Dr Tom Brunzell is the Director of Education at Berry Street and Honourary Fellow at the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education. He has experience as a teacher, school leader, author, researcher, and education advisor. Tom and Megan first met 13 years ago when Tom arrived in Melbourne to begin working with Berry Street. Megan was a teacher with the Berry Street School at the time.
In this episode, Tom shares how he started out as a teacher in The Bronx, New York, and then moved into school leadership in Harlem, working alongside Martin Seligman in the early stages of positive education. He eventually moved to Melbourne and joined the team at Berry Street, establishing the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) and diving deeper into research around trauma-informed positive-education.
Tom and Megan discuss the place of wellbeing science in schools, particularly for students who have experienced trauma (and their teachers), and they share some of their favourite research and interventions. Tom explains his approach towards finding “balance in the work," rather than chasing “work-life balance.”
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it!
More on the Berry Street Education Model can be found here: https://www.berrystreet.org.au/learning-and-resources/berry-street-education-model
Tom's co-authored book; Creating trauma-informed, strengths-based classrooms; can be found here: https://www.berrystreet.org.au/shop/products/creating-trauma-informed-strengths-based-classrooms
Host: Megan Corcoran, Wagtail Institute, https://wagtailinstitute.com/
Music by Kabbilistic Village https://kabbalisticvillage.com/