96: Prioritizing Connection and Empathy with Lizette Valles
Lizette Valles, M.Ed., is the founder of Ellemercito Academy, a Los Angeles-based microschool, with a focus on project/place-based learning. Her mission is to nurture students who think critically, develop a growth mindset, and demonstrate profound empathy. She is dedicated to reimagining education and implementing trauma-informed approaches in out-of-system school models such as the fast-growing small school movement.
For over 16 years, her career in education has included teaching middle/high school English, serving as a K-12 librarian, publishing La tierra de los calcetines perdidos, a bilingual children's picture book, launching Compass Educators: A Holistic Educational Services Co., and homeschooling students during the pandemic before founding Ellemercito Academy in 2021.
Join us for this conversation about the power of fostering connection and empathy to support students holistically.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS:
- Lizette’s journey to becoming an educator, starting at age 5.
- How the pandemic shifted Lizette’s approach to supporting students in a more holistic way.
- Why prioritizing empathy and connection is the foundation of learning.
- What it means to be a microschool and how Ellemercito functions as a hybrid microschool for homeschooling families.
- The role microschools are playing in the evolution of education.
- Using alternative methods of assessment to create complete profiles of students and the ways that they learn.
- Trauma-informed approaches and how they can be used to better connect and problem solve with students.
RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Connect with Lizette on LinkedIn and Instagram or send her an email at lvalles@compasseducators.com
- Visit ellemercito.academy and compasseducators.com to learn more about the work Lizette is doing to change the landscape of learning.
- Get your copy of Rebel Educator: Create Classrooms Where Impact and Imagination Meet
- Learn more about Rebel Educator, explore our professional development opportunities for educators and students, and check out our project library.
- Visit us at UP Academy to learn more about our personalized and inclusive learning environment.
- Connect with Tanya and UP Academy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her journey here.
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In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education.
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