The BLSA Podcast

After a successful first season featuring twenty-six episodes exploring a host of questions about education, skill development, mental health, and so much more, the Braemar Life Skills Academy Podcast is back. New episodes will appear regularly in the new year. In this short video, our host Mike Helsby tells us what we can expect from […]

Kate Mossop, Long Pham and Martha Nguyen – Community Episode Guests: Kate Mossop: Director, Community Programming Long Pham: Recreation Supervisor Martha Nguyen: Children’s Program Coordinator One of the things most educators learn early in their careers is that the school is not an island. It is a nexus that connects the families, organizations, natural environment, […]

Dr. Diana Brecher – North of Neutral Dr. Diana Brecher is a clinical psychologist who has been working in the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Centre for Student Development and Counselling (CSDC) since 1991.  Diana’s long-standing interest and certification in Positive Psychology led to a shift in her role in 2016, whereby she started the ThriveTMU […]

Miss Rebecca Bitton is an entrepreneur, educator, and mental health speaker. She has been the panelist speaker and former President of the MDAO (Mood Disorders Association of Ontario). She’s also been a panelist speaker at the OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) Work Life Balance Conference, Sunnybrook Hospital and many others. Rebecca addresses student and […]

Nike, Lucy, and Moritz – Deutsche Education It’s always enlightening to be around people with a different cultural background than oneself, getting a daily sense of how your attitudes, values, expressions, assumptions and identities compare with theirs. One of the countries that Braemar regularly welcomes students from is Deutschland, known to many of us as […]

 Matilde Vieira and Amir Mousavinejad – Learning through Activity One of the most important contexts in which young people develop a sense of self and a social behaviour-set is the world of games and sport. This is often the first situation where they are able to have a say in the making (and sometimes the […]

Mr. James Olsen is an experienced educator in the fields of business and health studies. In the years he’s spent guiding students at Braemar, his leadership in these areas, both in and outside the classroom, has led to the development of some of our most dynamic programming. Among his many initiatives, James has spear-headed the […]

The education experience at Braemar is made vibrant and impactful by its teachers, its community, and especially by its culturally diverse student body. Each year, students from dozens of countries come together in our downtown Toronto location to encounter one another in a space that encourages discovery and an appreciation of differences. This episode’s guests […]

In this episode we meet Miss Nicole Booyse, an experienced educator who moved from South Africa to Canada and became the Artistic Director of Braemar College. Nicole is a visual artist, musician and teacher who has transformed the art program at Braemar into a vibrant, passionate space where students can find the freedom and care […]

Miss Rebecca Bitton is an entrepreneur, educator, and mental health speaker. She has been the panelist speaker and former President of the MDAO (Mood Disorders Association of Ontario). She’s also been a panelist speaker at the OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union) Work Life Balance Conference, Sunnybrook Hospital and many others. Rebecca addresses student and […]

Mr. Dov Shapiro is a long-time educator, camp director, and is the founding CEO of ConnectU*, a digital Social-Emotional Learning platform that provides educators with the tools to nurture and assess Growth Mindsets, Self-Awareness, Empathy and Metacognition in their students. Our conversation digs deeper into topics like the nature of Social-Emotional learning, the “EdTech” (Education Technology) […]

Jess Paul – Bringing Braemar to Life Miss Jessica Paul is one of the longest serving teachers at Braemar College, and one of the most dynamic! A lover of theatre, fashion, language, travel and cooking, she brings her passion and talents to everything she does. Over the years, she has been responsible for designing and […]

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