Learning Forward
Equity and excellence in teaching and learning.
FOCUS ON WELLNESS
Give the gift of wellness to ourselves and each other
By Heather Lageman
Categories: Collaboration, Social & emotional learningDecember 2023
This magazine’s Focus on Wellness series has covered many important topics, including teacher burnout, healing-centered environments, resilient school communities, teacher wellness, and principals’ well-being. As we wrap up the series, I want to focus on the connection among all of these topics, which is also the foundational connection among all of us: our shared humanity. Wellness is about tapping into who we are and who we can become as human beings. It comes from within us and ripples out in all of our relationships. Developing wellness starts with three processes grounded in that humanity: knowing ourselves, listening to each other, and connecting. As the executive director of organizational development & leadership at Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland, I am deeply invested in those processes,
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Heather Lageman is a certified life and engagement coach, administrator, and English teacher dedicated to empowering students, educators, and leaders by focusing on social-emotional learning, core values exploration, and professional renewal. Over her 28-year career, she served as Director of Curriculum for the Maryland State Department of Education and held administrative roles in Baltimore County Public Schools. A passionate advocate for computing education, she is Chair of the Maryland Computing Education Steering Committee and Council Member of the Maryland Education to Employment Ecosystem (MSE3) and Technology Advisory Board Member of the Hood College Department of Computer Science and Information, in addition to serving on the Loyola University Maryland School of Education Board of Advisors. She co-authored School Seasons xSELeratED, xSELeratED Schools Framework, and the forthcoming The Hope-Centered Educator(May 2026).
Categories: Collaboration, Social & emotional learning
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