The Conscious Classroom
The Conscious Classroom with host Amy Edelstein explores the future of education and the world of mindfulness and contemplative approaches in education. Amy is the Founder and Executive Director of the award winning nonprofit Inner Strength Education, which trained more than 35,000 students and supported 5,000 teachers in its first decade with evidence based programming. In each episode, Amy, who began her own meditation practice more than 40 years ago, leans into the edge of authentic transformative practices and makes them relevant and accessible. She shares classroom tools and activities for adolescents and young adults, articulates why teaching students about perspectives, worldviews, and context develops essential skills for long term happiness and success in work and life. Incorporating trauma sensitive approaches, systems thinking, and emotional intelligence to empower teens and uplift school communities, the Conscious Classroom is rooted in real life, field-tested approaches. Honored with a Philadelphia Social Innovation Award and a Philadelphia City Council Resolution for her work, Amy is passionate about what's possible and inspired to share that with you. More at: www.InnerStrengthEducation.org
Episodes
91 episodes
A Night Under the Bodhi Tree: The True Posture of Meditation
In a rare podcast, our host Amy Edelstein shares a personal experience of meditating at the site of the Buddha's awakening in Bodh Gaya back in 1985. In her inimitable narrative style, you'll feel the chill of a predawn rickshaw rid...
Awe, Accountability, and AI: Teaching the Next Generation to Co-Create Responsibly
Why awe belongs not the makers, not the machines...Awe belongs to the makers who dare, persist, and stand by their work. In this episode, Amy Edelstein opens with a striking contrast: Olympic snowboarders whose courage makes ...
Meme Carriers - An Encounter with Alexa
A simple request for the time turned into a lesson on hidden defaults and the values they carry. When Alexa, perhaps the most popular voice assistant offered eight new voices, Amy Edelstein follows the breadcrumb trail from “small” UX choices t...
Mindfulness, More than A Productivity Hack
In this episode, Amy Edelstein unpacks why mindfulness goes beyond technique and how wonder is a key ingredient that develops authentic leadership in young people and adults. Mindfulness as only an add-on falls short of what it can be and how a...
Teaching Wonder: Jane Goodall inspires a Conscious Generation
What if the most powerful classroom tool isn’t another strategy, but a deeper way of seeing? In this episode, Amy Edelstein explore show purpose, presence, and philosophical clarity can reshape teaching from the inside out—so young people feel ...
Middle School Mindfulness, Made Practical
In this episode, Amy Edelstein shares a practical, developmentally appropriate guidance on teaching mindfulness to middle schoolers. She describes how to adjust practices to this age group, with a focus on structure, repetition, and emotional i...
Letting Go & Creating Safe Spaces: Rituals for the Conscious Classroom
For teachers feeling overwhelmed by global challenges and classroom responsibilities, this episode offers a lifeline of wisdom. Amy Edelstein delves into the transformative power of letting go—not as abandonment of responsibility, but as a prof...
Mindful Interconnectedness: Seeing Beyond Personal Stress
In this episode, Amy Edelstein explains why she included the lessons on systems thinking in the Inner Strength Teen Mindfulness Program. Teaching students how to understand their experiences within larger systems, helps them manage ...
Closing the School Year with Purpose: Mindful Rites of Passage
We explore how to end the school year with mindful intention and purpose by creating powerful rites of passage that help students recognize their growth, learn from challenges, and prepare for summer with confidence.• Experiential mindf...
True North: The Key to Navigating Change in Education
In this episode Amy Edelstein explores what it can meet to root in our True North, our deepest values, when we lean into how education needs to transform.The questions surrounding education's future form an intricate web: How do we p...
Brave New Learning: Sal Khan, AI Tutors, & the Future of Mindfulness Education
The educational landscape is undergoing a profound transformation through artificial intelligence, and mindfulness education stands at this exciting frontier. In this thought-provoking exploration, Amy Edelstein reviews Sal Khan's new book "Bra...
Returning to Analog
In this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein questions the use of the popular idiom "returning to analog." While agreeing with the sentiment that we reconnect with the preciousness of our humanity as technology conti...
Inspiration, Illumination & Sacred Intention: A New Year's Day Contemplation
This episode of The Conscious Classroom with Amy Edelstein invites us to explore the power of setting meaningful intentions and to learn how to let go of will-based resolutions as the most effective means to create lasting transformation. ...
Being with What Is During the Holidays
Holidays are awe-filled and also can bring about feelings of sadness, grief and loneliness for ourselves and our students. Join Amy Edelstein in this episode of The Conscious Classroom Podcast as we explore how to let go into the present moment...
Dedication, Transformation & the Arts
Experience the essence of creativity and dedication with Amy Edelstein as we journey with her to CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in the Catskills. This episode celebrates Alex and Alison Gray, the visionary artists who have devoted decades t...
Creating Positive Spaces with a Grateful Mindset
Creating Positive Spaces with a Grateful MindsetIt's so simple, could it really change our outlook, experience and classrooms? In this episode of the Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein looks at ways that gratitude can transform ou...
Authenticity: the elusive quality that ignites classrooms
Do you feel like you're authentic in your teaching and in your life? How does we "become" more authentic? Can mindfulness bring authenticity or is it more than that?In this episode, Amy unpacks the elusive quality of a...
Contentment in Times of Stress
Discover the secret to finding profound contentment even in the most stressful times. What if you could cultivate a deeper sense of fulfillment through mindful awareness and systems thinking? On today's Conscious Classroom podcast, Amy Edelstei...
Loneliness or Connection in the Classroom?
What happens when a student fails to show up for a crucial presentation? Explore the profound lessons on commitment and responsibility in this episode of the Conscious Classroom podcast. Join me as we unpack the culture of individualism and wha...
Plato Knew It All Along - Teachers, Transmission & Trustworthy Impact
Can shifting the focus for teachers from content to connection be the key to lifting adolescent loneliness? Journey with Amy Edelstein on this episode of the Conscious Classroom podcast as she unpacks the role of teachers as moral exemp...
Education Design that Works: Blending Visionary Ideas with Classroom Realities
In this episode we pack two levels of insight that are mostly at odds with one another when it comes to improving educational design. We examine the dual landscape of educational innovation, where grand visions and data analysis for systemic ch...
Jim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education Gap
Jim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education Gap with Amy EdelsteinIn this episode of The conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein helps illuminate the little-known history and ongoing influence of resistance to de-segregation within Amer...
Awareness & Innovation: The Wings of Tomorrow's Education
Unlock the synergy between mindfulness and innovation as Amy Edelstein explores the relationship between these two orientations in this episode of the Conscious Classroom. Imagine a learning environment where the air is alive with creativity, a...
Mindful Joy: The Secret Sauce in Educational Leadership
In this episode of The Conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein unpacks the importance of teacher happiness and how to use mindful awareness and perspectives to improve teacher wellbeing and sense of possibility prior to making practical changes, whi...
Mindfulness Is Not A Pill, It's a Perspective
Discover the keys to unlocking our children's potential in an era where education is at a crossroads and technology's influence is undeniable. This enlightening journey through the world of learning reveals how an evolved mindset, coupled with ...