Practical relationship work for school communities.
The CharacterStrong Podcast is a school-focused conversation series hosted by John Norlin. It moves from daily educator pressure to concrete practices such as tactical pauses, better listening, trusted-adult systems, restorative practices, and implementation teams.
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The CharacterStrong Podcast approaches school mental health through the daily work of educators and school teams. John Norlin hosts with a practical rhythm. Episodes often begin with a familiar problem: reacting too fast, half-listening under pressure, trying to make a new initiative stick, or wondering whether a small relational gesture matters. Then the conversation turns toward action. Recent solo episodes introduce strategies like the Tactical Pause and the click on strategy, framing them as quick practices for educators who are moving fast and carrying a lot. The interview episodes widen the lens. Rebecca DePeo-Christner and Amy Lawrence discuss discipline data, exclusionary discipline, brain science, solution-focused strategies, and the need to humanize numbers by seeing the students behind them. Michelle Marcelin, Nancy Buell, and Sarah Orris describe trusted-adult work, silent mentoring, greetings, names, smiles, and the need for intentional champions inside schools. Janice Pizzuto brings implementation science into plain language, emphasizing teams, change theory, and the gap between a good idea and work that lasts. Kendra Claxton talks about belonging through threshold greetings, restorative circles, student feedback, empathy maps, and student agency. Chris Foer grounds high accountability and high support in school-level behavior, including modeling campus care in visible ways. Across these conversations, the show keeps returning to a core idea: school culture is shaped by repeated relational choices. It is not sentimental about that work. It treats connection, accountability, and mental health support as systems that need structure, data, reminders, and follow-through. The show suits educators who want encouragement, but only if that encouragement comes with something they can try next.
Made for: Designed for educators and school teams working on student support, belonging, behavior, and school mental health. It especially fits listeners who want concrete practices more than theory.
What sets it apart: The show connects relational language to implementation details: teams, data, greetings, mentoring systems, restorative practices, and intervention structures. Its best moments make school culture feel both human and operational.
The CharacterStrong Podcast: Weekly conversations for anyone in education. CharacterStrong provides an evidence-based, multi-tiered solution to support whole child success. Curricula and trainings that improve behavior, increase safety, and support mental health.For more information visit our website: characterstrong.com
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The CharacterStrong Podcast shows how schools can turn care, accountability, and student support into durable everyday systems.
John Norlin builds interviews around a practical question: how can schools turn concern for students into routines that hold up under pressure?
A student makes the intervention list again; would you keep showing up for him?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A thoughtful conversation about seeing discipline data as a human question of student safety and support.
Behavior systems feel different when the data points back to a child an educator can still picture. The CharacterStrong Podcast brings Rebecca DePeo-Christner, Assistant Director of Counseling at Denton ISD, and Amy Lawrence, Director of Counseling and Social Work, into a…
A practical schoolwide model turns everyday greetings and follow-up into a more deliberate network of caring adults.
Schools often treat student relationships as a shared value; this episode is strongest when it turns that value into routine. Michelle Marcelin, Nancy Buell, and Sarah Orris of Macomb Intermediate School District walk through practical ways a caring adult can become part of the…
A practical look at how school initiatives need dedicated teams, time, and attention to become lasting change.
The Character Strong Podcast turns implementation science into a practical question for schools: how does a promising idea become durable change?
A practical look at making belonging part of the daily routines students notice and help shape.
Belonging comes through as a practice, not a slogan: something built in the repeated moves adults choose every day. Kendrick Claxton, Vice Principal of Central Middle School and Kansas City Public Schools, grounds the episode in threshold greetings, monthly restorative circles…
Chris Fore turns persistence into a practical discipline: return to the student when the first intervention has not worked.
High accountability can sound hollow when a student is asked to change while the school stays too far away to help. The CharacterStrong Podcast centers on Chris Fore, principal at Mojave High School, as he talks through an MTSS intervention process grounded in data,…
A grounded episode on seeing the student behind discipline data and rethinking how schools respond to behavior.
School discipline is framed here as a matter of systems, recognition, and the adults willing to look again. Denton ISD counseling leaders Rebecca DePeo-Christner and Amy Lawrence discuss a 10-month executive learning community with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute,…
Jonquilyn Hill chases one listener question per episode to the experts who can answer it.
Hard conversations, patiently held, with room to laugh.
Fearne Cotton interviews guests like Boy George and Bryony Gordon about mental health and identity.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford pairs therapy insight with Black TV recaps, maternal health, and history.
Chris Fore, principal at Mojave High School, discusses balancing high accountability with high support in MTSS interventions.
Rebekah de Peo-Christner and Amy Lawrence from Denton ISD discuss their WRAP program, which addresses root causes of student behavior through restorative practices.
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John Norlin introduces the concept of the Tactical Pause, a strategy to train yourself to pause before reacting in order to respond more intentionally.
John Norlin introduces the 'click on strategy' to help educators become better listeners by focusing on the speaker despite internal noise.
The Character Strong Podcast episode with Rebecca DePeo-Christner and Amy Lawrence centers on Denton ISD's RAP, short for Wilson Restorative Action Plan, as a way to address behavior without defaulting to punishment.
John Norlin shares an email from a former exchange student in Slovakia, reminding educators of their lasting influence.
The Character Strong Podcast episode with John Norlin, Michelle Marcelin, Nancy Buell, and Sarah Orris from Macomb Intermediate School District focuses on "silent mentoring" so every student has at least one caring adult in school.
Brenda Ortiz-McGrath argues that SEL should begin in pre-K and extend beyond advisory periods into daily school operations.
Janice Pizzuto, Implementation Training Specialist at Character Strong, says implementation science gives schools "a roadmap for turning ideas into real lasting action." She contrasts "hard versus brutal" change, arguing that resistance is natural and that people resist when they do not feel heard.
“We don't fall to our expectations. We fall to our systems,” Kendrick Claxton says while describing threshold greetings, restorative circles, and empathy maps.
Principal Chris Fore discusses balancing high accountability with high support for Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions in education.
Yvonne Culver and Stephanie Hammond discuss creating a district timeline that aligns character education with academic content to avoid it being an extra task for educators.
School counselors Sam Dusek and Jordan Seifert discuss their award-winning approach to student support at Meyer Middle School.