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Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Episode 82: Regulate to Educate: The Power of Somatic Practices
In this uplifting episode, Dr. Carrie Hepburn sits down with educator, consultant, and author Kim Schuelke to explore how somatic work can transform classroom culture and emotional well-being. From trauma-informed strategies to breathwork and sensory tools, Kimmy shares accessible practices any educator can use to support student regulation, reduce anxiety, and build a foundation for authentic learning. With vulnerable storytelling and actionable tips, this episode highlights how attending to students’ nervous systems isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.
Whether you’re new to somatic strategies or ready to delve deeper, this conversation will leave you feeling equipped, inspired, and ready to make a big impact with small steps.
The Tangle Book- https://www.amazon.com/Tangle-Turning-Feelings-Powerful-Lessons/dp/B0F5Y13XQP?scrlybrkr=2f4194ec
sageandstorycollective.com
https://www.instagram.com/teachingkimmy/
https://www.youtube.com/@teachingkimmy
http://linkedin.com/in/kim-schuelke-bbb076178
Hello and welcome to the Compass Peep podcast, where we dive into evidence-based practices and research-driven strategies that empower educators and leaders to make a lasting impact. I'm Dr Keri Hepburn, your host alongside my friend, kim Schalke. Welcome, kim. Can you like tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Yes, dr Hepburn, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored to be on your podcast and to work with you, so I really appreciate it. Great, thank you. So my name's Kim Schelke. Most people call me Kimmy. It's a nickname I've had for a while now and I am an educator.
Speaker 2:I've been teaching for the past 18 years and started out in the gen ed classroom, so I've taught the younger grades. That's definitely my wheelhouse. I've taught kindergarten first and second, and I have to say kindergarten was the hardest four years of my life. It's very challenging. I very up to kindergarten teachers About four years ago. In all honesty, I got really burnt out in the gen ed classroom and I have an ESL endorsement and so I made the switch to be an EL teacher. So now I support multilingual students in grades kindergarten first, second and third and we do a pullout model. So it's a service that we provide our multilingual students for 30 minute blocks a day and I absolutely love it. Sometimes we push in if we have newcomers or other students, but for the most part, the pullout program.
Speaker 2:I have two of my own children. I have a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old. They're amazing humans. I know all parents say that, but they're truly amazing. It's the truth. I also have a third child who is my dog B Arthur, and he is definitely a senior dog. She's 18 years old and just a really quick story about 11 years ago she was started really aggressively nuzzling her head into my stomach and I'd only had her for two years, but it was very uncharacteristic. So I let my doctor know and I was having some other symptoms and it turns out I had stage two colon cancer. So she saved my life.
Speaker 1:Oh, how special so extremely special to me.
Speaker 2:Wow, dogs are amazing.
Speaker 1:They are amazing. We could, we could do a whole podcast with like education friends, like on dogs and our dogs and how much we love them. But what a powerful story. So but, and when you said her name be Arthur, I was like oh my gosh, from the Golden Girls be Arthur, oh yeah. So just like I'm hooked already, I love your dog already, yeah she's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm also a wedding officiant on the side. It's a really fun job. I know if you're an educator like me. A lot of us do have second jobs, and this is a fun one, and it's really a great one too, because I can do it on the weekends and during the summer time, and then I also am an education consultant and a speaker, and that's how we met.
Speaker 1:It is. It is. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm going to share just a little bit about that. In just a second I got to go to your presentation. So, yes, keep telling us, because you have some other stuff too. You're very multifaceted.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:So most of the speaking engagements I've done have been about supports for multilingual learners, also tech supports, because I'm a tech coach in my district, and then somatic work, which we're going to talk about today. Yes, and I'm also an author of a book called the Tangle. Here we go, I've got it.
Speaker 1:I love it. It's so cute. I love this book. So, tell us a little bit about the Tangle.
Speaker 2:Yes, so the Tangle is essentially a story that has very diverse characters, that and it helps kids work through big emotions. So that tangle that's represented kind of represents how it feels in your body when you have big feelings or when you have stress or all sorts of things. And there's different strategies in the book to help not remove the tangle because we all have that right but to make the tangle smaller, just be okay with the tangle. And so really really important book for me and the illustrator, anjali Raj. Really it was really a passion project for her as well.
Speaker 2:So, I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a fabulous book. We are going to have information in our podcast notes so that people are able to go and purchase the tangle, because you're going to want this. I'm actually purchasing them for my grandson that I have, and then I have some grand nephews now like a grand nephew, and more babies on the way, and so I'm like this is the perfect book to give to our young family members and I would use this in classrooms all the time. So I love this book. I was just thinking about one of my friends that is in. She is a counselor for kids at schools and how nice this would be for her to have on her bookshelf as well. So it's a great book. Highly recommend it. You'll find it in the show notes, but here's what I want to tell you. I know I'm so excited, kim, about this conversation.
Speaker 1:This summer many of you know that I attended and presented at the National Council of Teachers of English and Math. There was a joint conference for elementary, which I thought was brilliant. It was wonderful, and one of the sessions that I attended was Kim's session and I was so inspired by her passion. So one of the things she talked about is you can tell her wheelhouse is elementary, like you feel the elementary love coming from her. So we're like kindred spirits there.
Speaker 1:And then her passion around somatic work, which for me, that's what we're going to talk about. I know that's going to resonate with several of you, especially those who work a lot with kids who have experienced trauma, and for others, like for me, it was brand new work, like brand new learning, like wow, this makes so much sense. Why aren't we talking about this more? And that was why I wanted Kim to be our first guest for this school year, because I felt like we need to have this conversation now, at the beginning of the school year, or, for those of you that are on the coast that we serve, you haven't started the school year yet and how nice it would be for us to have this conversation. So, kim, you're our first guest this year.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:Me too, me too. So could you just take a few minutes to briefly introduce what is somatic work and why is it relevant to our audience of educators?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know we're going to dig into it a little bit deeper later, but somatic work is essentially body-based techniques. So it's body-based techniques that we use to regulate our emotions, to help with stress and, like you said, to help with trauma. The techniques are typically breathing, sensory and movement or any combination of those, and it really helps that trauma move through the body and not get stuck in there. We've been using or humans have been using somatic work for centuries and we just really didn't have a word for it before. Work for centuries and we just really didn't have a word for it before. In China they use Tai Chi and Qigong, in India, yoga and breath work. In indigenous cultures they've used drum and dance circles. So it's something that's very common. Animals use it, and it not only supports that self-regulation in students, but it also supports a really safe classroom environment, because a lot of the strategies that you can implement are collaborative, that you do together. So it's a really wonderful strategy to use, not only with students but also for ourselves.
Speaker 1:I love that. You know one of the things that I was telling Kim before we got on. I said you'll see me like my brain will get all tangled and where I get nervous when we're recording the podcast. And did I say the right thing and is this the right thing? And so I said I'll make these really weird noises, don't worry about it, just let me, like, do these fun things and I'll shake it out. And what I didn't realize was at that time is it's just me like resetting, re-regulating, and it's a goofy thing and we'll laugh about it, but it really does help and it works.
Speaker 1:And I had absolutely no idea that that was a strategy that I could use outside of podcasting. So in this episode, what you can expect is you're going to learn all about somatic work, how to get started and the impact that it can have on your community. So we really again felt like this was really important for us to have this conversation now to help you get your school year kicked off really strongly. The earlier we can start these techniques, the better, and the better it sets us up for success. So let's like now really dig into what is somatic work. Like you, you give us the all the things we need to know.
Speaker 2:So somatic work is more of an umbrella term for different strategies to support work, is more of an umbrella term for different strategies to support Somatic experiencing, for example, is a more specific strategy or more specific training which you would need formal training on. But somatic work can be used very easily and implemented very easily in a classroom setting. I love this visual. That really helped me understand more what it was that my own therapist gave me. Imagine that a lion is chasing a gazelle and it's in hot pursuit and the gazelle is really, really stressed and is trying to get away. Well, thank goodness the gazelle gets away and the gazelle is not going to call up its therapist and say, hey, this really traumatic event happened to me, can you help talk me through it?
Speaker 2:The gazelle naturally knows animals naturally know to use somatic strategies so that gazelle will physically shake its body in order to release and have that trauma move through it. So that's essentially what somatic work is. We, every day, we are doing somatic strategies and we probably don't even know it. For example, if you are stretching or doing deep breathing or even hugging, those are all somatic strategies. If you're clenching your jaw or hitting a punching bag, those are somatic strategies too, so the goal is to learn how to use strategies that are going to support learning and also that are safe for students.
Speaker 2:So, it's really important we do that. So essentially, that's what somatic work is.
Speaker 1:I like, when you said that for them to find the strategies that are important for them and that are safe, because for some I mean, like you mentioned punching could be a somatic way to work that stress through. And how many of us have been to like a kickboxing class or something and we walk out and we're like I've got to go to. You know, I feel so much better, I've got to go to kickboxing. But kids need to understand that there is a time and a place that you go, maybe punch a punching bag or kick a kicking bag I don't know if that's what the word is, but you know in this situation we're going to have to have another strategy. So that's so thoughtful and intentional. Thank you for helping me understand that better. Can you like explain to us how did you get started in this work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it reminded me, when you said that too, of when I was young. My mom would say to like yell into a pillow or punch a pillow, and so that was more of a safer option for me, right a pillow or punch a pillow, and so that was more of a safer option for me, right when I rest, or angry, because we need kids to know that being angry is not a bad thing. No emotion is bad.
Speaker 2:And that's important to teach kids. So your question was how did I get started? I actually got started in somatic work because of my own personal therapy. I've been in therapy with amazing therapist Emily for the past six years and I had experienced a lot of childhood trauma. I was bullied because I was always overweight, my parents went through a divorce, I had really extreme shyness and, as a result, isolation, and then I developed a pretty severe eating disorder. I probably by the time I was seven or eight. So for the past 40 years I've been living with this eating disorder and it really disconnected me from my body. So my therapist Emily introduced me to somatic principles and that's how I got started.
Speaker 1:That's so interesting, isn't it? Yeah, some of our biggest, most passionate work is from experiences that we had that we're still like navigating and trying to work through. I find that all the time in my own life and I see that that's what other people do as well is you can see the passion in their work and what their I always say purpose on this earth, what our purpose is on this earth and how a lot of times that purpose connects to something that was a trigger or a high school education Many of her family members could not read or write. You know, and then seeing that and and the impact that, the pressure and stuff that that puts on you, but that you see the hardships of that too. So when she got divorced and you saw that how you struggle when you don't have an education, that impacts you, that traumatizes you, and it it pushes you to make it better for other people in the world, like our purpose is about making the world better.
Speaker 2:So just thinking about that. Last night I was going to bed I was like I'm on a podcast about somatic work. How is that possible? I'm not an expert, I'm not a social worker, I wasn't formally trained in somatic experiencing. But you're right, it's I'm so passionate about it because of my own experiences, and sometimes our own personal stories have more weight and a bigger impact than the actual work itself sometimes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, well, when and I think when we're living in our purpose, that's when we shine the most and we make the greatest impact. So I love that. Can you tell us because you're still in the classroom, like you're still working with kids every day, you're using you're, you're practicing what you're preaching. So can you tell us how you use somatic work in the classroom? Give us some examples.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually got started transitioning using somatic work with my students in a program called Breathe for Change because I had told you I got really burnt out in the gen ed classroom and so I knew I was missing something. I knew there was a gap in my own education on how to support students. Now and we're not going to get into the reasons why students need more of that support, but they do and we need. Just like we need to help students move with technological changes, we also need to support them with their emotional needs as well. So during the pandemic, I was in a cohort, breathe for Change, and after that I really started working with students and it's a very slow process. It's not something that's going to change overnight. But that's kind of the good thing about it because you can start out small. It's not a curriculum you have to follow to a T. You can just do very small, different types of somatic activities.
Speaker 2:So a couple for example that I do that I have on my YouTube channel. I do something called as simple as three collective breaths, where I actually have an example my hoberman sphere. So we'll breathe in and we'll breathe out. We'll do it. Yeah, do you want to do it. So, yes, breathe in, breathe out, inhale, exhale, breathe in biggest breath and breathe out. So that's so simple. It takes less than 30 seconds, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's something that can be really easily implemented. So that's one of them. We also do one called, for example, bare belly breathing. It's similar we do collect breaths, but we use that sensory to hold our bellies and feel our moving in and out, and then we do a growl at the end to kind of let go of some of that. We do a lot of shaking and drumming, grounding activities. If I have a student going through a difficult time, I might ask them first off if they want time by themselves or if they need support or want me near them, and then I'll just ask them to kind of look around the room and look at the four corners of the room and know that you're in a safe place corners of the room and know that you're in a safe place. Sometimes we'll do find four blue things in the room just to kind of help them reset their mind to get ready to learn.
Speaker 2:I had one student that has autism that loved reptiles, like he was. Just he just loved reptiles, so he was going through issues where he needed self-regulation. We would pretend we were a snake, for example, so we'd breathe in and we'd hiss out like a snake and move our bodies like a snake too. So movement and breathing and sensory can all be combined.
Speaker 2:I also do use a lot of fidgets, for example, like these kind of fidgets, like the Hoberman sphere you saw. But it's really important when you're introducing fidget tools that you teach them that it's a tool and not a tool right. It's like you would teach a kindergartner or a preschooler how to hold a pencil. You need to teach students how to use these, because if I were to hand a student one of these fidgets, they might whip it across the room or they might have it. So we really have to teach students how to use those strategies wow.
Speaker 1:Well then, that reminds me of when I used to teach. One of the grades that I taught was second grade, and so we would use a binder, and literally teaching kids how to use a binder was really important. People would give up on the binder because they're like they don't know how to use it. Right, I'm like, well, we have to teach it. And then, early on, at first, I'd be like, ok, click it three times. You get to click it three times and then we're done clicking, like we're done clicking for the day. But, as as when you taught them and it was literally, you have to explicitly teach them. This is a tool. This is a tool for this purpose. Kids as young as you know, six years old, even my grandson's three, I think he's brilliant, um, and he he is, but he will. He knows how to use things. Now he'll know also how to like, push it, but he knows that tools are used for certain purposes and how to use those. So sometimes I think we don't give kids the credit that when we actually teach them not tell them teach them that they can use it as a tool, that it is a tool.
Speaker 1:So for those of you that are listening to our podcast today. You also can go to YouTube and see it. So you can see us doing somatic work in the fun toys that Kim's sharing with us on video. So it's there as well, but just so you know, you don't have to watch it. You can listen and many of you understand what a fidget toy is or what the sphere is that goes out and in and out and in. So thank you for that. I what was it? Oh, breathe for change. I do have a question about breathe for change. So you mentioned breathe for change was where you learned about this. So if somebody was interested and they wanted to check that out, is there a cost for that or is there?
Speaker 2:Okay is some districts do pay for it. My district wasn't able to at the time, so I did do it on my own. However, I did get college credit for it and I also became a certified yoga instructor through that. So, yeah, so it was really beneficial and it was definitely worth it to me. And so, yes, there is a cost, but it was definitely worth it.
Speaker 1:Isn't that just like us as teachers though? I mean, I remember now they're letting you take more off your taxes for being a teacher and the money that you spend out of your own pocket and I know principals do this too and other other parts of education but isn't it just like a teacher that, ok, so I'm an author, a speaker, I am an officiant and an educator, so that I can spend money taking classes too? Yeah, so I can be a better educator? Well, one of the things and I know I'm kind of going off some of the I'm like kind of going off a little bit of some of the questions that I was like let's talk about.
Speaker 1:But I'm curious, because you mentioned something at the beginning and then you mentioned it again when you were talking about how you got started, about just being getting burnt out, because that's a very real thing that happens to us as teachers, as educators, that we've give, give, give and we're just we need a change, like we need a change of space or pace or something. Can the somatic work be something that helps us so that we can navigate those times and not get burnt out? Because we need, we need you and classrooms, we need you with kids. I mean what? What do you think?
Speaker 2:I agree. I think one of the challenges that I was going to talk about was that there is so much on teachers' plates and when they hear of a new strategy or a new activity that they have to do, they're just like it's one more thing. It's one more thing I have to do, Like I had mentioned. They're so quick and easy and it's not going to change in one day. It's like a very slow process in order to learn these, but the earlier we can start students with these, the better, Because the goal with somatic work is to teach students how to use them so that when they get older, when they're which which my therapist calls it the check engine light, when their check engine light goes off and say, hey, something's going on in my body, I'm not feeling good, then they can say I'm going to use this strategy and they can do it on their own.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of us in in my age range at least, weren't really introduced to a lot of these somatic strategies as kids, so these strategies can help us as educators just as much, if not more. And if nothing else, you can put a dance video on or one of like this breathing activities on and have a moment for yourself to breathe too. You can kind of give yourself that reprieve too. So it's definitely beneficial for educators just as much, because trauma is a human experience. Right, we all experience trauma in one form or another, and trauma is not what happens to you, it's how your body responds to it. So it's really important to know that these strategies are going to help everyone involved and not it's not just for students. I know we focus as educators. We focus so much on our students and try to give them everything, but you, you need to learn, as an educator, how to hold space for your students without letting it consume you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and thematic work can help you to do that.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, you do have to learn because, because it will consume you, yeah, and I think that is what the burnout is is you just can't hold everyone's trauma, everyone's emotions. That just was like an aha moment for me, kim, right now, just right now, just like, wow, that's quotable, that needs to be quoted. Like we cannot do that. So, um, thank you for sharing that. That's really good, that's so good, yeah, so okay, let's talk then, which we did kind of go into that a little bit. But what else can you tell us about that impact of somatic work on your students and then your colleagues, like, how is this impacting them?
Speaker 2:Yeah well. So somatic work really improves focus and attention, which we're seeing. That is needed a lot more in the classroom lately. Part of it's the pandemic, part of it's the technology out there. There's lots of reasons, right. It also reduces anxiety. It builds that self-awareness for students and it helps create transitions and breaks. And one of the biggest things I've noticed with my students it really creates a safe and caring classroom. I always one of the first things I always tell my students at the start of the year is my job as an educator is to make sure that you feel safe and respected, and if I'm that, then everything else will kind of just fall into place, right, right. So using somatic work is I use it as a collective activity? We're all breathing at the same time.
Speaker 2:We're all doing activities at the same time. And also the other really great thing is that it really supports multiple learning styles and modalities. So students that are artistic students that need a lot of movement there's lots of different modalities it supports, so it supports all students, not just students needing that self-regulation in the moment. I have a quick story. I was being observed by my principal a couple of years ago and I always do like a one minute somatic activity. I actually think I was doing the three collective breaths and afterwards, when my principal's there, I asked my students so why do we do this every day? And I would always tell my students it's to get our minds and bodies ready to learn. And so I expected that answer, or I expected someone to go off and say their own thing, and so I called on this one little student and she said it's to get our minds, bodies and hearts ready to learn and I just wanted to burst into happiness.
Speaker 2:One, that she said that and believes that, and because it's true. And now I. But two, because she said in front of my principal, right Ration, so I wanted to give her all the toys and candy in the world, but it's true, it gets our minds, bodies and our hearts ready to learn.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I just finished a book. I'm writing notes. So people who know like I have all these color coded notes all over Minds, bodies and hearts, ready to learn.
Speaker 1:Talking about time, so as you were talking through this, I was thinking about how, being in a classroom and in any classroom I work in middle schools and high schools now all the time too, as much as I do in elementary it's like we're always trying to beat the clock and the kids know like it's like hurry up, unpack, unpack, get your do now done, or do your bell ringer, like in secondary and elementary.
Speaker 1:It's like we got to get started on this because we're already running late, like it's constantly racing the clock and how that puts you in that state of anxiety and how we're in that constant state of anxiety trying to teach.
Speaker 1:So it's like how we're teaching is like our hair's on fire and the building's going to burn down around us if we don't get through this one thing before, because the time clock says we have to start this next thing now. And as I was reading the Big Leap toward the, the end, he was really talking about time and he's like we have to start thinking about time differently because we can't live our life on that constant hamster wheel like that, and so it reminded me of the sphere when you were doing the breaths and how just that 30 seconds or less completely changed the whole trajectory of how I was feeling, like, okay, we don't have to hurry up and get all the things in We've got. We've got some time, and how 30 seconds is a lot longer than you think when you're actually in the moment you think when you're actually in the moment.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, exactly. I think about when I taught kindergarten. Everyone would say, oh, it's like herding cats. You're going to have to learn how to herd cats, but these strategies are almost like a way that you can have the students listen to you and be focused for longer periods of time. So if you do these strategies up front for 30 seconds or a minute or two minutes, the impact that that's going to have on the lesson going forward is exponential.
Speaker 2:So, I'm able to take in more of the lesson. So, like you said, in the long term it's definitely worth it like you said, in the long term it's definitely worth it.
Speaker 1:And can you imagine if we did some of this work at schools, if we did some community engagement nights where families and parents learned about this, the impact this could have on your, just your whole community? You know, it would be amazing, Like that's so inspiring. So, for those of you that are listening, you need to check out her YouTube channel, which we'll make sure in our show notes. So if you want to encourage your parents and the families of your students to check this out, they could go check out her YouTube page and, and just you can do it with Kimmy. Miss Kimmy, Is that how it is on YouTube?
Speaker 2:Right? Is that right, miss?
Speaker 1:Kimmy on the YouTube page and you want to make sure that if you have a parent night and you're doing this, you have this book alongside so you can talk about this with parents, because I don't. I think this isn't just work for kids, this is work for us as adults too, and that we can start doing this and just making our world a better place right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I think, too, one of the challenges for educators is that it's it's kind of there's a little bit of a discomfort there, because we weren't really taught to act silly and to to do those things alongside students. So if we can learn with our students or with our own children, that will have a huge impact and then we will change the trajectory of generations to come, because we're slowly changing it, generation after generation.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Wow. Well, I am thrilled I'm just thrilled that you are our first guest for the 2526 anything. So that?
Speaker 1:Somatic work is a body-based technique. It uses sensory, movement and breathing activities that help us self-regulate our bodies. That trauma is how your body responds. It's not the actual act that happened itself, right? The actual act that happened itself right In the somatic work consistency and gradual practice.
Speaker 1:It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take some time and repeated practice, but when we do that, it can be a lifelong skill that really impacts us for the better. Yes, okay, and then somatic work can help us reduce that stress and anxiety so that we're able to self-regulate and so that we can have safe spaces where all kids can learn, and also for us as the educators, so that we're in a safe space and that we can stay in this for the long haul, right? This is something that we want to do every day, if possible. So try to find time in your classroom each and every day.
Speaker 1:That is just 30 seconds. We saw that. We just saw Kim lead us through 30 seconds and that 30 seconds can lead to big change. 30 seconds and that 30 seconds can lead to big change. So you're going to have everything about Kim in the show notes, so how to get ahold of her Tangle book, how to find her on her website and the work that she does. She's on Instagram, youtube, linkedin, like all the socials. Those are going to be linked in our show notes. So what I really hope is that this episode just helps you navigate your journey as an educator with more clarity and more peace and confidence, because it's really hard. Yeah Right, it's really hard. So, kim, is there anything else that you want to add to as we wrap this up?
Speaker 2:I know as educators we focus so much on our students, but these strategies have been life-changing for me personally, not only in the field that I work in, but just in my own personal life with my own trauma. So I really want to encourage humans not just educators, like everyone who's listening to really try to implement these strategies not only for their children, but in their own lives.
Speaker 1:Thank you. That's so good. That's a great way to end it. So we want to encourage you to please share your thoughts and your experiences, because we would love to hear from you and how this is impacting you and how this work you trying it out in your classroom and how it's helping with your students. And if you found this episode valuable, which I don't know how you couldn't, please share it with a colleague who might benefit as well. I think this could be really great conversations at in the lunchroom, you know, in our teacher's lounges, in our PLCs, like how can we do this? This is important work. So we want to thank you for joining us on the Compass PD podcast. Remember, at Compass PD, we believe that every educator has the power to inspire, change and transform student learning. Stay focused, stay inspired and keep making a difference.