resilient & resourced educator podcast #10

Maria: Learning and Growing is Key to Mental Health

 In her almost 20 years of being an educator, Maria has covered a whole lot of ground! She has taught math, English and Social Science while working with students from Grades 5 -12. When she wasn’t in the classroom, Maria has facilitated professional learning workshops with the Critical Thinking Consortium, been engaged in politics and now coaches educators. Maria embodies the term life-long learner and is currently doing her doctoral studies on Climate Justice Education as it connects to the mental health of young people.   Blessed to have encountered many teachers who had a transformational impact on her, Maria recalls how two specific teachers inspired her towards a deeper sense of self-awareness, learning to trust in her body’s wisdom and encouraging her to become more attuned to her students as an educator.In the spring of 2020, Maria adapted the teaching methods of her post-graduate course to make it more “gently rigorous” in light of how all of us were still working on coming to terms with the changes brought on by the pandemic. She was slated to teach in a Grade 7-8 school in September when she determined that being in the at-risk category with a health condition along with the unsafe plan put out by the government, it was in her best interest to not return.Join in to hear Maria’s passion for education, student’s mental health and climate change as well as her view of what opportunities lie ahead in education when we look at it as an investment instead of a commodity. You can connect with Maria Vamvalis on Linkedin and Twitter.