Kelvin Childress serves as the Head Coach at Texas Sports Academy, the sports branch of Alpha School. Texas Sports Academy is a first-of-its-kind school that taps into the power of movement to help students thrive. With core academics finished in just two focused hours each morning, students spend afternoons in active, hands-on workshops that build strength, confidence, and teamwork. For those passionate about a particular sport, the extra time means more freedom to train and grow. It’s a school day that keeps kids learning, moving, and loving every minute.

Childress is a former United States Marine and seasoned educational leader who now serves as the Head Coach at Texas Sports Academy. A multi-sport collegiate recruit, Kelvin chose a path of service by joining the Marine Corps, where he led combat-ready teams across multiple continents and trained allied military units around the world. His leadership earned him recognition from commanders and global partners alike.

In this tumultuous time in history, what role does play have in all of this? What can we learn from kids' play that could help us heal the division between us as adults? We see the hierarchical and patriarchal divide in our politics, economy, and even in how we relate to each other as human beings. We even measure our status by arbitrary hierarchical standards that objectify us and disconnect us from our humanity. Hierarchy influences our daily decisions, causing us to constantly judge ourselves (and others). Fueling an insatiable need to "win" or at least "be better" than someone else.

Play levels the playing fields. Play dissipates ego, challenges the myth of elitism, and removes the obsession with perfection and winning by letting go of results. Play heals. It halts wars, heals divisions considered impossible to mend, and leads us to our most extraordinary feats that have changed the course of history. We, as a society, have always seen play as frivolous. What if the answers we seek to address the biggest issues in the world, from climate change to healing division between us, lie in the actions we took as kids?

Jeff Harry combines positive psychology and play to heal workplaces, help teams build psychological safety and assist individuals in addressing their biggest challenges by embracing a play-oriented approach to work. Jeff was selected by BambooHR & Engagedly as one of the Top 100 HR Influencers and has been featured in the NY Times, Mashable, HuffPost, WIRED, NPR, NatGeo, & Forbes. Jeff has worked with Google, Southwest Airlines, Adobe, the NFL, Amazon, and Facebook, helping their staff to infuse more play into the day-to-day. Over the past 15 years of facilitation and speaking, Jeff’s main goal has been to help work suck less by assisting leaders in building a playground workplace atmosphere that motivates their staff to do their most vibrant work.

TEDx Talk - Beyond Hierarchy: Healing Division Between Us Through Play

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffharryplays

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Founder of Streamline and host of the Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing podcast, Jonathan Greene, shares crucial Money Lessons Kids Need Before the World Teaches Them Wrong.

Jonathan Greene is a nationally recognized voice in real estate investing, brokerage leadership, and ethical business growth. As founder of Streamline and host of the Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing podcast, he challenges hype-driven strategies in favor of discipline, integrity, and long-term thinking.

A former trial attorney and art gallery owner, Jonathan brings a unique blend of negotiation expertise and creative perspective to real estate. He actively invests across multiple asset classes and is known for his outspoken stance against industry shortcuts, advocating instead for a mindful, education-first approach to building sustainable wealth and time freedom.

Learn more at ttps://www.trustgreene.com/

This show provides an energetic, urgent overview of the Free Artificial Intelligence Program from the Inde Ed Program (IEP) Non-Profit Org’n

Guest, Douglas J Alford is founder of the Inde Ed Project 501c(3) Org’n with a Mission to locally improve global foundational Reading, Math, Science and AI for all! We have 10,000 pages of content and 50 videos. Over 7 million free copies downloaded by people in 60 Countries.

www.IndeEdProject.org

Young children learn language best when they’re surrounded by talking, singing, and reading throughout their day. In this episode, we explore how families and early childhood educators can turn everyday moments into rich opportunities for language development. Learn simple, practical strategies—including engaging in “thick” conversations—to create environments where children’s communication skills can grow and thrive.

Heather Salas is an experienced early childhood educator with over 20 years of working with young children and the adults who support them. Her career spans a wide range of settings, including small, family-owned child care programs, large corporate centers, and public schools—giving her a well-rounded perspective on early learning across diverse environments.

Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and the originator of the innovative, evidence-based approach called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), as described in his influential books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost & Found, and Raising Human Beings. He developed and executive-produced the award-winning documentary film The Kids We Lose. Dr. Greene was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over twenty years and is now founding director of the nonprofit Lives in the Balance. He is also currently adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech and in the Faculty of Science at University of Technology Sydney. Dr. Greene has worked with several thousand kids with concerning behaviors and their caregivers, and he and his colleagues have overseen implementation and evaluation of the CPS model in countless schools, inpatient psychiatry units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities, with dramatic effect: significant reductions in recidivism, discipline referrals, detentions, suspensions, and use of restraint and seclusion. Dr. Greene lectures throughout the world and lives in Freeport, Maine.

https://livesinthebalance.org/tkwaok/

Many school leaders step into leadership roles because they were great teachers, but teaching the "little people" and leading the "big people" require very different skill sets. In this conversation, we’ll unpack the leadership gap in education and why so many new leaders suddenly find themselves navigating staffing, culture, and business decisions they were never trained for. We’ll explore what actually helps them to make the leap from classroom expert to confident leader, and how intentional leadership development, mentorship, and peer support can make all the difference.

Melissa Blotter is a leadership development consultant and the founder of Directed Success, where she partners with education organizations to design impactful training experiences, leadership programs, and conferences. With more than two decades in early childhood education, she has led large-scale onboarding initiatives, leadership development programs, and national conferences focused on strengthening school culture and retention. Melissa is passionate about helping educators grow into confident leaders who create environments where both teachers and children thrive!

Teachers are rarely asked what they need. Providing a Needs Assessment for teachers to complete that includes their input for ideas and not just Likert-Scale type answers allows teachers to feel heard and administrators to review actual needs that can lead to academic achievement and professional development that is site-specific and relevant to school and community needs.

Dr. Clark is a retired teacher with 34+ years of experience in education at the elementary level and 18 years at the collegiate level. Currently serving as an education consultant for the Professional Association of GA Educators, she travels to various school districts to speak about legal represenation, scholarships, professional development and teacher growth opportunities for teachers who are PAGE members. When not consulting or teaching, Dr. Clark and her husband film travel destinatios, tips and tricks videos for their YouTube Travel Channel titled ~ The Traveling Clarks-Unpacked.