we talk about seeing differently, through the eyes of kindness. 

In this episode, mom, daughter and Vice Principal Katie Akelaitis speaks about how her father taught her to treat others as "kin," as if they were her own family, a lesson she practices not only as a vice-principal, but also as a mother to her three beautiful "little people".

Katie will help you find your...

This episode shows that strong teaching has all the same attributes as strong families: an emphasis on following your passions, finding ways to serve others, collaborating together and, most importantly, a cohesion between what happens in the classroom and what happens in the household. 

In this episode, I talk with a whole family of teachers: John Notten, a retired teacher of 30 years and his two sons, Nic and Lukas, who ...

This episode is framed around a question: How has being female prevented you from bringing your whole self to the classroom?  It's an important conversation, and one that I am grateful to share a part. 

In this episode, we speak to Loretta Notten, the first woman to serve as Director of Education for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. Director Notten helps us unpack what it was like to be a woman in leadersh...

Going off the beaten path, challenging formal education practices, and untethering teachers to bring their own passions to the classroom are all the topics that we discuss with our guest, teaching legend and critically acclaimed writer, Anthony De Sa.

This conversation is more raw than some of the others: you'll hear the frustrations that often accompany teaching, especially in 2020.  But what Anthony reminded me of w...

Vulnerability, making mistakes and accepting ourselves exactly as we are are all topics that we discuss today with our guest and award-winning teacher, Barb Russell. 

10 years as an emergency room Nurse followed by 25 years in the classroom has given Barb a unique and often hilarious take on what it means to work with young people .  Through true stories that will tug at your heart, Barb's stories and experience embracing her m...