S4 E25: What New Teachers Need to Succeed with Dr. Towanda Harris

In this powerful episode of Schoolutions, I sit down with Dr. Towanda Harris of the Harris Innovation Consulting Group, an influential educator with over 20 years of experience who's impacted more than 10,000 educators nationwide. Dr. Harris shares her journey from third-grade teacher to university professor, offering invaluable insights about preparing the next generation of teachers. Learn why questioning the status quo should be celebrated, how to redefine success in education beyond traditional metrics, and why developing a teaching philosophy must start with personal reflection. Whether you're a new teacher, veteran educator, or educational leader, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on creating more responsive, student-centered classrooms.

Key Topics Discussed:

➡️Dr. Harris's journey from classroom teacher to university professor

➡️The importance of questioning and unlearning in education

➡️Redefining success beyond traditional metrics

➡️Developing meaningful teaching philosophies

➡️Creating inclusive classroom environments

Research & Resources Mentioned:

💫Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's work on mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors

💫Dr. Gholnescsar (Gholdy) Muhammad's work on transactional learning

💫Zaretta Hammond's Ready 4 Rigor Framework

💫Dr. Carla España and Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera's work on translanguaging

💫Aeriale N. Johnson

💫Arlène Elizabeth Casimir's Holding Space Protocol

💫The Georgia Literacy Act

Dr. Harris’s Recommended Resources:

📚A Love Letter to Teachers by Patrick Harris II

📚3 Ways to Take Charge of Your Personal Growth As an Educator by Dr. Towanda Harris

📚Meaningful Learning Experiences: Teaching the Student and not the Content CCRIA blog by Dr. Towanda Harris

📚Student Agency: Strategies to Build a Strengths-Based Classroom by Dr. Towanda Harris

📚The Right Tools: A Guide to Selecting, Evaluating, and Implementing Classroom Resources and Practices by Dr. Towanda Harris

Timestamps:

• [00:00:00] Episode Introduction
• [00:02:00] Dr. Harris's Educational Journey
• [00:09:00] Changes in Teacher Candidates
• [00:15:00] Redefining Success in Education
• [00:24:00] Developing Teaching Philosophies
• [00:34:00] Inclusive Teaching Practices
• [00:37:00] Closing Thoughts

#DrTowandaHarris #TheRightTools #EdChat #TeacherEducation 

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

Olivia: [00:00:00] Hi there, I'm so happy you're here. Here's what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this conversation with Dr. Towanda Harris. Dr. Harris shares why growth and unlearning are essential parts of becoming a more responsive educator. You'll leave the conversation understanding why we must celebrate rather than discourage teacher candidates to be inquisitive and question established practices, why success in education shouldn't be defined solely by traditional metrics, and why teaching philosophy development should begin with personal reflection on one's origin story. Stay with us. I'm so excited to have you join our conversation. This is Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom.

Olivia: A show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the [00:01:00] inspiration and support they need to thrive. I am Olivia Wahl and I am humbled to welcome my guest today. Dr. Towanda Harris. Let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Harris. Dr. Harris brings over 20 years of experience ranging from Prek-12 to higher education.

Olivia: As founder of the Harris Innovation Consulting Group, Dr. Harris has impacted over 10,000 educators nationwide. Our conversation today will focus on your role, Dr. Harris, as an assistant professor at Clark Atlanta University. You serve and support teacher candidates to create lessons that blend best practices and skills to help all students reach their full potential.

Olivia: Thank you so much for taking the time to have the conversation today. 

Dr. Harris: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to just be in conversation with you. I, I really appreciate all that you're doing out in the education [00:02:00] world to just, you know, bring voices and perspectives and strategies to educators, because at the end of the day, I always say this we are so much better together. Um, sometimes, you know, we might seem, it might seem as though we're on an island, but, you know, when we are learning from each other and just growing together, our students benefit. 

Olivia: They sure do. They sure do. So with your vast experience, who is a researcher or a piece of research that you lean on when it comes to working with new teacher candidates?

Dr. Harris: Oh, my goodness. It is very challenging to, uh, pinpoint it down to one. Um, I definitely use a variety of, uh, different scholarship that, that is out there. Um, but I will say that, one that just truly resonates with me would be the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, her work around mirrors, windows, and sliding glass [00:03:00] doors.

Dr. Harris: And, you know, for those that are in the literacy space, I'm sure you've heard it several times over, but I think about just, um, what I feel as though is most valuable when it comes to the classroom, it's this idea of creating spaces for our students in which they feel seen, they feel valued and they feel heard.

Dr. Harris: Um, and when I think about just Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's work around mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, it's this idea of inviting others’ perspectives in the space, as well as affirming, um, your identity in that space as well. I think that compassion and empathy and so many, um, things are birthed out of that experience of, you know, including others lives in the learning space so that we could all see the [00:04:00] humanity in each other.

Olivia: Ah, so beautifully said, and we need that now more than ever. We need it now, and not just in our classrooms. We need it for grownups going into this profession. And that's why I reached out to you. I know you are a professor and you are working with new teacher candidates. Um, and so I think you have such advice to offer, um, listeners and I'm excited for this conversation. So with that said, share a little bit about your journey of what led you to teach and work with new teacher candidates. 

Dr. Harris: So I will say that I didn't wake up one morning and say, I want to be a college professor that that definitely wasn't on my bingo card. Um, I knew, you know, from a child that I wanted to be a classroom teacher.

Dr. Harris: So, um, funny enough, I wanted to be a 5th grade teacher. I ended up being a 3rd grade teacher [00:05:00] and absolutely loved it. And so that kind of started my journey into education and so being a 5th grade teacher and then going and working as an instructional coach, working with teachers and then going to the district level and then eventually going out on my own and traveling and working with educators across the country, I was doing um, adjunct professor, um, being an adjunct professor on the side, you know, and I, you know, on the side, I use that loosely, um, because I think that, you know, it sometimes could devalue the awesome work that needs to be done in that space, but that wasn't my primary job. 

Dr. Harris: You know, I taught a class here and there and it was at a historically black college and university here in Atlanta - Clark Atlanta University and I loved it. I absolutely enjoyed being connected to future educators and um fast [00:06:00] forward, an opening came up for an assistant professor and the Dean kind of looked at me and he's like, you know, the students go on and on about how much they're learning in your classroom, you know, just, you know, how you're opening their eyes and he asked if I would consider, you know, uh, applying and I did and it definitely was a stretch for me.

Dr. Harris: My experience had been in the P-12 space and, you know, even though it's education overall, higher ed is a very different space to be in. And so, uh, you know, as an educator, I'm always, you know, having this growth mindset. I knew that I was going to be stretched. And I accepted the challenge and I definitely, you know, I, I will not, I, I do not regret saying yes, uh, [00:07:00] because I definitely see that connectedness, um, between teachers’ current, you know, classroom teachers or educators, and seeing how we can, uh, kind of get ahead of some issues that we're seeing in education with teacher candidates. 

Dr. Harris: You know, how do I set you up for success? I always say that when I was a classroom teacher, as well as when I'm working with teachers and teacher candidates, how do I set you up for success. And so it is just a beautiful, just continuation of the work and the passion that I've had to step into that higher ed space with teacher candidates. 

Olivia: You - you're walking in my mind because you offer such a unique perspective. And you mentioned that you lived a version of your career as an instructional coach. And I think that's one of the things that I love about coaching. [00:08:00] It's that idea of pollinating and it's a gift to be in classrooms, PK to 12, but also to see how the students grow and develop children across. So you're always standing on the shoulders of knowing where the work has been and where the work is going.

Olivia: What a gift to be able to have that knowledge base working with future teachers to give them glimpses as to, you know, here are some things you're going to navigate in classrooms. With that advice, you have that unique perspective, what is the most striking to you about teacher candidates you're meeting today versus candidates or future teachers you were even meeting a few years ago?

Dr. Harris: Uh, so let me start off with a story. Um, and I promise you that it will connect, um, with your question. 

Olivia: I believe you. 

Dr. Harris: I think about when I first started teaching, [00:09:00] um, I was handed a scripted program, um, and I talk about that a lot in my book, The Right Tools, this idea of package curriculum. However, I was handed the scripted program and it was to teach math and, um, it definitely was not the way I learned math.

Dr. Harris: And it was very, very challenging for me to teach it in this way, because there were things that I had to unlearn in order to, you know, execute some of the strategies that research said, um, would be best for students. And, um, to provide also those experiences, those life connections. When I was growing up, learning math meant that you were going to memorize those math facts.

Olivia: Yes. 

Dr. Harris: And hopefully at some point you will see it in your world and see how it could apply to you navigating [00:10:00] in, uh, the world day-to-day. And so I, I think about that when I am, um, working with teacher educate, uh, teacher candidates and this idea of trying to fit them in a box of what I learned as, um, a teacher when I went through my teacher education program, it's unfair.

Dr. Harris: Um, the world is different, uh, students are different. Um, there we have access to so much more. Sometimes, it's not always a great thing, but here we are, you know, helping our students or teacher candidates to navigate in a space in which information is at your fingertips. Now, it is very important that we talk about critical thinking skills. That we help students to evaluate and vet the information [00:11:00] that is coming to them. Helping them to kind of push out some of those false narratives that are out there about students or about them or about, you know, different perspectives and really helping them to hone in on the humanity, um, that we want you know, us as adults to really navigate in education with or navigate in the world.

Dr. Harris: And so I'll say that my students seem to be my teacher candidates and I kind of fluctuate between students and teacher candidates, but they seem to be a lot more inquisitive, you know, they're asking a lot more of the well, why? Well, why? Um, I come from an era when I was raised um, you don't ask questions to your parents, you know, they they said to do something because I said so, you know but that is definitely not the [00:12:00] way that our youth are or that this generation seems to be. They're asking questions and you know, sometimes It does require us as adults to unlearn and sit and listen.

Dr. Harris: I think about Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's work and she talks about this idea of, you know, transactional learning; that it is not just about you being in a space that you are giving information, but you should be in a space and a posture as an educator in which you are walking away smarter about something um, when you are, you know, engaging in learning. Zaretta Hammond talks about the same thing, transactional learning in her Ready for Rigor Framework. You know, and so I carry those things with me when I'm working with teacher candidates, because I understand that their brilliance [00:13:00] in this space is extremely valuable and that there are things that I have to sit and listen to Because at the end of the day it is about agency. It is about them going out into um the field of education and changing some things disrupting some things. 

Olivia: It is. It is. I uh, you just You unpack so much. And so let's linger a moment with that idea of parallel practice Because Thank goodness. Thank goodness they're questioning. That's exactly what we want our children in classrooms to be doing. We do not want compliant kids. 

Dr. Harris: Yes. 

Olivia: And, and if you think that's what you want, boy, are you missing out. Curiosity is where it's at. And I think as a coach, one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever received is don't ask questions you already know the answers to. And that's, as a grown up, it's also, [00:14:00] as a child, like, stay curious. Don't be scared to ask questions that may be uncomfortable for the person that you're asking the question to, to respond to. So that idea of unlearning, we have to be ready for the next generation to question what is happening because things need to change.

Olivia: And that's where I hold hope. So then what qualities do you see in your most successful graduates that have gone on, or what experiences do you see that really lay the groundwork for success in the classroom? 

Dr. Harris: Yeah, I, you know, I, I, when you, when you say the word success, it's funny because I also just think of this idea around, you know, who's defining success. You know, and there are times where, you know, in our world that success, depending on who's [00:15:00] defining it, is a varied definition than, um, those that have been marginalized or those groups that have been silenced. Um, I like to think about it as this idea of just fulfilling your purpose on this earth. Right?

Dr. Harris: And so, um, what I may think success should be, you know, it could be that someone says success is Teacher of the Year. That that is what that will look like. Um, and I've seen some absolutely amazing teachers that have never gotten any awards, um, makes me think about my mentor teacher. And I talk about this in my, my book, my mentor teacher she was the best mentor ever. Like as a first-year teacher, absolutely amazing. But she never, ever, ever would get on the “good list.” And I, I [00:16:00] use that in air quotes. She was always written up. She didn't put up, put up her bulletin boards on time. She didn't always turn in her lesson plans on time. But when you walked into her classroom, the students felt loved, they had agency, um, they felt valued, um, and they were, it was a community when you walked in there. But according to administration, she wasn't a successful teacher and, you know, I, I, I carry that with me when I'm working with teacher candidates because, um, for them and, and I ground their work in what do you believe about education?

Dr. Harris: What do you believe about your students? Your future students? What do you believe about your [00:17:00] experiences and how it has contributed to you carrying out that purpose that is within you as an educator? I think that we all are charged with um, making a change, you know, it just really depends on how uncomfortable we're willing to go to make that change.

Olivia: Yeah. 

Dr. Harris: Um, so when I go back to those qualities, um, it may be sometimes an unorthodox, uh, listing. I say my students that are loud. My students that question all of the time, my students that are bold with their response, my students that have a whole lot to say that, that give me those facial expressions and that body language and, you know, if I were to take those same characteristics and put [00:18:00] it into, um, what we deem as professional, um, um, they may not be your candidates that you possibly would want in your school.

Dr. Harris: But I say, you know, there has to be this balance of you, you don't want teachers that you said this earlier that are just compliant because our students, they don't need compliance. You know, our students need us to see them and they need us to be responsive. They need us to be innovative. They need us to create space in which they are able to kind of share and grow and feel trust, feel that trust so that they are set up for success as well.

Olivia: And I also think there's something about relevancy - that there, there is a moment in time where future educators have a concept of [00:19:00] what is going on at the ground level that they are able to connect with kids around. In my conversations, working with teachers that have been in the field for a while, they are starting to say, I don't, I'm not connecting to the kids as much as I used to and my question to them is, well, what, what are you going to do so that you do, because if you're not connecting with kids, then we've lost. Right? And so how can you take that context about whatever you're teaching, whatever content area you're teaching, and make it relevant to the lives of the children that you're working with?

Olivia: That is something that future educators can do because they're living and breathing this all the time. Um, I also think that there's policy that we're experiencing right now, moment-to-moment, it's shifting and changing and you know, I'm fascinated to hear your [00:20:00] perspective, not just on Georgia's policies that you have to always be cognizant of, but what are your conversations with candidates right now around what's happening in the country and the implications?

Dr. Harris: Yeah, um, I listen a lot, you know, um, I, I remember, uh, right after the, elections the next day, um, I had to hold space just for my students to share their thinking and we spent about 20 to 30 minutes of me listening and then talking and sharing. And they talked about this idea of, you know, uh, well, this question of, well, what do we do next? You know, what do we do now? And, um, I don't, I don't see [00:21:00] any hope. I don't, I don't see, um, how this can get better. And like all of all of this and, you know, like this space wasn't initiated by so much me and my thinking. It was just a space to hear their thoughts. And after they shared their thoughts, I went back to, what do you believe about students?

Dr. Harris: And, um, I encouraged them, um, and let them know that, you know, this is not new. You know, there, there have always been changes and disruptions and, and, and adjustments to what education looks like. But one thing that you could remain grounded in is, is centering everything that you do back to the student.

Dr. Harris: [00:22:00] What do I believe about students and what they deserve? Um, and, you know, with that being said, you know, I, I say, I said to them, you have to ask yourself, in your sphere of influence, what changes, what could be your impact? You know, don't think huge. I want you to think day-to-day, whose life could you change, you know?

Dr. Harris: What story could you read? What perspective could you add in? What questions could you ask? Who could you encourage and, um, create spaces in which students feel empowered to go out into the world? Because, you know, just like I am preparing, um, you all to go out into the education field to make change and make waves, that is the same thing you're going to do when you are the classroom teacher. [00:23:00] You are empowering your students. You are creating spaces in which they feel, feel emboldened to go out into the world and make waves. Thinking about Dr. Muhammad’s, one of her pillars, she talks about criticality. How am I, you know, engaging students in the learning experience so that they are able to see that relevancy to the very world that they're living in? So that they are able to go out into the world and speak up against injustice, to speak up against oppression, to, um, you know, help and be a voice for sometimes others that don't always, uh, feel the courage to have a voice - that, that is really where our influence happens.

Olivia: Yeah. I want to just process that idea of holding space [00:24:00] and, um, Arlène (Elizabeth Casimir) has helped me have a better understanding of what that looks and feels like with her Holding Space Protocol. Um, and the idea of listening. If we all just got better at listening. I think that you can, you can just pause and it's not about that “me too” of, oh, I've had that experience as well.

Olivia: No, because every person needs to be able to speak how they're feeling without judgment. Um, and so the fact that you hold space for your candidates in that way is everything. And I think that then again, parallel practice, they will know the value of how they're able to get into content and get into all the methods and the teaching stuff if everyone in their space feels seen and heard [00:25:00] and loved because you're doing that exact thing for them, and that's really critical. The other piece that you've spoken to a couple of times is around a teaching philosophy, and I recently went back to my website and thought, you know, I want to put what I believe to be true, um, at my core for working with students, and I tucked in little nuggets of research to those beliefs.

Olivia: I did bulleted statements, and then I asked myself, so what would that look and feel like? Because it should be parallel if I, if I took the word students and substituted it with teachers, it should run very closely. And thank goodness it did. Phew! But that idea of a teaching philosophy, it's been interesting as a coach, because before I ever get into a coaching cycle with someone, I ask them, what matters most to you as an educator?

Olivia: Why do you show up every day for kids? I cannot coach someone unless [00:26:00] I know them deeply. I can't, um, and I, I think that's how we move forward through the tricky parts because this work is hard. So how do you do that work of crafting the teaching philosophies with your candidates? 

Dr. Harris: Yeah, uh, it makes me think about, you know, something I always say to teachers that I'm working with as well as my students.

Dr. Harris: I said, you know, teaching is hard work, but it's heart work, right? And so this idea of starting first with the passion and your “why” helps you to get through those very challenging days that will come and will continue to come. Um, and when I thought about this idea of teaching philosophy and actually this year [00:27:00] was the first year that I really um went into depth of them connecting it to themselves in their experiences. You know, um, well years ago I would have them write this teaching philosophy and what was interesting when I Implemented this new way of doing it, I had a graphic organizer because in this particular course, we're connecting the reading to the writing. We know that it is not separate. My reading life and my writing life should be connected and, um, this is a two part course. And so we've dealt with those foundational skills needed to be a successful reader.

Dr. Harris: But now we're going to talk about expressing our ideas and the writing. And so I wanted us to first, start off by having this teaching philosophy and immediately I heard some [00:28:00] murmurs amongst my students and they said, I could hear them say, we've done this before in another class. Can we just copy and paste what we've already done?

Dr. Harris: And I said, uh, it may well, I said to them, you know, of course. No. And I said, the way that we're going through this will be a very different thought process. I promise you, it will make you think through a different lens of what you believe about students. But then I thought about me as a teacher. My teaching philosophy when I first started teaching is very different from my thinking now, and it should be. And I challenge educators, you know, to think about their teaching philosophy. If the way you believe what you believe about students and, um, you know, the space in that learning environment is the same [00:29:00] from your first year of teaching to now, there is a problem. 

Dr. Harris: There is a problem because it's just different. There are things that you are on learning along the way, this growth mindset that you should now be learning some additional ways to center the humanity of the very students that are before you. Uh, my, uh, you know, my dear friend, Aeriale Johnson, she talks about her tiny humans that, uh are before her, and I like to carry that thinking with me, and it's very important that we always center our tiny humans into our decision making.

Dr. Harris: And so this idea of having my students create a teaching philosophy, the first part of their brainstorming it had to be, uh, to share a time or that time you decided that you wanted to be a teacher. [00:30:00] 

Olivia: Ah! Beautiful.

Dr. Harris: And, um, for some of my students, it was a very bad experience. 

Olivia: Non-examples. 

Dr. Harris: Yeah, and I said and that is okay. Yeah, it was that time that they said whatever I need to do I need to be an educator a teacher so that I don't bring harm to students the way that this teacher brought harm to me, um, but then I had some that had some examples of what that looked like and I said, you know, there is no right or wrong.

Dr. Harris: This is kind of your origin story. Like, what was that starting point that helped you to say? This is what I believe that students deserve. I always say that what I believe about students determines how it dictates how I plan for students. If I don't believe that they are able to do a thing, I am going to lower my expectations and I am going to plan for them to achieve this [00:31:00] very low bar.

Dr. Harris: And the problem was with that is that we, we leave out the idea of their brilliance being brought into the space, that what we think it should be and how it should show up becomes this very, um, different way when we allow our students to then explore and explain and just experience right before our eyes. So that it looks the way that they think that it should look as well.

Olivia: And I think centering it on students and themselves as a learner too, it helps to just. It helps them to ground and say, this is what I believe, but then these are the practices that I want to show up with every day for kids and hone. And [00:32:00] so you can say what you believe, but the fascinating thing as a coach, I'll read someone's belief statement and then I get to be in their ecosystem in their classroom and I'll say, wow.

Olivia: So you know, that idea of coaches helping to align the beliefs with practices and say, you're, you're saying you believe this. And yet this is the practice I saw that to me is also the, it's the conversations that can be had. So, you know, for new teacher candidates or future teachers, it's so important that once you commit to putting something on paper, you then ask yourself, what would this show up as in a classroom with kids?

Olivia: And I think it's also important to have that third person in the room, aka research. So you've named some heavy hitters in the field, your friends, your colleagues that have our back with what we know to be best for children and our beliefs. [00:33:00] It's critical that I think future teachers have a few researchers that align - help calibrate their beliefs and practices too. So, but it's interesting even for me to have people go back to their belief statements over the year, one year of teaching to say like after our coaching cycle, what are you thinking now? Or after this lab, what are you thinking now about students and your beliefs? And kids do amazing things when we believe in them. 

Dr. Harris: Yeah, one of the things that we did when we were crafting our teaching philosophy was to analyze others’ teaching philosophy statements. And we went through, um, about three or four of them. And the question that I asked was, what type of educator do you believe that they are?

Olivia: That's such an interesting question.

Dr. Harris: And based on what they gave as their examples and so we were able [00:34:00] to just kind of go through that process. And I said, okay, so when you make your statement, when someone asks what kind of educator or what are your beliefs, it should be very evident in there. We did, when you were talking about policy and this whole idea of, you know, the, well, the Georgia Literacy Act and really spending a lot of time on the components of reading, you know, the phonics and phonemic awareness and all of those things.

Dr. Harris: Yes, there are, they are very important, but they are equally as important when you take those components and connect it back to students’ experiences and their lives. And so we were talking about one time in class and this goes back to like, what? I believe. I believe that all students’ experiences, their voices are valuable in the learning space, not as an afterthought, but in the learning space. So we were talking about vocabulary and we were taking a piece [00:35:00] of text and going through and talking about the tiered vocabulary, Tier 2 words, Tier 3 words, and so forth. And then we pulled them out and I said, if I believe that, um all students experiences and their perspectives are valuable, and I want to make sure that they feel seen valued and heard in the space and I have a student in which English is not their first language, what happens if I ask them in their language? What does this word mean? And now, as a class, as we are tiering vocabulary, I have now included their home language into the learning space, so it is not separate, right?

Dr. Harris: And so it's not, I only speak this language, my home language at home, but this [00:36:00] is a language that is near and dear to my heart, and I'm comfortable with bringing that into the space. I think of the work of Carla España and Luz Herrera around translanguaging, you know, like all of those places those pieces that are important because it ties back to what do I believe about students and what they deserve?

Olivia: Yes, and that's also the transactional piece too, right? Of, we get, we grow together. We gain and get smarter together, and this work is too important. Um, educators entering the field have a lot that they need to be aware of. Our kids have so many needs that, um, emotional, and they need to feel seen and heard and loved, no matter what is happening in the world.

Olivia: As you said, nothing is new that we're experiencing right now. Um, and what needs to stay steady is that we show up with love in our hearts and holding [00:37:00] space for these conversations. So thank you so much for connecting today. 

Dr. Harris: Of course. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a great conversation. Um, to just think about, you know, ways again, going back to us being better together, you know, where, where are some of the ways that we can glean in on some of the research or some strategies that we found that, that works.

Olivia: Yeah, yeah, well, I look forward to seeing you this week and, uh, yeah, take care. 

Dr. Harris: Thank you. 

Olivia: Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts, or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube.

Olivia: Thank you to my guest, Dr. Towanda Harris, for sharing about her work with teacher candidates. Now, I'd love to hear from you. Send me [00:38:00] an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Let me know what resonated most with you from my conversation with Dr. Harris. Tune in every Monday for the best research backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday, where I'll share how I applied what I learned from the guests in schools that week. See you then!