Olivia Wahl Coaching & Consulting

05/26/2026

"Experienced multilinguals are not struggling learners. They are students in need of academic instruction." — Tan Huynh

Tan Huynh and Beth Skelton joined the podcast to talk about their newest book, Integrated Literacy for Experienced Multilinguals.

We talked about why the phrase "long-term English learner" needs to go, what "stuck" really looks like starting around 4th and 5th grade, and why every content teacher, yes, even the math and science teachers, is also a language teacher.

🔗 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/PrT1PIlJ748

Part 2 drops Friday!



Corwin Schoolutions

05/25/2026

Schoolutions S5E39 (Part 1) Your Good Intentions Are Widening the Gap: What ENL Teachers Need to Hear

Part 1 of my conversation with Beth Skelton Consulting and Tan Huynh is here! We're talking about their new book, Integrated Literacy for Experienced Multilinguals, and right out of the gate we tackle something big: why the label "long-term English learner" needs to be retired, what "stuck" actually looks and feels like in a classroom, and why every content teacher: yes, math, science, and social studies too is also a language teacher, whether they know it or not.

🎙️Listen wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube!

🔗 Don't miss the resource links in the show notes!

🎧🎙 Listen to Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1890886/episodes/19228811
📺🎙 Watch Part 1:
https://youtu.be/PrT1PIlJ748

📧 Connect & share your biggest takeaway: [email protected]

Part 2 drops Friday. Start here! 🎧




Corwin
Olivia Wahl Coaching & Consulting

05/22/2026

Schoolutions S5E38 (Part 2) The Actionable Participatory Model Every Teacher Needs to Learn About

🎯 Part 2 with Rachael Thrash is LIVE!

Make sure to listen to Part 1 of my conversation with Rachael before listening to Part 2! https://youtu.be/F_jGJSRwjBg
What happens when you stop talking at students and start asking them what's not working?

In Part 2 of my conversation with Rachael Thrash, author of Let the Learners Lead, she shares exactly that, including a powerful case study of Angolan ELL students in Portland, Maine, who turned their isolation into a school-wide soccer tournament and, in the process, found their voices in every classroom.
Rachael also walks through her actionable participatory model and offers one move any teacher can try as early as Monday.

🎧🎙 Listen to Part 2:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1890886/episodes/19186294
📺🎙Watch Part 2:
https://youtu.be/DFbuhaENAL0

📧Don’t forget to email me! I'd love to hear your next step: [email protected]

🔔 SUBSCRIBE to never miss an episode of Schoolutions Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/

Next Week: Tan Huynh and Beth Skelton Consulting are on a mission to reach the students everyone assumes are fine: experienced multilinguals who can chat in the hallway but still may not be able to write a formal essay with ease. Tune in for the personal stories, the framework, and the moves that offer these students the instruction they've always deserved.

05/21/2026

What if student voice wasn't a program you added to your school but the very foundation it was built on?

In my conversation with author Rachael Thrash, she shares how Angolan students in Portland, Maine turned their own isolation into a school-wide soccer tournament and in doing so, unlocked belonging and confidence for the entire school community.

Her book, Let the Learners Lead, offers a co-creation framework any educator can start using Monday morning.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/F_jGJSRwjBg

Part 2 drops Friday!

05/19/2026

Here's something worth sitting with: most student leadership models in schools are built on barriers: GPA cutoffs, elections, sponsorships, essays. And all of those barriers tend to filter out the very students whose voices we most need to hear.

In this week's Schoolutions conversation, Rachael Thrash (author of Let the Learners Lead) makes the case that we've been doing student leadership backwards. Instead of reserving it for kids who've already proven themselves, she argues school should be a laboratory; a place where every student gets to try, take responsibility, and learn how to be part of a community.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/F_jGJSRwjBg

Part 2 drops Friday!

05/18/2026

Schoolutions S5E38 (Part 1) Every Student Is a Leader & Here's the Research to Prove It

This week, Rachael Thrash, author of Let the Learners Lead, makes the case that traditional student leadership models are quietly reinforcing the status quo.

From GPA requirements that keep struggling students out, to over-scripted leadership performances that rob kids of real growth, she breaks down what we're getting wrong and what co-creation actually looks like.

Listen wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube!

🔗 Don't miss the resource links in the show notes!

🎧🎙 Listen to Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1890886/episodes/19186196
📺🎙 Watch Part 1:
https://youtu.be/F_jGJSRwjBg

📧 Connect & share your biggest takeaway: [email protected]

05/14/2026

Here's a reframe that might change how you think about environmental education entirely.
We've always been taught that a steward is someone who carefully manages and protects the land. And while that's true, author and climate educator Xochitl Bentley is offering us something deeper.

In her work, a steward is someone who creates communities of care through storytelling.
That definition opens the door for every student (not just the ones drawn to science or nature) to see themselves as someone with a role to play in the future of our planet.

It's not about having the right answers. It's about having a story worth telling and an audience worth telling it to.

🔗 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/V0Zru9y03xw

Part 2 drops Friday!

05/13/2026

05/12/2026

What happens when students stop being receivers of information and start becoming storytellers?

During this week’s Schoolutions conversation, climate educator and author Xochitl Bentley shares the story of a class project that began with a mini-grant and a field trip and ended with students hosting a community showcase and launching a postcard campaign to local representatives about urban forestry.

It wasn't assigned. It was sparked. Xochitl calls it the multiplying effect of environmental storytelling and it's exactly the kind of civic action our students are capable of when we give them real audiences and real stakes.

🔗 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/V0Zru9y03xw

Part 2 drops Friday!

05/08/2026

Schoolutions S5E36 (Part 2) Can We Scale Street Redesign? Has a Plan!

🎯 Part 2 with Sabina Sethi Unni is LIVE!

Make sure to listen to Part 1 of my conversation with Sabina before diving into Part 2! https://youtu.be/e5rd1DzjwzE

What does it take to turn a congested city street into a thriving space for kids?

In Part 2 of my Schoolutions conversation with Sabina Sethi Unni of Open Plans, we get into the real work behind NYC's School Streets program: the community outreach model that replaced cold calls, the Clarkson Street project proposing the city's first permanent swing gate on a public street, and what Mayor Mamdani's opt-out School Streets proposal could mean for schools citywide.

Sabina's three-step ask if every street in front of every school became a School Street tomorrow?

1. Start with a sign.
2. Add dedicated staff.
3. Then go big with permanent infrastructure.
It's a practical, hopeful, community-driven movement and it's gaining momentum.

🎧🎙 Listen to Part 2:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1890886/episodes/19113522
📺🎙 Watch Part 2:
https://youtu.be/1BntiuYLDe0

📧Don’t forget to email me! I'd love to hear your next step: [email protected]

🔔 SUBSCRIBE to never miss an episode of Schoolutions Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/

Next Week: High school ELA teacher and climate educator Xochitl Bentley proves that the English classroom might be the most powerful place to tackle the climate crisis, and she has the framework, the Fulbright, and the book to back it up.

05/07/2026

What if the street in front of your child's school could become a safe, vibrant community space every single day?

That's the vision behind New York City's School Streets program, and Sabina Sethi Unni is one of the people making it happen. In our Schoolutions conversation, Sabina shares the Clarkson Street story, the case for an opt-out citywide policy, and why something as simple as a sign could change everything.

🎙️Link to Part 1 of our conversation → https://youtu.be/e5rd1DzjwzE

Part 2 drops Friday!