Meet Elena Aguilar

ELENA AGUILAR is an accomplished educational presenter, speaker, and author. She strives to help leaders learn, be their best selves, and serve students well. In 2018, Elena published Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators, and in 2020 she released Coaching for Equity: Conversations That Change Practice.

Questions That Guided Our Conversation

1:15 – Why don’t you start by telling us a little more about your current context in education?

2:27 – First things first: how are you doing right now? How are you handling the home quarantine and social distancing?

4:37 – It’s story time! Please share with us about a low moment or an experience of adversity that you’ve faced in your teaching or education career, and describe how you overcame it.

08:48 – In 2018, you published Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators. This seems like an especially timely focus today, with educators everywhere having to reinvent their practice and respond to challenges on a variety of levels. What are some pieces of wisdom and insight that you could share from your book that might provide educators with some hope and encouragement during a very challenging time in our schools?

15:00 – Let’s talk about your most recent work, a book called Coaching for Equity: Conversations That Change Practice. What was the mission and vision of this book? Who is it aimed at, and what would you like educators to take away from it?

18:46 – If you could offer one practical strategy or bit of advice to educators around the challenges of building equity, what would that be?

21:24 – How are you looking to grow professionally and improve your practice right now? Can you share about a specific professional goal or project that you’re currently working on?

22:41 – Outside of education, what’s another area of learning for you? What is it that ignites your passions outside of the classroom and brings you alive as a human being? Tell us why this area interests you and why you enjoy it.

23:39 – When it comes to writing, are you the sort of structured or disciplined writers that follows the same writing time each day?

Voices That Spark Elena’s Thinking

• Her Twitter Pick: @LaylaFSaad
• Her Book Pick: Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
• Her Podcast Picks: On Being with Krista Tippett, The Good Life Project, Fresh Air, Forever35, and The Moth
• What She’s Watching on Netflix: Elite and Money Heist

Connect with Elena

• On Twitter @BrightMorningTM
• On Instagram @Bright_Morning_Team
• On Instagram @Elena_Aguilar_Writer
• On her website at brightmorningteam.com

Connect with the Teachers on Fire Podcast on Social Media

• On Twitter @TeachersOnFire
• On Instagram @TeachersOnFire
• On Facebook @TeachersOnFire
• On LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/TimWCavey
• On Medium on the Teachers on Fire Magazine
• On YouTube @TeachersOnFire

Listen to the Teachers on Fire Podcast on Your Mobile Device

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Song Track Credits

• Sunrise Drive by South London Hifi*
• Anthem by The Grand Affair*
• Species by Diamond Ortiz
• *tracks courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library

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