Transformative Principal: Recent Episodes
Jethro Jones
Jethro Jones interviews instructional leaders from around the nation to learn and teach what it takes to become a transformative principal. Episodes address topics like Response to Intervention (RTI), Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), the latest advances in educational research, standards-based grading, and interviews with industry leaders like Bill Daggett, Rick Wormeli, Todd Whitaker
This episode is part of the Summer of AI Series, brought to you by SchoolAI, Scrible, and FocalPointK12.
Mary Howard is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and teaches 6th grade ELA and Science in Grand Island, New York. She has found success using digital tools that not only make learning fun for her students, but encourage critical thinking, collaboration, and create a life-long passion for learning. Whether the digital experience is related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics or promotes literacy, Mary believes passionately in the potential that technology has for reaching and engaging ALL learners. In pursuit of this passion, Mary has spent the past 15 years presenting at dozens of technology conferences including NYSCATE, STANYS and, ISTE among others. She has become a globally recognized speaker on the topics of augmented reality and virtual reality and the Next Generation Science Standards and shares her strategies through her blog, yoursmarticles.com. She has published numerous educational technology articles and has provided webinars on Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality, 3D Design, QR codes and digital engagement strategies. Mary’s accolades include recognition as the 2018 International Society for Technology in Education’s Virtual Pioneer of the Year and 3 Silver Presidential Volunteer Service awards. She was a New York State Teacher of the year finalist for 2018 and 2020 and is a New York State Master Teacher. When Mary isn’t elbows deep in her technology initiatives, she is a mother of 3 boys and devotes her free time to refereeing youth hockey and volunteering within the hockey community. She is an avid runner, Adirondack 46er and recently cycled across New York State on the Erie Canal. Mary is a newly published author with her new release, Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Your Teacher Life: The ChatGPT Guide for Educators.
Key Takeaways:
- AI is a tool that will help give teachers more time, reduce burnout, and improve teaching.
- Technology is about amplifying teachers' ability to reach all students.
- Reluctance to integrate technology doesn't come from a place of fear rather a place of this is, "one more thing".
- The more we streamline teachers' everyday tasks, the more we can get them in front of students and spending more quality time facilitating student learning.
- ChatGPT still needs to be checked once the product is finished.
- We need to make sure we follow age and privacy concerns because ChatGPT is collecting data on the users.
- Education still has to focus on thinking rather than retrieval of information. This will help the integration of ChatGPT as a useful tool rather than a tool used to get good grades.
- The perfect classroom still has a teacher who is helping guide rich discussions through the Socratic method and collaboration with AI helping streamline that in the background.
- Leaders need to celebrate every little success individuals have to continually build positivity.
Stay Connected:
Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Your Teacher Life: The ChatGPT Guide for Educators
Your Smarticles
Support our Sponsors
SchoolAI: The Classroom Operating System: Help your teachers save 10 hours a week. Sign up for a free account and see new AI-generated experiences that will change the way you teach.
Scrible: Worried about AI Plagiarism? Take the high road and improve your students' skills before they feel the need to cheat with this modern research and writing platform for school
FocalPointK12: Manage student portfolios that they can take with them with blockchain technology and AI assisted grading. Listen to our interview with the founder and chief learning officer here.
This episode is part of the Summer of AI Series, brought to you by SchoolAI, Scrible, and FocalPointK12.
AI Edcamp for faculty
Schools are opening and AI looms as a BIG question mark. How will teachers and administrators use it? What about students? How can we start to understand the complexity of AI in schools? This brief, chock-full episode offers a prescription for busy administrators and teachers. Use the simple formula of an Edcamp and bring the expertise to your school community today!
Concepts adapted from my book:
Radical Principals
More info:
How to run an Edcamp virtually
Listen to Mike, a principal, author, and podcaster, share quick, actionable strategies, bite sized solutions that have sustainable impact. Each episode gives you a take home approach you can use today. You'll hear about a study, a story, and a strategy that are linked together. Educators face more challenges than ever. Stop spinning your wheels and listen to refreshing answers backed by 25 years of experience, interviews, and research. Take the journey with Mike today and start helping children now!
Mike's overarching goal: If I can help one child and one adult, this was all worth it!
Support our Sponsors
SchoolAI: The Classroom Operating System: Help your teachers save 10 hours a week. Sign up for a free account and see new AI-generated experiences that will change the way you teach.
Scrible: Worried about AI Plagiarism? Take the high road and improve your students' skills before they feel the need to cheat with this modern research and writing platform for school
FocalPointK12: Manage student portfolios that they can take with them with blockchain technology and AI assisted grading. Listen to our interview with the founder and chief learning officer here.
This episode is part of the Summer of AI Series, brought to you by SchoolAI, Scrible, and FocalPointK12.
My guest today is Bart Caylor. If you’ve floated around the higher ed marketing sphere for very long you’ve probably come across Bart at least once. Bart is the founder of the education marketing agency, Caylor Solutions as well as the co-host along with Troy Singer of the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. He is also a keynote speaker, as well as a first-generation college student himself. In this episode we’re talking all about AI.. specifically practical ways you can incorporate AI into your workflow to save you time and effort in your job.
Tune in to learn:
🚀 How Bart saves 10-15 hours per week using AI
🚀 How it’s not AI that’s going to take your job, it’s going to be the people who know how to harness the power of AI that will take your job
🚀 The successes and limitations of various AI applications and where perfectionism can cause you roadblocks
🚀 How higher ed marketers should be early adopters of AI and how higher ed administrators can support the marketing team in those efforts
🚀 A bunch more stuff - including how you can save time on your next trip to Aldi using Chat GPT.
Links:
Bart:
Connect with Bart on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartcaylor/
Connect with Caylor Solutions: https://www.caylor-solutions.com/
Support our Sponsors
SchoolAI: The Classroom Operating System: Help your teachers save 10 hours a week. Sign up for a free account and see new AI-generated experiences that will change the way you teach.
Scrible: Worried about AI Plagiarism? Take the high road and improve your students' skills before they feel the need to cheat with this modern research and writing platform for school
FocalPointK12: Manage student portfolios that they can take with them with blockchain technology and AI assisted grading. Listen to our interview with the founder and chief learning officer here.
This episode is part of the Summer of AI Series, brought to you by SchoolAI, Scrible, and FocalPointK12.
Jethro Jones is interviewing Kiran Athota, CEO of FocalPoint Education, and Dr. Wendy Oliver, Chief Learning Officer at FocalPoint,K12, Inc. The discussion centered around the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and its impact on student engagement and personalized learning.
Athota and Oliver delved into the distinction between AI assistants and human teachers, emphasizing the importance of teachers in catching plagiarism and guiding students. They acknowledged the fear surrounding new technology but highlighted the benefits of AI in understanding student knowledge better than ever before.
The conversation also touched on the role of AI in assessing student progress and skills. Athota and Oliver stressed the need for authentic and personalized measures of growth, moving away from traditional assessments. They emphasized the importance of partnerships in education, with teachers and students actively involved in the development of AI tools.
- ChatGPT vs. Generative AI.
- Georgia Tech’s Experiment
- Students not know the difference between AI assistant and professor.
- Any student can plagiarize
- The best tool is the teacher to catch plagiarism
- Teachers and students should know how to use it.
- We are afraid of new technology.
- AudioPen AI
- Discussing plagiarism and how to make choices around it.
- How FocalPoint is using AI.
- Giving teachers back time for their work.
- Using ChatGPT for scoring
- Multi-dimensional score
- Building a learner profile and informing the personalization of education
- Student engagement
- Standards work has already been there.
- How to make it more engaging for kids.
- “I already know the student is struggling, how do I get them from here to here?”
- Generative AI is giving us engagement
- Technology is at a point where we can understand what students know better than ever.
- AI can pull in questions/assignments/activities/etc. for growth that are aligned to kids’ interests and skills.
- Ugh, another diagnostic…
- We need to find other ways to assess students
- Parents found that they have a voice and choice in education.
- We need partners, not vendors, in education.
- Developed with teachers and students in mind.
- If we have a good authentic way to measure student progress and skills, you don’t need the assessment.
- Starting to see trends and growth in policy and procedure in Education.
About Kiran Athota
Kiran Athota has always been at the forefront of edtech innovations. As chief architect for GADOE’s longitudinal data system, he won national attention from EdWeek and the Data Quality Campaign. He subsequently was the first to introduce single-sign-on to K12 education. As co-founder and CEO of FocalPoint Education, he led his team in groundbreaking developments in an xAPI-enabled adaptive learning platform, and assessment platform and overcame education data silos with FocalPoint’s proprietary data-interoperability model. Most recently, he and FocalPoint have introduced blockchain student credentialing to serve the CTE segment and national trade and professional credentialing associations.
About Wendy Oliver, Ed.D.
With more than 20 years of experience in digital education, Dr. Wendy Oliver, a Tennessee teacher and administrator, thrives when implementing innovative learning models and creating amazing learning experiences for students. Throughout her career, Wendy has had the opportunity to develop and pioneer a district, TN’s state-wide, and international digital learning programs. She served as the Chief Learning Architect for Arizona State University’s digital charter network of schools and recently launched a network of private, for-profit schools. Wendy created Oliver’s Frameworks for Blended and Online Instruction, and subsequently, a software that allows teacher to self-assess their knowledge of instruction in each respective environment, a software that has been implemented in multiple districts and states.
Her leadership expertise, experience as a certified scrum master, hands-on knowledge of digital learning and curriculum design, paired with her expertise in assessment and evaluation, are leveraged to design innovative, learner-centered solutions in her role as Chief Learning Officer at FocalPoint,K12, Inc.
Support our Sponsors
SchoolAI: The Classroom Operating System: Help your teachers save 10 hours a week. Sign up for a free account and see new AI-generated experiences that will change the way you teach.
Scrible: Worried about AI Plagiarism? Take the high road and improve your students' skills before they feel the need to cheat with this modern research and writing platform for school
FocalPointK12: Manage student portfolios that they can take with them with blockchain technology and AI assisted grading. Listen to our interview with the founder and chief learning officer here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
This episode discusses the potential of artificial intelligence in education and how it can empower both students and teachers. Cahlan Sharp talks about his experience building the micro school platform Prenda and how it aims to empower learners. He discusses how AI tools like chatbots and pulse check activities can help teachers gain insights into how students are doing and where they need help. However, Cahlan stresses that AI should be used as a tool to enhance the learning experience rather than as a source of truth. Transparency and teacher oversight are important to ensure student safety and privacy when using AI tools.
- Startup Failures: Reddit before Reddit.
- Draw My Doll
- Prenda started with after-school programs with librarians.
- How to teach something that you’re not totally familiar with.
- Helping kids learn something that was focused around the student.
- Focused on the method rather than the content.
- Helping kids walk through the content themselves.
- Kelly Smith holding a microschool in his own home.
- Guides.
- Similar to Acton Academy
- Kids with specific needs.
- How can we help moms create classrooms in their living rooms?
- The difference between passive and active learning.
- Empowerment
- People are more empowered with the right tools in their hands.
- AI is an empowering tool.
- If we put tools in the hands of educators
- What would you do if you had an assistant next to you and you could ask them?
- Ideas of personalized tutors powered by AI
- This is going to change everything.
- Every student will have access to a personalized tutor
- How is everybody doing in our class?
- Spaces - Teacher generated, student facing chat spaces.
- Bellringer Pulse space - bringing in a personal relationship
- Pulse Exit Ticket - working through learning outcomes
- Desired outcome, but not a desired output.
- Not always a right or wrong answer.
- AI cannot always be a source of truth.
- How to focus on what AI is actually good at.
- Messages are safe and raising red flags.
- Safety and data privacy.
- Built-in mechanisms (content moderation, privacy, etc.)
- Establishing how long we keep student data.
- Scrubbing data
- Transparency - teachers have access to all the kids’ chats
- Parents are an important critical stakeholder in the process.
- Build tools for parents down the road.
- Motivated by giving people powerful tools.
About Cahlan Sharp
[Cahlan Sharp] is a highly versatile leader, technologist, entrepreneur, engineer, and investor.
Passionate about technology, education, and building things that matter. Serial entrepreneurs participated in lots of failed startups. Founder of DevMtn helped start the micro schooling Prenda, and now CTO and CoFounder at SchoolAI
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
- You have a long background in AI so you’ve seen the ups and downs of that field and the over-hype cycles of the past. Why are the warnings about AI credible now, and what do you see as the biggest dangers?
- AI as a tool to remove drudgery
- It’s just doing a repetitive task over and over.
- Behavior has emerged from abstractions.
- These systems are babies.
- Questions schools should be asking about AI Services they adopt.
- AI companies don’t exactly know what they are selling.
- Impossible to test what all the software can do.
- Having ways to monitor what is going on.
- Bring students into the process.
- Productive Struggle - Jo Boaler
- APLUS Framework:
- Moving toward a realm where general cognitive skills will matter more than domain-specific expertise
- The way we are doing school is not the best way to get there. How you divide up your functions drives the overall ethos of the system.
- Memory system is fundamentally associative.
- The better network you have, the better you’ll learn.
- Work on problems that have different issues, trade-offs, limitations, etc.
- Resource management becomes a major skill that is needed.
- Carving up the world according to common challenges than knowledge domains.
- Knowledge on demand.
- Teaching the forest and filling in with trees.
- We tend to take knowledge and pile it up brick by brick.
- Change is hard.
- Activation energy - if there’s too much friction, it’s very difficult.
- AI in the classroom - teacher workload less.
- When you deal with complex issues, you keep what works and jettison what doesn’t.
- Working on multi-disciplinary challenges.
- Student agency is a must.
- Is there enough understanding of the conceptual ideas?
- Moving to increased levels of abstraction.
About Timothy Dasey
Dr. Tim Dasey has a long history of technical development, analysis, and leadership on huge national issues like today’s AI emergence. His graduate school dissertation in the early 90s was on AI machine learning applied to neuroscience, and that combination has allowed him unusual perspectives on learning in general, whether for AI or people.
Tim spent thirty years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory—their national security hub—where he developed (10 years) and then led (20 years) technology analysis and development for a wide array of challenges. He led 40–80 person groups focused on Chemical and Biological Defense and then AI, and grew new business areas in public health, bioengineering, disaster management, logistics, critical infrastructure protection, and law enforcement.
Tim has eclectic expertise that allows him to contribute to leadership and management studies, computer science, biology and medicine, psychology, modeling and simulation, human-systems integration, education, and system analysis. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Clarkson University.
Relative to education, Tim has taught study skills and computer science at the college level, and computer science for 8th graders. However, Tim doesn’t consider himself a teacher since his classroom experiences were brief. His expertise is in AI, the present and future of work, and learning science (humans and machines). He also led the development of numerous educational games over a decade at MIT.
He currently runs a consulting company that focuses on AI opportunities and strategic implications for a variety of communities, including biotech, education, and entrepreneurial investment. He has recently published a book called Wisdom Factories: AI, Games, and the Education of a Modern Worker, about AI’s impact on work and the education reform implications.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Richard Gerver is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and world-renowned thinker on human leadership and human transformation.
His career began in education, first as a teacher and then as a school principal, when he turned the fortunes of a failing school and its pupils around in just two years. Since the success of his first book, focusing on his experience in frontline education, Richard has devoted himself to advancing society’s thinking on learning, change, and how best to realize our full potential.
He has worked with an extraordinary range of people, from elite athletes to former US President Barack Obama. Named UK Business Speaker of the Year three times, Richard has been invited to speak on the world’s biggest stages, including TED, the RSA,, and the BBC.
Today, it’s our pleasure to welcome Richard to The Authority for an enlightening discussion based on his international bestseller, Change: Learn to Love It, Learn to Lead It.
Richard and Ross discuss:
Questions:
- What is change and what makes it meaningful.
- How the pandemic necessitated change and changed Gen-Z’s perspective on the inevitability of change.
- “We are living in the first age where we no longer determine the rate of change.”
- How Richard navigated the change from teacher to three-time UK Business Speaker of the Year.
- Overcoming the fear of change caused by “imagined consequences.”
- What the innovation of “Total Football” shows us about embracing change.
- Is loving and embracing change necessary for leading it?
- Fear of the unknown and how authority figures will react to our own efforts at change.
- Overcoming artificial complexity and self-constructed barriers.
- CQ — the Curiosity Quotient.
- Richard’s next endeavours.
Find Change, Simple Thinking, Creating Tomorrow’s Schools Today, and all of Richard’s other books and work at www.richardgerver.com
Find Richard’s LinkedIn Learning courses, Overcoming Complexity and Developing Mental Toughness for Leadership, here.
Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts.
Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.
About today’s guest
Richard Gerver is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and world-renowned thinker. His career began in education, first as a teacher and then as a school principal, when he turned the fortunes of a failing school and its pupils around in just two years.
Since the success of his first book, focusing on his experience in frontline education, Richard has devoted himself to advancing society’s thinking on learning, change, and how best to realize our full potential. He has since written several books on leadership and innovation, including the bestsellers Change and Simple Thinking
Now regarded as one of the world's leading thinkers on human leadership and organizational transformation, Richard has worked with an extraordinary range of people, from elite athletes to former US President Barack Obama. Named UK Business Speaker of the Year three times, Richard has been invited to speak on the world’s most recognized stages, including TED, the RSA, and the BBC.
With his unique insight into our development from infants to adults, Richard helps us understand the nature of our personal and professional responses to risk, change, creativity, and development. His ability to connect experiences across many, often seemingly different, environments helps individuals’ companies and organizations expand their thinking and their perception of their own potential.
Follow Richard on Twitter @richardgerver and on LinkedIn.
About the host
Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano or LinkedIn
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
What does it mean to maintain humanity? - To practice the forgotten art of being the ordinary. - We are ok as the messy, complex meat machines we were born with. Don’t have to be personal brands. Don’t have to elevate or project or photoshop. - Reverence for the base model.
- Technology does train us, regardless of what we think about that.
- Have an understanding of the basis of what we have as a human.
- We’ve lost the drive to imagine apart from entertainment and convenience.
- We don’t have a vision of what a profile of a graduate looks like.
- We need imagination for education, housing, energy.. the areas that would benefit ordinary people the most - 9 beatitudes of media technology
- “Let’s just wait until the data is conclusive”
- Kayfabe vs. Collective journey
- Jerry Springer - Brilliant politician in Cincinnati.
- Personal brand prohibited him from being a good politician
- Hero’s journey is tiring.
- Collective journey doesn’t have heroes. It has conductors: Ted Lasso, Encanto, and Barbie. - Teams taking down misunderstandings, and systems.
- Not individual villains. People perpetuating those systems are redeemed not banished. - It’s a lot easier to ban an avatar.
- Let’s teach kids new modalities. Don’t perpetuate the hero’s journey. Create collective journeys.
About CJ Casciotta
CJ Casciotta brings more than a decade of experience as a results-driven creative strategist and award-winning media producer.
Seen by many as a trusted voice on 21st-century cultural shifts, he’s consulted and developed campaigns for presidential candidates, IPOs, startups, and Fortune 500s alike, partnering with notable brands such as MGM Studios, Delta Airlines, Sesame Street, Lululemon, and The United Nations Foundation. An accomplished media producer, he’s collaborated on projects with leading culture-makers like Ira Glass of This American Life, Seth Godin, and FoodNetwork’s Maneet Chauhan.
A sought-after communicator and TEDx alumnus, he’s traveled globally speaking to creative professionals at venues like Creative Mornings, Charity: Water, and STORY. In addition, CJ’s work has been featured by Forbes, Salon, CBS, MTV, and TechCrunch. He’s the author of the book Get Weird: Discover the Surprising Secret to Making a Difference (Hachette, 2018). His next book, The Forgotten Art of Being Ordinary, releases in 2023 with BenBella Books.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Janessa Fletcher, Content Director for Education to the Core, discusses the future of AI in primary education. She explores the potential of AI in teaching reading skills, the need for supplemental resources, and the impact of technology on reading habits. Fletcher emphasizes the importance of the science of reading and personalized approaches to support students’ diverse needs.
- Dabbling in ChatGPT
- Using it to write emails
- Cons - science of reading - following a scope and sequence.
- still figuring out what to type into chatgpt to get what
- It can be trained to do what we need, eventually.
- How bullish she is on developing it
- Aligned to orton-gillingham or full foundations.
- Need for supplemental resources in addition to
- Upper elem and secondary schools.
- How genuine is that feedback?
- How does the science of reading help
- Read Naturally
- This is research this is best practices.
- Phonics, orthographic mapping.
- One size doesn’t fit all.
- Barriers to reading: lack of support and practice, lack of resources,
- Tech making it so that kids don’t need to read as much.
- What is the future of AI as it relates to primary education
About Janessa Fletcher
Janessa Fletcher is the Content Director for Education to the Core, a primary curriculum resource creation company and primary teacher printable membership subscription service.
Previous to her current role, she was a Preschool Teacher for 2 years; Kindergarten Teacher for 8 years; Instructional Coach & Interventionist for 3 years.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Kevin Shindel, a high school social studies teacher, discusses the impact of technology and AI in classrooms. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the purpose and potential of AI before fully adopting it. Shindel raises concerns about trust, privacy, and the need for collaboration with AI. He believes AI is not just a tool, but an ecosystem that requires careful consideration.
About Kevin Shindel
Kevin Shindel is a high school social studies teacher with 28 years of experience. He has taken a keen interest in technology and its impact in classrooms. 10 years ago, he created a digital detox program for students, and he runs this experience every year with his kids. He’s very interested in the holistic impact of technology on students when adopted in schools.
- Begin with purpose.
- What’s the purpose of AI?
- Skeptic by nature.
- Personalization is important.
- Aristotle’s golden
- Virtuous but vices at the extremes.
- How much will taxpayers be willing to pay to have teachers be hand holding and AI.
- What is driving the AI Push right now?
- Money
- Power and status
- Fear
- Hubris
- Can use the technology they create to solve the world’s ills.
- Big tech exploitations.
- Trust is a big issue.
- We need to work with Collaborators, not Service Providers.
- What are the problems in today’s classrooms?
- We don’t know the advice an AI Therapist would give.
- What is the problem and is this the solution?
- It would be difficult to replace me in a classroom right now, but these are the dumbest AI we will ever work with.
- AI’s carbon footprint
- Greatest learning tool ever created by humans. Greatest cheating tool, also.
- AI is not a tool. It’s an ecosystem.
- Unleash learning about AI before we unleash using AI.
- How will this affect Human relationships, privacy, data, Accessibility, hard work vs. meaningful work
- Where do we have the hard work happen?
- Promise of offloading hard work
- See people wanting to get this plane off the ground without knowing everything in there.
- Defining hard work is incredibly challenging.
- The purpose is to help someone find gainful employment.
- 4-month exploratory window before we adopt whole heartedly.
- Ai is not a tool, it’s an ecosystem
- See Jason Fried’s ideas about tools here
- When AI tool is not a user error.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Sarah Rubenstein, principal of OCEAN School, shares her experience using ChatGPT to write grant proposals. She highlights the time-consuming nature of grant writing and how ChatGPT helped her generate drafts quickly. Rubenstein believes that using AI for certain writing tasks is acceptable and efficient, freeing up time for more meaningful work.
- OCEAN School - 20 year-old school
- Family partnership program school. Some learning on campus with a teacher
- 30% in school settings. 70% with parents
- 6–12 online program.
- Experiential learning opportunities.
- Place-based learning
- Grant writing is needed for that job.
- If you want teachers to get kids out of classrooms, need school buses and time to plan.
- Some grants are straightforward.
- Super time-consuming, read, highlight,
- Didn’t always get the grant.
- writing 20–40 pages on the grant.
- 130K over 2 years.
- First time, took 4–5 days uninterrupted time. Needed to work from scratch.
- Only took 3–4 hours.
- I didn’t have to do any of the thinking.
- Read, objectives,
- Spit out the chunks in sections.
- Thought it would be the best
- The way chatGPT writes and the way technical grants want it to be written align well.
- Almost everything, take its first draft and then edit it in Google Docs.
- Not sure if it was cheating
- Was transparent with the superintendent that she was doing it.
- We can’t afford grant writers.
- Decide if it is really coming from me.
- Almost anything is acceptable to use chatGPT.
- An article for publication somewhere
- If AI can generate that assignment, why are we assigning it to them?
- It’s not worthy of my time.
- Anytime that someone asks you to write something, just open up the AI and ask it to do something.
- Audiopen
- I haven’t tried to write anything that I care enough about to not use ChatGPT.
About Sarah Rubenstein
Sarah Rubenstein is the principal for OCEAN School, a K–12 Alternative School in Port Townsend, WA. Sarah also serves at the Port Townsend School District Place Based Learning Director supporting community connected learning across the district.
She is a credentialed teacher with Masters’ Degrees in Biology and Educational Leadership. Sarah has worked as a math and science teacher in Washington and California, as well as a curriculum writer, and teaching coach.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Today we are talking with Michael B. Horn about the impact of AI on K12 (and higher) education and it’s level of disruption.
- Are students more disengaged because of the pandemic or AI taking over jobs?
- Anxiety from high school students because it is just far enough away.
- In every field entry level role becomes something much different.
- Intermediary places that employ apprentices.
- Theory of interdependence and modularity.
- In the early years of a system, different systems have to be done by the same entity.
- The nature of skills and work is moving so fast
- Book learning has to be done interdependently with the actual work.
- willfully blind to the reality.
- Google has changed the game and so will AI.
- Combination of human skills with the AI
- Hard things are still important.
- Habits of success, social emotional skills, soft skills, etc.
- What is hard may change.
- What is scarce may become clearer.
- It’s easy to get a bunch of gibberish written on the internet.
- What’s harder is to write something that compels others to take action.
- How to idenitfy hidden bias in AI.
- Rhetoric, philosophy, ethics and others are more important now.
- How we shape the AI and the code itself using ethics, philosophy.
- Overcorrection of humanities vs. STEM fields.
- Our ability to be discerning consumers is going to be more important.
- Are we training AI or is AI training us?
- Maybe knowledge is less important.
- Discerning what is fact vs. fiction.
- Information exists, knowledge gathers it, wisdom is applied knowledge, discernment is knowing when to use it.
- Schools seek to organize information into knowledge, smart people gain wisdom, and enlightened ones seek for discernment.
- Context gives meaning.
- Contrast give meaning.
About Michael Horn
Michael B. Horn strives to create a world in which all individuals can build their passions and fulfill their potential through his writing, speaking, and work with a portfolio of education organizations. He is the author of several books, including the recently released From Reopen to Reinvent: (Re)creating School for Every Child; the award-winning Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns; Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools; Choosing College;and Goodnight Box, a children’s story.
Michael is the co-founder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a non-profit think tank and an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He cohosts the top education podcasts Future U and Class Disrupted. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, the New York Sun, and writes the Substack newsletter The Future of Education. Michael also serves as an executive editor at Education Next, and his work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and NBC.
Michael serves on the board and advisory boards of a range of education organizations, including Imagine Worldwide, Minerva University, the LearnLaunch Institute, and Guild Education, and is a venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners.
Michael was selected as a 2014 Eisenhower Fellow to study innovation in education in Vietnam and Korea, and Tech&Learning magazine named him to its list of the 100 most important people in the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education. Michael holds a BA in history from Yale University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Previous Episodes with Michael Horn
- Disrupting Class with Michael Horn Transformative Principal 202 - Transformative Principal with Jethro Jones
- Blended Learning with Michael Horn Transformative Principal 203 - Transformative Principal with Jethro Jones
- Transformative Principal | Choosing College with Michael Horn Transformative Principal 295
- Transformative Principal | Tackling the Teacher Shortage Problem with Michael Horn, Charles Fournier and Kevin Stoller Transformative Principal 525
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
In this podcast episode with Caleb Hicks, the focus is on creating learning experiences with AI. The discussion revolves around empowering teachers to move beyond traditional methods and become designers of engaging environments for students. The use of AI-powered apps and FERPA-compliant chat platforms are highlighted as tools to enhance student experiences. The concept of “spaces” is introduced, allowing teachers to create personalized learning adventures for their students. The episode also touches on the benefits of using AI for tasks like SAT prep and streamlining administrative duties for teachers. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the importance of prioritizing meaningful connections with students and designing environments that foster engaging learning experiences.
- How do you make decisions around this for what you create for teachers?
- School and education is a human-first endeavor
- Talking about career exploration.
- Magnifying the work that teachers do.
- Teacher busy-work vs. meaningful work.
- Frictionless first draft
- Teachers are stuck in this traditional overloaded position.
- Allowing teachers to move into the role of designer.
- 2 things that should take priority for teachers: connection with students and anything that is designing the environment to help students create meaningful learning experiences.
- Getting your classroom to be engaging is no easy feat.
- There are steps on the journey to be engaging.
- Lecture/worksheet/canvas quiz process.
- Spaces - AI powered apps for student learning experiences.
- FERPA-compliant chat for teachers
- How can we move beyond the quiz or worksheet to feel what it is like to make decisions as a colonial soldier?
- Space is like Choosing your own adventure for different scenarios.
- Template, Spanish cafe.
- Every student gets their own personal experience in the spaces.
- SAT Prep tutors
- Bellringer check in and exit ticket - pulse checks.
- Response from early users of SchoolAI.
- First question: how can we have a FERPA-compliant chatGPT experience?
- Next: action buttons - write a newsletter, prepare a lesson plan, etc. Making it so teachers didn’t have to be prompt engineers.
- Spaces - choose your own adventure - all teachers can create their own spaces.
About Caleb Hicks
Caleb Hicks is an experienced educator, founder, and angel investor, boasting over 15 years of expertise in instructional design, learning experience design, educational leadership, and early-stage startups.
Presently, Caleb leads SchoolAI, a venture dedicated to developing AI-powered tools tailored for teachers and school administrators, aimed at transforming educational institutions into extraordinary environments.
Alongside his commitment to SchoolAI, Caleb is the esteemed founder of Factor, a non-profit organization that empowers students to explore various careers and lifestyles by facilitating their collaboration with professionals from renowned companies such as Apple, SpaceX, and the San Antonio Spurs. Caleb continues to provide ongoing support to Factor, nurturing its mission.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
We are excited to have SchoolAI as a sponsor for the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. Please visit schoolai.com to save your teachers 10 hours per week.
Dr. Paul Govani, an expert in human performance and coaching, emphasizes the importance of errorless learning and the role of AI in education. He believes that teachers need more practice and feedback to be effective, and that regular feedback for students is crucial for learning. Dr. Govani also discusses the need for tight feedback loops and the use of simulations to prepare teachers.
- Errorless learning
- Making sure that students don’t make mistakes
- Gradual release
- AI can play a huge part in improving education
- The human element cannot be removed from education.
- Learning happens from the environment.
- Replace learning
- Gives teachers a different role.
- Education holds the key to success
- We’re not doing a very good job educating our educators.
- Too much theory, too little modeling, too little feedback.
- Simulations hold the key to getting teachers ready to do the work of being a teacher.
- Practice vs. game time.
- Leaders get even less practice.
- Got to equip people with knowledge and skills in the teacher program
- If you start blaming people, you aren’t doing science
- You can’t learn on the job.
- Prepare them to a certain level and then support them.
- Teachers are being dropped into the classroom before they are actually ready.
- 2 parts of the assessment.
- Kids need regular feedback - positive and corrective
- Delay in that feedback delays learning.
- Have teachers enhance learning through their activities.
- Admin has management ratios that are too high.
- Frequency count of skills
- People need tight feedback loops.
- Why measuring opportunities to respond works behaviorally.
- Pick one or two structures a week.
- Discretionary effort
- How to give tight feedback loops
- Preplanned corrections
- Social validity - how do people feel?
- Survey data that’s not going back to the leader, but going back to the coach. Give them the why.
- The 5 Laws
- What kind of questions should we be asking?
- Are we moving in the right direction, being supported? Look for leading indicators.
- Connect with Paulie here.
- Professional Crisis Management
About Paul Govani
An expert in human performance, coaching, and organizational leadership, Dr. Paul “Paulie” Gavoni has worked in education and human services for 20 years.
He has served in a variety of positions including COO, Leadership Director, Assistant Principal, School Turnaround Manager, Clinical Coordinator, Therapist, Behavior Analyst, and Adjunct Professor at IRSC, FAU, and NSU. Beyond his direct work with students in poverty and those suffering from behavioral and mental health issues, Dr. Gavoni specializes in providing administrative teams, teachers, and staff with training, coaching, and consultation with analyzing and developing behavior and performance management systems to positively impact key performance indicators. As a behavior scientist, Dr. Gavoni is passionate about applying organizational behavior management (OBM) strategies to establish positive environments that engage and bring out the best in people so they can bring out the best in the children they serve.
Former fighter and golden gloves heavy-weight coaching. He uses the science of human behavior to train fighters. He’s also a wall street journal and new york times best selling author
Dr. Paul “Paulie” Gavoni is a behavior scientist specializing in human performance, coaching, and organizational leadership who has worked across education, human services, and sports for over two decades. In this capacity, he served the needs of children and adults in various positions including COO, Vice President, Director of School Improvement, Leadership Director, Professor, Assistant Principal, School Turnaround Manager, Clinical Coordinator, Lead Therapist, Trainer, Coach, and Behavior Analyst. Dr. Gavoni is passionate about applying Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) strategies to lead and help other leaders establish positive and engaging environments across industries that bring out the best in people. He is a Board Member of the Opioid Awareness Foundation and The World Behavior Analysis Day Alliance. Known for his authenticity and practical approaches, Dr. Gavoni hosts the Thoughts & Rants of a Behavior Scientist and the Crisis in Education Podcasts. He is also a sought-out speaker at a variety of Educational, Sports, and Behavior Analytic Conferences and co-author of Wall Street Journal and USA Today’s Best-Selling The 5 Scientific Laws of Life & Leadership: Behavioral Karma; Quick Wins! Accelerating School Transformation through Science, Engagement, and Leadership; Deliberate Coaching: A Toolbox for Accelerating Teacher Performance (#1 Amazon Best Seller); MMA Science: A Training, Coaching, & Belt Ranking Guide (#1 Amazon New Release), and QUICK Responses to Misbehavior for Reducing Misbehavior and Suspensions (#1 Amazon Best Seller). In addition, he is currently preparing How to Determine if Your Leadership is $hitty. Dr. Gavoni is proud to introduce ABA & OBM to a massive audience through his numerous publications. Beyond his work in education and human services, Dr. Gavoni is a former Golden Gloves Champion and highly respected striking coach in combat sports. Coach “Paulie Gloves,” as he is known in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) community, has trained world champions and UFC vets using technologies rooted in the behavioral sciences. Coach Paulie has been featured in the books Beast: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts, A Fighter’s Way, the feature article Ring to Cage: How four former boxers help mold MMA’s Finest, FX’s The Toughman, and was recently featured in the Lifetime reality series Leave it to Geege. He is also an author who has written extensively for online magazines such as Bloody Elbow, Scifighting, Last Word on Sports, and Bloody Elbow, where his Fight Science series continues to bring behavioral science to MMA.
Sponsors
Save your teachers hours per week with SchoolAI. It's not just a tool, it's a partner in the classroom. With school AI teachers can plan courses in minutes. Get realtime learning data and provide one-on-one tutor tutoring. Plus it's free for teachers.
Go to SchoolAI.com/tp
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
In this podcast episode, primary educator and entrepreneur Emily Garcia discusses the science of reading and the role of teachers versus AI in teaching children to read. While there is systemic and explicit phonics-based instruction that is necessary for effective reading instruction, there are also many factors that prevent AI from being able to fully replace teachers. Teachers provide multiple inputs and value in partner reading and are necessary for building a classroom community and managing the classroom. However, when applicable, teachers should use AI as a tool to enhance their teaching methods. The decision of when to use AI should be made during PLCs and based on what is working for the students.
This episode is brought to you by AILeader.info, where you can learn all about AI specifically in a place designed for educators through 3-minute masterclasses.
- Science of reading
- Systemic and explicit phonics-based instruction.
- Just too many factors that prevent
- It is so highly technical
- AI cannot detect CVC and other
- Do we still need the teachers?
- Multiple input from having a teacher there.
- Value in partner reading
- Human standpoint: How do we attack this word?
- The scope and sequence are over 100 pages.
- AI cannot comprehend yet all that has to be done.
- Illustrations, clip art, and more.
- Teachers are amazing, and we’ll never be able to replace teachers with AI or a bot.
- instant gratification vs. instant feedback.
- Incredibly difficult to teach phonics.
- Teachers have to be there for the class to run smoothly.
- With no teacher, there’s no community.
- Classroom management vs. classroom community.
- You don’t have to be as great at teaching methods if you are great at building community.
- When applicable, teachers should absolutely be using AI.
- Teachers have to decide when it is appropriate.
- This feels a lot like technology in the 90s and 2000s.
- How to determine when AI should be used or not used? During PLCs, it’s about the conversation and how people are using AI and what is working.
About Emily Garcia
Emily Garcia is a primary educator, a passionate advocate for quality education, and a visionary entrepreneur. With her unwavering commitment to revolutionalize the educational landscape, Emily has made a significant impact by founding Education to the Core, an organization that has served over 500,000 classrooms worldwide.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Dave Hurwitt is an innovator. Over the course of his career, he’s led the development and launch of new products and services – from toothpicks to wind turbines – that have generated well over $1 billion in sales.
Having worked in admissions through grad school, he was amazed by how little technology and the internet had impacted the college search and admissions process. And even more, he was dismayed to discover how often students were transferring or dropping out altogether.
In early 2020, this led directly to his founding Troove, a 2-sided, AI-powered platform to help students discover their passions, people, and place based on the real experiences of recent alumni and current higher education students.
This episode is brought to you by AILeader.info, where you can learn all about AI specifically in a place designed for educators through 3-minute masterclasses.
- How Troove works
- Take the idea of suggestions from Netflix or Amazon and apply it to college.
- 15-minute quiz, how do you ask the right questions to get the answers that make sense of the patterns?
- At any school, there is an in and out of the classroom experience and culture.
- Less self-awareness.
- Finding experts who can explain psychological safety.
- Keep layering in more and more data.
- Social culture preferences and learning culture preferences.
- Doesn’t have to be complete to start.
- Continue to explore the good stuff.
- Open to sharing data and information about yourself.
- Willingness to share and age are tightly correlated.
- How can we make that sharing of information safer, data safe, and help them see themselves more clearly?
- Incomplete information about schools without complete information.
- Making informed decisions about their future.
- Is this too complicated?
- Start taking steps - the request: go explore new technologies that might be useful that we can afford to trial.
- Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
- Just get started.
- Connect with Dave
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
In this episode, Jethro and Fred discuss chatbots and artificial intelligence. The episode covers the history of chatbots, including the Turing Test and the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Bing, and Jasper. The potential uses and issues with chatbots are explored, including incomplete or misinformation, theft of intellectual property, inappropriate uses, and threats to various types of jobs. The episode also touches on the impact of chatbots on education and the potential for the weaponization of disinformation, cybersecurity, and more emotion-targeted advertising.
- Beginning of Cybertraps Podcast Episode Index
- Writebettr.com - test out AI with your poorly written emails
- AILeader.info - learn about AI and how to use it to save time with 3-minute masterclasses.
- Today’s Topic: Bot’s Up, Doc?
- Keynote delivered at last minute for Alaska Society for Technology in Education
- Artificial Life and Artificial Intelligence
- Why chatbots are NOT “artificial intelligence” – yet
- “The Father of Chat”
- The Turing Test
- Alan Turing OBE FRS [1912–1954] – British mathematician and computer scientist
- Leader in the development of computer and algorithmic theory
- At Bletchley Park, helped design a machine to crack the Enigma code
- 1950 – Turing devises The Turing Test:
- Can a computer produce answers indistinguishable from a human?
- The Imitation Game
- 1954 – Turing commits suicide
- Large Language Models (LLMs)
- ChatGPT (esp. 4)
- Bing
- Jasper
- embedded AI
- Photoshop
- Google Workspace
- incredibly rapid change
- Current ChatGPT Issues
- Incomplete Data or Misinformation
- Theft of Intellectual Property
- Inappropriate Uses
- Response to MSU Shooting
- Threat to Various Types of Jobs
- Mid-to Lower-Level Tech
- Media / PR Professionals
- Customer Service
- Paralegals / Attorneys?
- Religious Leaders?
- Monetization
- A Quick Object Lesson
- Censorship Is a Biz-Kill
- China Was a Tech Leader in the 2010s
- AliPay
- Beijing (CCP) Got Nervous
- Party Officials Took Corporate Seats
- The goal Was to Limit Social Influence
- Chinese Tech Companies Slashed Investment in Pure Research
- ChatGPT and Education
- A Flawed Resource for Students
- Incomplete Information
- Misinformation
- Kids Will Use Technology to Cheat
- Not the First Time …
- Several Schools Have Had Cheating Scandals
- NYC Blocked, then Unblocked, Access to ChatGPT
- Responses and Solutions
- Tools for Identifying Chat-Generated Content
- Incorporate Chat Critiques into Curricula
- The Revenge of the Palmer Method?
- Create Assessments that ChatGPT Can’t Answer
- The Parade of Horribles
- Weaponization of Disinformation
- Cybersecurity
- Social Engineering
- Scams and Spams
- Manipulative Suggestions
- Integration with Other Technologies
- More Emotion-Targeted Advertising
- Displaced Emotional Relationships
- Personalized Chatbot (“Amanuensis”)
- Fasten Your Seat Belt. It’s Going to Be a Bumpy Night.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Based in wonder and optimism, Nancy Giordano is an exponential strategist focused on building a safe, inclusive, thriving future. Believing we have a once in a generation opportunity to rethink, reimagine and reshape every industry and social construct we call life, she supports and champions those actively architecting bold solutions and guides the visionary leaders eager to meet this call. An active strategist working on horizon solutions, Nancy is eager to share her insights on emerging technologies and shifting cultural expectations in ways that get everyone deeply motivated by the possibilities…and confident to start building.
This episode is brought to you by AILeader.info, where you can learn all about AI specifically in a place designed for educators through 3-minute masterclasses.
- Life hack - make up your job
- Job is labeled or defined
- Can’t use a map anymore, so we need a compass - What does the future need and expect, and what am I in a unique position to create and contribute
- Compass allows you to sense and respond
- purpose and intention
- lenses to the future - personal, community, society
- expectations and opportunities as a member of the community
- Watched the movie “Her”
- It didn’t come out of nowhere
- Speech that can be fabricated See Episode 537
- History teachers may be best prepared.
- Literacies
- Dreams and the role they play in our psychological well-being
- Joined an AI startup 8 years ago.
- Humanity Bill of Rights
- How do we build better decision-making framing
- David Ogilvy - give me the freedom of a tightly defined strategy.
- We can all agree on these 10–12 things
- SAMR Model
- The more students have to go outside the system for what they think is important the less the value is that degree.
- It’s a tool that helps us
- What are the use cases for AI?
- Responsible AI institute
- Scale the conversation around ethics
- Algorithm and data
- Huge structural changes
- Teachers who have it are that much more impactful and great.
- Part of the reason we have a mental health crisis is that kids don’t feel totally prepared for the future.
- Gravitate towards those who are preparing us well.
- SWOT Analysis - RIFF Map - Relieved, inspired, frustrated, Fearful
- Things you’re frightened by
- Head to nancygiordano.com and check out the book LEADERing.
Summer of AI - learn all about AI in a safe, supportive community focused on school leaders and applications of AI to school environments - aileader.info
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
This episode is part of the Summer of AI series presented by AILeader.info. AILeader.info makes the abstract actionable by helping you stay on the cutting edge with 3-minute masterclasses that teach you what you need to know about AI in just 3 minutes or less. To join, go to AILeader.info
- Got key people to be successful.
- Curriculum alignment
- Instructional rigor
- advanced models for schools
- Teacher Planning - is the source of what teachers are doing.
- Is ChatGPT the best for lesson planning?
- More advanced models exist.
- Machine Learning will actually remember the moves and methods of a teacher.
- Almost like having a coach built into your model.
- Bard with Google
- ASU+GSV conference
- FineTune - If you’re serious, you need better language models.
- Provides references to everything that it creates.
- School districts can go in with more confidence because there is less bias.
- AI is going to be the path.
- Dual challenge for school districts - figure out a policy on AI
- Don’t worry about AI taking your job, worry about the person who knows AI taking your job.
- You can control AI and put parameters around it.
- Intervention plans for students at the completion of a lesson.
- The human element goes into what are the rules you’re telling the AI to do.
- Make a strategic plan to get AI out there in a sensible way.
- AI models in SEL
- 90% of the time
- Teaching people how to be good prompt engineers
- Explain it to me like you’re a consultant.
- Jasper for Copywriting
- Machine Learning - it learns what you’re looking for.
- Mazy pulls from four different types of sources
- How to be careful about what you adopt.
- How this should be impacting teaching and learning.
- People are thinking that kids are cheating.
- Aligning to the 21st century world of work. Global achievement gap.
- What are the skills kids are going to need?
- Kids need the assistance of a teacher when they are stuck.
- Why wouldn’t we have AI take the place of teachers if the AI can do it better?
- What is a teacher going to be in the future?
- We had a chance to make a real impact
-
Just design a great lesson.
-
1 thing that catches kids up 3 years in 1 year - is feedback.
- Ego-involved feedback vs. task-involved feedback.
- Data’s getting stale - 48 hours
- How to make sure teachers have time to do what they need.
- Lead180.com
- educompass.app
About Scott Neil
Dr. Scott Neil is a nationally recognized expert in the area of school turnaround with a focus on Data-Driven Instruction and instructional leadership. With a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and 20 years of school and district leadership experience in urban education, Scott has led the turnaround of five different urban schools in Florida over his 31-year career in education. Dr. Neil spent six years working as a national subject matter expert, training facilitator, and principal coach with the national nonprofit organization New Leaders, whose mission is to prepare educators to become transformational school principals across eleven cities within the United States. Scott founded LEAD180 in 2014 to help provide support to schools across the country in the area of instructional planning and the alignment to the Cognitive Rigor of College and Career Ready Standards.
Bringing a unique combination of deep experience as both a practitioner and researcher in the field of school leadership within high poverty school settings, Scott has trained and mentored over 400 principals, 400 emerging school leaders, and over 5,000 teachers over the course of his career.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
Dr. Tucker brings a unique perspective with a lifetime of learning experiences overseas and in the United States. Having grown up traveling back and forth between Africa and the United States he experienced a variety of learning environments. He credits his mom, his first homeschool teacher, teachers at an international school, and numerous Missouri educators for his decision to pursue a career in education. His experiences have influenced his commitment to designing learner-centered educational experiences.
He currently serves as the Superintendent of Liberty Public Schools. During his time in LPS, the District opened EPiC Elementary (2022 National Blue Ribbon School), partnered with industry to create Kansas City Tech Academy, established the UnSchool Challenge, and rolled out several micro schools including HMS by Design, EDGE, North Nation By Design, and Warren Hills Reimagined. These innovations evolved through a commitment to answering the question, “What does it mean to be learner-centered?” and always thinking about what lies at the edge of vision. In 2017 Liberty Public Schools was accepted into the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools. League districts pioneer innovative learning and leadership practices that lead to improved outcomes for students and that help prepare them for learning for life.
Moving closer to the “edge of vision,” Dr. Tucker has led the LPS community in designing a Graduate Profile, establishing a Vivid Vision, development of an equity-centered strategic plan, and advanced Real World Learning networks across the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Dr. Tucker was identified as a “20 to Watch” educator for 2016–2017 by the National School Boards Association. In 2019, Dr. Tucker was named the 2019 Missouri Superintendent of the Year.
This episode is brought to you by AILeader.info, where you can learn all about AI specifically in a place designed for educators through 3-minute masterclasses.
- Understanding what we mean by Artificial intelligence and how rapidly it is evolving.
- How do we leverage our data in a better way?
- How might we leverage artificial intelligence
- Jobs that could be created vs jobs eliminated.
- It’s about how we do our jobs.
- It’s important to have our
- Leveraging group think and group feedback to get to the sentiment of
- Making qualitiative data quantifiable
- Interoperability of systems - Could AI help our systems communicate
- Word Clouds
- Valuable skill that could be lost? Did I really capture everything?
- Allowing people to get their hands dirty with the feedback.
- How do we make sure that people have the ability to live in both
- GIGO garbage in garbage out.
- Machine learning in the computer
- Don’t want to miss the critical thinking piece where they just take the CSV file without understanding how things are working.
- AI is not an emerging field,
- It’s accelerating. It’s probably worth recognizing we’re all learners.
- We’re fairly progressive
- Care for the present and enabling the future.
- At times we’re learning or leading.
- how does this fit into my content area or my grade level?
- ChatGPT
- How do I integrate this into my classwork?
- Is there any difference between a teacher using ChatGPT and and Teachers Pay Teachers
- OER district, using available-online curriculum.
- Really understand the validity of the resource
- Traditional Resource Adoption vs. OER resource adoption.
- Curricular teams have choice
- Professional development, how to navigate that.
- How teachers will look at educational resources and professional development
- Field trips for admin & teachers to learn from other industries.
- What do we learn from other industries?
- For what experiences is there no substitute?
- Starts with human elements, and then we slide in the academic areas.
- Engagement - how do we ensure that everyone is engaged? Improving 2 way communication and engagement opportunities.
- How to connect with Jeremy - LPS53.org, follow on jtucker.tm
OER expert - Jeannette Westfall -
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
In this episode, Jethro Jones introduces the Summer of AI Series on Transformative Principal. All summer, we’ve got some great interviews scheduled to come out with believers, skeptics, and everyone in between all about AI.
Join the conversation by joining our Facebook group here
And, Jethro also shares the AILeader.info resource, a membership site to help you learn how to save time and energy by learning how to use AI most effectively as a school leader. Join here.
Jethro also shares the APLUS framework for adopting AI in schools:
- Accessibility: Ensure that AI-driven educational tools and resources are accessible to all learners, regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or disabilities. Design AI systems that accommodate diverse learning styles and provide inclusive learning experiences for all students.
- Privacy and Ethics: Uphold strong ethical standards in the design, development, and deployment of AI technologies in education. Safeguard student privacy, ensuring transparent data collection and usage practices. Proactively address bias, fairness, and accountability concerns to maintain trust and protect the rights of learners.
- Learner-centricity: Place learners at the center of AI integration in education. Prioritize their well-being, agency, and autonomy in the learning process. Promote critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills while using AI as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human interaction and guidance. This means that we cannot implement tools that make teachers’ lives easier if it actually makes students’ lives worse! One of the things that I have been hearing a lot of lately is that adults want to use AI to help them do their jobs, but at the same time want to prevent students from using AI and start calling it plagiarism or academic dishonestly. OK for me, but not for thee, is a bad way to approach this new technology.
- Usability: Develop AI-based educational tools and platforms that are user-friendly and intuitive for both students and educators. Prioritize simplicity, clear interfaces, and streamlined experiences, enabling easy adoption and minimizing technical barriers for all stakeholders.
- Sustainability: Consider the long-term impact and sustainability of AI integration in education. Embrace scalable and cost-effective solutions that benefit educational institutions and accommodate future advancements. Promote environmental sustainability by optimizing energy consumption and minimizing electronic waste.
These principles, known as APLUS, emphasize the importance of privacy, ethics, and responsible data practices in AI integration in education. By prioritizing accessibility, learner-centricity, usability, and sustainability alongside privacy and ethics, we can create an educational environment that harnesses the power of AI while ensuring the well-being and rights of learners are protected.
We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena.
AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days and other coaching cycles.
Get a free trial for your teachers here.
This is a continuation of our coaching calls with Eric Makelky. Please check in our previous episodes 527523 519 514, 510, 506, and 501
In this episode we talk about dealing with difficult parents. - Celebration - Just calling someone who applied. - Someone applying - Reaching out immediately - Making it personal. - Parents - How to get them on your team? - 25–30 parents now on the advisory council. - Challenges with parents - Being a successful principal is about being popular and making everyone happy. - Parents can be really challenging. - Education is the parents’ responsibility and we are here to help out. - What about when there isn’t a reason? - I’m recording this conversation…Me, too. - Would you like me to send a copy to you? - Intimidation approaches - Next time: so many things to learn that I didn’t have things in place for helping new staff. How do I help new staff transition in?
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Jack Arend joined the AWSP team in July 2019. He has served in education since 1989 as an elementary, middle and high school music teacher. He began his building leadership career in the fall of 2006 as the principal of Peter G. Schmidt Elementary in the Tumwater School District. After eleven years in the principalship, he served two years at the Central Office level overseeing multiple content areas and mentoring first year teachers.
Jack and his wife are both graduates of Washington State University. Jack received his Masters Degree from Western Washington University and his Administrative credentials from Seattle Pacific University.
Jack and his wife Brenda enjoy living in the Olympia area and love spending time with their three children, Amanda, Emily, and Thomas.
The Move Up Workshop online version is now closed, but if you are interested, you can join the waitlist at my web site
- Move Up workshop
- Do you see your school vision in your classroom observations
- Professional Learning is self-care for the school leader.
- Self-care is how you get your power back.
- From aspiring to retiring
- School Leadership matters
- Are there systems set up that allow you to leave?
- Can you schedule an in-person event and not feel guilty.
- Distributive leadership
- Saddened when people can’t go
- There’s no “coverage for my building” so I can’t go.
- Learning is a part of our job.
- Schools are big machines to keep running.
- It’s no small job that schools run efficiently every day.
- Every moving part is not contingent on moving the wheel.
- It doesn’t always have to be the school leader.
- I thought I was there to take things off their plates.
- Delegation
- Giving people opportunities for others enables me to do other things
- Trust can take so long to develop and take split second to break
- Trust is like walking on a glass tabletop.
- Start with honesty and clarity
- Not taking things off my plate that should be on my plate.
- Let it happen, and don’t micromanage.
- “How’d it go?”
- Drafting a master schedule example
- What are their parameters, and what is out of bounds?
- Importance of understanding the task.
- People want to have a voice
- How to be a transformative principal? Get to know your people. It’s 100% relational.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Ryan Henton is the Assistant Principal at 450-student Castle Rock High School. He’s in his 15th year as an educator and his first year as an administrator. Previous to administration, he was an English teacher teaching everything from 6th grade to English AP, in California and now in Castle Rock.
In this episode, we talk about Ryan’s experience at the Move Up workshop which you can join virtually starting next week!
- Worksheet hanging on his wall.
- Helped me focus more learning on the job is so fast and furious.
- Show up Lead Up, Level Up
- Ryan’s one thing is “How to make today a WIN.”
- Moving from Prevention to Promotion mindset.
- Focusing on his destination.
- Did I make the right move?
- So many hats to wear and so many things to do.
- I always went home feeling not successful.
- The workshop helped me see things in a different way.
- Connecting with other assistant principals.
- Format | Calendar | popped up | | ———– | ———————- | | Podcast | bullying investigation | | JV Practice | Meet with parents |
- This workshop was an upgrade in my thinking!
- Making me think and reflect day-to-day
- Forces me to reassess my goals for that day.
- How the one thing has impacted his leadership
- The principal has seen it, but he isn’t sure if the staff sees it.
- My world was my classroom
- Your classroom is your priority. I’ve become more attentive, more focused
- Important to you, but not important to the whole
- How to be a transformative principal? Lean into your strengths!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
On this episode we talk about the Move Up Workshop, where you will learn how to show up, lead up and level up so you can move up. Are you ready to move up? Take the 2-minute assessment here and see for yourself.
Shaun Cornwall is a seasoned educator and administrator dedicated to delivering top-notch education to all learners. Shaun embraces a well-rounded approach to education, focusing on academic, engineering, artistic, wellness, and social-emotional aspects. With a 20-year background in education, he has served as an Assistant Principal, Dean of Students, and elementary-level classroom teacher. He is currently serving as an assistant principal in the issaquah school district.
Shaun has a knack for incorporating technology into learning environments and has successfully developed STEM programs during his career. With a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and a principal’s license, he is also an active member of ASCD and AWSEP, and has contributed to STEM conferences and the NSTA’s Science Scope journal.
Apart from his professional life, Shaun is a devoted husband and father to four wonderful children, aged between 7 and 17. In his spare time, he loves designing and playing board games, crafting delicious sourdough bread, and catching the latest films at the movies.
- Most valuable from the workshop was around evaluations and aligning myself around her values
- Our staff will be intervention experts is our vision.
- Rubric-based observations vs. a conversational approach
- Robotic and not super focused or helpful for teachers?
- Feedback is more authentic
- Teachers want to be better teachers and my feedback actually helps them now.
- One thing: going to be in one lunch every day.
- Put it on the calendar and told people they can expect to see me.
- Having a paraprofessional out there with me observing how I was handling it.
- Why you should attend the workshop.
- You are in charge of your own professional growth.
- What has made Shaun a great principal? Other principals.
- A great principal: Mary Kay Summers
- More about being intervention experts: meeting students where they need and what they need
- How to support teachers in that realm.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get out of your office. Be with kids. Connect with kids that don’t see you as much.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Ben Ziegler started his teaching career in SW Washington back in 2009. For a decade now, he has been a part of the Battle Ground School District, and for the past four years, he has been serving as an administrator. Throughout his tenure, Ben has held various positions, including a Dean for Students at the high school level, three years as an elementary AP, and currently, he is an AP at the middle school level.
On this episode we talk about the Move Up Workshop, where you will learn how to show up, lead up and level up so you can move up. Are you ready to move up? Take the 2-minute assessment here and see for yourself.
- What was most valuable from the workshop you attended with Jethro?
- Getting our mission/vision statements into our observations.
- How we are aligning in our vision and mission
- Coherence - aligning academics and social emotional. TPEP
- What is your one thing? Being aware 2x a day, ask myself if I’m aware.
- Helping teachers be more willing to try new things and do different things.
- How has your one thing impacted you in ways you didn’t expect?
- Had a really good conversation with a staff member here and made some suggestions to a staff member.
- Believe in myself more and slow down in moments in dealing with people.
- Strategic vs. Tactical approaches.
- Perspective
- Surprised in a good way with how much it aligned with what I already believe.
- Inventory of gratitude
- If someone is considering attending this workshop, what advice would you give them?
- What is your vision for your career?
- Started coaching middle school sports at 19 years old. Loved teaching and coaching.
- Be the head coach of a school.
- You work with people to improve their schools but help them be the best they can be.
- Knowing when to pull back and when to push.
- It comes down to relationships.
- It often comes down to the right question at the right time.
- Let people sit there.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Figure out your one thing for yourself - go out and observe and listen.
Take our free quiz to see if you’re ready to become a principal! Get personalized feedback and actionable steps for improvement. Start your journey to educational leadership success today!
In this episode, we are continuing our coaching conversations with Eric. Please check in our previous episodes 523 519 514, 510, 506, and 501
We are talking about how we finally met in person! We have known each other for years, but haven't met yet! Here's the outline of the rest of what we talk about:
- Schoolai.com
- Chapter on hiring from How to be a Transformative Principal
- Recruiting and hiring
- What do we need to do differently to be more flexible
- Knowing how few applicants there are, how can we recruit differently?
- What is good?
- Easy to fill out applications
- Vacancies open sooner
- Early for traditional
- What do you not feel good about?
- Don’t know how much difference teacher fairs make or not
- Like having a presence at a job fair.
- Very few graduates in programs
- Internet has changed the application process
- How much schools social media helps?
- Suggestions for Improving
- Attract people to come to your school.
- Get on the phone and talk to them about what you offer at the school.
- “We need a body”
- Worried to non-renew a teacher because they’re not going to get any applicants.
- Always be recruiting
- Look for talent everywhere
- Build a pipeline and keep in touch.
- Letter of intent for returning to their home district and get a bonus.
- Build a longer district pipeline.
In this episode, we’re bringing you a conversation from The Authority Podcast, part of the Be Podcast Network.
Today’s guest is international best-selling author and business leader Mark Miller, Vice President of High Performance Leadership for Chick-Fil-A.
Culture Rules: The Leader's Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage is Mark’s 11th book. He currently has over one million books in print in more than twenty-five languages.
Ross and Mark discuss:
- 71% of U.S. leaders believe culture is their #1 most powerful tool to drive performance, but enhancing culture ranks low on their priority list — why the gap?
- First move: decide and declare what you're trying to create. Culture needs to be explicit.
- The 3 Culture Rules: Aspire, Amplify, Adapt
- What does culture mean to your customers?
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wanted to shift the company from being “know-it-alls” to “learn-it-alls” — what did Mark learn while working on the book?
- The “magic circle” of game design and how it explains culture.
- What Mark learned about innovation and purpose.
- Measuring culture
Culture Rules is now available for purchase, with a number of bonuses available for individual and bulk orders. Learn about them here: https://www.leadeveryday.com
The Authority is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with leading authors from the education world and beyond. Host Ross Romano, a leadership coach, storytelling strategist and edtech advisor, draws out their invaluable insights on leadership, culture-building, transformation, and student & educator success.
Subscribe to The Authority:
- Apple: https://apple.co/3ePnTea
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3JxkyeX
- RSS: https://feeds.libsyn.com/425789/rss
Connect on social media:
Mark Miller is a business leader, best-selling author, and communicator. He began writing almost twenty years ago, and with over one million books in print in more than twenty-five languages, Mark’s global impact continues to grow. Connect with him:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/highperformanceleaders/
- https://twitter.com/MarkMillerLeads
Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies, a consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education
This week on Transformative Principal, Jethro Jones shares a special episode where he was on a panel to discuss the current teacher shortage and what can be done. This was recorded for the Better Learning Podcast
In this podcast, we discussed the following: - teachers that are leaving or doing really well. - How education has been a pink collar job and the impact that has on our day today - Empowering individuals - Addressing mentorship - Policy change vs. leadership decisions - Public Impact in North Carolina - Teacher Buy-in - Teachers want to connect - Playing with Teaching - Motivation - Leadership & culture - A discussion of money
About the Panel:ists Michael Horn is the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of Blended and Disrupting Class, and the new book coming out this week called “Choosing College!”, which is the book we are talking about today!
Charles Fournier is a High school English teacher and freelance podcaster at Wyoming Public Radio. Worked as an associate producer on the award-winning podcast HumaNature. Currently working as a sound designer on award-winning podcast, The Modern West, and host The Mountain Time Podcast Hour on WPR. Recently, have been producing the narrative podcast Those Who Can’t Teach
Jethro Jones, 2017 Digital Principal of the Year, is a former principal and founder of the BE Podcast Network. He is also the author of the books How to be a Transformative Principal and SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves! Jethro currently consults schools and districts on redesign efforts that don’t seem like another program. Jethro has worked as a principal at all K–12 levels, including a prison school, a district coach, distance learning team lead, and English teacher.
The Better Learning Podcast is hosted by Kevin Stoller, CEO of Kay-Twelve and author of Creating Better Learning Environments. The podcast is also associated with other organizations that are focused on improving education including the Education Leaders’ Organization (ELO) and the Second Class Foundation
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Dr. Karen Dudek Brannan spent 14 years as a school speech-language pathologist (SLP) while working on her doctorate in special education and Director of Special Education credential. In 2015, she launched a business focused on helping IEP teams design services that support language, literacy, and executive functioning, as well as helping all team members be better leaders. She brings a valuable perspective from both the service-provider and leadership ends of special education.
Dr. Karen is also the host of De Facto Leaders on the Be Podcast Network. The show is designed for teachers, aspiring school leaders, and pediatric therapists who want to gain new strategies for success in their sessions and classrooms, and become more effective leaders. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or visit Karen's website to find the link to your preferred podcast app.
Summary:
In today’s episode we dive into the world of executive functioning. Dr. Dudek-Brannan explains what effective work should look like beyond the traditional model of students working on skill deficiencies in isolation with a counselor or therapist. She describes how a team can focus on building these skills in students and what practice in the classroom includes.
Best way for listeners to reach out to Karen:
- https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
- How Eric Taught a student to write a better email.
- Write better emails
- How to prioritize problems.
- Keeping a focus
- What’s keeping you from focusing on your 1 thing in your school?
- 1 thing: getting into classrooms.
- Master schedule -
- Is this even in the top ten list?
- Got into his 1 thing within a month every year.
- Priorities - getting prepared for state testing, getting prepared for next year’s scheduling, graduation, staffing for next year.
- Are your priorities your todo list?
- Big idea behind state testing
- reflect the efforts of our kids
- What makes or breaks a great school.
- Why isn’t your past experiences translating to the current situation.
- Graduation rate was 85%, wasn’t meeting our goals.
- Goal of learning 1 thing each day.
- I’ve learned something new every day.
- What is the 1 thing that if you
- What was most valuable? Reframing how I prioritize
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Tina Curry, Ed.D is currently Lead Coach at Fernwood Elementary School in Chicago Public Schools and an adjunct professor at DePaul University and National-Louis University. She was one of the contributors to the book Teaching for Racial Equity, which was recently named an Excellence in Equity Award Winner. She is an expert in equity in education and has trained educators in culturally responsive teaching and equity practices. She is a sought- after equity consultant. As a critically acclaimed public speaker and advocate for equity and justice in education, Dr. Curry has delivered keynote addresses locally and nationally. During her 23- year tenure in Chicago Public Schools she has served as a middle school and high school teacher, an equity coach, a literacy coach and went on to become a literacy specialist for three years in the Office of Literacy. Dr. Curry was named National Louis University’s Graduate Faculty of Year in 2019 and received the Most Influential Teacher Award from Sarah Goode STEM Academy that same year. She is a presenter at Illinois Association for Teacher of English (IATE), National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), Illinois Reading Council (IRC), American Education Research Association (AERA), Illinois Writing Project (IWP), and Literacy Research Association (LRA). Her research interests include culturally responsive teaching, equity, literacy coaching, and school leadership. Summary for show notes: In today’s episode we talk with Dr. Tina Curry about her equity journey. She describes some of the many obstacles she faced when confronting racial equity in public school, including her work with other teachers. Tina points to relationships between teachers and students as the most meaningful way to repair and prevent the harm that has been done. Best way for listeners to reach out to Tina: Twitter @DrTina Curry Email tscurry@cps.edu
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Johnathan Cranford is an in-school suspension teacher in Houston, TX and author of The Art of In-School Suspension: A Discipline Program that Benefits Staff and Students.
On today’s episode we dive into Johnathan’s passion project, making ISS effective. He emphasizes the importance of having an educator in the room, focusing on a system of doing your work, and building in SEL instruction. The bar for ISS is often low in schools and he believes some investment will pay big returns for students, teachers, and administrators.
Johnathan can be reached through his website www.theartofiss.com
Sponsors
Transformative Principal Mastermind
Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader
Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Chad Lang is an assistant superintendent of HR and school improvement in Glenwood Iowa. He is passionate about grading, curriculum, and professional development.
On today’s episode we discuss the importance of curriculum and grading when preparing students for the “real world”. He clarifies the difference between curriculum and resources, and explains why textbooks and companies should never be the curriculum for our students. Chad also describes the importance of starting with a common definition of grades, with his definition aligning tightly to what we expect students to know and be able to do in reference to specific standards.
Chad can be reached on Twitter @chad_mLang or through his personal email chadmichaellang@gmail.com
Sponsors
Transformative Principal Mastermind
Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader
Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Last time we talked about evaluation. What has changed?
Put into practice - new frame of reference and mindset.
Talking about blindspots that a teacher has is what makes the evaluation meeting meaningful. What are some things you want my perspective on in the classroom?
In this episode we discuss: - How to help the evaluation process be successful. - What if they don’t want feedback? - Ask what they want to get out of the evaluation process. - What if they ask for just a pat on the back? - Self-evaluation - use that to look for blindspots
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Darrin Peppard is a school district superintendent, speaker, author, publisher and consultant focused on what matters most in leadership. Darrin’s an expert in school culture and climate as well as coaching and growing emerging leaders. He is known for his keen insight, culture-first leadership style, and dynamic personality. In 2016, Darrin was named Wyoming Secondary School Principal of the Year by WASSP/NASSP and was the 2015 Jostens Renaissance Educator of the Year. In 2017, Darrin earned his Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Wyoming. This past summer, Darrin was inducted into the Jostens Renaissance Hall of Fame. On today’s episode we discuss school culture and the road to awesome. Darrin describes the moment he knew his school had a culture problem and how he started down the road less traveled instead of the “gotcha” road. He started by changing what he controlled, himself, and then focused on empowering the students and staff to join him and take ownership in their school’s journey. www.roadtoawesome.net 307-371-89447
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
PLCs in a Small School with Jeff Makelky Transformative Principal 516 Jeff Makelky has spent 41 years in public education and is currently the principal of Big Piney High School in Wyoming. He graduated from Dickinson State and Montana State, was recognized as the Wyoming Secondary Principal of the Year in 2020, and has published articles in Principal Leadership. His email address is jmakelky@sublette9.org In today’s episode Jeff discusses his proudest accomplishments as a building leader, why he thinks more teachers should consider a career in educational leadership, and how his staff has been working toward implementing PLC practices to fit a small school setting.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Opie Blackwell is the current principal of Ridgeview Charter Middle School in Atlanta, GA. Ridgeview Charter Middle School is an inaugural recipient of the Association of Middle Level Education's (AMLE) prestigious Schools to Watch designation, a nationally recognized 2022-2025 elite "Lighthouse School to Watch" from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, is a southeast recognized "Showcase School" for AVID, and is an International Baccalaureate program school. His email address is blackwello@fultonschools.org.
On today’s episode Opie describes the hard work surrounding interdisciplinary teaching and learning that his team has been prioritizing. He lays out the entire journey and emphasizes why a focus of including student voice is so valuable to the success they’ve achieved at Ridgeview Charter Middle School.
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
In this episode, Jethro and Damon Hargraves talk about ChatGPT. This is from a Twitter Spaces that they did in early January. And this has led to some pretty interesting conversations.
Jethro has been contracting with a startup to do user research interviews about how we could use AI in schools. If you are intersected in this and would like to chat with us, please schedule a time here.
We’ve done about 70 interviews since this Twitter space happened, and we are looking for more, so don’t be shy!
In this episode, we are continuing our coaching conversations with Eric. Please check in our previous episodes 510, 506, and 501
- trying to make it a focus to be aware of people
- What’s on your mind? What’s the challenge you’re facing today.
Today we focus on teacher evaluations.
For New Teachers * 5 informal observations * 2 formal observations * 2 formal observation post-conferences * 2 summative conferences * start, mid, and end of year with goals * 14 touchpoints per teacher.
For Experienced Teachers: * 3 informal * 1 formal * start, mid, and end of year with goals * 8 total touch points.
Evaluation system is homemade. Current concerns: - Hard to make them meaningful - Less confident writing up evaluations because it’s my first year seeing everyone. - Feedback: is it accurate and in alignment with what is really happening? - What value does Eric see? - Good to give teachers feedback on a regular basis. - Good to give formal feedback - Post observation conferences are good to go over feedback. - From a teacher’s perspective - Some staff aren’t used to having observations and evaluations. - Picked one area on the rubric and only scored and gave feedback on that one thing. - Try chunking it, and then get some feedback.
Suggestions for effective evaluations * Johari Window * The only feedback that matters is what people can’t see * Purpose is to make them meaningful - finding blind spots. * 1. Jump through the hoops. * 1. Is the vision for the school actually happening. * Self-evaluations at the beginning of the year.
Sponsors Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Ryan Mackey is the principal of Douglas High School and is beginning his ninth year as a school administrator. Wyoming Principal of the Year 2022–2023. He is also a certified McGrath Solutions TRUE-SPEAK trainer that allows him to work with other school administrators and frontline staff on communication within various organizations. He has been in education for 16 years and began his career teaching social studies while coaching football, basketball, and track. After teaching and coaching for seven years, his wife (Jessica) and two children (Brooklyn and Conlan) moved to Douglas as the middle school assistant principal and activities director. He then became the principal of the middle school in 2016 where he worked on transforming school culture through standards-referenced grading and reporting. In 2019, he was named the principal of Douglas High School and has worked to develop and establish a safe and supportive school climate and culture. He is passionate about continuous learning as well as creating and maintaining a transformative school climate and culture. Lastly, Ryan recently obtained his superintendent certification and is working on his dissertation for his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership at the University of Wyoming.
Ryan Mackey shares his three phase plan for leaders focusing on the culture of their schools. Starting with the adults in the building, then students, and finally focusing on the families and community members. He emphasizes the importance of the school’s mission and vision driving everything the adults in the building do, having a collaborative approach, and his rallying cry is “we’re going to work hard and do what’s best for kids!”
Best way for listeners to reach out to Ryan:
- Email- rmackey@converse1.org
- Call- (307) 358–2940
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Brad Gregorich is a proud alum of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. He earned both his undergraduate and master’s degree in educational leadership as a Battlin’ Bear. He has been a classroom teacher, junior high assistant principal, and elementary principal. Brad is currently the principal of Hillcrest Elementary School in Gillette, WY. On today’s episode Brad discusses how he prioritizes culture over strategy as a building principal. He has focused on the culture their school is working toward through communication and staff leadership. We also discuss some of his advice to building principals when trying to maintain a healthy balance between school and family time. The best way for listener’s to get in touch with Brad is through his school email: bgregorich@ccsd.k12.wy.us
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Eric Bransteter is a former 5th grade teacher, media specialist, and building-level administrator. Eric has always had a passion for technology integration in the classroom, which led to him co-founding the EdTech company iAspire. Eric now hosts The Employee Experience in Education podcast where he speaks with educational leaders, former educators, and industry experts to better understand the employee experience in education. Eric’s goal is to equip school leaders with realistic and actionable strategies to keep more teachers in the classroom.
Eric discusses how schools can improve teacher retention by focusing on the employee experience. By aligning the employer’s expectations, needs, and wants with those of the employee, schools can prevent turnover and retention in the classroom. The four principles of the employee experience are connection with themselves, connection with others, connection with their role, and connection with the organization. Happy teachers don’t quit!
Best way for listeners to reach out to Eric Bransteter:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbransteter/
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
In this episode, we are continuing our coaching conversations with Eric. Please check in our previous episodes 506 and 501
This week we check in on what Eric has going on, and talk about how to be a people leader instead of an instructional leader.
Checking back in on Eric: - Canned responses going so well, I’ve shared it with teachers - Email war: the war that you’ll never win! - Didn’t talk with superintendent about exiting - Staff moving past something
Being the Instructional Leader - Are you an instructional leader or a people leader?
How to be a people leader? - Focus on the individual. - Check up on people informally. - Morning lap - Being visible to being impactful - “I didn’t talk to them all week.” - Feelings of guilt
Where can teachers learn to be better teachers? - Colleagues - Themselves - Principal - Technology - Conferences
Teachers don’t really don’t need us to tell them how they can be better!
How does your day change as a people leader? - Laps during prep - Finding those who cruise under the radar - What is a need that is unknown? - Materials and resources for new teachers - Find a way to buy the support they need.
How do you find out if they need something? - Ask, What do you need? - What else? - What is your specific challenge? - How can I help? - What was most valuable today?
Focus on the individual, not the data.
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Dr. Erika Garcia-Niles is a principal in MIssouri.
- Erika Garcia on Twitter we don't remember our impact but they sure do.
- behind the scenes at new district
- better than I could have imagined.
- Focus on people - It's all about the people.
- People by day, paperwork by night.
- It's about surrounding yourself with the right people.
- Leave before you're ready.
- Don't find the next thing, find the right thing.
- Use coaching to help someone reflect on themselves.
- Ask questions of them to get them to reflect
- We can get hung up on the things we don't believe, rather than what we do believe.
- Every single child should have a person.
- I feel like school was made for me!
- Eric Makelky
- Special Education
- What teachers need from principals right now?
- How to be a transformative principal? Check in with your teachers!
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Dr. Henry J. Turner is an award-winning high school principal, author, and nationally renowned speaker. He is most proud of the collaborative community he works within to empower students to fight hate and bigotry in their school. Pointing to his unwavering commitment to equity and a student-centered culture, Henry was named 2020 K12 Principal of the Year by K–12 Dive.
Henry is the author of the newly released book, Change the Narrative: How to Foster an Antiracist Culture in Your School, published by DBC inc. As a national speaker, he shares his experience as an innovative instructional leader, passionate advocate, and committed antiracist educator with educators and organizational leaders. Henry works with educators, leaders, and communities on how to create a culture that commits to diversity, equity, and inclusion empowers students’ voices and addresses economic and racial disparities.
He has a biweekly newsletter, “Lessons on Social Justice Leadership” that can be found at HenryJTurner.com.
- Race is a social fabric that has been created in our society.
- If we believe in all students succeed, then we need to respond to students’ needs.
- School was founded on separating students and what systems were excluded.
- 25% of students were on IEP, 50% of black students were on IEPs.
- Racism - system of advantage based on race
- Who are we blaming for these disparities? What is wrong with these students vs. what is wrong with these schools?
- 80% of educators want to do racial justice work in their schools.
- Leaders are nervous about diving into this - how
- Teaching students to stand up for someone else.
- Start small
- How do you make sure students are seen?
- How do you pronounce your name?
- Intent is good, impact is bad.
- The way to make students feel included is to empower them.
- How do you get started?
- Creating agreements with students
- Name activity - sharing the history of your name
- This is the way to begin to talk aboutt he work.
- Talking about race really begins with talking about us.
- Focus on relationships.
-
Who are we blaming for the problem?
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What did I do over the course of the year to help you feel comfortable sharing that with me? Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Al Kingsley has spent the last 30 years in the EdTech space and 20 of those as a school trustee and governor. He is co-chair of Workstream 4 at the Foundation for Educational Development, an organization developing a framework for long-term vision and sustainable planning in England. Al is Group CEO of NetSupport Ltd, an internationally acclaimed EdTech vendor. As a firm supporter of lifelong learning, he is also a regional Apprenticeship Ambassador and Chair of the Employment & Skills board for his region’s combined authority. An active writer about all things EdTech, Al is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and sits on the advisory council for the Foundation for Education Development. He authored a book, My Secret #EdTech Diary, released in July 2021 that is a road map to a new way of thinking about technology in education.
- Many similarities - Local authority schools, state run, and private/independent school.
- Two checkpoints in year 2 and year 6
- Internal (teacher-based) and external assessments (formal assessments marked and moderated externally).
- GCSE - age 16 in a range of subjects.
- Types of assessments
- Attainment - comparative score
- Progress - how much they grew.
- A Levels - final exam before college.
- What is the purpose and the outcome of these measures?
- external serves only 2 measures - certificate of completion or accountability for schools
- Are those results where they are in attainment, or are there other reasons.
- Whether our measure of a successful education is acquisition of knowledge or something more?
- Staff retention
- PISA is suggesting some changes in how to assess students.
- Sugata Mitra ted talk
- NAEP scores for last 15 years - 15–16 jurisdictions in US that were low consistently.
- Educational decisions are made in political cycles.
- We don’t want quick change, we want long term embedded money.
- What are the indicators that might vary the funding for schools?
- Respect and trust our school leaders.
- Who knows our students best? Do we trust those people?
- The skills being acquired in the workplace are actually the things we’re putting more weight on in the world.
- Key skills that could be applied anywhere.
- Education for Human Flourishing
- Aesthetic appreciation -
- How do you measure if people value their learning process at your school?
- Test less and Don’t make the test 100% percent of the assessment.
- Breadth of offerings.
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
This week is our next installment of seeing how Eric is doing in his new school. As a refresher, here is last month’s update.
Last time, we gave him three strategies:
- Strategy 1: add 15–30 minutes to however long you think each meeting will be.
- Strategy 2: You seem upset, what’s the best way to contact you when he gets back at X?
- Strategy 3: intentional Drive-bys - Schedule time to go be visible.
We checkin on those ideas and then talk about what he’s facing today.
Eric shared a great strategy today:
Strategy #1: Create a “canned response” in your email provider to send to people when they are upset inviting them to talk in person or on the phone.
It’s never a good idea to get in an email war. Much better to have a conversation with a person who is upset. Creating a response you send that always invites someone to meet with you and resolve differences is a sure-fire way to stop email wars and keyboard warriors.
Strategy #2: Schedule to send out that email! Don’t send it immediately after you write it. Give everyone time to cool down.
Today, Eric asks the question, “How can I help teachers have confidence that I’ll stick around so they’ll stop avoiding digging into the work?”
This is a valid question.
Teachers want to know you’ll stick around before they commit, but that is really just smokescreen for trust issues. They don’t trust you yet. People don’t actually care how long you’ll be around if they can trust you now.
Eric and I discuss some ways to make sure they are experiencing that trust, including doing the exact opposite of what a teacher specifically requests.
We highlight how to deal with past issues of traumatic experiences and how to do better in the future.
We also share one of the great books i’ve read recently: What happened to you.
Finally, I gave Eric two pieces of advice:
1. Preplan how you will exit when you do exit the school (spoiler alert: everyone leaves the school!)
2. Create different experiences around what were bad experiences!
We’ll be back with another interview with Eric at the beginning of December!
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Ami Shah is the Co-Founder and CEO of Peekapak, an award-winning social-emotional learning platform that engages elementary and middle school students to learn skills like self-regulation, empathy and teamwork and reaches over 450,000 educators and students. Peekapak does this using stories, evidence-based lessons, and game-based learning. Behind-the-scenes, teachers, and administrators receive real-time reports showing a student’s progress and emotional state. This empowers educators to be proactive in helping curb future mental health issues. Educators can share pre-written class updates, activities, and stories with families to reinforce learning at home in English and Spanish.
Peekapak is backed by; Silicon Valley-based accelerator, Imagine K12, the Edtech vertical of Y Combinator and the Unreasonable Institute.
Ami has earned an MBA from INSEAD, a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and is passionate about improving youth education, and has previously taught in K–4 classrooms and advised & volunteered at education-related non-profit organizations. Ami has been featured on Toronto Life, Flare, TechVibes, CBC and numerous other outlets. Ami has also spoken on topics such as social-emotional learning, student well-being, and mental health and education technology. Ami has spoken at conferences such as SXSWedu, Future of Education Technology Conference, LearnLaunch, ASU GSV and many more.
- Overcoming the barriers
- Interviewed over 300 educators to find out if SEL is actually important.
- It’s really hard to fit this in if it’s not required.
- Weren’t taught this, how am I expected to teach this to my students
- Shouldn’t parents be teaching this?
- How to involve parents in SEL.
- Family Well-being nights
- How to be a transformative principal? Help people feel heard.
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Ryan Steuer launched the first Project Based Learning middle school in the country and is the founder of Magnify Learning, a PBL professional development organization that equips teachers, instructional coaches, and principals across the country to engage learners, tackle boredom, and transform classrooms. Prior to founding Magnify Learning, Ryan was an engineer for a Fortune 50 company, 8th grade English teacher, and missionary. He shares his education and leadership insights on YouTube and on the PBL Simplified podcast.
- New Tech Network
- Taught traditionally, and didn’t see results that I wanted.
- Kids were showing up to school and doing what they were supposed to.
- The Punnett Square
- Work is so authentic and worthwhile that they want to learn it.
- Grammar lesson has life to it.
- It can take time to make the switch. Just starting to see the engagement.
- Upfront time to create this
- Lots more resources and structures.
- Define the problem, research solution, try it out, reflect
- Umbrella of authenticity
- Bring the Why Closer
- Cool stories of PBL
- Going across the street to a forest to see how much CO2 schools are sucking in.
- Who cares about that work?
- how to increase rigor.
- We get stuck on engagement and rigor.
- Opportunity to expand their view of the world.
- Liaison’s for PBL. Community partnerships.
- Do more than just be the audience.
- Bringing partners in to be part of the teaching force.
- How to be a transformative principal? Go and talk to learners.
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Andrew Terry is in his 24th year in education. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Spanish degree and received his masters in Education in 1999. He began as a Spanish teacher at the middle and high school levels before moving into administration in 2006. In 2016 he became the principal at Anchorage Public School in the Louisville Kentucky area and has been there for 7 years.
- Observe dismissal procedures
- Small little area, no busses, many kids can walk to school
- Kids were going everywhere
- Teachers loved it immediately because they felt comfortable right away.
- Communication is simpler
- Go through a process and involve a committee and parents
- Pikmykid made it simple and easy for everyone.
- Kiddeo - keeping track of kids when there are emergencies, including communicating police and firefighters.
- Any time you have change, having time to adapt to it is important.
- Independent city school district
- HQIR - High Quality Instructional Resources
- Why such a focus now?
- Evidence-based data to support the kinds of things
- Combining state standards and evidence-based.
- textbooks first, secondary HQIR - internet resources,
- Go through a process with adopting HQIRs. Involve parents in that decision-making process.
- Philosophy in our reading and writing.
- Teachers became invested
- What Works Clearinghouse
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Josh DeSmyter is the proud principal of Shrevewood Elementary in Falls Church, Virginia. He has worked in education for 15 years in Detroit, Washington D.C. and now in Virginia. Josh is currently in his eighth year as an administrator in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). He leads with the three core beliefs of Family, Excellence and Relationships at the forefront of his work. Josh has taken Shrevewood ES school from a 54% engaged school community to a 94% engaged school community in just three short years by instilling a Culture of Joy. He is currently a finalist for FCPS’s Outstanding New Principal of the year award.
- culture of Joy.
- handcuffs are coming off when you get the principal job!
- positivity, modeling, consistency
- Being a really good listener.
- Knowing who they are
- individual conversations, one-on-one
- Influence others around you.
- How to handle it when someone comes to you with something that doesn’t really matter.
- We listen, and we go back to leadership teams.
- Taking Action Book
- Episode 100 of Transformative Principal
- Professional Development team.
- Parliament Team - wise owls
- Collaborative Learning Teams - putting leadership in the hands of the teachers
- Staff Engagement Survey
- How to be a transformative principal? Be a learner every day. Find something you can learn from others in your building.
Reeks excellence - can see that kids, family, and staff are happy.
Process of the journey: What have you learned through other schools and leadership?
Managing the message: importance of clarity, key stakeholders to support the message
Leadership Teams: tell me about the team leaders that support culture? How have you developed their leadership capacity?
Hiring: how have you hired teachers to support the positive culture?
Community (students, staff, families): Consistency with the modeling
Building aesthetics: How does an environment support culture?
Relationships with students, staff, and families
Visibility in classrooms, hallways, meetings, and community events
Celebrations: with staff, school, and community
Being reflective and learning from mistakes
Honesty and vulnerability
The power of collaboration
Sunday Scaries - blech
60% there to everyone being happy.
“How was your break?” You can tell a lot by their response to that question.
Culture -
CulturedKids has helped bring
What do you do to help your people feel good about coming? You can’t control their feelings, but what can do you to motivate and inspire?
Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer. Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more
Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
This week is our first “coaching” call with Principal Eric Makelky. We jump on a zoom call, and hit record. You get to hear it.
In this episode, Eric shares how, a month into school, he’s getting pulled in all directions and can’t get focused on doing what needs to be done! Have you ever felt that way? I know I have!
He’s showing up late to meetings, getting too many todos, and just feels like he’s constantly drinking from a firehose!
We talk about three distinct strategies in this episode:
Strategy 1: add 15–30 minutes to however long you think each meeting will be.
Instead of scheduling an hour meeting, give yourself extra time. This intentionally reduces the amount of meetings you can have, prevents you from getting overbooked, and makes things better.
Strategy 2: You seem upset, what’s the best way to contact you when he gets back at X?
When people are upset, their needs can seem more urgent, so make sure they are heard, and that often softens the anxious feelings.
Strategy 3: intentional Drive-bys - Schedule time to go be visible.
Schedule time to go get the things people want to drop on you. They’re going to drop them on you anyway, might as well make it happen on your timetable as much as possible.
What do you think of these three strategies? Any good? Did we miss something? We want your feedback!
Also, Eric is looking for guests to interview on these three topics:
- Retaining great teachers
- Adapting to the culture of a new school
More Show Notes * Ideal Week - * Being new, running into being a fire extinguisher instead of a leader. * Start with Office team - 2 principals, 2 secretaries * Shared calendars * Managing your own time? * Informal meetings - often showing up late. * Why are you showing up late? * Drive bys are causing me to be late * Start and end on time is a norm. * Strategy: add 15–30 minutes to however long you think each meeting will be. * Fridays: + Red - no staff no students + Blue - staff 8–12, kids maybe or required 9–11 + Black - 8–4 full day staff inservice * Lots of questions from lots of PLCs * Being pulled in a lot of directions for each Friday * New expectation - This is what you tell someone if they stop by… * Previous expectation - Someone asks for the principal, we get the principal. * Give a respectful answer * Why wouldn’t your staff do it as you are asking? Angry, appease because they are angry. People get defensive when others are upset. * Strategy: You seem upset, what’s the best way to contact you when he gets back at X? * Proactive things to do to prevent things from popping up + Quiet time outside of school hours to get other things done. + Regular emails - Friday memo to make sure people know + All the reasons why staff come down to office “Master doc” + Schedule time to pick up drive bys. * Strategy: intentional Drive-bys - Schedule time to go be visible. * We haven’t talked about me - why not? * What was most valuable? Morning drive by lap.
How long will this last?
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Amelia Leighton Gamel shares her take on the real causes of educators burning out and leaving the classroom, as well as what solutions leaders need to be focused on to retain staff. Classroom management bootcamps, teacher mentorship programs, parent involvement, and administrator support are all part of her equation to help teachers be successful and stay in the profession. Happy teachers, happy principals!
Best way for listeners to reach out to Amelia:
- text/call 517.392.1207
- direct email to my personal account - gamelamelia@gmail.com
- website- equitableEDU.org
About Amelia Gamel
Amelia Leighton Gamel is a national speaker and consultant with comprehensive experience in the field of education having served as a public school teacher, published academic author, college professor and nationally recognized innovator of student success initiatives.
She is the recipient of the J. Ward Preston Outstanding Faculty Award and has devoted her career to encouraging student success and assisting educators in effectively engaging with students.
Her success is a result of her compassionate methods, interpersonal abilities, insights into the human experience and a thorough understanding of the experiences of historically excluded groups.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Dr. Marcus Belin serves as the Principal of Huntley High School and President of the Illinois Principals Association. Dr. Belin, native of Chicago, Illinois. attended Bradley University, where he received his bachelor’s in elementary education (‘10) followed by a master’s in education administration (‘14). He completed his doctorate at National Louis University in July 2020.
- Why it’s important for kids to feel like they belong.
- Everyone who intercepts can pour into them
- If you signed up to work in a school and you think your title matters, you’re in the wrong place.
- How do you make the interactions worthwhile?
- It’s like watering plants.
- A teacher that has literally saved kids lives
- Classroom is a netflix genre.
- What a relationship can be, if trust is the foundation.
- They’ll tell you those things that you want to hear, but also those things you don’t want to hear.
- A pound of flesh in discipline
- restorative practices - it’s not being soft.
- It was about punishment, then it was about discipline, now it is about learning.
- Remember what you told me.
- Restorative is not just about
- Classroom as a netflix genre.
- 720 episodes in a high school career.
- Kids come together for a time, help it be meaningful.
- How to be a transformative principal? to actively listen and hear the stories and voices that exist within your building.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
James Moffett is a principal in Kansas and he loves kids.
- Pretty empathetic
- Relationships
- Teri Barilla
- Question things I did as an educator
- If you were doing these things before the pandemic, you were as ready as you could be for the pandemic
- If you wouldn’t accept it from your supervisor, don’t dish it out to your kids.
- Accountability, structure, consequences, - all structured in love.
- It’s such a mindset shift for educators because it’s not how school was for us.
- Model it, live it, let them experience it.
- How do we help schools see that kids are respected on day 1.
- Teachers are structured beings
- Each vs. every.
- The Rabbit Effect
- How to be a transformative principal? Rest and recover and put more focus on the relationships you have in your building.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
In this episode, there is a bit of passing of the baton, as we introduce the next Transformative Principal, Eric Makelky. Eric will be recording the majority of the podcast episodes you hear over the next few months as we try a little experiment. We don’t know how it will work out, but we are hopeful.
Each month, Jethro will have a coaching session with Eric that you will get to listen to see what a coaching session is really like, and to see how someone grows over the course of a school year.
We’ll try this out and see how it goes. There are other episodes that Jethro has already recorded that will be coming out throughout the year as well, so you’ll still hear from Jethro.
If you’d like to connect with Eric, he has an email at erik at transformativeprincipal.com or you can follow him on Twitter at emakelky
Here are some things Eric is looking for support in this year:
- Matching expectations with culture
- Onboarding and supporting teachers new to the profession and new to the principal.
- Building trust with families.
Eric has a couple big goals for this year, too:
- Measurable improvement on district goals.
- Building trust
- Defining the culture they want.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Nadine Levitt Twitter is a Swiss-born German, Kiwi, US transplant, and founder of the music technology company, Wurrly, LLC. She began her career as a lawyer but after 6 years of practice, she began to pursue a career in music as a professional opera singer and songwriter. She has performed extensively all over the United States and the world, sharing the stage with David Foster, Andrea Boccelli, Kiri Te Kanawa, Roger Daltry, Christina Perri, and Steven Tyler to name a few. Passionate about music in schools she sits on the national board of Little Kids Rock, and in 2016 led the development of the music education platform WURRLYedu, which empowers student voices and makes it easy to bring a fun and effective music education to schools. Nadine is also an author of children’s books, including the My Mama Says book series, which teaches kids to identify, acknowledge and direct their emotions.
- PDReimagined.com
- Mary Ellen Imodino-Yang TEDX Talk
- Value
- Care package.
- Each month has a theme.
- Work in groups to come up with strategies to come up in daily life.
- Do things in 2–3 minutes or less.
- How do you get up when you don’t know where the ground is?
- The power of curiosity.
- It’s not an end destination, it’s a journey.
- Music to move you.
- The power of music in SEL situations.
- We shouldn’t teach music to be a musician.
- Physiological - music is one of the only things that can really get into our brains.
- Music can interrupt other emotional cycles.
- People are more inclined to buy expensive items when the store is playing classical music.
- How to rekindle their passion?
- Time scarcity - brought on by an emotional response that you’re feeling overwhelm.
- Interrupt overwhelm - do something different
- Free to teachers, cost to districts.
- The more you apply these skills the easier it is to avoid and manage overwhelm.
- Emotions are just messages
- We are engineered to see patterns. Thoughts are just patterns.
- Often our thoughts are not based in patterns.
- When you become aware you’re telling yourself a story, just tell yourself.
- Respond rather than react.
- Communication cards
- Need to speak freely: challenged and rewarded.
- When we share, we don’t feel shame.
- The need for people to take responsibility for their part.
- Leadership - formal and informal leadership opportunities.
- Leadership is having control over the outcome.
- Controlling your own identity.
- SEL - Teach emotions in an isolated way
- How you can use for deeper learning
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD retired after leading the New City School in St. Louis, Missouri for 34 years and is now the Emeritus Head of School. He is currently a Scholar In Residence at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and teaches in the Educational Leadership program, preparing prospective principals. He also led the ISACS New Heads Network and founded the Non-Profit Management Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Hoerr has written several books, and his newest, _Taking Social Emotional Learning Schoolwide: The Formative Five Success Skills for Students and Staff_, was published in December of 2019. He has written more than 150 articles, including “The Principal Connection” column in Educational Leadership Magazine from 2004 to 2017.
He was previously on the Transformative Principal Podcast episode 224 where we talked about who you are is more important that what you know, and episode 225 where we talked about his book, The Formative Five.
- Why does Empathy matter so much?
- If there were more empathy in schools, we’d be in better shape.
- If you don’t have empathy, it’s hard for people to follow you.
- If you do have empathy, it’s easier for people to follow you.
- Empathy is a muscle. You can make it stronger
- intentional and transparent
- Voluntary - making it voluntary is having empathy.
- listening, aggressive, pursuing.
- One of your problems - you look too busy.
- I was working; I was being accessible.
- Who are you closest to in your school.
- Even if my idea is the best, it’s not the best if nobody is on board.
- Breakfast with Tom - agenda is yours.
- Empathetic Conversations - extension of this notion that I really want to get to know people as people, not just teachers.
- I know you as a student, I want to know you as a student
- Leadership is about relationship.
- Teacher observations - school principals should use them as a way to build trust and observations.
- Educators are underpaid.
- Herzberg’s theory of motivation
- Teaching is far too siloed
- If people can just read one part of the book, what is it? The part about listening.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Show notes Dr. Sadin has served as a special education teacher, a gifted education teacher, and a building administrator. Most recently she served as a director of special education. Dr. Sadin has been vice-president of her local School Board and is recognized as a Master School Board Member. She has conducted research on the perceptions of teachers working to create trauma-informed classrooms. Dr. Sadin is a published author and has produced numerous webinars on children with attachment trauma in schools. Currently, Dr. Sadin works a director of exceptional education and as an education consultant and developmental trauma expert providing professional development to school districts, municipal service providers and parents. Nationally, Dr. Sadin is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and conference presenter. Her Trauma Guide Series of books are available on her website, www.traumasensitive.com.
- Building resilient students
- Hope - Start and end with the people.
- Over half of teachers are seeking to leave!
- We are doing it to ourselves.
- We have to start with what happened to us?
- Resilience is the ability to adapt and overcome challenges.
- Google Meet rooms open.
- Choose 1 issues
- The flight of teachers from the profession.
- What are the components that a school leader needs to create a resilient school?
- Deeply rooted in social justice and forgive yourself.
- Google Scholar - science of hope - When you say the word hope, you begin what they define as hope.
- Use the word Hope
- Then laugh.
SEO Keyword motivate teachers
Question someone would ask where this would be the answer How do I help my teachers when they are just plain worn out?
Blog Post (<1000 words) Teachers are worn out. We have a teacher shortage. Things are too tough right now.
I hear these things all the time! I recently talked with Dr. Melissa Sadin on the Resilient Schools Podcast about these challenges we are facing. How do we help our schools become resilient? Melissa talked about 2 things that are vital to our success.
Hope begets hope If you talk about hope, you feel hopeful! That seems maybe too simplistic. But if you do a google scholar search for “science of hope” you will find there is a lot out there to support this very simple idea: When you say the word hope, you feel hopeful.
Is that really all we need to do? Just say it? Well, yes, it really is that simple. Melissa recommends having mini contests to see who can say the word hope the most! It makes a difference.
A laugh a day keeps the burnout away Melissa’s second suggestion was just as valuable. Laugh. I know, the “Live. Laugh. Love” signs are a bit overdone, but there is so much power in laughter.
To make a complex topic extremely oversimplified, serotonin (also called the happy hormone) staves off anxiety and depression. There’s been some chatter on Twitter recently about SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) whose main goal is to increase serotonin levels in the brain.
Just laughing is not the answer to everything, of course, but it is a simple thing to help. Melissa shared how teachers were sharing jokes with kids every day, and, of course, the kids thought the jokes were no good, so they started sharing their own. This laughter caused them all to be happier, more patient, and more importantly, more resilient.
What is resilience? Resilience is the ability to adapt and overcome challenges. That’s Melissa’s simplified definition after researching this topic for years. I believe in my core that if you can read, you can do just about anything in this world. However, if you can learn to adapt and overcome challenges, you will be more prepared for whatever life throws at you.
Email In our podcast today, we are talking with Dr. Melissa Sadin, who has written a ton about trauma-informed practices.
We talk specifically about the teacher shortage and what can be done about it.
First, yes, teachers are struggling! So many are just trying to make it to the end of the year.
Melissa’s advice is simple, though, just talk about hope and laugh.
If that’s all you have time for today, say the word hope and laugh as much as you can. Can you say hope 25 times in a day?
Just talking about it is enough to make us start feeling hopeful.
Then, share jokes and laugh. Both of these things are incredibly powerful.
Don’t just take my word for it, though. listen to the whole interview at https://resilientschools.com
Video Twitter Thread How do we solve this tragic teacher shortage and burnout crisis we are in right now?
First, we need to be come resilient. Resilience is the ability to adapt and overcome challenges. via @MelissaSadin
Second, we need to have, talk about, and repeat hope. @MelissaSadin recommends having mini contests to see who can say the word hope the most! Learn more from this interview at resilientschools.com
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Show notes In this episode, Ross Romano and I share our vision for the BE Podcast Network!
We talk about:
1. Origins of the idea and formation
2. What to expect when we launch
3. Vision and values behind the network
4. Benefits to listeners
5. Benefits to creators
6. How to engage
https://bepodcast.network
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Ross Purdy Dean of Students at The Fay School in Houston.
- How can I best grab their hearts first?
- Want what’s best and care for them.
- 3rd year at Fay
- Being present
- asking questions, listening.
- Come in with a clean slate.
- I’m a goer and a a doer.
- Outdoor education program.
- With some students you have to earn the right to have their world opened up to you.
- 3.5 acres of forest that sits on the buffalo bayou.
- Start outdoor ed classes with team building.
- the power of the circle - inclusive
- Responsive classroom
- Everyone is seen.
- how to be a transformative principal? so easy to go down your checklist for the day and focus on your own stuff. Go out of your way to connect with kids.
- Take a time out from your personal agenda and be present
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Michael D. Toth is founder and CEO of Learning Sciences International and leads LSI’s Applied Research Center. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning book The Power of Student Teams with David Sousa; author of Who Moved My Standards; and co-author with Robert Marzano of The Essentials of a Standards-Driven Classroom, School Leadership for Results, and Teacher Evaluation that Makes a Difference.
Michael gives public presentations and advises leaders on the most critical issues in K–12 education today, including equity and access, academic rigor, and student agency. As a thought leader, Michael has moderated high-level events such as roundtable discussions between some of the nation’s top superintendents on topics like reimagining schools of the future.
- How Florida’s Lowest Performing School Improved from an “F” to an “A” After Partnering with LSI
- External operator.
- Overcorrection is not helpful
- ensure student agency
- after a year, nothing but love.
- Building
- All students are capable of student agency
- If we just control them, we can’t go to rigor.
- Developing persistence
- Academic teaming - structures and responsibilities.
- “My kids can’t do that” means “I don’t know how to do that”
- The promise of public schools is that it will break generational poverty.
- Photos going back to the beginning of photography.
- Core instruction has to move kids from compliant, dependent thinkers to independent thinkers.
- Give students strategies on how to have structures, norms, and codes of conduct.
- culturally responsive learning environment helps significantly.
- Granting grace to schools
- Kindergartners self-regulating in groups.
- Parents, especially college-educated parents, are constantly teaching
- If we are attempting to teach SEL but on it’s own we’re missing the point.
- Teaching and learning are two distinctive processes.
- The highest level is application.
- “I didn’t know my kids could that!”
- “My kids are learning without me, what do I do?”
- Kids are built for rigor.
- Teacher-led groups and then student-led groups
- student directed classrooms.
- Perverse effects
- If you get your kids to deeper learning, they do better on tests.
- National Demonstration School.
- Productive struggle - it’s actually fun.
- How to be a transformative principal? Who’s talking more? teacher
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Dr. Susie Wise is a design leader with experience in the education, tech, and the social sectors. She coaches leaders in equity design and innovation practices. She teaches at the d.school at Stanford. Previously she founded and directed the K12 Lab at the d.school and co-created Liberatory Design. She is the author of the book Designing for Belonging.
She was a previous guest on Transformative Principal Episode 121 Where we talked about #shadowastudent and Episode 122 where we talked about the design thinking process. I credit much of the work I did to write my book SchoolX to that conversation with Susie.
One of four books that kick of a news series for d.school.
- Equity vs. Equality
- Belonging is the feeling we are going for when we talk about equity.
- Work that I was doing with School principals.
- Design cultures with their school.
- John Powell work around othering and belonging.
- using design tools differently.
- Contributing is a powerful way to get to belonging.
- Flow is one of the moments of belonging.
- Creating a container of belonging.
- We’re not just trying to get to one version of belonging.
- Feel it, see it, shape it
- Shape - create safe-to-fail experiments
- Understanding comics with Scott McLoud
- If people could only read one part of your book, what should they read? Exercise on page 137 - Design an activity to inspire belonging.
- Why is it so important for groups of any size to hope its members feel like they belong?
When people feel like they belong, they are able to do their best and be their best. When we work toward belonging, we’re working toward creating a space where collaboration and cooperation can flourish. This is true for every kind of group, big and small. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, business manager, community organizer, or leader of any sort, your group is unlikely to thrive if the individuals don’t feel welcome, included, and valued for who they are.
- What is Design for Belonging?
Sometimes when we hear the word design, we think it means visual design – like logos or web design. Design for Belonging provides tools that any group or organization can use to build inclusion. These might be rituals that bring us together, spaces that keep us calm, roles that create a sense of responsibility, and systems that make us feel respected.
- How do you use design tools to create a feeling like belonging?
The tools in Design for Belonging help bridge the gap between the logistical planning of your office meeting or organizational restructure and the way you want people to feel when they participate.
Here are some great examples from teachers and school leaders who have used them:
- Reimagining the kinds of assemblies hosted at school to be more culturally relevant.
- Creating new roles to support English language learners.
- Reinventing parent events to help parents build relationships instead of just sitting passively in an auditorium.
We could quickly see how the kids benefitted by changes like this. However, we were most moved by the teachers. The redesign connected them to what they hoped to create for young people. They were able to care about their students in ways that related to their own understanding and feeling of belonging. They tapped into their own creativity and the reasons they wanted to teach in the first place.
- Your book describes what belonging and its opposite, othering, feel like. Can you summarize that?
Belonging feels like you are seen and heard. You feel alive. You’ve been invited into any given group, and you know you can be honest with the people in it. Students I’ve worked with describe it as being in a good place and being with people they’re comfortable with. They feel validated.
Othering feels like you’re not wanted or that you’re not welcome. Feeling like you have to hold back in order to fit in. Some people will have negative roles or assumptions unfairly projected upon them based on their race, outward appearance, or other aspects of their identity. My students have described it as feeling like they’re invisible or erasable. Being uncomfortable and disconnected from the group.
- Do you think this book about belonging will be received differently now than it would have before the Pandemic?
Yes, the Pandemic has disrupted many of our rhythms, which gives us the opportunity to rethink how we do things. In addition, we’ve seen the reemergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has given us a greater awareness of the inequities embedded in our culture. Seeing the need for change is the place for design. Design for Belonging can help us redesign our schools, workplaces, and organizations to support people more effectively. It can also help us focus on belonging as the experience we are intentionally building.
I have an exercise in the book: Assumption Storming. It’s a classic tool of design. This is a moment where we can ask: "What are all our assumptions about working in the office? What are all of our assumptions about working online?” We can then lay out our responses and see which ones we want to recreate and which ones we want to let go.
My hope is that the book will help people see with a new lens and empower them to create change.
- What do you want people to understand about design for belonging?
When you are working on diversity, equity, and inclusion, what you are really trying to get to is a feeling – the feeling of belonging. This book helps you use the tools of design to start building belonging and reducing othering in the places that matter to you.
We all want to educate ourselves about racial equity and we want concrete changes in our worlds, but so many people are overwhelmed by the breadth of the problem and don’t know where to start. The book is designed to help people who are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion to get started.
- How do you define equity?
Equity is important to distinguish from equality. In my work, the need for equity looks at how we each have different access to education and other resources because of history and all the cultural or systemic forces that we are (or aren’t) embedded in. Reaching equity means ensuring that one’s race or socioeconomic status does not predict the outcomes of their life and that everyone has what they need in order to evolve into their full potential.
- Belonging has become a hot-button topic lately. How do you feel about the current environment in the U.S. as your book comes out?
I’m excited about the current focus on belonging. There are discussions everywhere. People from all walks of life–city leaders, businesses, transportation–are thinking about it. It will be interesting to see what happens as we come out of the social restrictions that were created during the pandemic. We have an opportunity here to look ahead and be intentional about how we rebuild.
- How can leaders and group organizers use this book?
The possibilities are endless. The tools and levers in the book will help you recognize the opportunities you have in your context and to reimagine how people come together and are supported. Hosts of any space can experiment with how to create not just more welcoming environments, but also ways for people to be seen and contribute.
I recently had someone reach out to me who was running a summer music camp and they wanted to be sensitive to persons of color who will be entering a historically White space. I’ve never run a summer music camp, but the book will help them seize opportunities to create a cohesive group in the planning. They can ask: How do we want to welcome people in? What kinds of norms and procedures do we want to change or build from scratch?
10.How is the design community evolving conversations around inclusion, and what excites you most about that space?
Traditionally, design in the US has been a very White, male-dominated field that has centered Western European traditions. But as the design community has grown to be more inclusive of women and people of color, these new perspectives are shining a light on issues like gender and racial bias. Important conversations are now being had on how design can be and has been used to other and exclude, and ways in which we can address this legacy.
There’s also a very positive shift in how designers are thinking about the long term consequences of their work. Designers have to take responsibility for the outcomes of their work, not just the outputs. This shift makes it increasingly important for designers to consider not just how to solve a problem, but how doing so will impact others. This requires paying attention to outcomes as they emerge, always choosing to work toward belonging, and responding when unintended negative consequences emerge.
- How have you applied design for belonging in your private life?
I’ve been really interested in what is happening on my block. It is a microcosm of our country where you have new people moving to established neighborhoods, resulting in communities of mixed ages and socio-economic backgrounds. Last week I hosted doughnuts and coffee on my front stoop. Some neighbors who had lived there for over twenty years each met for the first time. New neighbors met old timers and created new connections. This moves me because I think if we can be in a relationship with each other we can help each other to belong. For me personally, I find belonging in gathering people.
12.Can you tell us about the early days of the d.school and your founding of the K12 Lab?
Part of my drive to start the K12 Lab at the d.school was for my middle school self. I was a bored, miserable middle schooler (On one level, who isn’t? Also, my dad had moved away and my mom had just gotten remarried). I figured out that I could leave class if I was working on “projects." For one project I’d go around the school every day and pick up cans from classrooms for a city-wide food drive. Not only did I get out of class, but it felt good, like it mattered.
I founded the K12 lab because I wondered about that 8th grade kid. If I had been able and empowered to work with the design tools I have now to make a difference, what could have been? It was also deeply grounded in a desire to see those furthest from opportunity be able to have greater opportunities and really be able to succeed in our systems in multiple ways.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Mark is the author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You. Educated at MIT, Mark has spent his career launching and fixing new ventures at startups, Fortune 500s, and academia. He’s developed new software languages, online marketplaces, new authentication systems, and tracked criminals and terrorists on the dark web. Mark helped create the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, MIT’s “Career Success Accelerator”, where he’s taught for twenty years. Mark also serves on the boards of non-profits Techie Youth and Plant a Million Corals.
- Moving from linear to non-linear learning
- Nobody is going to open a flashcard app
- Jump to the chapter that matters most to you.
- We don’t do a good job in making content applicable to our students’ lives.
- Power of small group conversations.
- How to be a transformative principal? Engage your staff in peer learning techniques.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Social media: The Be Podcast Network: Shows that help you be the change you want to see!
Summer of Super Cool Surprises!
I’m so excited to be talking to you again today. So far, this summer has been full of surprises, but I have something else for you today! I’m super excited to announce the Be Podcast Network. I’m expanding what I offer here at Transformative Principal to include more podcasts for more educators.
You can learn more and sign up when it officially launches at bepodcast.network. Launch day is August 1st. I’ve still got a lot to do to make this launch happen. We’re starting with 7 great shows that you are going to love. Today, I’ll talk about a just a few of them.
First of all, because this podcast is so successful, over a million downloads, longest running podcast for school leaders out there, many people are reaching out to me to interview them, and I just can’t possibly put them all on this show. They wouldn’t be released for years!
Also, I really love podcasting. It’s so much fun, and I love that I get to talk to all kinds of amazing people out there.
I’ll tell you about the shows on the network in a minute, but I’m putting together an editorial board for the network.
Here’s what I’m looking for (2 of the following):
- People who LOVE podcasts. Are you waiting in anticipation for your favorite show? Then this is you! Do you have too many podcasts that you could never actually listen to, like me? Then this is you.
- People who want education to be much better and want to change the status quo. We’re going to share stories about these changes on all the shows, so we want people who will want to listen to them.
- A list of great guests. Who should we be talking to for each of these shows?
And these shows are not just the status quo.
It’s called the Be Podcast Network for two reasons. Number 1, we want our listeners to be the change they want to see in Education. We know that educators have great power, but often feel hamstrung by district, state, school, and national policies. The reality is that we can do so much even within those confines.
When times are tough, it’s helpful to have voices you trust talking through the challenges.
I’ve been through a lot of tough times. And one thing that has always helped me is listening to inspiring podcasts. It’s powerful.
The second meaning of the name BE Podcast Network is Beyond Education. While our main focus is still going to be educators, we are also going to include things are adjacent to education. We also want to think of impacting more than just the schools where we work and can be the change. We want to go beyond that.
This network is going to be the best network for education-related podcasts out there.
We are going to have the best content, the best hosts, and the best listeners. I’m so excited for this great opportunity. And I’m excited for you to be part of it too.
I keep saying “we” because I’m partnering with Ross Romano of September Strategy to make this happen. Ross has been a huge supporter of Transformative Principal for years. He’s connected me with many great guests, helped me find awesome people to connect with, and even introduced me to the book publisher that finally published my first book. Ross is amazing, and he will be a great partner in this work. If you don’t know him, you certainly should. Reach out to him on Twitter if you aren’t already following him.
Before I get to a highlight of the shows, I want to reiterate my call for members of our editorial board. We want to hear from you about what people want to hear about on these shows. So, if you meet two of the following criteria, please reach out:
- People who LOVE podcasts.
- People who want education to be much better and want to change the status quo.
- A list of great guests.
So, let’s get into our shows.
Of course, this show, Transformative Principal, will be part of the network. My other podcast, Cybertraps, will also be part of the network.
The Cybertraps podcast is a collaboration with Fred Lane, who literally wrote the book Cybertraps for Educators, now in its 3rd edition. That book is all about the use and misuse of technology. Through that, we founded the Center for Cyberethics, which is dedicated to promoting the application of ethics in technology-related areas. In fact, Fred is going to Ghana to do more of this work as a Fulbright Specialist in September.
I’m going to start a couple new shows that I have already done some interviews for:
The Authority Podcast: One of the most common pitches I get on this podcast is for authors, but they don’t always fit with what I’m trying to do here, so this will be a great place to expose educators to great books. In my mastermind, we intentionally don’t read any education books together. We read books from outside education. It is my hope to help you have a great list of books to read every week because great educators are readers!
Resilient Schools Podcast: This is a podcast focused specifically on evolving beyond Trauma-informed practices to becoming a resilient school. Resilient schools are led by resilient principals who support resilient teachers who teach resilient students. It’s a cycle, and everyone needs support there.
My Bonus Money: A show about passive income for educators. I believe that educators sometimes make bad decisions because they are stuck in their jobs. One of the biggest challenges is that teachers lose so much financially when they move districts even if they could make so much more in other ways. So, teachers get stuck places. Financial independence is actually possible, and there are so many ways to do it. I’m going to talk about all of them, and interview people who are doing it. Not only that, I’m going to share my story of how I make passive income through my activities. I think I might be most excited about this one!
The Teacher’s Lounge: This will be a fun weekly live podcast focused on current issues in education, and hosted by all the hosts on the network. Starting with me and Ross, and including other hosts who will be joining the network.
Speaking of other hosts, we have a few in the works, and I’ll announce those in the future. Let me just say now, we’ve got some great shows that will be joining us. Look forward to this show next month to hear more about it.
Finally, let me share with you again the link for the podcast network. bepodcast.network Go here and enter your email to get notified when the network launches. When it launches, we’ll have all the shows with ways for you to subscribe to just the shows you want. so go to bepodcast.network and sign up. I’m excited to have you join us on this really exciting journey.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Dr Briony Scott is an Australian educator and columnist, and the Principal of Wenona in North Sydney, an independent K–12 girls school. Dr Scott has a Masters and Doctorate in Education from the University of Sydney; specialising in girls’ education, technology and pedagogy, motivational theory, and choice in education. Prior to Wenona, Dr Scott was Principal of Roseville College. She has worked as a systems analyst for Italian computer firm Olivetti and spent time volunteering as an Emergency Technician with the Wheaton Rescue Squad in Maryland, US. Dr Scott speaks regularly on educational and parenting issues at community forums and conferences.
- It’s really fascinating to think about leading a school that is focused on one thing, like all girls. How do you see your role differently because of the way your school is structured as an all-girls school?
- Gap of about 2 months pay in gender gap in pay
- You have to be aware of stereotypes.
- How women finally got into colleges for medicine
- You can’t be what you can’t see!
- How can we do a better job of teaching mental health?
- Anything that reduces a person’s agency is an obstacle.
- Recognize what power looks like in a room.
- Mental health itself is neutral, but there are good and bad mental health.
- They’re not allowed to be sad anymore, they can only be depressed.
- Little people look to adults about cues about how to behave.
- Mental health - they’re actually fine, if we create a feeling of doom and gloom
- Pathologizing of adolescnce
- We do an extraordinary disservice when we write off an entire generation.
- Transactional Analysis
- Kids are clever but they’re not wise [[Wisdom]]
- Nous - wisdom
- We’re all just walking them home.
- Renaissance Women’s Network - connecting female education leaders to others.
- We create the world they can aspire to.
- It is massively disrespectful to people with real mental health issues.
- In the desire to listen respect and value people’s feelings, we forget that they have agency.
- We teach the feelings, but don’t teach agency and the power we have over them.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get some sleep.
In the world of education, no matter how confident, competent or experienced you are – pressure is a part of every process. How well you handle those challenges, changes, and problems will often determine how successful you are going be.
Michael Licenblat is a resilience expert who teaches people how to thrive in high pressure environments by bouncing back from pressures, challenges and setbacks.
Drawing on his background in Psychology, Shiatsu therapy, and over 25 years of Martial Arts experience, Michael has helped countless companies and schools become ‘pressure proof’ and learn how to bounce back from the setbacks and challenges so they can out perform their competition.
In Michael’s high energy, interactive and very practical presentations, he demystifies what people need to do to become resilient to pressure in today’s business world, and keep a clear head when dealing with difficult, demanding and stressful situations – without burning yourself out.
- The Resilient Principal - how to perform at your best without burning out
- Resilience means something different because our environment has changed.
- Resilience was more akin to how much you can take on.
- You’ve got what it takes to stretch and do more.
- Resilience that was required was how well you can adapt what you do to be relevant, useful and healthy.
- Not just coping, not just happy, but the best version of yourself
- High performance is not about comparison.
- High performance is a personal benchmark.
- Other misconceptions of resilience.
- Those who thrive are vulnerable are most resilient.
- Paradox within the school. We need to grade students
- People strive to be perfect, when they don’t really need to.
- The best you is about effort, not perfection.
- Self-management
- There’s no finish line - sustainability
- Self-awareness
- Empower and Inspire them to stand for something.
- I as the leader will stand in front.
- Create a destination worth chasing!
- Leaders need to be experts at igniting hope.
- How to be a transformative principal? Focus on Humanity.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Mr. Jorge Ruiz is the Head of School of the International School of Sosua. He has been in the field of education for 20+ years. Mr. Ruiz has been a teacher in the Primary, Secondary, and University levels; as well as an administrator for Primary and Secondary. Mr. Ruiz is an educational consultant, specialized in Project-Based Learning, Professional Learning Communities, and Shared Leadership. He received the National Merit Award for Contributions to Education of the Dominican Republic in 2018. Mr. Ruiz has also hosted and served on Cognia Engagement Reviews in several countries of Latin America.
- Northern area of Dominican Republic - North coast of expats
- Less than 250 students
- 27 nationalities
- Many different points of view.
- Accredited by US and DR
- Got rid of homework and semester exams
- Comparison with theater and sports - it’s about the practice
- Pandemic changed a lot of things, let’s make it for the better!
- Learning gaps always exist - good we’re talking more about SEL
- Rebuilding relationships - sports are not as intricate piece of schooling in international school.
- What’s your biggest priority? 1. relationships, 2. depth of knowledge
- Inquiry based to cover more ground and getting the things you really need.
- go beyond knowing all kids’ names!
- So much talk about learning gaps, but we always have them
- How to be a transformative principal? get out of your office and go be with kids.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Last month I talked about the TBD framework for making career decisions, and as I teased at the end of that episode, I was evaluating a current opportunity for myself.
Today, I’m going to walk you through my thought process using the TBD framework.
First, a little review, because maybe you don’t listen to every single episode! Gasp!
TBD stands for Tribe, Brand, and Domain. I learned about it because a friend shared this article on LinkedIn with me called "[[Tribe, Brand, Domain (TBD)–How to Think about Building Career]] (link) It is written by David Boyce.
This strategy is effective in evaluating where you currently are in your career, and can also be used to evaluate a specific position.
The tribe part refers to the people that you are working with. Who are you surrounded by. I had a job just after I graduated high school, and I did not like the people that I was around. The owner seemed super shady, I never trusted my paychecks. My coworkers were very negative and vulgar. I knew that I didn’t want to be around them long term.
In this new position I am looking at currently, I thought, who will be there? Who are the people that I’ll work closely with. Thankfully, I’ve known this company for almost 6 years and I have had many interactions so I could feel reasonably confident that I would be surrounded by great people. In fact, if I had to identify the people that I would want to work with, several of them would already be employed at this company.
You know that’s a good sign right?
I know people who have left this company, and I have seen how there is still respect for them. They weren’t tossed to the wind when they left. Articles and videos by these people are still up, still promoted and still relevant.
In thinking of the kind of people that I want to be around, these seems like my tribe.
Honestly, the hardest part of being out on my own for the last two years is that I haven’t really had a tribe. Well, it’s just been very small!
I’ve been very fortunate to work with great districts and great principals, but those have not been working side-by-side with people on the same things. And, I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with Dr. Courtney Orr on some specific projects the last few months as well.
I realized that one thing that was lacking in my current solopreneur efforts was a tribe. I’m part of a coaching program, so I have some peers, but they’re all working on their own stuff, and I’ve really missed working collaboratively on specific projects.
Brand The next piece is Brand. It’s not just name brand recognition. It is really about do they align with my own personal brand. In the article, David Boyce asks if you would be excited to talk about this company at holiday parties and over the weekend hanging out with your friends. Are you excited to say that you work for this company?
Well, the exciting part for this company is that I have been consistently positive in talking about them for the last several years. I’ve referred many people to them for resources and support. Furthermore, I have also seen how this company works first hand. I worked with them when I was up in Fairbanks, Alaska.
I know their value, their work ethic, and their contribution. All of those things align with my brand.
In fact, when I was talking with someone about this the other day, I said, “I can’t think of a company more aligned with who I am that isn’t my own company!”
Honestly, when I left the principalship two years ago, I was pretty certain that I wouldn’t work for anybody besides myself ever again.
But then, I found this TBD framework, and thought about things a little more strategically. Part of this brand piece is what kind of impact it enables.
As you probably know, I want to impact the lives of 100 Million kids in the next 10 years. That’s a big task. I want to make a bigger impact than I currently am making. Could I make a bigger impact with a company that is already making a big impact? I think so.
Another part of my brand is that I want to learn constantly. I have gaps in my capabilities, and I want to improve them. I’ve thought long and hard about how to improve them. I could spend more time and energy learning academically and through coaches, or I can work with someone and learn by doing.
Which of those aligns with my personal brand? I’ve learned just about everything I know by doing. This podcast is a perfect example of that. I have learned so much by doing this that it is crazy. Ironically, this podcast is also an example of learning by seeking mentors and coaching as well. The interviews that I have done have always been about finding a solution to a problem that I or one of my clients was having.
Basically, I felt that I could go either way: more private coaching or working with someone else. Either way, I could still make growth happen, which is exactly what I want.
Domain That leads into the third part of the framework: Domain. What do I want to get good at?
I want to get better at thinking strategically at a high level. I want to get better at looking at district level solutions, not just school level. This company really only operates at the district level.
Furthermore, I want to know how a larger-than-me small business operates. This is not a one-man shop, but it is a lot bigger than I am on my own.
What I would like to see is greater opportunity in understanding how to make things work at a bigger scale. It’s one thing for me to serve schools by myself, with no or little support. It’s another thing to serve districts with tens of thousands of students with a team behind you.
I’ve been doing well in my entrepreneurial journey. I’ve been able to support my family, but I’m learning more and more that I don’t really want it to be just me. I want a team. I want a tribe.
As I always do, I’m going to look back at this later and think how quaint I sound. But that’s just what happens when you grow!
Before I get to my final decision, I want to share something that I am sponsoring: The Equity Awards.
Transformative Principal is proud to sponsor the inaugural Excellence in Equity Awards, presented by the American Consortium for Equity in Education.
This award program, designed to spotlight and celebrate high-impact work across K–12 education, features 27 different award categories covering all angles of equity – 10 categories for educators and support staff from every role in our schools, and 17 categories for companies and nonprofits.
Educators of all roles and backgrounds –including school and district leaders, technology leadership, teachers, mental health professionals, librarians and media specialists, and more – can self-nominate or nominate a colleague. All companies and nonprofits – including publishers and authors – can submit nominations as well.
You can find all the information at ace-ed.org/awards. Get your nominations in before June 30!
EdElements As you have probably guessed by now, this new position fills all the criteria using TBD. Naturally, I used other criteria as well. It’s remote, so I don’t have to move again. The compensation is fair, benefits are good and there is room for growth. Perhaps most importantly for me right now is the idea of making a bigger impact by working with whole districts. I love my work with principals who are in my mastermind, but as I have just completed spending a year with a district in Wisconsin, I can see how much more powerful it is to work with a whole system and support them in making those changes.
The services they provide are in line with what I want to be talking about in education, as well. Their flagship service is personalized learning, which I absolutely love! They also do surveys (effectively), strategic planning, responsive leadership (which is almost as good as Transformative Leadership), teacher retention, data culture, and more.
And, obviously, because I am a man of faith, I prayed and pondered to see if this was the right move for me.
It is. For sure.
I’m excited to announce today that I am the newest partner at Education Elements. You can learn more about what they do at edelements.com.
Overview of Services Provided by EdElements! One of the things that I am most excited about with EdElements is that they are doing so much good in education. I want to dive in a bit deeper to some of the things they do, so that you can call me up and say, “Jethro, let’s do more of this!”
Personalized Learning If you’ve been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that I believe that personalizing learning for our kids is the best way to educate. My flavor of Personalized Learning is student driven learning, but EdElements has been doing this work for years, and they do great work. I worked with them on this in Fairbanks as a principal and they made a huge mindset shift accessible to teachers who had been teaching for decades. I’m really excited about this part of this new adventure. In my mind, so many things that we are really grappling with in education can be solved by Personalized Learning. Teacher shortages, trauma, SEL, equity, and so many more things can really be gathered up into a Personalized Learning approach. Think about it, if we are personalizing learning for our students, we naturally bring so many of these other areas into it for them.
For example, in the district I am working with in Wisconsin, one of the teachers said that a particular student was overwhelmed by the choices she had and just wanted to be told what to do. The teacher commented how she had had no idea before that this girl was struggling with anxiety. The way school was set up didn’t decrease her anxiety, but it didn’t open a door to address it. The beauty is that now this teacher knows, knows the signs, and can help this student and others in the future.
Strategic Planning Another area that I am really excited about is strategic planning. Usually, with strategic planning, we know that as “put all this work into something, then put it on the shelf to never look at again.” In rare instances, a few select “inner circle members” may know what the strategic plan is for the district, but nobody else knows why we are doing all this stuff!
With Education Elements, they do things a bit differently. First, it’s not a template that the district just follows. Each school district’s plan is as unique as that school district. It has to be, right? Otherwise, what is the point of being just another cookie cutter school district!?
So, there are several different approaches:
- Did your school enrollment go down because of the pandemic?
- Did your school enrollment go up because of the pandemic?
- Is there a new superintendent or school board and we now have different priorities?
- Do you want to have more innovation in your district, but don’t know how to capture that?
One school board really wanted innovation in their district, but they didn’t know what that looked like. But they wanted to feel like they were innovative. By doing a strategic plan, they were able to define what innovation looked like and make some positive steps in the right direction.
Community Surveys One of my mastermind clients recently complained a survey that her school district administered with an outside company. One of the anonymous questions was, “Do you trust your principal?” Of course, she got some responses that indicated she wasn’t trusted. But she didn’t know how to deal with those responses, because they were anonymous and the question was so broad, there was really no way to explain what trust meant in that situation.
Education Elements does surveys differently. There’s a way to ask questions to get at what people really think about something. An anonymous, “do you trust your principal” leaves way too many things out there in the ether. So, these surveys are, as with everything else at EdElements, focused on the specific needs of that district, not just pulling from a random question bank, or worse, the same questions for every single district, even if they don’t apply.
Responsive Leadership Another service that EdElements provides is responsive leadership. Of course, this is an area where I am really excited to contribute. As Todd Whitaker says, “When the principal coughs, the school gets a cold!” The same goes for the district level leadership as well.
As I’ve said hundreds of times on this podcast, leadership is lonely. It’s tough. Leaders need support.
Especially in education, where we are great teachers and maybe not so great at being managers, leaders, visionaries, or inspirers. But leaders have to be all those things and more.
There are other areas where Education Elements works, like data culture, teacher retention, custom curriculum, and more. I’m excited to start this new journey.
If you’re listening to this, and you would like to work with me, you can reach out to me at my new work email address, jethro@edelements.com. I hope I can help you make a HUGE impact on your students’ lives!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Dr. Kyle Palmer is Author of the new book Parentships in a PLC He is an HR Administrator in Kansas City in Central school district. Kyle was on Episode 79 of Transformative Principal.
- Parents are so important
- Teachers who are afraid to reach out to
- If parents truly understood teachers roles.
- Education triangle - teachers and parents working together with students.
- For 2 years, we’ve put up a giant wall and closed doors to parents.
- Parent engagement vs parent enragement
- We want parents to be a voice, not just have a voice.
- Norms around parent engagement
- Parentship success team
- Strategies: Schoolwide norms
- How to be a transformative Principal? It begins and ends with how you treat people.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Melissa Sherman grew up in rural Virginia playing in the woods and streams.
Taught PK–7th grade in public and independent school in VA, AL, TN for 17 years before becoming a principal
Was a title I reaching coach/interventionist for much of this time
Now am a principal of a small independent PK–5th grade School, The Fay School in Houston
We have chickens, a 3 acre forest and have kids spend lots of time outside
- Play in the woods and dig in the dirt for nature’s sake.
- Forest recess, incidents of injury are lower than regular recess
- Last child in the woods
- Give kids
- Free Forest Schools
- Obstacles to kids going outside.
- Raised bed gardens just take cinder blocks, dirt, and sunflower seeds.
- State parks have free or low-cost field trips
- Master gardener
- How Trust-based observations has helped Melissa.
- How to be a transformative principal? Go to recess and watch kids play!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books.
Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English.
Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Spike Cook, Ed.D., Principal, Lakeside Middle School, Millville, NJ. In addition to being a Principal, Dr. Cook published two books through Corwin Press (Connected Leadership: It’s Just a Click Away; Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader). He is the co-host of the popular PrincipaPLN podcast and a regular on the Unlock the Middle Videocast. His blog, Insights Into Learning, was recognized as a finalist for Best Administrator Blog by the EduBlog Awards. Spike earned his Doctorate from Rowan University and is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Masters of School Administration Program He is featured in Twinkl’s 30 Education Influencers You Need to Follow and Klear’s Top Ten Middle School Influencers. Dr. Cook is also on the Education Advisory Board for Whole Health Ed. Connect with @drspikecook via Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram. * Spike and Jethro discuss how to set goals as a school around * test scores related to academics. * Using surveys to assess culture. * Climate data based on discipline records * Got to be collaborative * how2be: Learning walk through school.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Michelle Goldshlag is the Co-founder and CEO of Cultured Kids (CK), a nonprofit organization that believes a student’s sense of belonging is the primary catalyst for their success.
In her six years at the helm, Cultured Kids has partnered with schools and community organizations in Northern VA and the Metro Boston area, as well as provide consulting services for international museums and global organizations like the Holistica Foundation in Brazil. Our after school Art & Storytelling Program curriculum was developed to increase sense of belonging for 4–6th graders. Strategic and focused progression of themes align with the book text and allow participants to easily create connections between them and book characters and one another.
Themes:
1. Identity
2. Empathy
3. Belonging
Art projects also scaffold along with the themes and the reading. Working from individual, to small group, and finally large group projects.
Our in person pilot showed a significant increase in student belonging at school and an almost unanimous sense of belonging in the book club itself.
Virtual program during Covid also successful and brought together family members for our closing celebration from as far as Egypt.
Giving Tuesday fundraiser has created opportunities for us to expand this program to other areas outside dc are where currently focused. We are looking for 5 new schools to partner with.
Criteria for partnership:
* A core team at the school willing to work with us. Admin, educators, school counselor.
* Two School staff willing to facilitate book club and work through training. 20 hours total (training & program) and $750 stipend.
* All materials and teacher stipend are covered from through fundraising efforts
* Fee for teacher training that Ed/administrators can use as SEL professional development.
Show Notes * Increase kids sense of belonging * Work with educators * Art & literature transcend time and place. * Celia Perez’s First Rule of Punk * How to decide what books to read. * Culturedkids.org * MOSAIC - My Own Strengths Amplify Inclusive Communities
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
I have several friends who are looking for new positions right now, and there is a lot that goes into making a decision like this. I’m dedicating this episode to my friends who are looking for something, so imagine that we are in a coffee shop and I’m having this conversation with you. If you do want to have this conversation, because, admittedly, it is easier to have over the phone with someone, or in person. I’m going to ask some questions in here, and when I do that, if you take the time to pause the podcast and actually answer the questions, it will be a valuable experience. Just saying them out loud while you’re driving or exercising will be valuable. Bonus points if you actually write out your answers.
And, if you want to go through this with me, just give me a call. (801) 7-JETHRO. Seriously, that’s my phone number. You’re probably not going to take me up on that because you’ll think I’m too busy, or you don’t matter enough. That’s baloney! If you don’t call me, call someone else you trust!
Before we get into the rest of the episode, I want to recognize a new partner for the Transformative Principal Podcast. This is Just Right Reader at justrightreader.com
When I was an elementary principal, I saw firsthand how important reading was. If kids can read, they can do anything. But our decodable readers were not great. There are boring, repetitive and kind of bland. A few weeks ago, Sarah, from just right reader, shared her decodables with me. Kids see themselves in these books.
They are enjoyable and actually funny. I’m going to talk more about this in the future, but in the meantime, check out just right reader.com for some decodables that kids will love reading.
Recently, a friend shared this article on LinkedIn with me called “[[Tribe, Brand, Domain (TBD)–How to Think about Building Career]] (link) and I want to highlight some pieces. It is written by David Boyce, who ”is a serial software entrepreneur who has helped build and sell four companies. Currently he is Chief Strategy Officer of XANT and board member for Forrester (NASDAQ: FORR). Dave is an adjunct professor of marketing at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business and a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard Business School."
I regularly have given similar advice to what Dave offers here, but he did it much more eloquently than I have. I encourage you to check out this article
First and foremost, let’s remember what a job is. David describes a job as “a transitional arrangement with an employer that has certain features easy to measure and compare: title, compensation, benefits, etc. ”
A job is just a thing. They come and go. They are largely out of your control, no matter how secure you think that job may be. I would have used the word Transactional (because you’re trading time for money) but I like how Dave uses the word Transitional because it connotes that it is a time of transition, not a permanent thing.
A career is different than a job. Dave says, “A career is something you invest in over the long term. It takes shape longitudinally, layer upon layer. While the person in charge of your job may be your boss, the person in charge of your career is you.”
Two important things:
- Your career is your responsibility.
- No Career can only be defined with a specific path.
For example, let’s say in your career, you want to be a superintendent. There are some people who say that in order to be a superintendent, you have to have X years experience as a teacher, then X years as a principal, then X years as curriculum director, then X years assistant superintendent. Then you can “qualify” for that role. That is made up. If I took a poll of superintendents, I am sure many would have followed a similar path to that, and that could be the tried and true way to do it, but that doesn’t mean it is the only way to be a superintendent.
I recently shared a sad story on my other podcast, Cybertraps, where a superintendent in a district in Massachusetts started out as a substitute teacher and eventually became the superintendent. Unfortunately, we were talking about her situation because she got caught in a cybertrap and allegedly sent threatening messages to a police officer to dissuade him from applying to be police chief.
I only bring this weird story in to illustrate that you are in charge of your career, while you may not always be in charge of your job. Your career and how you talk about it is completely up to you.
Dave says, “Who will decide how to sequence jobs, layer experiences, and develop facets of your professional self? Nobody but you.”
When I left being a principal in 2020, I told my wife that even if I went back into schools, I would never define myself by my role again. I get to decide who I am and what that means. So do you. And that’s exactly the point that Dave is making. You are in charge of your career.
When you’re making a choice about a job, Dave continues, “it’s important to focus on things that will matter over the long run. Starting salary doesn’t matter. Starting title doesn’t matter (much). Benefits don’t matter… so what does matter?”
Dave calls the things that matter TBD, Tribe, Brand, Domain.
Let’s talk about each of them:
Tribe The 2008 book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin really brought this idea of tribes to our collective consciousness. I’m sure others have thought and written about it, but that’s when it really became apparent to me.
Dave talks about Tribe like this: “Look to your left and to your right. Who do you see? People who inspire you? Challenge you? Stretch you? Do you get energy from your peers, or do they suck energy from you? Do they encourage you to do your best work or do they bore you? Are you your best professional self among your workmates?”
Your best professional self! That doesn’t mean you are perfect, but it does mean that your peers encourage you to strive. I remember working for one district where we were in a principal meeting, and as soon as the district person left, the other principals started ragging on the district as a whole and complaining about anything and everything. This group of principals did not inspire me to be my best professional self. I knew I had to get out of there.
That’s the negative part, but let me talk about when I worked with Damon, Courtney, and Carla. These were my three assistant principals when I was in Alaska. Although they were all very different, they truly brought out my best professional self. And that made all the difference. I still talk to all three of them regularly, and anytime I’m thinking of something new, they’re some of the first people I talk to about it. They’ve always set me up for success.
And this is the point of the tribe, truly: “If one of your peers finds the opportunity of a lifetime, and they need the best and brightest to join them and reap the rewards of an amazing product, market, etc., who will they call? The people they know and respect. If one of those people is you–lucky you!”
Earlier on when Dave mentioned that salary and title don’t matter, he was right. He says, “On the other hand, if you look to your left and see Sleepy, and to your right and see Dopey, you may be in trouble. It almost doesn’t matter how much an employer pays you–no amount is enough to sacrifice the opportunity to build relationships with best-and-brightest peers.” Thankfully, shortly after I got hired in Fairbanks, I got to interview for an assistant principal. Courtney was clearly the best and brightest.
Brand The next piece in this framework is Brand. And we’re again talking about ourselves as we are finding a position. One of the pieces of advice I give to anyone looking for a job is that you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.
You have got to see if who they are aligns with your personal brand. Dave introduces a really simple way to evaluate this:
“Do you love talking about your work at parties, family gatherings, reunions? If so, your work is aligned with your personal Brand.”
I had a job cleaning up construction sites once. I hated every minute of it, and I try to never talk about it. More than anything, it taught me what I don’t want to do. I’m not afraid of working hard, in fact, that was the only part of the job that was rewarding: I was outside and building muscle daily.
As I look back on my career now, I’m so grateful for where I worked and what I learned while I was there. Most of my positions are highlights on my resume, but some didn’t really align to my brand. I’m certainly not saying that you can’t learn things, even in difficult or non-ideal situations, but it really is so much better when you are proud of where you work.
In education, most of us are going to work for “Just Another School”. In How to be a Transformative Principal, I teach principals how to NOT be just another school. Regardless, most of us are not going to work at a well-known or popular school. There aren’t many Teslas, Twitters, Amazons, or Apples in the education space. But I encourage you to make your school that way. Be innovative! Disrupt the status quo! Serve your families so well that people want to know what you are doing.
Or not.
If that’s not your brand, you’d hate working in a school like that.
I was talking to Steve Miletto, host of the podcast Teaching Learning Leading K12. He is the executive director of a regional education service agency in the heart of Georgia. He said that people say they want change agents, but then when the change starts happening, many people say, “Wait, it was good enough before!”
Lean into your brand and find places that complement your brand, as in make it complete!
Domain Finally, the last piece of this is Domain. Dave says, “A key piece of a successful career is getting good at something…No one develops all the required domain expertise in one single job, so it is up to you to sequence experiences so you can develop each facet of your professional expertise deliberately.”
This goes back to having a vision for your life! Do you have a vision for your life?
If not, it would be very worth your time to sit down and make a vision for your life so you know how to build your career, know what you want to get good in, and know how to make sure that you have plans in place to support your growth, because you know who you want to become.
Dave continues, “No one develops all the required domain expertise in one single job, so it is up to you to sequence experiences so you can develop each facet of your professional expertise deliberately.”
If you don’t have a vision and goals for your life, you’ll be more likely to coast along and make some decisions that may or may not be in your best interest.
Have you watched the show Severance on Apple’s streaming service? It’s is a bizarre, crazy show but so good. Here’s the premise, in order to achieve “work-life balance” people get an implant that makes their work and personal lives separate. Their work life has no idea what happens with their personal life (not knowing their names, families, relationships, where they live) and their personal self has no idea what happens at work. Just that they show up and then leave at the end of the day. Each side calls themselves awake when they are in that state.
Anyway, these people have a reason why they want to know nothing about the work they do all day. At the end of season 1, you’re left with more questions than answers! But one man, Mark S. chose to do the severance procedure because he lost his wife in a terrible car accident and chose to do this to deal with the grief he was experiencing. He has no desire to know or get good at anything and while he was a professor before, he couldn’t handle being a professor after his wife died.
Thankfully, this dystopic world does not exist yet, and so we need to build domain expertise in our careers. And that is actually quite fulfilling.
The framework is TBD, Tribe, Brand, Domain, created by Dave Boyce. You can use TBD to decide a single job opportunity, or you can use it to determine if your life is heading in the direction that you want it to go.
I’m actually actively evaluating some things in my life right now through this framework and I’ll tell you more about it in episode 484 on June 6th! Be sure to check out justrightreader.com for some amazing decodables that your students will actually enjoy reading.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Sara Sonnenschein is a principal in New Jersey for the past 8 years, and taught in the writing classrooms the previous 19 years. She writes a curriculum to help kids learn to write at Curriculumhq.com
- A day in the life of principal Sunshine - LinkedIn posts inspired by Akbar Cook.
- Forcing myself to write about them I help myself look for them.
- Lots of watching people do things the wrong way.
- Many negative experiences as a student.
- Big picture questions can be difficult.
- My legacy is that kids have fond memories of their school.
- The power of writing - writing gets them to own whatever subject they’re writing about.
- When kids have choice in what they’re writing about it changes their ownership of the content.
- How she teaches writing.
- How to be a transformative principal? be in classrooms on a daily basis.
- Passion to inspire and empower teachers to be the best they can be to transform how they’re teaching kids.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com
Dr. Chris Jones has been an educator in Massachusetts for 21 years. He has just finished his 13th year as a building administrator. True to his “why” of improving the educational experience for as many people as possible by being purposeful, acting with integrity, and building character, he is currently the Principal of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in Whitman, Massachusetts. Chris is also an Massachusetts Influence 100 Fellow focused on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the educational setting and a Vice President of the Massachusetts School Administrators Association (MSAA).
Chris is passionate about continuous improvement and the idea that success is not a destination, but a process. Chris is a teacher centered Principal and his beliefs around the importance of a positive work environment, continuous growth, and a healthy family work life integration can be seen in the presentations/workshops he has given for the Massachusetts School Administrators Association (MSAA), Massachusetts Computer Using Educators (MassCUE), Massachusetts Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (MASCD), the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP); and his participation in the Better Leaders Better Schools Mastermind group.
Chris, who was recently a finalist for Massachusetts State Principal of the Year, is described by his past Superintendent as being “…wholly invested in the success of the school…a creative problem-solver who is able to deliberate yet be decisive, be creative yet accountable…calm and clear-headed even under the most trying of times…has built a strong collaborative and collegial school culture…he is a positive influence on teachers, teaching, and learning.” Chris hosts a podcast, regularly appears as a guest on educational leadership podcasts, blogs, is active on Twitter, and vlogs on a weekly basis as a way to reflect on his progress, share his story, and get others to think about different perspectives. His overarching goal is to positively model continuous improvement in all facets of life by being purposeful, acting with integrity, and building character.
- Previous episode with Chris.
- Chris’s New Book: SEEing to Lead: creating a world-class culture through a teacher-centered approach.
- No matter how many students I see, I can’t have as great an impact as my teachers.
- Delegating the impact we have on students to our teachers.
- Supporting teachers in process of growth to impact students.
- How to help teachers not have Sunday night anxiety.
- Bring out the reasons why they got into teaching.
- Belonging, giving them voice and choice in their lives as teachers.
- Tangible outcomes of what they are doing
- Tag other people to get them talking.
- In house conference
- All I had to do was some math!
- They need the space as well - you expect them to take risks.
- We get what we expect and we get what we model
- How to be a transformative principal? Step back, look at your teachers, create a map and help them get to where they need to go.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Take my listener survey here.
Janna Cochrane is principal of North Greenville Elementary School (NGES), located in Greenville, Wisconsin, and part of the Hortonville Area School District. She has spent her career exclusively at the elementary level with 22 years’ experience as an elementary principal. Prior to being a principal, she taught fourth grade for 9 years. The daughter of a retired elementary principal, Janna knows the importance of establishing a quality school community for elementary students, staff, and families. Janna has been recognized as a 2020 Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Principal Leader in the state of Wisconsin, as the 2020 Wisconsin Elementary Principal of the Year, and as Wisconsin’s 2020 Elementary NAESP National Distinguished Principal.
As Lead Learner of North Greenville Elementary, Janna has assisted the Hortonville Area School District in gaining the esteemed honor of being a Model PLC District. As part of this journey, Janna generated collaboration time for elementary teams, assisted in the establishment of essential standards in efforts to achieve a district-wide guaranteed and viable curriculum, supported teams in the regular use of data protocols to plan for meeting the needs of all learners, and tended to the development of a positive, collaborative culture of learners as stated in their school vision statement.
At NGES, Janna has been keenly aware of the importance of school culture and fostering teacher leadership in the continuous improvement efforts. She describes her role as Lead Learner, Team Member, and Keeper of the Family. The forward-thinking staff at NGES have a total commitment to the three big ideas of Professional Learning Communities and work to support the four essential questions with their frequent collaborative team meetings. She lives and leads the NGES mantra Kids. First. Always. in her work each day.
Janna holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and music, and she earned her master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
- Janna’s dad was a principal.
- Her first year teaching was the year he was recognized as NDP!
- Principals have the greatest job because they help everyone
- Power of prioritizing her own schedule as a principal
- What does it mean to be the Keeper of the Family?
- Our work is really personal.
- The collaborative spirit and that we work as a team.
- The power of trust. I can trust you to help me and be vulnerable in front of you.
- Teacher trying to connect with a student.
- Team “Student Name”
- Allowing people to come up with their own answers
- Going to drive and pick up the student.
- Include conversations with team regarding new hires.
- Include grade level teams about what their team specifically needs?
- An interview only gives you so much.
- Listen for the things people don’t ask.
- Elementary - literacy and math
- SEL - even if you don’t ask a specific question about that.
- How to be a transformative principal? Really connect with individual kids that need an extra. To make sure you are visible and approachable, and then really listen.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Take my listener survey here.
In this episode, Tracey Ezard interviews me about How to be a Transformative Principal and I also weave in interviews with Rima Meechan, the principal of that Kindergarten Peptoc school and Jessica Martin, the creator of that hotline ((707) 998–8410). To donate to that hotline, go to wesideusd.org
- Why it’s important to be a transformative principal?
- open ourselves up to the collective wisdom.
- ask, don’t tell.
- conversation around what defines us as a special school.
- empathy
- do I see empathetic acts as compassion or make me weak
- Shutting them down
- humble swagger
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Matthew Moyer is a Nationally Distinguished Principal, and Pennsylvania Principal of the Year. He is an elementary school principal with over 17 years of experience in administration, and over 23 years of experience in education. In addition to his job as principal, he is an Author, National Speaker, Adjunct Professor, and staff developer with Thom Stecher and Associates. Matt started his career as a 5th-grade teacher in the Spring-Ford Area School District. He earned a Masters degree and Principal’s certificate. He then spent 3 years as an assistant principal at Schuylkill Valley Elementary School in Leesport, Pennsylvania. From there he moved to his current position as principal of Rupert Elementary School in the Pottstown School District. He is in his 16th year as principal of Rupert, and absolutely loves it. He recently completed his course work for his letter of eligibility to be a superintendent. For the last ten years he has been the district’s safety coordinator and certified CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention trainer. He has served numerous roles and on a variety of committees during his time in the Pottstown School District.
- Hearing the stories of other distinguished principals.
- Book Series podcast
- The adventures of David and Donald: Basketball Bewilderment.
- Each book focuses on social emotional skills.
- Being assertive without being aggressive.
- Teacher at his building is illustrator.
- What did you win the award for? Relationships
- Be a servant to build relationships.
- Give help and step up when needed.
- Understanding different cultures - generational poverty
- Respect other’s opinions and culture, even if we don’t understand it.
- Hire the right people who are opening
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into the classroom and be there every day!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Not only is Dr. Joaquina Kankam an expert in youth protection compliance and risk management, but her practical experience has made her a leader in understanding the needs of youth serving organizations. In addition to being an educator (K–12 & Higher Education), Joaquina has presented at several national association conferences and participated as a panelist in several discussions regarding youth.
The Importance of Senior Leadership’s Involvement in Youth Protection Decision-Making.
- CAPTA (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 1974)
- Children youth-service organizations.
- Background checks and mandatory reporting training
- Sexual abuse or other harm?
- Audit systems to ensure organizations are helpful in preventing harm to kids.
- We do only what we know how to do.
- Our procedures are good enough, we’ve talked with the attorneys and they approved them.
- Protecting image of university
- Loudon County, VA school board member resigns
- We don’t differentiate in adult professional development
- Start with a good understanding of what the law is.
- How to teach schools to do this work correctly.
- It’s too much to put on my plate.
- how to be a transformative principal? If sometihng bothers you, don’t let it go. Fix it!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Bill Ziegler is the principal of Pottsgrove High School in Pennsylvania. He’s been a mentor of mine for years. So excited for this conversation. * Lead the Way EDU Podcast * Staying strong in the storms * Take care of yourself * Take lunch every day! * Use your vacation days! * Don’t take it personally. * Taking time during the storms to protect ourselves from the storms. * The work is always going to be there. You’re never going to finish it. * It sticks to us. * The most important time of your day as a principal is dinner time with your family * Focus on the goal: Keep kids in school. * Press.transformativeprincipal.com * This is temporary. * How to be a Transformative principal? Take some time this week to fill up your tank!
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Join the Launch Party!!! Jethrojones.com/how2be Episode 471! Attachment Trauma Network’s Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference was this week in Houston.
- I presented with Tessa
- 2 sessions Social Media Exacerbates Trauma and Suicide Prevention
- Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential model
- The joy of being with people
- If you’re interested in the trauma stuff I offer, go to jethrojones.com/trauma
Book Launch:
- describe it -
- prizes - giving away books (success mindsets, Impact Players, My book)
- Jethrojones.com/how2be
- 10 seats in the mastermind to current administrators
- Free book study for everyone.
- A PDF of the book we write
- Goodies for those who preorder
Hiring:
- While in Houston, I visited the Fay School.
- From the web site: Your child and your child’s future represent the most powerful gift for The Fay School and the future of the world. The Fay School leverages a future-focused curriculum integrated into leadership development through emotional intelligence to transform your child’s potential into a powerful toolkit and reliable compass that launches them into middle school and beyond.
- Once you and your child step onto our outdoor-oriented campus, we believe you will experience what separates us from the other independent schools in Houston. Most importantly, you will learn how The Fay School has begun taking steps to intentionally transform the landscape of early childhood and elementary education through innovation. All of what we do and aspire to become places your child first.
- I’ll release episode 473 with Melissa Sherman, the principal there in a couple weeks, on March 20th.
- This month, we are talking about Hiring, and, since Hiring is the most important job you will do, I’d like to read an excerpt from my book about Hiring.
Reports of teacher shortages have been a constant backdrop in the United States for several years now. Transformative principals typically don’t have a problem finding new staff for all the reasons we’ve spoken about in this book. If you have a Vital Vision, communicate effectively, build positive relationships, and support your teachers, you’ll find that there is an endless list of people who want to be part of your school. It’s a natural byproduct of the things we have been talking about. You can have that, too.
Hiring the best people for your school is vital. Todd Whitaker says that hiring may be the most important thing a principal does: “You can get a teacher more on board in 5 minutes in your interview than 5 years in your building.” It behooves us as principals to ask the best questions we can to find out if someone will be a good fit for our school. As Bill Daggett says, “Culture trumps strategy. Every. Single. Time.” When interviewing, you must find the best person you can. It is even acceptable to wait as long as you need to until you find that person. Sometimes, a person serving as a long term sub is better than a poor teacher. If you have ever hired the wrong person for a job, you know that is true. Just preparing to hire teachers is a multi-step process.
Hiring is a year-round job, one that takes on different aspects at different times in the year.
Hiring can be risky. Or rather, I should say, hiring is RISCHI (pronounced risky).
Recruit
Introduce
Hire
Screen
Cultural fit
Hire
Introduce
![[How2be Figure 4.excalidraw]]![[how2be figure 5.excalidraw]]I like to see this as a three-circle Venn diagram because there is overlap in the areas. We’ll dive into each of these areas shortly. It is also effective to think of this as a never-ending circle! Where you are regularly doing each of these activities.
With teacher shortages that have plagued our industry for years being exacerbated by the pandemic, more than ever we need to take a serious step in hiring people effectively. A recent study by the Learning Policy Institute called “A Coming Crisis in Teaching: Teaching Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S.,” shows that in 2021 the demand for new teachers would be 300,000 and the amount of teachers available would be less than 200,000. That’s a projected shortage of 100,000 teachers! And that was in 2016, before the pandemic was even a thing. In 2021, we’ve had governments requesting retired teachers come back to take the load off of other teachers. Districts are offering signing bonuses and trying to attract teachers. While those may be nice, that’s nothing compared to you implementing what you read in this book! Being a transformative principal is how we solve our teacher shortage. And I’m going to show you how to do recruit and hire amazing teachers.
I’ve worked hard to include actionable advice for you here to make sure you can attract the top talent to your school and that they will want to stay there forever! But remember, they will come for the job but they will stay for the Vital Vision.
Before we go any further, imagine for a moment what hiring process could look like in five years. In five years, you have very low turnover. It happens, but people want to stay at your school because it is such a great place. When there is turnover, and opportunities for new staff to come on board, you first make sure all your current people are in the correct places. Then, you get to take your pick from the people who you already know will be great at your school and invite them to join you. You have the perfect placement for them, and they already have friends at your school so you know they will be a good fit. Just imagine how powerful that would be for everyone. It’s possible, and that’s how transformative principals hire new staff.
-
Why Fay School?
-
Well, they attract the kind of people that want to work in that environment. Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Miriam Campbell (Skills for Connection) is a SLP, MSW and teacher. She developed a SEL RTI model that schools and therapists are loving! It is adaptable, supports teachers and is the only effective generalization model. School leaders are revolutionizing the way they support SEL development with this tool. Check out her website https://skillsforconnection.com/.
- SEL RTI model
- Generalization - can’t teach kids generalized skills unless you have a system in place.
- Reinforce skills that kids are learning in therapy
- Bonus: it helps teachers as well
- Teachers have to be the owners of it.
- When behaviors get in the way of our goals, they are problems.
- How to develop kids into the adults we want them to be.
- Starting basic, with something like self-awareness.
- “I see I think I feel I choose” as a construct to help kids self-regulate
- Tier 2 and Tier 3 responses are more repetition and deeper conversations
- “My Teacher needs to understand me.” is not a helpful self-talk strategy, but our teachers do need to understand our kids.
- How to be a transformative principal? Behaviors are learning opportunities.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Lorea Martínez is the award-winning Founder of HEART in Mind Consulting, a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate social emotional learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. She is also the author of the book, Teaching with the HEART in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning.
- false dichotomy between academics and sel.
- We cannot have thoughts without feelings
- Designing with emotions in mind
- Teach skills explicitly
- There was no place to teach the skills.
- Lens of parents not doing enough.
- How to deal with parents at-home culture.
- Lead with understanding.
- How to tell a parent you’re calling child protective services.
- How to be a transformative principal? Pay attention to your own social emotional capacity. Emotions are data and information explaining what’s happening inside.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tracey Ezard Twitter is known for her ‘Ferocious Warmth’ leadership approach and professional collaborative culture work via The Buzz Academy. Tracey’s collaborative framework The Buzz which creates an environment of learning, trust and innovation is used in education and organisational systems throughout Australia. Her Buzz Diagnostic has been used by over 5000 schools and has had over 9500 educators participate. Tracey has run leadership programs for education and system leaders for over 15 years in all education sectors in Australia and in New Zealand. She also works with education federations in the UK. The Buzz Academy is an online portal that assists school leaders skill up their learning leaders in building authentic professional learning culture.
Tracey is an author of three books. In 2021 Tracey launched her third book ‘Ferocious Warmth - School Leaders Who Inspire and Transform’.
Her previous books are ‘Glue -The Stuff that Binds Us Together to do Extraordinary Work’ for leaders across all sectors who want to lift beyond convention to create high performing teams and ‘The Buzz – Creating a Thriving and Collaborative Staff Learning Culture’, designed for education leaders to support schools to bring about transformation in education.
While her experience is varied, her last education position was as Assistant Principal in the Australian school system.
Tracey has been running her own speaking and consulting practice for sixteen years. She has two teenage children, two dogs and when not at work loves spending time exploring the world. She is Board Chair of the social enterprise The Corner Store Network.
- Great leaders draw from the head and the heart
- Hard edged - results driven
- Soft edge - people driven
- Each person has a story
- How we get people on board is heart work
- Psychological safety to help people learn
- If we are not expansive, it’s very hard to get others to be expansive
- Expansive, Connection, courage, authenticity,
- Authenticity is bringing our best self
- Measuring too much of the wrong stuff
- What would you do in your school if you were bolder?
- If we’re not seeking to work out what the trigger was that got me there.
- Always learning about myself and growing.
- No matter what role you are doing, you have the responsibility to combine the head and the heart for the people you lead.
- How do you learn from people who have great skills?
- Chuck feedback culture adopt learning culture.
- When teachers can explain why they decided what they did when they were in the classroom.
- Are you a partner in learning with your teachers?
- How the brain responds when people engage (or not) in conversation.
- Self-awareness, knowing our triggers, and other strategies for going to each side of the ferocious warmth.
- Dance of ferocious warmth.
- How to be a transforamtive principal? Do some reflection on where you fit in your default reaction style.
THE KEY PIECES OF THE [[Ferocious Warmth - School Leaders Who Inspire and Transform]] FEROCIOUS WARMTH FORMULA •The Infinity symbol – a visual that brings the concept to life. •Three Intelligences – areas of thinking and skill development that, when blended, form Ferocious Warmth leadership and create buy in, continuous improvement and potential. •Four Elements – underpinning ways of being that serve as the foundation of Ferocious Warmth leaders.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
This month, we are talking about Culture. If you are not part of the How2be coaching, I would love to have you join us. We focus on one aspect of how to be a transformative principal each month through a newsletter, a podcast episode, a webinar, and a coaching session. For more information, check out jethrojones.com/how2be.
Today, we’re talking about Culture, and I’m going to use an example of a basketball coach who is building culture. Now, we know that we play sports to win. obviously, that is the purpose, but many people will tell you there are so many more reasons for playing sports. Health, fitness, exercise, team building, perseverance, grit, and so much more!
That is all well and good. IF it was all about winning, then we would have a lot of guys in the NFL say, “You know, I’m done with this, since we didn’t win the super bowl.” Nobody hangs it up because they don’t win the super bowl in a given year.
As a side note, Eric Weddle was called out of retirement to play safety for the Los Angeles Rams this year. He played 13 seasons in the NFL for three different franchises, and didn’t ever make it to the Super Bowl. But, he will be playing next week in that game for the first time in his 13 seasons and one bonus post-season.
So, sports is about a lot more than winning. We know that, but we still focus on winning.
My daughter is manager of the freshman basketball team. Her coach is teaching about a lot more than winning basketball games.
![[culture model.excalidraw]]
Culture is about what we believe, act, and say. Let’s examine each of these.
Believe What do we believe? In the sports example with my daughter’s basketball coach, he believes that all kids have value and something to contribute. He said 45 freshmen boys tried out for the team, and he could only keep 15, and even that is too much sometimes! (Although with COVID, it’s been good to have a deep bench!)
But, he has my daughter as the manager.
When I ask him how he thinks the game went, he always says some things are coming together.
In a couple weeks, I’ll be talking with Lorea Martinez on this podcast about SEL and other things. One of the things we will talk about is that you cannot have thoughts without feelings. That applies here because what you belief will influence both your thoughts and your feelings.
She also argues that we need to teach these skills explicitly. While that’s a great idea, kids will learn so much more from what we model for them than what we explicitly teach.
Coach Mike is teaching the kids what he believes
As is often the case in basketball, tempers can flare, especially with missed calls and bad calls by the referees.
Act How we act matters, and it sets the tone for the culture that we have. Coach Mike does yell sometimes, but because he believes that everyone can learn, he is patient and usually calm.
By having my daughter as a manager, he is signaling to the boys, their families, other teams, and the school that someone with a disability can contribute.
It’s 2022! You’d think we wouldn’t have to constantly emphasize that, but we do. A couple weeks ago a boy went home and told his mom (who later told us) “I think Katya (my daughter) is the most popular kid. She knows everyone and everyone says hi to her!”
My daughter is naturally outgoing and social, and loves everyone, and this strength of hers is compounded because she has found community.
One particularly tough game, our team was getting slaughtered. A parent said from the stands, “Try a different defense! This isn’t working!”
Coach Mike showed great humility in how he acted next. He nodded his head, and changed the defense the next time the other team had the ball.
Mike modeled in that moment how to be coached himself. Inside, maybe he was fuming, maybe he was grateful. Regardless, he humbly acted how he should when someone pointed out what was obvious. I’ve seen coaches harangue their players when they do something wrong and then act incredibly defensive when someone criticizes them.
In episode 470, coming out at the end of this month, Miriam Campbell touches on one of my favorite topics, which is teaching kids how to be adults. We are too shortsighted when we are preparing kids for the next grade level. That’s a waste of time. We need to teach them how to be the kind of adults we want them to be.
Do you remember the Anti-drug PSA from the 80s? I learned it from watching you dad!
How we act improves or impedes our culture. How we act teaches more than whatever we may teach explicitly. The “Do as I say, not as I do” and “Rules for thee, but not for me” idioms really do matter. People see how we act, and judge our culture based on that.
Say What comes out of our mouths betrays what we believe and further emphasizes how we act.
You can’t have awful things coming out of your mouth and think you’ll have a good culture. We also need to be honest, though.
A vital part of coaching is identifying what someone is doing wrong. When we correct someone, we do need to do it in a way that is clear and that they can understand. And it’s not just about what we say, but also how we say it. Tracey Ezard, who’s podcast episode is coming out next week calls this Ferocious Warmth. We need to go back and forth and dance between the two approaches, ferocious and warm.
That doesn’t mean we go to the extremes, but we need to balance ferocity with warmth. It can sometimes be challenging, but it is the job of a successful school leader.
Bringing it all together So what does this look like all together? Let me close out the sports analogy with my daughter’s basketball team. Towards the end of the season, Coach Mike told me that he had something special planned for my daughter and the other manager on the team. They were going to get a chance to play a visiting team.
Not only did Mike make this happen, he also scheduled it so it would be before their other game, and let parents know they could come early to watch it! He gave the managers a jersey, and they warmed up with the boys. They set the clock for 10 minutes, and the kids played a game.
This was a culmination because we saw how what Mike had believed, said, and how he acted played out.
The kids played a game, patiently giving the managers opportunities to shoot, and when they made baskets, as they both did, the cheers rang through the gym.
The power is that the kids. I saw how the culture of the team was playing out. Our team would go on to lose the game, but the kids won something more. Kindness, compassion, perseverance, patience, support, encouragement, and so much more.
Your culture matters. It is made up of so much, but it starts with what you believe, what you say, and how you act.
https://youtu.be/YnSAz8yCn70
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Michael Gaskell Web site is Principal at Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, NJ. following experience as a special educator and assistant principal in Paramus, NJ. He continues to model the pursuit of lifelong learning as he serves to mentor new principals through the New Jersey Leaders to Leaders program. An NJPSA Stars recipient, he has been published in over 2 dozen articles in education journals and blogs, including eSchoolNews, NASSP, Edtech and ASCD Smartbrief, he has made the most-read section of ASCD Smartbrief numerous times. Mike had a book published in October, 2020 (Microstrategy Magic), and a second book publishing in September 2021 (Leading Schools Through Trauma). Dr. Gaskell works tirelessly to support instructional excellence and student success, for his school community, and most importantly, for the wellness and equity of all children. * Teachers need day-to-day strategies. * Gamification - helps in powerful and subtle ways * Small wins. * Moving in the right direction. * We need data - when you test kids, it creates anxiety * Teacher greeting at the door. * One-sentence intervention * Even if it is small, it can still make a difference. * Coffee talk - background noise to calm kids. * Getting a perfect amount of slight background noise. * Distracts you enough from other distractions. * Right-size seating * When you move the body you move the mind. * Breathing exercises - 4–5–8 breathing exercise * Goal setting - What are my goals for becoming better. 4% outside their comfort zone. * Build on small wins over time. * How to be a transformative principal? Listen to everyone.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Becca Silver coaches school administrators in the leadership and communication skills needed to “close the adult knowledge gap”, we started to see school wide culture shifts, relationships strengthening and higher teacher satisfaction and resilience.
Empower instructional coaches to impact educators in a way that increases their resilience, efficacy and satisfaction.
- WHy teachers are burning out?
- Why do we have a teacher shortage?
- What can we do about it.
- Empower our coaches?
- Interview iwth Danielle Nuhfer
- Lots of new with the pandemic
- There is a role to help teachers.
- Skills are different for coaching and teaching.
- How do you influence adults.
- Elevated out of their skill set - Peter Principle
- programs and tiering and structures
- How do you relate to someone else’s humanity?
- Are they missing knowledge, skills, or mindset?
- Coaches need to learn to listen.
- Advice monster
- Patiently waiting
- Reflective listening - yes, and; physical reaction.
- We are constantly hearing words come at us.
- Reluctant teachers.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen for what they need. Seek out your coaches and admin team.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
layout: podcast title: Creating a school kids are dying to attend with Andrew Marotta Transformative Principal 464 comments: true date: 2022-01-16 categories: middle, student driven learning, mindset, permalink: https://jethrojones.com/podcast/episode464
Social Media: Do your teachers want the information or do they want the inspiration? via @andrewmarotta21 Andrew Marotta is an energetic and enthusiastic leader who has put his positive imprint on his beloved Port Jervis HS, in Port Jervis, NY. With the release of his first book, “The Principal: Surviving and Thriving”, Andrew is expanding his impact on the education leadership community. The 2nd edition, The School Leader, Surviving & Thriving was released in November 2020.
- Surviving & thriving a keep rolling mindset, & the power of storytelling
- ADHD is not a disability, it's a superpower.
- Moving from High School to Middle School.
- Change is good.
- Right move for me to have a different challenge while staying in the same district.
- The kids are amazing. Extremely impressionable.
- Kids rally around excitement.
- The importance of direction.
- How the power of impressionable kids matters
- If we're not pushing out fun things on social media, the kids will pay attention to the other stuff.
- Amazing after school experience.
- Amazing school culture happens 30 seconds at a time.
- School's gotta be fun.
- That kid's going to learn to love it when they have real audiences.
- Still trying to get kids back into the school.
- Mid-lesson checkins to help know where kids are at.
- Do your teachers want the information or do they want the inspiration?
- Always working on just one move in wrestling.
- Only looking at it as a weakness. Mikey the wrestler story.
- When your weakness becomes a strength.
- How to be a transformative principal? Spend time investing in your staff. Now, more than ever, teachers need our support.
## Sponsors ### Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You're pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com ### John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools. Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - _The Coach’s Guide to Teaching_ by Doug Lemov - _The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education_ by Michael Chiles - _Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools_ by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley - _10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right)_ by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott - _Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education_ by Emma Turner - _A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching_ by Patrice Bain John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Kim Bearden is the cofounder and a language arts teacher at the highly acclaimed Ron Clark Academy, an innovative middle school and educator-training facility in Atlanta. Each year, over 15,000 educators from around the world visit Kim’s classroom and attend her workshops to learn better ways to engage students, build relationships, foster creativity, enhance communication, and create a climate and culture for success.
In 2016, Kim was honored at the White House for being inducted into to the National Teachers Hall of Fame. She was selected from over 70,000 nominations to be honored as the Disney American Teacher Awards Outstanding Humanities Teacher, and the Milken Family Foundation selected her to receive the Award for Excellence in Education. She is the winner of the InfluencHer Award, the University of Georgia Outstanding Educator Award, and the Turknett Character Award for Servant Leadership. Mercedes-Benz recognized her in their Greatness Lives Here campaign, and Women Works Media Group has named her one of Georgia’s Most Powerful and Influential Women.
Over the past thirty-four years, she has been a teacher, instructional lead teacher, curriculum director, school-board member, staff-development trainer, and middle-school principal. Kim is a bestselling author of three books: Fight Song: Six Steps to Passion, Power, Peace, and Purpose; Talk to Me: Find the Right Words to Inspire, Encourage, and Get Things Done; and Crash Course: The Life Lessons My Students Taught Me. Additionally, Kim shares her passion and love for her craft with audiences around the world as a keynote speaker and professional development trainer.
Kim resides in Atlanta with her husband Scotty. Her three sons attend college, and her married daughter Madison lives close by.
- How we handle this time. Relationships, books,
- Shared beliefs with Ron Clark
- Open doors to RCA.
- RCA is a gift to teachers everywhere.
- Student engagement
- Low expectations are the manifestation of what you believe.
- Susan Barnes is not a table jumper!
- When you exude passion, people are drawn to it.
- We like to sprinkle magic.
- Meeting the needs of many kids.
- RCA-isms - give them attention to who is speaking - hand can’t be raised when someone is talking.
- Every child is seen
- Respect looks very different to different people.
- Summer orientation, meeting everyone in the building.
- How to be a transformative principal? You must exude what you hope to create.
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
To start out, a little review of highlights for the last year.
We released 86 episodes on the podcast. Because I left being a principal, I had more time to produce content. And so I did 3 to four interviews per week! It’s been great.
We also broke 1,000,000 downloads total with more than 200,000 thousand just this year.
I’d like to share some highlights from the top 5 episodes this year.
Also, I’m doing things a bit differently this year. The mastermind is amazing, but many need an asynchronous option, so that’s why I’m introducing something new today. It’s called How To Be a Transformative Principal and it is all about providing support to principals to help them become transformative principals.
This year, I’ll be releasing a new book, in about a quarter, and it’s called How to be a transformative principal. It’s been a labor of love doing this podcast for the last several years, and I’m honored to have John Catt Publish this book, as well. They are a sponsor of this podcast, and I’m very grateful for them.
I’ll share the highlights from this year at the end of the podcast. First, I’d like to share some of my thinking around support, which is our theme for how2be this month. how2be is a new offering that I’ve created to help principals.
Over the last five years, I’ve had a lot of people interested in the mastermind, but just couldn’t make work because of the time commitment of the meetings, or because they weren’t principals yet. The Mastermind is amazing for principals who have been in the position at least 3 years. I haven’t had a way to support people who are assistant principals, aspiring principals, or principals in their first three years. This program is just for you. It teaches you how to be a transformative principal, based on the many things I’ve learned from doing 461 episodes of this podcast.
Many have said they needed something asynchronous. So, that’s what I’m offering. here’s what you get as part of the How2Be a Transformative Principal program.
The first week is a teaching newsletter that explains the theme, based on a monthly theme from my upcoming book.
The second week is a coaching call with me about the same topic.
The third week, you’ll get a summary of the coaching call in your email, and if you join the tier that has an extra coaching call, you’ll have another coaching call.
Finally, during the fourth week, we’ll have a webinar with an expert on the topic for that month. You get all of this for less than a hundred bucks a month.
All of these events are exclusive to you as members. And there are some other bonuses I’m working as well. For example, a free copy of my book when it comes out later this year.
Now, if you’re listening to this podcast, but you haven’t joined the mastermind, this is for you! You can learn more at jethrojones.com/how2be.
![[IMG_A9ED9DA6EDA8–1.jpeg]]
Support The theme this month is support. Today, I’m going to talk about you getting support, and in the coaching calls this month, I’ll take questions about you supporting teachers. Looking forward to having you join us!
Today I want to talk about the three kinds of support that you can seek out.
There are three sources of support, crowd-sourced, expert-sourced, professional-sourced.
Picture these as a 3-circle Venn Diagram.
Crowd-sourced support is what a PLN is and what this podcast is. It’s something that you don’t pay for but just search out.
Expert-sourced is where you get support from an expert, and it probably costs you something, either in money or some exchange of value.
Professional-sourced means that you are going to someone who is really going to focus specifically on you and help you be get the support you really need.
Bathroom fan example Let’s look at an example here to help it make sense:
let’s say you need to repair something in your house, like I did, a fan in the bathroom.
First, I crowd-sourced it by looking up how to do it on youtube.
Second, I asked my buddy Casey to help me, and he did, so I bought him dinner.
What I should have done is hired someone to do it professionally, because it would have been done more effectively.
My wife’s example If I can make this a little more personal, I’d like to share my wife’s story. A little over 10 years ago, my wife’s mom tragically passed away. She got some help from me and her friends to help, but as you know grief hits in different ways. That was crowd-sourced support. So, after about 5 years, we realized she needed more help. So we got her an appointment with a counselor. (professional-sourced support).
Then, after a few sessions, it was working. And she was doing much better. She didn’t think she needed counseling like that anymore, but still thought she needed support. So, she turned to an expert-sourced support: a life coach. The life coach still costs money, but the value my wife is getting in dealing with past emotions is way more than the financial investment she is paying.
Caveat I’m not here to say that a life coach is better than a therapist, but I am here to emphatically say that you need to choose what works best for you and how to get that. In some instances, crowd-sourced is the way to go. This podcast is an amazing resource. I tell people all the time you can get a PhD in ed leadership by listening to all 460+ episodes of this podcast.
In other instances, you need more support and it’s worth it to invest something in it.
Sometimes you need a little more support, so you find an expert. That’s what the How2be program is for: It’s an expert source to help you learn how to be a transformative principal.
Finally, maybe you need the mastermind or 1 on 1 coaching for you.
investment Whatever kind of support you end up going with, you have to invest in that support. Support is not you finding someone to solve your problem for you. It is getting help to solve your own problem.
Sometimes that investment is low, as it is in PLNs, blogs, podcasts, youtube videos, and books.
Sometimes it is higher, as in life coaches, conferences, and courses.
Finally, sometimes you need to invest more like in 1 to 1 coaching, masterminds, or or more.
I intentionally offer something for everyone.
How long have you been listening to this podcast? Has it been a good level of support for you? If you’re listening today, I’m going to say that answer is yes.
Could you benefit from more support? Come check out jethrojones.com/how2be, or https://transformativeprincipal.com for the mastermind.
Highlights from the top 5 podcasts in 2021! Where Teacher Evaluation Fails with PJ Caposey Transformative Principal 377
Let’s Put The C in PLC with Chad Dumas Transformative Principal 425
High Expectations vs Purposeful Expectations with Marisa Thompson Transformative Principal 376
Helping Kids Transition to College with Jen Sullivan Transformative Principal 421
Trust Based Observations with Craig Randall Transformative Principal 386
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Nickie Bellini has been an educator for 19 years, five of those as a dual language principal. Loves Dual Language.
- Mastermind member for about a year.
- Loves the books we read in the mastermind.
- From Journalist to Principal
- Psychological Safety
- How to be a Transformative Principal? Get in classrooms. Is what I’m doing improving teaching and learning?
Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of.
Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.
I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.
Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Joe Wehbe, 26 years old (I’ll be 27 by the time of this interview) and from Sydney Australia. 2016-2019 - Co-Director of a nonprofit building schools and providing employment in Nepal, called From the Ground Up. Author of 18 & Lost? So Were We with seven other co-authors. Co-founded the Constant Student Community in 2021 https://www.constantstudent.com.au/
- Friend started Nepal opportunity
- People never do step 1 so they won't do step 2,3,4.
- Gatekeepers are gone
- When you go out on your own, you become a leader.
- Momentum is seductive.
- Life wasn't bad enough that I wanted to change it.
- 1page summary of Atomic Habits
- how to deal with momentum.
- As of late 2021 we are also creating the beta of the ‘Intentional Gap Year’ https://drivenyoung.com/igy/
- Opportunity costs or the cost of inaction
- Prompt - makes you change
- Getting proactive when you have a break.
- Human potential is unknowable.
- Four tragedies.
- The third door book
- How to be a Transformative principal? Be open minded about what education can look like.
Sponsors John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Michael Vargas is an international facilitator with nearly 10 years of experience. Utilizing his Master in Clinical Psychology, improv and design thinking background Michael facilitates workshops and speaks to organizations on developing collaborative and productive team cultures. Supporting teams to develop psychological safety, building trust, and effective communication. He has worked with a variety of organizations like Dropbox, Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente, ACLU, Evergreen Middle School, the County of San Diego and many more.
- How a history of improv, substance abuse hospitals, and College got him to where he is.
- Psychological safety is when we can challenge each other without divisiveness.
- Toxic positivity
- Internal resilience.
- Find others who feel the same way.
- How to lead to more productivity.
- How to not get caught in the gripe session.
- Yes, And
- How to be a transformative principal? Be vulnerable recognizing how the space is not safe. Ask for their thoughts in a way that feels safe.
Sponsors John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learning Executive and coach for 30 years. Fabulous Learning Nerds podcast
- Why everyone should have a blog, podcast, newsletter.
- Ego is at the root of all adult learning excuses.
- Here’s my idea, will you poke holes in it?
- Extreme Ownership
- Vulnerability
- podcast nerdiness
- How to be transformative principal? It goes back to your people. Gallup 12 pyramid - Recognize everyone this week.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Eric Makelky is the Pinedale Middle School principal in Pinedale, WY. He earned a Bachelors and Master’s degree from Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. Eric has worked as a middle school language arts and social studies teacher, football, wrestling, and track coach, 6–12 instructional facilitator, middle school assistant principal, and Skyline Academy (alternative high school) principal.
- Mastermind made a huge difference - Join us.
- Your book was based on my beliefs
- Three yearly goals:
- Target was always moving
- What can we do every year, year after year?
-
- Every student who walks in the school can identify by name one trusted adult.
-
- Beat state average at reading and math growth
-
- Demonstrate beliefs behaviors and outcomes that create our school culture.
- Greeting kids by name and in the hall.
- What do you do with those kids that have negative experiences their whole school careers?
- Sticker chart was dumb.
- Staff love connecting with students.
- Strategies for school culture.
- Define the culture that you want in your school.
- The outcomes we want are driven by our behaviors, and our behaviors are driven by our beliefs.
- Anybody can make a poster, but making it happen is where it gets fun.
- You have to call out the behaviors that
- I ask for help, I give help, I care, listen, and communicate.
- Want people to know the culture before they apply.
- Keeping things simple.
- Common language.
- Staff appreciation/recognition
- I feel too appreciated - said no one ever
- You’ve got to help me give staff recognition and appreciation.
- Why teachers don’t get recognition awards.
- Nominate your teachers for awards.
- Have a way to recognize when people do something great.
- Trophy. Saul the saber-tooth tiger
- Growth mindset, stand up and own it, power of the team.
- How to be a transformative principal? Join the mastermind! Helps grow my confidence.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, and Wall Street Journal bestseller Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work. and most recently, [[Impact Players]]: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact
She is the CEO of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Some of her recent clients include: Apple, AT&T, Disney, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, Tesla, and Twitter. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and in 2019 was recognized as the top leadership thinker in the world.
In every organization there are Impact Players – those indispensable colleagues who can be counted on in critical situations and who consistently receive high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Whether they are on center stage or behind the scenes, managers know who these top players are, understand their worth, and want more of them on their team. While their impact is obvious, it’s not always clear what actually makes these professionals different from their peers.
In Impact Players, New York Times bestselling author and researcher Liz Wiseman reveals the secrets of these stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact, and why–with a little coaching–this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level and do more meaningful work.
Based on a study of 170 top contributors, Wiseman identifies the mindsets that prevent otherwise smart, capable people from contributing to their full potential and the five practices that differentiate Impact Players:
• While others do their job, Impact Players figure out the real job to be done.
• While others wait for direction, Impact Players step up and lead.
• While others escalate problems, Impact Players move things across the finish line.
• While others attempt to minimize change, Impact Players are learning and adapting to change.
• While others add to the load, Impact Players make heavy demands feel lighter.
Wiseman makes clear that these practices—and the right mindset—can help any employee contribute at their fullest and shows leaders how they can raise the level of play for everyone on the team. Impact Players is your playbook for the new workplace.
- Impact Players - a term borrowed from the sports world.
- How do you measure value of impact players.
- High impact, contributing, but playing below their potential.
- Impact player brings 3.5 greater than someone doing their job well.
- Work was so much better, people were doing the right kind of work!
- Mindset that people move in and out of.
- Some people who inhabit this mindset and some that never do.
- It rises above environment, leadership and culture.
- A lot of parts of being an impact player you can’t coach.
- MG100 - Marshall goldsmith 100
- If you are assembling a team, hire for the least coachable, and spend your time coaching on the most coachable things
- It’s hard to change a person’s knee-jerk reaction to a threat.
- Help people to stay long enough to have a second reaction.
- Hiring process: comfort level with situations out of their control.
- SOAR - Situation, Outlook, Action, Result
- How to be a transformative principal? Ability to see what problems and opportunities look like though other people’s perspective. Get out of your own head. They don’t spend their times stuck in their own heads, in their own thoughts.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
James Anderson is a educator, author, and speaker and a master of mindset work. Today we are talking about Learnership - the skill of learning.
- Learnership are the skills kids need to learn.
- Habits of mind
- Information
- Effort
- There are different ways to get better at learning
- You’re not going to teach the standards well if the students aren’t engaging in the learning process well.
- Schools develop performance culture.
- Rubrics - moving measuring stick problem.
- You don’t go from non learner to agile learner in one fell swoop.
- Daniel pink Autonomy,mastery purpose.
- Motivation calibration.
- How to be a transformative principal? Learn about learnership. and watch the video.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Kelly Hellams is an elementary school principal at Summit Drive Elementary in Greenville, South Carolina. She is leading her school on a new focus of Leadership and Entrepreneurial Design. Kelly has been a teacher and administrator for 23 years and has explicit background in creating lessons and opportunities for elementary students in economic education. She was a contributor of Focus, Economics lessons for Grades 3–5 and worked with other educators from Russia and Europe on hands-on activities related to fundamental economic concepts
- Started talking about this focus 2–3 years ago.
- Leader in me school - 7 habits of Franklin Covey
- Design39 School Visit
- Eric Chagala Interview
- Joe Erpelding Interviews
- VIDA School Visit
- How Leader in ME works with Design Thinking
- Resilience comes from within.
- Listen Explain Act Deliver
- Empathy is actively listening to your end user
- non-linear design thinking process
- Furman University training on Design Thinking
- Start small.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be passionate. Don’t lose your why!
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Garett Cook is a young leader serving in education for the past 11 years in a variety of roles including science teacher, football and track coach, Assistant Principal, and Principal. Garett has worked in public and private schools in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas, and he is currently serving as the Principal at Terry W. Kitchen Junior High School in Cape Girardeau, MO.
- Building a leadership model and sticking to it.
- system for communication
- Some group for feedback
- Believer in PLCs, they think they already know it.
- The meeting advantage
- Leaning on them and letting them go.
- Where I’ve gone wrong int he past and where I’m going right.
- Good listener and strong communicator
- Being a decent person - following up.
- Learning where you give and take.
- How2be: get to know your staff.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Laura Bechard is an experienced business, learning and change management professional with a unique background that combines finances and people. Getting the best out of your people, helping them develop their careers and unleashing their talent can be challenging for leaders. Learning plays a role; however the application of new skills, knowledge or beliefs into the workplace plays a much larger role.
ProVision Business Advisors works with leaders to help them launch, ramp up and transition throughout the business life cycle. With 25 years experience in higher education, as a learning strategist with global corporations, a former board member of the Institute for Performance & Learning (Canada) and a consultant to professional practices, ProVision’s programs help leaders and organizations generate a larger impact from the investment in employee and leadership development programs. Laura’s tenure in Alberta’s post secondary sector coupled with an M. Ed and MBA provide her with extensive experience in organizational development, instruction, facilitation, leadership and performance management.
As Peter Drucker comments, “The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do, but the absence of doing it.”
An award-winning MBA, Laura combines strong financial acumen as a Chartered Professional Accountant with the softer skills needed for leaders to lead, develop and manage people. Laura is passionate about leaders getting impact and results from the investment in their teams.She facilitates performance coaching workshops and speaks on this and many other leadership topics.
School divisions invest in the development of their staff - both teachers and support staff, yet principals and superintendents are often frustrated that there appears to be little, if any, application of the learning back in the workplace, the classroom or the school. What can principals do differently to change this situation?
- Learning transference.
- what is learning transference?
- Goal of doing something with the learning.
- An investment that we got no return on.
- The problem with Safety Training - Compliance-based training.
- Compulsory education in continuing education
- Self-directed learning opportunities.
- Having a conversation
- Build a business case for why we should have a training.
- Who are the stakeholders that will benefit.
- Clear expectations
- What obstacles will prevent the learning transference?
- Talk about the time frame.
- Learning and knowledge is only one small element.
- Culture of accountability and responsibility.
- Cost to turnover
- Preparation - prepare them for learning experiences
- What are the learning events themselves?
- Intention and confidence are both important
- Conversation after learning event to revisit expectations and obstacles.
- How are we going to collect data?
- How to be a transformative principal? Have a conversation.
- Link to Laura's strategy guide on learning transference.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- *The Coach’s Guide to Teaching_ by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- *Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools_ by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- *A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching_ by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Joseph Jones is the Superintendent in the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District. A passion to provide all students an incredible and valuable learning experience Dr. Jones started teaching World and US History in 1996. A few short years later he found himself within the ranks of school administration hoping to make a difference on a larger scale.
Dr. T.J. Vari is the Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools and District Operations in the Appoquinimink School District. Dr. Vari is an experienced school administrator and adjunct faculty with a demonstrated history of working in schools and in higher education. Skilled in K–12 education, online learning, literacy, classroom culture, curriculum & instruction, district operations, human resources, change management, and education reform.
Dr. Jones and Dr. Vari, along with Salome Thomas-El are co-authors of the new book: Retention for a Change: Motivate, Inspire, and Energize Your School Culture
- Model for praise: motivate staff
- Culture is the big thing, use retention for a change
- Teachers aren’t always leaving the profession
- Hiring is a year round job.
- Good principals delegate management
- Chief learning officer
- Human resource director
- What’s best for kids?
- Do an inventory of how people want to grow
- Do an inventory on how people need to grow.
- There are only a couple ways to add distinction to yourself as a teacher.
- Differentiated PD and differentiated instruction.
- Proficient with an LMS.
- Basics for PD and layered ways to develop other skills.
- Onboarding vs. developing
- How to be a transformative principal? TJ - Gotta get better at praise and lifting the system. Be ok with discomfort. Lift and praise your staff. Learn to be better at celebrating what is working.
- Joe - Connect with those individuals that connect with kids every days.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
In this episode we talk about the launch of transformativeprincipal.com, what we’ve learned from 450 episodes, and more!
- How to get positive press
- We passed 1,000,000 downloads of the podcast! Thank you!
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Richard Shell is a global thought leader and senior faculty member at one of the world’s leading business schools, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Chair of Wharton’s Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department, the largest department of its kind in the world. His forthcoming book, The Conscience Code: Lead with Your Values. Advance Your Career. addresses an increasingly urgent problem in today’s workplace: standing up for core values such as honesty, fairness, personal dignity, and justice when the pressure is on to look the other way.
- Why do we struggle with doing what is right?
- All kinds of rationalizations put you away from looking at the problem.
- Incentives prompt us to look the other way.
- Position of power or control enables you to look the other way.
- People don’t see what’s in front of them because they’re paying attention to something else.
- Inattention blindness
- Seeing it vs. owning it.
- What would a person of conscience do, who is a principal?
- Observe and willing to own it.
- When it comes to values, there’s no such thing as a small conflict.
- turning away from conflict is a habit.
- Virtue is a habit - Aristotle and major religions.
- Don’t do evil just because you think it’s a little evil.
- You can be the person who steps up
- How to have difficult conversations with your superintendent
- 5 different kinds of pressures, peer, authority pressure, incentives, role, systemic PAIRS.
- Name the pressure.
- Find the why the superintendent is doing this.
- What pressure are they under?
- Who can I talk to that will give me insights into what they are experiencing?
- Find their motivation.
- I’m looking to find reasons where this is a great idea!
- Create a role play
- Calling someone crazy is a failure of imagination on your part.
- Shouldn’t have the conversation alone with the superintendent.
- What is it that is really driving this?
- Framing your position and aligning it with underlying interests.
- WHen strictly in conflict, move from collaboration to power. Become a pressure source that is more painful than what they are experiencing
- Your values are only worth what you’re willing to pay for them!
- Happiness is the feeling you feel when you are doing something you know you should be doing.
- How to be a transformative principal? It’s easy to get wrapped up in your identity as a principal. Go back to the reason you’re doing the thing you’re doing and ask if you are a person of conscience.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Daniel Bauer is an unorthodox Ruckus Maker who has mentored thousands of school leaders through his Better Leaders Better Schools blog, books, podcasts, and powerful coaching experiences.
His new book, The Mastermind: Unlocking the Talent Within Every School Leader introduces a proprietary process called the ABCs of powerful professional development™ which is changing the landscape of how school leaders experience professional development.
- Leadership Lesson, we repeat ourselves - people need to hear the stories.
- We all have imposter syndrome
- It’s easier to give up and play small.
- To write a better book, I stopped writing a book.
- Authenticity, Belonging, Challenge
- Why walking helped - nature is inspiring.
- King Domino -
- Cover your kingdom
- What are principals struggling with the most? Isolation is the #1 enemy of excellence.
- Would you go to a doctor who wasn’t talking with his peers? Why is that OK for educators?
- Social media is fine for a first step.
- How to be a transformative principal? Take some time off!
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Danielle Nuhfer specializes in teaching mindfulness, stress reduction, self-care and habit formation to teachers and students. A high school English teacher, Mindful Schools Certified instructor and an ICF-credentialed teacher wellness coach, Danielle is the author of The Path of the Mindful Teacherx and founder of Teaching Well (teachingwell.life) which is dedicated to supporting teachers to reduce stress and burnout while finding and sustaining balance and wellness inside and outside of their classrooms. Danielle is honored to work with teachers through professional development opportunities, online courses, and one-on-one teacher wellness coaching.
- A mindful teacher changes the culture of the school in a positive way.
- How are teachers balancing their work and personal life.
- Teachers who are mindful are able to know when to ask for help and when to get additional support.
- The teacher’s mind Leave the teacher’s mind, find the beginner’s mind.
- If we think it’s selfish, we won’t do it. Self-care is not selfish.
- Do the activities yourself.
- Call to action to ask teachers to start where they are.
- You don’t have to do it all.
- You get overwhelmed by all the things and then you get nowhere.
- How “good enough” is not lowering expectations.
- How to be a transformative principal? Walk the walk as a principal.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Michael Skinner is an award-winning advocate, educator, writer and critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist, addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns through public speaking, writing and his music.
He has spoken at the National Press Club, was a keynote presenter for a conference held by the United Nations, The State Department and Georgetown University on the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and adults and he was part of the groundbreaking Oprah Winfrey Shows that addressed the issues of males sexually abused as children.
Since 1993, Michael’s uplifting and heartwarming story and songs of Hope and Healing has impacted thousands of people every year throughout the country. His presentations at colleges, universities, high schools, mental health centers and conferences, churches, civic groups, sexual assault and domestic violence support centers and conferences, including a women’s correctional center in Hawaii are highly acclaimed.
He has appeared on many TV, radio and Internet shows and has been the subject of many news articles regarding child abuse and mental health. Michael is also a frequent and sought after blogger on several websites and writer of articles for mental health publications. He has contributed chapters for three books, “Jyu No Tobira” [ “The Door To Freedom - Live Your Life From Today”] published in Japan, “Our Encounters with Suicide”, Europe and Great Britain and, “You Can Help: A Guide for Family & Friends of Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Assault”, United States. Michael is also featured in the film documentary, “Hold Me Right”, addressing the aftermath of sexual abuse.
His role as a consultant and trainer for the Federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors has been crucial in helping to shape the policy initiatives and directives for the delivery and implementation of trauma informed care and services. And he has worked with organizations nationwide to address the stigma of mental health and ending the silence of child abuse and suicide.
Michael is also the founder and director of The Surviving Spirit; a monthly newsletter and website sharing resources to help those impacted by trauma, abuse and mental health challenges.
- S.E.S.A.M.E.
- twitter SurvivinSpirit
- Michael Skinner Music
- Surviving Spirit Web Site
- Mike Skinner's YouTube page
- A teacher who was asking questions and I couldn't answer those questions.
- School should be a place of safety.
- Showing that kid that you caare for them as a human being.
- Nothing about us without us.
- What would make the school a safe place?
- The powerful connection of music.
- Be aware of mission creep.
- Trauma is disconnecting us, Music and the Arts connect us.
- What has happened to you?
- 1in6 and male survivor
- Repressed vs Suppresed memory
- National sexual exploitation hotline. 1 (800) 656-4673
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- *The Coach’s Guide to Teaching_ by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- *Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools_ by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- *A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching_ by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Judith Warner, author of the new book, And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School, has published eight previous works of non-fiction, including the New York Times best-sellers, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety and Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story, plus the multiple award-winning We’ve Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication.
She’s also a longtime New York Times contributor, best known for her popular column, “Domestic Disturbances.” A former special correspondent for Newsweek in Paris, she has lived in Washington, D.C. for twenty years with her husband and two daughters, and speaks frequently on American family life, workplace issues, and mental health.**
- Why people hate middle school.
- Middle school leaves an indelible impression on everyone, no matter what their experience was it seems. Why is this time so formative?
- How have things changed since you and I were kids dealing with these issues?
- Kids are so similar to what we were like.
- Role of parenting has changed a lot.
- The problem when parents are so involved in kids’ lives.
- News media reports have painted the age group as being on the precipice of sin all the time.
- Driven by parents memories of suffering.
- atavistic - new word!
- Overcorrection - wanting to protect our kids from the challenges we faced.
- Some crazy things that parents do when their kids approach middle school.
- Take a deep breath and get yourself to a place of calm.
- Talk with kids about what they can do to make things better.
Website
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Suzanne DeMallie taught for seven years in the Baltimore County Public Schools system. Research into her own son’s learning difficulties led her to author the Classroom Auditory Learning Issues Resolution, adopted by the National PTA in July 2007. Her work has appeared in Our Children Magazine, THE Journal, Towson Times, and The Baltimore Sun.
She has presented at the National School Boards Association’s annual convention; to nation, state, and local PTA groups; and to politicians. Suzanne was awarded the National PTA Life Achievement Award in May 2007, the highest honor from the nation’s largest child advocacy organization.
She is also the Author of "Can you hear me now? Join the Conversation to Make Public Education a Better Choice"
- Three children, middle child had auditory processing deficits. Ears could capture auditory signals perfectly but brain couldn't process it correctly.
- Many children struggle with hearing issues.
- If you say, "I have a teacher voice, I don't need a microphone!" I will shame you.
- Parent supported holding their student behind and being told no.
- Don't tell kids all day they are dumb and then keep them in an afterschool program to tell them their dumb again!
-
How to be a transformative principal? Give the book to each teacher - We can start with the problems in your classroom.
-
What motivated you to write a book about the public education system?
- What are some of the problems that you have experienced which you hope to shed some light on?
- How is your book different from other books in education?
- How can your experience advocating for teacher microphones in classrooms help other parents and teachers to improve the public education system?
- What did you like most about teaching?
- What do you hope your readers will learn from reading this book?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- *The Coach’s Guide to Teaching_ by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- *Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools_ by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- *A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching_ by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Patricia Wilkinson is a science nerd and veteran teacher who has taught all grades, kindergarten through sixth, in both public and private schools. Trish is also the mom of two kids who had “challenges” they now use as strengths in healthy relationships and fulfilling careers. Founder of Brain Stages Parenting, coauthor of Brain Stages: How to Raise Smart, Confident Kids and Have Fun Doing It, Trish shares kid-tested, research-supported techniques to educate and raise successful humans in our complicated world.
- Everybody gets a big drink of water at the beginning of the day.
- We all wake up dehydrated.
- Take a 10 minute exercise or run in the morning.
- Why the brain benefits so much from exercise and water.
- Brain connections happen via chemical reactions rather than just electronically, which is facilitated by water.
- Working memory
- Moving helps transfer short term memory to long term memory.
- If we do movement in 10 minute increments, it’s optimal.
- Add a move game
- How to be a transformative principal? Get everyone on board with starting with a drink of water and a 10 minute exercise.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Angie Busch Alstonis a teacher in Brevig Mission, a small Inupiaq village on the Seward Peninsula. She came to Alaska in 2005 for a one year adventure and ended up staying. She prizes classroom and community connections and believes all teachers can open themselves to the richness and value around them. She is also the author of The Transplant Teacher, a book to help teachers thrive when they live and teach in new places. Find her online at theAlaskaTeacher.com.
- Transplant plant analogy.
- How to survive and thrive when you’re in a new environment.
- Roll with whatever is going on.
- Connect with the people around you and look inward.
- How to stay connected? Get involved, try things, and participate.
- Make connections a little bit at a time.
- Relationships are built a little bit at a time.
- If introverted, look for an ally.
- How to be a transformative principal? Help foster connections.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Alyssa Gallagher is Head of Education, North America for BTS Spark, a not-for profit practice focused on bringed executive level coaching to every school leader. She has extensive experience leading schools and districts to revolutionize learning for students. Under Alyssa’s guidance Los Altos School District became a nationally recognized leader in education innovation with her work featured in Forbes, Wired, The Economist magazine and on CNN and CBS’ 60 Minutes. After two decades working within k12 education, Alyssa led the global leadership practice for The Wiseman Group, co-designing executive development strategies to enable leaders to become better ‘multipliers’ of their people’s talent. Alyssa has worked with a wide spectrum of leaders, ranging from early career professionals in her local school district to seasoned executives in Fortune 500 Companies. Alyssa enjoys working with leaders to design strategies that leverage the capability, creativity and intelligence of everyone on their team.
- Let’s Not Forget the Effect the Pandemic Has Had on Teachers and Leaders (EdWeek Article)
- Wellbeing is a requirement for learning, teaching, and leading.
- It’s not easy to measure wellbeing.
- Principals especially need a focus on wellbeing.
- You’re more effective if you’re providing yourself care before you think of yourself as a principal.
- Bright spots in education: Where are things going well?
- Not necessarily focused on the support that you need as a leader.
- There’s nothing soft about these skills we need as a community.
- Mastermind groups, flexible coaching programs, etc.
- Who you are is how you lead - Brene Brown.
- If we provided leaders with more support…it would have a powerful impact on the school as a whole.
- We have to normalize that it’s ok to have coaching!
- Mindset - the power of mindset. See more from Ryan Gottfredson
- Danielle Nuhfer
- From Surviving to Thriving from BTS Spark.
- julia king pool webinar
- This may be the most challenging school year ever!
- How to be a transformative principal? find someone to have as a support partner!
- Should we be worried about the wellbeing and mental health of our school leaders? Principals? Superintendents?
- What can be done to support the wellbeing of our school leaders?
- The focus in many schools is on student wellbeing. How do we convince people that teacher and principal wellbeing is crucial?
- What is your advice to those who say that wellbeing is taking time away from learning loss?
- It’s hard to convince teachers to take care of their own wellbeing. What has worked in changing mindsets?
- What’s the role of School Boards and even PTA’s in focusing attention on principal and teacher wellbeing? Can they sway or influence what gets done?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jared Cooney Horvath is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in human learning, memory, and brain stimulation. He earned his Master’s degree from Harvard University and his Doctorate from the University of Melbourne. In 2018, Dr. Horvath co-founded LME Global to bring his pioneering brain and behavioral research to teachers, organizations and professionals looking to boost their performance and gain a competitive edge. To inquire about booking Dr. Horvath for a speaking engagement, or to view his online courses and training material, visit www.lmeglobal.net
New Book 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right)
- Education is not broken
- We need to fix it by 10–15%
- Recognition that teachers are experts.
- We’ve conflated expertise in learning with expertise in teaching.
- As the experts you tell us what’s going right!
- Those who can’t play, coach.
- We don’t have time.
- Deep learning vs surface learning.
- Evidence-based must be surface learning only.
- Every field gets to define their level of evidence.
- What matters as evidence to us?
- We do not research teaching, we research learning.
- Craft is craft, it’s not theory, it’s training.
- How to be a transformative principal? For one week, say nothing.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Joe Erpelding is the Director of Education at Thrively.
- What if?
- Life ready, thought leaders who are ready to elevate humanity!
- Students creating impact.
- Create learning that is personal to you.
- Find a need, using design thinking.
- Hacking Language - “that’s an at risk kid”
- It’s our responsibility to find the promise within each kid.
- What do we want our kids to value 5 years from now.
- The future is the space we mindfully create!
- Reality distorter.
- Create the culture to help kids be successful.
- how to be a transformative principal? Pause and Listen. Ask who is not at this table right now?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Gina Rodriguez-Nunez - Tippin
Born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Proud graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso. Received my Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bachelors of Liberals Arts. Masters of Education
I was an assistant principal for 7 years. I was named principal of Tippin elementary in 2009. I have served the Tippin community for 12 years.
Raised by two hard working parents who immigrated to the US after they were married. My mother was a stay-at-home mother and my father worked at a break making factory. When I entered school I only spoke Spanish. I am a product of the bilingual program in EPISD. I later became a bilingual teacher and now a supporter of the EPISD dual language program.
I am married and have 3 amazing children. While I am not being a principal I enjoy spending time with my children, traveling and reading.
- Brittni’s situation taught me a lot about my role as an administrator.
- Being present for them
- What can the school do for you?
- It’s easy to shy away from situations like that.
- You have to listen to what people are saying, and then you have to listen to your own heart and your own feelings.
- Really need to take care of our faculty and staff.
- Put yourself out there.
- How to put the heart component into leadership.
- Someone being there for me.
- How to take care of yourself when tragedy strikes - talk with other people.
- How to be a transformative principal? Stop and listen. Be present in the moment.
- Walmart shootings in El Paso Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting)
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Temple is the Sealy and Smith Chair of Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch, as well as a Licensed Psychologist and the Founding Director of the Center for Violence Prevention. His research focuses on the prevention of interpersonal, community, and structural violence, and has been funded through the National Institute of Justice, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has over 200 scholarly publications in a variety of high-impact journals including JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, Pediatrics, and the Journal of Adolescent Health. He recently co-edited a book on adolescent dating violence, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Primary Prevention, and is on the editorial boards of four other scientific journals. Dr. Temple recently co-chaired the Texas Task Force on Domestic Violence and served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Psychological Association. Locally, he served for 7 years as the Vice President of the Galveston Independent School District Board of Trustees. His work has been featured on CNN, New York Times, TIME Magazine, Washington Post, and even the satirical website, The Onion.
- Center for Violence Prevention
- Abuse online is quite extensive.
- The line between online and offline worlds is really blurred.
- Kids don’t differentiate between online and offline abuse.
- Online, you cannot walk that back.
- Unitentional bullying.
- Online can be anonymous.
- Consequence standpoint, lots of similar issues with in-person bulying and vioence.
- Being bulllied themselves.
- Everything is bullying…
- Why are we nicer in person than in the car?
- I am not a doom and gloom about social media and technology.
- This generation is the smartest generation that has ever lived.
- It just so happen st hat this generation has the world at their fingertips.
- There are a whole lot of benefits and advantages to the technological world.
- Kids were much better at maintaining relationships online.
- Poor quliaty screen time is certainly bad.
- It’s a mistake to police our kids and devices
- Start working on foundations of relationships and relationship skills before they get there.
- Teacher relationship skills.
- Meeting kids where they are.
- We were teaching relationship skills in a bad way before the pandemic, the pandemic made it even worse!
- 4th R - curriculum.
- Role plays how to resolve conflict, break up, etc.
- The power of problem based learning.
- If you witness domestive violence or rpoor relationships at home, you’re very unlikely to overcome challenges.
- How to be a transformative principal? model the relationship you want kids to have.
- www.utmb.edu/cvp
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Regina Collins is the Principal of the Global School at the Florida Virtual School. Florida Virtual School is a national organization serving K - 12 students in online education for over 23 years. She has 20 years in education and 11 of them in virtual education. In her role as the Global School Principal, she collaborates with a diverse group of people to work towards the common goal of increasing student achievement and retention in an online setting. She has a way of encouraging students and staff to remain positive and persevere while adapting to change. And boy has the last 13 months or so really tested that skill! She believes partnerships with parents and school districts are essential to enriching the experience at FLVS Global School. Prior to joining FLVS in 2010, she also has experience teaching at the elementary level where she passionately pursued strategies to reach the individual needs of each of her students.
- Teaching is an art and science
- Organization Development Manager
- National Standards for quality online instruction
- Ongoing multi-step process
- Targeted professional learning sessions
- Very large school, considered their own district
- informal and formal observations
- pre/post observation conferences
- classroom walkthrough meetings
- mid-year evaluation
- EOY Evaluation
- How do you monitor if someone is working?
- It doesn’t matter, what matters is that kids are learning.
- Heat map shows when kids are working.
- Students need to find the model that works for them.
- how to be a transformative principal? 1. Think outside the box 2. Collaborate - join Jethro’s Mastermind
Topics:
Questions from other leaders: - How to evaluate when they are remote?
- How do you make sure a teacher is working contract hours?
- Collaborative Culture in online environment
- String of little things I do on a consistent basis.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Rashard Curmon is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in Speech Pathology, a Master of Arts degree in Teaching from East Carolina University, and a Master in School Administration NC State University. Rashard is a former Language Arts teacher. Rashard has served as an Assistant Principal, Instructional Coach and has worked at all three levels: elementary, middle, and high school. He currently resides in Winterville, North Carolina, and is a Principal for Lenoir County Public Schools.
- Elementary school principal - School opened in 2009
- 6th in 12 years
- Learn as much as you can.
- Don’t come in with a savior complex.
- What are the early wins for you?
- Clear vision and mission
- Didn’t take the route where you watch for six months to a year.
- Culture of collaboration
- Gracious space
- My total focus was achievement.
- Urgency is now!
- Instructional framework
- I had to bei n classrooms. I can’t move our school instructionally if I don’t know what’s going on.
- When I focus on culture, instruction goes down, when I focus on instrcution, culture goes down.
- Engulfed our staff in the why.
- Dr. Donyell Dickey
- Once you have results it doesn’t matter.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be someone who gives themselves totally to this work. Study, read, understand the research. Use Twitter to follow some other people. Do what you ask your teachers to do.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jeff Carrus is an assistant principal in Katy Texas. 8th year being an assistant principal. Taught in New York for five years and then Surgarland and now in Katy.
- Young Men’s Group
- Mainly at-risk students.
- Meet once a month - shirts and ties.
- Goal setting & Accountability.
- The young men needed to be part of something.
- How to help young men have leadership opportunities.
- What can you do when you’re walking the building the make it better?
- Finding students who aren’t the leaders in student council.
- Bringing Rugby to schools.
- Students become coaches.
- How to be a Transformative Principal? Every single interaction is a chance for us to better a relationship. What can we do to leave that student in a better place?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jeanne Collins is the Superintendent Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union.
- Vermont is very rural.
- Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative
- Pivoting quickly in the spring - hindsight wasn’t effective.
- Spent summer identifying essential components of our curriculum
- Essential elements remote learning schedule, predictability, consistency, guide on what to expect.
- Remote for a month.
- Guide on what to expect.
- Livestreamed as opposed to a virtual school.
- 80 minute block not designed to be a stand and deliver.
- Assignments in Google classroom.
- As Parent and benefit of a schedule
- Game format on Wednesdays - How do we learn from the valuable lessons and opportunities?
- Parents Adjusted during pandemics, but they want to go back
- Learning Pathways Handbook for Students, Parents and Staff
- RNESU Remote Learning Guidance for Staff
- Re-Opening Learning Information for Parents
- Wednesday Teacher Planning & Remote Learner Expectations
- Edmentum, Seesaw
- Separate remote teachers vs. livestreaming classrooms.
- Lessons learned - communication & Leadership role with trust.
- Daily email
- ThoughtExchange Surveys
- The schools send newsletters, I don’t need to be in competition with them.
- Education is slow to change, but we changed on a dime to meet the needs of our kids.
- How to be a Transformative principal? Stop and listen. List
Principals
Didn’t like administrivia meetings
2x month
Since COVID weekly meeting via zoom, talking through what’s coming up.
Consistency across district.
Work through what’s coming up as a team.
Little bit of both intentional planning and putting out fires.
How to assess kids.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Lindsay Lyons is an educational justice coach who works with teachers and school leaders to inspire educational innovation for racial and gender justice, design curricula grounded in student voice, and build capacity for shared leadership. Lindsay taught in NYC public schools, holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the educational blog and podcast, Time for Teachership.
- Students are not often involved
- Consistency
- 5 key tips
- Mindset - radical collegiality
- Representative leadership team
- Clear when we’re making decisions that are not appropriate for students/others
- Use stakeholder research - perception data
- Meet consistently.
- How to deal with transient students.
- Students presenting to leadership team.
- Dana Mitra’s student voice pyramid
- Why Jethro hates Activism.
- How to be a transformative principal? Take stock of your leadership and how you make decisions
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Gregory Gardner, Jr. began his educational career in 2007 in the Griffin-Spalding County school system at Carver Road Middle School. He spent seven years there as a Language Arts, Social Studies, and remedial reading teacher. Over the course of those seven years, he helped to pilot the Positive Behavior Intervention System program and served as a member of the leadership team.
In 2014, Dr. Gardner completed his doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instruction, and he began the transition process to become an assistant principal. Later that year, he was promoted within the same school, where he spent four years as an assistant principal. During those times, Dr. Gardner was a part of the administrative team that lead Carver Road Middle School to recognitions from the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) as a Model School for 2016 and 2017, and the team continued to exceed performance measures through the use of a transformative model that led to a shift in instructional practice and a focus on teaching and learning.
In 2018, Dr. Gardner was named principal of Kennedy Road Middle School, also in the Griffin-Spalding County school system, and he was tasked with turning around the school, which historically was underperforming based on the targets set by the Georgia Department of Education. Dr. Gardner rebranded the school with #CougarAccountability and put a clear set of expectations which were pulled from the Learning by Doing Framework where there was a Focus on Learning, Collaborative Culture, and a Results Orientation. This led to a huge culture shift, and at the end of the year 30% of the staff either resigned or were not offered a contract.
The work was hard, and everyone wasn’t committed to doing the work. The efforts Dr. Gardner and his leadership team put in place, however, led to a huge increase in the school’s College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) from a 57.3/F to a 71.2/C, a 14.9 percentage point increase overall, and there were notable recognitions in the school’s focus on closing gaps in subgroup performance, which increased by 28.7 percentage points. The school also was deemed a 2020 Model School due to 1) professional learning community, 2) high expectations 3) collaborative leadership 4) data-driven decision making, and 5) meeting all students’ needs.
Dr. Gardner is currently in his 3rd year of his principalship, and has a focus on building the team around him. Ultimately, his goal is to prepare a member of his team to take the reigns of the school once it is time for him to move to his next opportunity, and he also has ambitions of starting his own business and tackling the challenges of becoming a published author.
- Post Pandemic Planning
- What do I need to do differently?
- What do I need to do to serve my students?
- Engagement during the summer.
- Start of School Task force - separate virtual academy
- Kids are resilient
- Kids that have succeeded.
- Find those kids who are successful in online environments and support them.
- Some people aren’t comfortable doing something new.
- What are some things that you are going to take away?
- Simultaneous teaching method.
- What are you going to keep?
- Recording videos & leveraging technology
- how to be a transformative principal? I got out in classrooms to see what is going on, what kids would you like me to work with?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
David Wood is a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies. He built the world’s largest coaching business, becoming #1 on Google for life coaching and coaching thousands of hours in 12 countries around the globe.
As well as helping others, David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself, having survived a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age seven, anxiety and depression, and a national Gong Show!
He coaches high-performing business owners to double revenue, and their time off by focusing on less and being 30% more courageous in their business or career.
- Why it’s important to lead yourself
- Why Playing Safe is the Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do.
- What would it look like to step even further out of your comfort zone?
- Name that mouse - Something I’m constantly chasing.
- I notice this is happening…
- We can pay upfront or we can pay over time.
- Model for tough conversations
- I didn’t lead with my agenda, I led with a connection.
- We’ve learned to make assumptions.
- CARE model for tough conversations.
- Clarify for yourself
- Express positive intent
- Request
- Enquire - how is this working for you?
- If you’re the only one with a charge, then you lead it.
- How to be a Transformative principal? Start naming your mice!
- Focus Gift
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Greg Doverspike is a superintendent of Durand-Arkansaw School District in Western Wisconsin.
- How principals get paid.
- Everything’s negotiable.
- Equal pay for admin team.
- What if high school principal does more evening supervision?
- Everyone knew the increase would be worth it for that person who got a big increase.
- Alt comp package in district.
- I believe in transparency.
- Drip method - a conversation over time.
- Laying the groundwork.
- Involve the staff and have skin in the game.
- How to be a transformative principal? Don’t take yourself so seriously. Remind yourself why you’re in it!
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Brian Hyosaka is a Chicago native and has spent time around the world I’m originally from the Chicago area and am the son of career high school special educator. I grew up playing a multitude of sports and got into coaching alongside my sister who is also a teacher. For a few summers during college, I was splitting my day interning at my dad’s company and coaching swimming. Each day, I would dread going to the office and count the hours until I could be with young people coaching swimming. That final summer proved pivotal and I came to the realization that pursuing business or an office type job was just not for me.
Thankfully, Teach For America existed to allow me to jump into teaching and utilize my bilingualism in Spanish. I knew that in order to truly give education a shot, I needed to leave my friends and family in Chicago, so I moved to Denver to teach 5th grade in a bilingual classroom. Unlike most of my friends at the time, I ended up staying in Denver for 5 years teaching in the same school. During my final 2 years, I also took on full-time teacher residents and realized I had a passion for developing educators.
At the same time, I had maintained a dream of living abroad and decided that after 5 years, the time was right to make that happen. My then fiance who is a high school counselor then applied to schools all of Latin America. We ended up landing jobs at the American School of Guatemala in Guatemala City. For us, these were two of the best years of our lives for a number of reasons. For me, I had begun to feel burned out on the constant pressure to show student achievement on a standardized test.
Working in Guatemala, we had no standardized test and I was able to grow my practice tremendously as an educator. At the same time, a new school leader came in with me my first year. It was through him that I got to witness and feel the power of an excellent leader for the first time. He not only changed the culture of the school, but also the trajectory of the school. This was the first time I really considered school leadership as a realistic pathway.
During our second year, I began to feel the pull to begin working with students where I really felt needed compared to the incredibly wealthy families we served in Guatemala. I was aware of the School Leadership Program through the University of Denver and decided that it was time to see if I might be able to follow his lead, but serving a population I really cared for.
After being accepted to the program, my bilingualism proved pivotal again and I landed an internship at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, a dual language public Montessori School in Denver. My first year at the school was eye opening to say the least. I had been used to being an effective teacher and immediately felt uncomfortable and very ineffective. I learned quickly that my strength was not direct and honest communication. I caused many tears and considered returning to the classroom midway through the year. Thankfully, I had a great mentor and the support of a peer group in my program and confronted many of the issues within my control.
As the next two years progressed, I became a far better communicator and really learned to sit beside teachers, families and students. At the same time, I was being pushed towards principalship a few different schools. After verbally accepting an offer, I realized that I was not trusting my intuition and was making decisions on a faulty premise.
Reneging in this way forced me to reconsider my complete path professionally. As a new dad, I was concerned about my ability to be present for my daughter and wife with the rigors and stress of principalship. I actually began applying to positions in the corporate world thinking that I might have both more financial stability and less work to bring home.
Around that same time, my nephew invited me on a ski trip with his school. I had actually been the one to find his school a year earlier and reluctantly joined him on the trip. His school was a micro-school in North Denver called Embark, and he was thriving there. I rode up to the mountain with Miguel, the school director, and we chatted as collegial administrators do. He mentioned that Embark would be opening a 6th grade to go along with the existing 7th/8th grade in order to capitalize on enrollment.
I didn’t think too much more about it, but I really loved what I saw on that trip from the educators and the students and went home that night feeling jealous of the school. It hit me almost immediately that I would be the next 6th grade educator at Embark. After reaching out to Miguel, interviewing, and discussing with my wife, I made the very unobvious, to some, decision to go back to the classroom.
This would potentially be looked at as a downward move, but the truth was exactly the opposite. In this position I would be given nearly full autonomy to create my own school. I had the resources, support, and tools from my experiences and viewed this as my Thesis.
Even with COVID, this year has been fantastic. With my 6th graders, we have pushed the envelope of what is possible in school with the long-term ambition of being trim-tabs in education. In my work with Miguel and anyone else in the organization, I have felt the synchronicity and empowerment to be bold. I have also built and experienced something real and powerful and found a third way.
Many lessons have been learned along the way for me, but the power of horizontal leadership and rapid thoughtful iteration are two that are currently top of mind for me.
- How can we reenvision what education could look like?
- Lemon Lavendar Latte - Top selling spring seasonal beverage at Pinwheel Coffee.
- Kids got into test kitchen and brainstormed ideas.
- 10 different iterations before pitching to pros.
- Working as part of the coffee shop.
- See what would happen if they tried ratios that just made sense.
- It’s ok to see education as a game
- The kids who didn’t win won more.
- Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and collaboration
- Collaboration is not a buzz word. Working together is not sitting in the same room.
- Attitude of those who failed.
- Role-playing, conferences,
- Not a surprise.
- Greatest marker of our culture is that the losers have bought more of the lemon lavendar latte. :)
- Infinite game vs. zero-sum game.
- How to be a Transformative Principal? encourage bigger thinking. What would this look like if I did it bigger?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Social Media Kids don’t know what makes their heart sing.
Melissa Bernstein, along with her husband Doug, is the Co-Founder of the toy company Melissa & Doug, which has created over 5,000 children’s products and sold billions of dollars of toys since its inception. Raised by educators, Melissa and Doug started the business in their garage in 1988, and they’ve been on a mission ever since to provide open-ended, inventive, non-technologically driven playthings for young children. Throughout Melissa’s remarkable career, she kept secret her lifelong battle with severe depression and anxiety. She reveals her struggles in LIFELINES, her first book, which she wrote to help others who are also suffering. Melissa’s book heralds the launch of LifeLines.com, an online ecosystem she and Doug are underwriting to support those seeking support, guidance, and community on their mental health journeys. Melissa lives in Connecticut with Doug and their six children.
- Why release it now.
- How was Melissa and Doug
- Nobody saw the creations I had made the first 20 years of my life.
- Overexcitabilities
- Think about tall the questions that are positive.
- Target let’s explore
- How to support kids who are struggling.
- Eggselent sheep book
- Kids Don’t know what makes their heart sing.
- From Creativity to self-expression
- Optimism means anything is possible.
- If it’s not ready, I don’t bring it.
- How to be atrnsformative principal? Show who you really are.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Paul Marble has served his entire career as a teacher and administrator in three Massachusetts high schools, including a private boarding school, large urban district school, and a charter public school. Paul taught IB English at Sturgis for six years; was Principal for six years; became Executive Director in July of 2016; has made numerous presentations about the IB Diploma Programme and its implementation; is an IB Site Visitor; and is an IB Workshop Leader, helping experienced IB teachers from across the nation support diverse learners in their classrooms. He also has developed and led teacher workshops for the IB Organization’s Bridging the Equity Gap project.
- International Baccalaureate Programme is over 50 years old and is a way to support students who were traveling from US to Europe.
- Learner profile and how the focus has changed during the pandemic.
- IB Demands an understanding of different types of knowledge and how they relate to each other.
- Understanding that the world is complex and global.
- What things during the pandemic really helped it be successful?
- Constantly have to focus on how to develop skills.
- Offered to students in elite institutions
- Should be available for everyone!
- Don’t have a good base for teaching students.
- Build on relationships even though remote.
- The richness and authenticity
- How to help students feel connected when they are remote.
- Give kids guiding principles
- Focus on what matters, releasing test scores.
- IB students are better off because of the focus on key questions: by what means…? And to what extent…?
- How to be a transformative principal? Sincere appreciation to understand where people are coming from. Strive for the win-win. The difference between the transformational and transactional? Most things are not as important as they might appear at face value.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Chad Dumas Twitter is an educational consultant, international presenter and award-winning researcher whose primary focus is collaborating to develop capacity for continuous improvement. Having been a successful teacher, principal, central office administrator, professional developer and consultant in a variety of school districts, he brings his passion, expertise, and skills to his writing and speaking as he engages participants in meaningful and practical learning. In his new book, Let’s Put the C in PLC: A Practical Guide for School Leaders, Chad offers readers and audiences educational research, engaging stories, hands-on tools, and useful knowledge and skills they can implement immediately.
The results of Chad’s work speak for themselves. One district was identified as “Persistently Lowest Achieving” upon his arrival, and within a few years — by applying the principles of his book — multiple schools were recognized as National PLC Models for improving student learning. Chad has served on and led accreditation visits for Cognia around the United States and world, presented nationally and internationally, collaborated with school boards, intermediate service agencies, state departments of education, and professional associations, and trained as an agency trainer for Adaptive Schools.
- What is a PLC and how do we know if we are in a PLC?
- Where we are all taking collective responsibility for student learning.
- PLC is not a time.
- PLC is a community.
- 10 Elements of principal knowledge. * Why is it important for school leaders to create a collaborative environment for their staff? * What are some of the biggest challenges to creating this culture? What are some ways that you’ve seen to overcome these? * Relationships - cognitive conflict effectively. Day to day practice
- Affective conflict is not good.
- Pausing, paraphrasing, posing questions 3+1 - in an environment of being in rapport with each other.
- Rapport is a physical expression of being in a relationship with someone. * Quick wins early on - Leadership team
- Implementation science - if you do not have the team to lead the work, you may have 14–15% implementation.
- Make sure you’re talking with your staff about how organize for the team meeting.
- Make sure that teams are being effective during that time.
- What makes an effective team: not content, not how much they like each other. 1. Ability of members to read nonverbal cues from each other. 2. Equity of turn taking.
- How to be a transformative principal? How can I be most effective during the summer. Figure out a way to get your email under control.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Kirk Wheeler has been the STS Head of School since July 2005 and has been in education for thirty years. Previously, he served as the Preschool – 12 Curriculum Coordinator and Lower School Principal at the American School of Rio de Janeiro, a classroom teacher at Vail Mountain School, and supervisor for the summer mountain program for the Town of Vail. His teaching experience includes physical education, Spanish, first through fourth grades, and middle school language arts. His leadership philosophy is embodied in the phrase, “Educational Leadership through Partnership.“ Dr. Wheeler believes that two elements define 21st century schools: relationships and ”edgework."
Dr. Wheeler is a former member of the Board of Governors for the Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS) and founding member of the Rubicon Educational Foundation Board of Directors. He currently serves on the Accreditation Committee for NWAIS and the CustomED Board of Directors. Dr. Wheeler holds a Doctorate in Education, with an emphasis in Policy and Administration, Master of Arts, with an emphasis in international education, and Bachelor of Arts, with an emphasis in Elementary Education.
As a recipient of the Klingenstein Fellowship for School Heads, Dr. Wheeler has continued to pursue his passion for developing schools and brings together emerging schools of thought, collaborative experiences, and a sense of history to create powerful partnerships for 21st century education. He is proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with an exceptional leadership and teaching team at STS, which has resulted in the School being recognized as being one of 33 Microsoft Showcase Schools worldwide, LEED Gold certification, and WA Green School status.
- St. Thomas School founded in 1951, preschool through 8th grade
- How to have spiritual growth even though they are not affiliated to a church anymore.
- Our role is to affirm families’ values and beliefs.
- Edge work
- Comfort Zone
- Growth Zone
- Edge is between comfort and growth zone
- Professional experiences related to edge work.
- Pandemic has really helped us all experience
- Need others, need relationships.
- Celebrate corporations that fail fast and fail forward.
- We want kids to take risks, but we forget they are watching us.
- Being vulnerable and transparent about the fear that I’m experiencing
- How to implement edge work in your school?
- Structures that reward risk taking.
- Look for alignment in what you’re. assessments look like and what you want kids to learn.
- Naming it and calling it out.
- Give students leadership opportunities.
- How to be a transformative principal? 5 year journal.
- 5 lines to reflect on your day - year over year
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Robert E. Quinn has spent the last 40 years doing research, publishing, teaching, consulting, and speaking to more than half of the Fortune 500.
He is the Margaret Elliot Tracy Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. His research and writing focuses on purpose, leadership, culture and change.
He is one of the leaders in the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship and a cofounder of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan.
He has published 18 books. His book, Deep Change is a long-term best seller and has been used across the planet. His book, The Best Teacher in You won the Ben Franklin Award designating it the best book in education. His latest book is The Positive Organization: Breaking Free of Conventional Cultures, Constraints and Beliefs. His next book will be The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counter Intuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose Driven Organization. He is particularly known for his work on the competing values framework which has been used by thousands of organizations. His paper, Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership, was selected by the Harvard Business Review as one of the ten Must Reads On Managing Yourself.
- Deep change is needed. Otherwise it is a slow death.
- “Knowledge is the ungrateful child of learning.”
- We go to great lengths to deny the need for change.
- Positive organization scholarship.
- The problem with thinking “I am powerless to try to change our system“
- We have evidence all around us that what we are thinking is wrong.
- If one teacher is doing it, that means it’s possible.
- The question is “What’s real?”
- The principal’s reference point is the middle of the curve.
- The way you change things is you begin to learn from excellence.
- We are looking for meaningful life, but something blocks us, that’s fear.
- Principals believe that their most valued contribution is to prevent conflict.
- Leadership is about creating conflict. Turn it into transformative cooperation.
- Realization of potential.
- Great teachers vs. good teachers.
- 4 variables: idealized influence, individualized concern, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation (using inquiry to stimulate change)!
- Love of learning transcends other challenges.
- People not marching to the drum of convention.
- We are all subject to the slow death.
- What result do I want to create?
- You’ve linked your identity
- Create the future that doesn’t yet exist.
- Each failure is a step to find out your potential.
- Purpose driven Life.
- The moment you commit to a purpose, you moralized your life.
- When you find out who you are, you find your true character.
- Your best self begins to emerge.
- Fail, fail, fail, then succeed.
- You develop transformative power.
- If you want to be a really good teacher…
- No matter what they say or do, every student wants to learn, every students wants to succeed.
- When you break that code, everything changes.
- Animate a community - put together things they want, nurture them, and then you can take it to the next level.
- Henry Gradillas
- How to be a transformative principal? Sit down, and ask, what result do I want to create? Why am I on the earth? What’s my purpose in life? When I die how will the planet be different because I’m here. Am I internally connected? Am I other focused? Am I externally open?
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Stacey Gonzales is the director of curriculum and instruction at Consolidated High School District 230 in Illinois.
- Virtual Career day - This is an opportunity to connect kids
- For them it is a straight line. K–12 is a straight line.
- How to bring experiential learning into the classroom?
- Be intentional to support social and emotional supports.
- Radical Candor
- Can’t grow without some friction.
- Everything takes 3–4 times as long.
- Guiding coalition - find your people who have the passion and vision.
- Don’t be afraid of the bureaucracy and politics.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be visible. Teachers need permission.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jennifer Sullivan, M.S. is an executive functioning coach and author based in southeastern CT. She is founder of Fast Forward College Coaching and offers customized college support for diverse learners and their parents as they prepare for the transition to (and through) college. She speaks nationally to high schools, educators, and parent groups about differences between disability support in high school and college, executive functioning success in college and the parent perspective of the college transition. She is author of the book, Sharing the Transition to College: Words of Advice for Diverse Learners and Their Families.
- Helping kids transition to college
- When to start planning.
- What opportunities exist for students with disabilities?
- More than the dichotomy of career or college
- One of the ways we can prepare students is by reaching down to middle school.
- Include middle schooler teachers and leaders about transitioning to college.
- LifeCourse tools
- Self-advocacy and self-awareness.
- When kids have a problem and they can articulate that next step.
- Conversation starters
- Listen nonjudgmentally
- Meet students where they are. Eliminate the word should.
- How to be a transformative principal? Principals support all students, but take time to ask specific students with disabilities what challenges they are facing and how the leadership can help.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Sam Sochet was celebrated as the 2019 New York City High School Principal of the Year by the NYC High School Principals Association, for his monumental work in transforming Martin Van Buren High School, a large comprehensive high school in Queens, New York. When Sam took over as principal in 2012, the school’s 4-year graduation rate was below 50%, and approaching NY State Receivership status. Undaunted by the odds, within six years, through a concentration on three “big rocks” (emphasizing in order Culture, Community, and Learning and Teaching), the school moved its graduation rate to 80! This was done while retaining the teaching staff. During his 7+ years as principal, the school also achieved similar increases in College Readiness, Student Attendance, and new found access to academic programs such as Robotics, Health Careers, Pre-Law, as well as Science Research.
Sam has over 32 years of experience as a highly successful Teacher, Science Chairperson, Assistant Principal, and Principal. Sam taught Advanced Placement Biology for 10 years and Advanced Placement Psychology for 7 years. Sam has great respect for both the art and science of teaching. He has demonstrated a great understanding of working effectively with school communities, teachers and administrators unions, elected officials, as well as students and faculty. He also served as Co-President of the Science Supervisors Association of New York City, and is currently a Trustee at the Syosset Public Library in his hometown. He is also an alumnus of New Leaders, a nationally recognized Principal Leadership Program. Sam grew up in Queens, New York, received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Syracuse University, a Master of Science in Botany and Plant Pathology from Colorado State University, and a Professional Diploma in Education Administration from Queens College.
- 440 High Schools in NYDOC
- Tried to win over the people on the fence.
- Approaching kids with high expectations.
- College March Video
- How to approach racial tensions as issues.
- Shifting culture - consistent, real, unwavering.
- Newspapers wrote articles about us fixing the clock.
- Do we have to wear uniforms?
- How to be a transformative principal? Be a risk taker. Be willing to butt heads with people who can fire you.
- Gun Control CBS News Presentation March 20, 2018
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Sebrina A. Lindsay-Law serves as the Coordinator for Equity and Opportunity in the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Prior to serving in this role, Dr. Lindsay-Law worked as a school improvement specialist, secondary social studies teacher, and middle school dean.
Dr. Law attended Old Dominion University where she obtained a bachelor of arts degree in secondary social studies education. Then she earned a master of art degree in administration and supervision from The George Washington University. In August 2019 she completed her doctorate degree in educational leadership and policy studies from The George Washington University.
She believes through inclusive conversations, empathetic listening opportunities, and adaptive practices teams can establish solution oriented outcomes to support communities and organizations. Furthermore, when teams and organizations utilize strengths to guide conversations, practices, and systems then teams can have sustainable networks. Sustainable networks can build collective efficacy for communities and edify personal efficacy for all individuals. She states, “there is so much work to be done. Let’s work together to enhance our society.”
- Start with humanity
- Being comfortable with discomfort.
- Be more receptive to non-closure.
- Look ago ourselves
- What mark and good do I want to leave on this community.
- We have different types of biases that come up, sometimes unconscious.
- How to be a friend and ally.
- You have to be your own personality.
- What can I do to make an environment inclusive?
- Be personable according to your style.
- Consider yourself.
- Degrees of intensity.
- Always looking for inclusion.
- Individual self within that.
- Collective efficacy
- DEI work is participatory and requires full engagement.
- Community partnerships with curating history on kids who integrated the schools.
- Norfolk 17 (Sebrina’s Aunt)
- Artwork reflecting their own history.
- Unity, Leadership, Action
- Cocreating and participating.
- Desegregation and integration are two separate things.
- How to be a transformative principal? Really look at your love languages and how you communicate with your people. Are we checking on people? Love your people.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Phil Dituri is Director of Education for Financial Life Cycle Education, also known as FiCycle. FiCycle is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring every student has access to knowledge of the financial concepts necessary to live a prosperous life and the math skills needed to grasp those concepts and put them into practice.
Phil has taught and inspired educators and children for over 20 years. He is an educational consultant and served as a Visiting Professor at Fordham University. He was also a teacher, instructional coach, and chairperson of the mathematics department at New Design HS in lower Manhattan. While in public school, he was a three-time Math for America Master Teacher and Big apple award finalist. Phil has a B.A. in Mathematics from NYU and a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University.
- It is a failure of our approach to teaching math.
- The tools of algebra were developed to meet the needs of business.
- Why math teachers are mad about our line of questions so far.
- Algebra 2 curriculum that answers the question, when am I going to use this is my life?
- These are gatekeeper topics: to be successful, you need to be competent?
- how to be a transformative principal? Look for authentic, real-world learning opportunities for your students.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jim Knight has spent more than two decades studying professional learning, effective teaching, and instructional coaching. He is a founding senior partner of the Instructional Coaching Group and a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. His book Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction (Corwin, 2007) popularized the idea of instructional coaching. Knight’s other books include Focus on Teaching: Using Video for High-Impact Instruction (Corwin, 2014) and Better Conversations: Coaching Ourselves to Be More Credible, Caring, and Connected. The Impact Cycle, released in 2017.
* Just survival is a big deal, so don’t overlook that.
* Don’t lose sight of getting through it.
* Express compassion and support and let people know we are there for them.
* Coaches can have three things they can do
* Mentor: giving people resources
* Trainer: helping people learn things
* Coaching: Goal you’re trying to hit.
* You can’t cut coaching and still have coaching. It becomes a question of priority.
* Here’s why people should keep coaching going.
* Once I set a goal that really matters to me as a teacher…
* Grounded in real life application.
* Practice won’t happen by chance.
* Video peer coaching
* Principals can take a coaching approach, but the really deep implementation of learning is hard to do without a coach
* outcome is what is going to have the greatest impact on children’s outcome.
* Identify a change they made that really made a difference.
* Unless I care about the goal, compliance is the best you’ll get.
* Without the follow up you won’t get the desired outcome.
* It’s ok for people in the organization to have different goals.
* If what you’re doing is working, keep doing it.
* Transparent and honest conversation about what’s happening. You need to face reality.
* What will be different, and how will we measure it?
* I don’t see myself as trying to get teachers to do something.
* Put systems in place so teachers can excel.
* If they don’t have a say, they’re not going to be committed to it.
* It’s messy. It’s not as simple as I describe it.
* Dealing with people is a really complex thing.
* We sometimes grab on to a quick solution.
* The book whisperer.
* The issue is power.
* How to be a transformative principal? Thank you! Work on listening. Video record yourself listening. It’s not enough to hear the words.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jay Posick is principal of Merton Intermediate school in Merton Wisconsin. He has been an educator since 1987, teaching 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. In his 31st year as a middle school educator, the first twelve as a classroom teacher and the last 19 as an administrator. I’m fortunate to be connected with many educators across the country, especially #principalsinaction friends and my middle school voxer friends. Mark French, Ryan Sheehy, and Jay wrote the book #principalsinaction which was published in 2019.
- Open since September 1st.
- Found different schools in the building.
- Moving people around for big spaces.
- Removal of teacher furniture.
- Cohorts of kids who stay together.
- Livestream classes
- Implementing voice and choice.
- Heavy academic classes in the past, more SEL focused classes now.
- Instructional strategies in pandemic.
- Making connections with kids during pandemic.
- Kids not being able to participate in band, choir, drama, athletics, etc., has been really hard.
- How to be a transformative principal? Connect with kids. Pictures of kids with checkmarks by them.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Meghan Raftery Twitter is a freelance educator and mom of two boys, ages 5 and 8. A former second and fourth grade teacher and central office administrator, Meghan left public education to pursue her professional passions on her own terms in 2018. Since that time, she has developed curriculum for school districts, nonprofits, private companies and families and led professional development in more than 30 states with a focus on innovation and authentic learning.
- What is a freelance educator?
- Join us in Edjacent!
- What are the challenges?
- I used to have 600 tasks, now I have 50, so it’s actually less than when I was a teacher.
- You’re constantly asked to do more work if you do good work.
- In my career, I felt like I was less doing something
- It helps me to define my values.
- I can decide how to balance depth and breadth in projects.
- What do I do best? Every teacher has something that makes them amazing!
- Other innovations develop in parallel to another innovation.
- Self-advocacy in a small way that leads to bigger change.
- Hippocratic oath for educators.
- You’re allowed to have your own oath.
- Authentic self, growth is important.
- Schools learn from their best people.
- What is the cost of rebellion?
- Definition of professionalism = compliance.
- Edjacent is a collective, not one person’s idea.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Michael Lubelfeld, Ed.D., currently serves as the superintendent of schools in the North Shore School District 112 in Highland Park, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. Mike earned his doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Loyola University of Chicago, where his published dissertation was on effective instruction in middle school social studies. He is also on the adjunct faculty at National Louis University and Loyola University Chicago in the Department of Educational Leadership. Mike earned an IASA School of Advanced Leadership Fellowship and he also graduated from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. He was the 2017 Lake County Superintendent of the Year. He can be found on Twitter (@mikelubelfeld) and is the co-moderator of #suptchat— the superintendent educational chat on Twitter. He and Nick Polyak co-authored the 2017 Rowman & Littlefield book, The Unlearning Leader: Leading for Tomorrow’s Schools Today and he, Nick, and PJ coauthored the 2018 Rowman & Littlefield book, Student Voice: From Invisible to Invaluable and the 2021 book The Unfinished Leader: A School Leadership Framework for Growth & Development. Mike and his wife Stephanie have two children and they live in suburban Chicago.
Nick Polyak, Ed.D., is the proud superintendent of the award-winning Leyden Community High School District 212. He earned his undergraduate degree from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; his master’s degree from Governors State University; and his Ed.D. from Loyola University Chicago. Nick has been a classroom teacher and coach, a building- and district-level administrator, a School Board member, and a superintendent for the past twelve years in both central Illinois and suburban Chicago. Nick earned an IASA School of Advanced Leadership Fellowship and graduated from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. He can be found on Twitter (@npolyak) and he is the co-moderator of #suptchat—the superintendent educational chat on Twitter.Nick has been married to his wife Kate for twenty-one years, and they have four children.
PJ Caposey, Ed.D., is an award-winning educator leading his small rural school to multiple national recognitions both as a principal and as a superintendent. PJ is an active member of the greater educational community, voicing opinions and providing training and consultation on many topics. He is the author of eight books and is a sought-after speaker and consultant specializing in school culture, principal coaching, effective evaluation practices, and student-centered instruction. PJ has been named a NSPRA Superintendent to Watch and is a 40 Leaders Under 40 honoree and Eastern Illinois University’s Distinguished Educator Award winner. PJ currently serves as the superintendent of schools for Meridian CUSD 223 in Northwest Illinois. He and his wife Jacquie have four children. PJ can be reached via Twitter (@MCUSDSupe).
- We’re not done growing and learning.
- When working with leaders see them for greater than they currently are is really important.
- The job does you, instead of you doing the job.
- The answer is already within the person I’m serving.
- There’s only the next version of yourself.
- The Chinese symbol for listen.
- The pressure is on all of us.
- The very first day I ever taught, and I had this moment of where I realized I was in charge of all of this.
- Insubordinate or incompetent.
- Ignorant or insubordinate.
- What got you here won’t get you there.
- Empathy, equity, adapt, develop, communicate, unfinished.
- Not a comprehensive, you must do all these things to be successful.
- The Unfinished Leader Available NOW
- How to be a transformative Principal? Make sure voices are heard. Don’t take yourself too seriously, we’re all in these jobs temporarily. Take time to look inward.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Own It with Deidre Roemer, Deontay Torres, and Dayzia Marek Transformative Principal
Deidre Roemer is Leverage Points, @deidre_roemer, is the Director of Leadership and Learning in West Allis-West Milwaukee School District. We also talk to two students, Dayzia and Deontay about their experiences as students.
Dottke Project-based Learning School
* I was searching for something different.
* I’m allowed to be creative
* Aquaponics lab,
* able to create and learn
* Need one-on-one and personalization.
* Quarter is 3 months and designed my own t-shirts.
* Designed own t-shirt with a dripping heart.
* Slow down and learn a process.
* The speed of learning is exactly what I need.
* I wasn’t challenging myself.
* It may seem like a longer process.
* Time is never stagnant and it keeps going. The world is changing, and we need to work towards that.
* Challenge them to do something themselves first.
* Don’t start with aquaponics. Start with something smaller.
* Aquaponics took a lot of time before.
* “Your comfort zone will kill you”
* Most of the things worth doing are not comfortable.
* There’s no way that I’m going to feel better if I keep doing that thing.
* You don’t need a lot of funding.
* Treating the students like the young adults they are.
* The students will take care of the ideas for you.
* Students have high levels of personal responsibility!
* Staying true to yourself.
* Being able to speak about their work.
* Deeper Learning Competencies
* Academic Mindset - how to create a sense of belonging in every school community.
* School sites - what it looks like at each school.
* Strategic plan
* Collaborative Leadership Model
* Must allow for the personalities of the students and the passions of the adults to make it all work.
* Our teachers are still the experts in their content.
* Connecting our learners to outside experts.
* How to be a transformative principal? Know the learners you’re serving.
*
sdl #frameworks/sdl Equity-driven student empowerment.
Went out of maintenance mode and started working on what our kids can really do.
Replicate what “they” did… not a good idea.
Setting their goals around what they want to do.
School needs to be different for two different populations.
Creating more equity. Framework driven model. Deeper learning competencies.
Teachers can use #UDL if it works for them.
District structure change.
District is the place that you come for support and resources.
Learner panels - PBL high school - credit recovery.
PD has become teacher showcases.
The Hub and the Nest -
The teen’s perspective - The Hope Squad.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Roy Pope has served as a teacher, coach, college professor, and school administrator in the United States and the United Arab Emirates for more than two decades. When he and his wife moved to the UAE 8 years ago, they saw a global need for an efficient, effective, multilingual professional development platform for educators. As a result, they created EdGuru.
- Being a school leader at an international school.
- Visiting schools while on vacation.
- Produce productive high performing students.
- Advocate connecting learning to research.
- Teachers should be able to access it multiple time for success.
- Relevancy
- Make sure the people behind the platform have been in the trenches.
- Multilingual.
- How to be a transformative principal? Pull teachers together and listen to their ideas.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Eric Stephens helps people transition from education to industry. Go to https://www.changehighered.org
During a pandemic we have an ethical obligation to help other people find work.
- Education does have a bottom line.
- There is a lack of communication between academia and industry.
- Industry: recognize this has never happened before.
- Job seeker: Just because I have a degree and experience, doesn’t mean that I am the best candidate.
- How to translate what we do to be valuable.
- People in education value different things than those in industry.
- Every educator is self-employed!
- Educators need to understand their value and describe their work in their jargon.
- Articulating those skills in a way to make your opportunity make sense.
- Not everybody that can teach can learn.
- How to get people to want to listen to you?
- Connect with Eric on LinkedIn.
Brett Weiss is the author of Just Give Them a Hug … and the Rest Will Be Easy: How One Person Can Make the World a Better Place, One Child at a Time. He is also the founder of Weiss Scholarship Foundation, where he works to empower Kenyan children through education.
- 79 students sponsored overall.
- Vocational School and university.
- I didn’t know if I could help.
- Boarding schools
- Equal opportunity for boys and girls.
- $3500 for all four years.
- Sponsors and recipients zoom calls.
- Christine’s story. Alliance Girls School in Nairobi.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
As a keynote speaker, best-selling author, and host of the top-rated podcast, The Next 24 Hours, Curtis Zimmerman has impacted over one million people around the globe with his life-changing message. People connect with Curtis through his high energy as he incorporates the skills he gained from over twenty-five years in the entertainment industry as a nationally-recognized mime, juggler, and fire-eater into his powerful programs.
But don’t be fooled by the fun: With the perfect interactive keynote to open or close a conference, Curtis mobilizes audiences to manage rapid change, invigorate their company culture, lead with integrity, and engage customers. Check out his special school assembly program.
- Realsume is much better than a resume.
- Brick and mortar, staff, customer relations.
- The resume is what gets you the job, the realsume is what lets you leave a legacy.
- Remember who your customers are.
- Surprise and delight them!
- What can you do that makes them say, “That’s amazing!”
- What we’re missing is connection!
- Even when we are in the arena, we are still spaced out.
- Life at Performance Level
- How to be a transformative principal? Take off your mask and be as real as possible. What you’re doing matters every day.
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Culture of Care with Jose Celis Transformative Principal 407
Jose Celis is a principal in Wayne Township in New Jersey. He believes that schools should promote wholeness, equity, and hope. In various administrative capacities, he has devoted his energies to ensuring students, families, and educators develop strong partnerships, grounded in mutual support and respect. Having served in diverse communities in both New Jersey and Illinois, he has recognized the need to support teachers in areas where they may not have received adequate training. His passion areas include restorative justice for education, culturally responsive teaching, sheltered-instruction, and inclusion for equity
- Remember my goal and vision and reflect all my decisions on that.
- Jose talks about moving from assimilation to becoming a community with diverse individuals.
- Three concentric circles - community -
- Inclusion & Restorative Justice, and why he is in education (his back story)
Sponsors InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
PrincipalED with Kate Barker and Kourtney Ferrua Transformative Principal 406
That data represents the faces of the kids that we care about. Via @Kate_s_barker and @kourtneyferrua
The book PrincipalED: Navigating the Leadership Learning Curve by Rachael George, Kate Barker, and Kourtney Ferrua helps principals understand the core concepts to help them lead their schools.
Kate Barker is a principal at Cherry Park Elementary in Portland, Oregon. This is her 30 year in education and 17th year as a principal. She works with a very diverse population which includes over 28 different languages in her community.
Kourtney Ferrua currently serves as the Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in the McMinnville School District. Prior to working at the district office, she served as the principal at Wascher Elementary School for six years. In 2019 Kourtney was awarded Oregon Elementary Principal of the Year and as a National Distinguished Principal.
- You can have high expectations and infuse them with a vibrant culture.
- Working hard feels great!
- Common belief that everyone should be growing.
- Starting where people are coming in at.
- False dichotomy or pendulum.
- We can do that with deep love.
- That data represents the faces of the kids that we care about.
- Data Team system. CFA’s throughout district.
- Peer observation
- How to have hard conversations? Start with a relationship!
- Part of being a leader is communicating clearly and articulately stating your expectations.
- Inspect what you expect.
- In house professional development.
- Strength-based leadership
- Lesson study made a huge shift in the community - micro-planning as a team.
- Without a clearly articulated why or worthy purpose, any mandate will fail.
- Kourtney: The gift a principal can give themselves this week is to pause and reflect.
- Kate: How can you show that you love your community? Acts of appreciation. It’s time to go home.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Getting to the Root of the Problem with Sarah Lavezzo Transformative Principal 405
Mastery learning allows them to feel confident with where they are in that moment. Via Sarah Lavezzo
Sarah Lavezzo is the founder and director of Ascend Micro School in Colorado Springs. She is a gifted intervention specialist and has also co-authored several curriculums for the United States Institute of Peace and Heartwork. She is passionate about learner-driven education, global education, and empowering children and young adults. She is the mom of a delightfully unique little girl and loves to build community with other parents and support them in their journeys. She can be reached at sarah@ascendmicroschool.com
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Managing your Unmanaged Mind with Julia Barrow Transformative Principal 388
- We have unmanaged minds.
- Students in a positive peer culture would change the way they were thinking.
- You’re coming at them from a label, but coming from specific behaviors will make your conversations more effective.
Dr. Julia Barrow is a former Teacher, Principal, Executive Principal of 19 schools PK through 12, Vice President of Operations for Alternative Ed Programs and Partnerships with School Districts - over thirty years of experience. Curriculum Writer, Program Developer, Assessment Developer, Trainer, Grant Writer, all the things.
Doctorate in Professional Leadership - dissertation study focused on normative culture and positive peer pressure.
* Before and after - detached
* It all goes down to the culture on your campus.
* Who do you want to be and what you want your students and staff to say about your leadership?
* Students in a positive peer culture would change the way they were thinking.
* Deliberate culture.
* Before they were in a normative culture, they just reacted.
* With a normative culture they had a better way of responding.
* We have unmanaged minds.
* Your unmanaged mind gives you a response to your circumstance.
* You have to think about what people are coming with and what they believe is truth.
* We all want to be accepted.
* If you’re in a negative peer group, you fall into it because you don’t want to stand out.
* Coming from love vs coming from fear.
* All of our emotions are rooted in two primary emotions: love and fear.
* Able to actually move forward when you come from love.
* Challenge to the leader:
* Write down all the negative things you see about each person.
* You’re coming at them from a label, but coming from specific behaviors will make your conversations more effective.
* Unexamined thoughts create emotions that cause them to act in bullying behavior.
* How to be a transformative principal? Spend some time growing you personally. The more you grow the more your teachers grow.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Chloe Sutterfield is a student at Virginia Commonwealth University. Chloe is studying to become a journalist and wants to travel the world. She also really loves making music and playing sports. Her favorite type of music is rock’n’roll and pop. Her favorite sport is skiing. Chloe believes that everyone has a purpose in the world and her purpose is to give people a different perspective on life.
This podcast is also available as a video here.
Proving them Wrong with Chloe Sutterfield Transformative Principal 403 from Jethro Jones.
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What are some of the things that you like doing?
- Sports, music, travel
- What got you to where you are? A particular moment? A certain mantra?
- Family, especially mom saying if you want to do it, do it, but you’ll have to be the one who does it
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Please share a story about a principal who made a big difference in your life.
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Sr. year got a new principal who was very involved in what I wanted to do at school. He saw me as a student, not someone with a disability. Mr. Mark ?
- Videos for Disability awareness month –>student of the month.
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Music & Journalism are two forms of communication. I’m interested in hearing more about why you chose these paths and why we don’t see more people with your communication style in these professions?
-
Music - as a way to get my voice out; a way of expression that allows me to more fully express myself
- Journalism - as a way to connect to that love of music and be able to tell the stories of other artists
-
How have you dealt with people who don’t believe that you can do things that you want to?
-
Just proves them wrong
- People don’t listen, so it’s better just to show them through my actions
-
Growing up with CP presents different challenges than what many of us experience. What do you think school leaders should know when it comes to helping people with disabilities?
-
Everyone is different, so you can’t treat them like you’ve met them before.
- Go in with a completely open mind.
- Don’t assume
- I’m just like every other student, just a little different.
-
Why is it important to have more patience and slow down in education?
-
How are you going to help someone who’s doing their best and is trying to get an education if you don’t slow down and listen?
-
What is one thing that a principal can do this week to be a transformative principal?
-
Have an open mind and then take action
Were you involved in helping to lead your IEP or with creating goals for your IEP?
What about barriers? Even if people have good intentions and they don’t start by assuming anything, unforeseen barriers often pop up. How do you handle the barriers that you are faced with?
You have to confront and break down the barriers that exist.
It doesn’t matter how fast people go, it matters that they get there.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tom Sherrington (Twitter) is a former principal and teacher and is now a writer and trainer. He is the author of Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Walkthrus professional learning package.
- Visual guide to key instructional practices that most instructors should know about it.
- Each page represents 1 technique in 5 steps.
- ADAPT - Attempt, Develop, Adapt, Practice, Test
- You’ve got to have a go at something to see if you can get some mileage out of it.
- Properly evaluate after trying something out.
- If teachers think you’re telling them what to do, they tend to not do it.
- You’ve got to get that teacher to feel that the thing you’re suggesting is something they can sustain.
- Focus on the learning problems.
- Sometimes teachers are made to think about their performance. It is often not a fair judgment of their performance.
- I’m not here to judge you, but I’m here to help your students learn more.
- The strategies you focus on are the things that will help the teachers be successful.
- If you get along side someone they feel trusted, respected, and understood.
- Principals are under pressure to assure that their schools are doing well.
- This isn’t a soft approach, it’s the only approach.
- If a teacher is really struggling, you really get to the things that are preventing them from being successful.
- The challenge of teachers having good self-awareness.
- You get a little bit of tunnel vision; you don’t always see everything.
- You miss the fact that some kids have no idea what was going on?
- It’s a problem when someone feels judged.
- People fear being observed.
- Learning objectives written on board. Process dominating too much over what evidence-base is.
- Writing down learning objectives isn’t always the best day to make that happen.
- Positive framing - behavior management language.
- Checklisting helps people form shared understanding of terms.
- How to be a transformative principal? Go and make sure you’ve spent as much time as possible to observe your school performing. Don’t judge them, think of it through the lens of how can I help them. Filter out your judgments and tendencies.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
The Addiction Inoculation with Jessica Lahey Transformative Principal 401
Jessica Lahey is a teacher, writer, and mom. Over twenty years, she’s taught every grade from sixth to twelfth in both public and private schools. She writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Atlantic, Vermont Public Radio, The Washington Post and the New York Times and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. She is a member of the Amazon Studios Thought Leader Board and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids’ The Stinky and Dirty Show. Jessica earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a J.D. with a concentration in juvenile and education law from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She lives in Vermont with her husband and two sons. Her second book, The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence, will be released in April 2021.
- Why did you write this book?
- amwriting podcast
- The Deepest Well - Nadine Burke-Harris
- Shame - associated with alcoholism.
- Giving up a sense of control
- Personality, Genetics, and more.
- Epigenetics - how our genes are expressed. How our genetics are expressed based on what we have experienced.
- Scales vs. risk factors.
- How do we raise kids to be healthy?
- What does work in drug prevention? Spoiler alert - SEL programs
- Inoculation theory - the more a kid feels like they can say no
- Certain things we need to look for:
- Early learning issues
- Early aggression
- Bot Violates Life skills training.
- Gateway drugs and activities
- Kids and drug use is going down. But vaping is not.
- Not all kids are going to go on to be addicts if they use early on.
- The adolescent brain is uniquely vulnerable to substances.
- If we can keep kids away from drugs and alcohol until their early 20s, we can nearly eliminate
- Consistent messaging to kids, “We do not take drugs or alcohol until we are of age.“
- What if we fear we’ve already lost our kids? How do we get them back to square one?
- If you know your kids have abused, what should you do?
- Kids overestimate how much substances mean to other people.
- Boys will raise consumption to meet peer levels.
- Girls will start to socially isolate.
- People avoid creating sober events.
- Sports drive alocohol consumption.
- It’s about prevention, not treatment.
- Recovery doesn’t look the same in teens as it does in adults.
- Medication-based addiction recovery can be helpful.
- Talking with counselor at school.
- Identifying it early.
- Kids use [substances] to cope with whatever they are feeling.
- Community-based support
- Maia Salovitz
- Something’s gotta give
- Joseph Lee MD. Recovering my kid.
- David Scheff and Nick Scheff - High
- Recovery High Schools (one affiliated with University of Texas)
- 16 and in recovery on MTV.
- Start a recovery high school
- Evaluate your substance abuse prevention program. Blueprints substance abuse prevention University of Colorado Boulder. If you’re starting in middle school you’re starting too late.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Links I talk about:
Join the Mastermind
How to Be a Transformative Principal
Cybertraps Podcast
Webinar this month will be with Julia King Pool around communication
- Where I’m at now.
- Consulting - mastermind leadership team trainings, cybertraps.
- Talk about student driven learning academy
- Kids wanting schedules for themselves (and unique)
- Center for Cyberethics
- Cybertraps podcast
- Mastermind - single best Pd for principals.
- Links to other podcasts about it.
- Got some stuff in the hopper.
Episode 400 This is that special time where I give some updates about what is going on in my life. As you may know, several of my podcast episodes are recorded ahead of time. So, I like to give these updates at around the 50-show mark.
First things first, last June, I left being a principal to focus entirely on serving principals and schools through consulting.
It’s been awesome. I’m really enjoying it, although I was a little nervous to leave education when Coronavirus hit and there was time to do things so differently. But, thankfully, I’ve been able to help others through this challenge this last year.
Consulting So, what does my consulting look like? Well, first and foremost, the mastermind has doubled in size since last year. It’s the best professional development out there for principals. We have talked so much about all the powerful stuff that people have learned during the pandemic and it has really been good. In fact, Bill Clouse, who you may remember said this, just last week in our mastermind.
The mastermind is the best professional development out there. Period. It’s amazing.
We help leaders overcome imposter syndrome, make better decisions, have more empathy, and so much more. Oh, and by the way, they are happier at work than ever before.
If you’re listening to this, you’ve probably thought about the mastermind, and you’ve probably had some trepidation about whether or not you should join it. Maybe the times haven’t worked out, maybe the cost seemed too high.
Well, I have just the thing for you. You see, I’m in the process of writing my next book, How to be a Transformative Principal, and I’ve discovered through the 399 previous episodes of this podcast that there are some key strategies that all transformative principals have in common.
It’s quite fascinating, actually. There are 12 things that all transformative principals have in place, and each month, I teach one of these four things in my “How to be a Transformative Principal” group. If you’re not quite ready for the mastermind. Maybe you’re an aspiring principal, maybe you’re an AP. or maybe you’re working on your doctorate! This is the program to help you get there.
On the shownotes for this podcast, jethrojones.com/400! you can find the links for this.
Here’s what comes in that:
1. 1 Monthly coaching call with me and all the other participants (including mastermind members, who get this for free)
2. A newsletter describing each strategy and what you action items you can take to make it better.
3. A monthly webinar about the topic we are studying.
For March, we were focusing on our people, and Dr. Greg Gardner gave a wonderful webinar about how he has removed obstacles for his people during Coronavirus.
For April, we are talking about Communication. Communication is HUGE, right? Our coaching call will be all about improving communication. Our webinar this month will be with Julia King Pool around communication. She is the founder at burninmindset.com, so you’ll definitely want to register for that session!
Then, in May, oh, my goodness, I am so excited! Cassandra Williams actually does teacher observations for a living. Like, that’s her whole job. She comes into your school and works specifically with your teachers to help them improve. it’s like having an instant instructional coach. So, she’s going to talk about what you need to focus on with observations. And we’re doing that at the end of the year to help you set a good intention for next school year.
I’m also doing consulting and speaking around the topics of Trauma-informed practicies and Leadership team development. If you’d like to get in touch with me about those opportunities, please reach out at jethrojones.com/speaking and I’ll be happy to plan something with you. I already have two weeks in August booked out, so get in touch soon.
Student Driven Learning You know also, that I am very interested in student driven learning. Well, this year, when we moved to washington, we knew that online school for my three younger kids wouldn’t be great. Kids just went back hybrid this last week. So, we did something a little different. I started a micro school for just my kids, called student driven learning academy.
It’s been amazing to see my three youngest really strive in different ways there.
Is it perfect, you know it’s not!
But, after a couple months, we thought it would be beneficial for them to have some other support, so we hired a learning consultant to help them. That’s been great.
Her name is Hannah Costello, and you heard her on this podcast. In fact, when she said, on that podcast, “I don’t want to teach a class, I want to facilitate learning,” I was sold. That’s exactly what I was looking for. She’s done a great job sharing resources with my kids, but letting them own their learning.
A couple things that have been great about my kids doing homeschool like this:
- They are developing their own personalities and learning interests. Each one of them has said they enjoy being in charge of what they are learning.
- They are learning the power they have to determine their destiny. This is a little esoteric, but I think it is so important. They are starting to understand more and more that the course their life takes is up to them. This is a really important skill that I know will help them more and more as life goes on for them. It’s something I hope they never forget.
What’s that going to look like in the future? I’m not sure, but I’m excited about where it can go!
Center for Cyberethics You have probably also heard that I have another podcast I started called Cybertraps. That’s with my friend Frederick Lane, author of the Cybertraps books.
I’ve always loved technology, but I got tired of teaching how to use google docs pretty quickly. I want to talk about big ideas in technology and that’s what we do on that podcast. We’ve delved into a bunch of amazing discussions and I have really enjoyed it.
We’ve had some amazing guests on there, and I’ll share a few of the favorite things we’ve heard here.
First up is an excert from Tony Anscombe, an evangelist at technology company ESET, who provides cybersecurity support. where he talked about parents believing that there child is not one who is going to be doing something inappropriate online.
Tony Anscombe 1
Another interview that was just amazing was with Dr. Jeff Temple, and he does research on preventing sexual violence. He’s out of the Univeristy of Texas Medical Branch, and he has some really great information to share. He talks about the real problem with sexting is the coersion that happens when kids sext.
[Jeff Temple 7]
Also, Dr. Eric Stephens talked about what critical thinking is. What is amazing about his story is that he wanted to help prison populations without violating their privacy. So, he used big data to understand what the rehabilitation process is in prison systems. Really fascinating stuff!
[Eric stephens 5]
Charles Logan talked about student surveillance, and treating students as criminals that haven’t been caught yet. He asked us to think about the relationship between schools and their students.
[Charles Logan 3]
That’s just a few of the guests that we have had on. And we have so many more coming out. Be sure to subscribe to that podcast ata cybertraps.com
In fact, we are doing more than just a podcast, we are doing a whole non-profit called the Center for Cyberethics. There’s even a twitter account CTR4Cyberethics!
There’s going to be a lot more coming out about that. Cybertraps.com and sign up for the mailing list there.
One thing we recently launched is a Raising Cyberethical Kids audio course that will help you as a parent create a family acceptable use policy. Just the conversation about that alone will be amazing. Again, links to that in the shownotes at jethrojones.com/400 If you’d like to get that for your whole school, reach for site license options.
Something not ready yet. There’s one other thing that I’m just not quite ready to announce yet, but it’s going to be great. A lot of people have reached out for help with creating podcast. After so many episodes, I’ve figured out a lot of things with podcasting, and I want to share it and help others. There’s also a lot of people that have asked for help in starting to do more than teach or be a principal as a way to give back to the community.
I’m not ready to announce it yet, but it’s getting close! If that’s something you’re interested in, reach out and I’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Look for that in June.
Finally, I just want to say Thank you for making this one of the best podcasts out there. It means the world to me. I honestly can’t believe that this is episode 400! I wouldn’t have continued if you hadn’t been listening.
If you haven’t ever spoken to me, and you’re still listening, you’re obviously one of my people. Please send me a message. I’d love to talk with you and tell you thank you, and hear your experience with this podcast. Thanks again for listening, and please, seriously, reach out and say hello. If you’ve been listening for years, please leave a rating in Apple Podcasts or whatever else you listen in. And please, share your favorite episode with other principals, and let’s help more people become transformative principals.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov
- The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott
- Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner
- A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Janet Hale Twitter is passionate about supporting educators in making curriculum decisions that ensure, enhance, and enrich learning and teaching experiences.
She specializes in curriculum mapping; curriculum design using various models and frameworks; standards literacy and alignment; and documenting learning to assist schools, districts, dioceses, higher-ed programs, and educational organizations and businesses with their curriculum, instruction, and assessment needs and improvement plans.
Her Masters of Arts degree in educational leadership and curriculum development; plus teaching in elementary, secondary, and special education classrooms, enable Janet to provide insights and information conducive to making decisions that improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices for all learners—including teachers and administrators.
Beyond her own consultancy, Janet is a member of the Global School Consultant Group and works with clients worldwide to aid them in their curriculum decisions to create innovative learning environments while ensuring alignment to standards and accountability needs. Janet has written professional books published by ASCD and Corwin Press that focus on curriculum mapping, upgrading units of study, and documenting learning.
- Personalized learning
- There are too many standards, so we must prioritize them.
- Looking at the standards structurally.
- All agree on which standards are the priority standards?
- Until we can get away from state testing we are going to be bound to what the state determines.
- We’re missing what it means to be student-focused.
- Testing isn’t the top priority, but it is a consideration.
- If we think of the standards, we need to allow for transferability.
- Trying to give kids real-world environments.
- A guide to documenting Learning
- How to be a transformative principal? A lot of teachers are experiencing a lot of lost time. Ask your students what they are wanting to learn!
- Karen Bailey - Sylvia Telesano
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Kimberly Vaiana is a principal in San Francisco, Education is her second career and she has spent most of the 20 plus years in middle school. She’s been an administrator in both high school and middle school. Currently she has been serving her middle school community, as principal, for the last three years. She was born and raised in San Francisco and have raised my children in the East Bay where she taught and worked in partnership with families and teachers for the future of our world.
- The core of who I am is about meeting and getting to know people.
- Getting kids to learn their story and share it.
- Starting brand new with people she never met before.
- The first thing you do as a principal is don’t change anything.
- Getting to know their why.
- I met with every single staff member.
- It is every staff member, not just the teachers.
- All staff members have an impact on our kids.
- Status quo was easy. It was easy to just do your job.
- Playing games. Sharing pictures.
- once we got to know each other, we could then start to share the other things we were doing.
- Why is it important to get to know people informally instead of formally?
- It’s really about how we relate to one another.
- When I was a teacher, I wanted people to come and see.
- When I became an admin, visiting classrooms was crucial to me.
- I can see the activities, and I can speak to those things.
- Communication - newsletters. Making sure that every parent and guardian is in my newsletter.
- Morning Virtual Visit with Vaiana!
- Purple hair being out there.
- I share the story of the things we are doing on this campus.
- Recognition
- Making a phone call and sending a text message.
- Changes - Recognizing the students and their needs. Using advisory periods appropriately.
- Grading - sticky area.
- Why is it important, and is it something we should always hang on to?
- Reworking the lunch system.
- By building relationships first, we can make the changes needed.
- How to be a transformative principal? Have a conversation with your staff, each person. See the people in front of you. We say hello and goodbye!
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Ira Socol is a former Technology Director and special education teacher. He is also He is the author of Timeless Learning and The Drool Room.
- The driver of change is where we want our kids to get to vs. where they currently end up.
- We’re not accomplishing 99% of what we want our kids to accomplish.
- We need to judge our work by how many choices kids have when they are 30.
- We focus on all the wrong things. We focus on content acquisition, when that has always been secondary.
- We’re not teaching the wonder of intrinsic motivation.
- I watch kids learn all sorts of things not in school.
- School without walls.
- Judo principle of education - use what the student is passionate about to everyone’s advantage.
- There are different choices we can make.
- What should we be focusing on measuring?
- 50% of kids who go to college don’t go back for the second year.
- They can’t assess anything without a standardized assessment.
- We need to look for very specific evidence.
- Step 1: Are you understanding what our responsibilities are in school/culture/society?
- See kids having a maximum level of freedom?
- If kids are in the halls, it means adults trust the kids.
- I’ve never seen learning happen where kids didn’t trust adults, and kids never trust adults that don’t trust them.
- You kids better get to work! Said one student to another.
- This is a win that will pay dividends forever.
- Changed summer school into maker camps.
- Teacher: “Tell me, is there a problem you have in baseball you would like to solve?”
- He can’t sit in a classroom. That’s our problem, not his problem.
- Music construction studios
- We didn’t define kids by any deficit.
- Talent development - Gifted and Special education working together.
- We found ways to make our kids succeed based on what mattered to them.
- Why don’t more schools do this kind of work?
- In many cases you can hear them spinning excuses from the moment they arrived.
- I don’t know how to make people more courageous.
- Your expectations of risk are very overrated.
- Because they were learners, they did fine.
- Kids live up to your expectations, just as they will live down to them.
- What do you have to lose?
- They just need to take the leap.
- All we ask is that they take a little leap each time from where they are.
- What do we want our kids to be?
- Lifelong learning competencies
- Wouldn’t it be easier if you were teaching all 8 year olds?
- How would he learn to be 9?
- How would he learn to care for the wee ones?
- They can learn anything they need to learn to go forward.
- Coder dojo
- Kids can do so much more. We just need to have the guts.
- Someone who is fearless is either uninformed our stupid.
- Courage is knowing you’re afraid and doing it anyway.
- Passion-based learning high school started with just 30 kids.
- Aim small miss small.
- How to be a transformative principal? Turn off the bells. Ask your teachers to open their doors and keep them open. Change your grade book so nobody can give below a failing grade.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Formerly a high school English teacher and a new teacher coach in Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA), Jennifer Abrams is currently a communications consultant and author who works with educators and others on new teacher and employee support, being generationally savvy, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations and creating identity safe workplaces. Jennifer’s publications include Having Hard Conversations, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicate, Collaborate & Create Community, Hard Conversations Unpacked - the Whos, Whens and What Ifs, and Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives. Her upcoming book on being our best selves in our workplaces will be out in 2021. Jennifer has been invited to keynote, facilitate and coach at schools and conferences worldwide and is honored to have been named one of the “18 Women All K–12 Educators Should Know,” by Education Week’s ‘Finding Common Ground’’ blog. More about Jennifer’s work can be found at her website, www.jenniferabrams.com, and on Twitter @jenniferabrams.
- Writing books so you can learn something.
- There wasn’t a book out there to help me find how to say something.
- Robert Keegan Author & Psychologist
- Eliie Drago Severson
- If your way of meaning-making suits where you’re at, there is no reason to move forward.
- As a responsible educator, we need to stretch ourselves.
- We have to know our identities and where we might see bias
- How our upbringing affects how we perceive work
- Suspend our certainty
- Take more responsibility, not just for work product but also how we speak
- Engage with reciprocity.
- Build our own resiliency.
- Recognize how to deal with ambiguity.
- How to deal with our own emotional issues.
- How to reconcile how our upbringing affects what we do now?
- There are limitations to what you are seeing as you wake up in the world.
- Growthedgecoaching.com
- It’s like a fish in water.
- Externalizes the issues.
- If you mess it up, you clean it up.
- Framework: I did ____. Here’s why it was wrong: and here’s how I would like to make it right:
- Peter Bregman “13 Ways We Justify, Rationalize, or Ignore Negative Feedback”
- Humility and vulnerability of apology and responsibility.
- The thing that gets in the way is that we are the expert.
- How to provide accountability when you didn’t know that things were happening?
- You apologize for the impact.
- It’s about the shame and the guilt.
- Suspend certainty.
- Can we be humane and growth-producing?
- How to be a transformative principal? Slow down and say “say more”.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.
The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.
They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.
Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.
If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Travis Lape is entering his fourth year as Innovative Programs Director for Harrisburg School District in Harrisburg, South Dakota. In this role Travis has helped shift the Harrisburg School District to a system of personalized learning. In 2015 Travis was recognized for his work with integrating technology into classrooms by being named TIE Technology Leader of the Year. Travis believes that by empowering learners to drive their learning we can start to create a new system that honors all learners and their cultures.
- Creating a virtual school for learners in Harrisburg -
- Face to face since august, but offering other options.
- Zoom sessions all day wouldn’t work well.
- Distance learning playbook.
- We really partnered with out parents.
- What does the model look like today?
- Math, reading, writing time, experiential flex time.
- 20–30 minutes small group instruction.
- New weekly schedule personalized for each child.
- Really careful with how we schedule families.
- How to make our schools nimble.
- Lots of fighting with kids when they are home.
- Kids can be in breakout rooms to have some additional support.
- We need to think about what is important.
- We are moving at a snail’s pace compared to what we can do in a classroom.
- It has really forced our kids to ask questions.
- With any shift in education, it really comes back to our mindset.
- How can we still provide a learning opportunity for these kids?
- The “What if” question changes our perspective.
- We need to allow teachers to make decisions
- Lead Like a Pirate - People are less likely to destroy something if they help build it.
- Kinder teacher distance learning - morning and afternoon group.
- Reflect, grow, and do it again
- It comes down to feeling valued
- Giving them time to wrestle with what is and isn’t working.
- That love of learning is going to be gone.
- It’s not about your kid vs the rest, it’s about their own personal growth.
- If anything, the comparison hurts some of our kids by preventing them from reaching their fullest potential.
- How to be a transformative principal? Pause and go into classrooms and watch staff do what they do. Enjoy what your staff is doing and recognize that through a note. “Thanks for daring to fly!”
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a cutting-edge leadership development consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. Ryan is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of “Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership.” He is also a leadership professor at the College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton.
- Vertical development vs. horizontal development.
- Horizontal development is like adding an app onto an iPad - allows us to do more.
- 95% or more of all development is horizontal.
- Elevating who we are as a person. Vertical development is upgrading the operating system.
- At some point in time, we are relevant to the marketplace.
- 2 things that lead to vertical development - crisis or deep learning
- We have control over one of those factors.
- Necessary but not sufficient.
- There needs to be heat to lead to this happening.
- child development vs adult development.
- Child development is a function of their age.
- 3 main stages of adult development.
- Most adults do not get past the first stage of adult development.
- Adult development is a function of effort.
- Almost all leadership development approaches are rooted in philosophies dated pre–2005
- Growth development practices often overlook the mind.
- Add the mind to our developmental components.
- The circuit board for the mind is our mindset.
- Global Neuronal Workplace.
- How do we work on mindsets?
- Just talking about other mindsets helps people start to focus
- Fixed - Growth
- Closed - Open
- Prevention - Promotion
- Inward - Outward
- Positive desires
- Trauma can inhibit them from wanting to look inward.
- When we experience trauma, we try to cut off that pain.
- Childhood trauma and the impact it has on kids’ ability to learn.
- Integrating the mind is a form of vertical development.
- Someone is more likely to leave if they don’t feel like the system is open to change.
- Focus on what is being measured.
- Lagging indicators are test scores.
- Leading indicators. Which is better to focus on?
- Personal mindset assessment.
- There is no time that vertical development is more important than right now.
- Those who have navigated well, have vertically developed well.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen to teachers specifically.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Breaking Down the Need for Control with Rebecca Muller Transformative Principal 393
- My days were spent filling out charts.
- An engaged learner is someone who is doing.
- I’d rather have a noisy classroom with kids laughing and having a good time AND learning.
Rebecca Muller is a special education teacher in New Jersey, host of Exceptional Circumstances for Exceptional Learners on Learning Revolution. 12 years as a teacher, Masters in Education and Educational Leadership from University of Pennsylvania.
- Breaking down the need for control in classrooms- the who, what, when, where, and why.
- Kids aren’t successful, we test them to prove it, then put them in a box because it is easier for us.
- People have a view of what school should look like.
- An engaged learner is someone who is doing.
- I’d rather have a noisy classroom with kids laughing and having a good time AND learning.
- Do we want them to behave or want them to learn?
- How much control should we have on how they’re interacting with one another.
- We’ve spent so much time on safety that we’ve forgotten that learning is our priority in education
- You can’t learn if you’re not well.
- Behavior is a signal that there is something else.
- We can’t focus on just the learning when there are so many other issues.
- My days were spent filling out charts.
- The kids figure it out and it’s a game.
- Kids need to see their levels and progress.
- There aren’t kids who want to be bad.
- Where they are and where they want to be.
- Kids should not have to earn a treat every time they do something well.
- We get stuck there, because we know them and they have worked.
- Special education has taught me to be flexible.
- Motivation, intrinsic vs. extrinsic.
- Don’t take things personally.
- Trauma-informed practices.
- Justification for procrastination of doing the hard work of pushing through the challenges that we are facing.
- Specific learning disability is the least specific label in special education world.
- What is school for?
- Teachers are considered “infrastructure necessary“
- I have an addiction to learning.
- How to be a transformative principal? Don’t ever write off any student or educator. If they are in the build they have potential? Always look for everybody’s individual strength.
- Acting without boundaries.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
I was recently a guest on the Mind The Gap podcast and we thought it would be fun to release it here as well.
Adam J. Stich (A.J.) is the founding principal of The Greater Dayton School. Prior to starting in this role, he spent nearly seven years as a principal in Chicago Public Schools, where he drove strong outcomes for students and teachers. Under A.J.’s leadership, Rufus M. Hitch Elementary achieved the district’s highest school quality rating for five consecutive years (2014–19).
Ultimately, A.J. is motivated by the opportunity to impact kids and change the trajectory of their academic careers. He believes his leadership should be grounded in decency, humility, and high standards, and he strives to achieve this when serving his students, school and community.
AJ and his wife Kendra (also a TFA alum) have three kids and a rescue dog. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with family, running, reading, and cheering on the Green Bay Packers.
- How are they going to spend $30,000 per kid per year?
- Over $250,000 per student invested in the students’ k–8 career.
- Larry Connor - the founder
- Holistic focus on education.
- What must be essential if we are going to really change kids’ lives
- Age 27 goals:
- Successful by their own definition
- Physically and mentally healthy
- Living lives of character and integrity
- Financially independent
- Established in a career
- Wrap-around services
- Clinic embedded in the school.
- Backward map these goals.
- Financially independent what does it look like when they are 23, 18, 12, 6?
- What kind of teachers are you looking for?
- Having a research partner really helps.
- Great advisors in the education space and business space.
- If this school looks like this in one year, we have a problem!
- Change has to be a part of our DNA.
- I came in thinking this is going to be simple.
- Are you just trying to recreate what has been done?
- Going to the status quo just isn’t going to cut it.
- Hired first cohort of teachers - It starts and ends with teacher!
- They need to have flexibility of mind. Traditional school model just isn’t what we are doing.
- How do you capture a student’s thought process?
- Competency-based - jumpstart
- How to be a transformative principal? Start with strategic planning - Don’t get too technical. Start mapping out what you can do down to the day!
- if you don’t do the strategic mapping, you find yourself responding and reacting to everything.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Mike Anderson has been an educator for more than 25 years. A public school teacher for 15 years, he has also taught preschool, coached school swim teams, and taught university graduate level classes. He now works as a consultant providing professional learning for teachers throughout the US and beyond. In 2004, Mike was awarded a national Milken Educator Award, and in 2005 he was a finalist for NH Teacher of the Year. In 2020, he was awarded the Outstanding Educational Leader Award by NHASCD for his work as a consultant. A best-selling author, Mike has written eight books about great teaching and learning. When not working, Mike can be found hanging with his family, tending his perennial gardens, and searching for new running routes around his home in Durham, NH.
- New book on motivation - Moving from systems of extrinsic motivation to supporting students’ intrinsic motivations
- Extrinsic motivation is the default motivation in schools right now.
- Motivate from without. Impose on others.
- Punishments are also forms of extrinsic motivation.
- Ditchie and Ryan - autonomy is the key intrinsic motivator.
- Is there ever a time that extrinsic motivation is worthwhile.
- We’ve taught them to think transactionally.
- Book - Drive by Daniel Pink - animated video
- Rote or Mechanical - extrinsic works in the short term.
- You can lose creativity if extrinsic motivation.
- Intrinsic motivation comes from within.
- Self-motivation vs. Intrinsic motivators:
- 6 indicators:
- autonomy - need for power and control
- purpose - what we are doing has meaning
- competence - need to feel good at stuff
- belonging - connected to others
- curiosity - naturally interested in
- fun - playful, joy, energetic.
- Motivation is very complex.
- Set this up and incentivize it for them.
- How do we make this shift in education?
- Recognize that it is coming from a place of good intentions
- Signaling - we signal that the action is something distasteful because we have to incentivize it.
- Alfie Kohn on Oprah
- Kids who were paid stopped playing with the puzzles.
- Jethro’s TEDx Talk
- Stop trying to motivate kids. Tap into their intrinsic motivations
- Conflict in US history.
- 11 of 22 kids showed up on a Saturday morning, voluntarily.
- Ongoing assessing throughout the project.
- Take the content we have to teach and give kids control, purpose,
- Numbers in expanded notation
- Shift in thinking about content: It’s a means to an end, it shouldn’t be the end itself.
- We should think of content as our playground.
- Motivation - book Crisis focused? Learning to choose, choosing to learn.
- Act of co-creation with Allison Zmuda.
- How to be a Transformative Principal - Dig into the research on motivation. LiveBinder
Eduplanet21 courses
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Justin Bathon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies at the University of Kentucky and serves as a Co-Director of the Center for Next Generation Leadership.
He is the Director of Innovative School Models for the College of Education. He is a co-Director of the Next Generation Leadership Academy at the College and a co-director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). Justin works directly with schools and school leaders to reform the systems that support the learner experience in school.
- STEAM Academy High School
- Byproduct of Next Generation Leadership Academy. Original mission to smooth the transition to higher education.
- So many involved in creating what that high school should be.
- 4 separate dual credit partnerships.
- Paired relationship back to just Bluegrass community college.
- Designing a high school from scratch is awesome.
- Semester model, Canvas LMS
- Lots of iterations, and still evolving,
- Didn’t really want early graduation, but it started happening
- In the early years, it was leader as designer.
- Try an idea 3 times. If we weren’t satisfied then we would abandon it.
- A lot of those ideas came from me, the ivory tower guy.
- Everybody has an opinion about what the school should be!
- We became gatekeepers of ideas.
- That brought a lot more confusion into the space, and so we abandoned it.
- There had to be something that made us feel like it could be great.
- Second time, it couldn’t be worse.
- Third time: Distinctly better.
- That first year was pretty abysmal.
- The kids didn’t mind the chaos because it was equal to what they experienced in the regular school.
- Bias toward equity.
- When you have a bias toward equity, you are always on the right ethical side of that choice.
- Core equity practice to not do credit recovery online only.
- Tina Stephenson, Chris Flores, and Eric Ridd
- Can we do this model for all kids?
- We abandoned the idea if it only worked for part of our kids.
- We focused on models that built opportunity after opportunity for kids.
- Some kids just need more time. We’re trying to buy them time.
- Authentic relationships with our community.
- You don’t just call yourself a PBL school, you have to learn that.
- We gained trust in our community.
- Our students accessed the whole of what Lexington felt like.
- Things that took iteration.
- Complete failure on Standards Based Grading.
- How to work well with higher ed. Higher ed can be flexible.
- The mentality about how they approach their perspectives is very different.
- When working with Colleges on dual credit, come with a model and concept to someone at the provost level or above.
- Project Moonshot - New approach to dual credit, focus on collaborative teaching.
- Adding two adults to students - one from high school, and one from the University.
- Only high schools that are willing to participate in the network get the dual credit in the schools.
- Progressive, constructivist education.
- Push is to change high school.
- Help kids make the next step sooner and smoother.
- Your future earning potential is deeply tied to what you accomplished after high school.
- Broadly define college as a step after high school and not sole as the 4 year liberal arts degree.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Bill Clouse is a principal in Wisconsin. He’s a 31-year veteran with 26 years in administration.
In this episode, we talk about using people in the right way, eliminating staff meetings, and how the mastermind kept him motivated and energized even though he could have retired.
- One agenda item on staff meetings: To complain about what is going on.
- Building Leadership Team - Leaders of PLCs.
- 4 months to create change.
- In a staff meeting, you get a lot of mob mentality.
- Using strengths
- Knowing staff well enough to be a successful team.
- How to get to know their strengths.
- Need to be in their classrooms
- If someone comes to me with their idea, they’re going to work to make sure it doesn’t fail.
- A great admin team - 5 people.
- We genuinely get along and like each other.
- Initially, I was a little skeptical about the mastermind.
- An outlet to talk through problems that we are having.
- I’m the only high school principal we have.
- The mastermind stoked the fire.
- If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
- Stroke your racehorses and shoot your jackasses.
- Where the bear shits in the buckweed.
- Education is never wasted, so keep going.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be present. People need to know that you care. Don’t change unless it has to be changed.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Troy Hutchings researches, writes, and speaks in the areas of professional ethics, educator misconduct, and frameworks for an ethical and legal teaching practice. He presents to various state and national policy and practitioner groups across the United States and Canada. Hutchings also provides expert witness testimony in judicial hearings; collaborates on policy initiatives with state, federal and provincial agencies; and has been the subject matter expert on a variety of national projects dealing with educator ethics including the Model Code of Ethics for Educators and the National Council for the Advancement of Educator Ethics.
In this episode we talk about how to implement the MCEE in your school or district, or even state.
Check out the MCEE here.
Dr. Burton serves as a Turnaround Specialist for the Rensselaerville Institute based in Albany, New York. He was music teacher from 1983 to 1989, and then became a principal In August 2001 Dr. Burton was assigned as the Principal to Cherokee Park Elementary. At the time of his appointment the school was in Corrective Action with a SPS of 44.4, and about to be taken over by the Department of Education.
Dr. Burton retired from Caddo Parish Schools in 2017 as a Distinguished Principal and was hired by the Rensselaerville Institute where he currently serves as a Turnaround Specialist. He is also the CEO and founder of Passion Driven Leadership. These allow him to pursue his passion which is to help and support leaders in education. He and his wife Wanda have twin boys and three lovely grandchildren. He is the author of Reframing American Education.
- Academic Efficacy - If teachers trust principals and teachers and parents trust teachers, you create an environment of academic confidence.
- Asking teachers if they’re willing to grow.
- Teachers created and owned the school environment.
- Our problem wasn’t getting teachers but choosing the right teachers.
- How to turnaround schools?
- Leadership implements attitudes and cultures that is going to turn around.
- Kids first
- Responsibility
- Vision
- Communication
- Fiscally responsible
- Using data to inform decisions, not drive it.
- Four types of data: academic, perception, demographic, background.
- Sometimes schools look at background data and superimpose that on their academic data.
- Data-informed means you drill down deep and see what the context of the data tells them.
- Implement strategies that help students think.
- Close the hope gap before we close any other gap.
- The Case Against Standardization
- She thought the scores were high because she
- We beat teachers up with data.
- We get lost in doing the work.
- Different skillset than just leading
- Cracking the code of code cracking - Christopher - Seton Hall
- There is NO empirical research regarding standardization that it works.
- The power of coaching
- It’s more about class than it is about black and white.
- We do it because educators don’t control
- How do kids learn better without standards?
- We’ve hounded that teachers teach standards not students. This is wrong!
- When students own the learning process, it’s a win win for everyone.
- It’s hard for us to
- Trust is very important. Accountability often erodes trust.
- How to be a transformative principal? Change your mindset. Think about how you can transform yourself. Reflect.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Craig Randall is developing relational trust between principals and teachers, leading to risk-taking and growth. Author of Trust-Based Observations
Trust-Based Observations, my new book about a transformative method of doing teacher observations. In a nutshell the book and model are designed to help show administrators how to build trusting differentiated relationships with each of their teachers such that teachers are willing to work through uncomfortable feelings of vulnerability and embrace taking big risks to grow their practice. The model also directly connects the observation process to annual action research goals and schoolwide professional development through the creation of professional development communities tied directly to TBO areas of pedagogy.
- What is wrong with our current observation protocols?
- Everything has been well-intended, it just hasn’t been effective.
- Gates Foundation 7 year research project to improve quality of teaching.
- Matt O’Leary - predominate researcher on teacher observation.
- When we evaluated teachers, they start to play it safe.
- If we create the right environment, everyone will feel safer.
- 12 observations/week.
- Monday-Thursday 3 20 minute observations. Tuesday-Friday 3 reflective conversations.
- We want to spend our time as product?
- Share what you notice, strengths you observed.
- Don’t offer suggestions.
- When you’re in classrooms so much, you start to see who is good at what.
- Latent label?
- We want to save our suggestions for something that is going to have a bigger impact.
- If we don’t use emotional intelligence and trust, then we aren’t going to have a big impact.
- Action Research Project.
- It’s not top-down watching, it’s them there together.
- Professional development - when people choose their own paths for choosing their PD, you see them taking more ownership of it and feel more empowered.
- What about students’ self-driven opportunities?
- How to be a transformative principal? Trust your teachers and build relationships of care for them. Start doing short observations, look for strengths.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Robinson is on a mission to ensure that all students and educational practitioners receive the best experience in educational technology that will ensure immediate and future success in the real world. He believes in forming long-lasting partnerships with school districts and educational professionals in order to meet all students’ individual needs and the continuous promotion of differentiated learning.
Proximity Learning is an online education service company serving over 150 school districts and instructing over 50,000 students annually. They’ve been in the virtual learning space for 10 plus years, and their leadership team is made up of former teachers, principals, superintendents, etc. who see this as an opportunity to really make a difference in the education space as a whole.
- Virtual Teachers fill the gap when we have teacher shortages.
- LMS and virtual video conferencing software to make the magic happen.
- Facilitator in the classroom when that is needed.
- If you don’t need a full time teacher to teach a respective course, you can just select that one course.
- Best practices for remote learning. Asynchronous student is on their own.
- Synchronous the teacher is still with those kids.
- Connectivity is really important.
- What skills do teachers need to work in virtual environments?
- Each school district needs a remote learning action plan.
- During parent teacher conferences teachers and parents can still interact virtually.
- Students have their own ways of communicating in the online environment.
- What does the future of school look like?
- We do have a teacher shortage, so we are going to have to do more with less, or make education more enticing to teachers.
- When you have LMS and Virtual software to connect with kids.
- Maybe we don’t have all the brick and mortar buildings that we currently have.
- how to be a transformative principal? Open your mind, don’t think that everything has to be in a brick and mortar environment. Embrace synchronous virtual instruction.
- If they don’t have a strong math teacher, they don’t have equity.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
“Too many of us clock out of life as we clock into work. Where we were once looking for fulfillment and meaning in our careers, we now just show up for a paycheck… But what if we could change all that? What if we could reignite that passion in ourselves… in our coworkers…in our employees?
David Shar was happily managing his small ice cream parlor in Baltimore City when his employee came in with tears in her eyes. Her boyfriend had been shot multiple times, she didn’t know if he would survive. David tried to give her the day off, but she refused, telling David that she had to be at work… work was her “happy place.” When David began his career he had no idea how much his crew of teenagers and young adults from the inner city would impact his view on work, life, & leadership. His experiences in that ice cream parlor led David on a journey of discovery to answer the question - What makes work one person’s happy place and another person’s purgatory?
He discovered how organizations, through their leadership & culture can create burnout-proof work environments that engage and inspire employees to be the best versions of themselves.
President of Illuminate PMC and creator of the FTF Burnout-Proof Culture Model, David is a keynote speaker, consultant, and trainer specializing in helping organizations improve their leadership and culture, combat burnout, and design meaningful work. David combines decades of leadership experience with the latest psychological research to help attract, retain, and motivate top talent.
David holds his bachelor’s in human resource management from Colorado State University and his master’s in industrial / organizational psychology from the University of Maryland – College Park. He is a current doctoral candidate in business psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where he is studying the interaction between meaningful work and burnout.
David is NOT your typical academic - as a scientist / practitioner translator, David makes leadership theory & business psychology accessible, implementable, and fun through the use of humor and storytelling.”
- How do you support people who are going through struggles?
- Their lives were so beautiful in so many ways, first and foremost.
- Finding the beauty in someone else’s life is the first thing you need to do.
- We did a lot of volunteering.
- Ice cream was a tool to make Baltimore a better place.
- Kids who saw themselves as the bottom rung started to see that they had something to give.
- Stress is everywhere!
- Work was an escape from that.
- Work can be a place where we are in control.
- Work can be a place where you feel like your hands are tied behind your back.
- She’s a first grade teacher that cannot comfort her kids the way she always has.
- Administrators can facilitate what people are experiencing
- What is burnout?
- How to help prevent burnout.
- Give them some autonomy in their day.
- This is a time for innovation!
- Support is so crucial to prevent burnout.
- Instrumental support, mental support.
- If support comes in the wrong form, it can blow up in your face.
- Instrumental support - jumping in to help.
- Mental Support
- Emotional support - being there as a sounding board.
- Communication Cards
- It’s not about the Nail
- how to bring back the water cooler
- Open the lines of communication
- It’s really hard to separate from the challenges of their lives.
- We’re so worried about encroaching on people’s time, but we need to make time to
- How to be a transformative principal? Show vulnerability. It’s ok to not have all the answers. Ask their opinion.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Justin Thomas, Ed.D., is an elementary school principal serving students, faculty, and community near Nashville, TN. Prior to his work in school administration, he enjoyed 8 years as a middle school and high school band director.
During his 6-year tenure as principal, his school team has been recognized multiple times by the Tennessee Department of Education for outstanding student growth and achievement gap closure. Dr. Thomas believes that the keys to success revolve around growth and gratitude - the ideas that all members of a school can ‘get better’, and that a spirit of thankfulness is key to strong culture.
Dr. Thomas is the author of “The Principal’s Toolbox: Real Talk on Tackling School Leadership” (2020). Noticing an abundance of philosophical books about leadership, his purpose in writing The Principal’s Toolbox was to take an honest look at many of the practical aspects of the principalship. Aspiring and new principals will find this title especially helpful.
Dr. Thomas is married (Susan) and they enjoy their busy life with 3 daughters in Nashville.
- What is your policy on (some obscure thing)?
- How to balance things you are passionate about with what people
- The moment you think you have it figured out you learn more.
- You can tell a lot about how people act when they
- Are we frustrated that we
- Cannibalize - we can’t eat each other alive over things both of us dislike
- Too often we blame someone when we are frustrated with a situation.
- How to overcome your frustrations.
- Sit down and talk through the challenges that we are facing.
- Relationships are central to finding change.
- You can push through initiatives, but if you want spiritual believers, it has to be something that they feel like they had a hand in.
- I don’t help them become anything.
- It’s not what we do, it’s who we are.
- There’s nothing that we can do or say that means anything in comparison with the little interactions on a daily basis.
- How to be a transformative principal? Say thank you to someone who no longer hears it.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Nicole Colter became an instant mom, when she married a single dad with three children aged 5, 6 and 7.
If that wasn’t enough, over the next 12 years she also built three different businesses without any prior knowledge of, or training in, those industries.
<< Be sure to check out my DISC personality Training>>
These combined experiences taught her the value of creativity and self-direction. Nicole is now on a mission to cultivate these skills so that all people can thrive in these changing times.
Her shift to education started with her role as a high school service-learning coordinator while completing her Master of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership. She now teaches management at a community college and facilitates workshops to reawaken inborn creativity.
Nicole is currently co-creating an online learning community workshop called Create Your Own School with a team of other educators and teens.
- Studying creativity and self-directed education in 2015.
- How are you going to be a change leader?
- The 21st Century Visionary Podcast.
- What’s stopping you and vision statement workshop.
- The average person buys into the idea that someone else knows better. That’s just not true
- Kids learn more by watching you inside the home than anywhere else.
- You are likely the best person to educate your children.
- Social Learning Environment - prompts and guides.
- If you spend every day knowing you’re looking for something new and different then you will notice something new and different.
- 5 year olds are at the peak of their creativity
- How to be a transformative principal? Support creativity.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Joellen Killion is a senior advisor to Learning Forward and served for many years as the association’s deputy executive director. As senior advisor, she leads initiatives related to the link between professional development and student learning. She led the most recent revision of the Standards for Professional Learning, and has extensive experience in planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of professional learning at the school, system, and state/provincial levels. She works with coaches, principals, district and state leaders to support understanding and embedding standards-based professional learning in a system. The author or co-author of numerous books, her most recent book, published in 2015, is The Feedback Process: Transforming Feedback for Professional Learning. Her other books include Coaching Matters (with Cindy Harrison, Chris Bryan, and Heather Clifton); Assessing Impact: Evaluating Staff Development; Taking the Lead: New Roles for Teachers and School-Based Coaches (with Cindy Harrison); Becoming a Learning School (with Patricia Roy), and others.
- Coaching in this crazy time.
- Constant change - primary focus helping people stay positive
- We have turned on a dime—making remarkable transformations overnight.
- Learning themselves.
- Helping people take care of themselves.
- How to stay positive when it is really challenging.
- Being truthful
- acknowledging emotional distress is one of the most positive things we can do.
- what do we mean by a coach.
- Consulting vs coach vs collaborator
- A good coach is someone who helps a person define the problem seek possibilities, and guides that person in decision-making by helping the person sort out options.
- It’s not about getting it right, but forming a hypothesis.
- Trying to get to the root.
- Find appropriate solution that gets to the
- help people search for and identify their own means.
- knowing who I am as a coach
- My primary mission as a coach is to lead them to discover their own best approach.
- helping someone facilitate and mediate their own thinking.
- Empower another by doing that.
- It’s our identity as a teacher.
- We have learned over the last decade that more engagement in problem-based learning and opportunities for kids to solve their own problems, it solves so many problems.
- Dialectic approach to feedback
- When we give people information, that information is discounted
- The person giving the feedback is doing all the work!
- I do not allow people to use the words give and receive in talking about feedback.
- Holding myself superior to you.
- Starts with what did you know? What did you discover?
- The feedback process starts with two steps:
-
- Get clear about what they are intending to learn?
-
- Establish jointly a clear set of success criteria
- If I know what I’m looking for and I don’t engage you in cearly
- The Coaching Habit
- Helping students have a voice in their process.
- How to be a transformative principal? 1. Take a moment to identify three things they are proud of in their leadership practice. 2. Taking enough time to be with their families to have time for non-work related relationships to be renewing.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Angela Mahoney is currently the principal at Eastland Elementary School, which is part of a high-achieving, small, rural school district in the Northwest corner of Illinois. Prior to working in education, she spent many years working in the private sector. As an educator, Angela taught kindergarten, 4th, 6th and 7th grades before getting her degree in administration. During that time, she became passionate about the social-emotional needs of her students and created a course to specifically address the need for students to develop life-long success skills.
As an administrator, she believes that the most important building block of a school is the culture and relationships created within the walls of the building, while still maintaining high academic standards. Eastland Elementary School has continued to be one of the highest achieving schools in the area on state standardized test scores.
Angela is active in her professional community, serving on the board of the Northwest Region Illinois Principals Association, and presenting on a variety of topics at both the regional and state levels. Presentations have included innovative SEL practices, data-driven instruction, effective professional development, as well as leadership during a crisis.
She and her husband, Tom, currently live in Northern Illinois and have two daughters. Maisie, 26, leads a special projects team for a health technology company in Boston and Delaney, 23, is finishing her graduate degree in Occupational Therapy in Georgia.
- Started school year with kids in building.
- The biggest block to a building is the culture.
- When you walk in you can just tell what the culture is like.
- Having a theme each year.
- The hardest thing is the lack of control
- Vulnerability it important.
- If they’re doing great, how are they doing it?
- How do you support a healthy culture, especially during coronavirus where there is so much challenge?
- The positive affirmation won’t allow us to live in the problem.
- How do you focus on your vision for your school?
- We focused on a positive affirmation.
- How do you ensure that you and your staff have balance?
- Being as healthy as you can.
- Once a month going and doing something.
- We need to be connected
- Having a PLN outside your own environment.
- How do you have those hard conversations with people who may not be thriving.
- Be vulnerable and honest.
- Our school feels normal because we are here every day.
- There’s no judgment here.
- We’re going to get through this together.
- You have to honor however they are feeling.
- You have to take it hour by hour and day by day.
- What can we take away from these situations that we can apply to our leadership.
- We want to have fun again.
- How to be a transformative principal? Focus on what you can control. It’s time to not focus on our problems and things we can’t control. 1 thing to support the staff.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Michelle Mann has been in higher education for over 20 years. She focuses her work on working with disadvantaged students, especially students who have dropped out of high school. She currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is also a former police officer.
- A problem at home becomes a problem in the community.
- They were just trying to figure it out.
- Jennifer Morse-Roebuck Parents or Prisons
- Prison becomes the parent.
- Power of home visits.
- Being there with them means a lot.
- They’re just trying to survive.
- Letting someone know you’re on the same team makes a big difference.
- Letting them know that you care.
- Empathy is empathizing with their current conditions, and not looking down on them.
- Wherever they are, respecting that.
- In order to get someone where they need to be you need to meet them where they are.
- I may not have the same experience, but I can validate your experience.
- Gather some wisdom and knowledge from anyone.
- Kids don’t understand their leadership potential or how to be a leader.
- They’re influencing someone, somewhere.
- What do they see, what do you see?
- What do you want them to see?
- Focus on the person.
- Vocational Education Center - All of my kids were kicked out of school: drug, sex, or weapons.
- We never know a person’s potential.
- They just need an opportunity to see the light.
- How to be a transformative principal? It’s a process. Trust the process. Walk in the process. Walk in authority. There may be some detours.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
It’s what my community Needed with Dr. Tiawan Giles Transformative Principal 378
Dr. Tiawana Giles is the proud principal of George W. Carver Elementary School!! She is also a contributing author the Women Who Lead Anthology.
- In the age of coronavirus.
- Lead by example. Setting a great example hat people want to support.
- We are better than what they say we are!
- If I give you this shirt, you are part of Carver Nation!
- Our community at large supported it as well.
- How to make yourself stand out with tons of other schools around you.
- We became part of the community that we serve because we wanted Carver to the center of the community
- We had the heart to get to where we wanted to be.
- Started with faith-based groups and ways they could be part of Carver Nation in ways they were comfortable with.
- Warm welcome from us at the door and a Carver T Shirt.
- I can’t do this work by myself - I need the help of the community.
- Kiwanas - Reading books on tape and sending links to families.
- Community helps clean the building, helped distribute different activities.
- Quarterly parent breakfast.
- Community started a foundation started with affluent community in Richmond. $107,000 raised
- You do have to make far more deposits before you can make any withdrawals.
- Building relationships - If you make people feel welcome, they will welcome you.
- We come together for the sake of the kids.
- Opportunities to build authentic relationships.
- It’s what my community needed!
- I asked everyone what they needed
- If it will benefit our scholars, that’s what we will do!
- You have to model this work with them.
- Look at it from all lenses, but bring people along with you.
- Making sure that people are prepared for leadership roles.
- People are in Carver Gear whenever we talk about our school.
- You need a variety of people on panels to help you figure things out.
- You get to ask folks to come even if you don’t have the people you want there.
- Inviting people builds their confidence.
- Your word means a lot, use it wisely.
- I have to do a lot of the work to help them be successful. Checking in and checking on your people.
- how to be a transformative principal? Find something positive to tell every single person on your team.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
PJ Caposey is a dynamic speaker and a transformational leader and educator. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. PJ became a principal at 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, PJ moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, where he is in his eighth year as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts.
PJ has written 8 books for various publishers and his work has been published online for sites such as ASCD, Edutopia, NPR, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post. He works in the Education Department of two universities and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal’s Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois.
- Why did you go into Education
- Diagnosed with cancer at 17.
- Teachers weren’t vital to me being successful until they were!
Why (almost) everyone does teacher evaluation wrong and why it is one of the worst ROI processes in schools! - I l love teacher evaluation when I am performing it.
- Resource intensive - seldom leads to
- Teachers growth and success wasn’t dependent on the evaluation process
- Second thing it does is sort teachers. * Total waste of time because almost everyone is proficient. The process is too long to get rid of someone (Hire slow, fire fast is how the business world recommends. Education is hire fast (usually 1 interview) and fire slow. Evaluation process can take easily a full calendar year to fire someone).
- Veteran Teachers are more often insubordinate than ineffective.
- unwilling to change at the macro, then we can do something to change at the micro
- If we are waiting holistically to have the conversation during the evaluation process, we’ve lost the opportunity.
- Evaluation audit and assessment.
- Suggestions for improvement are too often copy and pasted.
- That indicates a depth of knowledge on an evaluator’s part.
- Pre-conference is the most effective way to focus on growth.
- Pre-conference should be focused on the why questions.
- If we don’t get to the why level, then our feedback will never lead to growth.
- Ken Scott driver’s ed teacher
- What is the objective
- how will they show mastery
- why should they know it.
- It’s really hard to bring teachers to observe each other.
- Instructional coaching.
- Any feedback that is trusted and is about growth is more valuable than feedback that is about raking and sorting.
- If we don’t create
- How to be a transformative principal? Shawn Achor - moving the goalposts - what does success look like? Encourage teachers to give themselves grace. You’re playing a game that doesn’t end in 2021! * Since everyone is already proficient, we might as well let teachers make their own goals and be in charge of their evaluation (much like we want kids to be in charge of their learning). * Principals observing teachers is fine, but the emphasis should be on teachers observing each other. Knowledge of instruction gets much better when you can see what other teachers are doing.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Marisa Thompson (M.A. Teacher Education) has fourteen years of experience teaching various levels of English including advanced and support classes. District’s first Innovation Support coach.
She is a designated cooperating teacher for several credential programs and a Professional Development instructor for University of San Diego.
Her experiences culminate in a pedagogy she calls “Instruction-less Teaching,” which includes her TQE Method, currently in classrooms around the world from kindergarten to graduate school.
Marisa appears on many podcasts including Cult of Pedagogy, writes for her own UnlimitedTeacher blog and others, and speaks regularly at districts’ professional development, universities’ credential programs, and education conferences.
She recently won the 2019 Ed Innovate Live Pitch competition and was named CUE’s 2019 San Diego Innovative Educator of the Year.
- What is instruction-less teaching?
- So many expectations from everyone.
- Students are experts in their educational experience.
- So much on teacher’s plates
- High expectations vs purposeful expectations.
- I don’t need training, I need brain space
- How much time and brain space are we taking up in our kids?
- Get rid of your rubrics
- Figure out what skills your kids need to learn.
- Discussion based classroom
- Tasks are related to the skills they need to learn
- This is the ultimate year for reflection and adjustment not only for documentation but also for reflection and growth.
- Subversion - permission & protection to be creative
- Dr. Laura Spencer the genesis of subversive teaching
- Principals: Protect your teachers from the status quo
- How to be a transformative principal? Be in cahoots with the teachers and students. It’s ok if it doesn’t work!
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Professor Anthony Kimpson, or Mr. K as he is known by his students is on a mission to positively impact the lives of every young person he touches and to help them aspire to change the direction of their lives through the power of education. He is a dynamic coach, teacher, leader, and speaker with a passion to encourage, empower, mentor, motivate, and educate young people. He believes in breaking down the barriers and excuses often used within his community towards the pursuit of education and higher learning. His philosophy is there is NO substitute for education and he strongly believes the cliché, “when you know better, you do better.” Finally, Anthony’s story is one of courage, determination, and perseverance as he is a 14 year conqueror of cancer. He has the courage to take a stand for what he believes in, the determination to make a difference, and the perseverance to see it through no matter the obstacle.
Professor at Ultimate Medical Academy and Hillsborough Community College.
- Diversity Panel recordings:
- Panel 1 - Diversity: Essential Truths
- Panel 2 - Diversity: Getting Personal
- Panel 3 - Diversity: The Bigger Picture
- Within the black community there is a stigma to education.
- There is a mindset that our interest goes off into other areas.
- Education is the equalizer.
- The pursuit of knowledge is really education.
- A goal of mine is to use the triangle offense mindset
- How to support those who think they can’t get out of their current situation because they are
- There’s only one race in this world, that’s the human race.
- Why is there a box? A box suggests limits!
- There are filters in our society.
- Get rid of the limits, and what do you aspire to be?
- I don’t answer questions.
- I’m a facilitator of learning
- When you have questions, you seek knowledge.
- Life skills class.
- There’s no book for life.
- We don’t deal in absolutes in my class
- Use your experiences to make sense of the situation.
- I become less and less involved as the course goes on.
- Learning happens through your experiences
- The story of Kayla.
- I can’t stay in the back of the class all my life.
- How to be a transformative principal? Do something unexpected - show them that you are one of them.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Matthew Moyer Website is an elementary school principal with over 17 years of experience in administration, and over 23 years of experience in education. In addition to his job as principal, he is a Nationally Distinguished Principal, Pennsylvania Principal of the Year, Author, National Speaker, Adjunct Professor, and staff developer with Thom Stecher and Associates.
- The adventures of David and Donald: The Fractured flower pot
- Building relationships during the pandemic
- Relationships are at the cornerstone of what principals need to do.
- Posting daily on social media to connect with families.
- Popup principal.
- Postcards are a great way to connect.
- Impact program
- Assume goodwill.
- Finding good mentors, asking good questions.
- Ask all the questions you can.
- Top down and bottom up leadership. Including everyone in the conversation.
- Involve people in the process.
- You’ve got to talk tot he right people.
- You have to believe that the collaboration matters.
- You have to articulate your message in multiple ways and multiple means.
- Can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
- Take the time you need to make a decision.
- Kids always come first.
- Don’t double down on a bad idea!
- How to be a transformative principal? Get out of your office and be where the kids are.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tracey Runeare taught high school social studies for 16 years before becoming a high school assistant principal. She has been the principal of Harbor High School in Santa Cruz, California for 5 years.
- Harbor High School - Santa Cruz - Beachside community. Small high school with 1100 students.
- Role of an admin needs to be shifted. To hear what teachers are struggling with and where they need help.
- Relationships - getting people to understand the why
- Still go into classrooms, even when they are virtual.
- Student X - is the prototypical student. A little bit of every student.
- How do you design your school to meet their needs?
- Create the best experience for students, flexible as much as possible.
- Flexibility takes a lot of work.
- Every teacher having that flexibility.
- We try to pay teachers for what they are doing outside of the day.
- We try to see what we can do to help.
- We have a system for organized binder and making sure that things are taken care of for them.
- Consistency is doing what people need.
- How to be a transformative principal? Ask questions — if you think something is going on, ask some people before you assume there is a need you need to fulfill.
- Not solving problems empowers everyone in the school.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
At 22, Makaila Nichols is a model, speaker and best-selling author (at age 18) of “Blatantly Honest: Normal Teen, Abnormal Life.” In her book, she shares her personal struggles with issues such as: bullying, body image, sexual assault, peer pressure and more. Makaila was bullied unmercifully throughout her adolescence and even today as a recent college grad (University of Central Florida). Makaila found that through writing she was able to cope with the struggles she was enduring.
- The difference between being bullied and just being mean
- series of repeated behaviors.
- Why writing was helpful.
- How to overcome the challenges
- Figuring out who you are is the most important part
- Moon mission
- Open up to your parents, because they love you.
- it’s scary to ask for help, but it is worth it.
- Moon Shots: Operation Inspiration
- Blatantly honest foundation.
- Buddies don’t bully and everyone is beautiful.
- How to persevere and have resilience?
- We’re not the result of what happens to us.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Maureen O’Shaughnessy, EdD, is a career school innovator with over 30 years of transforming learning in schools to better serve all students.
She is the founding director of Leadership Preparatory Academy, a nonprofit progressive micro-school in Washington State. With a master’s degree in educational administration and a doctorate degree in educational leadership, she has an extensive understanding of the components needed to transform the education system.
Her book, Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids: A Step-by-Step Process that Empowers Frustrated Parents to Innovate Education, includes a step-by-step process for how to start a micro-school of your own.
She also has a podcast called Education Revolution.
- Always worked to find new ways of supporting kids.
- Overseas work in Kuwait and Ecuador.
- A school that could meet each student where they are.
- Independent school with sliding scale tuition.
- Use alternative learning laws.
- If you know something, we move you on.
- Competency based.
- Geared towards students thriving.
- Don’t have incentives to change it.
- We have to have a reason to make changes.
- The system was more important than the human.
- We’re part of the inhumane system.
- We need to examine our hearts, and what am I going to do to buck the system?
- We need to gently examine ourselves.
- It’s hard and uncomfortable.
- Agency is everything for teachers and students.
- When we let people go with their passions, they work so much harder!
- Let go of control.
- Let the trailblazers lead the way.
- Sometimes kids learn so much more from seeing their teachers fail.
19:25 ad break
- Microschool is just a small school. Could be like your school.
- The local school district
- Many choice schools within the district.
- There’s a need and a desire for specific schools.
- Many schools have a school within a school.
- We have this sense of entitlement that they have to get it all done in my class.
- Kids can do an 1/8 of a credit.
- If we can look at other ways for finding success.
- Start looking at the teachers and rethink how we get credit.
- Start with those that get it.
- How to protect teachers who are sticking their heads above the rest.
- Support those teachers and build support around them.
- When we highlight the problem, we offer a solution.
- Parents are a valued stakeholder.
- Have clearly delineated roles for who is doing what!
- Listen and think, how can we serve this population?
- Tap into that passion!
- How to be a transformative principal? Put reflection and personal growth in your calendar.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Trevor Goertzen
–15th year in education
Building Principal at Spring Hill Middle School, Spring Hill, Kansas
–5yrs
Teacher & Instructional Coach Blue Valley School, Overland Park, Kansas
–10yrs
National Board Certified Teacher
- Kansas Podcast - KPA Listen Up!
- Communication director of Kansas Principal Association.
- Teachers in emergency learning environment.
- Didn’t have a way to ensure learning was taking place.
- You asked, we answered session in the summer focusing on best practices for learning in a pandemic.
- August planning to support good remote learning.
- Extra 12 days of professional development. And COVID precautions.
- High Yielding Remote practices.
- Prioritizing content standards
- Integrating past content. Flashback flash forward.
- What we didn’t want to do is front load all the work for the kids. Just in time learning.
- Technology training and professional training
- It’s not the way people thought it was going to be done.
- Specific questions to help teachers articulate the challenges they were facing.
- What support can we provide?
- How to help teachers articulate their feelings.
- Gave questions a few days in advance to help them be prepared.
- Met with 20 teachers over the course of a week.
- Worried about specific kids.
- It’s really hard to support kids that are around. Kids aren’t retaining it as well as they could.
- Got leadership together and asked what makes sense going forward?
- Allowed them time to talk about kids.
- Go slow to go fast.
- Pivoted this week to prioritize what teachers were doing.
- Give them time to talk with each other.
- The things you would have done, you’re not even thinking about right now.
- I just miss kids talking.
- Prioritize their standards.
- Make it a culture week.
- Giving people time to be honest and talk.
- We’ve got to find a way to create opportunities for people to have fun with each other.
- How to be a transformative principal? Reach out to a colleague that you haven’t spoken to in a while and connect with them.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tom Mahoney currently serves as the Superintendent of Oregon Community Unit School District located in Northern Illinois. As an educator, Tom has served as a secondary math teacher, coach, building administrator, and Assistant Superintendent. His experiences as a teacher, serving a diverse student population, continue to guide his advocacy for equity and whole child education in his administrative roles.
- Lead, Grow, Serve. “I take me with me wherever I go,” he says. “So if I’m not making me better, things aren’t going to get better.”
- Stephen Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
- Leadership is a great opportunity to help others.
- My job on earth is not to find happiness but to serve others and that leads to happiness.
- How do we define priorities for the crises we face.
- People are constantly reactive.
- Constantly in crisis.
- First take care of yourself, don’t worry about the “urgent”.
- Invite that person out of that place.
- Nobody is staying in crisis because they want to be there. They just don’t know how to get out of it.
- Acknowledging that if you don’t take care of yourself, nobody else will do it.
- Build relationships around shared beliefs.
- Are you open to…
- Invite, then be ready to solve the problem.
- Self-care
- The Helper - put the person who always says yes to be part of that.
- Disgruntled - things never go well.
- I was the only common denominator in every situation
- I take me with me wherever I go.
- People who feel guilty for saying no.
- Help them build boundaries.
- I thought interest in topics were innate. Didn’t know you could choose curiosity.
- Couldn’t read, couldn’t sit still.
- They invested in me, and held me accountable to a higher standard.
- I realized that learning was a choice.
- Things I was afraid of, I became excited about.
- It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
- Self-direction and whole child education.
- I don’t weight any four areas higher than others.
- What I found was that kids were graduating and they couldn’t survive.
- Educate students to be lifelong learners who are productive and responsible citizens.
- Nothing is more frightening to me than the child who is good at school.
- They can take control of their own learning.
- They have all the skill
- New staff members: Mission driven, Fail, be responsible for the culture you create.
- Created opportunity for teachers to the
- how to be a transformative principal? Future self, tomorrow I will… Do something intentionally daily or weekly to make myself as good as I can be.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Katharine Birbalsingh is the founder and head of Michaela Community School. She and her staff wrote the book, “Michaela: the Power of Culture” which you can find anywhere books are sold.
- Michaela is a different kind of school.
- High standards of discipline - silent corridors
- Knowledge is our goal in the classroom
- Why don’t people do things to get the results - People are critical of just focusing on the test.
- Public appreciation during family lunches.
- What tests should be like.
- Cutting the crap - kids usually learn in pretty much the same way.
- We’ve assumed that the differences of the subject also apply to the differences of the students.
- Personalized learning is where we disagree.
- Teachers don’t spend all their time chasing naughty behavior.
- Teachers aren’t inventing what they teach, they’re sharing and pulling them.
- How to plan ahead, making sure people have time to do that.
- No support staff, so there are fewer staff
- Turn down teachers for doing things for five kids.
- Personalized learning -
- The power of saying no.
- Most staff want to be heard
- I seek out the ideas of staff all the time.
- I depend on you to tell me when they
- Bribing people to tell me what is wrong.
- You’ve got to inspire people and win hearts and minds.
- Sorting out behavior - start with the small things. You need consistency throughout your schools.
- You’re pretending that kids are learning when they’re not in a progressive classroom.
- Small c conservative vs. progressive approaches.
- Personal responsibility, duty to community, Dressing well, having a sense of decency about yourself.
- Having pride in yourself for the right reasons.
- Far too much negativity.
- Gratitude.
- They see themselves as victims.
- Free schools started only in 2010.
- I remember what I’m in it for.
- How to be a transformative principal? You’ve got to have courage. You have to not mind being disliked. You must never think I want people to be happy.
- Do the right thing.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Matthew is a principal in Nashville, He was recently selected by FranklinCovey Education as a Leader in Me Community Champion in recognition of his outstanding work Trauma Informed Educators Network Facebook group
“I’m an activator,” he says. “In education, everyone is waiting for someone else to do something different, but if something is inequitable, I’m not going to wait―I’m going to disrupt.”
- Impact of social justice and trauma informed practices
- Trauma as a whole, but not as an event.
- Intergenerational transmission of trauma.
- Impact of racial trauma over time and day to day.
- ACES and Trauma.
- Understanding implicit bias
- If we’re not cognizant of it, it can wreak havoc on our impact as an educator.
- How do we navigate our roles as educator’s knowing that we possess bias?
- Why do we have clip charts in elementary schools?
- Unapologetic disruptor
- Our schools are designed to reflect the majority of our culture
- Behavior is a lagging skill instead of a personal choice.
- Change the school to meet the needs of our kids.
- When we put norms on kids.
- Look at kids as though they are doing the best they can!
- Many people have experienced trauma.
- Focused on the strengths of what kids come with.
- We’ve learned that clip charts in the classroom
- When public shaming becomes a norm in the school it can have major damage.
- Every kid is a genius.
- You’re being sent home because…
- How to have the conversation with adults.
- Teachers just like kids are doing the best they could.
- De-escalating kids.
- An escalated adult cannot deescalate an escalated child.
- Tap in and tap out strategy.
- Happy teacher revolution.
- You’re done.
- I can’t handle that weight. It’s too much.
- how to be a transformative principal? Activator - don’t wait for someone else to do it or try it. If it doesn’t work, it’s ok.
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Transformative Principal 366
Social Media: He threw a rock at the building and I thought we were done! Via Kevin Stinehart
Kevin Stinehart is in his ninth year teaching in a South Carolina Title 1 Arts Magnet School. Last month he won Teacher of the Year for his district, and he is currently in the running for South Carolina State Teacher of the year. His school made headlines 2 years ago when it became the first school in South Carolina to create an after-school Play Club under his leadership. Kevin is passionate about treating students as holistic people and recognizing the social and emotional needs of students as paramount to their success inside and outside of the classroom.
- Why is play so important?
- In order for Social0emotional learning to be effective, it must be done in the moment.
- Play club doesn’t cut into classroom - free daycare.
- I’m not here
- Parents agree to some expectations.
- Turning things over to kids if they have problems.
- Kids solve their own problems.
- He threw a rock at the building and I thought we were done!
- After play club, he never got a referral again.
- School district really supports free play.
- 45 minutes of work 15 of play all day long.
- District leadership team meetings even have this model.
- Our brain needs a break.
- How are you finding opportunities for kids to play with coronavirus?
- I heard you increased recess time at your school. Tell me how that happened.
- Wellness is baked into their standards.
- Play club before and after school
- Parent perception.
- Start small, it takes no money and no preparation.
- How to be a transformative principal? She takes a “let’s try it” approach.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
For 30 years, Frank Forte has led projects and programs around the world for clients such as the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army, NASA, CA, CSC, GTE, and Mylan Pharmaceutical. He has worked across many different industries, including Oil & Gas, Software, Healthcare, and Construction.
Frank is the author of the book A.G.I.L.E. Thinking Demystified.
- What is AGILE thinking?Adaptability,
Growth
Improvement
Leadership
Experience - The AGILE method is empiricism.
- We don’t know what we have to do to please our stakeholders
- We as humans don’t like to fail. Our education system rewards getting the right answer and doesn’t support failure.
- Why do you need to teach adults that?
- Effort and process.
- What did you learn in this experiment?
- Agile mentality have anything to offer me as a School principal?
- It was about the process that I needed to follow.
- We don’t have processes when it comes to idiosyncratic people. Is it complicated or complex? We do inspection and we have quality control
- Humans as creators of engineering
- What is the next experiment that I can use to help you grow?
- When change approaches are successful and when they are failures.
- CARES Act dealing with loans and withdrawals. Couldn’t have done it if not for the agile training they had gone through.
- What about those made it so they could change so quickly. John Cotter - the Heart of Change
- Sense of urgency has to the first thing
- They will either vote with their feet or demand change.
- Failures - trying once and then being surprised and giving up.
- We are working in a complex ever-changing environment.
- Build the change model
- Retrospectives - How formal should these things be?
- Don’t overwhelm the system.
- What questions could I have asked to make it better?
- Get comfortable with feedback, and accelerate that feedback.
- We’ve got to carve out time to change.
- Get effective first, then become efficient.
- Growth vs. fixed mindset - fixed mindset is focused on being efficient.
- Asking them what they have changed in their approach.
- Change starts with awareness.
- It’s time to make the donuts
- Fight Flight and Freeze
- If you do want to change, be prepared to get some push back.
- How to be a transformative principal? Figure out what is on your backlog that needs to change. Make it so small that nobody will notice except you. Ask your class how they’re doing.
- Listen and show empathy
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Wanting to Get Better with Dr. Vernita Glenn-White Transformative Principal 364
Social Media: You need to have a goal. Via @DrVglenn_white
Dr. V. is a professor of empowerment and executive coaching and consulting.
- It’s ok to admit that you will make some mistakes.
- How to not judge people?
- There’s always things that are subconscious
- I probably had this reaction because I listen to the news too much.
- You have to want to get better.
- You have to put yourself in environments where you are interacting with different people.
- We don’t pause enough when we are interacting.
- Setting norms of ground rules. Valencia College’s 13 rules of how we treat each other.
- Show how much we are alike than different.
- Don’t give up.
- People give up because it is hard.
- You need to have a goal.
- How to be a transformative Principal? 1. Think about your vision for your life and how that relates to the vision for your school or district.
-
- Sit down and think about your core values.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Janneke Ritchie is an entrepreneur, speaker, designer and digital transformation expert. A robot momma, she brings both passion and a healthy dose of realism to how robots, AI and future technologies can be used to transform how we work, live and age.
After 20 years of envisioning, designing and implementing solutions to enhance adoption of new technologies in large organizations, Janneke designs simple, elegant solutions to support people adopting modern technologies to go digital.
An international speaker, Janneke inspires audiences to envision the opportunities and prepare for the challenges of the era of AI. She has a specific interest in how modern technologies can enhance the experience of aging.
Janneke is the host of bricksTObytes, a podcast featuring real stories of real people daring to adopt modern tech to transform and go digital.
* Digital learning for non-digital natives
* The challenges of how to design learning experiences using these digital technologies.
* First Five Minutes Game Jane McGonnigal
* non-linear learning
* Digital natives vs digital immigrant
* Losing it includes not knowing how to find it!
* Because of the explosion of information, there’s not an expectation they know everything.
* I took a course on coding because I wanted to know how coders work.
* After that, they work with repositories.
* How to be a learner in a digital age.
* What are the skills you must learn.
* nothing is solid in a digital world.
* How the salient nugget retrieval happens
* Things that would do well to persist.
* There is no course that could have taught me.
* There’s a hyper personalization that occurs.
* SFD - Crappy first draft.
* How to be a transformative principal? Do something new and find a way to share how you’ve done it with your colleagues and maybe even with your students.
Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Kat Howard is AP at the Duston School and founder of LitDrive, PD for English Teachers. She is also the author of the book “Stop Talking About Wellbeing”
- Came to teaching quite late after working in finance
- Felt lack of reward outside of education.
- How to help teachers take care of themselves.
- Approaching workload - we have a responsibility to ourselves
- Building strong relationships.
- Effective conversation and effective exchange.
- We’ve done several things to support conversation
- It’s not just the resolution of the problem.
- In schools, I don’t think email is a productive tool.
- That’s the double edged sword of our profession.
- Wellbeing is the outcome rather than the process
- Our sense of purpose is really important.
- Teachers don’t want to create their own behavior process in the classroom.
- Give teachers autonomy over things that are important.
- Curriculum design & teaching.
- Teacher guilt - but it’s for the kids!
- Teachers don’t come in to education to be mediocre.
- People tell you what you want to hear.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Lizzy Neiger is an elementary principal at an international school in Nepal. Previously, Lizzy was a special ed teacher and 2nd grade teacher.
- Geographically positioned between China and India.
- Only flights people could get were repatriation flights back to their home countries.
- Thought people would be able to return.
- Making my self available at the end of my days.
- How to support a school that is tuition based during this time.
- How this will change their approach their approach to learning.
- Reaching out via Twitter and PLN.
- The Modern classroom project.
- Creating family rituals.
- Both asynchronous and synchronous meetings.
- Meeting 4 times per week to focus on social emotional needs.
- Lessons asynchronous.
- Consume, process, assess.
- Crisis teaching mode.
- Monday-Thursday teaching schedule. Friday is screen free challenges.
- Trying to take the modern classrooms project in tiny bites.
- Plans for the future.
- How to be a transformative principal? You can’t take care of other people if you can’t take care of yourself. Know yourself and know what you need.
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Hannah Costello graduated in January 2020 after homeschooling her whole life. While co-founding the Learner Council and volunteering at virtual camps in her distributed learning high school, she discovered a passion for guiding and supporting other learners, and for creating systems that work. She wants to help other kids to experience learning the way she did by designing and supporting individualized learning paths.
- What is a distributed learning high school?
- Enrolled in a program where you had lots of power over your learning.
- Created our own curriculum through grade 9.
- Still a diploma granting program, but in Grade 10 switched to a thematic learning system.
- There weren’t courses, but projects and ideas that were combined in a theme.
- Having the opportunity to see connections between things is really important.
- Find something you are interested in and delve into it.
- Learner council was like a student council, and we didn’t have one.
- Many students saw struggles with all the changes.
- One student got fed up with all the changes and decided we needed a student council.
- The model was based on the idea that every student should be heard.
- Our school was so happy to have learner initiative.
- Challenges were creating space for kids to talk with us.
- We did all of our communication online.
- Each learner has a learner consultant that they talk with at least weekly.
- The school organized events (like camps) that were in person.
- Befriended the communications team within the school.
- Forum space set up to meet with
- Tools to be successful
- Reach out and ask for what I needed.
- There was lots of support, but kids weren’t making use of their educators.
- Found it useful to find out who was doing what.
- I feel bad for my educators, because I asked a lot of them.
- What to do now?
- I could not join the educator team because I don’t have a college degree.
- There are definitely uses for college.
- I don’t want to teach a class, I want to facilitate learning.
- Different ideas to help people.
- How to be a transformative principal? Offer kids options as to how to express their learning. Because not everyone is going to learn the same way and not everyone is going to want to do it the same way.
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Andrea Keith is the Vice President of School Programs at Let Grow.
- Let Grow non profit to bring back childhood independence.
- What changes have happened in the how parenting happens?
- Belief that it is the parents’ job to protect kids from any discomfort.
- Blue hands in the windows.
- Benefits of kids having independence.
- Nobody intends to give their kids the message that they’re not capable.
- How has the pandemic influenced independence?
- Re-education of adults.
- I wasn’t taught social-emotional learning when I was a child.
- Give your kids independence.
- Let Grow Project
- Let Grow Play Club
- How to be a transformative principal? Start the project once a week after school with your kids.
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Barb Labotka is a principal of a Montessori School in Chicago, Illinois. And this podcast is a little different in that she is going to tell some stories about Maria Montessori!
- integrated her faith into her theory.
- Montessori was the first scientific method.
- Inspiration will come in moments when you least expect them.
- At 36, she said that her educational approach will fill the whole world.
- Match activities to abilities
- Kids enjoy the things we typically think they hate in education.
- Brains are designed to keep our bodies alive.
- If kids are not given freedom, it is harder for them to learn.
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Nancy Conrad is the founder of the Conrad Challenge, a global competition to help kids learn without limitations.
- Global competition for teams of students 13–18.
- Students are invited to combine innovation, education, and entrepreneurship to create something new.
- Students form teams and ind a coach.
- Summit hosted at Kennedy Space Center.
- As students are looking for unique opportunities for competition - kids can work across all possible barriers.
- We’ve been doing online education for 15 years.
- How to work on a team?
- Pushing education vs pulling education
- We believe in “pull” education
- Obstatunity
- They get engaged in their learning.
- Each of them has achieved extraordinary things.
- We gave kids the passion for learning.
- four years to get to the finals and they finally won.
- Always wanted it to be a community.
- It becomes family.
- Kids get talked at quite enough.
- Cosmic chat.
- Battelle - story about networking.
- It’s not snooty and it’s not about money.
- We facilitate collaboration.
- Any company is a conglomeration of really great people doing really great work.
- Hire amazing people and let them do their thing.
- Nobox toolbox.
Today’s Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Amy Valentine, Leader at Future of School has been called a social rabble rouser, a turnaround strategist and a fighter of the status quo in K–12 education. She has served as a teacher, school leader and executive director.
- Gives scholarships to students and grants to teachers.
- National Non-profit to support the changing of schools.
- Why parents seek alternative methods of education.
- Why wasn’t emergency learning effective in spring 2020?
- We haven’t reached a tipping point.
- COVID 19 taught us that school is verb.
- How to demonstrate learning differently?
- It doesn’t take a lot of money.
- Fixed mindsets can be damaging.
- Education is a personal thing for everyone.
- Whatever it takes, all hands on deck.
- Seeing education from a different perspective.
- Role of teacher was elevated during pandemic.
- buzzword - student-centered learning.
- Crisis schooling - is not remote learning.
- You need to listen to that voice inside you.
- You’ve got all this education figured out.
- How to be a transformative principal? Bring your community together through 1 or 2 different mediums. Stay connected even if you don’t know your plan.
- Some data:
- American public perception of the K–12 education system has been remained steadily low over the last 20 years
- According to the most recent Gallup Poll, 47% of Americans expressed dissatisfaction with the K–12 education system (2019)
- According to the 2018 Gallup Poll, 71% of parents expressed satisfaction with the K–12 education system (2018)
- Americans’ Satisfaction With U.S. Education at 15-Year High
- [Gallup Satisfaction Surveys on Education] (https://news.gallup.com/poll/1612/education.aspx)
- Seven in 10 Parents Satisfied With Their Child’s Education
- Why the discrepancy?
- Not all “Americans” are parents; some are older and do not resonate with that title, others do not have children but own businesses; everyone pays taxes that go to schools;
- Not all “Americans” are parents; some are older and do not resonate with that title, others do not have children but own businesses; everyone pays taxes that go to fund and support schools
- Education is a third-rail political issue– nobody wants to touch it– highly charged * Why have things stayed the same in our K–12 schools? the rate and pace of change in public schools not mirroring that of all other social institutions, policy constraints (which differ by state), limited school choice options (which differ by state), budget cuts (federal, state and local), a changing workforce, and nearly no alignment between the needs of businesses and what is being taught as part of required content/curriculum, lack of empowerment at the local level, fear of technology catalyzing the much needed change
- Not all “Americans” are parents; some are older and do not resonate with the role, others do not have children, others are business owners; BUT everyone pays taxes that go to fund schools
- A four-year degree is not the golden ticket that majestically ensures skills development to enter into the workforce
- Why is this? If Americans are generally dissatisfied, why have schools remained the same, in large part? Reasons for parental dissatisfaction with district/school/the K–12 education system? Parent has a child who struggles in the school (academically, socially, personally, emotionally, other…), life-changing event (family moves, job change, terminal illness, medical condition, etc…) or another personal crisis (denoted as a small “c” or big/small “t” in their life)
- Of the 3.3 million families who chose to homeschool their child(ren) in 2016, the top reason (34%) indicated by families “concern about the school environment” such as bullying, drugs, negative peer pressure; second on the list of reasons dissatisfaction with academic instruction, with only 16% of families indicating the reason was for religious reasons.
- According to NCES, In 1999, 38% of families indicated religious reasons as the primary driver in choosing homeschooling * Since 1999, the number of homeschool families in America has nearly doubled (1999- 1.7 million; 2016- 3.3 million; NC)
- A Fresh Look at Homeschooling in the U.S.
- Parents’ Reasons for Homeschooling
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
JC Pohl is the co-founder and CEO of TeenTruth.net
- Resilience is about taking the hits and moving forward.
- Hear about bad things with kids.
- Bouncing back.
- It was really in the hard times in our life that we grew.
- 5 keys to mental health.
- Why is it harder for teenagers?
- This is developmentally appropriate.
- To them it really does feel like it is the end of the world.
- Charismatic Adults - A developmental structure to support them.
- They need a touchpoint when they need it.
- All adults around out children have the ability to speak into their lives.
- Dr. Robert Brooks - charismatic adult is the single most important influence.
- Anybody can do this.
- Some people aren’t invited.
- Connect with students where they are.
- Kids form common bonds.
- Get free chapters: teentruth.net/resilientstudents Discount code relationships to get a discount on the book.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be vulnerable about a challenge you’re dealing with.
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Mariana Aguilar did some field research to determine what causes students to be engaged in online and hybrid learning environments.
- How to define student engagement in online and hybrid environments.
- Hard to define engagement, but we all say we can feel it!
- You can feel it.
- Emotionally connected
- Manifests differently in hybrid environment
- Hard to read people’s language.
- How to turn on engagement for students, especially in an online space?
- You can use similar tactics that you. May do in in person learning as you do in virtual learning.
- Relationships!
- Teacher and principal relationships with families!
- Having a successful relationship requires connection between students, teachers and families.
- Instructional practices: smaller groups.
- Checks for understanding.
- Technology doesn’t have to be complex.
- Giving kids opportunities to engage in community based learning. Lead and health outcomes
- Students want to feel like they are having an impact on the world.
- How to be a transformative principal?
Look for opportunities everywhere.
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Danielle Nuhfer is a teacher and you can find more information about her at TeachingWell.Life
- Bringing Awareness to the present moment without judgment.
- Taking a step back and trying to think about how to proceed.
- The benefits of mindfulness in self-care and resilient person in our students’ lives.
- How to be mindful in talking about the coronavirus situation.
- Take a breath, think, and respond.
- Mindfulness allows us to see that everyone has their own story.
- Would you rather be right or happy?
- Take time for yourself to just breathe!
- Create moments where you do those checkins.
- It’s not about more, it is about changing how you do what you’re already doing.
- How to prepare for each day.
- Some kind of morning routine - quiet time.
- It can be more than five minutes, or it can be much shorter.
- How to be a transformative principal? Try to do something in regard to mindfulness.
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Crystal Xu and Purvi Patel recently wrote a paper on how to Redesign School Level Systems For Equity.
- How systems work together.
- Started with redesign systems work.
- We actually have a lot more autonomy than we think.
- Expand our self-confidence around the structures we can control.
- How we define engagement in school.
- How do we deal with criticism that we face when we try to implement equitable practices.
- It comes with the self work.
- Power Struggle within a classroom.
- You’re good about making a decision when you know it is true to who you are.
- Privilege is not about good or bad.
- Fellowship learning experiences.
- How do we create more opportunities for Fellowship learning experiences.
- Making sure people have opportunities that didn’t usually have it before.
- Ceding power vs. Distributed leadership - Giving more ownership to others.
- All of those decisions can come with biases and other barriers.
- How to support people who may have an idea of what they want, but they don’t really have ideas of what they need.
- How do we really change school so we are serving our families, not so they are serving us?
- A sense of false choice.
- Take off the choices that are not possible for most marginalized families.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen deeply and “Ring the bells that still can ring” quote. Identify a crack and see it as a light.
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
James Anderson is a educator, author, and speaker and a master of mindset work. Today we are talking about Learner Agency.
- Anders Ericson - purposeful practice.
- Agile Learner - capable of growth, but also knows how to go about achieving the growth.
- What it means to achieve the growth in life.
- Growth mindset is how much you see yourself as a learner.
- How do I get really good at achieving that growth.
- What it looks like to be a good learner.
- Five areas: challenge, habits of mind, mistakes, feedback, time and energy.
- We don’t talk a lot about being a skillful learner.
- Seeks to find out what students can do rather than defining their abilities.
- Performance learners avoid going to their best level. Stay in performance zone, but don’t go beyond their best.
- Challenges will come and go, but behaviors stay with them.
- Agile learner is proactive.
- What does it mean to be fragile.
- Anti-Fragile means drop me, it helps.
- VUCA World
- Post traumatic growth
- Black Swan Events - you cannot predict the future, but you can prepare for it.
- Look to the shite space in between.
- How to be a transformative principal? Ask yourself what are you currently doing that is deliberately focused on helping students become better learners. We don’t get
Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tiersa McQueen is an unschooling mom and has a great story to tell. Follow her insightful comments on Twitter.
- You can learn a lot of math through cooking.
- What about math?
- Math is everywhere.
- Homeschooling vs unschooling vs public school
- Many different styles.
- You can relax a little bit with homeschooling. Ask your child what they want to learn. More of a family interaction.
- When you have choices, it totally changes the experiences.
- How do you know they’re progressing?
- Black holes - 4th dimension
- We live in a digital age with lots of social media. It’s never been easier to find your tribe.
- Our educational approach is really about having experiences.
- You have to get out of the mindset of being just your age group.
- How are you adapting with everything being closed? Libraries, etc?
- advice for a mind shift from being in school to home schooling? Three biggest mind shifts needed.
- We don’t have a schedule of everything that needs to happen every single day.
- Children do need structure. It comes from the family, not from following a bell schedule.
- Children need a lot of sleep.
- I had a lot of unlearning that I had to do. I always had this idea of children as people.
- The first thing I did was buy some curriculum.
- The things they were starting to learn were not coming from the curriculum. They were coming from the things they wanted to learn.
- How long it took for the mindshift to happen to her kids?
- Started to read John Holt
- What if we didn’t buy curriculum?
- You go as far as your interest goes.
- You have them in an environment that stimulates some learning.
- They don’t think of things in a linear school-based fashion.
- What her favorite tools non tech with kids? The tools of the home. They talk to each other.
- Socially involved? Finds ways for her kids to interact with other kids outside the home.
- Recommendations for learning more.
- How to be a transformative principal? Give kids some free time to learn something on their own. Not every second
Today’s Sponsors Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Cory Henwood is the Innovation Coordinator for Iron County Schools, founder of Launch HS.
- What Launch HS is? How students demonstrate mastery.
- There are systemic barriers that prevent people from taking this leap.
- Lots of groundwork laid for this.
- Partnerships are really important.
- How is your partnership with SUU designed?
- How Launch HS got started.
- What skills do kids need to be successful?
- Start with 8 innovative skills for students to learn.
- State grants that support innovative approaches.
- One way to meet students where they’re at is to do competency based education.
- Design challenges that integrate curricular content and highlight entrepreneurial skills.
- Work with local businesses.
- 50% or more of time is dedicated to design challenges.
- Authentic Work
- How to be a transformative principal? use design thinking to help people know how to make decisions.
Marti Sievek is Assistant Principal of East High School. Tania Lyon is the talent
Talent Development Coordinator. Both are in Mankato Area Public Schools Mankato Area Public Schools.
- District from a GT program to a more inclusive program.
- Professional development coordinator interim director of teaching and learning.
- Helping students have access to high quality instruction with no ceiling.
- Increase complexity of work that is being done
- Selecting resources that will help kids.
- Different and complex instead of more
- Start with what those needs are for your community.
- Start with Why, come back to How.
- The How can’t just be adding more to the teacher’s plate.
- Teachers needed a deep understanding of their academic standards.
- Taking away things from teachers - take away the idea of being a sage on the stage.
- What becomes electrifying for kids is the ability to collaborate with their peers.
- Beast Academy and Mentor Networks
- Gifted and talented is push-in instead of pull out.
- NWEA scores improved
- Able to connect with her friends that way.
- “Tickles your brain”
- It’s not just access, it’s the approach as well.
- It gives permission to not have a right or wrong answer.
- Strengths-based approach.
- How to be a transformative principal? Help teachers to have a mindset shift from sage on the stage to a relinquishment of control AND ask, ”If ti couldn’t look like that, what could it look like?”
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Click the title or long-press the album art to get to the book. or go to http://schoolx.me
Derek Sivers is an entrepreneur who founded CDBaby, and is now writing and doing cool things in New Zealand. Check out his Now page for more information. This episode is about the importance of focus and how to not be distracted all the time.
- Moved to Oxford for the schools.
- He grew up outside and that really shaped him.
- want him to be really focused on whatever he is interested in.
- If you’re focused, you can do anything.
- Now he continues to do it.
- He’s thriving more than ever without school.
- anki flashcard software
- So distracted when doing something for school.
- Mastery path to anything is great.
- In wanting to be great at it, it caused me to focus.
- To be driven is the best thing we can help someone to be.
- No connection from school to my interests.
- applicable
- If you don’t have a problem to solve.
- How to be transformative principal. Listen.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Karen Gross is an author and educator, as well as an advisor and consultant to nonprofit schools, organizations, and governments; instructor of continuing education at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work; visiting professor at Bennington College; former president of Southern Vermont College; former senior policy advisor to the United States Department of Education; and author of the sidequel, Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success with At-Risk Students and the trauma-sensitive children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest. Visit Karen’s website at www.karengrosseducation.com.
- Name it - start by recognizing that it exists. What is traumatic for one may not be traumatic for another.
- Tame it - Strategies to deal with those. Invisible and it never goes away.
- Fight, flight, freeze, faint, fawn.
- activities that activate the senses allows the brain to reset.
- Example of strategies - stand on one leg.
- All of the senses have activities that are tied to them.
- Frame it
- Gotta do something to activate the brain.
- Triphasic - disregulated, isolated, over regulated.
- long term strategies.
- Instead of blaming, seek to find what caused the behavior?
- Processing in place.
- Kimochis - https://www.kimochis.com
- Fidget boxes
- Play table.
- how to be a transformative principal? Assuming schools haven’t reopened - reach out to everyone and provide support.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Dr. Bryan Brockett is a principal of the Lancers in Carlsbad, CA.
- Principal experience in middle and high school.
- Are high school kids completely indifferent or focused or somewhere in between?
- You see transformation take place.
- Expecting conversation
- The more we treat students like they’re equally human like us, the more they’re going to join us.
- Campus supervisors really know the kids.
- A comprehensive high school should feel like an exciting place for learning.
- Model the approach, be explicit, look for opportunities.
- Honor the feedback of your students.
- Instead of a dress code, we established a dress culture.
- The more we cultivate that environment, the more we share it back with students.
- Soliciting input from students and teachers.
- Starting around what your vision is for your school!
- Some schools were well positioned to do that, others, not so much.
- Building a positive and supportive environment.
- Honor the work our teachers do to live out our vision.
- Instructional rounds formula - never found an effective way to get that process going.
- District mission, school vision, and culture committee (including students), Profile of a Lancer,
- Look for evidence of “Profile of a Lancer” in classroom observations.
- Feedback to teachers is vital.
- George Couros - make the positive so loud you can’t hear the negative.
- Be explicit about what you’re after, and reinforcing when you see it.
- So important to have students as part of the conversation.
- Gaps that students recognized.
- “I Matter”
- How to be a transformative principal? Be present!
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Tamara Fyke is the founder of Love in a Big World, which provides SEL support for families all over the world.
- SEL is related to their emotional, mental, and physical health.
- Kids may have experienced more trauma at home during closures than they ever have.
- Maslow before Blooms.
- The need that kids have is for connect.
- The pace of learning is different at home.
- We have to acknowledge what is most important.
- The system we’ve been using isn’t actually working.
- The learning council it’s time to let go of control
- Being a compass instead of a sage
- Self-awareness is knowing our strengths and weaknesses.
- What’s it like to have a deliverable that’s due at a certain time?
- How to be a transformative principal? Take a cue from youth culture - tiktok, instagram, YouTube, twitch, etc. What do we need to change to show that kids aren’t really lazy!
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Miguel Gonzalez is the founder of Embark education, a micro school embedded in two small businesses (pinwheel coffee and framework cycles)
Brian Sense is the Executive Director Great Work, Inc
Samara is a student at the Embark school.
- Microschools vs. traditional schools
- Blended grade levels.
- 16 students enrolled with 7th and 8th grade.
- Embark education is an independent school, which allows us to work with kids tuition free!
- Founding businesses and profit from businesses would fund the educational experience.
- Grants and fundraising.
- Kids can make business decisions that may not be in the best interest of the businesses.
- Price changes involved in the coffee shop.
- How do we pose it to our students,
- Samara’s interest in the espresso machine.
- Coffee machine does produce 85% of our drinks.
- Learning is a strong point for me.
- We don’t just focus on educational needs, but also on social emotional needs.
- What school is like?
- What structures do we want to have?
- Miguel’s job is supporting embark and the teachers.
- Making the impact on students is just as valuable as getting a bike back to a customer.
- When we break down the walls of school…
- Every role has a focus, but they also are involved in the other programs.
- We also include students in the interview process.
- Middle school students know who they want to work around.
- Middle schoolers is an important age to focus on the joy of learning.
- It’s never about the bikes or the coffee, it’s about student learning.
- Middle school is an overlooked time of development.
- Kids don’t drop out in high school, they drop out in middle school. They just sign the paperwork and leave in high School.
- Knowing where I want to center my learning.
- 6th grade interviews for new teacher.
- There’s very little that you learn in middle school that you don’t already have.
- How to be a transformative principal?
- Treat them as adults and support them in their youth.
- Give many people the ability to realize their self-worth and lead others.
- Listen humbly.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Lyn is a valued member of the mastermind. Tune in to hear her experiences for the last two years as a member.
Join today at jethrojones.com/mastermind
Dr. Kulvarn Atwal has been a head teacher for 8 years, educator for 20. He is the Author of The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community
- Great variation in teachers who had good attitudes and wanted to improve.
- Interested in finding out how to help every teacher be excited to learn.
- Focusing our energies on teacher professional learning.
- The way you impact learning is by hiring amazing teachers.
- Implementing dynamic learning communities.
- Maximizing informal learning.
- What is informal learning.
- More learning takes place socially in an institution than formally.
- Every person is trained as a coach.
- Average teacher stops improving after their third year of teaching.
- Communities of Practice
- Getting better has to be part of the culture of the school.
- Expansive professional learning
- I’m not going to participate in any judgment or lesson observations.
- Engage in collaborative action research projects.
- Done this in three different schools.
- If their traditional role was to judge and now they need to coach, it’s very difficult to adjust.
- How to be a transformative principal? Empowerment of practitioners.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Jeremiah Newell founded Alabama’s first charter school, Accel Day and Evening Academy is Alabama’s first charter school. It serves grades 9–12 and specializes in supporting youth who are disengaged in the traditional high school, have fallen behind, or dropped out all together. I’d like to discuss how ACCEL’s model puts unique supports in place, including academic instruction targeted to the needs of youth, mental health/counseling supports, and postsecondary options to ensure opportunity youth find success.
- 300 students in grades 9–12
- How to manage split schedules.
- Be very intentional about who you’re serving when.
- regular day school and evening school.
- Working as partners with community leaders.
- Got graduation rate up, now how do we prep them?
- How to hire the right people.
- Mission alignment. We lead with being unapologetic with our mission.
- Create the space for them to do their best work.
- Half day Friday for students so teachers have time to get better.
- Teachers request professional development.
- As we recruit we allow people to meet with their future peers.
- Family environment helps recruit folks.
- Evening work is optional. Not allowed to work more than 2 nights per week.
- Young Adult model in NYC.
- Blended learning school. Teachers begin planning by identifying core standards.
- Utilize NWEA MAP data.
- whole group, small group, independent work.
- Grow 2–3 years in one semester because of how we teach.
- Instructional technology are tools to make that happen.
- We grow because we narrow our focus. We know where the gaps are and then carefully develop a learning plan that helps individual students.
- Intentional vertical articulation.
- Building the planning time matters so much. Half day every Friday enables time for teams to align what they’re doing.
- We don’t use grade levels, we use phases.
- Helping kids still earn credits.
- 3 phases, 5 classes per semester, 10 credits in year.
- Additional credit recovery outside of the school day.
- How to be a transformative principal?
Assess the practices of the school. Think of yourself as a school designer, not a manager. - I do have a responsibility to ask the question, What can I do differently?
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Emma Turner is the author of a new book called “Be More Toddler”
- Co head teacher in 2009.
- 5 babies in 5 years, multiple maternity leaves.
- Flip leadership and think about it differently.
- Chocolate buttons - What is it that means the most to you that you are going to hold on to no matter what?
- The Magic Weaving Business - passion, wisdom, righteous indignation
- Finding things you think are wrong help you see what needs to be right.
- Leadership is for the many not the few.
- Leadership doesn’t have a uniform.
- It was just us getting on with the work as it needed to get done.
- You can’t just have one kind of person leading.
- More people need to learn
- For some people, experience brings confidence.
- Leadership is a state of mind.
- The greatest thing a leader can do is develop an organization that can run in their absence as well.
- Leadership isn’t difficult - kids do it all the time.
- Toddlers’ evidence is everywhere.
- Toddlers lead all the time and they can’t speak or go to the bathroom.
- Moral buy-in - doing the right thing.
- Make your place people want to be - children have a huge emotional driver
- Clear plan for achievement - You know what’s best for that kid.
- If you get those three things right, everything else falls into place.
- How to be a transformative principal? See how you can have more adventures in school.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Vijay Ravindran is the creator of Floreo, an app to help kids with Autism understand social interactions.
- Vijay’s son inspired the app.
- Combines iPhone with VR headset
- VR therapy.
- help in 2 ways. 1. Opportunities to create fun characters.
- Therapy can get patronizing and monotonous; we make it better.
- Don’t have a lot of practice in giving kids
- One of the fascinating things is that professionals use the scenes in ways that we haven’t predicted.
- Student who is afraid of going outside.
- Never seen child interact in traditional therapy.
- Big emphasis around research.
- Research partners Celebrate the Children, CHOP Center for Autism Research.
- Work on eye contact with students.
- NIH Fasttrack grant - helped fund groundbreaking research around Autism.
- What are the barriers you face?
- Helping families and professionals think about how you can schedule and integrate when they are already scheduled to the max.
- VR is still not commonplace.
- We carry the burden of being the first time adults and children experience VR.
- Support iPad via tele therapy sessions.
- floreotech.com for more information. Subscription plans for the software for homes and schools.
- How to be a transformative principal? Starting with understanding the unique situations that families are in right now. Start with the customer and work backwards.
- Knowing how much potential these kids have and knowing what’s possible if these
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Amber Dembowski (Twitter) is a principal of two elementary buildings and founder of emBOSSed Leadership.
Mindful leadership embedded within instructional leadership.
Amber’s podcast
- Worked in many different facets of education - from para professional to teacher to instructional coach to university to principal.
- Bringing staff together for professional learning opportunities
-
Article
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Focusing too much on student outcomes 2. Staying out of teachers’ way * 4 types of teachers: notables (top 20%), classics (40% of teachers, need development), interim amateurs (20% of teachers, not living up to potential right now because of…), sideliners (<20%).
- Are you happy at work? Do you feel successful at work? I notice statements. Don’t let them consume your time.
- Can work through these throughout the day and circumstances.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn't Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Amber Dembowski (Twitter) is a principal of two elementary buildings and founder of emBOSSed Leadership.
Mindful leadership embedded within instructional leadership.
Amber’s podcast
- Worked in many different facets of education - from para professional to teacher to instructional coach to university to principal.
- Bringing staff together for professional learning opportunities
-
Article
-
Focusing too much on student outcomes 2. Staying out of teachers’ way * 4 types of teachers: notables (top 20%), classics (40% of teachers, need development), interim amateurs (20% of teachers, not living up to potential right now because of…), sideliners (<20%).
- Are you happy at work? Do you feel successful at work? I notice statements. Don’t let them consume your time.
- Can work through these throughout the day and circumstances.
3 Staying busy * Staying busy isn’t the same as being productive * Eisenhower matrix * Mindset Podcast * Find the things that are important * Schedule the things that are important. Getting into the classroom during instruction.
4 Always seeking out ways to critique * Are we sharing feedback to help, fix, or serve? * Glow and grow feedback is actually harmful. * Gallup found that when employees are given primarily positive feedback 98% will be given * 9 lies about work * I’m trying to bring humanity back. * How to be a transformative principal? Take time to recognize teachers for the talents they are bringing to the classroom.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.
John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:
- Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
- Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
- Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
- The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn't Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
- Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard
John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Sarah Levy and Mark Parmet are the co founders Einstein Academy in Colorado.
- K–5 and building out to 8th grade
- Four components of the school: for kids, family, community, today and the future.
- I got sick of hearing people say, “It’s school, kids shouldn’t have fun.”
- Setting an environment where kids can be the best they can.
- While working on things they’re good at, we can also work on things they struggle with.
- What do you love? What do you enjoy? What gets you excited?
- Until we’re feeling good, we’re not going to push ourselves.
- You gotta get to know your kids and their families!
- Parents have fears also.
- As educators, we’re the deciders.
- We tell kids what is important to learn.
- Teaching students and not teaching curriculum.
- How can we integrate hockey into the curriculum?
- Packaged curriculum.
- We’re really trying to build a program around our students.
- Curriculum adheres to Colorado state standards so it does provide some framework.
- Personalized learning profile.
- Private school instead of charter school.
- Only about 160 students in K–8
- The way we get to the content.
- Can’t lose sight of teachers.
- How do we get the best out of the teachers without overwhelming them?
- Teaching the student means you’re also taking the social emotional growth of the student into consideration.
- Hiring school teachers and not classroom teachers.
- All teachers will have a role and responsibility to the whole school, and not just their classroom.
- Teachers all need something different.
- What teachers want is to feel heard, cared for, and supported.
- Planning every morning to talk with teachers and talking with teachers every day after school.
- I wanted to know that my administrators had open lines of communication.
- Creating a culture where teachers want to collaborate.
- How to be a transformative principal? Sarah: Think about where you can be more clear and transparent in your communication
Mark: Make a list of things you’ve been afraid to do and just start knocking them off that list.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Literacy nerds Beth Lawrence and Deena Seifert cofounders of infercabulary.com
- Infercabulary is a web-based k–12 interactive tool for helping kids improve vocabulary and skills.
- speed up learning by making learning vocabulary like
- Avidly reading.
- We tend to make words simpler with oral language than authors when writing.
- SLPs by trade.
- Why should we help kids learn vocabulary?
- TedX talk
- 65% of students aren’t capable of comprehending text on grade level.
- Unless you know 95% of words in a text, it will impact your comprehension.
- A foundational skill that needs to exist is a strong vocabulary.
- Breadth and depth of vocabulary.
- If you only have a surface level understanding of a word, you can’t link it to more
- A child needs 10–12 exposures to a word in a variety of contexts to understand the word.
- Tiered words.
- Tier 1: These are the common, everyday words that most children enter school knowing already. Since we don’t need to teach these, this is a tier without tears!
- Tier 2: This tier consists of words that are used across the content areas and are important for students to know and understand. Included here are process words like analyze and evaluate that students will run into on many standardized tests and that are also used at the university level, in many careers, and in everyday life. We really want to get these words into students’ long-term memory.
- Tier 3: This tier consists of content-specific vocabulary—the words that are often defined in textbooks or glossaries. These words are important for imparting ideas during lessons and helping to build students’ background knowledge.
- Over-generalization and under-generalization
- When the author is kind enough to give you context clues.
- How to help kids who hate learning about reading.
- Semantic reasoning -
- Beta tests showed quickly that assumptions were wrong about their intended target student.
- How to be a transformative principal? Deena: Bringing words to life.
Beth: Do additional homework to understand importance of vocabulary!
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Evidence-informed for Real Learning with Eric Kalenze Transformative Principal 334
Social Media: Evidence-informed means looking at what has worked.
Eric Kalenze is the author of “What The Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools From The Bottom Up In A Top-Down Transformation Era.”
How to teach practitioners to put this into practice.
- High school teacher, English, coach, journalism.
- Help educators around the country become evidence informed.
- Education is upside down.
- ResearchED
- Evidence-informed - looking at what has worked.
- More fascinated with planning instruction according to the evidence we have based in cognitive or behavioral science.
- “There’s contrary evidence that the reading program didn’t work in another district.”
- This is an evidence-based program, well show me the evidence.
- “What has worked” is an incredibly complex study.
- Humans learn incredibly similarly to others, regardless of our backgrounds.
- Repetition is the mother of all learning.
- Practice can make permanent.
- How do we learn, and how can we integrate those sorts of things into practice.
- How might you retrain people who are already ridiculously busy?
- Redesigning teacher coaching and evaluation process.
- Little systemic ways we can talk about scientific studies.
- In what ways can systems make sure their PD is about evidence-based
- Give us the tools you do have, and how can we apply some principles that inform the little things you do?
- In the control of districts.
- I can’t do certain things because district is moving in this direction.
- “What the Academy Taught Us” - less academic, but still crucial in education.
- Remarkable amount of autonomy.
- I don’t know that enough research has been done on kids post-K–12 experience!
- 10 years out - how do you look back on this experience?
- What happened 5–6 years ago.
- “They jumped the girl in front of me and told their story to me intentionally.”
- Still close to each other even after all this time.
- In Search Of Deeper Learning
- Dr. Bob Perdaems
- How to be a transformative principal? A book - Daniel Willingham - When can you trust the experts?
- If the principals can push back on centrally
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
How We Nearly Doubled Math Scores with Kevin Finnegan Transformative Principal 333
Social Media: When we saw Math could be a discussion, it totally changed everything.
Kevin Finnegan is the principal of Prairie Hill School in Illinois. His students recently showed a 77% growth in Math, and we talk about how he made that happen.
- Prairie hill is the school and the community comes together around it.
- Northern Illinois, PK–4th grade.
- 9 years as the principal.
- Mission statement: Students first, always.
- PLC school
- Reformed schedule so that every day (4 teachers per team) have an hour of common collaborative time every day.
- Why are we making this decision? The students are always the bringback.
- Norms: imagine the students you are talking about are here.
- To be a great principal is easy. You just have to have a great staff.
- PE teacher said, “I want students more.”
- Each class has 10 half hour blocks each week: Art, PE, STEM,
- Always been a high performing district. Makes change really hard when you have had success in the past.
- staff is competitive within themselves.
- Noticed that math scores were less than we expected.
- Dove into the data.
- Computation was awesome, but they struggled with elaborating on their thoughts.
- In every math assignment, adding the words, “I know this because…”
- If you see something that can be done in Kindergarten it can be done anywhere.
- Ready Math - iReady as platforms for learning.
- Standards based School, done in isolation.
- Common language in math.
- Didn’t get good training at first, but then got good training and that made a huge difference.
- Math has always dealt black and white.
- Math didn’t have to be one answer, it could be a discussion, totally changed everything.
- Talking about kids’ growth, talking about assessments, classwork, and then looking at the data.
- It’s not about what you teach, it’s about what we learned.
- How long did it take to understand that it was working?
- It fit us, rather than us fitting it.
- How to be a transformative principal? Spend a little time with kids, like on their birthday. It’s a constant reminder that kids come first.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Jaime Casap is the Education Evangelist at Google. Jaime evangelizes the power and potential of technology and the web as enabling and supporting tools in pursuit of promoting inquiry-driven learning models. Jaime collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders focused on building innovation and iteration into our education policies and practices. He speaks on education, technology, innovation, and generation z, at events around the world. In addition to his role at Google, Jaime is also an author and serves on a number of boards for organizations focused on education, innovation, and equity. Jaime teaches a 10th-grade communication class at the Phoenix Coding Academy in Phoenix and is an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches classes on policy, innovation, and leadership.
- Education evangelist.
- Launched Gmail, G-suite for education, and chromebooks.
- Transforming education
- Facts - education is not broken, graduation rates higher than anywhere else
- 21st century skills - Critical skill - ability to learn.
- Education has become a process, but it is a mindset.
- Our students have to be self-directed.
- Let kids choose what they want to learn!
- Math is the most important thing because everything has math in it.
- There’s nothing that we can’t teach kids when they’re curious.
- If you want to see pure creative genius, look at an undisciplined two year old.
- 7 minute meetings.
- Linear vs vision ways of approaching things - to do list.
- How to be a transformative principal? Whatever time you set up for a meeting is how long it’s going to take. Empower your teachers! We all want autonomy, purpose, and mastery.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
JC Pohl is the co-founder and CEO of TeenTruth.net/schoolculture
- Young filmmakers looked at coverage of Columbine, and we always saw adults telling the story of what happened.
- Look into teenage life.
- Giving students a voice.
- How to give kids voice?
- Control - told what to do, what classes to take, and everything else in between.
- Lack of control really causes a lot of stress in students.
- Are we doing a disservice to kids by not giving them control?
- Three major buckets (school assemblies, )
- These kids made a movie, what are you going to do?
- Students can take ownership by getting involved.
- How do you want to solve it?
- It’s about creating culture of agency and ownership for kids.
- There are so many kids on our campuses that it’s easy to get lost.
- Kids desperately want to be there.
- It’s up to us to create an environment that makes them want to be included.
- Finding their thing.
- Open up as many opportunities as we can for kids to get involved.
- What were some of the data points that came out.
- Principals get caught up in the data.
- One goal: work for Disney!
- If you have a school motto on your campus and you don’t hear your kids say it, it’s not working!
- If you don’t have a tight brand, your school culture is not as strong as it could be.
- Don’t mess with Texas.
- “We > I”
- We form an emotional connection with some brands.
- Got to involve students in the process.
- How to be a transformative principal? Your job is so important. Every principal needs to go all in, even with a slogan. Every student and every staff member is doing their best.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Dr. Wendy Oliver serves as Chief Learning Officer for EdisonLearning, a leading international educational services provider with nearly a generation of experience creating effective and sustainable solutions to raise student achievement. In this role, her experience in digital learning and curriculum design, paired with her expertise in assessment and evaluation, are leveraged to design an innovative, learner-centered curriculum.
- Expectations around online learning
- How good design applies to online learning.
- Teachers are working themselves into the ground to reach students!
- 19% of teachers said they were adjusted!
- Also have an 8 year old in her second grade studies.
- Everyone is in survival mode.
- Edison learning offering free courses to seniors.
- Where to go to get help.
- quality matters and common sense media.
- How to make things look better?
- Less is more.
- How to be a transformative principal? Care about kids.
Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. He helps improve organizations, leaders, teams, and employees by improving their mindsets. Ryan is currently a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF). He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.
Ryan is the author of “Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership.” (Morgan James Publishing)
- How a school changed their growth mindsets.
- We take on the mindsets of our collective culture.
- When people have a fixed mindset they focus on looking good.
- When we are emphasizing grades and not learning and growing, we are emphasizing a fixed mindset.
- Fixed vs. Growth mindset
- 90% of our thinking feeling acting is driven subconsciously. What drives that? Our mindsets.
- Study about when kids faced difficult questions.
- When we don’t believe we can improve, and we fail, we feel that we are failures.
- Growth mindset - when we have that belief that we can change, we see growth as an opportunity to learn.
- 50/50 growth vs. fixed
- Intervention for growth mindsets.
- Small interventions can shift our mindsets for 2–4 weeks.
- 15 minute training just talking about how people are not fixed can be beneficial.
- TED Talks and brain plasticity.
- Open vs. Closed mindset
- Compare our mind to a bucket relating to a particular area.
- Closed minded don’t invite feedback.
- Open minded folks leave space in their bucket.
- Book recommendations: Success Mindsets
- Bridgewater Associates - Principles by Ray Dalio.
- Discussions - are we a team or a group where ideas can be heard?
- Principles for success
- Prevention vs. Promotion mindsets
- Compliance is the stereotypical prevention mindset.
- Is that place of safety the intended destination.
- Interventions: Have a destination.
- Amy Purdy ted talk
- Greatest Showman Keala Settle
- Inward mindsets: we see ourselves as being more important than others.
- Outward mindset: others have needs just as great as my own.
- Interventions: positive self talk. Am I seeing people as tools?
- The Arbinger Institute: Leadership and self-deception
- TED talk Benjamin Xander
- When we have an inward mindset, we expect students to cater to us.
- The most powerful thing we can do as educators is see students as people.
- How to be a transformative principal? Go individually to his or her teachers and ask what stands in your way of being your ideal self?
Nhon Ma is the co-founder of numerade.com
- Mom was an educator in South Vietnam, Chinese immigrants who then moved to LA.
- Grew up in LAUSD system.
- Better Chance program in middle school. Placed me in a top private school.
- Shaped my thinking around education.
- Ride bus to school in a completely different culture.
- Close educational opportunity gap
- Prices for tutoring for synchronous doesn’t drop.
- Largest STEM video library.
- Jethro’s YouTube channel from when he was an English teacher
- Mass adoption of synchronous learning through zoom.
- Participation rates are much lower.
- Office hours, daily creation, Students consume content at their own time.
- Anonymous q&a feature.
- Especially with STEM students, if there is a fall-off, it’s very hard to make up lost ground.
- Stitching together playlists of math and science for students.
- How to be a transformative leader? Always focus on the why!
Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. He helps improve organizations, leaders, teams, and employees by improving their mindsets. Ryan is currently a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF). He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.
Ryan is the author of “Success Mindsets: The Key to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work, & Leadership.” (Morgan James Publishing)
- How do we tap into the “being” element of leadership?
- different types of mindset:
- Fixed vs. Growth mindset
- Open vs. closed mindset
- Prevention vs. promotion mindset
- Inward vs. outward
- Continuum of positive and negative.
- The more we are towards the positive, the better we interact with our environment.
- Innate beliefs about our ability to change affect how we interact with the world.
- With a fixed mindset, we internalize failure as though it means we are a failure.
- What kinds of interventions can help improve our mindset?
- Engage in interventions to promote growth mindset but if the culture doesn’t support it, there’s no point.
- How Jethro and Ryan each reacted when doing poorly in a class in their freshman year of college.
- Our mindsets are foundational to everything we do. They shape how we see the world, and how we operate in the world.
- Assess teacher’s mindset across the school and determine what our collective mindsets are across the school and what does that teach our students.
- How a school changed their growth mindsets.
- We take on the mindsets of our collective culture.
- When people have a fixed mindset they focus on looking good.
- When we are emphasizing grades and not learning and growing, we are emphasizing a fixed mindset.
- Fixed vs. Growth mindset
- 90% of our thinking feeling acting is driven subconsciously. What drives that? Our mindsets.
- Study about when kids faced difficult questions.
- When we don’t believe we can improve, and we fail, we feel that we are failures.
- Growth mindset - when we have that belief that we can change, we see growth as an opportunity to learn.
- 50/50 growth vs. fixed
- Intervention for growth mindsets.
Ross Romano is Managing Director of Communications & Public Affairs for MindRocket Media Group, a strategic advisory firm providing a range of services to companies and institutions operating within the K–20 education and education technology sectors worldwide.
In his current role, Ross oversees all corporate communications for MindRocket, as well as communications and public relations strategy and execution for MindRocket clients. He supervises PR, media relations, social media, and digital marketing efforts, is creative director for editorial content development, and drives significant efforts in partnership development and expansion into new lines of business.
Ross has built a reputation as a creative communications leader with expertise in telling compelling stories via diverse media. He has created and executive produced a number of successful podcast series, created and edited book projects, provided initial platforms to numerous authors, educators, and industry leaders, and more.
Prior to joining MindRocket, Ross spent time as the communications lead for the global education leadership association ASCD, where his media relations and publicity work contributed to multiple national award-winning communications teams. Earlier in his career, he worked in different roles for Major League Baseball, both in the US and internationally. Ross has a BA from The George Washington University, a Master’s of Professional Studies from Georgetown University, and is a member of the Education Writers Association (EWA) and Public Relations Society of merica (PRSA).
- Works with ed tech companies and publishers and schools in K–20 space.
- Comprehensive communication for stakeholders
- When free isn’t really free.
- Start with Empathy
- Recognize startup situation.
- Quick drop off in usage after a week.
- Have a little patience for companies reaching out.
- Before we put them on the do not buy list, let’s have empathy.
- Everybody’s perspective is valid and understood.
- Many different stakeholders have different expectations.
- It works up until what point?
- This is an extra long back to school period.
- Wrap up the school year as best as possible.
- Put the plan in place now and start warming up to it.
- We can’t fail to learn from the challenges facing us right now.
- How to be a transformative principal? Communicating. So important, all the time. If can communicate how I make decisions, it helps them make better decisions too.
Thom Gibson is a middle school math and robotics teacher and high school YouTube teacher in Austin, Texas.
- Budgeting, saving and spending
- How we should teach kids about money.
- Rafe Esquith - Teach like your hair’s on fire.
- Are you still using classroom economy?
- Moved away from paper money to all digital
- Automate a lot of things with it.
- Classroom jobs.
- Beginning of year is full of prep work.
- Jobs that free up your time as the teacher.
- Auctioneer takes a letter to local businesses.
- Virtual bank for the kids’ money. paygrade.io
- Forcing kids to do jobs.
- Get Thom’s course 20% discount code - transformative
- How to be a transformative principal? Look for an opportunity to let your teachers do something they would flourish in.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Tom Murray and I did office hours to support schools during this closure. Here are the questions we answered.
If you were on a leadership team, what would you be focusing on right now? High school, middle school, elementary school? People, equity, vision for your school
http://bit.ly/ToolsForEngagement
How are you managing fears and anxieties around fall planning? How do you build trust in this environment?
Have a great network. Join the Mastermind
Jethro Jones met up with Marlena Gross-Taylor at the Future of Educational Technology Conference earlier this year.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Tom Murray and Jethro Jones hosted office hours for people to answer questions during these school closures.
Katie and Camille are the dynamic duo of Educational Technologists in Canyons District. I worked with them nearly a decade ago. This interview is from #FETC2020
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
An interview with Ed Tech Digest's Mark Gura and Victor Rivero from #FETC2020
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Adam Geller is the Founder of Edthena, a video coaching program.
Enjoy this chat from #FETC2020
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Join host Tamara Fyke and Jethro Jones of Transformative Principal for a conversation about how to keep yourself calm when you’re feeling stressed and nervous.
We will talk about:
- Phrases to show empathy
- Phrases to give yourself some time to think!
- Phrases to calm fears
- How to control your voice.
- Phone vs. in person vs. video conversations.
A great interview with Tom Murray at #FETC20 earlier this year.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
At FETC2020, I had the privilege of interviewing Rebekah McPherson and Nikoski Darnell.
Such a great conversation. I hope you enjoy it.
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
I had a 1:1 coaching call with Natalie Irons. She’s awesome.
If you want to reach out for help, you can send me a text: 801–252–6368
Matt Pavao is a principal in Burlingame, California. The following is a transcript of our conversation.
I'd love to talk about my school will be a lot lots of things going great at the school in the district. I have a small district in in the Bay Area, like you said, We're right near the San Francisco Airport. We are a school of 338 students k five. We are title one school. We are also school. It's very dedicated to innovation and very dedicated to our community and being a real community school all the school district all the schools in Burlingame are committed to being really community schools. So we're really tight and tight knit community at our and in our district. 338 today? Yeah. You know, we always say about 350, actually, but we just did the count the other day, so 338 Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I've been at the school for eight years. My eighth year at the school. Yeah. As the principal the whole time. Yeah. It's my 20 I think third year in education. I'm done. Teaching and then other administration jobs at middle school and then and then this my first principalship first sponsorship, I'm eight years Hey, yes. Yeah. Yeah, we did. All right. We're doing okay.
Well, yeah, no,
I Well, the interesting thing about the school is I'm only the third principle they've had and Something like they reopen the school. It's the school is hundred years old this year. So it was built in 1919. But it was closed for some years in the end up until about and I think believe 1988. And since then we've only had three principals. So there was the principal there for 10 years. And the one before me was 11. And then mean, so I have, I'm the young still, I'm still the newbie in that group. You know, it's such a wonderful job and a wonderful community that I have such exciting people that I work with, and really inspired teachers and really inspired district that's allows me to have this community that allows me to have this, why they there is an expectation that we continue to push towards a very innovative practices. And we're in the kind of the north end of the Silicon Valley. So a lot of our parents work in the Silicon Valley in jobs that require the creativity and the collaboration and then the, you know, the critical thing that we talked about the communication. So they understand that's an important factor, and what we have to teach, so to give you this wide berth to kind of really push out into some things that aren't You know, you must be on page 25 of the textbook today. And we are. And at the same time, you know, I think we're a good example to other districts in that we have a wide range of students, you know, we have students of all socio economic backgrounds will talk about, you know, we have 27 different languages at the school. And that's not that's typical, actually, for our area, you know, our we have a very diverse population. And in that we still have achieved we were still able to achieve at high high levels of the typical if you want to call them that academic backgrounds, while at the same time really pushing our innovative practices into things like today where we're looking at podcasting or when we're doing a lot of creative work with presentations and so, a lot of creative creativity and design thinking and things like that. Okay,
Yeah, my advice would be one is to reach out to them. A lot of times we have this shutdown method of like you stay on your side of the fence and I'll stay on my side of the fence. But at Roosevelt and in Burlingame, we definitely encourage parent participation. So a lot of the ideas we have come from parent groups, you know, you meet with them after school and or in the evenings and if they're willing to give their time to you, and then you can listen to their great ideas and you can take that and put the educators lens at the same time possibly because not impossible because of the principles that came before me. There was this foundation of real partnership with the parents that I just inherited it worked hard to keep that going. But it's always been part of our culture at the school and in the district that there's a real partnership. And certainly, there are helicopter parents in all walks, but even we don't. We don't I wouldn't say we even have I can't name any that we would have even at my site, but we've always really valued our partnership with the parents and they valued our professionalism. It's really, really a special kind of place in that respect.
So hundred years. Yeah, this year Well, 1990 is actually passed over but 1919 we're gonna have the celebration this year.
It's real. And it's a real balancing between honoring what was before you, and then building, you know, continue to build. And so we tried to do that in the years I've been there and it's been successful. Yeah, yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Sure. Let me preface a little bit. We, we so we have this giant wall in our school that we painted this mural on a while back for a lot of different reasons. We had an event, an unfortunate event of some graffiti that we and so it's This speaks to what our parents are like as well, that we, in typically, we just cross out the graffiti move on our day, the parents want to do more we did that. Got it down immediately, and then went about our day and then went to say, No, we want to express who we are. And part of that is our 27 languages that we spoke at the time and I think was 24. We've grown. So we put this wall that said, we are Roosevelt. Roosevelt elementary is my school. And so we and then we wrote in every different language on the wall. We are Roosevelt in that language. So if you had someone who was speaking to golic it's up there if you have Russian it's up there Chinese Portuguese. And after you when you see it, and I look at it almost every day when you come in it's really keeps you focused. So one of the parts we were having struggles with we you know, we have a wee hours about night where we celebrate all the cultures, but we weren't getting party active participation from all our parents. And one of the ideas was, well, we need a translation service to translate our newsletters and we went through that and there's a price to that. And then we thought what we have experts Right here in the school, so we should have an audio audio Translation by our students using podcasts. We'll just attach it right to a link on our newsletters and we so what we do is we have, so we get we put it out to the parents and the teachers in the fifth grade, our students in the fifth grade, come and help us translate our newsletter. And so they would show up on our newsletters go out on Thursdays, they would show up on Tuesdays, I would give them kind of these are the highlights. They would take it home, they write it out with their parents, and then they would come so we had the first year we had Japanese and Portuguese and Japanese Portuguese, Spanish, and not Russian, but I'm forgetting we had one more. And we've now since expanded to Turkish and China we have Mandarin Chinese now. So we're confused. We don't have all 27 right now but it's it's powerful for lots of reasons. If you just take out even the parties, the students feel valued, which is actually the number one piece. There's a technical aspect to it that the kids are learning how to do podcasting, there's a some of these kids knew how to speak the language. They didn't necessarily know how to write it out. So they're even learning their own language which is how to their parents language how to write it out, but so there's children
Well, you just bring up something, it's just my my wife's family comes from China. two generations ago her grandmother came from China and who just passed at 98 years old. And one of the things that her uncle brought up at the thing was even he had a commute there was always a communication issue with them and, and it was powerful it and so the other thing that we say is these and you just reminded me of another thing we do with students of second their second language students is we honor them, when they when they do learn English when they do read designated as English learners. And we have a full Berlin game. We had 100 and some odd students this year that we designated. We have celebration, we have metals and things like that, but when we do in front of the school, we always talk about how special these students are because of immigration stories like that. that at some point during the life of a family, someone is brave enough to learn English it was with my, my grandfather was the first one and then you see how that then expands out? So if we can hold on to it because you're right people then give up the language was isn't what necessarily we want? Right, right. Oh, it's a superpower. Yeah and in this world and what we're talking about at our students all the time is, you know, the flattening of the world, and how we need to be able to now cross culturally talk to people. And if you know about other cultures, you all of a sudden have a leg up where you thought it was something that was pulling you down, it's actually going to lift you up and the new economy or the new world for sure.
When we do and so and with our translators they become a place where they become hope elevated at the school because we do acknowledge them at our assemblies. He's these people are doing this translation for you guys. So more so the parents will know it's out there, but also to honor them for doing the work.
Yes, no kidding. Right. And some of these kids come in. We had a student last year who could do the Portuguese like, I give it to you do it. Others need to take it home and write it down and really fit this guy was and he was having struggles in other areas. But you could see if you go in this route you are URL had, you know head and shoulders above the rest of the translators that we have at the school because I mean, if I was told, you know, you need go you're gonna be sitting in a classroom of all Spanish speakers and they all started speaking Spanish. I wouldn't be participating. I know a little bit of Spanish but I wouldn't be participating and this is similar similar sort of thing. Right? You got to put yourself in their shoes on that on those respects. Yeah. It's pretty brave kids.
It's it's one of those real low floor high ceilings, like it's very easy to do and you get tons out of it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, well, one of the things we're really proud of is we have a full and we talked about communication in this. And we have, we're very dedicated to giving our students the skills to communicate with others. We have this thought that, you know, and I know a lot of schools are working on design process, and it's fantastic. And certainly we are to getting kids to be creative problem solvers and things like this. All right. Our philosophy is that it's not an idea unless you can share it with someone and get them to understand your idea. So how do we do that? Well, so we worked with a company in the Silicon Valley and there's a long story about how we came about with this, but Duarte, Duarte, marketing or duardo, we just call them dorky But anyway, the dirty design, the Silicon Valley and she Nancy Duarte and her husband Mark started this company and they work on giving high powered CEOs the skills to give presentations. They were going to work with college level students. I knew someone at the company, we kind of worked it out so that they came and worked to elementary school. So now, yeah, it was very Yeah, it's been fantastic. They've been working with us for six years now. Which is interesting. So we've gone through a full cycle now from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade or they don't know any different. So this is this year for it. So every year fifth graders give what we call our Teddy talks were Teddy Roosevelt elementary school. So we give our Teddy talks at the end of year and they give a presentation in front of a room full of about 200 people. We invites local celebrities, our local Congress, people and things like that come and visit. And they stand up there and give about a five minute presentation in a TED TED Talks type format about an idea That they've had and they're they're trying to move people forward and you'd be hard pressed to find people at the conference today, which is a great conference that give better presentations than these kids. At 10 years old, it's fantastic and it's transformative in how they view themselves. So what we do that's one thing we're very proud of his heart Teddy talks program.
I will tell you that is that not only is it hard for adults to give presentations is that they learn about giving presentations from watching other people that don't know how to give presentations. So it's just perpetuating this bad presentations that you sit Through, it all comes from our need to do this comes from me walking into a classroom and seeing my third grade teacher suffering while her kids were up there giving presentations that were boring and uninspiring and, and it was typical of everything I'd seen in all my years of education, there has to be a better way. And we went and found a better way. So we're hoping that we're changing the way and again in this age where you're going to need to be able to get your ideas out there. We think we're giving our students a real skill that they're going to need. Sure. Sure. Sure, the number one is that the audience is first meaning it's not about you. It's about your audience. What do they need you give it to them? The second is, if it's a good presentation, it vacillates between what is now and what will be. So this is why your life is down. But if you listen to my ideas, this is what it will be. It'll be my veteran you almost the audience, you almost feel like they're going on a rollercoaster ride where it's like, oh, I don't know about this. Oh, it's gonna be great. Oh, I don't know about this. Oh, it's going to be great. And then we have a few other things like how to do an introduction and how to finish it off with what Nancy Duarte calls something they'll always remember or your star moments sta or something that always remember. So we try to do that and there's a few other and then the other main probably thing is how they do their slides. So we do they do present with slides and they have to control you know, a PowerPoint presentation or a Google Slides presentation. But there's things that we put in that likes, lots of slides are too busy or they're showing me five words on a slide are you should be able to read it in three seconds and understand it. It ruins you from going to other presentations because you sit there go oh that's a terrible slide. And there's another teacher that have some time so if I ever see you giving a presentation I take out my phone and take a picture of the slide. I might be sending it to the My another teacher that I always said look at this slide.
Add that to the collection but it has been wonderful. This is for the city. years that we've been doing this that kids just they get it and that you start see changes now over time because we check in with the middle school and things like that. Okay.
And it also comes in that you're totally right. It also comes from the planning of the presentation like our students. Oftentimes, it's the last, you know, you'll do a project, their presentations, the last day, go do your project. Now I want to presentation. They're doing the work on the presentation the whole time. They're doing the research and the project and so they're laying out their slides using posts. And they're talking about what questions the audience might have. They're drawing pictures of the audience who's gonna be sitting there watching me. So they're considering it all the time. Well, if you, you know, read the book, read it resonate by Nancy Duarte, their little plug for Nancy and her company in. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She has several books out but that's the the cornerstone one, I think slide. ology is another one but okay. Yeah. So she works. We work with her. Yeah, it's great. It is we have we have been very fortunate with that one, and they've been very, very nice to us.
Okay, I would say just, I've taught me how to get into classrooms and talk to teachers and really not only have the expectation that they'll keep pushing their practice, but also have the trust in They need to have trust with you, that you will back them if they're going to try. They're gonna try something new. You know, oftentimes we have teachers at, it's always an easy default. Well, I'll get in trouble if I do that. I Roosevelt, you know, we don't try to get in trouble. But we certainly haven't. We always kind of have an explanation as to why we're doing something. And that's easy for me to then go tell my people, you know, my superintendent, hey, we're going to try this out. See how it goes. Or we're trying this out, and we'll see how it goes. But we want brave leaders are brave teachers. So we need to be brave leaders. So I would get get into two classrooms as much as possibly my number one go talk to teachers, you know.
Sponsorship:
Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, has been publishing high quality guidebooks, magazines and educator-focused professional development books since 1959. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.
John Catt amplifies fresh voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized around the world for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. Learn more about these professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors
Learn about some of John Catt Educational’s newest publications:
- What the Academy Taught Us: Improving Schools from the Bottom-Up in a Top-Down Transformation Era by Eric Kalenze
- Be More Toddler: Leadership Lessons From Our Little Learners by Emma Turner
- A Quiet Education: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal in Our Schools by Jamie Thom
- Rosenshine’s Principles in Action by Tom Sherrington
- The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community by Kulvarn Atwal
- The researchED Guide to Explicit and Direct Instruction: An evidence-informed guide for teachers by Various Authors
Jeff Becker and I are hosting a webinar about how to implement SEL in your school. Register here! Jeff is a former school counselor and current video production teacher in Florida. He also hosts the CanDoU SEL podcast and produces courses for high schools to use to support their students. Check those out here.
- It won’t work unless you address SEL with staff, too
- People feel ill-equipped to do SEL.
- The students will lead you through the process.
- CASEL Core Competencies - Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, Relationship skills, Responsible decision-making
- What is SEL?
- SEL just feels fluffy.
- Professional development on social emotional learning.
- Teachers hate to be put in a situation where they don’t feel set up for success.
- If you work with kids, and you do care, you’ve already won 80–90% of the battle.
- You know more than you know.
- Kids just want to be listened to.
- Create a space to talk about what the kids want to talk about.
- Think about when you had a connection
- At worst, SEL shows kids how much you care.
- Data on success from doing SEL.
- Write down all your problems in your school, and fit them into each of the buckets from CASEL.
- When given the opportunity, they want to know how to stop using substances to stop numbing feelings.
- How to be a transformative principal? Give your teachers the green light to carve in time to talk about something non-academic in your class.
Systematizing Our Professional Development For The Charter School with Amanda Huza Transformative Principal 320
Social Media: We’re not wasting the time of teachers who have already mastered that aspect of teaching.
Amanda Huza is the principal of Equality charter school.
- Serve about 630 middle and high school students in the bronx.
- Share space with two other partner schools.
- 27 teachers - 50% of them are new or 2 years or less.
- Important to accelerate their growth.
- Want them to feel successful enough to improve student learning.
- Data-based professional development.
- Focus on 10 pieces of Danielson framework.
- Create rich cultures of learning, routines and procedures, logical consequences in the classroom,
- Provide examples and non examples.
- Informal observation on a weekly basis. Teachers know that someone could be in classrooms at any time.
- higher order thinking questions and wait time. Scaffolding questions.
- Focus on specific areas of mastery and track those.
- We’re not wasting the time of teachers who have already mastered that aspect of teaching.
- The list is not concrete, we want to think about the people that we have in front of us.
- Scholar data as well.
- 1–2 day opportunities for teachers to be learners themselves.
- Peer observations.
- coaching role and supervision, then principal position.
- goal is expanding to elementary school.
- Systematizing our professional development for the charter school
- Building up to socratic seminar.
- Get feedback from their peers and from their coaches.
- Large group of kids who need intervention.
- Footage of a demonstration lesson, then feedback from peers.
- Swivl
- Edthena
- Can see videos of exemplars in their school.
- Teachers are on an equal playing field.
- Helps the administrator move away from being a judge.
- To put the pressure on you to remember everything is really unkind to both the administrator and the teacher.
- There’s pretty much always someone coming into the classrooms each day.
- Informal observations happen weekly.
- Weekly coaching meeting.
- Coaching meeting is a debrief of the observation and a review of the data.
- Provided weekly lesson plan feedback.
- Video is 1 time per month at least, sometimes more if they are in higher need.
- Explorations in EdThena.
- Teachers create a professional development support plan.
- Weekly professional development time on Tuesdays.
- Quarterly data meetings.
- How to be a transformative principal? Don’t forget that the work that’s happening is the most important work and the work we used to do, so we need to not be afraid to learn with them.
- Really helps teachers feel supported and valued. amanda.huza@equalitycharter.org
Kim Marshall is the founder of the Marshall Memo and Jenn David-Lang is the founder of the Main Idea. We talk about their new book, “The Best of the Marshall Memo,”
- As a principal I rarely had time to read in a thoughtful way.
- Why write a book about the Marshall Memo.
- Articles not organized.
- Professional development ideas.
- Educational journals have theme issues.
- How to take the next step from the learning to the doing.
- Practical article about how to have conversations - Don’t email criticism
- Watching a teacher who made a grammatical mistake.
- It’s going to be in the principal’s hands. One strategy, what do you notice?
- Why have a conversation about the grammatical error? Are there reasons why you should talk with this teacher?
- She was miseducating the kids. We couldn’t let that go by.
- Has the leader created a culture of feedback?
- Getting into classrooms enough that you see the bigger picture.
- Teachers need to be appreciated.
- Real time coaching vs after-the-event feedback.
- Routine for principals to take over the class.
- Have a conversation so that the teacher comes to the conclusion on what behavior comes next.
- Sanebox - take control of your email
- How to be a transformative principal? Kim: Have an out of office response on email. Jenn: Ask for feedback.
- If you want to work with Jethro, please get in touch jethrojones.com or schedule a call
Phil Echols is an Administrator of Professional Learning supporting K-12 needs in the area of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and coaching in Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina.
- Psychology major and teacher in his home town.
- Counseling
- The power of Twitter.
- People often find a way to monetize things
-
Monetization of the network. You can’t monetize the network - via @adamcurry
-
BMETalk - Black male educators
- Black males are like unicorns in so many spaces.
- Every time I meet someone face to face at a conference I create a twitter list with them on it.
- How do you mentor those unicorns?
- 100+ staff members. 1200 students.
- Why do you stay here?
- You could be in a school where there are more minority students. Why do you stay here?
- Good things come from my DNA.
- Patience and reflection comes from my parents.
- Enter spaces with the mindset of who do I need to be in this space?
- How to decide who you need to be in a meeting.
- The relationships of the people at the table require a different approach.
- Paying attention to what people might need.
- Presume positive intent.
- Relationships are foundational.
- Sometimes I can be too heavy on the relationship and we don’t get everything done that we need to!
- Facilitated leadership equilateral relationships, processes, and tasks.
- Leader member exchange theory - focuses on three components: leader follower, and exchanges between those two.
- Leaders often have in groups and out groups.
- Out groups don’t always get everything they need.
- Help people feel like they are in the “in group!“
- How to be a transformative principal? Be more mindful of your individual interactions with all of your staff members.
Cristina Garza is the director of social impact for the Mission Economic Development Corporation. She curates and leads all STEAM and entrepreneurship initiatives for this EDC, and through this work commits herself improving the financial mobility of area residents, and fostering progressive and equitable economic development practices. Among the programs she founded are Web of Women, an initiative to teach technical skills to women professionals, and Career Readiness and Empowerment of Women (CREW), a multidisciplinary internship that trains young high-school women to serve as leaders in STEM and entrepreneurship. She is 2017 Next City Vanguard and named by CityLab Latino one of the Top 20 Young Civic Leaders of 2017. Before her career in economic development, Cristina worked in several museums in New York City including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin of Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Museum.
- What prevents the community relationships from having this kind of impact?
- By the time they leave your school, they are not attractive to industry.
- Don’t want to give tax incentives just to have them import their talent!
- It’s not worth it to train someone who doesn’t have the soft skills.
- There could be better systems where EDC pays for the high schoolers to work somewhere.
- Challenges with push to early-college schools.
- You were ready to get out of your hometown.
- Too scared and insecure to do the real things that I wanted to.
- Seeing myself as being capable of talking about.
- Shy away from educational issues that are hard to measure
- Feeling like we are not good enough.
- Define what is important.
- Everyone is measured by their productivity and we are teaching kids that.
- Reevaluate how much time we are putting in kids’ schedules to think about these issues.
- Have time in kids’ schedules to go to counseling and go to group therapy.
- There are only two things that kids do all day in school: Compete or try to get good grades
- How rare it is for kids to have an opportunity to work on something that is open ended.
- Hard to ideate because they have never been given a prompt and how to deal with it.
- Ideas come from spending time thinking.
- Start the semester with what are the problems you see affecting you and others?
- Giving kids time to find their own story and their own why
- They are experts in their lives.
- Policies should be done in consideration of their voices.
- The level of complexity that youth today are experiencing.
- Understanding their power and owning their truth.
- how to be a transformative principal? Spend at least one hour sending emails to industry leaders asking about how to prepare their kids?
Cristina Garza is the director of social impact for the Mission Economic Development Corporation. She curates and leads all STEAM and entrepreneurship initiatives for this EDC, and through this work commits herself improving the financial mobility of area residents, and fostering progressive and equitable economic development practices. Among the programs she founded are Web of Women, an initiative to teach technical skills to women professionals, and Career Readiness and Empowerment of Women (CREW), a multidisciplinary internship that trains young high-school women to serve as leaders in STEM and entrepreneurship. She is 2017 Next City Vanguard and named by CityLab Latino one of the Top 20 Young Civic Leaders of 2017. Before her career in economic development, Cristina worked in several museums in New York City including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin of Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Museum.
- CREW is a year-long internship and career preparation program for women and non-binary individuals.
- Getting mentored by women in industries that don’t exist in this town.
- I wanted to create a program that I would have benefited from when I was 17
- They are the first in their families to go to college.
- Only Latina in the classroom or the workspace.
- Integration of entrepreneurship and leadership.
- Thinking about the statistics of women in Tech.
- Why are we keeping women of color out of these leadership positions?
- Instead of just putting kids in coding camps, we need to
- Looking at problems that are affecting their communities, then create products or policies that fix that problem.
- Jobs are not just for software engineers.
- Not waiting for someone to tap them on the shoulder and say they are chosen.
- You create change by doing it.
- The coding doesn’t happen until the end of the internship so that they have a purpose for the coding.
- Kids learn way more way faster when they have a problem they are trying to solve.
- We’re not spending enough time simply talking to youth and seeing how they can solve problems in their communities.
- You’ve got to create partnerships with the school and community partners.
Sam Brooks is honored to have worked for Putnam County Schools (TN) for the past 27 years. Brooks leads all student/teacher personalized learning opportunities in the district, which includes online, dual enrollment, dual credit, and industry certification options. Mr. Brooks is a Google Certified Trainer and was recognized by the Center for Digital Education as a national Top 30 Technologists, Transformers, Trailblazers in 2014 and his program has been identified in several national publications.
- Director of Personalized Learning - started as credit options for kids. Now is for so much more.
- How can we meet the individual needs of each child in the classroom?
- State level personalized learning.
- VITAL - virtual instruction to accentuate learning
- Personalized learning task force.
- Mimic task force in our own district.
- Doing a lot with credit recovery.
- Pockets of innovation.
- Future Ready - Getting a student to be ready for whatever they want their future to be.
- I only saw how things affected me as a teacher within my four walls.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be open minded and take on the mindset of working for the students.
Zachary Hartzman is a high school Economics & English teacher in New York City.
- Taught many different social studies classes.
- International and transfer school. 100% immigrant & ELL students.
- Passionate about videos games.
- Getting kids to interact with games
- Florence - great app for relationships.
- Using games to deal with discussing heavy issues.
- Whenever I teach one of these lessons, I write a post showing how it went.
- It’s been really hard to find engaging content that
- 3 days a week, I teach an ELA course using video games as the main text.
- Gone Home
- What Remains of Edith Finch?
- One student playing while everyone else is talking about the gameplay.
- Regents exam required for graduation - read a text and identify the central idea, so we use the videos games to focus on those literary events.
- You have to give them time to learn how to use the controller.
- Positive outcomes: Whenever I teach with a game, there’s never a head down that day.
- Expanding the curriculum, but would love to get more science and math.
- How to be a transformative principal? If a teacher comes to you with a potentially wacky idea, hear them out.
I'd love to work with you! To learn more about working with Jethro, go here.
I've got some exciting news to share with you....
But first, a little context.
The last few months have been pretty exciting.
I've started a student driven learning newsletter in partnership with ASCD.
I spoke at the ReWire conference in New Jersey.
I've been at FETC this week, and have some amazing interviews coming out on the podcast soon.
The podcast is at 600,000 downloads for its six-year anniversary. (click here to get an email each Sunday when it is released!)
I am a New Team Habits Champion!
My wife and I have started coaching families on how to set goals in a family setting! How cool is that?
I'm giving a keynote at a conference in February, more details soon...
And here's the big news:
At the end of this school year I will be leaving Fairbanks and start supporting principals directly full time through the mastermind, speaking, and consulting.
I'm pretty excited about our new adventure, and I hope that I can work with you! If you've got a need for a speaker in the next six months, please reach out.
This is an amazing story of how Kimberly's district set them up for success so they could find time for the important things in life. What a cool and unique approach.
Kimberly Dixon is principal in Toronto
- Took a year off to take some coursework.
- Mother had supported her at the beginning of her career.
- Lacking balance.
- Four over 5. Paid 80% over four years then paid 80% for fifth year.
- Typically accept about a dozen people for that in our district.
- Became principal and started coursework to become a superintendent at the same time.
- I realized I had been working really hard so travel was definitely a goal.
- I had to operate within the parameters of
- Principal of a summer school program in South Korea, kids met in South Korea and then went to the Philippines.
- Be present as a mother and take care of myself.
- The year was very unplanned.
- School seems very Eurocentric, but our schools are so diverse.
- Families are always excited
- The balance needed in life to be your best.
- Without balance, we run into issues of burnout
- It’s about putting myself well into the time I have.
- Not having that rushed approach. Respecting my time when I’m not in school and not “on.”
- Giving a lot of yourself to other people’s children.
- Having a purpose for my days.
- Be in each classroom before every major break in the day.
- None of my goals could happen unless I built the relationships.
- No more than one evening event each week.
- More balanced for my own kids and the kids at school.
- How to be a transformative principal? I’ve discovered who being me is! Try to center yourself in some way to figure out what makes you peaceful.
Work with Jethro
This is an amazing story of how Kimberly's district set them up for success so they could find time for the important things in life. What a cool and unique approach.
Kimberly Dixon is principal in Toronto
- Took a year off to take some coursework.
- Mother had supported her at the beginning of her career.
- Lacking balance.
- Four over 5. Paid 80% over four years then paid 80% for fifth year.
- Typically accept about a dozen people for that in our district.
- Became principal and started coursework to become a superintendent at the same time.
- I realized I had been working really hard so travel was definitely a goal.
- I had to operate within the parameters of
- Principal of a summer school program in South Korea, kids met in South Korea and then went to the Philippines.
- Be present as a mother and take care of myself.
- The year was very unplanned.
- School seems very Eurocentric, but our schools are so diverse.
- Families are always excited
- The balance needed in life to be your best.
- Without balance, we run into issues of burnout
- It’s about putting myself well into the time I have.
- Not having that rushed approach. Respecting my time when I’m not in school and not “on.”
- Giving a lot of yourself to other people’s children.
- Having a purpose for my days.
- Be in each classroom before every major break in the day.
- None of my goals could happen unless I built the relationships.
- No more than one evening event each week.
- More balanced for my own kids and the kids at school.
- How to be a transformative principal? I’ve discovered who being me is! Try to center yourself in some way to figure out what makes you peaceful.
Work with Jethro
Turner is the principal of Tristate State Christian Academy in Elkton Maryland.
- Rewire conference - really powerful conference in New Jersey
- It’s easy to get the ideas of a person by reading their blogs or listening to a podcast
- Most recent fascination is Disney.
- Disney does this better than anyone else in the world.
- Creating Disney Magic podcast.
- Parents are church leaders and they read diverse materials.
- We are all aiming for the same thing: becoming great leaders
- The one thing podcast interview referenced.
- The Way Of The Shepherd book.
- Building a Storybrand book.
- businessmadesimple.com
- Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders
- How to be a transformative principal? Check in on your teachers because you care
Work with Jethro
Tessa works with teenagers, and has decided to take on parenting from a new perspective. While patiently waiting for her book’s completion "For the Sake of Our Youth: A Therapist's Perspective on Raising Kids in Today's Culture" (due to hit the shelves Spring 2020) Tessa coaches and presents to parents her research on today’s teen depression, anxiety and suicide rate focusing on parent/child connection. You can connect with her at her website Tessastuckey.com or follow her on instagram @themomtherapist.
- Why she wanted to work with teens and parents.
- Kids came to me with suicidal thoughts.
- It scared me that they were going to grow up in a world where suicide was so common.
6 cultural influences that are happening in today’s world. 1. Social Trend - people see it and so they think it. Not being balanced with appropriate preventative care. 2. Immediate gratification - everything is just a click away. Teaching our kids how to struggle. There is no instant fix for an emotional hardship. You have to think a little unnaturally to slow things down a little bit. 3. Lack of personal connections are being made. Social media is meant for connection but it doesn’t create the same closeness and bond. 4. Attention seeking - longing to feel important. It has become an acceptable way to get attention in our society. Reacting to a lack of attention and lack of resilience. 5. Social media - 5 categories: don’t need to connect face to face, comparison, kids can’t turn their social life, cyberbullying (hurt people hurt people), phone addiction. 6. Pressure - we live a go-go-go lifestyle. No mercy and no grace. Everyone is striving to be perfect. 7. Be the supporter and helper for your child and not the fixer for all their problems. 8. How to be a transformative principal? Understand your own philosophies on the kids you interact with. What are the core values you want kids to have when they leave your school? This is not just mental illness anymore.
Rachel Brown is a Curriculum, Instruction, & Professional Growth Strategist for Douglas County School District.
- Power in the missed opportunities
- You have the power of leading culture in your building.
- Even the opportunity of saying hello to a kid is really powerful.
- Each teacher had to own making a positive interaction with each child.
- When things were going unsaid, they festered
- Confronting with Kindness
- the things you don’t say could have a big impact on the climate and culture.
- Emotional intelligence - Elena Aguilar work on the art of coaching teams.
- Have to get rid of your ego, go in in a way that you open yourself up like a book.
- Buy the Communication Cards
- We didn’t do our best work.
- Kids couldn’t tell who was the principal
- New principal was very communicative and it changed the culture.
- How to be a transformative principal? This is a rough time for some kids and you can take the time to be an impactful person and not miss the opportunity to make a little adjustment to make your school feel like the safest home for those kids.
Turmoil with change in leadership because of lack of communication and emotional intelligence.
* Talking with team about how to make things better.
* People coming to say
- Lost sight of standards - using the standards as our base.
- student centered coaching - to try to come
- http://calendly.com/jethro-jones/transformative-principal-interview
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best
- http://www.jethrojones.com/presentations
Adam Bellow is a dedicated educational technologist and father of two young boys. Adam is the co-founder of Breakout EDU, the immersive gaming platform that enables teachers and students to turn their classrooms into a place of discovery and inquiry based learning. Today we will be talking about learning with AI.
- How AI will play into education.
- Metacognitive piece - technology is serving our needs.
- Really helpful to a teacher.
- Empowering kids to get access to their own information before you.
- Building a voice profile.
- The use of the tool will have to outweigh the fears we have of it.
- You likely have an assistant available.
- My kids are very comfortable with robots.
- Game Designer
- Askmyclass
- Giving them the open-endedness is really powerful.
- as we look at school as more than just work-produced.
- How to be a transformative leader? Have a conversation with a small group of students
Dwight Carter is an award-winning school leader from Central Ohio. He believes reflection is at the heart of our practice and encourages principals, teachers, and students to focus on personal skill development to create the optimal conditions for learning to take place. Because of his collaborative and innovative leadership as a principal, he inducted into the Jostens Renaissance Educator Hall of Fame in 2010, he was named a 2013 National Association of Secondary School Principals Digital Principal of the Year, the 2014 Academy of Arts and Science Education High School Principal of the Year, and the 2015 Ohio Alliance of Black School Educators Principal of the Year.
Register for the Future of Educational Technology conference here.
- Teaching in disruptive times.
- Mark Wright - coauthor of book.
- reforms are occurring in a shorter amount of time.
- How to handle disruptions
- 3–5 years for an initiative to stick but turnover is huge.
- How to deal with disruptive events?
- Cope
- Adjust
- Transform
- So many pathways to graduation and high school credit.
- Moving beyond credit recovery to credit acceleration.
- Schools are taking opportunity to remove barriers.
- Simply start by asking the question and have the conversation.
- What else can students take in place of ___ required learning?
- Kids have so much more opportunity today because of their access to opportunity.
- Negative impact of technology on their social emotional health.
- Both/and
- Generation Z - It’s all about choice.
- Work-based learning students doing amazing things
- The kids became teachers to me.
-
How to be a transformative principal? Gather a group of students for an hour and ask them about how to improve their learning experience
Jethro
My Grandma’s Kitchen with Dr. A. Katrise Perera and Dr. Kimberly Miles Transformative Principal 307
Social Media: Learning should be joyful. - @afewthingsworth
Dr. A. Katrise Perera peers acknowledge her commitment, her dedication, her courageous leadership and for being an “equity warriorette.” In 2015, the National Association of School Superintendents (NASS) named her the National Superintendent of the Year. Before being recruited and hired by the Gresham-Barlow School District (Oregon) in May of 2017, she served in a variety of school leadership positions in Virginia, Texas, and as an executive leader with McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
Dr. Kimberly Miles is principal of East Gresham elementary, a turnaround principal and voracious reader.
In this episode we will discuss equity in leadership and how to have joyful moments.
- Be determined.
- Perspectives of many other experiences.
- Equity in a school system is that it involves more than just a student and a teacher.
- Giving kids what they need when they need.
- In the kitchen with my grandmother.
- To have equity, you have to look at what kids are actually in need of.
- Look at policies, practices, systems, and more.
- what little things should we focus on?
- Is my approach helping them thrive?
- The foundation is culture.
- Need to know social and political response as well.
- Community Success Act
- We’re all going to get what we need.
- how to change the culture of putting the newest teachers with the most challenging situations?
- New teachers to the profession, because I can partner them with a collaborative team.
- Mentor teacher leaders.
- Benefit for new teachers to be supported by master teachers.
- Starts with professional development.
- How to be a transformative principal?
- Kimberly: Share the responsibility of change with someone else. Bring along your community together.
- Katrise: commitments—commit to reducing disproportionate suspension rates, early college, cultural competencies - commit to one!
Katie Novak, Ed.D. is an internationally renowned education consultant as well as a practicing leader in education as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Massachusetts. With 15 years of experience in teaching and administration, an earned doctorate in curriculum and teaching, and 3 books published by CAST Professional Publications, Katie designs and presents workshops both nationally and internationally focusing on implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and universally designed leadership.
Today we talk about her book with George Couros, Innovate Inside the Box.
- UDL what is it?
- Multiple means of engagement
- multiple means of representation
- multiple means of action and expression
- Universal design stolen from architecture.
- The traditional model of education is there is “one way to do it.”
- We’re making content accessible as retrofits for really inaccessible lessons.
- Dinner party.
- Engagement is equal parts commitment and attention.
- Enrollment vs. engagement.
- When things get touch, I know how to manage it.
- Macro success looks like little bits of attention.
- Application for students with disabilities.
- If we want kids to be learners, we are much better slated to help kids create their own journeys to get there.
- How do we scaffold up to make it accessible and engaging.
- In my loyalty to that ____, I am excluding students.
- How do we teach empathy through these multiple means lenses?
- What do I have to do so every single student can do that?
- General ed teachers started referring to kids with special needs as their kids.
- When we see growth, it’s because of the teachers.
- How to be a transformative principal? In a classroom I believe in cocreation. Work with teachers to co-create professional learning and school improvement plans.
In this Jolt episode, Sarah Johnson shares about the transformative power of practicing gratitude for ourselves as well a those around us. She shares research alignment, stories, and illustrates points from stories features during the month of November on the In AWE Podcast.
Check out the The In AWE Podcast or In AWE Website
Engage with Sarah at Sarah’s Website
Resources for Gratitude:
The Transformative Power of Gratitude Huffington Post
Four Gratitude Strategies Berkeley
The It’s Worth It Box
TJ Vari and Joe Jones are practicing Superintendents and coauthors of the book “Candid and Compassionate Feedback“.
- Result of fear of offending people is that it becomes offensive anyway.
- Ask questions to get them to see what they need to improve.
- The lack of candor can be what people are offended by.
- The candor is actually what is compassionate! TJ
- Turning the corner so your empathy is backed with concrete evidence backed with what to do better.
- Consistency is key.
- People are given that advice when they go into schools.
- Direct, sincere, accurate feedback.
- Identified the problem.
- Gave evidence.
- Provided a solution.
- Being clear does work.
- Learning walks are like formative assessments.
- Are the teachers using the “Goal” in their classroom?
- As teachers are teaching they’re often not aware of what they’re doing. Joe
- No way will a teacher ever grow through the formal observation process.
- We really should be getting into the mindset work among the staff.
- How to be a transformative principal? TJ: spend your time in the most important spaces in your school
Joe: Disrupt your day. Speak to someone tomorrow that you haven’t spoken with this year. - Bonus question: how to keep principals in the building?
Keara Mascareñaz Managing Partner, Organizational Design at Education Elements. She helps schools and districts focuses build and scale a culture of innovation through leadership development, team habits, and human-centered organizational design.
- Learning, meeting, projects
- How do you create the environment of psychological safety?
- the team that is more effective would be making less mistakes.
- more comfort to talk about mistakes
- Amy Edmondson TED talk
- I didn’t say “I don’t know what I’m doing!“
- It can feel high stakes, even though it is not.
- Two types of leaders: one best ideas should strive - leaders are smarter and make fewer mistakes.
- Interrogating archetypes.
- Two books: Multipliers with Liz Wiseman As soon as a speaker starts speaking, everyone stops talking.
- Here’s my interview with Liz Wiseman.
- Talking about Failure is crucial for Growth
- Noticing it is the first step to change.
- It’s hard to make big shifts.
- What foundation have I laid and signal have I given to my team about this?
- “I’ve had good ideas before that haven’t worked out!”
- So much deference made to people in power and authority.
- Habit of talking about mistakes.
- The more people in power can model talking about mistakes the more you can model and give more power to your people.
- How to be a transformative principal? Next time you’re in front of your staff think about 1. Learning challenge, vulnerability, asking for advice.
A Story about Fish with Danny Bauer and Dr. Kelly Crane Transformative Principal 302
Social media: All of us are better than any of us.
Danny Bauer and Kelly Crane are co-conspirators of Better Leaders Better Schools
- What do principals need to know about being a superintendent.
- Legal, politics, finance.
- Network.
- How to start acting as if.
- All of us are better than any of us.
- When you’re so close to the situation, it is really hard to see.
- Instructional leadership knowledge.
- Following through.
- Being authentic.
- Empathy when visiting
- Vulnerability.
- Radical listening.
- The mastermind is a sacred space.
- You gotta learn from the mistakes of others.
- How to be a transformative principal? Danny: Join a PLN! Kelly: be vulnerable when it is necessary. We don’t know it all and we have to reach out to others.
Adam Fachler has a proven process for planning amazing lessons. Take the
- EMPOWER Method for planning amazing lessons.
- We are all searching!
-
Little quality control
-
Making inquiry method a little less messy.
- Envision - see the end in mind.
- Map - simplifies a complex process.
- Prime - prior knowledge, emotional aspect of learning
- Orient
- Walkthrough
- Explore
- Reflect
- Teachers’ time to plan is too little. Yes this does take time.
- Whether you win in your classroom is decided well before you enter the classroom.
- Do this at the unit level - a time investment.
- Crystalize your learning outcome in a GEM: goal, evidence, measure of success.
- You are envisioning a destination for them.
- Mapping the path to mastery.
- School in the Square
- How to be a transformative principal? Start from the beginning, what’s the GEM for your upcoming unit?
Here's some excitement: Episode 300! I give updates on my professional life, the podcast, and more! Tune in!
Link to my speaking page
Dr. Grayson Maas is the Director of Communications for the Art of Problem Solving, a unique solution to teaching math anytime, anywhere.
- Talking about dissertation - how we create scientific knowledge as a society - who can become a scientist and who cannot.
- Scientific knowledge and how it gets created.
- It’s no secret that there’s underrepresentation in science.
- What is funneling certain groups towards science and what is not?
- Science for all
- Tests measure what we value.
- Tests can be an unreliable indicator.
- It’s a common experience that the scores you got on classes and tests to tell you if you’re smart.
- All those tests are telling you, “are you good at that instrument on that day?”
- Extremely difficult to identify high-ability kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- Ability grouping is not a bad thing for the kids in the high group.
- Kids know who is in different groups.
- We need to reconfigure the labels we use.
- For us to lose sight of kids that don’t get extra opportunities is not working for those kids.
- It’s incumbent on us as a society to meet these kids where they’re at.
- Providing the “right” amount of challenge.
- We’re going to set the bar right above where you grasp it and help them reach the next level.
- You deserve to be challenged and we’re going to make sure you get that.
- Learning about the water cycle.
- Their version of learning about the water cycle was a youtube water cycle rap song.
- The kids in the low group developed low self-perception.
- Constantly reinforce these students and tell them they are capable and can accomplish the work before them.
I am super excited whenever I get to talk with Will Parker, and today is no different.
Today we are tackling three questions that principal listeners have shared with us from our podcasts, covering these topics:
- What to do if or when your teachers give you the cold shoulder about learning something new.
- How to manage student dynamics in competency-based instruction.
- Ways to measuring student growth in Social Emotional Learning settings.
Listen-in for the complete conversation.
Questions for Jethro and Will:
-
My teachers give me the cold shoulder when I try to introduce them to new ways of teaching. What should I do?
-
Jethro and I discuss the following:
- Modeling for teachers
- Observation of other teachers
- What is he/she doing well already? Praise first, then instruct.
- Lead with the question, “Where do you want to grow?”
- Creating an enviornment where teachers ask for help
- Celebrating innovative teaching
-
Learning to say yes before saying no
-
How do you make sure that students who struggle don't feel embarrassed or ashamed that they aren't working with their peers? When competency-based, what happens?...
We discuss this question with suggestions about:
- Defining expecations so that students measure against standards, not other students
- They are already in different places! Your expectations matter in their perceptions...
- Help them identify where they are good. And celebrate!
-
It’s not about competition with peers, but competition with themselves.
-
How can Social Emotional Learning success be measured?
We respond with the following:
Discover the importantce of self-reflection. It’s okay to embrace different standards for everyone.
Resilient students don’t really need more resiliency training. They need something else.
A student with trauma needs different things than a student without.
Creat an environment where you want your own chidren
You can measure the indicators like discipline, attendance and graduation/completion rates
We share examples of SEL through FOMO -- karaoke cafeteria -- from Principal Kim Coody’s High School in Okahoma and Amy Fast’s emotional learning practices in Oregon
Recource recommended: Barb Sorrels - http://transformativeprincipal.org/episode269
Now It’s Your Turn
What is one new method or strategy you could model for your teachers or team? How can you instll in others the freedom to believe it’s okay to try and fail and in learning? And how can you celebrate the wins along the way?
Akhil is the business development manager at ChargePoint, a fast-growing start-up in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides electric vehicle charging solutions to businesses. Prior to ChargePoint, he spent 5 years in the clean tech and consumer mobile app spaces. Akhil is an alumnus from the 2010 Conrad Challenge, where his finalist team from the North Carolina School of Science and Math designed a latticed pod system that generated electricity from wave energy using internally-housed piezoelectric ceramics.
Register for the Conrad challenge here
- North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
- Didn’t know what I wanted to do.
- Always wanted to be a doctor and ended up doing a ton of work in environmental areas.
- Starting out with very little information.
- Students start from two different places.
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- Technology they are really excited about.
-
- We have a group of students really passionate about a specific problem and start to ideate about how to solve that problem.
- We knew we wanted to build a wave energy device.
- Knew nothing about piezoelectric ceramics.
- Spent hours learning about the physics behind the technology.
- Chemistry professor - her job was keeping us accountable.
- What has changed since you did Conrad Challenge?
- Shifted from focus on medicine to product management.
- Conrad in college admissions process.
- Spoke about the spirit of creativity.
- most capable people I’ve ever known. Still in touch with many of them today.
- I discovered my purpose. It challenged me to be a change-maker!
- Group of students created a device to put out fires by sound waves in forests.
- We champion no-box thinking.
- How to be a transformative principal? Embrace divergent thinking.
Jayme Hull helps schools and churches make millennial friendly environments. She also mentors millennials so that they can be successful. Check out her free resource for principals at her web site.
- They want to be connected and work somewhere they can make an impact.
- They have heard their parents talk about how bored or angry they are at work.
- Very few parents and grandparents were actually happy.
- The fear of change is strong!
- Millennials don’t even have the choices like they had in the past.
- More than 50% cannot stay where they grew up to find work.
- Completely consumed with staying up on the digital happenings are.
- They have to be learning or they’ll lose their jobs.
- You give and you receive. Build a relationship first.
- Mentorships are really beneficial for millennials.
- Care about the person first, not what you can get from them.
- We’ve forgotten how to encourage our new teachers.
- Make sure they have downtime
- Their deepest heart’s desire is to have a desire.
- The millennial are a gift to us. They are demanding that we get back to what we used to do.
- We have forgotten how to teach what is essential.
- Mentoring program - The older generation will be blessed. Don’t tack on any more paperwork or extra hours.
- 2 kinds of mentors - someone on staff willing to pour into the next generation. Group of retired teachers. Never more than 30 minutes for 6–12 weeks.
- Their words and encouragement.
- Millennials are so tired of being on a checklist.
- It’s not about the nail
- How to be a transformative leader? Look three teachers in the eyes and tell them thanks!
- Face to face mentoring podcast.
Michael Horn is the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of Blended and Disrupting Class, and the new book coming out this week called “Choosing College!”, which is the book we are talking about today!
- The book is about more than just choosing college, right? Tell me about that.
- There are a few stats about college that are just appalling, so many people not finishing, so much debt. Why do we still support it?
- boost in wages, employers require it.
- military or college!
- Personally fulfilling
- A lot of people don’t know.
- What language do people use to describe what they did.
- A lot more students should be taking a gap year.
- Working on the newspaper in high school.
- Let’s talk about quality assurance. I hear people give advice that it doesn’t matter at all where you go or what you major in.
- What’s the value I’m getting from this experience?
- We don’t have enough data while we do have too much data!
- I am not a historian, even though my major was history.
- We don’t know what we don’t know.
- We have to give kids experiences about what they can be doing.
- Make it tangible with an emotional connection.
- Give kids immersive experiences in those fields so they can see themselves in that setting!
- Do your strengths and abilities allow you to get into that field?
- Learning starts with engagement.
- What do you think about something like Lambda school, which doesn’t offer a degree, but rather a skill, and you don’t pay for that?
- More than a coding bootcamp.
- Might ultimately replace college.
- Purdue university has an income share agreement.
- University of Utah.
- Traditional top universities are going to continue to drive up costs.
- Price competition among universities.
- understanding your “why” is important.
- Understanding what progress looks like for you.
- Find out what you want and work backwards.
- Not seeing distinct spheres but rather integrated parts of our lives.
- Kids look more at what you say than what you do.
- Loves this from the Forbes’ piece:
“Because no one understands the precise mix of what external supports cause student outcomes to improve, a theory of innovation—the theory of interdependence and modularity—suggests that schools must integrate to control every critical component of a student’s life that isn’t “good enough” to ensure academic achievement. In other words, when driving toward greater performance with moving parts that are unpredictably interdependent, in order to do anything, schools must do nearly everything.”
“From the vantage point of our theory, it appears one of the reasons for City Connect’s success is that its school-based coordinator starts with the teacher and each student’s academic goals. That is, the organization integrates the supports it provides in a tight, interdependent manner with each teacher and around the needs of each individual student in a personalized way—not in a tiered way that treats cohorts of students judged to have similar risk profiles in the same way.”
- Much to love about the personalized approach,
- Let’s play to your strengths and support you in your weaknesses.
- How to be a transformative principal? Principals ought to step back and ask, how do I integrate more authentic experiences?
Brad Barber is a former business owner who is now an educator who founded a school called the Tesla Academy. At the Tesla Academy, they coach students rather than teach them.
- We are an academy, not a school.
- Agnostic about the school kids attend, it just needs to be good.
- We can react very quickly and give support to kids.
- We diagnose their problems.
- Sometimes they take notes to impress someone else.
- When you get into the business world, you have to learn really rapidly.
- Why would kids want to come to the Tesla Academy?
- It feels so weird to do something different.
- There’s a generation gap in parents: younger parents totally get it.
- How to be a transformative principal? My model could really take off in special education. My model would work perfect with 20-40 students.
Brad Barber is a former business owner who is now an educator who founded a school called the Tesla Academy. At the Tesla Academy, they coach students rather than teach them.
- Business process outsourcing.
- Went back to school as a teacher.
- Started at a charter school.
- Not the primary person who delivers the content.
- Education is so inefficient.
- I can teach it, but I want my students to learn how to learn.
- The difference between a coach and a teacher.
- They’ve been surviving school for 9 or 10 years.
- The teachers become babysitters (in other classes) and that’s not what we’re about.
- We’re observing the entire time.
- Kids understand that the technique wasn’t right
Dr. Grayson Maas is the Director of Communications for the Art of Problem Solving, a unique solution to teaching math anytime, anywhere.
- Motivated students in grades 2–12.
- We are the place students come to to learn math that they aren’t going to learn in school.
- Instill motivation in kids to want to do math.
- By and large math is traditionally taught with an emphasis on procedures, memorizing, and pattern matching.
- We are losing the art and beauty of mathematics by how we teach math in schools.
- We challenge them and ask them to rise to the occasion.
- We give them puzzles.
- We get a flood of serotonin when we solve problems.
- It’s not wrong to have the wrote, it’s wrong if that’s all you have.
- If you don’t move beyond the basics, you won’t be able to apply it later.
- If you take a problem-solving approach…
- We need to carve out time for kids to be uncomfortable with a problem.
- But how do we make time for that?
- It limits the incentive for kids to take intellectual risks.
- We can do this together. Education doesn’t just have to be teachers in a classroom alone.
- There’s a dissatisfaction because there is still a lingering question about how I would have done that.
- Rigorous activities early on!
- ASTE Keynote
- How to be a transformative principal? Carve out time and space for students to do some thinking without a goal in mind! gmaas@aops.com
Creating Better Learning Environments with Kevin Stoller Transformative Principal 291
Social Media: Every school has defined their vision, the space should reflect that.
Over the past 10 years, Kevin has visited over 1,000 schools and spoke with educators and students to learn how student outcomes are impacted by the learning environment. As CEO of Kay-Twelve, a company committed to improving learning environments for 10,000,000 students, Kevin wants to share his findings with others involved with education.
- Came from a family of educators.
- Hesitant to get into education furniture business because it was all the same.
- If you’re implementing change, it’s really difficult to do without changing the environment.
- Start small, learn from it, and then make the changes needed.
- The furniture is preventing me from doing it.
- It’s not about the furniture.
- Every school has defined their vision, the space should reflect that.
- Need to establish some rules around chaotic furniture.
- Space can have a big impact on driving change.
- Start with shared spaces.
- Flex seating or student choice seating.
- Get your free copy of “Creating Better Learning Environments”
- How to be a transformative principal? Find a network where you can be talking to other people. Join the mastermind
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Communicating to Create Happy Families with Jennifer Larson Transformative Principal 290
Social media: If you have a good communication system and everyone is engaged, there’s a positive buzz to the school.
Jennifer Larson is he co-founder and CEO of Hive Digital Minds, which provides parent-school communication solutions through schoolbzz.com
- Completely overwhelmed
- Couldn’t keep up.
- Shift towards personalized learning means there are a lot of different adults supporting a student.
- “I don’t even read the newsletter anymore.”
- Parents want to know what the two or three places for information.
- Grades communication is an important part of it as well.
- School website is a great marketing tool to recruit students, teachers, and families to your school.
- Figure out what information you want to share with the public and put that on the web site.
- Find tools that work well for your enrolled families.
- Build a communication strategy that gets information to the families quickly and efficiently.
- Do a communication audit to see what you are currently using.
- Which have information that parents might want access to.
- Need to implement a multi-year strategy.
- Talk to your parents.
- When schools jump into parent engagement, they are probably meeting the needs of those who were already having their needs met.
- Challenges around native languages spoken.
- Focus on mobile.
- Recognize that not all parents can be there physically at the school.
- Parent engagement is about making sure the families understand the value of education.
- Volunteer hours.
- Parents want to be engaged but they don’t know how.
- If you have a good communication system and everyone is engaged, there’s a positive buzz to the school.
- If you have happy families at your school, there is no other better testimonial.
- How to be a transformative principal? It all comes down to communication. Connect with each of your staff members and parents.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Danielle Nuhfer is a teacher who helps other teachers focus on self-care and you can find more information about her at teachingwell.life
- Teacher for 16 years.
- Not sure she was going to go back to teaching.
- Second burnout at year 10.
- Sabbatical in 2015 and 2016.
- What led to the second burnout.
- Lots of additional work responsibilities being taken on.
- Hard saying no to things.
- Reframe the No. “Let me say no for now.”
- Summer of Self-Care. - Deep dives into self-care
- What teachers need to start doing:
- Burnout and stress is common, but it doesn’t have to be normal.
- How we feel begins with us.
- Nothing needs to change, but everything can change when we change.
- How to be a transformative principal? Start with yourself. What can you do to take care of yourself?
- Back to School Bundle - Stress care solutions, how to get a 40-hour workweek, and more!
My wife told me she just couldn't do it anymore. "It's too hard," she said. "Every time I drop him off, the tears, the yelling, and the crying. I just can't take him to school anymore. We've got to figure something out."
We had talked about different things, from counseling to medication to other options.
For the time being, our solution was that I would drop him off at school. For some reason, his reactions to his anxiety seemed to be less when dad dropped him off.
Any parent who has experienced this knows how difficult it is to deal with the intensity of the emotions on a daily basis.
This was especially challenging for me, because I struggled with this as well. All the way until I was 19, any new change was especially difficult. My heart broke for him every day, because I knew how powerless he felt.
When he started kindergarten, we were living on a small island in the gulf of Alaska, and the community didn’t have the resources to offer a lot of help.
We did all kinds of things to try and help, meditation apps, calming techniques, praying, blessings, and more, and nothing really seemed to work.
When we moved to Fairbanks, we were ready to get more serious, but then he took care of this himself.
Before I get to what actually happened, let me back up a bit.
I read a book when I was 21 called “Write it down. Make it Happen.” Actually, I think I just read the first chapter or so. That was all I needed. It talks about the power of writing things down to make them come to fruition.
Well, I wrote down a bunch of goals that I wanted to accomplish when I turned 30, and guess what? I accomplished them all.
I’ve been a big believer in goals for a long time, and this really solidified what I knew.
So, I decided to start setting goals with my family each week. My four kids would set their own goals every week, and my wife and I would set our goals. We share them with each other and track them on a piece of paper.
Eventually, that has now grown into yearly and monthly goals we set with each other, and help hold each other accountable.
Back to my son. We had set goals as a family for a couple years, and after we moved to Fairbanks, he started taking an interest in setting meaningful goals for himself.
It started with little goals.
We are pretty strict that we don’t tell the kids what goals they should set, but rather help them set their own goals.
So, my son spent some time setting little goals like play with certain toys each day, or do his chores when he first got up, or play Minecraft.
Then, one day, it happened.
“My goal this week is to go to school without complaining.”
My wife and I looked at each other in stunned silence. For over two years, this had been a battle, and now, he was saying he wasn’t going to complain.
We played it cool, and said, “Good goal. Let’s see how it goes.”
Honestly, we didn’t think he would do it.
But sure enough, he got out of the car on Monday, without a single complaint. And each day after that, he has done the same.
I’m not going to lie, having some AMAZING teachers who really cared about him and helped him has been a really powerful experience. But the thing that really made the difference has been him setting his own goal to be in control of his life.
Get our goal sheet from OurFamilyCoach.com
Kip Motta is a principal in Rich Utah.
- You have to deal with people.
- Everything is about relationships.
- Doing what’s best for the team.
- Everyone is different, and you need to adapt your leadership to that person.
- A history of four-day school weeks.
- Change based on school district transportation costs.
- Waiver to reduce day requirement (152 vs 182) and still meet 990 hour requirement (now meet over 1000 hours)
- Start school at 8 am, out at 3:30.
- Parent teacher conferences count as
- Very few breaks - Labor Day, thanksgiving, Christmas for 1 week.
- Student and staff attendance increased.
- Ask staff and community to do personal appointments on Fridays
- 4 day school week is much more difficult for elementary school.
- Helped us go down the road of standards-based instruction.
- Struggles with 4 day school week
- Finding coaches is difficult
- Daycare for Friday’s with no school.
- You have to do everything through the lens of what is best for the most children.
- Kids are more recharged after a 3-day weekend every week!
- March and April can be long months with no break.
- Restorative practices, mindfulness to help kids cope with added pressure.
- How to be a transformative principal? Find someplace to go and learn!
- Contact kmotta@kipmotta.com
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Revolutions Start with Relationships with Darren Ellwein Transformative Principal 286
Social media: Tailor everything to the learner - via @dellwein
Darren Ellwein is my dessert bro and principal at the middle level in South Dakota!
- Revolution is about a group of people.
- From a staff culture standpoint: there was some kickback.
- It’s so much fun!
- Personalizing learning - what small steps do you need to take?
- Tailor everything to the learner.
- Mastery projects - success criteria
- You have to give up control.
- Relationships “it feels like my family.”
- Let the kids decide the norms.
- Waiting on content for 2-3 weeks.
- Done with our standards before we get to the standardized tests.
- personalizedlearningtools.com
- Personalized Learning is not about sitting in front of a computer all day.
- Starts with a relationship, then goes on to flexible content.
- Those kids broke in adults every year!
- Hannah and Alex - there was a pace set for everyone, even though it didn’t match.
- She would tell you she wouldn’t go back to the way it was.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be your own person. Hold on to your beliefs. Have the mindset of serving kids.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be.
- How to change schools?
- Changing everything overnight - the sharp knives come out.
- Thoughtful, supportive resources at innovationplaylist.org
- Have your community define essential competencies for your kids.
- Look for success points in your school.
- Encourage the innovators to do things.
- Ask them to keep an open mind.
- Native villages
- Carving up a moose carcass.
- How to be a transformative principal? Spend some time with young kids and recognize that this is the fight we can take on. change happens slowly right up until it happens quick
- What do teachers have in common that do innovative things within the system?
- What are you seeing China?
- Deleted scenes about kids not having homework from Most Likely to Succeed - share that story.
- http://teddintersmith.com/innovation-playlist/ *
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be.
- Education is the only antidote
- Machines are taking over so many jobs.
- Social media fueled technology is making it challenging to know what is real.
- What they could do vs. what they do.
- the people who get to the top of these bureaucratic systems are bureaucrats
- If we just focused on setting up the conditions for educators to do their best work.
- It’s time for us to be more like activists.
- What are you working on and why?
- The purpose of school is to rank kids.
- Why isn’t that the way we do it?
- New Hampshire portfolio assessment system.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful.
- Partnering with community organizations.
- Schools often don’t know how to partner.
- Businesses don’t know how to join in the work with schools.
- Use coaching skills to build relationships.
- Learning is much more beneficial when they come together and make a real impact.
- Experiential learning - year long process developing a plan around a real issue.
- You never know what seeds have been planted through that experience.
- How to start the conversation.
- Focus on quality partnerships.
- How to be a transformative principal? Active listening to create a shared vision.
Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful.
- Making learning joyful
- I was really starting to contemplate leaving the profession I love because the joy was not there.
- We believe that if we design and deliver powerful learning experiences for educators, they will design and deliver powerful learning experiences for students.
- Coaches can transform the learning and cultural experiences of a school.
- You can’t afford to not have coaches! There are many ways to incorporate coaching into a culture.
- Leaders with coaching skills are more effective and more impactful.
- Communication, active listening, developing a culture where coaching and feedback are part of the norm.
- Have leaders take on that coaching role as part of what they do.
- Developing culture falls on the leader.
- Set up protocols and structures to make that an enjoyable experience.
- Coaching cycles
- The best professional development is the teacher down the hall.
- Position coaching to the staff as a support, not another observation.
- Why is there a stigma related to coaching?
Brittni Schroeder is the founder of Compassion Clubs, dedicated to the memory of her late son who passed away tragically at the age of 14.
- Started with a scholarship fund for students.
- Received hundreds of cards and letters from people who cared about Gage.
- The “Can Man”
- People wanted to be with our family.
- “We only suffer when we think about ourselves.” - Tony Robbins
- We have to serve. That’s how we heal.
- Gave kids pizzas and told them to sit with kids who didn’t have anyone sitting with them.
- Elementary and secondary curriculum.
- Secondary the kids lead it.
- Elementary is teacher/counselor/parent run.
- If they don’t know how to serve and think outside of themselves they are going to have a rough adult life.
- 12 different values: compassion, kindness, gratitude, charity, courage, etc.
- Teach about the value, share a story, then serve.
- Teenagers don’t seem to have coping skills.
- Nominate kids for scholarships and grants.
- My son’s legacy is compassion.
- Most successful club in Michigan.
- How to be a transformative principal? Look for those kids that need to belong.
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, @jchorvath is an educator and researcher with expertise in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, biological psychology, brain simulation, the learning sciences, and effective teaching/learning practices
- There is 1 learning process!
- It is the same for everyone.
- You don’t differentiate so students learn differently, you differentiate so students engage differently.
- If you want to learn something you have to engage in it, but not too much!
- Attenborough effect.
- Science of learning and craft of teaching.
- Thinking principle
- Learning principle - all learning has to begin with facts.
- Semantic memories for the key 10 or 15 facts. Three episodic memories for a fact.
- Episodic memories vs. semantic memories.
- All starting of learning builds episodic memories.
- How we use inquiry wrong in education.
- Surface learning is semantic facts. Binary.
- Conceptualization - how are you going to organize your facts. Forming a concept. Can’t be binary.
- Contextually emergent skills.
- Fear of failure
- Learning resilience
- Education gives you experience in learning.
- How to be a transformative principal? People who you don’t really know what they think at the end, because they are trying to get you to question your own assumptions.
Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challenges.
- Every single kind of problem was transformed based on relationship.
- It’s the adult’s job to be the relationship manager.
- Live up to your goals.
- Relational breakdowns.
- How do we promote the relationship between the boy and the teacher.
- Breakdowns happen all the time.
- It’s the responsibility of the relationship manager to monitor whether it has broken down.
- The boy that simply checks out and underperforms.
- Book I Can Learn From You: Boys as Relational Learners
- I won’t learn from you
- You may have to develop new skills out of your repertoire to reach kids.
- Every type of boy can be reached.
- When a teacher reaches their end of their rope, they need to reach out for their help.
- You recognize that this is really challenging and it is frustrating. You have the power to change this boy’s life, and I know it is hard, If you can bear with him and continue to check in with him, you can reach him.
- How to be a transformative principal? Understand that you are asking your teachers to do this emotional work and validate the challenge that it is while saying boys are relational learners first!
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challenges.
- The stereotypes of women has changed significantly in the last 40 years.
- There’s been very little to counteract stereotypes of men and boys.
- Stereotypes shape boys’ lives early on.
- We cannot say that women are limited because of biology, but we still say that about boys.
- When Boys become “Boys” - Judy Chu
- Started out as direct, authentic and able to articulate themselves. Traveled from presence to pretense by way of posturing.
- Inauthentic and less willing to articulate their feelings.
- Conditioning comes from everywhere: teachers, parents, peers.
- A man box study - messages about being a man. Stoic, unemotional, strong, etc. Men more associated with man box stereotypes were more prone to negative behaviors, including suicidal ideation.
- Schools play a profound role in organizing the messages about what Men are.
- Every school is occupied by a hidden curriculum.
- Most educators feel as though they can’t get their arms around it.
- Boys have very little efficacy over the hidden curriculum. Policed by other boys. Often receive subtle and not-so-subtle redirection from adults and other boys.
- Student-teacher relationship and significance
- One-dimensional type of masculinity that is rewarded in school cultures.
- 1500-member study of boys and 1000 of their teachers. Tell us a story about a relationship that went well and oe that didn’t go well.
- So reassuring that the mask can be taken away when they do have a relationship.
- Relationships are transformative in three ways: practically, psychologically, existentially.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Derek McCoy is a middle school principal in Georgia, and a fellow Digital Principal of the Year. He is also the coauthor of “The Revolution: It’s Time To Empower Change In Our Schools”
- We still sit in rows, we still deliver everything the same as we always.
- The time for shifting is over.
- Shift gives comfort, but we’ve got to make some change for our kids.
- We’re asking adults to change.
- 3 R’s is how we conduct business, and it always has been. That’s not going anywhere.
- We also know better.
- Shifting from the three R’s
- Passion - finding something that you’re passionate about. You might have some parents that can’t get into all the fundamental three R’s.
- When you’re passionate about it, you don’t give up.
- There is a disconnect with schools and parents now.
- We know better. We know how the brain works. Learning is more social than it is memorization.
- Don’t be the teacher you had as a student,
- It’s about learning new, and trying new for our learners.
- Change is going to happen, so we can embrace that change for our students.
- How do we get the whole system to change?
- The revolution@ries primary responsibility to build a vision!
- Committing to learner-centered change!
- Find your pusher who is going to support you through it and ground your thinking.
- Significant change is relative.
- Survey and talk to kids?
- Getting learner input.
- Control vs. Trust
- 5 core values: communicators, collaborators, __, have integrity, act with purpose
- Giving kids opportunity to provide input.
- Ask the kids, “How do you see this working?“
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms. Spend half your day in there talking to kids. Let that be the formative assessment for how you
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Christopher is a principal at Whitman Hansen Regional High School.
- Transitioning to a new high school.
- A new position gives you the opportunity to reflect on where you want to go and who you want to go.
- Sharing yourself first.
- I’m not a student-centered principal!
- I’m a staff-centered principal.
- Build staff meetings around getting to know each other.
- Building relationships
- Every day, with some exceptions, I’m in classrooms giving feedback to teachers.
- Out in front playing music with kids.
- Using Voxer to give immediate feedback and face-to-face meetings.
- Three simple questions: What’s working? What do I need to stop doing? What can I do to make your life better or easier?
- Start by supporting, then you engage them, then you empower them.
- A good leader is a servant leader.
- A good leader becomes a better leader by making others more successful.
- Clear the road for others.
- Experience is so important and we have to fail to keep learning.
- We don’t know how good we can be.
- Every student leaving the high school with something in their pocket to prepare them for the next level.
- Key components of S1 to raise failing grade to passing grade.
- Empowering teachers to give kids hope and keep integrity of the grades.
- Teachers choose most important units and then give kids an opportunity to make things happen.
- 92% of the kids who did winter school passed the year-long course.
- Summer Read Smackdown!
- Interdisciplinary days - kids don’t come back to a test on the book.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms and give honest feedback to teachers so you can have a conversation with them.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Mike Fisher author of Hacking Instructional Design. Shoutout to @elizabethfisher
- All this stuff that is eating up teachers’ time to plan.
- Easier to just purchase a program or a plan.
- Shift focus to contemporary instructional design.
- Why is it so hard to move away from
- Decision paralysis. So many decisions to make that we don’t know what to do.
- How well we need to design assessments.
- Standards, resources, external assessments.
- The What - standards
- The How - activities
- The How Well? - assessments.
- Tripticks from AAA
- Trying things out - gives you some freedom.
- Being a lead learner is pushed aside to get things done.
- Right-sizing the work. Allow students to be cocreators in instructional design.
- Breaking the standard into manageable bits for teachers and for students.
- Learning targets “standard statement“ with I can in front of it.
- Help students have high level of mastery.
- Kids do not care about your grades!
- Let them be accountable to each other and accountable to the world.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Invite conversation, collaboration. How do we remain loyal to the learner and learning?
This is a keynote that I presented for the Alaska Society for Technology in Education Conference in February. Here is the link to the video of it.
Byron Darnall is the principal of Potter Gray Elementary School in Bowling Green Kentucky
- Long term sustainable change is slow.
- How do you improve something that is already successful?
- Examine the student experience.
- Who’s school is it?
- As educators we tend to operate from the center.
- Busyness is the disease of our time.
- How are you? Busy! <-bothersome
- “I would love to, but I’m too busy.“
- Am I too busy to get better?
- How to be less busy?
- Every day shouldn’t lead to absolute exhaustion.
- There is nothing easy about it, but we have to be open to finding someone we trust to give us good feedback about our time management
- Systems thinking - not exposed to it as a teacher or
- Centralize school-wide communication through a blog. If it matters, it is on the blog.
- If it can’t be said in 1-2 sentences, it’s a conversation.
- How to be a transformative principal? Talk to your students and ask them questions.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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RTI process for Lyn Marsilio's elementary school.
- Set a couple goals: know their letters, ICU.
- 4 rotations, 6 minute rotations
- Letter writing, letter sorts, tracing, sound sorts.
- After the first 20 days, graduated kids went back into the classroom.
- Did a round 2 to add rhyming and took out tactile piece.
- Taking attendance for kids to see how many times they went to this intervention.
- Out of the 20 days, some kids only made 14, and so called him to make sure kids
- Our third round, the teachers are finally seeing why we take data.
- Kids making the goals early are taking off in other areas because they had those foundational skills.
- 80% on grade level vs. 40% that were on grade level last year.
- Narrows down who needs special skills.
- In the past, title I data has felt like a collection with no meaning. Up until this year, that has been data that we collect, not that we use.
- Teachers plan it, teacher assistants implement it.
- 1st grade - 46 kids, three title I teachers are working with these kids. We have seen 84% of the kids in 1st grade making progress.
- Co planning with the reading teachers.
- In second grade, about 50% of kids have rotated out because of progress.
- There is a great benefit in being targeted.
- 3rd graders, all but 2 of the 25 kids needing intervention are making great progress.
- Lots of young staff, and they are still doing well.
- Teachers are seeing why the planning is affecting instruction and what that impact is.
- foundational skills in 2nd and 3rd grade: decoding, then once they hit grade level, push comprehension.
- Holding on to them a little longer.
- Got push back in the beginning because we are doing something different.
- Now that they are seeing why we structured that the way did, there is more excitement.
- 2nd and 3rd grade, asked teachers for input to make sure they felt supported.
- Success is contagious.
- What haven't we figured out: 4th and 5th grade.
- Looking at budget as people and not programs.
- We are getting kids to be readers.
Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin.
- Leadership team, started with 12 people, now we have up to 20 people come to the leadership team meeting each month. Follow up leadership team meeting after PD.
- Anybody who wants to be part of leadership team can join us.
- Leadership Meeting norms.
- Six Step Process
- Weekly article share at 7:30
- Book studies.
- Tight and loose.
- Need more time if we are going to teach the curriculum with fidelity.
- Seniors leave a week earlier than the rest of the student body, so they are going to do a test run with the new schedule.
- How to be a transformative principal? Have an open mind. Tap into your talented staff.
- call bruce high school.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin.
- Larry has been there since 1995
- Moved from a junior high school to a middle school.
- About 500 students
- 2 classes per grade
- Middle school has a separate schedule from everyone else. Extended core classes 80 minutes long.
- The staff is the key to making kids successful.
- How has the PLC approach helped you.
- Took ideas from the staff to make it successful. Transitions getting kids moving around more.
- Give kids 20 minutes of homework time during the class period.
- Lengthened class periods decreased ODRs.
- A small little man can't make all the decisions.
- People couldn't believe that people just went about their business when they visited the school.
- In one school year, we lost superintendent and elementary principal. I was going to be moved out of my comfort zone.
- They came back like new staff, like new people.
- A PLC cannot be a set of meetings!
- A PLC has to become your culture.
- Take what is working best and eliminate what is not working.
- Data Days 3 times per year - drives all interventions
- Were dead last in our achievement and now are in 1st place.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Dr. Barbara is Executive Director of The Institute for Childhood Education, a professional development and consulting firm for those who live and work with children.
- Barbara started rocking abandoned babies when she was in high school in Washington, D.C.
- First year teaching was in the inner city.
- The role of spirituality and faith in children.
- Faith community is a resilience factor.
- Faith enables us to have connection.
- Children have innate understanding of God.
- When you have that child standing in front of you that can sometimes get on your last nerve, ask not what is wrong with you, but what has happened to you?
- Impacts us at the cellular level.
- I look at you with compassion for your story.
- The kids’ history has told them that the world is not a safe place.
- “Children act out“ in behavior what they do not have the words to say.
- How much do we need to know about student’s trauma?
- The trauma determines the impact.
- The behavior speaks for itself.
- Need to look at trauma with a broader lens.
- What happens inside a child’s body when they experience trauma.
- FAE and Pre-natal drug exposure impacts organization of brain.
- Most vulnerable time is in-utero and first two months of life as it relates to brain development.
- Dr. Perry and neurotransmitters.
- ADHD medication manipulates one of the three neurotransmitters.
- Dendrites on neurons related to quality and health of early life.
- Trauma can interrupt two hemispheres of the brain.
- Memory, language, using symbols can be compromised by trauma.
- Moral classrooms, moral children.
- Children with trauma will only thrive in a community.
- Developmentally appropriate practice with kids exposed to trauma - Narrow window of strategies.
- Children with significant trauma act at half their chronological age.
- Active learning engagement for kids exposed to trauma.
- Primary strategy is a do-over or reboot. “Let’s try that again!” - may need to model that first.
- Goal is not to manage behavior but to heal them from inside out.
- Ignore the no and give two choices!
- Cozy corner: “You let me know when you’re ready to go back to class.“
- Simply changing the location is sometimes enough.
- Pattern, repetitive movement is calming to the brain.
- Wet washcloth is a tangible symbol of empathy.
- How to be a transformative principal? When you see those children who are struggling, remind yourself it’s not about what’s wrong with you, but about what’s happened to you. I know who you are.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jason Glass is the superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools
- 85,000 students on the west side of Denver, Colorado.
- Lots of great people in the district.
- Community is politically divided 1/3 democrats, 1/3 independent, 1/3 republican
- When it comes to our kids, it should be an area where everyone can work together.
- PBS Documentary about the Jeffco recall
- Things that disturb the balance here get noticed
- How do we prepare the students for the right future.
- Green Mountain Youtube Video
- Changing the student experience through changing the student task
- Information is really easy to acquire.
- Problem and project-based learning across the entire organization
- Three categories of practitioners: those who have always taught in authentic: Allow those teachers to be influencers.
- Second group is those who see the changes and are willing to engage but don’t know how: provide lots of opportunities for them to see what it looks like.
- Third group: waiting to see if this is a fad.
- How do you inspire your leadership to do these things as well?
- This is simultaneously the easiest and most difficult change to make.
- “This is exactly why I got into education”
- Really hard because this is not a technical change
- Much deeper and more meaningful change approach.
- Have the changes really changed what students experience
- how to be a transformative principal? Principals can support, encourage and help a teacher take a risk to create an authentic meaningful approach for a student.
- @cojasonglass Jason.glass@jeffco.k12.co.us
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Greg Goins is a former superintendent, principal, teacher and coach who is now the host of the Reimagine Schools Podcast
In our Simulcast we talk about the K12 Magnet. Here is the 1 Pager and here is the infographic and here is the video.
Sign up for updates about the K12 Magnet school here
- Reimagine Schools
- Twitter opened my eyes greatly.
- Find some life skills.
- Someone has dealt with a similar problem.
- School Leadership can be a very isolating profession.
- Have the courage to have some really difficult conversations.
- Ask why we are doing the things we are doing.
- Nothing wrong with starting slow
- When I was in school.
- Stop looking at kids as part of groups.
- Change is the most feared word in education, but we need to embrace it.
- Being highly innovative is a scary proposition for many people.
- How to implement change: We’re going to try something new and see how it goes.
- Henry Ford, “Those who have never made a mistake work for those who have.“
- Create a culture of Yes.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be a connected educator.
- Learn as much as you can.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jeremy Williams is the principal of Manor Hall International School in United Arab Emirates
- 600 students from 46 countries
- Bitcoin and blockchain
- Bitcoin made it speculation.
- At its core, it is a ledger. A record of transactions and accounts.
- Eliminate Higher ed from being the sole guarantor of credentials.
- Blockchain seeks to destroy intermediaries.
- Blockchain verifies information and can’t be hacked.
- Blockchain authenticated vs university degree.
- What it would look like in the K-12 system.
- If we had the ability for authentic assessments that were performance oriented and we attached blockchain credential instead of a grade. It’s not just about getting the A.
- How to know it is good enough.
- You can store as much as you want on the transaction.
- Tasks have to be structured in a way that are binary.
- Publicly declare purpose and passion.
- Tie to the credential where people could see the work.
- Assess where the viability would be for you.
- For the teacher who wants kids to be motivated intrinsically.
- You have to have a low barrier to entry.
- Upskilling people who are already working.
- Blockchain is not bitcoin.
- Technology is going to impact the future of jobs.
- Discerning passion and purpose vs. understanding what jobs are possible with that.
- Parents exposed her to a lot of things when she was younger.
- It’s our opportunity to expose kids to things to see what they like.
- Genius hour model.
- How to be a transformative principal? Spend time with yourself and figure out what it is that you love about the work you do. Help 1 kid learn about what they love.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Claude Charron is a Teacher in Miami Florida and director of STEM program in Gulliver Florida. Claude@conradawards.org
- Empowering students to make change
- Sports has it right in being able to expose kids at a young age to become an athlete.
- Things that will not work.
- Keeping kids safe doesn’t inspire.
- Kids have to choose something they are interested in.
- Empathy is vital.
- When students are inspired by seeing someone challenged by something, they have a purpose for working hard.
- Designing something that matters is what inspires kids.
- How designing something that matters inspires kids.
- Getting kids to agree on something is an art.
- How do you get kids to engage and go down the path where they want to design something that matters.
- You do learn things through projects.
- Design process since 1997!
- What is the art?
- We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. How do you go from an idea to a working prototype?
- Google Sprint method. Book
- Modules that would help teachers.
- How to select a challenge.
- Visualize everything on a board.
- No Box Toolbox -
- Collaborate with someone visually.
- It’s our responsibility to engage kids
- If kids aren’t engaged it’s a personal failure on me as the teacher
- Shows that kids can each communicate in an effective way to give everyone a voice.
- Haven’t reinvented the process. The difference is they are not working in silos.
- Once you have the clarity within a team, you have the power to do what the team wants to do.
- How to be a transformative principal?
- Ask faculty, how can we work together in a way where we are going deeper with kids.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jennifer Hogan is an assistant principal in Hoover, Alabama. Her web site is The Compelled Educator
- Rising Tide Radio Focused on women in ed leadership.
- Guide on the side for PD with her teachers
- School goals take the learning outside the classroom walls.
- First session wasn’t about the technology, but about gathering courage and thinking differently about how they thought of their classroom in the past.
- Jump-start ideas.
- Connect with an expert in their content areas.
- Walked around and listened is all Jennifer did.
- Decide on something, then figure out technology.
- Timeline
- Skype and blog with experts
- Connections with other classrooms.
- What is holding principals back from doing things this way.
- How do we want to go about doing that?
- Think of as many ideas as possible.
- Not many challenges.
- School has three goals for learning
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Kelly Young is the Executive Director at Education Reimagined, where they seek to help educators create a learner-centered learning environment.
- What happens when kids don’t learn the same thing!?
- It is a myth that just because things are being taught that all students are all learning the same thing.
- Kids are not learning the same things now even though we may be teaching the same thing now.
- What are the competencies that kids need to have?
- Once kids get over the fear, they realize they have a lot to say.
- All of your learning is not going to be in K12
- Inspire life-long learning
- Equity issues
- Examining what bias we might be bringing.
- This process of education is incredibly liberating for educators.
- How to be a transformative principal? 2 things: 1. Listening and being a team with the educators 2. Actually asking 5 young people and five teachers what it is like for them in the school.
- *
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
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Kelly Young is the Executive Director at Education Reimagined, where they seek to help educators create a learner-centered learning environment.
- Non profit in Washington, D.C. that figures out how we can accelerate the transition from school-centered to student-centered
- All kids and outcomes that are actually relevant.
- A whole new way of seeing education.
- Learning is a natural phenomenon.
- Unfurl students’ unique potential.
- Shifting from the transfer of knowledge to the investigation of unknown knowledge
- Einstein National Geographic.
- Asking teachers about passionate learning experiences that they had.
- Had people that cared about them and what they learned.
- Great learning experiences rarely happen in a classroom setting.
- Relevant to what kids need to learn.
- Why is it so hard for educators to let this go?
- It’s what we experienced and what we know.
- Maybe there is something wrong with me.
- When you’re really struggling with a student, ask what might I do differently and what role can the kids take in fixing the problem.
- It always feels risky to invite kids into the conversation.
- Iowa BIG - architecture project.
- He didn’t have the words to describe what he was missing.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jeff Kubiak is a principal in Davis, California.
- Didn’t really like school growing up.
- Pushed to be an administrator by his now-superintendent.
- One of the most diverse counties in the United States.
- MAP assessment closely related to state test.
- Much more small group instruction and intervention. MAP skills tied in with Khan Academy.
- Reclaiming our child by Brad Gustafson.
- Technology makes it possible
- It might be a little bit loud, but I can still have my kids in the back, and we can be rocking!
- Have a hard time having videos to show my teachers.
- Encourage teachers to go check out other teachers’ classrooms.
- Students set goals with teachers.
- Start with why.
- Then add the what.
- How to help teachers change
- Lots of PD - how to have a MAP goal setting conference with students.
- Approach each teacher with how it will work for them.
- We ask 800 kids to change every day! Why can’t we as adults make one little adjustment?
- We don’t gossip.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into all the classrooms. Gotta get out of the office!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
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Bridget Belcastro is the principal of Johnnsburg Elementary School.
- Principal of every grade level in K-12
- Why Bridget joined the mastermind.
- I’m always just starting out, even in my 12th year.
- Makes me reflect on things that I have experienced.
- I can give recommendations or experiences that helped me.
- I do have some very specific goals for my career, and I get those through the mastermind.
- Intimacy of it, we all have time each week to share what we are doing.
- GRIT Program - Greatness Requires Internal Toughness.
- A team of 10 teachers developed the lessons.
- There is a new series of lessons for each grade level.
- We talk about Goal Setting, Perseverance, Overcoming Obstacles, Reflection, Growth Mindset, Etc.
- Talk about brain research and famous failures.
- Teachers buy into it more when we create it.
- Year 1 was very easy, all the lessons look the same.
- Year 2 was a little more challenging with fresh approach and different topics.
- Year 3 is really challenging.
- Teachers have t-shirts Got GRIT?
- If I fail, I’ll be OK. I’ll just try it a different way!
- Restorative practices - Problem-solving skills
- Working through frustrations with kids.
- Make sure our practice matches what we’re preaching.
- Are we giving kids chances to show that the “Yet” part?
- How to be a transformative principal? Reminding yourself that you’re all in this together. Making sure that your staff believes it!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Social Media 259: Students choose a topic they want to study, and ask the teacher to help them understand that culture’s values.
Joel Lavin is the principal of River Road / El Camino Del Rio
- Teachers that put up welcome signs that were edgy.
- Opinion piece following the vandalism.
- Discussing racism head-on.
- Being inclusive not exclusive
- Equity committee that meets to discuss culture, morale, language barriers, etc.
- Support students that are not documented immigrants, but make sure that their rights are preserved.
- Students choose a topic they want to study, and ask the teacher to help them understand that culture’s values.
- How the mastermind benefits Joel.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get in a lot of steps to be out in your school!
- Dual Language Principal Katherine
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
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Joel Lavin is the principal of River Road / El Camino Del Rio
- Dual Language is much different.
- Studied science and Spanish in college.
- We as a nation are just starting to realize how important it is to speak another language.
- Broca’s area
- Families wanted to have their own language spoken in the school.
- Family resource center
- 2009 started as a dual language program
- There were reluctant dual language program.
- Change is hard.
- Some staff members left.
- Teachers are a major factor in school culture.
- Talking and being out in the community is really important to help with a big cultural change.
- Funds of knowledge community.
- Parents’ values reflect what they want their kids to learn.
- Change school became a powerful space for people to have powerful conversations about school.
- Change school brings a level of transparency and honesty that is really powerful.
- Have an ongoing conversation with people who have similar ideas and understandings and have had experiences to make it possible.
- People feel trusted inside this community.
- It can be a difficult conversation about what modern learning should look like.
- Constant learning is fascinating.
- Tried to create some space for people to connect who don’t have room for that in their physical spaces.
- It is very dependent on whether people are school leaders or something else.
- The dark ages of change - leadership from the middle.
- People who can be influencers - parents, students,
- suddenly it’s not just about one teacher or one principal.
- How to get parent and student feedback.
- You often see yourself very isolated in a school.
- People are looking for direct prompts and cues
- So much of the educational conversation is led by journalists and politicians. We have to stop that.
- People respond with a blank look to a blank slate because they don’t have the practice at it.
- Modern Learners Lens
- Existing schools - best vehicle for communication is your students.
- We’ve conditioned kids to do what we say.
- The notion of setting expectations.
- If we’re going to shift the goalpost, we need to spend a lot of time talking to parents about the what and the why.
- TED Podcast
- Do we trust kids?
- Four areas that we have to think hard about - Modern Learners Lens
- Schools don’t know what they believe, they don’t articulate what they believe
- Understand how literacy is changing.
- Understand what is actually possible in schools now.
- Peter Senge
- Most change efforts are not grounded in those conversations.
- Modern Learner Community
- Change.school for more information
- How to be a transformative principal?
- Bruce: Engage more deeply in the spaces we already referred to.
- Will: Have a willingness to see if you are actually doing what you believe in your classrooms!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Rachael and John George Both principals in Oregon share their experiences of turning around schools.
- PreK involvement
- Trauma-informed practices
- Stronger voice for advocacy
- Building strong relationships.
- Can’t personalize learning unless you know about the kids!
- Different levels for leaders learning at their own pace.
- There needs to be customization because different people need different things.
- Culturally responsive teaching and Trauma
- How do people get involved?
- Contact someone and say you want to be involved.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms and support teachers.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Rachael and John George Both principals in Oregon share their experiences of turning around schools.
- The Three Amigos
- Sandy Green Elementary School - lowest 10% of the schools. Working with a well-known publisher on reading and writing, and it wasn’t going as well as they thought!
- Year 1 from 10%ile to 50%ile. Year 4 82%ile. With highest Free and Reduced lunch rate in the district.
- Honed in on systems and structures
- Full staff turnover in those four years.
- 3-4 year plan
- First thing you need to do is establish relationships.
- You’ve got to be the examiner of systems and structures.
- Identify holes in intervention and enrichment.
- Each building has its own issues.
- Three changes in the first year: 1. Slow 2. Integrated with content, but lost on the students 3. No engagement
- Students were passively sitting there, while the teacher was doing all the heavy lifting.
- Level of community involvement.
- Need to do different because we are teaching different students.
- How do we do different different?
- It’s supposed to be hard.
- Be the filter: teach to cause a positive result.
- Modified Danielson Rubric for evaluation. I can’t evaluate you in Domain 1 unless I see your lesson plans.
- You can’t be good with what you do without a game plan.
- Look at the standards and make them meaningful.
- New teachers out perform due to effective lesson plans.
- Need guidance and coaching and mentoring around lesson plans. Provides the opportunity for reflection in lesson plans and it makes them better as teachers.
- Lesson plans provide feedback on Professional Development - if we can’t see it reflected in lesson plans.
- Keeping your lesson plans to reflect on later.
- Planning formative assessment.
- CoTeach model - special education & ELL population
- Be in classrooms a lot.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Invitation Only Parent Teacher Conferences with Jay Posick Transformative Principal 254
Social Media: If you’re sitting in your office, trouble is going to come find you so you might as well go find it!
Jay Posick is principal of Merton Intermediate school in Merton Wisconsin
- How our culture came to be here in Merton.
- Weekly nuts and bolts emails “Good Morning Merton Family“
- Take care of kids…
- Connect with people face to face.
- There aren’t silver bullets.
- Get out of your office.
- If you’re sitting in your office, trouble is going to come find you so you might as well go find it!
- 3 all-staff meetings each year that I’m in charge of.
- First agenda item on grade level meetings is kids.
- There are times as educators where we focus more on the negative than on the positive
- Recognize kids that are going above and beyond.
- Be kind, be safe, do your job.
- Good news call of the day. #mertonproud
- Finding ways to recognize kids.
- Find a way for teachers to share more with others.
- Mark French came up with the idea.
- Have a positive phone call at the end of the week.
- Ordinary to you, amazing to everyone else.
- Invitation only conferences
- Pat on the back or a kick in the butt!
- Building Leadership Team.
- More on invitation only conferences.
- Great things, challenges, great things.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get out of your office!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Hi, this is jethro, host of transformative principal! You can reach me @jethrojones on twitter or at http://transformativeprincipal.org/
Today is episode 253 and I am so excited about what I am going to share.
My school is rocking and rolling in an amazing way! We are positively impacting kids not just academically, but socially, as well. It’s fantastic. In fact, I’m much more proud of our soft skills growth than I am of our academic success, because today, kids can learn anything anywhere!
Much of that growth is happening in Synergy, which I will talk about later.
But first, everyone is always asking, how do we get our schools to change. You’re listening to this podcast because that is what you want to know! In the fall listener survey there were about 90% of my listeners so far who said they wanted to learn more about the school change process.
Well, I’m going to tell you the secret.
Ready?
Here’s my four-step process guaranteed to bring about school change:
- Vision
- Communication
- Empowerment of faculty, parents, and students
- Continuous improvement
First, vision. Where there is not vision there is death. Do you want to be “just another school?“ No! That’s why you’re listening to some guy in Alaska describe how his school has dramatically changed over the last 18 months
If you go back to episode 1001 of Transformative Principal you will see how we did a ton of stuff at my last school. The same is happening here, with one notable exception. Everything that we are doing is centered around a vision for personalized learning. If it doesn’t have to do with personalizing learning for our students, I don’t touch it.
Our vision is clear. We are going to give kids what they need when they need it. That is personalized learning.
Our vision is clear: if something doesn’t contribute to personalizing learning, we don’t waste time on it.
Whatever training we do goes back to personalizing learning for our students.
We have a ton of new stuff happening in our school this year. Why? Because we are personalizing learning.
Math - project-based learning
Science - switching between 7th and 8th grade teachers each quarter-long unit to give kids choice and voice in their learning.
So, let’s talk about how all these things happened.
Step 2: communication
When I got hired, I came up and met the staff at the end of the school year. I talked at length with a few of them, and started communicating over the summer more extensively. There was a lot going on.
When I got to the school, I met with every teacher I could to ask, “What should we start, stop, or continue doing?” I got a lot of feedback from that. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to talk with parents, yet, but those that I did shared some of their concerns. The biggest thing that I learned in my four months’ research was that there were a lot of problems. It was tough coming into the school.
I did a survey at the end of the school year, and when I asked a question about culture at the school, only 2 responses were something positive. All the others were negative. ALL the others were negative.
This was tough for me. As a side note, one of the ways you measure culture is through little things, like how many people sit together at district-wide professional development. At our PD on Monday, we had the biggest group we’ve had sitting together. It’s working.
We also had a school district strategic vision and big push from the school board and superintendent to personalize learning for our students, which is what I really wanted to do in education anyway!
After all this research, we needed a direction. Many teachers responded to another survey that they wanted to be known for something. They had different ideas, but they desperately wanted to be known for doing something that no other schools were doing.
So, with their input, I created a vision for where Tanana would go in four years.
Here it is: We would fulfill our school district’s strategic vision by becoming the most personalized school in the district.
I announced to the teachers at the start of the year and then reviewed it again. I help monthly meetings with parents to explain where we were going to go in the future.
Part of the challenge was that we would only have students for 2 years.
Step 3: empowerment of faculty, parents, and students
This one is really exciting. I could write a whole book about this!
In our four year plan, there are outlines, and there is room for growth. There is room for personal accountability.
I learned long ago that a leader’s job is not to cap the top end, but rather to help light a fire under someone else.
Through this process parents and students and teachers may feel like they have a little too much power. The reality is you always have that power. It’s ironic that this piece is called empowerment, when we take that power away ourselves and think that we need permission to do good things. We don’t.
Throughout this whole process, teachers and students have been given great latitude to make their own decisions and do things how they think is best. They are the people with the most information about what works for them, so why should I, as the principal, who doesn’t know a lot of what is going on, be making all the decisions.
I do my best to teach them good principles, and then I let them govern themselves accordingly.
One of the other things that I have learned is that if I am running the ship, when I turn my back the ship crashes. There are initiatives that are happening solely because I am in charge of them. This is a recipe for disaster! This will not continue if I am not working my tail off to make sure that happens. I need to distance myself from that so other people can take ownership.
Right now, synergy is in that camp. But it is a school-wide effort and not many people have the capacity or opportunity to see all that there is to be seen! Even still, I need to move that away from me, and give more opportunities to others.
*What is Synergy?
You’d probably call it project based learning. And that would be pretty accurate. But it’s not exactly that.
Synergy is a time for students to learn without limitations. Synergy is a time when students bring all their skills and knowledge together to do something that leaves an impact.
I made a little video to explain it to my students, and I’d like to share it here.
What makes synergy so awesome? It’s all driven by kids. They come up with the ideas. They do the work. Teachers are very much guides on the side supporting them. It’s so exciting to see what kids are creating.
I’m working on a list that shows everything that kids are doing in Synergy, but it isn’t quite done, yet. Kids are writing novels, making scale models of battleships, organizing a step team, finding ways help homeless youth, raising awareness about LGBT issues, decorating our school, writing uplifting messages on origami to give to others, upcycling, organizing after-school programs (sports and chess) for a neighboring school, creating a smoothie company, a locker decorations company, a vinyl decal company, and so much more. It’s exciting!
I can’t believe what I get to witness every week with these kids. Stay tuned for more to come about this exciting chapter in our school.
Step 4: Continuous improvement
This is where it gets really exciting for me. Nothing is ever good enough. Good is the enemy of great. I want my school to be amazing, and it is never going to be if I settle for anything. For me, change and improvement is exciting and fun. For others, change is scary and challenging.
So, how do we make this happen? We constantly evolve in every area we can.
It means that I have a critical eye, and that means critical for the things that I want to have happen, too. Synergy is a good example of that. It started way back when I was a teacher and has been evolving ever since. It has different names in different schools, but the base idea is the same. You might call it Genius Hour or 20% time. I’ve called it “special projects,“ “tutorials,” “advisory,” and now “synergy.”
What is important in whatever process you are evaluating, is that you continually evaluate how things are going. You can’t settle for anything, anytime.
There are challenges with this. But this is where it goes back to the vision that you have for your school. If you don’t have that vision of what we are doing, the improvements can be seen as changes, and that doesn’t help anyone!!! People don’t like to change for change’s sake. They are willing to improve and grow, but they need to do it with an eye toward a vision of some sort.
Thank so much for taking the survey for listeners. Here is the link.
Be sure to check out Danny Bauer's School Leadership Series.
Eric Chagala is the principal of of Vista Innovation & Design Academy Twitter
- Changing with the same kids same teachers same place.
- Using the design thinking process to actually get there.
- There is no difference in design thinking between business and schools.
- Trying to create and add value for and in the community.
- Identifying who our users are and what their
- How do you get deep insights?
- Steve Jobs idea, they never would have come up with that idea. Listen deeply, and read between the lines of what people are asking for.
- What is it that they have not imagines.
- About 1000 educational visitors come through our school each year. Want to do better by and for kids. Looking for exposure. Trying to gain understand about what might exist in different capacities.
- What they understand from the perspective that they have. Important for the designers to have a really vast set of exposures.
- It’s not just visiting schools.
- Stopped reading about education stuff. Starting reading and focusing on things from industry.
- Subscribing to more things outside the context of education.
- discussion, reading, and some travel to other places.
- Quallcomm, Mindsets of founding leadership team.
- Translate what we were hearing from students and teachers.
- Looking at creative firms that touch the education sector.
- Diversity of the ecosystem.
- The more diverse an ecosystem the better
- Feb 2013 - spring smiling at each other, year long journey of trying to figure out what a new school would be.
- August 2014, after just 1 year. Taught all day at the old school afternoon and evening were spent learning and gaining empathy.
- Be centered around design thinking. Doesn’t translate very well into pedagogy.
- Pedagogical framework, buck institute on Project-based learning. That gave us a framework to insert design thinking into.
- PBL is more challenging in Math than humanities, so moved to Problem-based learning. Challenge-based learning.
- Design-based learning. Deeper learning & project based & challenge-based
- DBLe - including entrepreneurship to get them ready for the gig economy.
- The narrative we share about the experience that kids get when they come here.
- VIDA - Life - Narrative of life vs. school.
- It’s not design thinking or PBL, what sets us apart is our narrative. This is not school.
- You can’t just show up for 7.5 hours and think you’ll change your life.
- First year - students who were matriculating through. Found some of the kids who had struggled the most in the old school and were stars in the new school. Tell their story on video.
- Turnaround kids.
- Schools have the power to perpetuate or change the culture of the neighborhood.
- “Now our teachers care about us”
- Pursue challenging tasks with
- Love the hell out of every single person, every day.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Whaley School is a separate day school with about 100 students with behavioral needs.
- Some students stay through graduation, but goal is to get them back to a neighborhood school.
- Sister school closed down and opened an elementary wing, so now a k12 school!
- 100% special education population - level 4, level 5 is more like a residential treatment center.
- Tier 3 in MTSS/RTI behavior.
- Students can access neighborhood schools. No after-school activities at Whaley. Sometimes a parent goes with them to activities at other schools.
- Why not inclusion at Whaley school?
- Some of the behavioral needs are so intense that staff members do not have the support to deal with those severe behaviors.
- Our motto is working through the problem.
- Physical aggression they are showing towards others.
- Strategies: Crisis Recovery Hallway - able to talk with intervention coaches to walk them through the conflict cycle, with whomever that may be!
- What are you going to do when you go back?
- Teaching kids to advocate for themselves.
- We really believe in no suspensions
- We give the same curriculum that they get at the other schools,
- All of their communication becomes behavior.
- An intervention coach in each classroom and there in the CR room. Intervention with Strategies and Support
- To prevent recidivism, we need to teach skills to help them.
- CR1 - something blows up and you lose your cool. Quickly getting back to class.
- CR2 - spend a little more time talking about what is going on. Choose: mindfulness, exercise, or work.
- CR3 - stay there the rest of the day.
- How to help the teachers welcome kids back into class.
- Every 5 minutes is a new beginning.
- It’s ok to start fresh at the beginning of the next class.
- Also have a few items that are specifically going to put them in the ISS room, Threatening, posturing, etc.
- Eliminating behaviors
- A lot of times teachers may see reactions, rather than instigating actions.
- Suggestions, be very loud and say, “I don’t like that, don’t do that.“
- Check in and check out.
- 1st period talking about goals that they have.
- When they go to checkout, tell how they did.
- Doing so many checkpoints throughout the day. Behavior data every week.
- Data review meetings can be called at any time to try to get a student back into the regular school.
- Data review with the team, then we call a meeting with neighborhood school. Meet at the neighborhood school.
- Sometimes self-sabotage - Extra help for kids that are getting close to transitioning.
- Make sure kids feel that they have support when they leave.
- Why not do a different curriculum with these students who are very different?
- Students could have access to resource classes in all subject areas.
- How to be a transformative principal?
Build close relationships with students, be out there and make sure that kids know you think they are important.
Michelle Snyder@mlsnyder92 Vista Visions academy
- Students have set lab times so they come in for special events.
- Students in a lab with 5 or six students
- Whether or not they are required to do the labs is up for debate, but it is good for kids to have the experience.
- What kinds of students are attracted to your school?
- Their reasons vary, but they each have a very specific reason for coming.
- If they hadn’t found us, they would have gone outside the district to a charter school
- Big picture learning. Upstream collaborative.
- Learning through interests (LTI) student internship program
- Teaching skills for seeking out their own internship.
- Parents often speaking for their kids and how do we help parents.
- Takes a lot for parents to be able to step back when they
- How to build for scale for this program.
- Looking at things from a dollars and cents point of view.
- We’re not the same system as a regular school, so we need to look at what’s actually happening to see what we need to do to help them.
- Every Friday afternoon we have collaboration and PD.
- Individual Student Support Spreadsheet to record notes of students.
- Touchstone - morning meeting with staff to see how everyone is doing.
- Always looking at other options for kids.
- How to be a transformative principal? Ask questions of their staff and listen to their answers.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Kelly Tenkely founded Anastasis Academy in 2011.
We visited this school in September 2018, and we want to make
Anastasis is a kindergarten through 8th grade innovative, non-denominational Christian school located in Centennial Colorado. Our Reggio-Emilia, inquiry-based approach challenges students to gain a deep understanding of concepts and skills. Experiential learning allows our students to explore the world through research and play. Students collaborate in small, mixed age classes with teachers who support learning. It's no wonder that our student love coming to school every day!
- Metanoia - greek the journey of one’s mind, body and spirit.
- The way we interact is a journey.
- Tie the morning time in with what is happening in our inquiry block.
- Community time.
- Mile walk together - all students and teachers all together.
- Disregulated kids get regulated by walking together.
- 3:10 time: we meet all together in the lobby.
- Daniel Pink’s book, When.
- The last thing that happens is the thing that stands out.
- Sometimes it is a dance party.
- Parent feedback about what these two things do.
- We have parents ask, “Who did you notice being kind today?” It’s not just about academics, but about caring at a human level.
- Kids feel judged when their parents ask about school because they think their parents ask about areas they are weak, so we coach parents to ask about social
- What did you do creatively today?
- The way we are shifting education is very different from what parents experienced in school, so we need to help parents see how the landscape has changed.
- Our parents are a little more open to that because they are choosing this education.
- My kids’ friends are memorizing 50 states.
- Table topics at back to school night.
- Getting to know people on a personal level. Cultivating community between parents and teachers.
- Meeting of the minds - parent teacher conferences.
- Sending postcards to parents as just in time information.
- Pull information from handbook and put it on the postcards.
- Making our handbook fun to read.
- Most challenging is hearing parents say, “Why can’t you just call it X?”
- People who aren’t in the space every day, don’t understand everything about why you need to call it something else.
- How to change perception of what we are based on people’s experiences.
- Start comparing yourself to what you want to look like.
- “We are a magnet school if a magnet school was run by Pixar!” Connect to something they are familiar with and connect with that.
- Assessment - means to sit beside.
- We apprentice students in the art of learning.
- Traditional assessment is a teacher making a determination of a grade. It’s never about a student understanding and reflecting on their own work.
- Different things focused on social skills became part of upgrade (their report card).
- Continuum of learning - Novice -> Apprentice -> Practitioner -> Scholar -> Changemaker
- So many more skills than just doing math facts in under a minute.
- 5sigma conference - See the kids’ activities first hand, then do breakout sessions.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into the classroom and get to know students on a personal level.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Joe Erpelding, principal of Design39Campus:
- Promotion Designer class - students are creating promotion experience
- 2 promoting classes in last two years
- the trouble with leadership in traditional models.
- Anyone who is interested in leadership gets to be part of Lead39.
- Students create leadership
- Experienceships energize
- Life-ready
- How do we cram it all in?
- Covering the content vs experiencing the content.
- Enduring Learning through creativity, knowledge, identity.
- Design thinking process is an extension of the scientific method.
- Empathy.
- Was the learning really “felt”?
- What does great teaching look like?
- What does great learning look like?
- MOUs to reshape the strict rules and regulations.
- Extensive Hiring Process: disorienting for anyone coming here.
- 4 step process - 1. e-tell 2. Design challenge with student 3. Typical interview 4. Performance task
- Onboarding process - historical documents of where we hoped to be.
- Balance between quicksand and concrete - how do you balance this?
- Steve Farver: Radical LEAP
- Competency-based learning - TK-8 - what is critical?
- Critical components that need to be covered before kids are ready for the next step.
- 1st graders collaborating
- Sense of self leads you to be able to communicate effectively.
- Learner centered lab school - can’t disconnect parents from the learning community.
- FutureNOW conference - parents are invited to be learners.
- How many tours are we giving to our current parents?
- TK-8 Experience
- Pain points - 100 kids leave
- Problem with us - communication around what a student is learning.
- What are we going to assess?
- Send home a progress report twice yearly.
- altschool learning platform.
- Seesaw
- students can showcase their progress against competencies.
- What’s next instead of I’m done.
- allowing students to have variety in how they communicate what they learn.
- Giving kids access.
- Personal connection to mathematics can take a deep dive into mathematics.
- Daily morning collaboration 7:45-8:45
- Gift that we’ve given is time. We overstructure things.
- Still have the same time as their peers at other schools
- How to be a transformative principal? 10% - what am I willing to stretch myself to do tomorrow? What do I want to see this time next year?
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Scott Ellis is the founder and CEO of Mastery Track, which is a software program to help teachers use mastery-based grading in their schools.
- Applied analytics at Hewlett Packard.
- Teacher mentoring programs.
- Blended and personalized learning for the last 7 or 8 years.
- What contribution could I make?
- Look at scale and what that might look like?
- How to use technology as the core process that everyone can access and use for learning.
- Making lots of progress on certain areas, but still having good access to the data is one area we are still struggling.
- Anything more than individual student data is too much data.
- Data wave is crashing across education.
- We need to be crystal clear about what data we need?
- What does the student know?
- So what might we do next?
- Which ways of learning work best for them?
- Blended learning is combining great teaching with technology.
- There is a new job description for teachers in the 21st Century.
- It used to be that the teacher was the source of information, and now there are lots of ways for students to learn. There are so many more tools in the teacher’s toolkit.
- We all know they know different things and are in different places. It’s extremely difficult to do differentiation in that system.
- Teachers know things that nobody else knows. They know the children in front of them. The role of those teachers is to know how to use the variety of tools at their disposal to help kids learn as much as possible.
- The children are at different places in their learning.
- New tech makes things possible in new ways.
- Station rotation models. Individuals and small groups is where the magic happens.
- Effective educational practices that are happening when the teacher is not imparting instruction.
- Start with a dashboard: Where are they now?
- Second step: What are the next steps?
- Third Step: What is our action plan?
- Run a two-week cycle, where kids are learning certain things.
- How to be a transformative principal? Enable students to move at their own pace: learn about what that means, and genuinely embrace it, or start asking the questions to make that happen.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
Take Control of your email
Web Site
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Alexis Gonzales-Black is a principal designer at IDEO.
- Holacracy - One kind of self-organization practice. Distribute authority into the hands of those that are doing the work.
- Series of circles that are self-running startups or businesses.
- Put the organization’s purpose above your own ego.
- Shift to Holacracy can be challenging.
- What are the self-advocacy skills that people need to be able to be successful?
- Where do you have influence over these structures?
- Managing ourselves in a really interactive way.
- We build stories around what might happen if we take a step out of our comfort zone.
- The story you tell yourself is so important. Storylines
- We’re never going to get it right!
- We are a flawed species and we need to give people the ability to try new things.
- Allow tension to happen. Tension is inevitable.
- Own your tension and be the one who is responsible for resolving that.
- My job as a self-manager is to deal with that.
- Our job title becomes a uniform we can’t take off, rather than being a value we bring to the school
- What do others expect of me?
- What do others need of me?
- What are some of the roles that I can offload to someone else?
- Role Marketplace - bring your roles to the marketplace and share the load!
- The workforce increasingly wants autonomy, mastery, and purpose
- Flexible approaches to budgeting and staff assignment.
- People points.
- It’s holding us back from experimenting, where we definitely need experimentation.
- How to be a transformative principal? Take one piece of yourself and offer it to someone else.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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The New School Rules with Anthony Kim Transformative Principal 244
Social Media: We talk about failing forward, but we never set up the conditions for failure.
Anthony Kim is the founder and CEO of Education Elements, a consulting company that helps districts meet the needs of their students. He is also the coauthor of “The New School Rules: 6 Vital Practices for Thriving and Responsive Schools“
- Focusing learning for adults on what your school specifically needs.
- Where the experiments came from.
- We talk about failing forward, but we never set up the conditions for failure.
- From “failing forward” to “safe enough to try”.
- It’s obvious when you see that things didn’t. Doing things how we have been doing them really facilitates
- First milestone - classes in school buildings, then factory model.
- Comparing currency to education.
- Starting private schools
- What you know, what you anticipate.
- If you’re bringing it up
- Meeting Agenda - Could be chaotic.
- Jethro’s Blog Post about WeWork’s ]http://www.jethrojones.com/blog/2018/5/17/an-elementary-school-just-acquired-a-startup
- Articulate what game you’re playing rather than arguing over it.
- People often don’t know how to construct the problem of practice.
- Brainstorming vs. decision making.
- People aren’t trained to work in ambiguous environments.
- leaders live in ambiguity. Teachers live in
- How to be a transformative principal? Internal monthly experiments in our company, nothing to do with our work, but trying to understand people’s habits. Meditation example. Finding something that will get people to take action.
Design39Campus
Brief School Profile:
At Design39Campus, learning experiences are designed with the individual learner in mind. As a collaborative community, we nurture creative confidence, practice design thinking, learn through inquiry, connect globally, use technology and real world tools, and promote the courage and growth mindset necessary to change the world.
Teachers are called “Learning Experience Designers"
Location:
17050 Del Sur Ridge Road
San Diego, CA 92127
(858) 676-6639
Why are we visiting this school?
Alignment with our vision for K12 Magnet
[x]Competency Based
[x]Blended Learning
[x]Diversity
[x]Public School
Resources and Links:
School Blog
School Web Site
Contact:
Joe Erpelding
jerpelding@powayusd.com
858-382-4356
Notes from Visit:
- Everything speaks titles, furniture, etc.
- Open spaces, very flexible
- Choices in topic, process, product
- Director of innovation
- Teachers collaborating every single day.
- Team (principal and 5 teachers) working together to design the school for a whole year.
- TK - kindergarten for kids that are 5 before december 1 (½ day)
- MIMS - PE teachers. When and why were they brought in?
- Collaboration
- Everyone is a leader.
- Teachers are out of the room easily.
- No more meetings - facilitated learning opportunities.
- Carts for teachers, instead
- No ownership of rooms. Design the space as needed. Reset the space at the end of each day/week/unit.
- Students didn’t have any physical books, were put in the classroom.
- Working agreements for student behavior not school rules.
- Large classrooms, 60-65 kids, 2 teachers.
- Kids without passes, not asking to use the bathroom.
- Every piece of furniture has dual purposes.
- Name design39 39th school and want kids to wonder first and foremost.
- Design Studio for the adults.
- Learning Experience Designers - We light the way.
- Be cognizant of what works well for kids. Do it.
- Activity for K12 sessions: Define what different things mean.
Questions still to ask:
- Community agreements?
- Video about 1st graders collaborating.
- Clubs or activities
- Philosophy on homework?
- Literacy emphasis?
- Lottery process: 1st draw is to match free and reduced lunch. 2nd draw is to fill Special Education demographics. 3rd draw is for diversity. Fourth draw is to do everything.
Nancy Conrad is the founder of the Conrad Challenge, a global competition to help kids learn without limitations. How Listeners Can Learn More • Website: www.conradchallenge.org • Twitter: @ConradChallenge • Facebook: facebook.com/ConradChallenge • Youtube Channel (Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge)
Entry Timeline for 2018-19 Challenge: • Team Registration Open Online: Friday, August 24 • Team Registration Closes Online: Friday, October 19 • Investor Pitch Submission Deadline: Friday, November 2 • Finals: April 24-27, 2019, Kennedy Space Center
• We are looking for advisors and student teams to participate in the 6 Challenge Categories: ◦ Special Category: Smoke Free World, sponsored by Foundation for a Smoke Free World ◦ Special Category: Transforming Education Through Technology, sponsored by SMART Technologies ◦ Aerospace & Aviation ◦ Cyber-Technology & Security ◦ Energy & Environment ◦ Health & Nutrition
- No box thinking.
- This is social impact meets education meets global impact.
- Inspired by Google Design Sprint
- We are in a testocracy.
- Adapt our system to what we are doing in our knowledge-based economy.
- No box toolbox
- Teacher of the year award.
- Problems are negative, but challenges can be solved.
- Learning without limitations
- The goal is not to take a product to market, but to learn how to learn.
- Calculated risks that had a massive impact.
- Most of our education looks down a straw…but our world is globalized.
- Our students earn a GSD - Get Stuff Done.
- How to be a transformative principal? Passion - have it and use it!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Matt Coleman, DEd, has worked at every level of the secondary education system. He has served as educational assistant, middle school teacher, high school teacher, high school assistant principal, middle school principal, high school principal, director of secondary education, and assistant superintendent. In his administrative roles, Matt supported significant change resulting in improved outcomes for all kids—with a positive, differential impact on students who have been historically underserved.
- Not for profit organization - research and consulting about making school work for all kids.
- Think about what it means to be successful.
- All kids are served well.
- Organizational theory - inflexion framework.
- School identity should inform
- Schools don’t have a consensus of outcomes that defines readiness.
- As Inflexion, we use the Four Keys (Think, Know, Act, and Go) developed by our founder, Dr. David Conley, as a critical driver in our work with schools. This framework represents a holistic vision for schools and systems to align with as well as a shared mental model for staff to anchor their understanding of readiness.
- Our instructional approaches don’t engender ownership.
- Some information is available only to the privileged few.
- AVID is one of the programs that helps give kids privilege.
- Must think holistically
- Schools that are working for all kids have a consensus of outcomes and clarity of identity.
- Life readiness maxims
- Map skills they have learned against “Think, Know, Act, Go“ (or 5 C’s, or 21st Century Skills)
- Identity is a concept of vision.
- Take a look at what you do, and making a system that serves ALL students.
- What are you doing to what end? How do the activities you’re doing link to “Think, Know, Act, Go”?
- Life Ready Maxims Nike has 11 maxims.
- Maxims - how to distill and communicate key ideas of your vision.
- “We are Valley”
- Structure should reflect identity.
- Being consistently inconsistent
- Question to ask in interviews. 2nd question: How would you define fair and how would you apply it to kids.
- Hiring practices should reflect core maxims.
- Articulate that you understand that your perspectives are different.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Schools cannot form identity if the principal doesn’t have an understanding of their own maxims.
- Identify 10-12 stakeholders and ask 3 questions: What do I (as the principal) value, what do I believe, how do I see the world? (And what about what I do reflects those things)
- If you don’t see consistency in maxims, you need to do your own development work.
- How do I help my staff develop that same maxim? Be consistently inconsistent around the function of the behavior.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Dr. Clement served nine years as the superintendent of Flowing Wells School District in Tucson, Arizona. Following his retirement in 2013, Dr. Clement was appointed to the Ernest McFarland Citizen’s Chair in Education by the dean of the College of Education at Northern Arizona University. In this endowed, full-time faculty position, Dr. Clement is responsible for teaching and advocating for education throughout Arizona and the nation.
- Legendary Teacher Day: Sept 27, 2018 Sign up for this free event to recognize your amazing teachers! 4th Thursday in September - stop and think of that teacher, and contact them if you can!
- How did I get here?
- It wasn’t by chance.
- I got to this position because of a couple of great teachers.
- They never once verbally encouraged me to go into teaching, but they were modeling my career!
- What am I going to do now? Elevate the profession with my own resources and skills.
- Open resources
- Partnering with businesses is an opportunity to recognize and reward their school.
- Goal is that in 10 years that it is part of our culture.
- Three tenets of a legendary teacher: building relationships, engaging deeply with students, and creating high expectations.
- What’s the perfect teacher?
- Starts with relationships. Active participation - engagement - enrollment.
- how to be a transformative principal? Pick a class and substitute.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Katie Martin is middle school English teacher at heart and currently works at altschool and the Head of Partnerships.
- Where to start as a person.
- Modeling my own learning journey.
- You can’t control others. You can create the conditions where people can learn new things.
- We have to look at the bigger picture. Are we educating for life, or are we educating for school?
- We need to have conversation about what we want learners to have for the future.
- What do we actually value?
- Social Ledia
- What’s possible with technology
- Less about what your learning, but rather how you’re using the tools.
- Technology should be there to super power the connections between the people.
- Teachers plan engaging experiences.
- Technology can document and manage that so much more effectively than teachers have been able to alone.
- Learner Centered Innovation Book - reframing the idea of smart.
- How to be a transformative principal? Talk to students, teachers and parents, and ask what you can do better.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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This interview on the Transformative Leadership Summit was so good, I had to post it. I hope you enjoy it.
You can still get the All Access Pass here.
Alysson Keelen is the Principal of Memorial Elementary School in New Jersey.
- How to have an inclusive schools. Taught in general education classes.
- Innovations In Special Education award winners
- Taking a team approach to designing a stem lab that is accessible, based on universal design.
- I didn’t pick them team!
- Skye’s one of the most interesting people you’ll ever talk to.
- Empowering others is what makes magic happen in your school!
- If you want to control it, you’ll get a great program, but if you want it to exceed your wildest expectations, give others leadership opportunities.
- Make decisions in the best interest of students.
- When I was teaching, we would change things up to meet the needs of our students.
- In my mind, I can justify why.
- Outside garden that is being transferred into an outside classroom.
- ScIP Team meeting once a month. Plan once a month for professional development.
- Inservice day. 2 escape rooms.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen to your teachers. What would you want your instruction to be differently? Ask them and let them do that.
- *
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Karl Rectanus is an educator, entrepreneur and adviser. As cofounder and CEO of Lea(R)n, an education innovation Benefit Corporation that empowers educators and their institutions to organize, streamline and analyze education technology through its research-backed LearnPlatform, Karl leads schools and districts, states and networks, and colleges and universities in their efforts to simplify edtech selection, procurement, implementation and measurement. Karl works with learning organizations and networks across the country to establish and elevate standards of practice that drive personalized learning at scale, student achievement and equity in access.
Originally an educator and administrator in the US and abroad, Karl has started and led multiple education innovation organizations, and currently advises districts, states and foundations. Karl has lived, worked and studied in over 12 countries, and was an NC Teaching Fellow and James M Johnston Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill, and graduate courses at UCLA’s Anderson Business School and CalTech Executive Extension. Karl, his wife and three daughters now live in Raleigh, NC.
- Became a CFO for schools
- Fourth successful education company
- How they evaluate the ed tech solutions.
- Saving time, so we can focus on things that are most important.
- 5000 ed tech tools.
- 8 most important criteria for teachers.
- Saves administrators
- Grades based on teacher’s comfort and familiarity with technology.
- Ed Tech is a broken economy
- Results Matter
- Store contracts in the platform.
- Analyze usage.
- only 9% of individual licenses are actually being used.
- Lack of Transparency leads to pricing inconsistencies
- Forming, storming, norming, and performing
- Exploring, hacking, optimizing, performing
- Self-assessment for determining where you are on the personalized learning at scale journey.
- 80% of schools are in the hacking phase.
- Really challenging to put together budget when you don’t know if tools are being used.
- How to be a transformative principal? Learnplatform.com/resources
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Matt Renwick is an 18-year public educator who began as a 5th and 6th-grade teacher in Rudolph, WI. He now serves as an elementary principal for the Mineral Point Unified School District . Matt also teaches online graduate courses in curriculum design and instructional leadership for the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He tweets @ReadByExample and writes for ASCD and Lead Literacy.
- Digital portfolios - started in 2012 with tiger woods golf, email and watching videos.
- Need to be strategic about what we are doing with the technology.
- How do we evaluate the digital portfolio options?
- You really need to look at your own school’s needs.
- Kidblog, freshgrade, google sites
-
6 C’s of digital portfolios.
-
Collect and curate
- Create and Collaborate
-
Communicate and Celebrate - gotta put something out there that is yours.
-
Age of the student matters when it comes to type of portfolio.
- Elementary - Freshgrade
- Middle - Google Site
- High School - start moving to their own platform.
- Every on the same tool, using it the same way is really an impossible task.
- Lisa Snider in Oklahoma web site for journalism class.
- Making dog toys out of t-shirts.
- Investigate portfolio assessment to start.
- There is a need for something physical and not just digital.
- Plan instruction and assessment with the student in mind.
- How to be a transformative principal? Now is a great time to try out a tool to give kids access to an authentic audience.
- Biblionasium.com
- Kidblog account for a trip to Peru.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Thom Markham is a founding father of Project Based Learning.
Started in the mid-90s at a high school trying to reclaim the positive name of the school.
- Formed charter high school - envision schools.
- Wrote the handbook on PBL
- PBL Global
- PBL = problem to be solved, investigating process, end of process - defining what they did to solve their problem.
- Lots of variations in that definition.
- Inquiry, research, facilitated
- One of the misnomers is the notion is that it is discovery only.
- Teacher has a strong role in PBL, but it changes.
- 3 roles: direct instruction, mentor, designer.
- To be a designer, need to have a better idea of whose role is what?
- What do you need to learn from someone else, and what do you need to discover yourself?
- Sensitive to students, need to know them.
- PBL works better in a personalized culture in the classroom.
- Getting teams to work well is challenging.
- We don’t teach teachers known coaching protocols.
- Skillset is changing dramatically.
- Teaching 21st century skills.
- Goal of working with teams is welcoming disruption.
- Critique as designers.
- Focus on some personal skills.
- Every teacher candidate in personality profile to learn what their strengths and weaknesses are.
- Having very serious conversations about mindset and skillset.
- Self-analysis and inquiry into the teaching profession.
- You have to look at yourself and see if you can handle it.
- Take an inward look and not just an outward look.
- What is high quality PBL
- 6 essential principles of PBL
- Social Emotional learning
- Human performance method, not a content acquisition method.
- If you’re going to have kids working in teams, how are they going to work in teams?
- Chief characteristic is humility.
- Teams of students create quality work.
- Accountability, becoming a leader.
- Breaking down collaboration skills.
- What happens in the middle of the project?
- Teaching design thinking process.
- Social good-focused PBL projects.
- the standards are not capable of containing what we can learn in the world.
- Intelligence as successful behavior
- Z school
- Deep performance rubrics that kids can judge themselves against.
- What’s the nature of intelligence in today’s world?
- The curriculum is the world.
- You’re in one of the most creative professions in the world.
- In places where the PBL is happening, the teachers.
- How to be a transformative principal? Have some basic training in project based learning. How to become an inquiry-based teacher?
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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JT McCormick is the Co-Founder of Book in a Box. Email him
- JT’s interview on the 1 Thing podcast
- Scaled software company, now a president and CEO of a publishing company, BookinaBox.com
- No motivational story of someone who stood by him. Pushed through a bad educational system that did not meet his needs.
- What I quickly learned…There is no geometry on a deposit slip.
- Mindset, choices, and hard work = success for me.
- Get up at 4 am.
- If there’s anything I don’t like in life, it’s up to me to change it.
- Where did these ideas come from?
- What would you tell a 10 year old JT?
- It’s not always what you tell a kid, but more what you show them.
- 3 of the greatest moments - marriage, birth of children, mentor at-risk youth.
- First time they got to see an office building.
- Connecting with kids - What’s wrong with this picture? And this?
- Shake hands with a firm handshake - when do we teach them this?
- Manners, a firm handshake, and other small things have served me very well in life.
- How is there not a life essentials class?
- Every school a subscription the Forbes 400.
- 3 avenues out of poverty: 1. Athlete 2. Rapper 3. Drug Dealer
- Nobody told me the fourth option: entrepreneur.
- If you are going to think, dream, or set goals
- Money does not bring happiness.
- Many children just don’t understand the ways of the world.
- If you lost it all, what would you do?
- Put in the time, put in the hard work now.
- Have your own personal excellence every single day.
- Show them examples of people who have accomplished great things.
- Show little girls female executives.
- Bring the examples in to the schools.
- I have built a career off of asking questions.
- There are no dumb questions!
- No means not right now.
- How to be a transformative principal? Show kids.
- Routine is what breeds success
- I Got There - Book
- You can’t change the past, but you can change the future
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Be the One with Ryan Sheehy Transformative Principal 233
Social media: Work doesn’t always have to be done in the traditional space.
Ryan Sheehy is an educator, speaker, author and Elementary Principal @HighlandsMDUSD, Professor at @stmarysca Lifelong Learner, Father, Husband, Author of Be The One For Kids.
- Following a principal that was not well received.
- Kids are running to us, not running away.
- I’m a culture guy, so I was excited for the opportunity.
- I look at everything as an opportunity.
- I’m a principal of action.
- Excited to build a culture around the idea of being in classrooms.
- There’s no reason for me to be stuck in my office.
- Work doesn’t always have to be done in the traditional space.
- Being in the classroom allows me to have those conversations.
- Locked down in meetings before and after school when teachers are available.
- Too often we think the problem is with the kids.
- Getting bogged down by teachers slow to change.
- Be the one for kids: Stories about Ryan’s educational experiences.
- Be the one who changes the dream. It’s ok to change the dream, but keep dreaming.
- How do you help kids understand that it is ok to have a different dream?
- Are your habits of today on par with your dreams of tomorrow?
- Kids can achieve anything. Set up your habits today to achieve your dream.
- It’s about the relationships.
- How to deal with so many different challenges that we face.
- The power of a strong PLN. We’re never standing stagnant. We want to always be improving.
- If education isn’t fun, who would want to be a teacher or a principal?
- How do you build powerful relationships?
- We talked about everything but school. Really getting to know each other.
- Taking the time to go off course.
- Put yourself in the problem areas so you can get to know the kids.
- You’ve got to take time to build relationships.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get yourself out there and sit down with each person on your campus and make sure they know you believe in them by trusting them and encouraging them!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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;
Can Do U with Jeff Becker Transformative Principal 232
Social Media: A vision is a filter you make decisions through.
Jeff Becker is a former motivational speaker who is now working on making a real impact on students he works with. Learn more at http://candou.us.
- Motivational Speaker vs. Can Do U.
- We help busy school leaders create the school they dream of.
- Character education programs don’t really work.
- Programs are incomplete - Pumps them up, but now what?
- Work Sets with teachers that make it easy for teachers to do.
- A vision is a filter you make decisions through.
- Curriculum needs to speak “student.”
- How to speak the same language as an adult.
- Something powerful is going to happen when we can bridge the gap between generations.
- How to figure out your own strength?
- Once I founded out who I was much more excited to take that on!
- Myers-briggs and DISC
- Best part of CandoU.us is alumni retreat.
- Strategic goal setting.
- Empowering students to make their own strategic plan for the school.
- Focus on Key Results Areas and look at the data.
- Gaps, data driven SMART goals, interventions.
- How to be a transformative leader? Walk slowly.
- Education is the vehicle.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Andrew Burnett is a veteran teacher of Math who took a few years to do research, and is back in the classroom making a big splash with going gradeless.
- Study measuring the effect of immediate feedback and whether it helps kids learn. It does.
- Change is hard.
- How to help educators change.
- Why Andrew made the change when he came back to the classroom.
- Teachers going Gradeless.
- Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler
- Student Self-assessments, engaging math.
- Isn’t every kid going to say they deserve an A?
- Show me what you can do - low stakes, no grade.
- We spend a lot more time on student “show me what you can do’s“
- Give specific details on what they did well and what they did not do well.
- Not grading assignments, but giving feedback on learning.
- No grades go on the papers.
- They were no longer looking for a grade.
- Evidence vs. completion
- Seesaw online portfolio
- Workload decreased in some areas and increased in other areas.
- Worst-case scenario is I could go through all their work and give them a grade if I needed to.
- Learning opportunity vs. homework.
- Many of these grades had no indication of whether students understood the concepts!
- Students complete learning opportunities on assistments.
- Check-ins vs. Grade book accountability.
- Why did I not learn this sooner?
- Teachers say they have to have a minimum number of grades.
- Need support around you.
- Letter to parents.
- Other barriers: fear of change.
- It’s ok to wait for the new year to start.
Doesn’t this mean that kids never show anything because they aren’t getting a grade for it?
Amy McDonald helps kids have a strong web of support
- The goal is for youth to have a strong enough web that they can come back.
- The Survey that kids take at Phlight Club. The other side of the report card.
- It’s their score card - others don’t see it.
- Youth get a kaleidoscope bar graph.
- Focus Declaration - the kind of person that they want to be.
- Start with the strongest.
- Kids come to Phlight Club because it is fun.
- The reason she stayed in this district is because of Phlight Club.
- Different people come. Application process for kids to come.
- How to get started. Brightwayslearning web site and send an email to get started.
- People say these events are only for small balloons. But Jill said this is not just for “at-risk” kids.
- Kids leave with their stack.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
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Amy McDonald helps kids have a strong web of support
- Working with kids vs doing work for kids.
- Developmental ecology of a youth
- Strengths-based
- Lots of training for teachers and youth.
- Prince Wales Island in Alaska
- Eat sleep and work in gyms.
- 70 kids and 20 adults. 3 day lock in events
- Brightways Learning runs Phlight Club.
- Descriptions of the ROYGBIV story from the link above.
- Red – The Rule of Five: The foundation for a personal village for each youth by five caring adults (or more,) having high expectations and providing opportunities, teaching skills, and celebrating relative best in appropriate ways.
- Orange – Tangible Strings: Measurable supports provided through the anchors that shape the home, school, and community environment of each youth.
- Yellow – Intangible Strings: Important, yet difficult to measure, beliefs, values, and behaviors that are being taught to and caught by the youth.
- Green – Resiliency/Growing the Balloon: These DNA based characteristics and talents that increase the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to any web that they are given. How are you smart rather than how smart are you? Grit optimism, how am I smart, gender, wonder gene.
- Blue – Scissor Cuts/Problem Reduction: Decreasing or eliminating the conditions, actions, and attitudes that erode the supports being created by the adult anchors.
- Indigo – Caring for the Carers: Supporting those who anchor the web so they do not drop out of their lives even when circumstances in their own lives change.
- Violet – Social Norms: The climate and culture of the social environment (home, school, and/or community) that have been accepted or agreed upon by a critical number of adults.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Join me for the Transformative Leadership Summit
Vision Mission Strategic Goals Strategic goals line up with the district’s strategic goals. Our vision for Tanana is “give people what they need, when they need it.” This vision applies to staff, students, parents, and other community members as needed.
Our vision for the future of Tanana is clear and has been reviewed throughout the year. Here is the updated 4 year plan. At two times this year, I have met with each teacher individually to discuss the vision for the school and ensure that we are able to make collaborative decisions about the future. Additionally, the Leadership Team Running Agenda reviews and gives information about the trajectory of our school, as well as our Faculty Meeting Running Agenda and our PLC Session Board.
Data for Informed Decision Making While academic success is surely one of our goals at Tanana, in this building year, there has not been a lot of focus on traditional school data. While we have certainly analyzed and reviewed MAP data, PEAKS data was essentially not useful, and we have focused more on other issues.
One of the major areas of concern related to attendance and tardies. We have systematically documented tardy issues and found that typically less than 5% of our students are tardy, which indicates it is a small problem, and not a widespread issue. We have identified 19 students who are consistently tardy and in the halls and have created a student contract for them. To enable us to identify the students who were the ones causing issues, we created hall passes for teachers to use to monitor student hallway use.
Additionally, we used informal qualitative data to determine next steps for our school this year, asking teachers the areas in which we needed to focus. A review of our progress will be completed at the conclusion of this school year.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the year, Dr. Orr and I met with each teacher to review MAP data and how it would impact their classrooms. We used the documents in this folder for our review with the teachers.
Empowering Work Environment At Tanana Middle School, our success cannot be dependent on the principal’s ability to manage many different initiatives. That is a recipe for disaster. Teachers and other staff take a prominent role in ensuring that plans are successful.
One such area is our advisory options. Each teacher (and staff member that wants to) may submit a new advisory option every two weeks. This list shows all the different options that have been created this year. Each teacher takes responsibility for creating something of value for students. Many items on that list are also student-generated ideas that came from students wanting to have a bigger say in what we do.
Our school librarian was given the directive at the beginning of the year to make the library a “place where we learn and create” and has been given decision-making authority to accomplish that. Mrs. Martin redesigned the library, removed a wall, facilitated technology distribution, and created makerspaces in the library, that change nearly every single day.
Mr. Balash has adjusted his way of delivering instruction in the classroom to ensure all students are engaged in the process of learning and acting.
The beginning of the year, end of the year, and many other activities throughout the year have been organized by teachers working in committee to make meaningful change to our school.
Continuous Improvement One of my favorite ideas is that we are never done improving. It doesn’t matter how much we do or don’t do, we can always get better. There is always room for growth, no matter what we are doing. One small example is that our hall passes were not as effective as we wanted, and so we created a second hall pass that met the teachers’ needs. One group of teachers needed additional support, so they created their own processes for dealing with hall passes in their section of the hallway.
A good example of our belief in continuous improvement relates to the Leadership Team Running Agenda. On the April 25 agenda, we had this posted on our agenda: Reevaluate schedule B, please…comment from teacher ”Does Schedule B really help us grow into the schedule we want for the future? Does it help train students to be ready to handle the freedom of an open schedule?”
Even when we make a decision, we know that we have a long way to go to be where we want to be. Nothing in our school is too sacred to talk about.
Celebrating Success and Acknowledging Failures Each faculty meeting, we start with celebrations. There are many areas when I have failed at something this year. I usually refer to those on my podcast. One of the failures that we had this year was an attempt to roll out a school-wide service learning program. A couple teachers came to the leadership team with an idea, and we tried to roll it out to the staff. It was too soon, and I let the leadership team know that I had jumped the gun too much on that.
Another area where I failed this year related to collaborating with principals relating to personalized learning. I attempted to have weekly meetings with other principals around personalized learning. Nobody showed up, and so I waited “by the phone” each week. I’ve recently started doing a Fairbanks mastermind with four other principals in the district on Friday mornings. This has been a much better solution and much more powerful because there are just a few of us. Even so, we have only had a couple meetings, so we will see where it goes.
Personalized Learning Student Reflections - One of our teachers
Ideal Week Schedule Each week, I schedule out my week and plan to spend the morning with teachers. I used to think that I needed to be in classrooms observing teachers, but I’ve realized it’s much more powerful when I think of that time as coaching teachers. I might be in their room while they are teaching, or I might be talking with them during their prep, talking about how we can meet their goals. Other items that I time block include writing newsletters to parents, collaborating with my assistant principal, and making time for district-focused work each Tuesday afternoon.
Having time blocks has really helped me to be present in the moment so that I can devote attention to the things that are really important.
Systems Leadership One of my goals this year after reading “The One Thing” has been about being more proactive, and less reactive. We’ve established Key Responsibility Areas for our special education staff, office staff and a couple other positions. It is easy to float through life, reacting to every situation, but it is so much more valuable to be proactive and lead with vision for the future. A shining example of the focus on systems has been to create strategies for recruiting top talent to our school. A recent full time certified hire told me, “I wasn’t going to work here, but then I came and heard your vision for what the school could be, and I knew I had to stay.”
Having a vision and sharing it with people is what makes them join the work. This one teacher who joined our staff will have a tremendous impact on our ability to reach our goals.
At the beginning of the year, we established new school rules. These rules are “Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible.” These school rules are clear, and easy to remember. They also allow teachers, students, staff, and anyone else in our building to support the rules by asking three questions about any student behavior:
- Is it safe?
- Is it respectful?
- Is it responsible?
If the answer to any of these questions is, “No,” then we know the behavior needs to change. We have high expectations for students to always be safe, respectful, and responsible, but we also understand that it takes different students different amounts of time to be successful at the expectations.
Communication One area of communication for which I am especially grateful is managing conflict at our school among adults. Despite our best efforts, we adults can sometimes be the most challenging to communicate with. In my own experience, I come across and stern and strict many times, when that is really quite opposite from who I really am inside. Teachers and staff in the past have complained that it is difficult to talk with me. I’ve made great strides in being more approachable, but still have a ways to go. One of the strategies that I have used is called “Communication cards.” These cards hang on my door so that anyone who needs to have a difficult conversation with me can have a difficult conversation knowing that I am going to respond a certain way when the communication cards are used. This has really been beneficial to me to diffuse difficult situations. Thankfully, these cards have sat largely unused for most of the year. That means that I am getting better in my interpersonal communication skills because people don’t feel the need to use the cards to communicate.
Constant communication is important. I’d like to share some stats from our newly-created-this-year social media accounts. It is important for us to be everywhere for our families and support them in making sure they know what is going on at our school. We have a long way to go to be there for everyone, but we are heading in the right direction.
Instagram This account has 95 posts as of 04/25/2018 and 88 followers. Most posts generate about 10-15 likes. Dr. Orr and I are the only ones who post to this account.
Facebook This account has 207 likes, and is climbing the charts in relation to the comparison schools. In three years in Kodiak, I got that page up to 700 likes, so we are making a good progression towards that. Our highest usage of our facebook page is between 4 and 8 pm and at noon. If we do any facebook live events, noon would probably be a pretty good time to do it. Our most popular posts average 10 reactions.
Twitter Our Tweets earned 5.3K impressions over the last 28 day period. We have 57 followers and 800 tweets so far. Our most popular tweet over the last month was related to a student mastering his math facts up to 14x14! That’s pretty positive. This account is mostly automatic tweets from facebook and instagram.
Mailchimp The fourth way we communicate with families is through our newsletter account in Mailchimp. Our emails usually get about 35-40% open rates. That’s pretty good.
Parent Feedback Around the middle of the year, I asked parents how much they were satisfied with their Tanana experience:
With a 10% response rate, we have about 73% of parents who are satisfied or strongly satisfied with the work done by Tanana staff with their student. That’s very positive. Those in the middle left some comments about improving communication, and one notable comment said, “Your personalized learning plan was a pretty sh*tty idea.”
The Blog We started a blog for our school relating
Volunteerism Perhaps the best outcome from all this parent and community communication has been the increase in parent involvement and community engagement. Nearly every week, we have had parents or community members in our classrooms working with our students. Our school is welcoming to many from outside who don’t typically have interactions with middle school students. A favorite story is from Nelda and Tom Nixon who are local watercolor artists who live close by. They came to our school and taught watercolor during advisory. This opportunity gave this retired couple an opportunity to see what is going on in schools today and be more engaged in the school process.
Our goal for volunteers was 500 in our school this year. At the semester break, we were at 250. As of today, we are at 384.
Leadership For Learning If we aren’t moving forward in our efforts for helping kids learn, then all our efforts are pretty much wasted.
Our focus this year is on personalized learning and my expectations for staff have been very clear, and quite minimal. Each staff member needed to do one activity, lesson, or unit that incorporated personalized learning each quarter. This is not a high bar, but with a vision like we have, it makes it so much easier for them to be successful in implementing that. In fact, I’d say that nearly every teacher has done way more than just a 4 Personalized Learning activities this year. It has really been amazing to see how far so many have gone.
I believe that the reason we have been so successful is two fold. First, we have really great teachers who strive to go above and beyond. Second, we have a clear vision of where we want to go, and we know it is ok to not be there right this minute. As we converse about different ways to improve instruction, teachers take a little idea, and implement something amazing that they can do themselves.
For example, after our MAP meetings with teachers, Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Chorley, and some other teachers found the MAP goal setting worksheets, and worked with students to make individual goals for where they could improve their learning.
Teachers who have been effective in implementing personalized learning have also been “visiting” the distinguished range of the Danielson framework much more often. It is really powerful to see them be so successful.
One area where we have a lot of work to do revolves around grading. Plain and simple: our grades don’t mean anything. In one class, grades mean something entirely different from another class. It is imperative that we work on getting on the same page with grading. The need to move to a competency-based system is enormous. This is a major area of growth for our school. When grades mean so many different things, it is very challenging to hold students to high standards. For example, an A in one class means that a student is compliant and does what the teacher asks. An A in another class means that a student did a bunch of work, but maybe didn’t learn anything. An A in another class could mean that a student has actually learned the content. An A in another class could mean that a student has just shown up every day, or even most days.
In the last few months, I have consistently been saying that an F means that the teacher has failed, while a D means the student has failed. We are having conversations about taking away 0 grades so as to not penalize students. This is a great podcast episode with Rick Wormeli about that very idea.
Professionalism Over the course of this school year, we have focused heavily on professional development for our staff. Each week, Dr. Orr and I curate articles, podcasts, TED talks, and other resources to help our staff have meaningful professional development on their own time.
We have focused our Faculty Meetings and PLCs on providing value to our teachers. We have eliminated sit and get PD sessions and have made them personalized and interactive for all adult learners. We must model this for our teachers first, if we expect them to do it in their classrooms.
One of the major challenges we have faced this year relates to our suspensions of students of color. This is challenging because if we follow the district policies, we have to suspend students of color at a higher rate because their natural behavior is in conflict with our school district policies. Students of color are louder than their white counterparts as a whole, and that makes them easy targets for teachers or staff members when assigning blame for incidents they didn’t see themselves. Students of color are often accused or targeted because they are loud or animated. This is an area where we need to continually work to improve.
Outside of work, I have sought to improve my own professional growth by applying to present at the Alaska Principals conference, the National Principals Conference, ASTE, and the Personalized Learning Summit in San Francisco. For my podcast, since being in Fairbanks, I have interviewed over 50 people for my podcast to learn how to be a transformative principal.
Robyn Bagley is a former principal of Career Path High. She is now consulting now and working with Heather Staker on a project for Acton Academy. She is also chair of Parents for Choice in Education, located in Utah. You can email her here
- Acton Academy is an amazing model.
- Over 8,000 applications to start their own. How do we replicate that?
- How to approve partners and facilitate the success of their schools.
- How do you help kids not blow everything off?
- In a traditional model, we’ve removed all the opportunities to have kids lead.
- The first thing to think about is how to empower students.
- It kills their love for learning.
- You need to empower students.
- The second thing is to set up processes for accountability.
- It’s ok to fail as long as you are failing forward.
- Every student had a success coach with whom they met every week.
- Accountability: consequences like losing freedom and stopping college courses.
- Support: You must have good support systems in place. Lots of processes in place to help them stay on pace and set their goals.
- Three legs of a stool: Parents, students, school (teachers and administrators)
- We never apologize for bothering you with communication
- Four: give them something to be excited about in their pathway: i.e., have your certification when you finished school.
- The light came back on.
- The success coach was the real piece of accountability each week. Success coach had constant communication with parents, too.
- Give recognition with accountability.
- How to be a transformative principal? Collaborate with your team!
- Changing the culture from top-down directives to a collaborative culture.
Robyn Bagley is a former principal of Career Path High. She is now consulting now and working with Heather Staker on a project for Acton Academy. She is also chair of Parents for Choice in Education, located in Utah. You can email her here
- The power of Networking with so many other people
- Operating at 30,000 feet vs ground floor.
- Policy vs. working in schools
- Giving parents and kids options to have more control over their learning.
- Statewide online learning
- You don’t really understand the challenges until you are in the trenches.
- First opportunity writing a charter.
- How desperate parents are for control and choice in their education.
- So many hoops to jump through.
- There’s a lot of silliness out there that takes away your focus on the kids.
- Issues that exist on the ground floor.
- Administrative and clerical work to satisfy reporting.
- Having the information in the system.
- Kids not required to be there, and balancing what the law required and what was good for kids.
- When you start to run into problems, be vocal to your elected officials.
- You can still give good things to kids even in the system.
- It’s teachers and a principal who is the change agent
- Top-down dictation makes it hard for people to innovate.
- Sharing of ideas in a collaboration is necessary!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Naphtali Hoff is an educational consultant and coach who helps school leaders solve their biggest problems. impacfulcoaching.com/epic
- Understaffing is a mindset issue.
- They work harder to make up for it.
- Underestimate their own leadership impact.
- We have so much power within us.
- Develop a sustainable process where they are leading through their
- Expect, Pull together, Influence, Communicate
- Expect - Set clear targets so that everyone is focused and engaged.
- Pull together - Pull your team together and connect them deeply to the mission.
- Influence - Influence and lead those around you.
- Communicate - Communicate clearly and openly.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Take Control of your email
Web Site
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Matt Shea is the Matt portion of Personalized Learning with Matt and Courtney, a podcast about, well, personalized learning. It is one of my favorite new podcasts and you can find it at plearnmc.com or in your favorite podcast player of choice!
- Matt is a district administrator in Maine
- Courtney is an instructional coach in Maine
- Worked in Maine for his whole career
- 10 schools in five communities
- Goal: set up same systems in schools - it didn’t work
- tenets of learning: applied learning
- How do we design that culture so that there’s a balance between kids taking advantage of their own learning and teachers providing a range of options?
- What teachers can provide in their place
- What works for you?
- District administrator as more of a support role
- Talk about the tenets a lot.
- “Cultivating hope in all learners”
- Culture is a number 1 thing for all of us.
- Designing a culture that involves the learners in their learning
- Progression of learning
- Social grade levels not academic grade levels
- Place students on an academic progression where they are, and help them move forward.
- Continuous flexible grouping - School building and schedules create a challenge for them.
- Tried to do schedules in all the same way.
- 15:16 We are the problem. We are the ones that have all the issues!
- How do we get adults to be more like kids?
- What’s our ultimate goal?
- Guiding principles: They’ll find that information when they need it!
- Interview with Seth Godin
- You don’t really fail, you just are where you are.
- It’s not just about the 80% of our kids that will do well no matter what, but about all the students
- When she’s ready to take the next step, she’ll be ready for it.
- End College Career Readiness
- Many teachers have been teachers only.
- The “real world“ is something different to everyone.
- Provide kids with the skills and attitudes.
- How to be a transformative leader? Design a culture in your building where it is ok to fail in a positive way. Failing upward. Failing forward. Take away some of the negative aspects of what school is.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Tom Hoerr retired after leading the New City School in St. Louis, Missouri, for 34 years and is now the emeritus head of school. He teaches at the University of Missouri St. Louis and holds a PhD from Washington University in St. Louis he has written four books more than 100 articles including the “Principal Connection” column in ASCD’s Educational Leadership.
- Multiple intelligences school
- Formative five as interpersonal and intrapersonal.
- Developing it within themselves.
- The schoolhouse at midnight
- Trophy case - Plaque, most improved attendance.
- How does what you have on your wall recognize all the students in your school?
- Jethro’s attendance improvement TED talk
- Multiple levels of recognition.
- Level 1: Talk about it. Joyful Learning.
- Level 2: Ask kids about how they used these skills over the weekend.
- Level 3: Create rubrics by which we can measure kids’ success skills.
- Teachers choose their own groups. Teachers can quickly create rubrics for measuring these success skills.
- It helps kids reflect on the varying levels of performance.
- Help kids take ownership of their learning.
- Interview with Michael Shapiro about his school where they use PSS skills
- How to be a transformative principal? We need a dialogue with our faculty. Don’t do the formative five to kids, do it with kids!
- by the time we move forward, every teacher believes as fervently as I do.
- trhoerr@newcityschool.org
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Take Control of your email
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
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@AllysonApsey is the author of the book “The Path To Serendipity”
- This book is my heart poured out onto paper.
- Embracing all of the things we go through.
- Stumbling on the fortunes of all the experiences we go through.
- William Glasser’s Choice theory
- Need language to figure out how to communicate about that.
- This book for all people.
- Serendipity - The three princes of serendip
- There are beautiful things in every experience we go through.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be right where you are.
Tom Hoerr retired after leading the New City School in St. Louis, Missouri, for 34 years and is now the emeritus head of school. He teaches at the University of Missouri St. Louis and holds a PhD from Washington University in St. Louis he has written four books more than 100 articles including the “Principal Connection” column in ASCD’s Educational Leadership.
- 14 years principal connection column in Educational Leadership.
- The principal job is so hard.
- There’s always more to be done, no matter how good we do it.
- Who you are is more important than what you know.
- Prepare kids for success in life, not just success in school.
- Been a principal long enough to see who kids became as adults
- There are five qualities we need to develop in students: Empathy, Self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit.
- But how am I going to get my students’ kids to embrace this?
- At back to school nights and parent meetings throughout the year.
- 8:20: Write down the initials of people you know who you consider to be successful.
- Turn to your neighbors in groups of three or four.
- Remind parents of what is truly a success.
- Strategy for focusing teachers on what we want them to pursue.
- 3x5 card, write down the initials of 2 or 3 teachers you’ve had that are most important in your life. What did they do to make you love them?
- What can you do with your class that will encourage your kids to put your name down in 30 or 40 years?
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Take Control of your email
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
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Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
I’ve got three big announcements this week!
-
My AP is moving away! So sad. That means there is a job opening at my school to be an Assistant Principal! Check it out here! The post closes May 6th.
-
Transformative Leadership Summit 2018! Get your ticket here! Tons of interviews! Our focus is empowerment.
-
Announcing the research of a K–12 magnet. If you want more information and want to be part of the conversation, enter your email here.
Brad Shreffler is the host of Planning Period Podcast, Teacher, and Tech Coach in Orlando, Florida. He is also an author and his web site is here.
Thanks to our sponsor: candou.us/jethro
- Planning period podcast - How do we fix problems?
- What is the biggest problem facing education today?
- Truly a challenge to answer, and many different answers.
- Recognize that it could be better, but still work in what it is.
- What teachers need in professional development.
- Modeling.
- Why is modeling so difficult for leaders of professional development?
- Leaders haven’t been in the classroom for many years, so they are out of practice.
- Different skill set to do the same strategies.
- PD has become a dirty word.
- The first time you do an innovative model, it will fail miserably.
- Classroom management vs. engaging learners.
- I refuse to lecture to my teachers about the importance of not lecturing to kids.
- Flipped PD model - record what you need to tell them, then meet face-to-face.
- “This is the next thing and it will be gone.”
- Inherent resistance to new things.
- Struggle through the challenge.
- It didn’t work yet.
- Crisp meetings
- Stomach through the fear of failure.
- Have an administrator who is willing to give the feedback.
- You have to push for the feedback.
- I just don’t take myself seriously enough to get offended.
- How to teach someone to have an overinflated ego.
- Build them up.
- Education is fundamentally broken.
- If people aren’t annoyed by what I’m doing, then I’m probably not doing something worthwhile.
- How to be a transformative principal? Find the person who wants to change the world and give them the freedom to do it.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Leslie Goodrum is the principal of General Tommy Franks Elementary in Midland, Texas. Her school is a pilot school for the Midland Values project, where they are attempting to improve their culture by adopting values based on authenticity, service, awareness, purpose, vision, enthusiasm, perseverance, courage, faith, focus, leadership, integrity. This is through Joe Tye’s Values Coach System
- Brand new campus and so setting the culture from the beginning.
- Crockett elementary - having accountability issues, so they were shut down.
- It’s not the building that makes kids successful.
- District wide initiative for adults, but General Tommy Franks Elementary is the first one doing it with kids as well.
- Every morning doing announcements, self-empowerment pledge. Pickle pledge. Each student gets a bracelet for the value of the month.
- Vision is the core value for January, so they try to pull it in everywhere.
- Encouraging parents to attend trainings as well.
- Pickle Pledge.
- Authenticity is the first value and kids are using it all throughout the year. What is the thing you have done that is the authentic you?
- Integrity - you’ve got to do the right thing, no matter who is watching.
- Pickle Pledge - our pickles are happy pickles.
- Did you say it or did you mean it?
- Until you are ready to live it, you need to stop saying it.
- The Values give you a framework each month.
- Faith and purpose are needed conversations.
- Foundation and a framework for helping kids set goals.
- Parents are very supportive of what we are doing.
- Discipline problems are very few.
- Biggest challenge is making sure the value of the month is big throughout the month.
- As the leader, I have to set the tone, because whatever I do, everyone will follow.
- It’s not a program, it’s a way of life.
- How to be a transformative principal? Get into your classrooms, be with your kids and teachers and be a great role model.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Melissa Emler is the Director of Community at Modern Learning
- Online media company to help schools change and be better. Really powerful conversations are happening regularly.
- The Testing Emperor Finally has no Clothes
- Modernlearners.com/jethro
- All of the onus for learning is placed on the teacher.
- It is the responsibility of teachers to create the conditions for learning to happen.
- Communication beats compliance, every time.
- Learning happens through feedback and questioning.
- It is the student to communicate questions and understanding.
- Going gradeless or standards based grading doesn’t really communicate learning.
- We haven’t really had a conversation about what we mean by “learning”.
- Seymour Sarason’s “What do you mean by learning?“
- People are learning when they want to learn more.
- It requires co-creating the curriculum
- Our practices do not match our beliefs.
- The amount of time we spend thinking, talking, planning for standardized tests.
- Giving prizes for testing= :(
- Beliefs must drive assessment.
- Challenge assumptions, biases and orthodoxies that influence assessment practice.
- Communication beats compliance, every time.
- Explore status quo-busting assessment solutions to provide more authentic and real-world choices.
- Let students learn about how they learn.
- Measure what matters.
- Invest in TRUST.
- So important to trust teachers to create the conditions for learning to happen.
- If we get to a common set of beliefs then we don’t need to pressure teachers to do well on a test.
- Standards and tests change based on political issues.
- how to be a transformative leader? Be strong in your individual beliefs.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Dr. Will Deyamport Instructional technologist, consultant, and podcaster.
Click here to learn how to be a social media ninja
- Everyone has a brand. Jeff Bezos “Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.“
- You can’t control what other people think about you, but you can control what people see when they search for you.
- If someone googles you and they don’t see you, you don’t exist.
- Creating content can enrich your current life and your future.
- Twitter connects you in powerful ways.
- It’s about the learning, and the network you can learn from.
- It’s also about the building a network of people who know you and know what you can do.
- How to do well on Twitter:
- Upload a profile picture.
- Know your why and your what for being on social media.
- Be intentional with the people you follow.
- Use your hashtags.
- Share what’s going on in your world.
- obvious to you, amazing to others
- Don’t take it personally.
- Don’t be afraid to unfollow.
- Dr. Will does some courses as well, so you can get CEUs for your credits, lot of support for edtech issues.
- We no longer live in a world with gatekeepers.
- You don’t have to ask permission to do your thing.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Let go of the small stuff.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Spike Cook is the principal at Lakeside Middle School in New Jersey. We are going to talk about Developing a leadership platform with Mindfulness, Gratitude, and Balance.
- Blogging, Twitter, and all that.
- Spike took a break, and now he is coming back in gently.
- Social media can be a time and energy suck.
- Mindful school leader - Kirsten Olsen and Valerie Brown
- Brene Brown - Braving the Wilderness
- The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
- Resonant Leadership Book
- Cycle of Sacrifice and cycle of renewal
- Inbox zero and the challenges associated with that.
- Ideal Week - Sign up to transform your week.
- SAMs Time Trackers: How you use your time.
- Find an accountability partner for your most important work
- Daily perspective of gratitude.
- The Magic Book
- Transformative Mastermind - Schedule a call with Jethro today!
- How to be a transformative principal? Start your day focusing on three things you are thankful for in your work.
- *
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Jeff Sandefer started his first business at 16 and has run 5 successful companies since then. Now, most of his time is spent developing innovate educational curriculum for the Acton Academy and My Entrepreneurial Journey and teaching at the Acton School of Business.
- The Courage to Grow - By Laura Sandefer, about the journey of creating Acton Academy
- How Acton started, powerful story.
- Socratic teacher at the graduate level for 20 years.
- Confident that we could pull off pieces
- Sugata Mitra -
- Not in the school reform business, just trying to do our own little thing.
- Frankenstinian mashup of pieces.
- Montessori, socratic methods, game-based method.
- Pods of 36 students interacting with each other throughout the day.
- Multi-age campus.
- Age levels tend to disappear.
- Middle schoolers who may have finished calculus.
- Self-management and self-government.
- We are like game makers.
- We are not allowed to utter a declarative statement.
- There is an entropy among human beings to do nothing and waste time.
- Auto-didacts are fairly rare. Most people want to hang out with their friends and have fun.
- To stay in this fun place, you have to work hard.
- Competitive personally, but also
- Freedom and responsibility are tied together.
- Feedback loops: Would you recommend Acton to a friend?
- The harder you work and the kinder you are, the more freedom you get.
- 360 peer satisfaction surveys once per session - warm hearted and tough-minded.
- Entirely enforced by the peers. The council has the right to adopt something different.
- Parents retain ultimately responsible for students.
- Mission of the school: Each person will find a calling that will change the world. The Hero’s journey.
- It’s about transformation.
- The heroes are the ones that call against the entropy of mankind.
- Entire community can fall apart from time to time.
- Allow Lord of the Flies from time to time.
- Pure democracy, democratic republic or benevolent dictator.
- Creating challenges -
- Half come from the top, and half come from the bottom.
- They’ll be fine. I don’t want them to be fine. I want them to be better.
- Heroes don’t always win but they do always get up.
- Most difficult thing is the parents.
- Parents have to be on a heroes journey also.
- Parent badges as well as badges for students.
- How do you keep track of your badges?
- LMS to keep track of the badges.
- Laszlo Bock
- Give templates and the kids go do the work for
- How to be a transformative principal? Every young child deserves to find a calling to change the world. Every child is a genius.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Jeff Zoul and Anthony McConnell are the authors of The Principled Principal: 10 Principles for Leading Exceptional Schools.
- Anthony followed in Jeff’s role as assistant superintendent and is now going to be the superintendent of the district.
- Being part of the development process for four years set Anthony on the right course.
- How Jeff helped prepare Anthony for success in moving into his new role.
- I believe in always being innovative and always getting better.
- The Harmony principle.
- Some people think they thrive when they are in crisis mode, but their schools do not.
- Thinking I was supporting the teacher, I was equally elevated with the teacher.
- How to stay calm when inside you are seething.
- You get better with practice. Focus on the real issue.
- Don’t come with the answer already decided on in your head.
- How can I help? Ask this question often.
- What you have to leave the conversation with is integrity.
- It’s not about the nail.
- Trust - if you don’t have trust, you don’t have a whole lot.
- Address underperformance: It isn’t fun, but the best principals do that.
- Doing what you say you’re going to do.
- When the leadership does it, other people feel comfortable holding people accountable.
- What sort of actions do you take so that people know you care about them?
- 5 faculty values statements: “We will…”
- I’m going to lead the way by asking you to hold me accountable.
- How to be a transformative principal? Anthony - make your school more welcoming. Take a walk around.
- How to be a transformative principal? Jeff - be super visible in the school. I’m not trying to be right, I’m trying to the right thing.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Dan Kreiness is an aspiring administrator who hosts the Leader of Learning podcast. He focuses on educational leadership. dan@leaderoflearning.com.
- Challenges with becoming a principal.
- There is a lot of good to be done.
- What is your number 1 strength that you bring to a school leadership position?
- How did you find that strength out?
- Disrupting, changing, going away from the status quo.
- Our students are ready to move and change faster than we are.
- Looking to be resourceful.
- The power of connecting with Twitter.
- How to be a transformative principal? Really be present.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Dan Kreiness is an aspiring administrator who hosts the Leader of Learning podcast. He focuses on educational leadership. dan@leaderoflearning.com.
- Aspiring administrator
- Mark Crowley Lead from the Heart
- Instructional coach is the sweetest gig in all of education.
- Tricky position to be a coach.
- Really hone in on the things they identify as what they need to be working on.
- How to get teachers to jump on a technology bandwagon.
- The power of reflection.
- The Edumatch 2017 book
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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This is a cross-post for the PrincipalPLN podcast that I was on last week. I talked a lot about masterminds. Get started on that today. Give me a call!
Here are the podcasts that I have been on lately:
Planning Period Podcast with Brad Shreffler
“Jethro and Brad talk about the importance of leaders being in classrooms and coaching teachers, that we need to ask “why” way more often, being reflective and outwardly recognizing your mistakes, the power of MasterMind groups, and unlocking the genius in all of our students.
It is a really great conversation, and you’ll notice a few times in there that I am literally left speechless by what he says.
So, sit back and enjoy episode 37 of the Planning Period Podcast, my interview with Jethro Jones.”
Leaders of Learning with Dan Kreiness
“In this episode, I talk to principal and host of the Transformative Principal podcast Jethro Jones and talk to him about making the transition into the role of a school administrator, how to create buy-in with followers, and how to empower others.”
Richard Kincaid Twitter is EcoRise’s Chief Innovation Officer and is the lead designer for project-based learning professional development program, which integrates sustainability & design thinking methodologies into the Buck Institute's PBL framework. Richard has extensive experienced in K-12 public education, as a former CTE director, campus leader, and teacher in Texas. Richard's linked in profile is here: Linkedin
- Hill elementary eco-audit
- Green building and performance measures. Aikens high school action plan.
- Ongoing improvements to make sustainable projects.
- How to teach kids to get in touch with the right people.
- Design studio - helps teachers facilitate conversations in their classroom.
- Empower students to seek out the right people.
- Microgrants for kids.
- Up to $500 per student project.
- Small enough that kids can actually do something.
- Looking for every reason possible to fund an application.
- The average project funded is about $470. Average return on investment is about $4500 of bottom-line savings.
- At the end of the day, we want kids to be engaged.
- Put budgets together and then put it out to a group of people who can do something.
- how to be Create a Culture where you give people permissions to fail.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Richard Kincaid Twitter is EcoRise’s Chief Innovation Officer and is the lead designer for project-based learning professional development program, which integrates sustainability & design thinking methodologies into the Buck Institute's PBL framework. Richard has extensive experienced in K-12 public education, as a former CTE director, campus leader, and teacher in Texas. Richard's linked in profile is here: Linkedin
- Ecorise.org is a non-profit that helps schools implement sustainable education.
- Richard’s educational background.
- Microgrants directly to students.
- Elementary literacy coaches, and K-12 curriculum director, and CTE director.
- Helping teachers not knowing the path to make that happen.
- Helping students focus on a challenge local to their community.
- Giving kids tools to focus on making change happen in their area.
- Project-based training program.
- PBL programs don’t sound very accessible. We want to be facilitators, but then daily life in the classroom is overpowering, and we can easily give up.
- 3-day program to design a standards-based project for their classroom.
- It’s ok to not feel comfortable with this approach.
- Deeply embedded support model.
- Make these projects feel real, because they are.
- Advice for reluctant learners.
- Maybe a single strong project over the course of a year.
- How to support teachers who are not naturals at project-based learning.
- Start with teachers that are eager to have this happen.
- Teachers aren’t resistant because it isn’t effective, but resistant because they don’t believe it will work.
- If there is a working model that your campus can see, the resistance will gradually reduce.
- Some teachers need a model to see that the support is there.
- Getting everyone in a room and talking about what PBL looks like.
- Worked in the district 6 months before we even begin the first training.
- Without that administrator support, any initiative will fail.
- Classrooms are laboratories.
- What basis am I using to reevaluate what I’m doing to make my practice better.
- Teach a protocol of precise feedback for process. Peer review model.
- Teaching people how to move forward, how to have honest conversations.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Matt Miller is the Founder of School Spirit Vending.
Top 10 school fundraising ideas.
CASH! 4 Questions to Ask Before Your Next Fundraiser!
- Finding the right choice for school fundraising is challenging.
- schoolzonepodcast.com for the top fundraising ideas.
- School Spirit Vending - stickers placed in schools
- Different needs for school fundraising.
- checks come in monthly, varies based on how much school embraces program.
- Giving kids access.
- Doing the same thing they’ve always done.
- Why not tie it all together?
- Incentivize the teachers and students.
- Leadership opportunity.
- Matt’s passion project - stickers that have cardboard backing. Matt prints a comic series on the backing
- Marlin and Percy
- Inspire-a-kid providing additional inspiration for kids.
- Read-a-thon - Collect pledges for the amount of reading that they do.
- Scrip fundraising - affiliate relationships with local (and non-local) companies.
- get movin’ crew
- We Fund For You
- It’s important to be better educated.
- How to be a transformative principal? Do a better job of defining exactly what it is you want to accomplish in the upcoming semester. Don’t simply assign the PTA to fundraise, give better guidance.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Pedro Noguera is a sociologist by training and is a professor at UCLA. Center For The Transformation Of Schools.
- Once we have trust and respect, we can start having hard conversations.
- You can only have conversations like that that don’t come off as judgment if you have trust.
- We should ask parents to do things for which they have adequate resources.
- How do we find the kids that need the most help.
- The challenge is getting to know each child.
- None of this is easy.
- Meets with each student every day.
- When kids are known, they behave differently.
- The sense of belonging is so essential to kids’ success.
- Forging relationships through extra activities.
- John’s Hopkins University Talent Development High School. Robert Belfants. Interest inventory to start kids.
- Age and class determines where they go.
- The model we have created does not allow us to meet the needs of children.
- Any kid who came in with a criminal record in the high school would get a mentor.
- First days of school community building days.
- It’s part of building strong sense of community.
- Human beings don’t do well in isolation.
- Relationships save lives.
- How to be a transformative Principal? To really focus in on the culture of their schools.
- Culture is about values, norms, how people are treated every day.
- Create a culture that affirms the importance of children.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Web Site
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Pedro Noguera is a sociologist by training and is a professor at UCLA. Center For The Transformation Of Schools.
- Author of many books.
- If ideas are too abstract and we can’t address the practical needs of kids then academia is in trouble.
- Address both the academic and non-academic needs of kids.
- Equality vs. Equity.
- Equality is treating everyone the same.
- It makes no sense in education because we know all kids are different.
- Equity is about understanding differences. It is not about lowering the standards. Compensate for needs that kids that bring.
- Adjust how we do homework to meet the needs of kids that are in front of us.
- Don’t penalize kids because they don’t have the same circumstances as someone else.
- Many kids are relational learners and they will learn better with people they trust and care about.
- You start from the premise that we do best when we are in a community.
- The conditions for learning
- Community
- More likely to punish kids with the greatest needs.
- What sorts of things must we do to make edu equitable for kids.
- Build a partnership with the family.
- Partnership must be rooted in trust and respect in order for it to have success.
- Teachers get almost no training on how to work with parents, especially when parents are from a different
- We don’t want to judge anyone.
- What we want is empathy. It is not pity, it is not looking down on anyone. We don’t make excuses for them.
- When we act with empathy, we demonstrate that we care.
- How do we build empathy?
- “You know more about your child than I do. What can you tell me about your child that will help me teach him or her.”
- It is important to let the parent know that we are aware of their child.
- Parents want their child to be successful.
- It should Never be the case that the only time we talk with parents is when children are in trouble.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
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Web Site
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Heather Staker is a former Mckenzie Consultant and coauthor of the book Blended Learning: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools.
Download the “Getting Clear on Technology Purchases” guide.
- Questioning our own assumptions is a huge piece of opening up what learning can look like.
- Every child has their genius.
- There is value in finding the right path for each child.
- Some teachers can be great at different things.
- Allow teachers to specialize and micro credential.
- How to match kids up with the right kinds of teachers that really help them.
- Coming at the content in a variety of ways.
- Sustaining innovations allow us to serve our customer even better.
- Disruptive innovation completely changes the paradigm.
- Online learning - adults are not unlike children.
- When we are more engaged and active learners we are able to learn much better.
- Blended Learning Live seminars - not traditional sit and get instruction.
- Helps people learn in a different way.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Walk your building and note any instances that technology is replacing them, and then make sure you change the message.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Take Control of your email
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
Heather Staker is a former Mckenzie Consultant and coauthor of the book Blended Learning: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools.
Download the “Getting Clear on Technology Purchases” guide.
- Senior in High School as a state school board member
- Reasonable and balanced voice that represents the whole.
- Interested and well-versed in innovation
- Clayton Christensen Center for Disruptive Innovation
- It’s not just efficiency, it’s common sense to give kids information at their pace.
- Agency is so important.
- Disrupting Class
- Actin Academy program for core skills.
- 7 types of blended learning
- What challenges do we still face?
- Schools lead with 1:1 announcements.
- How to address 1:1 issues?
- Lead with a very clear plan for how they use online learning.
- District and vendor level must prevent teachers from having to be the tech wizard.
- Help teachers to reimagine their role.
- Factory model settings do not give teachers the opportunity to do increase the humanity that can be in our schools.
- Mentors and tutors for each child.
- Not getting to deep work?
- Station rotations can prevent this. Not every blended learning model is perfect.
- How to create higher performing classrooms in 7 moves.
- Younger ages, recommended 20 minutes max per day on screens.
- “Certain children“ aren’t capable, but every child can learn
- It’s the adults. We get in our own way.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Amy Dujon is a Practice Leader at Learning Sciences International. Prior to joining the Learning Sciences team, Amy was the Director of Leadership Development at School District of Palm Beach County, FL, and principal of Acreage Pines Elementary School in Palm Beach, FL. Her current focus is on innovative school improvement through LSI’s Schools for Rigor initiative, where they embed within struggling schools to provide professional development and other long-term guidance to help schools achieve success.
- Through a partnership with Learning Sciences International, I changed instruction and skills at my school, and now I work with many leaders throughout the states.
- Main focus is a high school in Maryland, meeting weekly.
- Data cycles with teachers.
- I’m their lifeline.
- What stays the same and what is different in schools?
- Typical root causes.
- Instruction hasn’t really changed much in the last 100 years.
- Teacher is the gatekeeper of the learning.
- How to get kids to own their learning.
- Get teachers to identify learning targets and success criteria.
- Remove the teacher from the front of the classroom.
- Plan meaningful stops in their lesson.
- New leadership skills for principals.
- Second order change.
- Rewriting your script of a teacher.
- Teacher talks, take notes, do assignment.
- Selective abandonment
- Protection from initiative overload
- Push pull and nudge of change.
- The heavy lift for teachers is in planning.
- Strengthening core instruction and building capacity of my teachers was more important than focusing on Reader’s Workshop processes.
- Are we successful because of our instruction, or in spite of it?
- I’m going to give you permission to focus on other schools.
- Let the steam out so you can continue to function.
- Being able to help teachers see that your plate is core instruction.
- Shifted so much off my plate that wasn’t important.
- What are you noticing?
- Whisper coaching.
- How do you shift so much off your plate?
- Some things naturally shift of my plate because the students are cognitively engaged.
- How to be more proactive about what was happening in classrooms.
- Secretary can filter things out for you.
- School events.
- Started to empower support staff to use their gifts.
- Getting your secretary to chunk time for you.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be the lead learner on your campus.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Meredith Allen, music educator and Iowa AEA instructional technology coordinator, and account manager for Soundtrap.
- Music is very powerful.
- Traditional music education.
- Giving kids an opportunity to expand on the seed in their head.
- Expand on the seed.
- Jon Churchville in Michigan.
- “Let’s make a song!“
- Guide kids by pulling out what is inside them.
- How to coach teachers - Don’t tell teachers to do something different.
- Students to take control of their learning.
- How to benefit from the kids compiling information.
- I was the teacher who did things the way I did them because that is how we did them for 50 years.
- Junk Funk
- Help teachers have that moment where they see the value.
- Be connected - I go on Twitter and there’s always somebody doing it better.
- SAMR - Using technology and getting to R.
- trudacot
- On Twitter, people often show what their doing and share the steps so that you can do too.
- I didn’t know what I was clicking and two minutes later, I was bawling.
- GarageBand and Google Docs had a baby, and it is called SoundTrap.
- Non music educators use the tool as well.
- Using it for group projects so kids can create it at home.
- Collaborate with students without being in the same space.
- Minnesota and Haiti connection.
- Collaboration all across the globe.
- How to be a transformative principal? Have great conversations with the best teachers!
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Mary Wegner is the Superintendent of Sitka Schools 1250 students.
- League of Innovative Schools.
- Is there support for innovation at a district level? Is the superintendent someone who can contribute to the national pool of leaders.
- Make learning group, competency based education.
- Monthly meetings to share and collaborate together on what needs to be done well in the area of focus.
- How to narrow down and focus on initiatives as a leader.
- Empowering student voice and choice.
- Rather than figure out by trial, we figure out by expertise.
- You must be an excellent talent scout.
- What are the unique contributions each teacher has to support kids? Give them a microphone.
- Whole system.
- How to be a transformative leader? Listen. Put systems in place so things are working well.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Mary Wegner is the Superintendent of Sitka Schools 1250 students.
- City school district
- Small community that knows excellence.
- Wonderful community partners.
- Great partnerships with local groups.
- Under 1/3 of staff are our graduates.
- 65% of elected officials are our graduates.
- Paris of the Pacific.
- They take a little bit of Sitka with them.
- Superintendent visits every single classroom.
- During the year, pick different areas of focus and visit those classrooms.
- Understand the K-12 curriculum in all areas.
- Superintendent’s Spotlight newsletter.
- There is great power in small school systems of being able to get close the work.
- 1:1 for each student is growing because the superintendent is in the schools
- How the work changes when you are focused on the classroom.
- Angst during budget time has decreased with more focus being put on the classrooms.
- Budget process which gives more transparency. See current budget
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jerry Snow is a District Administrator and former high school and middle school principal. piedmont.k12.al.us contact information is there. jsnow@piedmont.k12.al.us
- Team time, class time, my time
- Class time - social studies, math, etc.
- Show mastery - what does that look like.
- My time - 3 days a week, you work on the lowest area. Souped up study hall.
- If you’re caught up on pace, work on what you want.
- 2 days a week you work on ILPs
- Team Time - looping with kids 6-8th grade. Goal setting, character education, team building activities, Student-led conferences.
- Kids come up with the ways they do better.
- Mastery looks like: mimic ACT aspire certain percentage of level 3 DOK.
- 2 types of grades
- A numeric grade (0-100, A-F)
- MasteryConnect - mastery report where students are at.
- Need to show mastery at 80% first time to get 100%.
- Teaching parents that mastery is what is really important, but still keep grades to make sense of it all.
- Pacing - kids can go as fast as they want, but they have to keep a minimum pace to keep kids up.
- Schedule 8 period day, science and math were paired up. Teachers can trade kids.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be a better listener.
Schedule a call with Jethro
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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As a review for a year that has included a lot of changes for me professionally, I wanted to list some of the greatest events from the podcasts that I released this year. You can check out my current Top 10 podcasts here, but this list is going to talk about the top 10 things I implemented this year as a result of interviewing some amazing guests.
- Improving the school scheduling nightmare with Adam Pisoni Transformative Principal 185 The most downloaded podcast released this year is my interview with Adam Pisoni, where we talked about improving the school scheduling nightmare. Here’s my big takeaway. Adam said (5:58–8:35) that he started asking instead of asking what was possible in schools, he asked what prevents traditional schools from iterating. This train of thought led me to make a decision to intentionally combat those things that prevent us from iterating, and make sure we can still iterate even with the struggles we will face.
- Enjoy the Journey with Jethro Jones Transformative Principal 1035 - This one is a bit of a cheat, since the episode where I shared my 4 year plan for my school was really a culmination of so many things that I have learned from this podcast. But, here goes. (19:50–24:42) What’s cool is that instead of my plan starting next year, it is already starting this year. Advisory and flexible learning block with service learning. Teachers are coming to me asking for these things.
- Don’t Try to Change People, Change Behavior with Tom Hierck Transformative Principal 188 - 18:55–19:29 In this episode, it was really about the powerful thing that Tom shared about how to be a transformative principal. He said, “Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.”
- Rules turn students into classroom lawyers with Tom Hierck Transformative Principal 187 - In this episode, 5:00–7:26 I found that the most powerful statement from this was when Tom said, “I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints”. Since this interview, I have worked hard to make sure that kids are connected. I’ve found what he said is true, when kids are connected, they rarely disappoint. Last week, a student threw some trash across the cafeteria and he made a mess. He needed to clean it up. Because we had worked on a relationship, I put my arms out as if to say, “what are you doing?“ and then had to wait about 30 seconds before he decided to stand up and take care of his mess. He didn’t disappoint.
- What I Wish I Knew as A First Year Principal with Jethro and Friends Transformative Principal Special - The thing that I have taken away from this one is from my friend Jessica Cabeen.3:40–4:08 She says, Take care of yourself. While I haven’t been exercising as much this year as I have in the past, my sleep has been much better and I am doing a much better job of not working from home and actually being home when I am home. That is really important to me.
- End College and Career Readiness with Jethro Jones Transformative Principal 1040 - This podcast seems to have hit a nerve, as it was just released a couple months ago, and is already one of the most downloaded. In this, I basically argue that we need to focus on inspiring passion in our students rather than preparing them for something. One man I recently met is amazing. He said that he is a jack of all trades, master of one: learning. That really hit me. He didn’t learn how to do that from school, he says. He learned how to do that from his experience. He learned that learning is the most important thing he can have. In a recent Hack Learning episode, Mark Barnes said that learning can’t be measured. In our traditional system, you’re right, it can’t. But it can in our own lives, and we are the ones best suited to measure. I can’t measure all that I have learned from doing this podcast over the last four years in an easy-to-digest way. This post is an example of one way that I am trying to summarize my learning. One of my good friends Darren Draper posted on the Facebook post for this comment the question, “If everyone follows their passions, will society have the skilled workers it needs?” We had a little back and forth, that I encourage you to add your two cents to. My real point here is that if we teach kids how to learn on their own they will have more success in their life, regardless of what their passions or careers are. (1:48 –2:18)
- Instructional Leadership Team with David Smith Transformative Principal 182 - David Smith’s advice on how to be a transformative was to decide that you’re going to spend time in every classroom. 17:21–20:15 I have made this my priority this year, even to the tune of spending each morning before lunch in classrooms. I’m not perfect at it, but it is helping me do a much better job.
- Routines to Make Yourself More Successful with Karine Veldhoen Transformative Principal 160 - I have really gotten into routines this year and established some good ones. I’ve read the book she recommends and even went deep into The 1 Thing, about which I interviewed Geoff Woods. Look for that interview coming up soon. She talked about setting daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly practices. This is not easy. It really isn’t. It is actually kind of boring. In fact, Geoff Woods said that most people are unwilling to endure the monotony of success. Success is doing the right things at the right time. 8:26–9:46 - Self-care plans for her staff and for herself. One aspect of that that I have adopted is a habit to go to bed with my wife each night and not stay up late doing things for the podcast or other work, or playing games, or wasting time on Facebook. That is a small thing, but something that I think will really help me get to bed earlier, get rested, and spend quality time with my wife each night. With being so busy, it is easy to be distracted from the important things.
- Kids Can’t Learn When They Don’t Trust with Zaretta Hammond Transformative Principal 157 - 4:00–6:08 Trust Generators to quickly build trust. This has been really powerful as I have started my new school in Fairbanks. I have tried to be vulnerable with teachers to help build that trust so they know who I am. It’s not perfect, but we have been moving quicker than I expected in some areas, as I mentioned before.
- Where Jethro is interviewed for the Principal Matters Podcast with Will Parker - Bonus Episode 1033 21:45–22:53-The thing that sticks out from this interview is that 1, it was on Will Parker’s podcast, where he interviewed me. It was fun to release it at the same time. Number 2, Will asked me a big question, what do I want to achieve. My big goal is to impact 100 Million students over the next 10 years through my work on this podcast, my masterminds, speaking engagements, consulting, and everything else that I do. I had been thinking about setting a big goal before he asked me, but I wasn’t sure I could do it. So I took his challenge and set a goal. I’m tracking it here so please help me reach that goal by adding the impact this podcast has had on you to that survey. At the time of this writing, I am .021% of the way there. 21,412 kids have been impacted so far. WOW! That’s actually pretty amazing.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jerry Snow is a District Administrator and former high school and middle school principal. piedmont.k12.al.us contact information is there. jsnow@piedmont.k12.al.us
- Part of a 1:1 initiative over 9 years ago.
- Many awards and recognitions.
- Trying to show kids that even though they are a small system, they can still do great things.
- NGLC planning grant
- Mastery based learning.
- Sometimes in a class you can only go as fast as your lowest student.
- Worked with Education Elements.
- “Embolden Piedmont”
- NWEA MAP into digital platforms to create ILPs (individual learning plans).
- Fill in gaps to build on those skills, rather than adapt around them.
- You’re curating the knowledge rather than giving the students everything.
- The myth of average - there is no average. If you’re teaching to the average, you’re teaching to nobody.
- Where a teacher will fall back into the old groove.
- You need to be honest and up front with them.
- We modify every year.
- Can’t go in with an iron fist.
- We want to make things better for the kids.
- Troubleshoot to help them do better.
- It’s a lot of pride, even though it is harder and more tiring.
- Making sure the information is a high enough DOK level.
- Harder for everyone, teachers and students alike.
- Took stuff from everyone and make it our own.
Click here to try out my new chatbot
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Joe Sanfelippo walks us through telling our own story.
Schedule a call with Jethro about the Mastermind
Best Year Ever information.
Michael Horn is the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of Blended and Disrupting Class.
- 4 year plan
- Look at it through a design process.
- What do we want that student experience to look like?
- Design process.
- What is the narrative arc for the school.
- Ask lots of questions to map back from the dream.
- Start as a leadership team.
- What would we like to be known for?
- Where are the innovators?
- Roadmap for how this scales throughout the entire school?
- You want the whole group together to be aware of the process.
- Understanding the tools of change is important.
- What is the “right“ leadership style?
- X axis agreement among team about how the world works.
- Y axis agreement among team about goals
- Use summer!
- Use creative configurations to give teachers back the time.
- Create space for professional learning during the school day.
- How to communicate to parents and the broader community what you’re doing.
- How to be a transformative principal? 1. Stories are what really move people. Focus on the stories. 2. Tell the teachers you’ll get their back when they do something.
Click here to try out my new chatbot
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Michael Horn is the co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute and author of Blended and Disrupting Class.
- Create educational options is to help kids find their potential.
- Personalize to meet the needs of every student.
- Organizations follow systems or processes that become engrained in cultures.
- You get really good at the thing you’ve been doing.
- We’re not going to see schools disappear.
- Disrupting class, not the whole system to start.
- If you want a system to change, you need a great leader.
- So many forces arrayed to shoot down the “new”.
- People are not being obstructionist because they’re bad people.
- They’re not stupid people, they’re people in stupid systems.
- We need a different system to match a new era.
- Leaders have to give very clear permission about what you are allowed to violate.
- “You’re allowed to do anything that doesn’t put kids in harm’s way.“
- Very aggressively and clearly document every policy at odds with what has been on the books.
- Competency-based learning
- Don’t force them out of their comfort zone.
- “The Dual Transformation” managing transformation A and B.
- Go slow to go fast.
- We don’t fully understand what everything will look like.
- Seeing teachers in other places can help them see how it works.
- Coalition of the willing.
- Couple years is a baseline.
- May not know all the details, but then you have a chance to celebrate
- *
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
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Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Lucas Miller is the author of Beyond Brilliance: The Blueprint for Learning Anything.
- Engineer, then neuroscience at UC Berkley.
- Moonwalking with Einstein - How to remember everything.
- Using brains more effectively and efficiently.
- New research holed up in labs across the country.
- Much is based on the foundation of memory.
- Memorized learning is just important as it has ever been.
- Research available for K-12 educators.
- Growth Mindset
- Brain is remarkably elastic.
- Classrooms were quiet, now they are active
- It’s one thing to be able to answer something on a test, it’s a different thing to be able to teach it to a classmate.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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In this episode, host Jethro Jones is interviewed by his assistant principal Dr. Courtney Orr.
Check out the new Chatbot for Transformative Principal
1)Culture First!
2)Love of Learning—never stop!
3)Focus—be in the moment, where ever that is, 4)Seth Godin—rules
5)Personalize Learning…shrink the classroom 6)Podcasting…continues to inspire 7)DeVos…interview wishlist
8)Admin….moving away from putting out fires to being control of our time/priorities
9)Teachers…(DPink)mastery, autonomy, purpose 10)Parents…over communication 11)Students…individualized learning 12)Shift…moving away from playing school to meet student where they are at, help them chart their own path…follow their passions
13)How can we break the rules w/out getting into trouble…change the things we can
14)LITERACY IN EVERY CONTENT AREA.
15)Inspire Students
16)This week…getting control of your time…start with one task…make that a priority.
What I want to build at my school.
Thanks to @afewthingsworth for the show notes!
https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/blog/the-carnegie-unit-revisited/
Dr. Drew Williams started teaching in Las Vegas and ended up as the principal of Tuacahn High School in Southern Utah, where he shares a facility with Tuacahn Center for the ArtsCreativity, Inc.
- A work or a text to land on so that it wasn’t personal.
- Lots of work to come up with core values of Collaborative Design, candid feedback, original work.
- Grading policies, attendance policies.
- Changes need to be based on evidence.
- Core values help us say no.
- Radical candor.
- Challenges in creating core values.
- Comfort in being comfortable.
- Disrupted status quo.
- Conversations that require a keen intellect to navigate.
- Awoke in our faculty a feeling of learning.
- Why Tuacahn? It’s through the uncertainty that you can drive to the question of why.
- Dropping a class because it doesn’t align to our core values.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Never stop learning. Go out of your box and seek learning.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Dr. Drew Williams started teaching in Las Vegas and ended up as the principal of Tuacahn High School in Southern Utah, where he shares a facility with Tuacahn Center for the Arts
- First High School charter in the state of Utah - focused on the performing arts.
- Working to partner more with the Center for the Arts.
- Talking times - actors and actresses talking about their experience become actors and actresses.
- Professional actors asking, “How can we connect and teach classes?
- Compliance vs. deeper learning.
- Idea of moving past compliance and on task
- Idea of being joyful and passionate.
- When doing auditions can bring working professionals in to participate as well.
- Teachers are working outside of the classroom on their own careers to
- Collaborative Design, candid feedback, original work.
- Trevor McKinsey - Dive into inquiry
- Math exists in Art, dance, etc.
- Middle is messy, but it is where the magic happens.
- Everything is not defined.
- Don’t give out rules and such. Ask kids what they are curious about.
- Be mean until December doesn’t really cut it anymore.
- Belief that education does need to change.
- Kids are excited to be here.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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- Owning vs. leading
- Pushed change a little too fast.
- Get teachers to drive initiatives.
- Can’t own it. The teachers have to.
- Biggest change - using grades for compliance
- It takes a lot of time to have the conversations relating to grading.
- Using alternative ways of assessing kids.
- NASSP’s mission and goals as a national support organization.
- Non-profit boards are struggling to have members.
- Mentor told Dan he needed to join NASSP for the insurance.
- Have to change the member benefit.
- We need to be more than just insurance.
- Advocacy - need to have someone there to advocate for the needs of schools and principals.
- Opportunities for advancing leadership. McKinsey Management Program for School Leaders
- 19,000 members in NASSP. 100% of Rhode Island principals are involved in NASSP
- Grading and assessment is the biggest conversation.
- NASSP Conference in Chicago
- How to be a transformative principal? Expand your network and get out of the little silos that we are in.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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NASSP President Dan Kelley talks about school change and the need for NASSP to have a real impact in principals’ lives.
- Special education background.
- President of NASSP.
- Archaic way of teaching
- The role of the school needs to change.
- 5:45 minutes.
- Schools can become hubs.
- Changing schools structurally and philosophically.
- Get caught up in test scores and ranking.
- Great alternative to AP tests - early enrollment rather than AP.
- How to tell the story of the school?
- Start with where the parents are.
- Facebook, Blog, twitter
- Easy to use
- Money following students
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Justin Baeder, of the Principal Center
- As instructional leaders there is no better way to lead than to be in classrooms.
- It is tough to find time and make it into classrooms.
- Being in classrooms that much sounds ridiculous and impossible.
- Start small.
-
Just show up.
-
everyclassroom challenge, be in every classroom within a 5-day period.
- Build up the practice over a period of cycles.
- Just keep track of the order you visit people in, and visit them
- Systems to keep track of visits.
- Write the date you visit on their note card.
- Repertoire - app for keeping track of visits.
- The way we schedule to get into our classrooms is important.
- The way of doing it must fit your style.
- Buy the Book: Now We’re Talking
Special Interview about writing a book. Get the interview here
* How long it took.
* What to get clear on.
* How to determine what belongs in this book and doesn’t.
* How to sell your idea to the readers and publishers.
Prevailing, Not Relishing with Rebecca Coda and Rick Jetter Transformative Principal 195
Proactive paranoia is good paranoia Call people to the carpet in a professional way.
Rebecca Coda and Rick Jetter are the authors of Escaping the School Leaders Dunk Tank: How to Prevail When Others Want To See You Drown.
- How to prevail instead of getting bummed out.
- Depersonalize the situation.
- Some reason they have ego, fear, jealousy, etc.
- Didn’t start with you, started with someone or something else.
- Alignments - aligning to different people.
- How people gather allies.
- If you’ve got an army behind you.
- Moving on
- How to deal with politicking.
- Nonviolent communication
- Call people to the carpet in a professional way.
- 4 step process for nonviolent conversation.
- Script, rehearse, prepared for curveball reactions
- Said with care and patience.
- Don’t want to be alone without a witness.
- You’re not effective if you’re feeling this way.
- Teacher Bullies
- How to be a transformative principal? It comes down to being willing to do what is right.
- How to be a transformative principal? You’ve gotta try!
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
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Proactive paranoia is good paranoia.
Rebecca Coda and Rick Jetter are the authors of Escaping the School Leaders Dunk Tank: How to Prevail When Others Want To See You Drown.
- How to tell if you are being sabotaged.
- Proactive paranoia - inner voice where you know it is not right, but you
- It comes down to relationships.
- You notice the behavior changes.
- Exclusion.
- Emotional triggers that lead to tactics.
- Emotional driving forces - jealousy, skepticism, holding accountable.
- Leaving out information or leaving people out.
- What do we do when to handle it?
- Explicitly confront or leave it alone?
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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I have always felt so uninspired by the term “College and Career Ready!”
It seems so empty
George Martinez - chief of staff for anchorage mayor spoke at the African American Student Leadership conference
The term he used was Path to Passion.
That is much more inspiring.
Why passion?
Because we all need something more than a JOB!
We need our own personal mission statements.
Much of what I believe comes from my spiritual approach
I am a child of god. If I believe that I am a child of God, that must mean that I believe others are children of God as well. It makes it so much easier to be kind and nice to people.
It also makes it easier to have high expectations of people. Because they truly are more than they can ever believe.
I Discovered my passion at about 16 years old.
I learned that I had skills in teaching others, and leading others.
I could have chosen many other professions besides teaching and education, but because of my not-so-great educational experiences, I knew I could impact kids in a powerful way.
So, that’s what I do.
I inspire teachers and leaders to be their best. That’s why I do this podcast. Because I am living out my purpose for my life.
This is more than just me sitting in front of a microphone in my basement!
The mastermind is more than just me hanging out with some really cool leaders.
The TLS is more than just a Leadership Summit.
These are extensions of me fulfilling a purpose.
An educator could not have told me at sixteen that I would be doing this now.
But a visionary man helped me understand way back when I was 16, that right now, I am exactly where I need to be and that I am doing exactly what I need to be doing!
The real challenging part of understanding our passion is that it is admittedly pretty frufru as someone recently said.
I don’t think you’ll be able to find a guru that says “Find a deadend job, and stick with it until you retire, when you can finally do what you want.”
I think about some of the recent college grads that I know that are basically doing anything because they need money. I understand that, I’ve been there, but I was very much aware that that was not going to be my future.
They’re using the time after college to figure out what they love. How tragic for them.
In this day and age, with technology, I have a hard time believing that someone cannot make money from living their passion.
A career is something old people talk about. To the younger generation, it is just life.
But again, it is challenging, especially for educators, to inspire kids with an unknown. We like clear, specific answers. We don’t know what to do when we can’t predict the future. Which is funny, because we can’t.
So, how do we reconcile this? We understand that we can’t possibly know what the future holds for kids, and inspire them to find what they can do all day and love for their whole lives.
Some might say they love playing call of duty all day, but most of them don’t. Most of them prefer that to boring drudgery of getting college and career ready.
Let’s inspire them to something more noble than a JOB and help them find a fulfilled life by finding their purpose for being here.
Naphtali Hoff is an executive coach, organizational consultant, trainer, writer & speaker.
- How to come back from making a mistake.
- Think big picture.
- If you don’t create the right foundation, then you will spend far less time helping kids than
- When elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets trampled. - Rick Lavoie
- Where you can support the vision
- Everything flows from the foundation.
- We make decisions based on the emotional connection.
- Trust shields you from other problems.
- How to be a transformative principal? Continue to invest in yourself. You can’t give what you don’t have.
- email: nhoff@impactfulcoaching.com becomingthenewboss.com 212-4706139
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Web Site
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Naphtali Hoff is an executive coach, organizational consultant, trainer, writer & speaker.
- Teacher and school leader.
- Support principals in a way that he had been supported.
- Get his book, “Becoming the New Boss”
- Leadership vs. Management
- You need to manage processes. Leadership is another dimension.
- What is your priority and what is your main focus?
- You can delegate management.
- Leadership is getting people moving in a direction
- Leadership belongs to everyone in the building.
- Be a good listener, especially at the beginning.
- Good leaders are listeners.
- Demonstrate a willingness to listen and accept a culture.
- Find ways to make low-stakes, high-success wins.
- Rick Lavoie, earning chips.
- Need to go through change strategically.
- Consensus vs. agreement
- Data should drive the process.
- Initiating the process is good, but don’t go down the path if you’re not going to make the actual change.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Part time curriculum director in a rural school district and part time consultant.
- How to stay on top of so many content areas.
- Framework for quality curriculum
- Instructional priorities.
- Looking at research and finding what’s current.
- Best practices
- Nearly all PD was sit and get.
- Spiraling themes of professional development.
- Able to provide effective supports
- Gradual release of responsibility.
- I do, we do, y’all do, you do.
- Practice feedback reflection
- That’s what we’ve always done.
- Peer observation isn’t always received very well.
- Timeline of job-embedded PD.
- August 1/2 day with 60 teachers as a pilot on classroom questioning
- Cohorts of 4-6 teachers in each cohort - meet for 1/2 day with that cohort. Host teacher presents lesson. Facilitator asks questions.
- Review of data points that people collected after observing a lesson.
- Scripting - What did the teacher say, what did the kids say?
- Share data, review host teacher’s goals and visit a new one each month.
- Don’t invite administrators to take part in the process
- Walkthroughs at the end of the year. Leadership team looks for strengths and growths for that teacher.
- Need to make sure your professional development is making it to the classroom.
- Effective to have a coach position be able to support the group.
- Give principals patterns in aggregated data.
- Principals engage in final conversation in the year.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be intentional about supporting teacher’s growth.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
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I asked a bunch of awesome leaders one simple question:
What did you wish you knew when you first became a principal?
Here are their answers!
Don’t Assume Anything
Nicholas A. Fischer is a school-management consultant and coach. He was the superintendent of the New London, Conn., school district from 2009 to 2014. Previously, he was the superintendent of schools in Fall River, Mass., and the Christina School District in Newark, Del.; the assistant superintendent in Fairfax County, Va.; and the associate commissioner for finance and accountability in the Massachusetts Department of Education.
- Leading a District Can Be Controversial, Embrace it
- Be clear to yourself about what your values are.
- Working in public schools is very important.
- Started working Florida as a principal when corporal punishment was still allowed.
- Telling kids what we wanted them to do instead of what we don’t want them to do.
- Problems in American Public education: Our expectations are too low.
- All of us have special abilities
- Every child can be expected to be out a maximum effort.
- What we expect in engagement is different than what kids are taught growing up.
- What are the ramifications of doing the right thing?
- What are the right questions to ask a supervisor?
- Are you mobile enough to find the right places to work?
- Know what you believe, and talk to your supervisor, let your spouse know the ups and downs you will face.
- That’s one way of doing it, but here’s a better way.
- You have to know what the stakes are going in, and be willing to live with them.
- Average tenure of Superintendent is 2-3 years. Average tenure of principals is a little longer.
- Reasons for moving vary.
- In some situations, leaving a situation can be a badge of honor.
- Why are you staying if you’re struggling?
- Get candid feedback about how you’re portraying yourself.
- Much better off being honest with those we are talking with.
- Don’t use the statement, “Don’t take this personally.”
- I’d like to hear your version of what you see yourself doing.
- Set up an active listening conversation.
- We too often end a statement with “You know what I mean?”
- Distinguish between what a person is doing and what you would like to see them doing.
- Tell me what you think I’m asking you to do.
- Sit down a couple weeks later and talking about what they have changed.
- I don’t assume anything.
- How to be a transformative principal? Transformative to do what? If you were to describe what you are trying to accomplish, define what is happening right now in your school. Think through how you frame things. Define what you perceive happening. Start to talk about what the difference is between what people are doing what you want them to do.
- If you’re going to have a safe school, everyone needs to be involved.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
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In education, we often hear from teachers who think that without us, these kids and families would not know what to do!
One time, I had a teacher talk to me about students with disabilities, and she basically said that students with disabilities only get help or have structure. She didn't realize that my daughter has Down syndrome and she was lumping my daughter in with this group of kids that would be lost if not for her and other educators like her. That rubbed me the wrong way.
In another instance, as I've talked about Home Visits, people have said, "Oh, you want to visit their home so you can see how awful their life is and have more empathy?" NO! I want to visit their homes so they know that we care enough to leave our ivory tower and go to them and tell them that we care.
Here are three tips on how to overcome it:
-
Don't judge parents. Just stop it. Seriously.
-
Have positive intentions. H/T to Melinda Miller. Assume the best. Don't make up their story for them. Learn from them, and ask them what they are doing! Don't just assume we know what is going on.
-
Recognize the good that people are doing the best they can. The numbers of parents who are actively hurting their kids is remarkably small! Are parents struggling because they don't have the skills, abilities, time, resources, etc. to be better? YES! I sure am! I am a well-educated, successful white dude and I still struggle to be as good a dad as I can be! That's just the truth. The truth is, our parents are awesome, and they are doing the best they can.
Expectations and Mindsets are powerful, and if we believe parents are doing the best they can, we will see evidence of that.
Let's make sure the self-fulfilling prophecy and storyline that we have is that parents are amazing and doing great things!
You Get what You Expect
Nicholas A. Fischer is a school-management consultant and coach. He was the superintendent of the New London, Conn., school district from 2009 to 2014. Previously, he was the superintendent of schools in Fall River, Mass., and the Christina School District in Newark, Del.; the assistant superintendent in Fairfax County, Va.; and the associate commissioner for finance and accountability in the Massachusetts Department of Education.
- Leading a District Can Be Controversial, Embrace it
- Be clear to yourself about what your values are.
- Working in public schools is very important.
- Started working Florida as a principal when corporal punishment was still allowed.
- Telling kids what we wanted them to do instead of what we don’t want them to do.
- Problems in American Public education: Our expectations are too low.
- All of us have special abilities
- Every child can be expected to be out a maximum effort.
- What we expect in engagement is different than what kids are taught growing up.
- What are the ramifications of doing the right thing?
- What are the right questions to ask a supervisor?
- Are you mobile enough to find the right places to work?
- Know what you believe, and talk to your supervisor, let your spouse know the ups and downs you will face.
- That’s one way of doing it, but here’s a better way.
- You have to know what the stakes are going in, and be willing to live with them.
- Average tenure of Superintendent is 2-3 years. Average tenure of principals is a little longer.
- Reasons for moving vary.
- In some situations, leaving a situation can be a badge of honor.
- Why are you staying if you’re struggling?
- Get candid feedback about how you’re portraying yourself.
- Much better off being honest with those we are talking with.
- Don’t use the statement, “Don’t take this personally.”
- I’d like to hear your version of what you see yourself doing.
- Set up an active listening conversation.
- We too often end a statement with “You know what I mean?”
- Distinguish between what a person is doing and what you would like to see them doing.
- Tell me what you think I’m asking you to do.
- Sit down a couple weeks later and talking about what they have changed.
- I don’t assume anything.
- How to be a transformative principal? Transformative to do what? If you were to describe what you are trying to accomplish, define what is happening right now in your school. Think through how you frame things. Define what you perceive happening. Start to talk about what the difference is between what people are doing what you want them to do.
- If you’re going to have a safe school, everyone needs to be involved.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
This is my "practice" of my opening day remarks to my staff. I practiced it as though I was going to give it to the staff, so I didn't record when I was giving it to the staff. Here is the Powerpoint to go along with it if you are interested.
The actual meeting with staff took an hour, so this is an abbreviated version.
We make time for what we really believe. Good collaboration takes time, but bad collaboration takes even more time.
Tom Hierck can be found at his web site.
- superintendent department of ed, 34 years in education.
- Great educators all over the place.
- Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom
- I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints.
- If you build them, they will learn.
- Learn every kid’s DNA, Dreams, Needs, Abilities
- Start with something simple.
- Every kid wants adult time and we should make that positive.
- Focus on the kids
- Kids don’t get consequenced to better behavior.
- Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.
- Have adult conversations about what we are going to do with kids.
- You can’t manage every classroom from your office.
- Be the “Judicious Parent”
- What is managed within and what is managed without the classroom.
- The difference between rules and expectations.
- What it looks like, feels, like, sounds like.
- If we don’t model what we expect, then we should expect what we model.
- How to work with challenging team members?
- If everyone is nodding their head in agreement, you know somebody is leaving in disagreement.
- Sometimes, we just follow someone and deal with what they left behind.
- Leadership Rule #1, whether you create it or condone it, you own it.
- How to deal with the comfortable, but not good.
- Get clarity on our purpose.
- Knowing the skills you have, how do you see that aligning with our purpose.
- When it gets tough, we will turn to each other when we have clarity of purpose.
- We do construction work in times of calm.
- Ineffective practices = easy.
- We have to get to the hard stuff and be willing to get messy to service 100 % of our kids.
- How to find time. We make time for what we really believe.
- Good collaboration takes time, but Bad collaborations takes even more time.
- Chase time doesn’t work
- How to be a transformative principal? Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.
Tom Hierck can be found at his web site.
- superintendent department of ed, 34 years in education.
- Great educators all over the place.
- Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom
- I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints.
- If you build them, they will learn.
- Learn every kid’s DNA, Dreams, Needs, Abilities
- Start with something simple.
- Every kid wants adult time and we should make that positive.
- Focus on the kids
- Kids don’t get consequenced to better behavior.
- Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.
- Have adult conversations about what we are going to do with kids.
- You can’t manage every classroom from your office.
- Be the “Judicious Parent”
- What is managed within and what is managed without the classroom.
- The difference between rules and expectations.
- What it looks like, feels, like, sounds like.
- If we don’t model what we expect, then we should expect what we model.
- How to work with challenging team members?
- If everyone is nodding their head in agreement, you know somebody is leaving in disagreement.
- Sometimes, we just follow someone and deal with what they left behind.
- Leadership Rule #1, whether you create it or condone it, you own it.
- How to deal with the comfortable, but not good.
- Get clarity on our purpose.
- Knowing the skills you have, how do you see that aligning with our purpose.
- When it gets tough, we will turn to each other when we have clarity of purpose.
- We do construction work in times of calm.
- Ineffective practices = easy.
- We have to get to the hard stuff and be willing to get messy to service 100 % of our kids.
- How to find time. We make time for what we really believe.
- Good collaboration takes time, but Bad collaborations takes even more time.
- Chase time doesn’t work
- How to be a transformative principal? Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
Click here to schedule a call with me about joining the mastermind.
Click here to read more about the mastermind
Gain empathy
- Live day-to-day changes to scheduling.
- Basic level of master scheduling.
- Deeper level of how everything works in a school.
- Real instructional minutes. Where people are and when.
- How to learn about struggles that people have.
- Hired a principal to help guide the decision.
- worked with 1 school.
- Then worked with many schools.
- How to affect change in others’ lives.
- Get to the next level of detail.
- All changes to school require a holistic understanding of the impact.
- How to be a Transformative Principal? Gain empathy.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
Schools are being forced to lie to their systems to get their information correct.
Adam Pisoni is a serial technology entrepreneur who is most notably known for being the co-founder and CTO of Yammer, the enterprise communications software that was bought by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. He is considered a pioneer of the Enterprise Social Network (ESN) concept and a visionary in organizational design and management. After a short stint at Microsoft, Pisoni spent a year researching education in America and realized that master scheduling is a game changer for the future of K12 education. See Pisoni’s byline Why I started Abl in Student Voices.
ABL Schools
- Startups since 1995 and founded Yammer with David.
- K-12 education wasn’t that positive.
- Where you go to school matters.
- How did he know that scheduling was a problem.
- Progressive schools.
- Instead of asking what’s possible in schools, what prevents traditional schools from iterating.
- Teachers don’t have the power to make some changes.
- Where is the greatest lever for change?
- We find countless examples of district schools that are doing innovation.
- Schools are being forced to lie to their systems to get their information correct.
- Master scheduling.
- Launching in July at Principal’s conference
- Multiple steps that are disconnected.
- Abl brings them all together. Conflicts and coteaching scenarios are all in the same dynamic system.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Download Paperless Principal.
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Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More>
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Refer A Principal
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- If you aren’t falling, you aren’t trying hard enough
- How to teach kids to be comfortable trying and failing
- We were surprised we did so well when we don’t prepare them for these big tests
- Kids’ interest in learning naturally grows as they do
- Kids need to understand that they come to school for themselves
- Dealing with misbehavior
- You normally need an audience to misbehave
- There is a reason for their misbehavior
- Challenges of education in Finland,
- Technology, collaboration, and presentation (social) skills.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Try a Skype break
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
Transformative Principal on Stitcher
Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
You need to have imagination. You normally need an audience to misbehave
Pirjo Suhonen lives in Finland and recently finished her Master’s in Education.
- What school is really like in Finland
- Give a lot of value to childhood and play
- Prefer to let them play and explore
-
School is 4-5 hours
-
Preschool is up to 7 years old (only 4 hours per day, play rather than book learning)
- Play leads to more self-motivated learning
- Demanding a lot, but giving a lot
- Design Factory in Espol.
- Instead of just having a chat with someone in the coffee room only, you have open channels of Skype in other coffee rooms in other countries.
- If kids can teach coding, anyone can learn it!
- Pirjo’s MOOC
- Broad national curriculum.
- Core curriculum - 7 competencies
- Perseverance.
- Competencies give you the why you are in school.
- How to teach perseverance
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
000004FF 000004F8 00005CC0 0000595E 00008282 00008282 00007F3A 00007DA7 0000059C 0000059C
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
- How to make certain that teacher leaders have support and training to be leaders.
- Instructional Leadership Team - sole focus, making sure that good instruction is happening in the school.
- How to identify instructional leaders in your school.
- Innovator’s mindset MOOC
- If someone is upset because you’re good, that’s not your problem.
- Experience doesn’t necessarily lead to instructional leadership.
- What we value in this school is instruction and instructional expertise.
- The role of the principal supervisor.
- Teams of principals visit a classroom and talk about the instruction that they saw.
- Asking parents about what they think about instruction.
- Adjusting instruction for teacher leaders.
- ESSA allows us to do creative things with the principals.
- Professional learning for administrators.
- How to enable teacher leaders to be successful.
- International models of education and how to allocate time for teachers.
- How to allocate time during the day.
- Maybe 180 minutes of reading time is not really necessary.
- How to be a transformative principal? Decide that you’re going to spend time every day in classrooms.
Schools.utah.gov - Departments - Educator
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Refer A Principal
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Get rid of a culture of judgment and move toward a culture of improvement.
David Smith (Web site, Twitter) is the Leader Effectiveness Specialist for the Utah State Board of Education. He mentors and supports principals all over the state.
- 30 years in public schools. 10 as a teacher and 20 as a principal. ALPS, Principal in 3 different schools, Math Specialist for the state.
- Why he should have gotten a doctorate.
- Works with principals, superintendents, and HR directors in different district.
- Summative Evaluations
- Principals need to become coaches to teachers.
- If in a summative evaluation, a teacher is surprised, then the principal hasn’t done his job.
- Principals should not take the role of teacher coaches.
- Principal should be the lead learner or principal coach in the school.
- We get so caught up in administrivia and don’t focus on learning.
- A business manager vs. principal.
- Equitable division of leadership responsibilities.
- Ideal that the principal is the instructional leader.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
- How to support kids with resources that are already there.
- In India, two board level exams 10th grade and end of high school.
- Immense pressure on students to be prepared for their
- Education has social pressure in India.
- US News and World Report explaining that children in India are better
- If the parents are educated and given guidance, they get age-appropriate support for their kids.
- Have an outside party develop coursework for the parent to start talking about future possibilities.
- Germany has a system of internships.
- Nationwide testing, those who are educated know to get their students to take the SAT and ACT. Other parents who are struggling are the ones who fall behind.
- How to be a transformative principal? 1. Introduce a nationwide exam. 2. Increasing the expectation for students’ academic ranking
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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Refer A Principal
Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
Take a bold stand, and bring about change. Increasing Expectations for Students with Sumant Pendharkar Transformative Principal 180 If you were a teacher in that system, you would have cheated, too.
Born in India, Sumant S. Pendharkar has lived in the United States since 1985. As a hiring manager in the computer industry for over twenty years, he noticed that many of the choices his associates had made as teenagers were catching up with them. An accomplished author of technical books, Sumant turned his attention to help children make effective choices that would increase their chances of success and be better prepared to face the challenges of an increasingly competitive global marketplace. With the publication of two well-received and organizationally endorsed books for teens, he became increasingly involved as a public speaker in local communities and a frequent TV and radio guest.
K12 Counts is the next chapter in his journey to provide the children of his adopted country the tools they need to make themselves successful.
www.K12Counts.org
Break the cycle of low academic outcomes permanently in a single generation
From an immigrant’s point of view, Sumant has written a series of articles to open the discussion on ways to make the youth of America become competitive players in the global marketplace. He welcomes your thoughts and comments.
Book for students: Raising Yourself: Making the Right Choices
- Sumant’s background
- Match a quality parent to another parent to help parents be successful.
- Thought it was a career planning issue.
- Should be parents’ responsibility to teach kids about career planning.
- In the United States, kids have the freedom to make their own choices.
- Growing up in a different country gave Sumant a different view to see issues that parents can have.
- Go to college message is strong in the media, but not necessarily home.
- Set the expectations for college at home.
- Exit exam is a benchmark.
- High School in San Jose.
- How do we get Singaporeans to think for themselves?
- Take a bold stand, and bring about change.
- 2 sets of immigrants: Educated & Aware vs. Uneducated & struggling
- Language level of both groups is the same, it is not an language issue.
- Attitude is the issue.
- USA is the only country in the world where there is not a sense of urgency for academic success.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
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Refer A Principal
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here:
Click Here to Learn more!
The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here:
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here:
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Bill's new book is out soon. Check it out at ChaseLearning.com
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- This makes it too easy for kids. We coddle them.
- How did you learn resilience?
- Did you have an adult to help shape you into something better?
- Resilience - #1 strategy attachment to a caring adult.
- Bruce Perry - National Leader on trauma.
- Witnessed in their humanity
- How do we create that caring, supportive environment that supports that student when we are in the school environment.
- We can’t get hung up on the behavior.
- The problem is when we alienate because of the behavior.
- Understanding that any perception of loss of safety is potential for students to become disregulated.
- Trauma is the perception of loss of safety and connection, not just the ACES.
- Safety - not just physical safety. Moral safety and emotional safety - see more from Sandra Bloom
- How to deal with the response, “This takes too much time.”
- Calm room is not punishment.
- Schools can’t do this alone.
- “My Piece Matters”
-
Won’t kids take advantage of that? Teachers notice that.
-
Every child wants to do well.
- Do we teach them through a punishment mode or regulatory mode.
- Building adult skills to support trauma-impacted youth.
- Emotional Hygiene
- How to be a transformative principal? Dig into understanding of hardwired response system in the brain. Kids aren’t out to get you, they just don’t know how to manage themselves.
- Self-Reg Stewart Shanker
- By Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence
- Starts with understanding that each of us can help create a safe environment.
- Nurturance is reparative and restorative.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
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The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here:
Click here to Join
Safety. Connection. Learning. with Teri Barila Transformative Principal 177
You ain’t getting to learning until that student is regulated
Building adult skills to support trauma-impacted youth with Teri Barila Transformative Principal 178
Resilience - #1 strategy attachment to a caring adult.
Nurturance is reparative and restorative
Teri Barila is the Children’s Resilience Initiative Director.
- Toxic Stress impacts our brain development and architecture
- Brain developed to protect that individual.
- When you feel threatened, you go to that brain stem.
- How we look at behavior from a different lens.
- It’s not what’s wrong with this person
- What has this person experienced that I can manage to support him or her.
- Regulatory skills needed for kids.
- Body already understands that you are being threatened.
- Body shuts down all other functions to be supportive.
- Use the same response systems as a child.
- Understanding our brain architecture.
- Language centers are disconnected when they are in stress.
- Provide opportunities to calm down.
- You ain’t getting to learning until that student is regulated.
- We further escalate that response by sending the student out.
- When we recognize that behavior is a call for help, we will move from punishment to regulation.
- How to teach regulation to students.
- Teach them how their brain works.
- Don’t wait until they are in high school to teach self-regulation.
- Recognize, validate, and manage their feelings.
- Where are you as you’re walking into my classroom.
- What’s going on in your world?
- Mantras, other ways to regulate.
- It’s all about being present with the child.
- Noticing, naming, validating, managing their feelings.
- We forget to notice that kids are escalating.
- Rather than punishing a child for having a feeling…
- Do you have enough skills to manage the feelings
- What to do when they are escalated.
- When one is having trouble, we don’t alienate, we try to help.
- Welcome slip - “We’re glad you’re here. Welcome to school.”
- Safety. Connection. Learning.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Aaron Walker is without question a veteran entrepreneur. Starting his first business at 18 and selling to a Fortune 500 company nine short years later demonstrates Aaron’s passion for succeeding. Unwilling to rest on past success Aaron started, bought and sold twelve successful companies over the past 38 years. Having a strong desire for personal development has kept Aaron in a weekly mastermind group for more than a decade with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham and seven other notable Nashvillians. Aaron has enjoyed a 37-year marriage with his beautiful wife, Robin. Today Aaron spends the majority of his time HELPING MEN GROW IN SUCCESS AND SIGNIFICANCE as President and Founder of VIEW FROM THE TOP, a premier life and business coaching resource. Aaron’s new book, View From The Top is guaranteed to motivate and inspire you to live a successful and significant life. Also, Aaron is the Co-Author of The Mastermind Blueprint endorsed by many including Seth Godin. Aaron has a vibrant history that guarantees to inspire you to reach heights you never dreamed possible.
- Aaron Walker
- Started working in a pawn shop at 13 years old.
- View from the Top book - June 20th.
- How people can live a successful and significant life.
- Ran over and killed a pedestrian.
- Giving away interviews and some other stuff.
- How to continue to grow and be better.
- Happiness is a choice, not a trait.
- Going from Poor to successful.
- Mom wouldn’t allow us to say can’t.
- Can’t couldn’t do it, but could did it all.
- Fear missing an opportunity more than you fear failure.
- You either succeed, or you learn. Don’t fear failure.
- “You can’t do that.“ No, you mean you can’t do that!
- Great purpose makes it so nothing can hold us back.
- Teachers have a huge impact on students.
- I believe in you.
- It’s no different than any other profession, care.
- Neely’s Bend Middle Prep.
- Be authentic and genuine. The Power of Habit
- Fully Alive
- Do the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with and that will be your life.
- How bitterness stifles creativity.
- Balance is impossible.
- Prioritizing your priorities.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Clare Fulp is the principal of an Chugach Optional and we talk today about her work running a summer school program for refugee students in Anchorage, Alaska.
- School designed for new-to-country students
- Director of ELL for Anchorage School District
- Qtel institute
- No walls or doors between the classrooms, project-based learning, little direct instruction.
- Open learning
- How to set up the culture of a school for the success in an open classroom.
- Soft skills taught to kids.
- Seth Godin, Let’s stop calling them soft skills.
- Changed approach from just ELL teachers getting the gig.
- How to hire the right people for this position.
- Each team member is bringing their own strength to this group.
- Looking for great passion.
- Positive attitude.
- Self, Social, City, State, World
- Most Likely to Succeed
- Working with current K-6 students. 230 kids total.
- How to deal with refugees: have an open heart.
- An interest in the world.
- Couldn’t think past a day as a refugee.
- Misconceptions about language
- Vigotsky Zone of Proximal Development
- Kids are so much better at learning languages than adults.
- Younger/Elder approach
- Goal is not testing, but SEL, Math, and Literacy.
- Community engagement with the process - Community block party
- Teaching kids how to take care of their teeth.
- How to be a transformative principal? Connect with kids, know their names, It’s all about relationships.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
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Tom Braddock is the principal of Evergreen Elementary in Woodbury, New Jersey.
- How to teach alternatives to violence at elementary school
- Personal development course
- Amy Fast’s Tweet
- Engaging the community through two specific things:
- Barber Shop: discount on haircut for reading a book out loud while getting haircut
- Story in Philadelphia Inquirer - South Jersey school district hopes to create 'a buzz' about reading
- PRIDE Positivity, Respect, Integrity, Dependability, And Effort.
- Babies cry for, kids live for it, adults die for it - Recognition
- Standout student of the week with home visits
- 30 days without a tantrum.
- Sister of Dominique Moceanu
-
- Lead with love
-
- Build children’s (parent’s, teacher’s, community’s) belief in the school
-
- Resurrect resilience
- We often forget what we’re capable of.
- How to be a transformative principal? Wake up in the morning and count your blessings. Protect yourself from negativity. tbraddock@woodburysch.com 8568530125 ext 142
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Web Site
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All the Data. <- This is the board report I submitted to the Board that is referenced in the podcast. Enjoy!
Tom Braddock is the principal of Evergreen Elementary in Woodbury, New Jersey.
- Planning to go into politics, changed to education
- Alternative Routes to Education licensure.
- Alternatives to Violence
- School Without Walls
- World peace starts with me
- Me -> Community -> Country -> World
- What can I do on a daily basis to be more positive productive and peaceful?
- Nonviolent protests
- Practicality of the class
- World hunger simulation
- The Wave - Book about “the classroom experiment that went too far.“
- Ed Leadership Sims
- How to deal with negative aspects - build the support structure long beforehand.
- 4 simple classroom rules: 1. Keep it Disney 2. Be prepared 3. Be active 4. Be here
- You can’t teach them until you reach them.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Red Rohl is a veteran elementary and middle school teacher who works to find ways to connect with kids via sketch noting and writing graphic novels. See his web site at http://heavysketches.com. Check out his Facebook page.
- How to help kids become part of your lesson.
- Jotting the ideas down quickly, but then adding more for effect.
- Importance of creativity.
- Not comparing to kids next to them.
- How to help kids get started with sketch noting.
- Start with lined paper and use it.
- Put a little more effort into the visuals.
- Reaching young men and boys and teaching them to be strong men.
- How to be a transformative principal? Listen to the teachers. Let teachers’ lights shine through.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jon Harper is the host of the My Bad Podcast on BAM Radio Network and an Assistant Principal. You can find him on Twitter at @jonharper70bd.
- Why Jon’s school calls their classrooms families.
- Meetings are meant to build trust, loves, and empathy.
- Activities with kids to build trust, show vulnerability.
- QTIP - Quit Taking it Personally
- Learn people’s stories.
- You can’t feel what they feel, but you have an understanding of who they are.
- Lead by example.
- How to be a transformative principal? Share some of your flaws with a teacher or a student.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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My Bad with Jon Harper Transformative Principal 169
Split at 18:55 when I ask, what are you most excited about at your school?
25:04 maybe edit out.
The QTIP Strategy with Jon Harper Transformative Principal 170
Jon Harper is the host of the My Bad Podcast on BAM Radio Network and an Assistant Principal. You can find him on Twitter at @jonharper70bd.
- Why he started his podcast.
- The power of mistakes.
- Powerful episode with Maggie Bolado
- Strengths-based leadership
- Listen
- Treat people as people first and teachers second.
- Education is what we do, not who we are.
- Restorative Practices
- You might lose minutes in Math or ELA, but you gain learning in the social emotional area.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Bringing a Calming Influence with Daniel Bauer Transformative Principal Special
Who you are matters
Daniel Bauer is the host of the Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast, and a dear friend. He started his first year as building principal this last year and takes some time to reflect on what he has learned about it.
- Better Leadership Sprint with Daniel Bauer use the word transform! Or use the code Jethro for $30
- “You brought a calming influence to the campus.”
- Best gift ever. 3 year journal
- Who you are matters.
- The power of being self-aware.
- The Go Giver Leader
- The Morning Miracle
- Tips for bringing a calming influence.
- Don’t forget rule #6
- How to be a transformative principal? check out the Leadership Sprint and give mindfulness a chance. Download the Headspace app
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Scott Johns is a former high school CTE teacher, and now works for Education Elements, former educators and administrators who are passionate about education.
- Student Reflection and Ownership
- Students need to understand their role in their learning.
- The power of setting goals.
- Self-directed learning.
- Small structured choices.
- Integrated Digital Content
- Computers/tablets/screen time is not all this is.
- Lily pad, too much on one corner causes you to drop.
- Integrated digital content allows personalized learning to scale.
- Digital tools can increase ability to perform at higher levels.
- Newsela.com and achieve3000
- How to not meet just the needs of the middle.
- How to meet the needs of the high and low.
- How to be a transformative Principal? Design thinking process. Empathy. Get students’ input.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Scott Johns is a former high school CTE teacher, and now works for Education Elements, former educators and administrators who are passionate about education.
- What education elements does.
- Personalized learning - what is it?
- Core Four
- Targeted Instruction - break down whole group instruction into smaller groups of students. Dynamic and purposeful groups of students.
- After 7–8 students in a group, results taper off.
- Challenges of targeted instruction.
- Presence of small groups does not necessarily equal targeted instruction.
- Data Driven Decisions - Data should inform instruction in the classroom.
- Allow teachers AND students to reflect on and work with the data.
- The problem with the question, “Why did you give me this grade?”
- Tight feedback loops.
- Standards-based grading. Can help with the process, but not the only way to do it.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Joshua Spodek (Twitter, Web Site and Blog) is an Adjunct Professor at NYU, leadership coach and workshop leader for Columbia Business School, columnist for Inc., founder of Spodek Academy, and author of Leadership Step by Step (launching February 2017). Sign up for his webinar here
He has led seminars in leadership, entrepreneurship, creativity, and sales at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, INSEAD (Singapore), the New York Academy of Science, and in private corporations. He holds five Ivy League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA, and studied under a Nobel Prize winner. He helped build an X-ray observational satellite for NASA, co-founded and led as CEO or COO several ventures, and holds six patents.
He earned praise as “Best and Brightest” (Esquire Magazine’s Genius Issue), “Astrophysicist turned new media whiz” (NBC), and “Rocket Scientist” (ABC News and Forbes) and has been quoted and profiled by ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has visited North Korea twice, swam across the Hudson River, and has done burpees every day for six years and counting. He lives in Greenwich Village and blogs daily at www.joshuaspodek.com.
- Step-by-Step courses and Book.
- Iterations lead to higher quality.
- Grading by weight.
- Woody Allen said “80% of success is showing up.”
- Supporting STEM approaches.
- Theory vs. practice.
- How influence peoples’ behavior.
- All western philosophy is footnotes to Plato.
- What is a good life and how do I make mine better.
- Leadership Step By Step Book
- How to be a transformative Principal? Go to Educon and read Leadership Step by Step!
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Henry Gradillas, along with his co-author Jerry Jesness, has written a book that will challenge many common assumptions about public education. Henry served as the Principal of Garfield High School during the period depicted in the film “Stand and Deliver” about Jamie Escalante’s success’ and challenges. Henry is a well known Educator and Motivational Speaker.
In this book, Dr. Gradillas shares both his upbeat philosophy of education and the practical school management techniques that helped translate that philosophy into success for thousands of students over three decades. The books focuses on three areas that are key to the operation of an effective school: School Climate, instruction, and curriculum. It includes many references to the Garfield High School experience, as well as to other schools where Dr. Gradillas was principal.
- How to adjust
- Thebestschools.org prize
- Kids are so involved on other things.
- Teaching Spanish at 83!
- Using today’s technology
- How do you support great teachers, without other teachers wanting to cut their heads off?
- They told me it couldn’t be done.
- Why AP is so important?
- Why is it so difficult to implement dual credit for high schools and colleges still?
- Did not change one thing in the district policy, but interpreted to make it work.
- Stamp of Approval for “Gifted” students.
- How can we implement this in lower grades?
- Infusing Math through everything
- Teach it to students early enough that they would be interested in it!
- How to deal with the difficult things as they happen:
- Because you know you’re right!
- I am so glad that finally the principal is doing what principals should do!
- Give the kids the opportunity to say how their school is helping them.
- Mandated Algebra for every high school student.
- When you don’t give a class to a student because you don’t offer it, you start them out as adults in a negative.
- When you’re in command, Command! Or get out!
- How to be a transformative principal? Go into a faculty and staff meeting and say: We are working hard, and we have some problems. Give me one thing that I can do to help you and make your teaching more effective? Secondly, give me one thing that I can do in the long-term to help you be more effective? Third, give me something that will improve what your doing for next year? Then what can you do yourself to move this along.
- How Jethro increased attendance
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Joshua Spodek (Twitter, Web Site and Blog) is an Adjunct Professor at NYU, leadership coach and workshop leader for Columbia Business School, columnist for Inc., founder of Spodek Academy, and author of Leadership Step by Step (launching February 2017). Sign up for his webinar here
He has led seminars in leadership, entrepreneurship, creativity, and sales at Harvard, Princeton, MIT, INSEAD (Singapore), the New York Academy of Science, and in private corporations. He holds five Ivy League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA, and studied under a Nobel Prize winner. He helped build an X-ray observational satellite for NASA, co-founded and led as CEO or COO several ventures, and holds six patents.
He earned praise as “Best and Brightest” (Esquire Magazine’s Genius Issue), “Astrophysicist turned new media whiz” (NBC), and “Rocket Scientist” (ABC News and Forbes) and has been quoted and profiled by ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has visited North Korea twice, swam across the Hudson River, and has done burpees every day for six years and counting. He lives in Greenwich Village and blogs daily at www.joshuaspodek.com.
- Josh’s history
- Chris Lehmann, founder of Science Leadership Academy.
- educon
- How you learn is as important as what you learn
- Realized the lectures he prepared weren’t as effective as he wanted.
- KIBSD High School Team Challenge
- How his graduate level courses work.
- Don’t give lectures on leadership, give experiences to help people learn what they need to learn.
- Understanding yourself
- Leading yourself
- Understanding others
- Leading others
- Think of a project that has some deliverable that you care about the outcome, tell what success means.
- Three raisins exercise: eat the raisins completely mindfully.
- People know when you’re not paying attention.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Adam Beauchamp (Twitter) is the principal at Waller Middle School in Edin OK.
- Rotations on Priority
- If a student has better reading skills, they will have a better time in class.
- 90 students that need reading support. 6 week study group.
- Have it flexible enough for kids to come and go.
- Were rotating every 2 days, and then ended up on 1 week.
- How to deal with detractors within the building.
- How to be a transformative principal? Don’t be the one with all the ideas, be the first follower.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Adam Beauchamp (Twitter) is the principal at Waller Middle School in Edin OK.
- Interview on Principal Matters
Solution Tree PLC institutes for professional development.
- How to offer students on-time intervention.
- Don’t wait for next year.
- 30 minute time block.
- All school assembly
- google docs
- 1:1 this semester
- Teachers get to pick which kids they are working with.
- Small group, computer-based, and enrichment.
- How to change schedule mid-year
- Through the PLC process, we found ways to make sure we helped everyone
- Didn’t service the kids who were “getting it” in the beginning.
- 12 different options for kids who are on track.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jessica Lahey (Twitter) is the author of “The Gift of Failure” and writes for The Atlantic and the New York Times, and other publications. Here are a bunch of other great books she recommends.
- Addressing effort
- Oversimplification of Carol Dweck’s work.
- Failure isn’t important, but what the person learns is important.
- Teach kids to be more patient with their own frustration.
- Make it Stick book
- Give honest feedback
- Feedback needs to be relevant
- Transparency and honesty with kids
- Goals are important
- Adapt by Tim Harford
- How to be a transformative Principal? Show respect for the growth your teachers are trying to make.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Jessica Lahey (Twitter) is the author of “The Gift of Failure” and writes for The Atlantic and the New York Times, and other publications. Here are a bunch of other great books she recommends.
- Drug and alcohol rehab teacher.
- The things that work for well-behaved kids are what is needed for kids that are really struggling.
- Autonomy and competence
- Connection is the most important part.
- Make what we’re teaching relevant to them.
- The role of touch in the classroom.
- The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch
- Student questions that needed to be answered.
- False sense of investment in sports or activities.
- Malleable brains allow kids to learn quickly.
- Standards-based grading
- Formative until I put it in the gradebook.
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Karine Veldhoen, M. Ed. is the founder of Learn Forward and a creative force in education. She’s also the Chief Learning Officer at Willowstone Academy, the CEO/Founder of Niteo Africa, a former Education Consultant for Fresh Grade and a modern day pilgrim.
Learn Forward represents a lifetime of her professional study, action research, and meaning-making within the context of education. Driven by her passion for making a difference in the lives of others, Karine’s been exploring the most important journeys of children through serving as the Chief Learning Officer at Willowstone Academy for the last 10 years and as an educator for over 20 years. In her talks about the transformation of education, she emphasizes the importance of cultivating a connection between school and home and uses the Table of Learning as a metaphor for where we can begin. Twitter @Learn_forward
- What do children need universally?
- The need is endless. Human need is endless.
- Matching our greatest gift to fulfilling the human need.
- Refined self-care.
- Sustainability.
- Design a self-care plan.
- Using design-thinking process.
- Designing for thriving.
- Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly practices
- Success of morning routine depends on setting yourself up for success the night before.
- It’s not perfect, sometimes nights are rough.
- When it does work well, it is awesome.
- If you have a spouse, take time each
- Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
- GTD by David Allen.
- Review days on Friday.
- Review upcoming dates for the week on Friday.
- Teachers are doing the heroic work, leave on Friday and go home and rest.
- Empowering our team of teachers in their work is incredibly important.
- They need information and communication to do that well.
- Monthly routines reflect on what goals were achieved.
- The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran
- Michael Hyatt’s Free to Focus Course
- Visioning Retreat yearly with spouse - Nest Building for Parents
- How to be a Transformative Principal? WIN: do What’s Important Now!
Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!
Join my group coaching program
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Don Wettrick is a teacher in Noblesville, Indiana and founder of StartEdUp Innovation. He can be found on Twitter at @donwettrick, and his podcast on iTunes He is the author of “Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level”
- How to make standards real.
- Begin in Elementary school
- 2 negatives to this
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- Grades go down in other classes!
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- Kids can get full of themselves.
- Pockets of teachers vs. teachers being innovative vs. principals being innovative.
- How to get leaders to buy in.
- We need to push out the awesome things that we are doing in our schools.
- Is 20% time enough time?
- Imagination, Creativity, Innovation, Entrepreneurship.
- How to be a transformative principal? Go to people and say do something amazing.
- It gets worse before it gets better!
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Don Wettrick is a teacher in Noblesville, Indiana and founder of StartEdUp Innovation. He can be found on Twitter at @donwettrick, and his podcast on iTunes He is the author of “Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level”
- Innovation class, teaching kids to innovate
- Daniel Pink’s innovation time Ted Talk.
- Pure Genius Book
- Why can’t my child have this class?
- 20% time for ourselves.
- How to think like a startup/entrepreneur.
- Mindset Course
- We like to complain about things.
- How do we change things?
- It is easier to complain than to do hard things.
- Collect and Connect
- ROTH IRA
- Deliberately take social media seriously.
- Rule of thirds (1/3 personal interest, 1/3 skill acquisition, 1/3 benefit to others)
- Innovation is an idea.
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Zaretta Hammond is the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.
- Second phase - building capacity of teachers.
- Learning partnerships.
- We can’t learn when we don’t trust.
- How to quickly build trust through trust generators.
- Selective vulnerability.
- Social pain and physical pain are equal as far as the brain is concerned.
- Power of acknowledging students out in the community.
- Culturally responsive teaching isn’t about just relationships.
- We have the relationship so the teacher can push when the learning gets hard.
- 4 cultural learning tools.
- Understand there is a common thread through most cultures - collectivism.
- Individualism vs. Collectivism - figuring out a problem together.
- This is not a subject area you need to tackle, but something that you need to bring into the meeting.
- World cafe - strategy for teacher discussion.
- How to be a transformative principal? Facilitative leadership. How do you create an agenda that is equity focused?
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Zaretta Hammond is the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. You can find her on the web at Ready4rigor.com and on Twitter at @ready4rigor
- Culturally responsive teaching is seen as classroom management or one-off - both of these are wrong. It is really about learning.
- Dependent vs. Independent learners
- Brains aren’t any different, but the system is stacked against them.
- It’s about getting students to take control of their own learning.
- Once learning is relevant, then students can be engaged.
- Multi-cultural education vs. culturally responsive education.
- Where to start (Thanks to @feedurmind_read) in culturally responsive teaching.
- Leader to create the conversation to talk about our students.
- Counter-narratives - acknowledge the dominant narratives. Not about preaching from the leader.
- Trust undermines culturally responsive teaching.
- Here’s the three things we believe about our X students.
- What’s being said in the media about those students?
- Teachers are mirroring what they are seeing in the media.
- Starts with relational trust and creating counter-narratives.
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Dr. Stephen Sroka (Twitter grew up in poverty and is now an educator and keynote speaker. Be sure to check out his great YouTube page.
- Drugs and alcohol exposure to kids.
- Perceived risk of harm is minimized because of decriminalization.
- Addiction rate doubles when kids use marijuana and alcohol in high school or before.
- The reality is that you don’t know if it is a gateway drug.
- Marijuana is not good for the adolescent brain.
- If you get addicted to opiates in high school, you will likely relapse.
- Focus on coping skills to help them deal with life.
- Give kids options. What do you want to get high on?
- Trauma-informed strategies for students.
- Predictors of success: when every staff member learns every student’s name.
- If you don’t have relationships, kids won’t trust you and kids won’t do what you ask.
- What can we do to be a transformative Principal? Know kids by name. Honest, humor, hope. Look and Listen. Smile and Say Hi to everyone.
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Dr. Stephen Sroka (Twitter grew up in poverty and is now an educator and keynote speaker. Be sure to check out his great YouTube page.
- Steve describes his life growing up and the challenges he faced.
- Overcoming welfare to become a chemist and eventually a teacher.
- The Gift in a Toxic Society - the perfect gift you can give this year. PDF format.
- Dear …, I don’t want to die, but if I do, I want you to know that…. Tell that person what they mean to you.
- It will change the person you love for life.
- It matters because you put everything you have into it.
- Write the gift now because you don’t know when you won’t have a chance.
- The Power of One Speaker
- That time when Steve died.
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Christopher Kai (Twitter) has given over 1,000 speeches or workshops to a global audience from more than 30 countries. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies like American Express, New York Life, and Microsoft and notable non-profits like the Milken Family Foundation. Christopher has spoken alongside some of the most prominent global business leaders like Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s founder Nolan Bushnell, MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. His keynote experiences have been described as “life-changing,” “absolutely amazing” and a “breath of fresh air” because he consistently delivers actionable ideas and strategies based on research and experience all wrapped up in inspiring and insightful stories. Christopher also has an uncanny ability to customize his speeches for each of his unique clients.
Here he talks about how to create unique and powerful relationships with those you meet.
Derek Rhodenizer (Twitter Web site) is a principal in Ottawa Canada. He is also the host of the eduthoughts podcast.
- Whiteboard by the table
- Legowall 4’x3’ the video
- Modeling as administrators.
- Giving ownership of the office to other people models giving ownership of the classroom to the students.
- Audio/visual recording studio.
- Weekly updates, drawing
- Teaching parents to read with their kids.
- Empower parents to ask questions.
- Sometimes you have to jump and start building your wings on the way down.
- Start small.
- What am I good at? Start there.
- What can you do to be a transformative principal? Go into the hallway and give kids high fives! You don’t need a reason to give a high five!
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This is a short episode where I talk about how I made the year 2016 as amazing as possible. If you want to make 2017 your best year ever, sign up for Michael Hyatt's program here.
Derek Rhodenizer (Twitter Web site) is a principal in Ottawa Canada. He is also the host of the eduthoughts podcast.
- Principal’s office as a learning space.
- The Third Teacher book about learning spaces.
- Why the principal’s office is a learning space.
- Another tool that a teacher can use.
- Constructive rather than negative.
- Permanent audio/visual recording learning space.
- Whiteboard by the table
- Legowall 4’x3’ the video
- Modeling as administrators.
- Giving ownership of the office to other people models giving ownership of the classroom to the students.
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Dana Evans Twitter is the principal of Barnette Magnet School in Fairbanks, AK.
- Students sign up for dance, tai kwon doe and other physical activities throughout the week.
- Friday in Fairbanks activity. See a schedule here
- extra prep time for teachers on Friday.
- How to schedule things for Fairbanks.
- Excursions cost about 20,000 a year.
- Go with the flow is a very important characteristic to have for teachers and students.
- Students with disabilities are thriving in this environment.
- Could this work at a typical school?
- How we could change the typical school to meet individual student needs?
- Core is grade specific.
- Start small with afternoon science and a couple
- How to be a transformative principal? Think of the possibilities.
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Dana Evans Twitter is the principal of Barnette Magnet School in Fairbanks, AK.
- 3 hours of uninterrupted core math and ELA.
- explorations in the afternoon.
- Science, social studies, math, spanish, technology fine arts, extended learning program, etc.
- Explorations Class Catalog
- Explorations classes are 9 weeks for three each. Some are year long, some are semester long.
- Student choice enhances student engagement.
- Relationships deepen because of looping.
- Afternoon can be something that students really engage in because they choose it.
- Magnet school using the same
- Magnet is the explorations that bring students and families to the school.
- Lottery system to determine who goes to Barnette.
- Envision Math and GoMath.
- Explorations are multi-age in bands.
- Science and social studies checklists to make sure they get what they need.
- 416 students, 20 part time students. Have an additional secretary who does all the scheduling.
- How to deal with endorsements for teachers teaching explorations.
- How to deal with contractural obligations like prep time.
- How are class sizes affected by this schedule?
- Students each lunch in their rooms.
- Each teacher has 2 explorations to teach in the afternoon.
- Class sizes are 20–25 for core classes. Class sizes are a little smaller in explorations
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James Sturtevant (Twitter @jamessturtevant Website) is an obscure social studies teacher from Central Ohio who is in his 32nd year.
- Storytelling, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.
- Empower the kids to find the stories.
- Fireplace app Chromebooks iOS.
- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.
- Delivering content in a flipped manner.
- The benefits of flipping your classroom.
- How to be a transformative leader? Check your ego.
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Jimmy Casas Twitter is in his 22nd year of administrative leadership. He received his BA in Spanish and Master’s in Teaching from the University of Iowa and his Master’s in Administrative Leadership from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee. Jimmy is currently working on his ED.S and serves as an adjunct professor for Drake University, teaching a graduate course on Educational Leadership. Jimmy has served as principal at Bettendorf High School in Bettendorf, Iowa for the last 14 years. Jimmy’s core purpose lies in serving others. He was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as one of three finalists for NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. In 2015, he was named the Bammy National Principal of the Year. Jimmy is the Co-Founder of EdCampIowa and also the Co-Founder of #IAedchat, a popular online chat that takes place every Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. CST. Finally, Jimmy is the co-author of a book with Todd Whitaker and Jeff Zoul entitled, “What Connected Educators Do Differently.”
- What Great Educators Do Differently conference
- Leadership is lonely, but doesn’t have to be as lonely.
- Why it is meaningful to bring experts in to help us learn.
- How to create a network of excellence.
- How to create a mindset of excellence.
- How vulnerability impacts school leaders.
- People who take their jobs seriously want good things to happen for others.
- Surround yourself with excellence.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- How pride can be a benefit and a detriment
- How to define a problem clearly.
- When you surround yourself with a team, others will be there to protect and support you.
- Why it is important to make those who lead you look good.
- People who do good things, good things come back to them.
- Never blame someone above you for a decision made.
- Take on the hard issues privately.
- Your personal excellence starts over today. Your personal excellence starts over today with Jimmy Casas Transformative Principal special
- How to be a transformative principal? Spend time with kids, relationships matter, know peoples’ story.
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James Sturtevant (Twitter @jamessturtevant Website) is an obscure social studies teacher from Central Ohio who is in his 32nd year.
- Hacking Engagement Book and Podcast
- Need to make engagement a priority.
- It doesn’t matter how important or cool your topic is if the kids aren’t engaged.
- A lot of people confuse engagement with compliance.
- Grab your students by the virtual lapels
- Tackle problem of engagement on three fronts: technology, teacher strategies, and relationships.
- Talking for more than 10 minutes is not going to work!
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Michael Fenton is the Lead Instructional Designer at Desmos. Check out learn.desmos.com.
- Bundles vs. one-off activities.
- Progression of units for teacher use.
- View of assessments.
- Using Desmos for testing
- Interview with Carl Hooker
- Challenges with using Desmos.
- Nature of assessments and challenging the status quo.
- How can teachers get started right now?
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Michael Fenton is the Lead Instructional Designer at Desmos. Check out learn.desmos.com.
- Activity Builder
- How Michael got connected with Desmos.
- How Desmos is different from a typical math site.
- Arguments are more fun when there are people in the room.
- Desmos Guide to Building Great (Digital) Math Activities (Dan Meyer’s Blog)
- It’s about generating interesting discussions in class.
- How long should activities in class be?
- What makes a good activity? Desmos Blog.
- WOSS (What Other Students Said), Pausing, & Anonymizing names to allow kids to focus on
- How to get the conversation out of the machine and into the room.
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Ginger Lewman is a keynoter and consultant in Kansas. Purchase her book about life-practice learning here.
- Launch - how to set up PBL to be engaging.
- How to deal with having learning goals posted when
- The essential question to ask when starting Project Based Learning activities.
- Culture of schools - we unintentionally group kids to create bullies.
- Three ways to think about grouping.
- Ability, interest, readiness
- Good group-workers and bad group-workers
- 3 people in a group is optimal.
- How to deal with friends in groups.
- How to be a transformative principal? Know why you want to do it.
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Ginger Lewman is a keynoter and consultant in Kansas.
- The power of connecting with others
- Campaign Trail Collaboration
- These are the projects that we can do.
- Lessons for Life Practice Learning <-Amazon link ESSDACK Link
- What are the important elements of project-based learning?
- Questions to ask as you start doing PBL.
- Optimal Ambiguity - how to create an environment where kids want to make sense of their situation.
- Be OK with every kid not being exactly the same.
- Launch
- Groupings
- High expectations
- Presentation
- Preparing for PBL
- Launch - how to set up PBL to be engaging.
- How to deal with having learning goals posted when
- The essential question to ask when starting Project Based Learning activities.
- Culture of schools - we unintentionally group kids to create bullies.
- Three ways to think about grouping.
- Ability, interest, readiness
- Good group-workers and bad group-workers
- 3 people in a group is optimal.
- How to deal with friends in groups.
- How to be a transformative principal? Know why you want to do it.
Take the Fall Listener Survey
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Randy Sprick is an educational consultant and trainer in Eugene Oregon. He helps teachers, principals, and other staff set up schools that encourage student responsibility and motivation, and help students learn to behave in appropriate ways. He wrote the book CHAMPS and has lead numerous workshops, trainings, conferences, and much more.
- Safe and Civil Schools background
- CHAMPS
- Attendance ideas
- Top 3 musts for creating a safe school environment.
- Systematic and planful supervision of the entire school.
- If we don’t have enough adults in the halls, bullying is taking place.
- Why you want all staff present and interacting with kids.
- Presence of people in authority assists people in obeying the rules.
- Adults who are actively creating a positive school climate.
- The climate of the school is the daily behavior of the adults in the school.
- 5–10 adults who say hello to kids on the way to classroom.
- High expectations that are clearly communicated to kids and overtly taught and consistently enforced.
- Any infraction “please honor our school’s policy on ______”.
- Communication Cards
- Attributes of safe and unsafe school
- How to deal with toxic teachers?
- Messaging needs to come not just from administrators, but also teachers.
- The Checklist Manifesto - the book from which Randy’s reminders about doctor’s washing hands come.
- It is not the peer’s responsibility to call out their peers.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
- The Diffusion of Innovations
- Link for meeting peoples’ basic needs webinar
- Communication Cards
- What can a principal do to be a transformative principal? Be more visible.
- Safeandcivilschools.com
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Randy Sprick is an educational consultant and trainer in Eugene Oregon. He helps teachers, principals, and other staff set up schools that encourage student responsibility and motivation, and help students learn to behave in appropriate ways. He wrote the book CHAMPS and has lead numerous workshops, trainings, conferences, and much more.
- Safe and Civil Schools background
- CHAMPS
- Attendance ideas
- Top 3 musts for creating a safe school environment.
- Systematic and planful supervision of the entire school.
- If we don’t have enough adults in the halls, bullying is taking place.
- Why you want all staff present and interacting with kids.
- Presence of people in authority assists people in obeying the rules.
- Adults who are actively creating a positive school climate.
- The climate of the school is the daily behavior of the adults in the school.
- 5–10 adults who say hello to kids on the way to classroom.
- High expectations that are clearly communicated to kids and overtly taught and consistently enforced.
- Any infraction “please honor our school’s policy on ______”.
- Communication Cards
- Attributes of safe and unsafe school
- How to deal with toxic teachers?
- Messaging needs to come not just from administrators, but also teachers.
- The Checklist Manifesto - the book from which Randy’s reminders about doctor’s washing hands come.
- It is not the peer’s responsibility to call out their peers.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
- The Diffusion of Innovations
- Link for meeting peoples’ basic needs webinar
- Communication Cards
- What can a principal do to be a transformative principal? Be more visible.
- Safeandcivilschools.com
Take the Fall Listener Survey
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Mark Cheverton Twitter is an author, teacher, and physicist.
- Why self-publish.
- Building self-confidence.
- Easy to do and very cheap.
- How to be a better writer.
- How to not get in trouble for infringing on trademarks and copyright.
- Minecraft for Teachers
- Spilling Ink - how to write for kids.
- Wattpad - start publishing your writing.
- NaNoWriMo - Structure to the writing time.
- How to be a transformative principal: give kids a place to write about what they want to write about. Being the content expert makes it easier to write.
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Mark Cheverton Twitter is an author, teacher, and physicist.
- Nerdy writing stuff.
- How to be an author.
- The process of writing a book.
- Story Engineering <-amazon link
- Scrivener
- Starting writing projects with Excel
- Different kinds of writers: Plotters and Pantsers
- 7 main scenes in a story
- Hook
- Plot point
- Pinch point
- Midpoint
- Pinch point
- Plot point
- Resolution
- How Mark came to write about Minecraft
- Why the books have some valuable message in them.
- What teachers can get from Mark’s web site.
- Stories that kids shared.
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In this episode, I talk about how I ran building inservice.
Here are a couple links mentioned in this podcast.
Buy the Transformative Leadership Summit
Hacking Relevance with Dennis Sheerin
Happy People are More Magnetic with Michael Hyatt
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Today, I talk again with Jon Laffoon about the big changes you can make in a school and how to make them.
This was part of the Transformative Leadership Summit, which if you didn't get, it's not too late. Over 40 amazing educational leaders came together to teach you how to be an awesome leader. The Summit is over, but you can still get access by buying the All Access Pass.
Listen as I reflect on the Transformative Leadership Summit, which ends August 15, 2016. This is in my mastermind, which you can contact me about joining.
It's not too late to catch some awesome videos. You can even get the All Access Pass.
This episode is the Live Q&A that Daniel and I did for the Transformative Leadership Summit this week. I hope you enjoy it.
The Transformative Leadership Summit launched last Monday. Please, join me! Click HERE to register for Free Access to over 40 amazing education leaders who are ready to make your school the best ever! You don’t want to miss any of these amazing interviews. They’ll be online for 48 hours only! Get in here!
You can even get college credit for your participation in the Summit!
Here's the schedule:
08/01/2016 Monday: Launch party, Will Parker, Brad Gustafson - Expired
08/02/2016 Tuesday: Kimberly Miles, Jeff Zoul, and Daniel Bauer - Expired
08/03/2016 Wednesday: Kendra Washington-Bass, Kyle Palmer, Robert Dillon - Expired
08/04/2016 Thursday: Live Q&A, Jennifer Abrams, Jonathon Wennstrom - Expired
08/05/2016 Friday: Amy Fast, Jethro Jones, Glenn Robbins - Expired
08/06/2016 Saturday: Geri Parscale, Anne Beninghof, Mike Kelly
08/07/2016 Sunday: Bill Ziegler, Clayton Reedie, Vicki Davis
08/08/2016 Monday: Mary McMahon, Doug Timm, Mark Modesti
08/09/2016 Tuesday: Justin Baeder, Neil Gupta, Mike Anderson
08/10/2016 Wednesday: Don Wettrick, Emily Drake, Damon Hargraves
08/11/2016 Thursday: Jen Gonzalez, Eric Connor, Paul Erickson
08/12/2016 Friday: Rob Carroll and Stacey Keown, Erika Mortensen and Christina Lufrano and Rosa Isiah
08/13/2016 Saturday: LaVonna Roth, Marlena Gross-Taylor and a surprise guest!
08/14/2016 Sunday: John Linney, Sean Gaillard and one other surprise guest to close out the conference!
08/15/2016 Closing Keynote with Jethro and Daniel
This Summit is EPIC! Sign up today!
TOMORROW! The Transformative Leadership Summit launches. Please, join me! Click HERE to register for Free Access to over 40 amazing education leaders who are ready to make your school the best ever! You don't want to miss any of these amazing interviews. They'll be online for 48 hours only! Get in here!
Rachel Yanof started the Phoenix Collegiate Academy with the express intent to get all the students to college. I hope you enjoy this interview, as I sure did.
- Set a huge goal so failure was not an option.
- The huge goal supported the day-to-day decisions.
- Pushed ourselves to see if we are on track.
- AP classes as freshman.
- Small School - individualized and small group instruction.
- Only inviting kids to Saturday school and after school who needed the specific skills.
- More time - 1 hour in school longer - if used well, can be a huge benefit for the students.
- NWEA MAP Assessment - research into college preparedness.
- 75th percentile is the goal.
- Saturday school - get as specific as possible while still managing numbers.
- Does cost extra money - spend the resources to make the maximum impact on our students.
- We know we need to offer X, we have the means to offer Y.
- Governing board sponsors teacher appreciation each month.
- Finding other ways to show teachers you appreciate them.
- Videos of kids thanking their teachers.
- Pay-for-performance fund
- Is this scalable?
- Haven’t figured out the challenge of hiring on mission in a larger setting.
- How to be a transformative principal? Find that thing that you’re willing to live and die for and then tell everyone!
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In just one week, the biggest and best leadership conference for educational leaders starts! Please join me to hear from over 30 experts in leadership and education as we set the stage for our best school year ever! CLICK HERE to sign up.
Rachel Yanof started the Phoenix Collegiate Academy with the express intent to get all the students to college. I hope you enjoy this interview, as I sure did.
- First time I confronted the idea that kids could go to a college or not.
- Trusting the system could make it so the kids don’t get what they need.
- Building Excellent Schools
- 97% receiving free and reduced lunch. 90%+ minority
- Find families through being in their area
- Every parent has dreams for their child.
- Homework
- Overcommunicate
- Parents need to be involved in education, active participant.
- Mandatory parent orientation, come to us or we will come to you because it is that important that you are part of the team.
- Homework is assigned every night.
- Not a secret what is happening in school.
- Perseverance, respect, integrity, discipline, endurance. PRIDE Report - Tracking positive and negative consequences at school.
- Parents come in every quarter for conferences. 100% participation in conferences.
- Flipped model in the high school.
- Communication-focus in lower grades.
Don't forget to sign up for the Transformative Leadership Summit which starts in just one week! Don't miss any of the awesome presenters including LaVonna Roth, Jennifer Abrams, Neil Gupta, Glenn Robbins, Vicki Davis, and many more! CLICK HERE to sign up!
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JOIN the #1 online conference for Educational Leadership: Transformative Leadership Summit. Join now for free access to over 40 educational leaders expert interviews!
Assistant Principal Dr. Amy Fast explores the responsibility of our schools to focus on the mission, not the mandates.
- Microbehaviors
- Google Forms 6–8 questions
- Created statements based on national student Gallup poll
- hopeful
- teachers care
- connection to one staff member
- have friends
- I feel like I matter
- have you ever experienced discrimination?
- Would you report something bad that happened?
- Big changes around professional development
- what we do in schools has a lot more to do with mindset rather than skill set
- Simple ideas are the most profound
- Exit slips from teachers were more personal approaches
- Changing teachers’ mindsets
- What’s best for students is what’s best for teachers
- Collaboration
- How to be a transformative Principal? Teachers need to feel like they matter and feel hopeful about their future. Give staff a voice and let them know on a daily basis how much they matter. Let’s not fill their cups because they need to be there for kids, but because they are human.
- fastcranny@gmail.com @fastcranny
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Join the #1 online conference for educational leaders: Limited Free Admission - Transformative Leadership Summit
Assistant Principal Dr. Amy Fast explores the responsibility of our schools to focus on the mission, not the mandates.
- Educators are humanitarians at heart
- NCLB made me a better teacher, but it got warped
- Focus vs. tunnel vision
- Venn diagram of academic achievement, soft skills, and internal drive
- Need everyone in schools to bring their A game every single day!
- Need to measure every single circle
- What we test gets taught
- How do we measure that success?
- Soft skills - measured through observation, should be part of curriculum.
- Measuring motivation - identify the constructs of motivation: purpose, autonomy, choice, rigor
- Student survey via google forms
- Want to know more about you than just your test scores
- Staff didn’t know them as individuals.
- Non-anonymous survey. Coded the data
- Created a high flyer list of kids who didn’t have a high connection to the school. 100 kids who were the most disconnected.
- Hard to measure the intangibles? Just ask the kids!
- Measuring the right things
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Yes, that Seth Godin! What an amazing opportunity to interview Seth on the podcast. He was so very generous with his time. I asked him questions like the following:
How do you teach kids to connect the dots?
Failure freezes. How do you make failing safe?
Can everyone succeed being independent?
How can the little guy compete with someone like Walmart?
How do you help teachers not want to be competent anymore?
How do you measure the experience? How do you know if has been successful?
If we give kids the ability to dream, they’ll figure out the grammar and history the minute it helps them reach their dreams.
Also, please be sure to sign up for the Transformative Leadership Summit to learn from some of the greatest minds in education today!
How to make a ruckus in a highly bureaucratic, slow moving monstrosity that is education.
- Has anyone done something that others were delighted by?
- We’ve all been impacted by teachers who made a difference.
- It is a mistake to first look at gravity if you are a beginning runner.
- Brooke Jackson the Lab School NY
- Show up with a different agenda
- Already voted
- If this were easy, everyone would be doing it.
- Afraid of being called out by our hubris, getting in trouble with the bureaucracy.
- Going outside the box
- When we get true enrollment from the students.
- 10% where we can have non-factory time.
- What enrollment means.
- What did the student and parents sign up for?
- How to learn about Baseball
- The lesson plan
- What’s your attitude?
- Interesting is more important than right.
- Why memorize nothing?
- We don’t need people to memorize recipes.
- Sarah Kay poetry - no right answer for your poetry.
- Competence is overrated.
- Write books not read them.
- What if they don’t learn the grammar that way? That happens to people who don’t have sufficient dreams.
- Easy to retreat back to the safe place.
- Seeking reassurance.
- The only thing I’m trying to sell teachers is to challenge teachers to explore.
- How do we protect against failure?
- Why is doing more what we’ve doing any better?
- People want to do things that matter.
- People tend to feel cheated.
- Better to be a musician than an instrument player.
- It’s possible because we graduate kids who are better off.
- Stated goals are wrong.
- All schooling is home schooling. Schools must encourage and amplify the parents.
- Kids teach their parents about what matters today.
- Parents think the most important thing they can do is help kids be good at sports.
- Jim engages with kids, their graduation chance improves by a factor of five!
- How to be a transformative principal - recognize the heroes! Catch people doing something right
- How to help kids solve interesting problems in that system.
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Scott Beebe is the founder of My Business on Purpose where he teaches business leaders to be be successful. He also teaches families how to create a family vision mission and value at Create a Family Vision.
- Standard Core Values - Respect, honesty, integrity, etc.
- What are your unique core values? Top 10 words that describe you well. Three, four, or five key words.
- You want people to ask you that question about what your core values means.
- Run every decision through the filtration of core values.
- Core values are the curbs on the side of the road to get to your destination.
- Transference of knowledge,
- Systems - Free the leader up to not be the technician anymore.
- Hub for communication for all of the stuff you’re doing.
- Weekly meeting.
- How to find time?
- Block off time to work on vision.
- Bring somebody in to walk you through the process.
- How to be a transformative Principal? 1. Block out time and ask what we will look like in 3–5 years. 2. Decide if you really want to do this, recognize that something will change.
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Scott Beebe is the founder of My Business on Purpose where he teaches business leaders to be be successful. He also teaches families how to create a family vision mission and value at Create a Family Vision.
- Being a pastor is like being a leader anywhere else.
- We want to change their hearts.
- What are those things?
- Vision Story - Vision statement is pretty pointless. Vision story is what is exciting.
- It’s ok for people to not be into the vision.
- Hiring. Need to give them the vision. Not hiring on a whim.
- Shareholder letter from Jeff Bezos
- Mission Statement - Not some catchy thing that sounds good.
- Highlight key action words in vision story. The mission statement is what drives you to get out of bed. It is the vision story in summary.
- Unique to who you are.
- 15 words max, memorizable.
- What is unique about your school? Use that to your advantage.
- What do we want our family to look like in 5–10 years? That will affect what our school looks like.
- What do we want our students to look like 28 years from now?
- “We exist to…” Mission statement
- “I see…” Vision story
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In this episode this week, we are listening to some principals share their core values as a result of what they did as an activity as part of "The Principal 50" book club. I hope you enjoy it.
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Today I am honored to interview Kimberly Miles about our Mastermind Group. If you're interested in the Mastermind, please visit http://transformativeprincipal.org/mastermind to set up a call with me to join the mastermind.
- Narrow my focus to prioritize what I value and what is most
- Hold myself accountable
- Bounce ideas off like-colleagues
- Reflective
- Recommend it for those who are looking to refine your practice.
- Do your work at a more effective level.
- Narrow down to your priorities.
- Worth the time and money because I am investing in myself. We serve others so much, and this allows me to focus on improving myself, too!
- Not just about hard data, but also about soft data. Stories that students bring with them are just as relevant.
- Strengths finder and helps me Look at areas I could refine or enhance.
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It's time to fill the Mastermind! I'm opening up some slots for the mastermind. Now's your chance to get in and experience what Terri has experienced. I can't wait for you to join! a href="https://calendly.com/jethro-jones/mastermind">So, click here to set up a call!
Terri Walker is the Principal of Buckland School in Buckland Alaska. She is also a member of the transformative mastermind. Today, she shares her experience in the mastermind.
- Felt stagnant after 25 years in education, thought about retiring.
- Mastermind was breath of fresh air.
- Goals help you focus on things that matter.
- Ability to talk about what matters to us, and how we can work together to solve them.
- It does take some out of my income but it is worth it.
- This is something I need right now. I need the motivation and support of the mastermind.
- I would encourage anyone old or new to seek [this mastermind] group and it would be beneficial.
If you’re thinking about joining the mastermind, click here to set up a call and let’s talk about getting you the support you need to be your best!
Livonia Michigan
Suburban district with 300 students, 16,000 in district
Pre-K–4th. 5 years, 21 years in 14 years as a principal
@jon_wennstrom
sparkoflearning.blogspot.com teacher blog
http://wennstromweekly.blogspot.com parent blog
- PBIS rules are umbrella for 7 habits of highly effective kids.
- Home grown project for 7 habits.
- District is very invested in character education.
- 8 character traits for entire district.
- Fundamental belief that character education is vital.
- Empowering students rather than engaging them - George Couros
- Not another thing on the plate, it is the plate.
- Building fundamental skills: collaboration, perseverance, grit, skills that will serve them in any location, any job, or any group of people they are with.
- Parent says “my child came home and my family needs to be more proactive.”
- Move beyond the vocabulary, but our words do count.
- What about parents being more responsible of teaching values and school teaching content?
- Public Service Announcements. Hearing is great, but seeing is even more powerful.
- PSAs are emailed out and other teachers create videos and share internally.
- Student-led announcements. Scripted for students.
- Quote of the week.
- What book they are currently reading.
- How to be a transformative principal? Read and connect!
- Most of my best ideas were not my ideas!
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Livonia Michigan
Suburban district with 300 students, 16,000 in district
Pre-K–4th. 5 years, 21 years in 14 years as a principal
@jon_wennstrom
sparkoflearning.blogspot.com teacher blog
http://wennstromweekly.blogspot.com parent blog
PBIS school, 7 Habits of highly effective students, Positive phone calls, student led announcements, PSAs. Class Dojo, 23% ELLs Wall feature.
- School-wide meetings.
- PBIS school.
- Monthly, student of the month meetings.
- Stephen Covey’s 7 habits
- 3 to be pledge, respectful, responsible, safe
- Poster contests for that
- 90–95% parent attendance rate for kids who are students of the month.
- Weekly meeting.
- Sunrise and sunset meetings.
- Goal: build community
- Sean Gallard #celebrateMonday meetings
- Doesn’t a weekly meeting take away a lot of instructional time?
- Increase time-on-task
- Support staff who help K students get ready.
- Videos for students, less than 3 minutes.
- Perseverance,
- Stephen Covey’s 7 habits for highly effective kids
- Art teacher creates a canvas to help students showcase their work.
- Importance of including parents.
- Positive phone calls on a daily basis.
- Class dojo process - classroom wall (like a Facebook wall).
- Parent program for Love and Logic.
- Process for parent phone calls.
- 66 day challenge
- Youth making a difference
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Participate.com use it for chats–it works really well.
Check out this cool minute-long video about how it works. View a longer webinar about participate learning.
- Everything in there is based on conversations that Brad has with users.
- Chats are great, but how do you pay attention to everything that you learned from it?
- Calendar of chats
- Create collections from chats in the time period.
- Create collections and share with others.
- Schools and district hashtags can be involved in this as well to share their resources.
- Participate as a social network.
- How to be a transformative Principal: Have a growth mindset and empower everyone in your building.
- @participatelearn brad@participate.com @spirrison
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This is part 2 of my interview with Susie Wise. Susie has had multiple incarnations at the d.school – teaching EX-Tools back in the trailer days, launching the K12 Lab in 2007 with the Nueva School Innovation Lab project, and jumpstarting Media Ops and Hootenanny design for the inauguration of Building 550 in 2008–2010. Back again in 2012 she is leading our efforts to support the movement bringing design thinking into K12 teaching and learning. Susie stumbled upon design thinking when she took a course with David Kelley in 2003 and the experience helped her make sense of the universe. Susie is motivated by the simple belief that humans are by nature designers. Recently a design strategist and innovation coach at Intuit, her practice centers on inspiring teams to use empathy to get to innovative outcomes. Susie has a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford’s School of Education and is a co-founder of Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland. She lives there with her husband and daughter (yes, the one in the movie Babies).
- Design thinking process
- New way to seek opportunities and problem solve.
- Traditional Analytic ways of thinking: see a problem, come up with ideas, do a lot of planning
- Empathize first, to see what they could see. Ask questions, immersion. Understand the space in a human centered way.
- Define the problem once you have empathy.
- Once you have framed what you’re going after, ideate.
- Ideation is about separating idea formation from selection. Yes and vs Yes but.
- Prototype - make bite-sized change.
- Test it out in small spaces to see if you are on the right track in a human-centered way.
- Do it rapidly. How quickly could you prototype and test your ideas?
- Mine the failures for learning.
- Questions to ask after empathy experience: Ask Why 5 times.
- It can be scary to ask Why.
- It is about people.
- Somebody pulls out or somebody pulls rank.
- Let’s run those prototypes.
- Bias towards action.
- Practice on hacking things that are not in school. Hack something in life.
- Breaking it down into the smallest possible size to get quick wins.
- Take on more complex tasks.
- How to be a transformative principal? 1. Shadow a student and 2. put yourself in a different position than you have been in.
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Susie Wise has had multiple incarnations at the d.school – teaching EX-Tools back in the trailer days, launching the K12 Lab in 2007 with the Nueva School Innovation Lab project, and jumpstarting Media Ops and Hootenanny design for the inauguration of Building 550 in 2008–2010. Back again in 2012 she is leading our efforts to support the movement bringing design thinking into K12 teaching and learning. Susie stumbled upon design thinking when she took a course with David Kelley in 2003 and the experience helped her make sense of the universe. Susie is motivated by the simple belief that humans are by nature designers. Recently a design strategist and innovation coach at Intuit, her practice centers on inspiring teams to use empathy to get to innovative outcomes. Susie has a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford’s School of Education and is a co-founder of Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland. She lives there with her husband and daughter (yes, the one in the movie Babies).
- Shadow a Student is a practice that is out there, but we wanted to make it a movement.
- Original idea
- Hack your school toward something deeper. Small scrappy experiment.
- How can you hack to something that is important.
- It’s not about a 3–5 year plan. It’s about something small.
- Something you can do right away.
- The big load that it takes to move from class to class.
- Not enough processing space in the day.
- Is the organization of the day really working for the kids?
- Is there time for Social Emotional Learning?
- Hacktivity mini course - bigger ideas from deeper learn.
- Choose a big idea
- Select a hack
- Take Hack-tion
- Jethro’s shadow experience
- Attack advisory time.
- every day for 5 or 10 days, you have a 3 minute conversation with that student.
- All students on a board, everyone puts a dot by kids’ names that have good relationships.
- Unwall your office.
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Jon Laffoon is the principal of Pea Ridge High School in Arkansas, where they are using a dynamic schedule called the flex mod schedule to allow time to serve students, rather than students serving time. It is pretty remarkable and impressive.
- Save $10,000 on paper because of 1:1
- Don’t hire substitutes
- Expectation is that teachers post everything to Google Classroom when they are absent.
- Subs are just babysitters
- Time serving students rather than students serving time.
- Redesign cafeteria to make it a modern space like a starbucks.
- Supervision of students.
- 3 Core Values: Leave no trace, be responsible, use time wisely
- Teach them personal responsibility.
- You have to take on a growth mindset to make changes.
- Students skipping a class still happens, but it has not increased, though the way to work with kids has helped.
- Phase Balance - can’t have every class meet 3 days (Phase 3) a week or every class meet 4 (Phase 4) days a week.
- Schools can come learn from PRHS. Conference in the summer.
- Office of Innovation for Education Summit
- 1:1 school, is that a requirement? No.
- No more textbooks.
- Google Classroom
- Schoology
- How to be a transformative Principal: Be student centered. Constantly assessing how we are doing. Build a team around you. Take ownership and pride in everything you do. Become connected. Find balance.
jlaffoon@prhs.k12.ak.us @laffoon_jon
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Jon Laffoon is the principal of Pea Ridge High School in Arkansas, where they are using a dynamic schedule called the flex mod schedule to allow time to serve students, rather than students serving time. It is pretty remarkable and impressive.
- Flex Mod schedule
- Form of a block schedule. Certain classes that might meet 4 days a week or 3 days a week.
- Videos explaining the schedule
- Empower the teachers - get them out of their silos
- The gray ILT times keep the classes from conflicting.
- The schedule to look at
- Independent learning time: with great power comes great responsibility.
- Designing a PE unit based on their fitness goals.
- 210 clock minutes whether you meet 3 days or 4 days a week.
- ILT time is class time.
- Many teachers have flipped their classes.
- 60% of students each year were going to a 2 year or 4 year institution. Only 25–30% of students were staying in school.
- SLT Structured Learning Time is some RTI time.
- 2000-student high school designed for the Flex Mod schedule.
- Teachers don’t teach in the same rooms every day.
- Teachers offices are moved to the big classrooms which have been converted to commons areas.
- Rotating schedule made it so we didn’t have to build more classrooms.
- River Bluff
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Ken Spero of @edleadershipsim seeks to help leaders develop their decision-making ability by running simulations of realistic situations.
- Experience is the best teacher
- What simulations in a box look like.
- Engage one’s own imagination
- Experiences of those who go through it.
- This is an experience to be able to talk about what you could do.
- Valuable and engaging.
- Stories engage people.
- Running simulations as part of assistant principal training.
- Analyze the thinking of your team.
- Janice Case
- Become a Patron
- Focus is on critical thinking and judgment.
- Experience can be about getting things wrong.
- How he creates sims.
- Alternate Reality (sims) vs. Alternative Reality (games).
- How to be a transformative principal: what experience do you need to have to learn and grow?
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Glenn Robbins (Twitter and Blog) is the 2016 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year.
- Duties of digital principal of the year.
- Things that were done to gain attention for this award.
- Idea Street
- Turtles in an aquarium in the school.
- Digital Shop.
- Design thinking.
- NCMS Innovates blog
- EdCamp Period. 5 days in a 45 minute period.
- We want to create designers.
- Using technology when appropriate.
- Design thinking and deprogramming them.
- The Extraordinaires Program
- It’s saying yes more than no.
- Responding to kids’ feedback.
- How to be a transformative principal? Be connected digitally and in person.
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Leyden East High School Principal Jason Markey, assistant principal Anita Huffman and principal-to-be-current-special-education-teacher Meaghan O’Neil join me to talk about the
- Assistant principal for Student Services - The importance of a title
- Breakfast with students to support the new students coming in.
- ACCESS Program - extra 25 minutes for freshman to help them get acclimated.
- Hand-schedule students with ACCESS teacher so they have a single adult to
- Learning2breathe study time for students to focus on mindfulness.
- Teaching the whole child.
- “Yes, And” thinking.
- Giving kids the time and space to be creative.
- Innovation incubator.
- Disengaging from PLCs to be in a new group focused on design thinking.
- Design thinking
- Trust and vulnerability is vital.
- It is an unknown.
- What can you do to be a transformative principal:
- Work to empathize more with our students and teachers
- #shadowastudent
- Have a PLN and connect with others to help reflect and continue to grow.
- Step out of your comfort zone and learn and grow.
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Today, Daniel Bauer and I talk about our Mastermind. I encourage you to join. Check it out here: Transformative Mastermind.
If you still have questions or are ready to join, please set up a brief phone call. Schedule a call
Daniel and I are both setting up masterminds. I interview him on his podcast: Better Leaders Better Schools
Mastermind For Principals
We all know that being a principal can be a lonely job. It is isolating to be the only one who has to deal with everything that goes on in your day-to-day life. Some of us have assistant principals, some of us have co principals, but each of us know that there are some things that are just hard to help other people understand what you’re going through.
Enter a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people who are dedicated to investing in themselves to improve their lives.
We all have social networks which help us in various ways. If you have been on Twitter, in Facebook groups, or Voxer groups, you know there can be an ebb and flow with the conversation and ability to help other people in the group. You know there are a lot of lurkers. You also know that sometimes your questions and needs don’t get answered. Sometimes you don’t even ask questions because you can’t articulate what the problem is without giving a big back story.
A mastermind is different. You commit to being there for yourself and for your teammates. You commit to answering their questions, to supporting them, and, most importantly, to investing in yourself to help you be the best you can be.
Schedule a call with me right now
The truth is, a mastermind isn’t for everybody. Answer the following questions and see if you might be one of the ten principals in the country that will be able to join this mastermind.
- Do you want your work and home life to be in balance?
- Do you want to lead with a new level of confidence and ability?
- Do you want to learn how to communicate with your teachers and students so they understand the vision you have?
- Do you want to learn how to work with other principals and leaders in your district to be on the same page, working towards the same mission?
- Do you want to be healthier?
- Do you want to have better relationships with those you love?
If you answered yes to the questions above, then let’s set up a call and talk further about the possibilities.
Click here to set up the call
What do you get as a member of the mastermind?
- Weekly meetings online to facilitate the mastermind.
- A group of principals that are willing to help you as you help them.
- A monthly leadership book club
- A DISC personality profile test to help you understand how you communicate, and help people communicate with you.
- Free access to events and trainings.
- Private Facebook group and Voxer group.
- A rotating weekly problem-solving session that allows you to go deep into the primary problem you are facing in your school.
- Specific curated podcast list of the best podcasts available.
- Celebrations of overcoming obstacles at your school with people who will understand the complexity of the obstacle.
- A time to reflect that will energize you for the next week to be your best.
- Lifelong relationships with other principals.
I hope you will join me, and take your leadership to a level you never could have imagined.
Click here to set up a call with me
If you are still not sure, please read through the frequently asked questions below and set up a call with me!
What is the time commitment?
We will meet each week online for about 60–90 minutes. These sessions will be jam packed with useful information, problem solving, and reflection.
Why does it cost money? I can join a Voxer group for free!
This is more than a Voxer group. This is a group of people, meeting regularly, to make sure that we are being the best we can be.
Simply put, if you don’t pay for it, you will likely get “too busy” and blow it off. When you invest an amount of money you are going to be more dedicated to it. Your level of commitment and dedication will be commensurate to the monetary value associated with it.
Your monetary investment in yourself shows that you are serious about learning and growing.
What if I don’t have the time for something like this?
Then it is not for you.
What if I don’t find it valuable?
If you’re not satisfied with it, you can call me and ask for a refund. I’ll ask for feedback about how to make it more meaningful, and happily refund your money.
What if I just want to listen and not participate?
The mastermind is for those who want to do. It won’t be as beneficial if you are on the sidelines. That being said, we won’t be forcing anyone to do anything. You will get out of this what you put into it.
A continuation of my discussion with Eric Heiser, Exectuve direction or Sturgis Public Charter school in Mass.
- Teachers go above and beyond often.
- Teachers who join us are into teaching students, not content.
- Students thrive on feedback, and if they feel they are going to get it, they are going to go to teachers for it more often.
- Teachers mindset has to be, I’m going to do everything I can to help kids be successful.
- How do you tease out that mindset?
- If I took over your class, and I had no clue about what you were teaching, what words and phrases would your students have about you? How does the teacher see their role and connection?
- Tell me something that went really well in the last week and why it went well.
- Tell me something that didn’t go well and why didn’t it?
- How did you choose your university? Tell me about your favorite class at university and why they were your favorite?
- How do you connect outside the classroom and why do you do that?
- Student discipline is not about the consequence, but it is about the opportunity to build a connection with the student after a situation and help the student see what they could have done.
- Should be about the student growing, not about consequences.
- Professional development focused on three areas: 1. Differentiation 2. Habits of mind 3. IB-specific training
- Helping all faculty integrate Theory of Knowledge questions.
- Preparing students well for assessments, but helping faculty collaborate daily.
- Guiding principle is helping each student maximize their potential.
- Recruited 5 people over the past month and a half who are the best.
- Build passion and enthusiasm in their class, because it is about student learning.
- We want every teacher to be at the top of their game every year.
- If you’re really really careful about who you hire, you can be successful.
- Tell faculty to recommend those who are great. Only recommend top 15%.
- We want our kids to experience a star, each and every day.
- Start with Why Simon Sinek TED Talk
- Don’t measure student success on a specific score on a specific assessment. It is different for each student.
- It’s not about a number, it is about them.
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Eric Heiser is the Exective Director of Sturgis Public Charter School in Massachusetts, where students have a 20% chance of getting in if you don’t have a sibling
- International Baccalaureate has programs from K–12 and early college.
- IB Diploma program the best preparation for College.
- IB Program is a whole conception of a program. Rigorous courses and also character building.
- Theory of knowledge, Creative action and service activities.
- Gain points for what they know, rather than losing points for what they don’t.
- Very few multiple choice tests in the assessments given.
- IB for All - no non-IB courses for grades 11 and 12. 9th and 10th grade IB Prep.
- Students challenge themselves, and grow into their commitment of becoming all they can be.
- Special Needs at Sturgis on the web site
- Guiding points on vision: 1. Help each student maximize their own individual potential. 2. Student learning is why we are here and should drive every decision we make.
- Moving away from the word teach and saying “How do we create learning?”
- 3 Rs - Rigor, Relevance, Relationships
- IB provides external accountability for Rigor.
- Help students see how what they are learning is relevant to their life.
- Relationships are enhanced with smaller numbers (2 campuses with 400 students each).
- School culture has a deep impact on the students’ learning.
- Don’t do ranking, valedictorians, etc. Want students to be their own personal best.
- To help students be successful, they need a lot of support, counseling, and care.
- Schools can unintentionally create systems and events that detract from student learning.
- Recruiting outstanding faculty is the most important thing I do.
- Relationship is the most important thing about school.
23"37’
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Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school.
- PLCs
- Leadership Team
- 25 minutes each week with principal discussing the instruction and learning.
- Instructional coach.
- Essential Questions
- Meet weekly as a team
- Sense of urgency is happening.
- PD for Leadership Team
- Smart professionals can choose their own tools for the job.
- Also more fun to let them experience their own success.
- New focus is seeing students
- Comprehensive needs assessments
- Students need shared ownership
- Specific feedback
- Universal screeners for our students, they showed they were really struggling.
- DIBELs gives an indicator
- Phonics Screener
- Still need to create common formative assessments to help students demonstrate proficiency.
- Consultants come in to work with team to facilitate the needed changes.
- How to facilitate difficult conversations.
- Strict schedule is needed.
- Really want to be a good listener as a leader.
- How to be a transformative principal: Ask
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I was so honored to chat with Todd Whitaker and Rick Wormeli after their keynote at the #nassp16 conference.
This was a really fun conversation today. These two guys were so excited about what they were talking about they just kept going. It was awesome.
- Professional Development.
- Twitter chats (Comprehensive list of Twitter Chats)
- Twitter is the best free professional development there is.
- Exposed to newer research-based information
- How sad that we use research as an excuse to not do something.
- The teachers is a ceaseless researcher in their classroom.
- When there is a great teacher, there is no research, because it has never been done.
- How to help your great teachers fly.
- How to help struggling teachers.
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Cory Doctorow is a Canadian journalist and science fiction author. Follow him on Twitter, Web site, BoingBoing
Cory spoke at ASTE this week, and I am excited to share the things I learned from him.
- Failing well
- We tend to ignore failing.
- What we should teach kids about technology
- Reidentification - people can figure out who you are.
- What we should teach kids
- Anonymity + distance = jerky behavior
- Should we be critical of the software and systems we use?
- Proprietary vs. open
- There’s never been a field or endeavor where scrutiny by your peers has not helped.
- Adversarial peer review.
- You can lock yourself into bad systems if you’re not careful.
- If 10% of a group got together and spent their money on developing open source software then they would produce something better that what is available.
- We did this at Kodiak Middle with our Pickr app
- Collective action threshold
- What is one thing that you can do to be a transformative principal? Got out of the students’ way. Employees were empowered to cost the company money if that made the experience better.
- His teacher let him read all day for two days.
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- National network of campus clubs for EFF. Email Shahid@eff.org for more information.
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Special Episode!
This weekend I am at the ASTE Conference, and I had the privilege of learning from Carl Hooker for a leadership workshop all day on Saturday. It’s always fun to learn from a great presenter, and Carl is one of those. Carl did a great job of engaging a bunch of administrators, helping us get our guard down, and making the conversation great.
Carl has been involved in education since graduating from the University of Texas in 1998. He has been in a variety of positions in both Austin ISD and Eanes ISD, from 1st grade teacher to Virtualization Coordinator. He’s a father of three girls, Sophia, Lauren, and Caroline and a wonderful, understanding wife Renee, all of which play a large role in any presentations he gives or blogs he writes.
Carl is the Director of Innovation & Digital Learning in the Eanes Independent School District. He is also the founder of the learning festival called iPadpalooza.
As Director, he utilizes his background in both education and technology to bring a unique vision to the district and its programs. During his time in the position, the district has jumped into social media, adopted the Google Apps for Education and started to build a paperless environment with Google Docs. He helped spearhead the LEAP (Learning and Engaging through Access and Personalization) which put 1:1 iPads into the hands of all K–12 students at Eanes.
See more at Mr. Hooker's Web Site!
- Director of Innovation
- How to engage people for professional development
- Building in reflection
- Brain Breaks Search on Twitter
- Would I want to be a learner in my own class?
- Reverse Charades
- Padlet
- Ben Breedlove Story
- Dropvox
- PechaFlickr - Powerpoint Karaoke - Here's what I did during this session: https://youtu.be/-smF0nG2KYk
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Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school.
- Turnaround principal.
- Everyone had the choice to leave or apply to stay.
- Looking for a willingness to do what works.
- How are we as a team going to fulfill that need for our kids?
- So much work to be done. Where would you start first for equitable student achievement?
- Are you willing to do the work?
- Building a culture of change. We GET to do this, and isn’t that exciting?
- As a leader, I go fast. Go slow to go fast.
- 3 things we did: 1. Culture change 2. Targeted Professional Development 3. Effective instruction
- Focus on literacy. How to teach the Big 5 in literacy.
- Grit and growth mindset.
- I can’t do it, yet.
- Feedback and trust are vital.
- Learning to trust each other and admit that I don’t know.
- Willingness to try something different.
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Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com.
- Less concerned about teachers communicating directly with parents. Not really a problem unless they are having a problem or argument.
- Need to have the mindfulness to step back and get someone else involved if there is a disagreement.
- General rule of thumb. No unmediated electronic communication between a teacher and a student.
- Digital communication inherently strips out that humanity, so why not have it mediated.
- Take whatever steps necessary to make it difficult to be found by your students.
- Make accounts as private as possible.
- Select different social media channels for different purposes.
- Difficult to pull things back once you put them out there.
- How to be a transformative principal: Communication is the key to all of this.
- Post unto others as you would be posted to.
- 1:1 education - when schools provide the technology, they need to play an aggressive and firm role in monitoring what kind of activity happens in school.
- The real problem is bypassing the schools network.
- Ongoing education, clear acceptable use policies, more education.
- Web site
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Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com.
- Cybertraps - problems that people have dealt with for many years
- Technology makes things easier.
- We don’t have a good clearinghouse across the country.
- Don’t need technology to be a predator.
- Slippery slope of boundary violations.
- Most common cybertraps: productivity within the school environment, oversharing of personal information, use of social media to start or engage in an inappropriate relationship.
- Digital technology has a leveling effect.
- Personal information about someone is not helpful in the education environment.
- You don’t need to share information with your students in order to have a relationship with them.
- Responsibility to educate students about technology.
- Idea that smartphones need to have a learner’s permit.
- Cell phones are the equivalent of high powered equipment that needs training and supervision.
- Kids are experts in the operation of technology.
- Our current adult generation was blindsided by the introduction of technology.
- Develop ways of thinking about this to fold new technology into appropriate social interactions.
- Web site
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Kara is an assistant principal at Edwin Lowe Elementary in New Town North Dakota.
- Her generation doesn’t feel that people are coming in to take away their culture.
- There’s nothing we can’t learn from each other.
- How to help kids choose to be in education: Be that outstanding teacher!
- Having authentic conversations.
- History of Indian Education in America.
- Boarding schools were opened up. Goal was to assimilate the natives.
- Have to be willing to learn to respect their culture.
- Pow-Wows are very vital.
- Community
- Being fair, being willing to learn from others.
- To help students, you need to have a good relationship.
- Pair people up with support staff.
- Providing resources for students as they are growing and developing.
- Mediators help bridge the gap.
- How paraprofessionals can help. They need lots of training.
- In the eyes of the student, there is not much difference between paraprofessionals and teachers.
- How to be a transformative principal: Maintain work-life balance, be authentic and have authentic conversations.
- Expect teachers to be accountable for their work.
- Twitter is a educational toolbox.
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Kara is an assistant principal at Edwin Lowe Elementary in New Town North Dakota.
- Grew up Cheyenne-Sioux South Dakota.
- Foster education.
- Emancipated as a young adult.
- Knew what it took to survive in life.
- Dropped out of High School.
- Started school again in her 20s.
- Life on the reservation due to socio-economic and other issues.
- She saw the world starting to pass her by.
- Writing a paragraph sounds so simple to most people, but it is very difficult if you haven’t done it in 14 years.
- Working on a Doctorate.
- So much to give back now to others.
- No student cannot succeed when they have the resources to be successful.
- Uncle was a good mentor.
- Making connections instructors.
- Not being afraid to ask questions that were on my mind.
- Most people want to help others.
- You have to be open to saying “I don’t know”
- You have to be reflective.
- Be reflective in your successes.
- Need to relax, slow down, and wait for things to happen.
- Felt drawn back to the reservation.
- Groomed to teach in Bismarck, but felt that working on a reservation would be more appropriate.
- Throw-away kids - Kara wants to advocate for them.
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Teacher-led Professional Development with Nathan Adams Transformative Principal 107
Nathan has been a special education teacher for 8 years. He has taught in middle, high, and elementary levels.
- Teacher led professional development
- Sponsored by the local teacher’s union.
- Joined the union that has supported him, in an effort to give back.
- Idea of helping general education teachers and special education teachers understand the needs of each other.
- Brotherhood of professionals.
- Need to find a way to offer this for credit to improve skills but also have incentive.
- NEA grant that supported professional development for teachers teaching teachers.
- Institute for Professional Development.
- Will align in the future to make the district PD calendar aligned with what the association is wanting.
- Surveyed members to determine what they wanted to learn.
- This is a perk/benefit for the members of the association.
- Challenge is finding the time to make this happen.
- Highlights: Teachers posted what they found beneficial from the courses.
- Google Certified Teacher, Level I and II.
- Teachers were responsive to the things they were learning.
- Advice: Continue to use good teaching strategies. But don’t be demeaning.
- District started doing magnet schools.
- Principal that just started in the position.
- Teacher leader for educational technology.
- Personable leader, understands the field, understands the kids.
- Ambassador as a teacher.
- Weekly email from the principal.
- Staff meetings are held in a different teacher’s classroom each week.
- What are we going to do that week that is interesting?
- Principal asks how he can support us.
- How to be a transformative principal: Trust the people that are working for you.
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Kristin Bentley is a 2nd grade teacher in a Title I school.
She created an awesome app that helps manage classroom behavior: Color My Day
Introductory Video
- Why use this rather than Class Dojo.
- Think Time forms and Office Discipline Referrals are built-in to the app.
- Shoutout to Tricia Skyles
- ODRs going down means nothing if teacher morale is going up.
- The process of creating an app from the ground up.
- Crayons and paper
- Lucidchart
- Found a graphic designer.
- Found a programmer.
- Tell people about your ideas, find out what people are looking for in their schools.
- Do something to make people’92s lives easier.
- Make sure it is not something extra for teachers or admins to implement.
- Need 3 people: Expert, designer, and developer.
- Three ways to get it off the ground: pay someone, find someone to buy into your vision, find investors.
- Planbook
- Support teachers who are building apps to support students.
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Kristin Bentley is a 2nd grade teacher in a Title I school.
She created an awesome app that helps manage classroom behavior: Color My Day
- Using card pulls is not very effective.
- Clip charts use separate clips to show that positive and negative behavior.
- The two clips gave the ’93naughty’94 kids a chance to have a good day.
- Goal for card pulls is to stay positive.
- Card pulls don’92t give chances for kids to see what they can accomplish.
- Clips change kids self-esteem.
- Physical chart helps kids see and experience changes. Digital version allows teachers to collect and analyze data.
- Think Time form allows student to fill out the form with teacher and record it in the app.
- Data is collected school-wide and allows teachers to customize their individual reasons for clips up and down.
- Digital version of clip chart allows teachers to have data to collect and prepare for RTI, special ed referrals, and more.
- The app keeps track of the ratio of positive to negative ratios.
- Very powerful for teachers to see how they are interacting with their students.
- Teaches them a truth that we are both good and bad, and not just one or the other.
- Discounts available by mentioning this podcast. Huge discount for teachers.
- colormydaykids.com colormydaykids@gmail.com.
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Principal of South Heights Elementary in his 20th year. Rob doesn’t just look at his students currently, he has a much bigger vision of what they can accomplish and how they can make life better forever. Rob keeps in contact with kids who went to The 1199 many years ago and makes sure that they can still find ways to be successful.
- Special things you do during Christmas for your schools
- You can be an awesome combination of tradition and innovation.
- We celebrate all of our holidays.
- We take all of our kids to a movie.
- Santa’s Treasure Island Mall!
- Most schools going away from all this extra stuff, and it seems you are going toward it full steam ahead!
- Work hard, play hard, succeed!
- Neighborhood Christmas parade.
- Go big or go home.
- How has the community changed since you’ve been doing these things?
- This school not prison, so let’s make it enjoyable.
- Big ideas are going to happen. People are willing to go out and make it happen.
- People are willing to come in and do extra as well.
- Expensive endeavors require the community to buy in.
- People like to be part of something bigger than themselves.
- People look at their budget and try to see what they can do, and that is the wrong way, they need to find their ideas and make their budget work how they need it.
- We do lots of recruiting to find the right people.
- Non traditional interview methods.
- Kids interview them first.
- All about getting inside their head. Interested in what they think.
- We want people that want to be at South Heights.
- We can’t handle mediocre.
- There’s no better identifier of authenticity than the kids.
- Kids interview applicant, teacher support interviews kids to see what they think.
- If you can’t handle being interviewed by a bunch of kids, you might not be able to handle 30 kindergarteners.
- How to be a transformative principal? You’ve got to understand it is not about you, it is about them. It is about building people up.
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Rob Carroll
Principal of South Heights Elementary in his 20th year. Rob doesn’t just look at his students currently, he has a much bigger vision of what they can accomplish and how they can make life better forever. Rob keeps in contact with kids who went to The 1199 many years ago and makes sure that they can still find ways to be successful.
- Man cave show on home and garden channel gave them at
- Own version of Harlem Children’s Zone
- Timeline of success milestone
- From conception to career, how does every child succeed.
- Not just a K–5 school. We help them after they move on. Help them in high school. Help them for college applications.
- We really love our students.
- Circle of life sustains change.
- 11 years of doing college tours.
- Kids had an unrealistic expectation of college.
- K goes to local community college
- Each grade goes to a different college.
- Our 5th graders understand more about college than a lot of juniors and seniors.
- If it’s good enough for my biological kids, it’s good enough for all kids.
- Former kids of South Heights are the tour guides at the colleges.
- Everyone can lead. Ideas rule, not people.
- College tours are my baby, but everyone else leads something in our school.
- As long as the idea matches the vision and mission, we say go for it!
- What do our great people need to be inspired and successful?
- Failures recently?
- We love each other as a team.
- Thought we could build our own leadership curriculum ourselves, but it didn’t work out very well.
- Build, don’t copy.
- You’ve only got so many shots at the same idea as a leader.
- You can get a little full of yourself sometimes.
- Respect the awesomeness of the task.
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Brian Costello is in his 7th year of teaching in Southern New Jersey. Brian started his career as an instructional aide before going on to teach Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades. He is an avid writer, blogger, and Twitter user that has published his first children’s novel: Will McGill and the Magic Hat. Brian speaks at Educational conferences on topics including educational technology, leadership, communication, and professional development. See Brian’s previous posts for CUE.
Here is what we talked about today:
- Will McGill and the Magic Hat Independent Publisher
- CUE blog
- Classroom Community World Tour - helping kids see what happens in other places.
- Tour Builder - “Tour Builder is a new way to show people the places you’ve visited and the experiences you had along the way using Google Earth. It lets you pick the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your creation.”
- The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
- You use this to show students what life is like in another place.
- Twitter: @btcostello05.
- Inspired by the realization that we are in a really small community, and if we can show kids more of what the world is really like, they will be more open to what is possible for them.
- How to be a transformative principal: Find ways to say Yes.
- People are more willing to do things when you don’t tell them no.
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Brian Costello is in his 7th year of teaching in Southern New Jersey. Brian started his career as an instructional aide before going on to teach Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades. He is an avid writer, blogger, and Twitter user that has published his first children’s novel: Will McGill and the Magic Hat. Brian speaks at Educational conferences on topics including educational technology, leadership, communication, and professional development. See Brian’s previous posts for CUE.
Here is what we talked about today:
- Working with the youngest kids provides you with some things that start to disappear as they get older. The light bulbs go off way more than when they are older.
- Rotating through content areas 1–4th grades.
- Give teachers a chance to focus more on a content area.
- Can be more difficult to build relationships with students.
- Works together with other teachers more on because of their transitions.
- How to deal with mean teachers.
- Confront them directly. State the appropriate professional response.
- How you treat people says a lot about you and how you feel.
- Projection
- How do I interact with this person after a confrontation?
- Continue to be professional towards that person.
- Need to model functional relationships for students - appropriate, nonviolent, non-angry problem solving solutions.
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Today, Damon Hargraves, host of the WorkflowED podcast turned the mic on me and interviewed me for the 100th episode of the Transformative Principal Podcast. I can’t believe I have done 100 episodes of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this and helping me make it better.
- RTI idea was in place, but we needed a little kick in the pants.
- Value of getting away from the day-to-day issues at school.
- How to keep it going when you come back from conferences: hang up the poster.
- Reducing ELA from 90 minutes per day to 45 minutes per day, with students who need 90 minutes still getting that much time.
- How to get teachers to agree to reduce the number of minutes for their content area.
- Yolanda Westerberg
- We can always be better, so let’s always improve.
- There is a story written before you. Accept the story that has been there before your chapter 1 starts.
- How to have solid forward momentum as you make changes, and not get stalled.
- Meeting with the correct people so you don’t get stalled.
- Getting feedback and adjusting course.
- Schedules Explained for Teachers video
Schedules Explained for Parents video - Making sure that the right people had the information at the right time.
- The schedule we creating had a place for every student in the school.
- How to design software for your school when you don’t have what you need.
- Having plans in place even if it is going to be very difficult.
- Guru Technologies - the company we hired to develop the app for us.
- The app you can actually use yourself: Pickr App
- Teacher choice tutorial - kids know they aren’t performing and are eager to have the extra help.
- Be simple about what you’re trying to implement.
- MVP - minimum viable product
- Goals for moving forward: anticipate needs earlier.
- The book by Austin Buffum and Mike Mattos: It’s About Time
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Overview: Woodson has been an all-day everyday Kindergarten Center for the past 11 years. In the past 4 years enrollment has fluctuated between 360–425 students (currently about 385 with our preschool class). 51% of our students are students of color, and we have a 61% free and reduced lunch student population. We have 16 sections of kindergarten this year–13 on the traditional school calendar and 3 on the modified (year long) calendar as they feed into the modified calendar elementary school. We have been a PBIS school for the past 5 years and this year we were award a “School of Excellence” award by the State Department for our work in established strong tier one behavioral supports for all students. This year we have implemented a behavior specialist position as well as being the second year in our bi-linguage reading pilot in which we have a spanish speaking paraprofessional front loading reading instruction in home languages of a sub section of our EL students. Last year we tried a new venue for Parent Education via videos of local “celebrities” and teachers role playing activities that parents could do with their children to prepare for K.
Bio: This is my 4th year as Principal of the Woodson Kindergarten Center. Prior to this position I was an Assistant Principal, Supervisor of Special Education (all in Austin MN) and Special Education Teacher in Saint Paul MN. Besides being the Principal at Woodson I am a facilitator for the Minnesota Principal Academy out of the University of Minnesota in units surrounding literacy, ethical leadership and RtI. This year I am also a presenter for the Minnesota Department of Education in their P3 Principal Leadership Series. I have started a blog.
- Provide appropriate staff development
- Provide flipped PD
- Teachers leading PD (play center activities)
- Solid Understanding of developmental milestones
- Become friends with the experts
- Adjust schedule for success of students
- School time: 8:30–2:05 with teacher prep time after school.
- No specialists to reduce transitions for students
- Teachers run everything
- Parent Engagement
- Connecting with Parents
- Packers in Training
- Being a partner
- Community initiative for kids to be ready for Kindergarten, so local celebrities get in on the action for “Ready, Set, Go”
- Make videos for parents
- Be more knowledgable about preschool options in the community
- Meet the pre-k providers and respect their work
- Give parents information about Pre-K options.
- Service learning opportunities for former students.
Principal’s academy
- Professional development for principals, in a cohort.
- Principal as an ethical leader: just, fair and caring
- How to deal with Social Media issues
- BIFF Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm
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Doug Timm is the principal of Carrie Downie Elementary School
- First principalship - innovative technology, focus on standards.
- Modern Teacher, Instructional Rounds. Cognitive growth targets (Bloom’s taxonomy)
- Think beyond comprehension and recall.
- What is the teacher doing and assigning?
- 6 different centers, but all 6 focused on retrieving and comprehending.
- How can we focus on more than the two basic levels?
- Charlotte’s Web in the city takes it up a level.
- Not all we are looking at, but major focus on tasks.
- I need to change what I am asking them to do to get them where I want them to be.
- Importance of how kids think. Why we need to make sure our kids are thinking beyond comprehending.
- Have to practice those skills.
- I don’t make inferences in observations anymore.
- Talk to kids during the observation. Sitting at a desk with the kids.
- Coaches (2) and Doug are assigned to teachers
- Teacher Name, Task, Where it falls in blooms taxonomy.
- What can you do to be a transformative principal? Walk around the building and see what focus you want to have: technology, literacy, math, student ownership. What do we have and how do we get to where we want to be? Keep the focus. There’s no end game.
Answer one survey question: What is the most challenging part of your job?
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Amy Locke graduated from the University of North Florida with a BA in Special Education: Deaf Studies and an M.Ed in Special Education: Deaf Education. She has been working in the field of Deaf Education for 7 years, beginning her career as an itinerant teacher for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students in central Florida, then moving to Houston, TX to teach in a self-contained 3rd/4th grade class with DHH students. About 4 ½ years ago, she moved to Alabama to work as a reading teacher in the high school department at the Alabama School for the Deaf. In November 2014, she became the high school director.
The Alabama School for the Deaf currently has 178 students from all around our state, all of whom have a documented hearing loss. We have two academic departments here: Elementary serves students from age 3 through 6th grade and the High School department serves students in grades 7–12. We are a residential program and a little more half of them live on campus in our dorms. The rest are day students living within an hour of our school.
- Seats arranged in semi circles
- Classroom management
- Communication is very powerful among adults.
- Academic challenge is language.
- English is a second language.
- We can accidentally learn grammar and usage.
- Students become the teachers of the language when they surpass their parents in ability.
- Struggle showing knowledge on standardized test.
- Disconnect between scores they get and what they know.
- Transformation from advocate to getting what they need.
- IEP Meeting dad spent 30 minutes educating them on deaf education.
- Outsider because Amy is not hard of hearing.
- If you try, and give a valiant effort, the community will hear you.
- How to be a transformative principal: know your population: students, teachers, parents.
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Amy Locke graduated from the University of North Florida with a BA in Special Education: Deaf Studies and an M.Ed in Special Education: Deaf Education. She has been working in the field of Deaf Education for 7 years, beginning her career as an itinerant teacher for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students in central Florida, then moving to Houston, TX to teach in a self-contained 3rd/4th grade class with DHH students. About 4 ½ years ago, she moved to Alabama to work as a reading teacher in the high school department at the Alabama School for the Deaf. In November 2014, she became the high school director.
The Alabama School for the Deaf currently has 178 students from all around our state, all of whom have a documented hearing loss. We have two academic departments here: Elementary serves students from age 3 through 6th grade and the High School department serves students in grades 7–12. We are a residential program and a little more half of them live on campus in our dorms. The rest are day students living within an hour of our school.
- Wanted nothing to do with learning sign language.
- Small community, tightly knit.
- Culture is inviting.
- Switched at Birth
- There are always many opportunities to serve the hard of hearing students.
- Parental involvement is hard to come by because of logistics.
- IEPs over the phone.
- 16 teachers are deaf.
- Just started picture-in-picture with sign language interpreter.
- Huddle originated at a university for the deaf Galladette University.
- Travel to other deaf schools.
- Recruiting and hiring.
- Director for the high school
- Director for elementary
- Director for career teach
- Director for athletics
- Challenge to find other people to learn from.
- Applying learning from other principals to her school.
- Sending teachers to professional development.
- Bring more professional development to the school, rather than sending teachers out.
- Empowering teachers with technology.
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John Hope Bryant came to Alaska for the Alaska Principals Conference. He spoke to us about how he hopes to inspire corporations to partner with schools to prepare our students for the future. I bought both of his books mentioned below. I am excited to read them.
John Hope Bryant on Twitter.
Learn more about Operation Hope.
Learn more about Global Dignity Day.
John has two books out. The first is Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World. “Summary from the publisher: Aimed at a new generation of leaders and extremely relevant for today’s economic climate, Love Leadership outlines Bryant’s five laws of love-based leadership-Loss Creates Leaders (there can be no strength without legitimate suffering), Fear Fails (only respect and love leads to success), Love Makes Money (love is at the core of true wealth), Vulnerability is Power (when you open up to people they open up to you), and Giving is Getting (the more you offer to others, the more they will give back to you).”
The second is How the Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class. “Summary from the publisher: Raised in poverty-stricken, gang-infested South Central Los Angeles, Bryant saw firsthand how our institutions have abandoned the poor. He details how business loans, home loans, and financial investments have vanished from their communities. After decades of deprivation, the poor lack bank accounts, decent credit scores, and any real firsthand experience of how a healthy free enterprise system functions.
Bryant radically redefines the meaning of poverty and wealth. (It’s not just a question of finances; it’s values too.) He exposes why attempts to aid the poor so far have fallen short and offers a way forward: the HOPE Plan, a series of straightforward, actionable steps to build financial literacy and expand opportunity so that the poor can join the middle class.”
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Ashley: Ashley teaches 3rd grade in Plymouth, Minnesota at Greenwood Elementary School. She received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from Miami University in Ohio. She then completed her Masters of Arts in Education with an endorsement in K - 8 writing from St. Mary University in Minnesota.
Jamie: Jamie enjoys seeing students complete learning independently. Jamie teaches 3rd grade at Greenwood Elementary School in Plymouth, Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from University of Iowa. She completed her Masters in Education from Hamline University in Minnesota.
Both Jamie and Ashley feel that learning should be meaningful and authentic for their students.
PICE Learning is a new and improved way of teaching comprehension skills for our 21st century learners. The PICE approach gives students ownership in their learning while using the common core standards. Students are able to connect with each other and independently learn in our 21st century. PICE Learning was developed by Ashley and Jamie, they wanted to connect students’ learning to skills that they will use everyday and in their future.
If you’d like more information check out: www.picelearning.com * Learning then vs. now with PICE
* There is a little more work that goes into PICE.
* PICE Learning web site.
* Explain Everything App
* iMovie
* Notability
* Book Creator
* Pic Collage
* Mini Lessons on Monday to teach kids the apps.
* Email Learningpice@gmail.com Follow on Twitter @picelearning
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Just before the #AKPrincipals conference ended, I had a chance to catch up the minds behind it all, Mary McMahon and Rod Morrison. They did a great job planning the event and will do an even better job next year.
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Here is a little bonus episode with Principal Kafele. We talk about how to reach those that are hardest to reach.
Principal Kafele spoke at the Alaska Principals conference in Anchorage on October 18th.
If this is your first time listening to Transformative Principal, please subscribe.
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Jamie: Jamie enjoys seeing students complete learning independently. Jamie teaches 3rd grade at Greenwood Elementary School in Plymouth, Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from University of Iowa. She completed her Masters in Education from Hamline University in Minnesota.
Both Jamie and Ashley feel that learning should be meaningful and authentic for their students.
PICE Learning is a new and improved way of teaching comprehension skills for our 21st century learners. The PICE approach gives students ownership in their learning while using the common core standards. Students are able to connect with each other and independently learn in our 21st century. PICE Learning was developed by Ashley and Jamie, they wanted to connect students’ learning to skills that they will use everyday and in their future.
If you’d like more information check out: www.picelearning.com
- Gives Students an opportunity to be engaged learners.
- Started as coteachers
- Not 1:1 - 3:1 or 4:1
- Engaging our students.
- Kids were already eager learners
- Model with the students how to learn together
- Weekly Lessons - Project starts on a Monday, and they have all week to work on it.
- Not about using an app, it is about learning.
- Sequencing activities - visualizing.
- How they are presenting their learning is up to them.
- Students can listen to stories through the Moodle site.
- Two students have jobs of being the Tweeters.
- Kids are wanting to see themselves.
- Twitter papers teach kids about character limits.
- Twitter Mrs. Tewksbury
- Twitter Mrs. Drill
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Michael Shapiro is serving in his second year as the principal of Highland Tech Charter School in Anchorage School District. A recent transplant from the Chicago area, he previously served as principal of Shepard Middle School in Deerfield, Illinois for seven years, during which time the school earned a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award. Prior to that he served as an assistant principal for five years in two different schools. Mr. Shapiro began his educational career as a computer applications teacher and director of instructional technology. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Administration and Supervision at Loyola University in Chicago.
Highland Tech is a 6th–12th grade charter school that promotes personal mastery through student centered, individualized learning and varied assessment strategies. Student placement is based on academic ability, rather than chronological age, ensuring students are challenged each day. Students are encouraged to take an active role in their education and master core content and the skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. Technology integration and project-based assessments are critical components of Highland Tech’s rigorous model.
- Professional Development - content expertise and deep understanding of the standards.
- Focus on building a curriculum that is standards-based.
- Planning meaningful activities that align with standards.
- Help teachers help students refine and revise work.
- Time is a huge barrier.
- Giving up control to students.
- Advisory - take this incredibly seriously.
- School visit in Michigan.
- In the traditional model, we don’t demand that they master, we demand that they pass with an average.
- Redos and Retakes
- Be present. Be in classrooms learning every day.
- Uncomfortable being called boss, because he is really a servant.
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Michael Shapiro is serving in his second year as the principal of Highland Tech Charter School in Anchorage School District. A recent transplant from the Chicago area, he previously served as principal of Shepard Middle School in Deerfield, Illinois for seven years, during which time the school earned a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award. Prior to that he served as an assistant principal for five years in two different schools. Mr. Shapiro began his educational career as a computer applications teacher and director of instructional technology. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Administration and Supervision at Loyola University in Chicago.
Highland Tech is a 6th–12th grade charter school that promotes personal mastery through student centered, individualized learning and varied assessment strategies. Student placement is based on academic ability, rather than chronological age, ensuring students are challenged each day. Students are encouraged to take an active role in their education and master core content and the skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. Technology integration and project-based assessments are critical components of Highland Tech’s rigorous model.
- Not one and done approach, focused on student Mastery.
- Time bound, but a lot of flexibility.
- Real-world project based learning.
- Rubrics at every level.
- Takes some time for kids, teachers and principals even to get used to it.
- Lots of misperceptions in the community.
- Reinventing Schools Coalition RISC
- Different Levels - Standards and Rubrics
- Kids can be in 8th grade math and be in 10 grade ELA.
- Require up to Alg. II/Trig in math at Highland Tech.
- Integrate levels as much as possible.
- Paying attention to outliers.
- Variety of assessments qualify for standards. Not just the paper-pencil type.
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Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years.
- ELA in English and Math in target language
- Teachers more intentional in working together on content between languages.
- MobyMax to supplement schoolwork. Reflex Math to focus on computation skills.
- What she’s doing is working because Draper Elementary ranked 22 in the state in math.
- How you ensure good instruction is taking place when you don’t speak the target language?
- Anyone should be able to understand topic in the classroom when they are in the target language.
- Good instruction on Steroids.
- 9 tenets of instruction from State of Utah
- Listen.
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Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years.
- Dual immersion schools - what is the process, and what challenges are unique to you?
- 200 dual immersion schools in the state, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French
- What barriers are there to having native speakers come teach in America?
- A/B schedule at elementary level.
- Teachers come from mainland China and local areas.
- Immersion teacher and non-immersion teachers and culture issues.
- Personalizing issues with culture.
- Specials to integrate the two cultures.
- Dragon Training
- Seeking input to learn what was important to the students, faculty, and parents.
- Blanket monkey.
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Henry Turner is a fantastic principal doing some great things at Bedford High School outside Boston. He blogs at Leadingtolearn.
- Implementing iPad initiative.
- Focus on creating iPad content.
- Fundraising
- Upstander anti-bullying program. Facing History in Ourselves.
- Asking curious questions.
- Kids create public service announcements with their iPads.
- Achievement gap strategies.
- Data teams
- Putting kids in levels, but not tracking them.
- Conversations and district support.
- The Calculus Project.
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Henry Turner - Principal of Bedford High School outside Boston.
- Site visits is where the interview teams comes to the school to meet with the teams that work with the principal.
- Tips to prepare.
- Choose a diverse group of people.
- Avoid some pitfalls: lack of preparation, only asking rockstars.
- How to prepare people for the visit: Announce early to community.
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This week Geri Parscale came to visit us in Kodiak and teach us about PLCs. The teachers walked away energized and excited. On Twitter she is @ParscaleG.
In this episode she talks about PLCs and culture. PLCs are a way of life, not a program, and that is what I have always enjoyed about the PLC approach.
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Mike Kelly - Principal Eyer Middle School. East Penn School District.
Mike on Twitter: @principalmkelly
Mike’s Blog
- The importance of blogging and reflection, sharing learning.
- Personal growth mindset post.
- The end of marking periods.
- Starting removal of marking periods in 6th grade!
- Arbitrary dates to complete learning on certain topics.
- Extended learning program greatly reduces academic failures.
- Many additional clubs and activities are offered.
- “Required” extended learning program.
- Perception of ELP.
- Time and support are the variables and learning is the constant.
- How to prepare for big changes in schools.
- Parent concerns about end of marking periods.
- Start with small parent groups.
- How to gain teacher support for the end of marking periods.
- The case against 0
- The power of 0
- Retesting and redo
- How to be a transformative principal? Surround yourself with transformative people.
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Today I am joined by Theresa Stager and Jessica Johnson who talk about their book “Breaking out of Isolation”.
- After the sad end of the Practical Principals podcast with Melinda Miller, Theresa and Jessica and Jethro all started a podcast at the same time.
- Being connected sometimes makes you feel isolated.
- On being a student again.
- Fixed vs. growth mindset.
- We are still in the middle of learning how to be connected.
- You must always watch what you are saying and be cautious of what you are saying.
- Connected Educator Series
- How you can break out of isolation:
- Jump on Twitter
- Join #principalPLN and create your own personal little mentors.
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Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
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Bob Dillon Twitter Web Site is the Director of Technology and Innovation for Afton School District. He has been a middle school principal for 15 years in three different places and currently helps many other principals improve their practices.
- Join the PrincipalPLN Voxer group
- 1st order change - simple, fixit types of problems, typically exciting that help people feel good about things, but don’t really move the needle in improving a school.
- 2nd order change - moving from management to leadership. Changes that will last after you are gone. People start to feel like they are part of a special organization. Sometimes it is messy, people don’t know how things will play out.
- Doug Timm Principal in Delaware.
- Need to focus on what matters in the long term.
- 1st order change - painting over water stain on a house you just bought.
- 2nd order change - taking off the drywall and cleaning (or replacing) studs and insulation.
- Playing the short and the long game.
- Higher-level conversations
- Difficulty of dealing with minor problems.
- If you are working hard daily, people will be more likely to give you a break.
- Build up key communicators in the building.
- Trust your teachers to say things in a way that you know will be beneficial.
- People need to hear the same in multiple ways.
- How to help teachers be comfortable taking risks.
- Need to scaffold to the higher level of risk-taking.
Part 2
- Director of Innovation. My role is to keep the system lubricated.
- Keep technology systems moving at a fast rate. Jump technology ahead.
- Looking for other places that slow growth and inhibit innovation.
- Empower the teachers that are moving forward and working hard.
- Most of the rest of my career I will have jobs that don’t exist yet.
- Important to change mental model of where and how kids learn.
- Our teachers get better when they tell our story.
- If it is not your strength to share, allow it to be the power of your students and allow them to share.
- Give kids a voice.
- Authentic audience raises the quality of work.
- Book Ethic of Excellence
- How are you contributing to Education beyond this school?
- It is about being humble, and knowing you don’t have all the answers. If I want other people to help me, I need to help other people.
- What prevents teachers from contributing?
- Powerful connecting to other schools. Bettendorf High School and their partner school learning from each other. Doc Seacrist St. Joseph in Missouri(LINK)
- Why Jimmy Casas continues to be a principal.
- Leadership
- K–1–2 Makerspace about the philosophy of allowing kids to grow creativity and problem solving.
- Create, make, design for empowerment, engagement.
- Helping kids become solution makers.
- How you can be a transformative principal: Go read something that doesn’t have to do with education with your principal hat on. Lateral capacity building. Brendan Hufford
- Entreleadership Podcast
- Chris Locurto Show
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Bob Dillon Twitter Web Site is the Director of Technology and Innovation for Afton School District. He has been a middle school principal for 15 years in three different places and currently helps many other principals improve their practices.
- Join the PrincipalPLN Voxer group
- 1st order change - simple, fixit types of problems, typically exciting that help people feel good about things, but don’t really move the needle in improving a school.
- 2nd order change - moving from management to leadership. Changes that will last after you are gone. People start to feel like they are part of a special organization. Sometimes it is messy, people don’t know how things will play out.
- Doug Timm Principal in Delaware.
- Need to focus on what matters in the long term.
- 1st order change - painting over water stain on a house you just bought.
- 2nd order change - taking off the drywall and cleaning (or replacing) studs and insulation.
- Playing the short and the long game.
- Higher-level conversations
- Difficulty of dealing with minor problems.
- If you are working hard daily, people will be more likely to give you a break.
- Build up key communicators in the building.
- Trust your teachers to say things in a way that you know will be beneficial.
- People need to hear the same in multiple ways.
- How to help teachers be comfortable taking risks.
- Need to scaffold to the higher level of risk-taking.
Part 2
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
David Long, CEO of My Employees. Started the company from
Author of Built to Lead: 7 Management R.E.W.A.R.D.S Principles for Becoming a Top 10% Manager.. This book is amazing, and I learned a ton from talking to David. He is a businessman, and not an educator, but he is really on point here.
- Top 1% in all three industries he has participated in, so topics relatable to all industries.
- Employee recognition programs.
- It’s not just plaques for employee recognition.
- It is normal to procrastinate, forget, or otherwise delay awards and recognition for employees.
- Great intentions last only 3 months.
- Recognize 2 people from each department.
- 20% or higher growth per year because of this employee recognition.
- Employee recognition is the greatest way to get people to buy into your vision for the school.
- Teachers will only be successful if the kids are successful, so we need to make our teachers and kids successful.
- Metrics for schools: Don’t want it to be a popularity contest!
- Measure what you are already using.
- Recognition has to be administered every 7–10 days.
- Employee recognition reminder chart. - Digital Version Recognize everyone 3 times a month!
- If you can’t find something to recognize them for, you’re dropping the ball as a leader.
- We do not outgrow the desire to be shown that we are significant.
- If teachers don’t feel like they are part of the team, they want to leave you.
- Two reasons people want to leave your school: 1) Not getting recognition or 2) the leader is forcing them to work with incompetent people.
- You have to show the teachers that they matter.
- People will listen to you because you care.
- You will lose good people sometimes if you focus on them
- Many employees receive no recognition for months at a time.
- Find as many metrics as you can.
- Demotivator: not using metrics to determine employee recognition, i.e., If someone comes in late and leaves early every day, and you reward that person.
- Don’t make recognition about “It’s this person’s turn.”
- 80/20 rule. Recognize top 20% of each department.
Part 2
- Student engagement surveys for teachers. Simplistic questions: How well do you feel the teacher teaches…? How well do you feel your teacher encourages you…? (What would be good)
- Interview and assess what the kids are getting from their teachers.
- Metrics he uses: Dollar/ticket, renewal sales, how many calls they answer, answering the phones by the third ring,
- Kaizan - continuous improvement, monitoring something causes the production of it to increase by 10 percent.
- TEDxCSDTeachers - increase attendance by 10%.
- shoutoutcards.com - stubs or something to remind you of what someone did well.
- Let your people shine.
- Book clubs - teach your teachers how to improve their lives - personal development, not books related to our profession.
- Dr. Tony Zeiss - 12 Essential Rules for Becoming Indispensable
- Book clubs help teams that don’t usually work together work together.
- Side note: teach kids how to use money and have their money spent effectively.
- What can principals do? Use the recognition chart to make sure you are checking in on your teachers.
- Invest in your own education, learn how to be a better principal, teacher, speaker, etc.
- davidlong@top10manager.com
- 800–489–0230
- Buy the hardback copy, get the kindle version free by emailing Copy of workbook from the
- “You’re impacting lives every day, or you’re not!”
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
David Long, CEO of My Employees. Started the company from
Author of Built to Lead: 7 Management R.E.W.A.R.D.S Principles for Becoming a Top 10% Manager.. This book is amazing, and I learned a ton from talking to David. He is a businessman, and not an educator, but he is really on point here.
- Top 1% in all three industries he has participated in, so topics relatable to all industries.
- Employee recognition programs.
- It’s not just plaques for employee recognition.
- It is normal to procrastinate, forget, or otherwise delay awards and recognition for employees.
- Great intentions last only 3 months.
- Recognize 2 people from each department.
- 20% or higher growth per year because of this employee recognition.
- Employee recognition is the greatest way to get people to buy into your vision for the school.
- Teachers will only be successful if the kids are successful, so we need to make our teachers and kids successful.
- Metrics for schools: Don’t want it to be a popularity contest!
- Measure what you are already using.
- Recognition has to be administered every 7–10 days.
- Employee recognition reminder chart. - Digital Version Recognize everyone 3 times a month!
- If you can’t find something to recognize them for, you’re dropping the ball as a leader.
- We do not outgrow the desire to be shown that we are significant.
- If teachers don’t feel like they are part of the team, they want to leave you.
- Two reasons people want to leave your school: 1) Not getting recognition or 2) the leader is forcing them to work with incompetent people.
- You have to show the teachers that they matter.
- People will listen to you because you care.
- You will lose good people sometimes if you focus on them
- Many employees receive no recognition for months at a time.
- Find as many metrics as you can.
- Demotivator: not using metrics to determine employee recognition, i.e., If someone comes in late and leaves early every day, and you reward that person.
- Don’t make recognition about “It’s this person’s turn.”
- 80/20 rule. Recognize top 20% of each department.
Part 2
- Student engagement surveys for teachers. Simplistic questions: How well do you feel the teacher teaches…? How well do you feel your teacher encourages you…? (What would be good)
- Interview and assess what the kids are getting from their teachers.
- Metrics he uses: Dollar/ticket, renewal sales, how many calls they answer, answering the phones by the third ring,
- Kaizan - continuous improvement, monitoring something causes the production of it to increase by 10 percent.
- TEDxCSDTeachers - increase attendance by 10%.
- shoutoutcards.com - stubs or something to remind you of what someone did well.
- Let your people shine.
- Book clubs - teach your teachers how to improve their lives - personal development, not books related to our profession.
- Dr. Tony Zeiss - 12 Essential Rules for Becoming Indispensable
- Book clubs help teams that don’t usually work together work together.
- Side note: teach kids how to use money and have their money spent effectively.
- What can principals do? Use the recognition chart to make sure you are checking in on your teachers.
- Invest in your own education, learn how to be a better principal, teacher, speaker, etc.
- davidlong@top10manager.com
- 800–489–0230
- Buy the hardback copy, get the kindle version free by emailing Copy of workbook from the
- “You’re impacting lives every day, or you’re not!”
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Brian Edmister is the principal of Genesee Valley Elementary School in Genesee Valley New York.
Brian was a fellow participant of the Model Schools Conference.
- Attended many different colleges to complete his degree.
- Design your own session.
- Standards based grading.
- Must create your culture before you change anything.
- When you create a grade, you create a label.
- Giving the kids a chance to be in charge of their own learning.
- Schools Attuned
- Giving teachers permission to fail at something.
- 1 page of all academic, 1 page of social development on report card.
- Levels of access can be unlocked with badges for showing digital citizenship.
- Robot Farm
- Allowing kids to demonstrate proficiency.
- Communication build trust.
- How to be a transformative principal: Build culture.
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Kyle Palmer is the principal of Lewis and Clark Elementary School in Liberty, MO. Kyle was a presenter at the Model Schools Conference in Atlanta, GA. Here are the handouts from his session: Presentation and PDF
- It’s about relationships, not programs.
- Transformed school in last year.
- Competition with others helps him be better.
- Let’s not change the world, let’s just do our best.
- Fostering belief in staff.
- Growth mindset.
- Katie Lawson, principal extraordinaire.
- Need to know the “why” behind everything.
- The Art and Science of Teaching
- Angela Rosheim - Genius hour in the library, received grant of $8,000 of $10,000 of available resources, makerspace.
- Focusing on being ready for the future.
- Project Lead the Way - STEM Solution for schools.
- Moving away from the sage on the stage mentality.
- How to be a transformative principal: Looking into yourself first, before looking at others.
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today I am speaking with Ron Fortunato, President of Trillium Learning and employee of NASA AMES research center. Listen to learn how you can get more information about to get your students more engaged in REAL projects!
- Project-based vs activity-based projects.
- Coupling students with real-life working projects.
- If students are able to keep up with the real-world work, they are given an opportunity to be at the table.
- Relationships with NOAA, NASA, and other institutions.
- Identify real problems, and get students involved in those projects.
- How Ron got involved with NASA.
- Winning a proposal with NASA: Pick a project they would have done.
- Meeting with the scientists that put Viking on Mars.
- How predicting earthquakes works.
- First earthquake sensor ever created installed in Kodiak.
- Real world projects cross many disciplines.
- “We don’t learn a darn thing when we do something right!”
- Rapid prototyping process - iterate and learn piece by piece.
- How students have actually discovered that earthquakes were coming with up to 48 hours notice.
- NASA gave actual reviews to high school students.
- Life-saving potential of predicting earthquakes is very important.
- Kodiak, Ketchikan, Craig, Copper River, and Old Harbor have the earthquake systems installed.
- Tasks and organizations for students are similar to tasks given to scientists.
- NASA Directors sit in with students on status reviews.
- Other projects kids can get involved with. Nano-agriculture
- It looks like chaos at first, but then it becomes transformative.
- Challenges of doing real-time and real-world project-based learning.
- Teachers need to adapt to this new way of doing things.
- School board has to support the project.
- Build a foundation so the entire district can participate. Ramp Up!
- How to make it for more than just the gifted or smart kids.
- 6th grade class suggesting how to improve the sensor.
- The process of learning how to learn.
- Trainer of Trainers model.
- You move at the speed you can go.
- Contact Ron
- What to do to start: Look at local organizations and what problems they’re trying to solve.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today I am speaking with Ron Fortunato, President of Trillium Learning and employee of NASA AMES research center. Listen to learn how you can get more information about to get your students more engaged in REAL projects!
- Project-based vs activity-based projects.
- Coupling students with real-life working projects.
- If students are able to keep up with the real-world work, they are given an opportunity to be at the table.
- Relationships with NOAA, NASA, and other institutions.
- Identify real problems, and get students involved in those projects.
- How Ron got involved with NASA.
- Winning a proposal with NASA: Pick a project they would have done.
- Meeting with the scientists that put Viking on Mars.
- How predicting earthquakes works.
- First earthquake sensor ever created installed in Kodiak.
- Real world projects cross many disciplines.
- “We don’t learn a darn thing when we do something right!”
- Rapid prototyping process - iterate and learn piece by piece.
- How students have actually discovered that earthquakes were coming with up to 48 hours notice.
- NASA gave actual reviews to high school students.
- Life-saving potential of predicting earthquakes is very important.
- Kodiak, Ketchikan, Craig, Copper River, and Old Harbor have the earthquake systems installed.
- Tasks and organizations for students are similar to tasks given to scientists.
- NASA Directors sit in with students on status reviews.
- Other projects kids can get involved with. Nano-agriculture
- It looks like chaos at first, but then it becomes transformative.
- Challenges of doing real-time and real-world project-based learning.
- Teachers need to adapt to this new way of doing things.
- School board has to support the project.
- Build a foundation so the entire district can participate. Ramp Up!
- How to make it for more than just the gifted or smart kids.
- 6th grade class suggesting how to improve the sensor.
- The process of learning how to learn.
- Trainer of Trainers model.
- You move at the speed you can go.
- Contact Ron
- What to do to start: Look at local organizations and what problems they’re trying to solve.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
This is my second interview with Will Parker. Will wrote a book called Principal Matters: the motivation, courage, action, and teamwork needed for school leadership, and so we talk about his wisdom that is contained therein. Go ahead and buy it.
I interviewed Will in Episode 24 of Transformative Principal.
- A little discussion about technology.
- Some information on his book.
- How to make decisions.
- Write things down when they are still fresh so you know how to do it next time.
- Write processes down now so that you have them next time.
- Make a list and prioritize.
- How to delegate effectively.
- Importance of taking time off to recharge.
- The power of good mentors.
- Writing a letter of resignation.
- How to live without putting out fires all the time!
- Give instruction on the front end to make expectations more effective.
- Great teachers teach with both sides of their brains at once.
- More about KRAs (which we spoke about in Episode 24).
Part 2 * Dealing with difficult people. + Make sure you are not the difficult person. + Seek to understand before being understood. + Be firm but friendly. + Change your posture or use humor when appropriate. + Agree to disagree. + Consider bringing all parties to the table. + What can I do to help you? + Sometimes it is inevitable to have difficult conversations. * Communicate privately with staff members when there is a difficulty. * Big fan of just being honest. * Talk straight with each other. * Relationships are so important for every teacher and staff member. * “It’s not an issue of me and you, it’s an issue of you and you.” * Buy his book!
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
This is my second interview with Will Parker. Will wrote a book called Principal Matters: the motivation, courage, action, and teamwork needed for school leadership, and so we talk about his wisdom that is contained therein. Go ahead and buy it.
I interviewed Will in Episode 24 of Transformative Principal.
- A little discussion about technology.
- Some information on his book.
- How to make decisions.
- Write things down when they are still fresh so you know how to do it next time.
- Write processes down now so that you have them next time.
- Make a list and prioritize.
- How to delegate effectively.
- Importance of taking time off to recharge.
- The power of good mentors.
- Writing a letter of resignation.
- How to live without putting out fires all the time!
- Give instruction on the front end to make expectations more effective.
- Great teachers teach with both sides of their brains at once.
- More about KRAs (which we spoke about in Episode 24).
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today I am interviewing Assistant Principal, Entrepreneur, Father, and Hot Mess Brendan Hufford (Twitter).
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy - only successful school in Gary, Indiana.
OKkimonos.com and Entrepreneurs and Coffee Podcast are a couple side gigs that Brendan has going on.
* Gary, Indiana is a struggling city, but full of amazing people.
* Showing trust to students
* Leading with trust - people want to give back trust when you give it to them.
* It’s not as easy to build relationships as an admin than it is to build relationships as a teacher.
* If you care about the students, they’ll do what you need them to do.
* When you get frustrated, your care is the first to go away.
* Kids aren’t afraid of things happening in the school that make them unsafe, they are likely afraid of things happening on the way to or from school that make them feel unsafe.
* Resting vs. sleeping.
* Getting up at 3 am helps him be his best.
* Need to teach entrepreneurism to help US compete globally.
* The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield
* College vs. Entrepreneurism.
* College Bubble is going to Burst - College is a great chance to mature, party, and have fun. If you want to go to college for an actual education, you are overpaying.
* Entrepreneurism is not for everybody.
Part 2 * Working as a first grade teaching assistant. * There is no better gift you can give a human being than self-education. * Teaching kids how to be entrepreneurial could be almost as important teaching them to read. * Can’t do education just as a paycheck. * Pushback when innovating. * Using Twitter for real purposes. * Transparency at Buffer * If you want to learn something, spend 0 time focusing on your own industry. * Free tools at Brendan’s website.
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Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today I am interviewing Assistant Principal, Entreprenuer, Father, and Hot Mess, Brendan Hufford (Twitter)!
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy - only successful school in Gary, Indiana.
OKkimonos.com and Entrepreneurs and Coffee Podcast are a couple side gigs that Brendan has going on.
* Gary, Indiana is a struggling city, but full of amazing people.
* Showing trust to students
* Leading with trust - people want to give back trust when you give it to them.
* It’s not as easy to build relationships as an admin than it is to build relationships as a teacher.
* If you care about the students, they’ll do what you need them to do.
* When you get frustrated, your care is the first to go away.
* Kids aren’t afraid of things happening in the school that make them unsafe, they are likely afraid of things happening on the way to or from school that make them feel unsafe.
* Resting vs. sleeping.
* Getting up at 3 am helps him be his best.
* Need to teach entrepreneurism to help US compete globally.
* The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield
* College vs. Entrepreneurism.
* College Bubble is going to Burst - College is a great chance to mature, party, and have fun. If you want to go to college for an actual education, you are overpaying.
* Entrepreneurism is not for everybody.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today, I am honored to interview Anne Beninghof Twitter. Anne is an expert at coteaching and consults with districts about it.
In this episode, we talk about the following:
- What is coteaching?
- How little things become problematic
- Paraprofessionals in the classroom
- Resources on her web site
- How to introduce teachers to the idea of coteaching
- Choosing partners
- Youtube Channel
- Needs for teachers working together: Flexible personalities, common planning time, common philosophies about teaching and behavior management.
- Expectation about actually using planning time.
- Try to avoid a divorce in the coteaching relationship
- Co teachers Need a coach.
- Specific structures and procedures help coteaching partnership
- Tap into teachers’ unique skill sets
- One-minute formative assessments
- 65% of class time spent in something other than whole group
- Last couple minutes specialist takes lead
- Parallel grouping
- Professional learning & communication is a constant
- 9 models of coteaching.
- Duet model
- Parallel model
- Lead and support model
- Other 7 models are ingredients
- Don’t let students play one teacher against another
- Ratios: no more than 30% of students on IEPs
- Plan approach for talking to parents about coteaching model.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today, I am honored to interview Anne Beninghof Twitter. Anne is an expert at coteaching and consults with districts about it.
In this episode, we talk about the following:
- What is coteaching?
- How little things become problematic
- Paraprofessionals in the classroom
- Resources on her web site
- How to introduce teachers to the idea of coteaching
- Choosing partners
- Youtube Channel
- Needs for teachers working together: Flexible personalities, common planning time, common philosophies about teaching and behavior management.
- Expectation about actually using planning time.
- Try to avoid a divorce in the coteaching relationship
- Co teachers Need a coach.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Today, I am talking with Brad Gustafson @GustafsonBrad, principal of Greenwood Elementary School #GWGreats. I’ve been a follower of Brad’s blog for a long time. He is inspiring and helps me want to be a better principal. I hope you learn a ton from him, just like I have.
In this episode we talk about:
- Mobile makerspaces
- Sphero balls - Draw and Drive
- Working on the Work (Buy the current book: Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work)
- Passport to Passion
- ClickToTweet: We are saying let’s celebrate creative genius!
- Three goals: high student achievement, cultural relationships, meaningful technology integration
- Constructive pushback
- Keeping it simple
Part 2
- Teachers are talented.
- Failure - Moodle forums research
- Monthly theme - optional vs. required.
- Transparency builds trust
- Teachers do great things no matter what, either openly and transparently or behind closed doors.
*Invest in digital connections to deep your learning. - Educational malpractice to limit learning based on what we refuse to learn.
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Today, I am talking with Brad Gustafson @GustafsonBrad, principal of Greenwood Elementary School #GWGreats. I’ve been a follower of Brad’s blog for a long time. He is inspiring and helps me want to be a better principal. I hope you learn a ton from him, just like I have.
In this episode we talk about:
- Mobile makerspaces
- Sphero balls - Draw and Drive
- Working on the Work (Buy the current book: Engaging Students: The Next Level of Working on the Work)
- Passport to Passion
- ClickToTweet: We are saying let’s celebrate creative genius!
- Three goals: high student achievement, cultural relationships, meaningful technology integration
- Constructive pushback
- Keeping it simple
Part 2
- Teachers are talented.
- Failure - Moodle forums research
- Monthly theme - optional vs. required.
- Transparency builds trust
- Teachers do great things no matter what, either openly and transparently or behind closed doors.
*Invest in digital connections to deep your learning. - Educational malpractice to limit learning based on what we refuse to learn.
WorkflowED podcast
Earning Freedom Podcast
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I had the great opportunity to interview Michael Santos this week. He is a former convict who spent 26 years in prison for running drugs. He says he never touched the drugs, but organized other people to do it. Pretty amazing story.
Michael has a podcast out, now as well. He pipes it into the prison system to help people learn to change.
You can learn a little bit more about Michael here:
• PBS NewsHour (7-minute profile)
• NBC Bay Area Proud (5-minute profile)
• San Francisco Chronicle (Front-page profile)
We talk about the following:
- How Michael became incarcerated.
- How he had a change of heart.
- Philosophy and Socrates.
- Tweet: I needed a string to lead me out of the labyrinth. via @MichaelGSantos @TrnFrmPrincipal http://ctt.ec/B0z64+
- Our system of corrections is designed to extinguish hope.
- Michael’s 3 pronged plan:
- Educate myself
- Contribute to Society
- Build a Support Network
- Tweet: Every human being has the potential to become something amazing.
- Students may see you and tune out the message because you are an authority figure.
- Tweet: People thought they were insulting me by saying I wasn’t hard enough.
- Using the socratic method.
- Define the values students need.
- Tweet: If they can define success, we can ask what we do to get you there.
- There’s a path to a better life and it doesn’t happen by accident. Click to Tweet
- Establishing values vs. defining values
- Straight A Guide: Attitude, Aspiration, Action, Accountability, Awareness, Achievement, Appreciation
- When people feel like they have no control, they are less likely to become the best they can be.
- The Scandinavian system provides a panel to help acclimate the offender to society after a prison sentence.
- We need an innovative disruptive approach to change things.
- People want a better life, but don’t know how to get there.
I had the great opportunity to interview Michael Santos this week. He is a former convict who spent 26 years in prison for running drugs. He says he never touched the drugs, but organized other people to do it. Pretty amazing story.
Michael has a podcast out, now as well. He pipes it into the prison system to help people learn to change.
You can learn a little bit more about Michael here:
• PBS NewsHour (7-minute profile)
• NBC Bay Area Proud (5-minute profile)
• San Francisco Chronicle (Front-page profile)
We talk about the following:
- How Michael became incarcerated.
- How he had a change of heart.
- Philosophy and Socrates.
- Tweet: I needed a string to lead me out of the labyrinth. via @MichaelGSantos @TrnFrmPrincipal http://ctt.ec/B0z64+
- Our system of corrections is designed to extinguish hope.
- Michael’s 3 pronged plan:
- Educate myself
- Contribute to Society
- Build a Support Network
- Tweet: Every human being has the potential to become something amazing.
- Students may see you and tune out the message because you are an authority figure.
- Tweet: People thought they were insulting me by saying I wasn’t hard enough.
- Using the socratic method.
- Define the values students need.
- Tweet: If they can define success, we can ask what we do to get you there.
- There’s a path to a better life and it doesn’t happen by accident. Click to Tweet
- Establishing values vs. defining values
- Straight A Guide: Attitude, Aspiration, Action, Accountability, Awareness, Achievement, Appreciation
- When people feel like they have no control, they are less likely to become the best they can be.
- The Scandinavian system provides a panel to help acclimate the offender to society after a prison sentence.
- We need an innovative disruptive approach to change things.
- People want a better life, but don’t know how to get there.
Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.
In this episode we talk about the following:
Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.
- Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
- Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
- How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
- Consistency as key to long-term success.
- How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.
Subject Area Teaming and PLCs
- Large focus on data
- Common Formative Assessments
- Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
- Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
- No need for a big push at the end.
- Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.
Standards-Based Grading
- 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
- Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
- Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.
How you can be a transformative principal:
Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
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Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.
In this episode we talk about the following:
Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.
- Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
- Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
- How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
- Consistency as key to long-term success.
- How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.
Subject Area Teaming and PLCs
- Large focus on data
- Common Formative Assessments
- Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
- Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
- No need for a big push at the end.
- Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.
Standards-Based Grading
- 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
- Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
- Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.
How you can be a transformative principal:
Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.
In this episode we talk about the following:
Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.
- Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
- Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
- How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
- Consistency as key to long-term success.
- How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.
Subject Area Teaming and PLCs
- Large focus on data
- Common Formative Assessments
- Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
- Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
- No need for a big push at the end.
- Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.
Standards-Based Grading
- 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
- Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
- Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.
How you can be a transformative principal:
Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
Download Paperless Principal.
This is a video podcast, on my feed. Just a little experiment to try something new. Send me a tweet to tell me what you think. @jethrojones
http://bit.ly/tp-socialmedia <- This is the post that the video references.
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- Tech Club at Jason's school.
- You can never have enough clubs or strong electives at your school.
- What kinds of activities can put kids out in front?
- DJ-ing the school dance.
- How to start clubs - Just ask the kids!
- Staple clubs - tech, video announcements, music, Minecraft club, etc.
- It is ok to have just a few kids at each club.
- How to have clubs that are flexible (teaching chess vs playing chess).
- About Jason Bodnar's podcast
- Jeff Bradbury
- Matt Miller and his appearance on Jason's Podcast
- You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
- Being on Twitter can get you jobs!
- How to be a transformative principal. Open reflection and transparency.
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Jason is an assistant principal at a middle school who taught for 9 years as a science teacher at the high school level. After working with Assistant Superintendent on 1:1 initiative and creating his own classroom, he realized that he was able to see education in a different light, and chose to go into administration.
- Having a say in what is going on in your classroom can only lead to good things.
- How he gives teachers autonomy in what they are doing.
- Helping teaching find a way to try something new without fear of failure.
- No matter how old you are, there are people older and younger that are smarter than you.
- It’s not that you don’t like science, it is that the instruction you have had has not reached you.
- What makes people great is having a knack for giving students a strong voice.
- Differences between working with high school and middle school students and staff.
- If you’re trying new things and doing what’s best for students, you’re going to be successful.
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Sue Szachowicz was a student, teacher, assistant principal, and principal at Brockton High School.
Article about the success of Brockton High School. New York Times article. Letters to the Editor.
State Tests started in 1993 in Massachusetts and the school was living in denial of whether or not the state would deny a diploma based on the state test. Why would a student continue going to school if they know they are not going to get a diploma?
- How to create a sense of urgency when it doesn’t seem like there is one.
- Front page of the Boston Globe in 1999, failing our kids.
- Is this the best we can be?
- Creating a restructuring committee - meeting over the summer.
- Looked at the released test questions.
- Major Fail - Shakespeare Focus
- It can’t be about a test.
- What are the skills kids need to be successful on this test AND what are the skills kids need to be successful in their classes AND what are the skills kids need to be successful in their lives?
- Answer to these questions led to a school-wide literacy initiative.
- What is missing from your class, and what do we need to say differently so it passes the 7–11 test?
- Skill is the centerpiece, context is the supporting element.
- How do you bring literacy to life in the classroom.
- Wanted to pick something that was easily measurable in all content areas.
- Active reading, followed by writing a response to the reading.
- Writing is thinking.
- Teachers taught other teachers how to implement writing process.
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Bill Daggett is the founder and Chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education. He has worked all over the world helping schools improve and currently hosts the model school conference which showcases the 40 top performing schools in the country.
- Other nations were doing some things better than us, but not everything. One thing we do much better is educating ALL students.
- No nation in the world that would do what public education was doing for my family.
- Spoke in 29 nations in 2 years.
- Pulled company back to focus on America.
- Carefully interviews people who need help, and mentor the schools to help them.
- 5,000 - 8,000 people at Model Schools Conference in June.
- Teaming is important. We have created artificial silos that don’t help students learn in real-life situations. School
- Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships for ALL students
- Schools are organized for ease of the teachers, not students.
- Schools are organized for the top 1/3 of the students.
- Want to motivate kids? Better make it relevant for them.
- Interdisciplinary teams.
- To start find two people who are willing to work together and go from there.
- Build your master schedule around them.
- Takes about 3–5 years for these initiatives to work.
- We need the common planning period between disciplines.
- Gotta pick the battles you are going to fight.
- That’s too revolutionary and revolutionists get killed.
- Breaking staff into thirds - Lunatic Fringe (let’s do every new initiative), Realists (I need some data to change first), Over My Dead Body (I’m not changing for nothing!). And it is not always broken down into even thirds.
- Just leave the bottom third alone. Spend your time and resources on the top third.
- Took 7 years working with that district for Brockton High School to start changing.
- Teachers need an ongoing network of people beyond their own building.
- Running Interference: Find ways to unlock teachers potential and remove roadblocks (state regs, parents/kids, union).
- Get parent advocates. Talk to the parents of students who are doing a really great job. Get that parent to run for school board. Over time, it grows.
- Public education has been around for a long time, you won’t change it overnight.
- Measure what matters.
- Academic Tenacity - do kids feel school is relevant? Do they feel safe? WE Surveys help find out if kids feel connected to school.
- Do students and teachers agree that what is being taught is relevant?
- Student and parent engagement are important.
- Content, Methodology, Academic Tenacity, Parent/Community. We are so hung up on Content, that we can’t get to next three items. High performing schools don’t begin with content, they begin with getting the kids engaged.
- Culture trumps strategy.
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- There is a little audio issue at about 2:15 (and at the end) from my new microphone that I used for this. I couldn’t remove it without removing the whole piece. Please forgive me. ;)
Randy Barron Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. More info here
- Kennedy Center teaching artists integrate arts into the curriculum. Much more focused on students creatively solving problems.
- Arts integration is an approach to teaching where students create an art form to solve a problem.
- Still want to have art taught as an art form,
- Find ways to make kids guilty of learning.
- Find ways to show movement with content areas.
- Science and Poetry are areas that naturally relate to movement. Math is a little more difficult, so it may not connect with skills, but it does still connect with concepts.
- Kids solve problems. Kids make water cycle through dance.
- First drafts are not all that they do, it is just the beginning.
- Integrating close reading of text and other strategies to make sure students understand content, as well as dance.
- Playing with purpose.
- Outside of comfort zone is in their learning zone.
- Students use drawings, demonstrations, writing, and more to show what they are doing. Each child has their own record.
- Randy started dancing at age 19.
- Art integration is incredibly efficient.
- Using verbal, physical, kinesthetic modalities.
- Movement and dance gives them more of a reason to know something, makes it easy for kids to understand and remember.
- Uncover the content versus cover the content.
- Interleaving (or spiraling)
- Tip for getting started: Find a Kennedy Center partnership to get started.
- Principals: Make sure you let your teachers have a little breathing space.
- http://kennedy-center.org
- Contact Randy here
- Web site
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Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Download Paperless Principal.
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Download Paperless Principal.
Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.
Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Show notes at http://transformativeprincipal.com/ken-daly. Please take the listener survey at http://transformativeprincipal.com
Mike is a principal of a pre-K–8 school. He is a great principal and also really great at using technology in unique ways. You can follow him on Twitter (@Techedvance). Spending a few minutes on his web site will teach you a ton about how to use technology to improve your professional practice.
- Turning off the red badge for email notifications. Blog Post
- Classroom Walkthroughs with Drafts
- The Drafts app.
- Dealing with things that come up through the day (do it now, or save for later).
- Mac Power Users Podcast appearance.
- Plain text notes held together by Dropbox is Byword, NVAlt, Fantasical all make him a better leader.
- How to be a transformative principal: Find one way that you can use technology to do your job. If you carry around a smart phone and you can’t answer the question, how does my phone help me be a better principal, make it a goal to find out how it does help you do your job.
- What keeps him inspired: The things in my office that remind me of my faith and my daughter starting in preschool at my school.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Mike is a principal of a pre-K–8 school. He is a great principal and also really great at using technology in unique ways. You can follow him on Twitter (@Techedvance). Spending a few minutes on his web site will teach you a ton about how to use technology to improve your professional practice.
- How Mike got into administration.
- The difference between public schools and private (religious) schools. Doing more with less. Relying on fundraising.
- We need to strike the right balance between instructional leadership and all the other stuff we are tempted to spend our time on.
- The most important aspects of Mike’s leadership.
- There is a little more flexibility in how things are done in the private school, and they are able to meet the needs differently.
- How to challenge teachers to do better.
- Hiring makes a huge difference.
- We give teachers tools and an opportunity to learn on their own, share with their colleagues and grow.
- What kind of people Mike is looking for as teachers: What is it about this age group of students that makes you want to teach them?
- Systematic Podcast appearance
- Mac Power Users Podcast appearance.
- Why Mike likes to share what he is learning and doing.
- The podcasts Mike listens to: 5by5 network (MPU, Back to Work, Systematic). Out of School, 99 percent invisible, Workflowing.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Part 2 of my interview with Colin Andrews.
- How Colin hires great teachers
- Colin doesn’t ask any interview questions, he just listens to his VPs ask all the questions.
- An online form for parents to fill out student’s absences.
- How Colin inspires people to be the best they can be and ensure students have global, authentic connections.
- Sister schools in China, Korea, Japan, mainland USA and Kodiak, AK.
- How he gets connections with other schools in the country.
- How he took the school from $800 in the bank when he started to $200K for materials and PD.
- Global connections so kids can think about how to talk to kids across the ocean.
- Goal to connect each class to two overseas classrooms.
- Picks books relevant to his locale’s native culture and other native cultures in the other schools and share them with the students.
- How Colin started connecting with the schools he partners with now (No mention of Twitter!)
- How to be a transformative principal: Open doors for other people. “Give it a Go”
- What keeps him going: his grandchildren.
- Connect with Colin
Sponsor: Sanebox
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This week I interview Colin Andrews, principal of Blockhouse Bay Intermediate School in Auckland, New Zealand. Mr. Andrews is inspiring. He is doing so much cool stuff, we didn’t have time to get to everything.
- We start by talking about the learning fellowship that Mr. Andrews did many years ago. A four way study looking at transition from elementary to middle and then to high school.
- Forest, outdoor classroom, pest control, projects all directed by the kids.
- Envirokids, through process of inquiry and student voice that create amazing things.
- Pathway and other Envirokids project
- It is the ability of the teacher to be able to spot a question and really pursue it.
- Structure of envirokids: two-three blocks of time on Fridays, one teacher, about 30 kids.
- Working days for the families, kids need to bring one parent with them to participate in the work day (on the weekend).
- How to make manual labor sound exciting?
- 4 Ethics - Academics, cultural, sporting, and service to the community. Recognized through everything they do all the year long.
- Role of the advisor of Envirokids. One teacher teaches all academic subjects, so she changes her teaching on Friday to focus on the Envirokids.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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In part two of my interview with Jordan Collier, we dive into his plan for observations. Really informative stuff, and a good plan for any administrator.
- Observations - daily schedule.
- Jordan focuses on helping teachers when doing observations.
- Attempting to alleviate fears of observations by building relationships.
- How to facilitate a role-play to help teachers see what it is like to do an observation.
- How a two-minute conversation can change a teacher’s practice.
- The importance of set meeting times with teachers to talk about what they are doing.
- The schedule process.
- The greatest compliment in the world, “You’re never in your office.”
- Trying to get kids to think you are following them because you are in their classes so often.
- You have arrived when you are being invited to teachers’ classrooms.
Had a blast in 8th grade SCI lab. Kids and I learned about bias w/ Fruit Loops, Fruit Spins & Tootie Fruities. pic.twitter.com/ItUEHEhmKU
— Jordan Collier (@JCollierAR) September 2, 2014
- How to have the positive conversation and still focus on improvement.
- Dealing with uncomfortable situations.
- Freaky Friday folder.
- Staff Culture Check! Sign up fo
- Leverage Leadership
- Looking for consistency for staff culture check.
- Friday newsletter.
- What you can do to be a transformative principal like Jordan: Be obnoxiously positive about your school.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Jordan Collier, the principal of Central Arkansas Secondary School is an amazing principal. We barely scratch the surface of what he is doing in this first part of the interview!
- Jordan shares how powerful this podcast has been for him, especially the interview with Sam LeDeaux
- How it is different at a religious school compared to a public school.
- Discipline issues at a private christian school.
- Using Bible study time to work on issues with students.
- Telling the story of @CACMustangs. How the students get in on telling the story.
- Mustang Missions. - Helping kids serve others, love them, and be there for others.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Part two of my interview with Sam LeDeaux. You’re going to love it. Here is his blog
- How to balance the need for caring about the teacher with meeting the demands of the state and evaluation system. Evaluation in two simple steps
- Perspective of evaluation “your performance” vs. “service to kids”.
- I want teachers to invite me in for lessons that could go any way and possibly be really different.
- Leaders, strive to be the weak link
- How Twitter has changed his practice. Parents want to observe the classroom to ensure they like what is happening only when you are not transparent.
- Dedicating entire days to being in classrooms, while still managing requirements of his job. The more I am out and about, the less things there will be that pin me in my office. Goal: 8 full days in the class per month.
- Sharing what he learns and fails at with the staff.
- Inspiring Twitterers: @gcouros @justintarte @8amber8, chats, and anyone who is willing to share something is really inspiring.
- How to be a transformative principal: be patiently perseverant.
- What inspires him: his son, is he meeting his son’s expectations for school, because all his students are his sons and daughters!
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Transformative Principal on Stitcher
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Sam LeDeaux is a principal at a K–5 school in metropolitan Chicago. His forté is working well with his parents and staff.
- 62 staff members and 869 parents working together to make things happen!
- Learning that people “somewhere” doing things were actually people who were doing these things right around him.
- Twitter and Social networking have been incredibly transformative and empowering. #mannschool
- Transparency is what makes him effective.
- Parents suggest and respond to ways to make his school better through social media.
- We can grow in ways that we never before thought was possible.
- Continuous sharing and positive collaboration makes technology transformative.
- You don’t need to have common planning periods to have time to collaborate.
- How to balance the difficult issues with being transparent.
- It is not about personal performance, it is about service to kids.
- When it is seen as a personal attack, you shut down when you are evaluated. When you see it as improving service to kids, you don’t get upset.
- Peer observations - invite and show the value.
- We do not let schedules get in our way of improving and service to students.
- What is the purpose of peer observations?
- Evaluations should be about growth.
Sponsor: Sanebox
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Shawn is a principal in British Columbia and is doing some amazing things with technology at his school, including having kindergartners use iPads to create amazing projects. In this interview, we discuss the following:
- What Shawn is most excited about relating to technology in his school.
- Why do we use technology in schools?
- Learning as scaffolding and focusing on learning first, and technology second.
- Blended learning as having digital and physical tools in front of the student at the same time.
- Powerful for learning are situations that capture what a student is thinking.
- Shawn’s role as principal to teachers regarding technology in the school: Permission to try, permission to fail.
- How to gain trust from your faculty. We are in a relationship business.
- They need me to support them when they need support and challenge them when they need to be challenged.
- Reflecting in front of your teachers and being vulnerable in front of them.
- H/T to @ChrisWejr about 5 things to roar about blog posts.
- Positive blog posts went from no big deal to students finding those positive events in the school.
- Key elements to 5 things to roar about posts: celebrate success (student and staff successes) and give parents an idea of what learning looks like in our school.
- What can we do to be a transformative principal? Mindset, tell the story of your school and do it wherever you are comfortable.
- What reminds him about why he is doing this great work? For his own kids.
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The second half of my interview with Dr. Briscoe, the new superintendent of Canyons District.
- The strengths of Canyons school district.
- The importance of the involvement of families.
- We should try to do what we are doing even better. Teacher and principal input needs to be truly valued.
- Making sure everyone in the organization feels valued.
- Honoring the past before you build for the future.
- Principal qualities Dr. Briscoe is looking for: having a vision compared to implementing a vision. Humility. Accessible and visible. Patience. Admit mistakes. Regardless of the other person’s opinion, you need to respect the person and take their opinion or concern seriously.
- Focus on the vision and goal of your school, just take the time to meet with people and explain your rationale.
- Most of the time, if you explain what you’re thinking, the people who disagree are OK with your decision, even if they don’t agree with it.
- Don’t ask people for their input if you have already made your decision.
- How to deal with taking the hits: exercise, without your health, you can’t do anything.
- The importance of being recognizable. Walk up and introduce yourself to people out and about, and ask them if they have school-age kids.
- A school leader is a leader in the community. You must get out and meet with local clubs and groups.
- The benefit of being from a small district and being involved in every department in the district.
- How to be a transformative principal: Take a risk!
- What is in his office to keep him motivated? A poster that says, “If you don’t climb the mountain, you can’t enjoy the view.”
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My (former) school district recently hired a new superintendent, and I was able to sit down and chat with him. I think he is just what the district needs and I am really excited for what he will bring to the table. We talked about the following:
- Where Dr. Briscoe got his start in education and in administration
- His diverse experience as a leader of schools that were from incredibly high-achieving to greatly struggling.
- Engaging in the community by being involved in community issues (building new police station, hospital, etc.)
- The political struggles that lead Dr. Briscoe to retirement from his school district.
- Why he felt like Canyons School District was a good match for him.
- Why it is so important to be out and about and seen.
- How to build trust. Time.
- What happened in the past, is in the past. Let’s not worry about it.
- The culture he wants to create: Trust & Collaboration.
- Honoring the past.
- How he measures the success of his superintendency, not to be confused with his job description.
- Why that measure of success is so important.
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My wife and I decided that we wanted an adventure a few months ago, and so we started looking around for principal positions that would be new and different for us.
We found one!
This second interview with Bob Sonju is really great. You will enjoy every minute of it! We talk about the following:
- How to deal with cynical stakeholders.
- Why people need to be ready to change to make things better.
- How to make a good school even better.
- Why you wake up with panic attacks in the middle of the night as a transformative principal.
- The best time to change education was 20 years ago, the second best time to change education is today!
- The excuses we make to not make changes.
- There is no such thing as an optimal time to make changes, but we need to have a sense of urgency.
- The state of Utah lost 19% of students (that didn’t graduate with a diploma). That is 1 in 5 kids! Unacceptable!
- If you don’t find a better way… You fall back to how you did it before. We need to focus on using research-based best practices to help our students.
- The importance of the Professional Learning Communities and Response to Intervention.
- We don’t need to find new things, we just need to get good at PLCs and RTI.
- There is no quick fix for schools.
- We need to remove the things that
- A super quick overview of PLCs and RTI in case you aren’t familiar with them. Based mostly on the work of DuFour and Eaker in Learning by Doing
- What a principal can do to be a transformative principal today: Identify the research that drives your day-to-day work and recognize the sense of urgency we have to ensure that learning is not optional.
- What he has in his office or a story: Simplify and focus. Story about teacher telling him that he is right in pushing forward.
- How to get ahold of him (He is not on the Twitter, but he is willing to help you by giving his email address. Bob [dot] sonju at wash.k12.ut.us)
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Bob Sonju is the Director of K–12 Learning in Washington School District in Southern Utah.
In this first part of the interview, we discuss the following:
- A little about Bob’s history and what he learned to help him become prepared for being a transformative principal.
- Bob focuses on making sure all students are doing their best, not just particular subgroups.
- What prepared Bob to be a principal: being a coach and a special education teacher.
- What barriers prevent a school from being ready for change.
- Three fundamentals that are needed to change:
- Why do we exist
- Describing a perfect school
- What are we going to do to make sure we get there!
- Conversations about structural change take time and informal and formal conversations with teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders.
- All the voices have to be in the room!
- Establishment of norms are critical for the success of our school, and while we want to hear everyone’s concerns, we will move forward with the will of the group.
- The norms for Bob’s schools.
- The need for “critical friends”.
- How he deals with the fact of hearing that he is doing something wrong.
- One of the best interview questions: “Anticipate a mistake you are going to make, and how you will resolve that!”
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This second part of the interview with Tom Whitford delves deeper into the great things he is doing. We discuss the following:
- Working with 3 different schools
- How he manages dealing with all that they have going on.
- Dealing with the new teacher evaluation system using the Danielson model
- What he has been focusing on as a leader in the three schools: PBIS and RTI.
- What RTI looks like on a day-to-day basis in his school(s).
- What ICE looks like at his school(s). What data they use, and how fluid their groups are.
- Why some students might get less support by entering Special Education than if they stay in their intervention groups.
- How to create opportunities for fluid movement and appropriate support between groups to meet the needs of the students.
- WADITW (We’ve Always Done it this Way)
- What advice would he give to principals? Relationships
- How being out in the hallways is beneficial (even during parent teacher conferences).
- What is in his office to motivate him? Great sayings in his office and his kids.
- Voxer usage helping him communicate with other principals.
- Shoutout to @gcouros and @mmiller
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This week’s interview is with Tom Whitford, an amazing principal of 3(!) schools in Wisconsin.
- His mentor that taught him a lot about how to be a leader and how to push yourself and others to be better, book reads, and more.
- Professional Learning Communities in Tom’s ideal world.
- PLCs require a whole philosophy change to be effective.
- How to set the stage to be successful in having discussions with teachers. Power of change comes from stories.
- Create opportunities for conversation.
- How can administrators tell stories? Start with true stories. (Don’t make things up.) Provide opportunities for real conversation.
- What can we do to make this work, and what will prevent us from being successful?
- It is too easy for things to get said behind closed doors, and we need to address challenges early on, and then address issues as they arise.
- Focus the conversations on continuous improvement on faculty meeting time.
- “Jumpstart Fridays” - aides and others work with kids so they can do collaboration times.
- How Tom gets teachers to feel comfortable sharing their stories with Tom and the other teachers.
- “Speed of Trust” By Stephen M.R. Covey
- We don’t get better, unless we can talk about the mistakes that we made.
- How Tom figured out that his faculty did not like his strategy for getting them to have fun with his emails. (Background blog post - “Learning with your mistakes”)
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My second part interview with the great Alice Peck. In this episode we focus on her new assignment as a principal of a Title I school in our district.
- What is Alice going to take with her to her new Title I school?
- What is Alice anxious about in going to her new school?
- Why Alice is excited about change.
- “If you’re not nervous, you probably shouldn’t be doing this!”
- How Alice is going to overcome her fears.
- “The greatest way to overcome fear is to face it and address it!”
- How Alice will deal with building trust as fast as she can. Hint: you can’t speed up trust.
- The importance of visibility as a school leader.
- Modeling the kind of work ethic she wants her staff to have.
- What advice does Alice have to be a transformative principal? Surround yourself with smart people.
- What helps Alice focus on what is most important? (I forgot to take a picture before I left her office! I’ll see if you can send me one.)
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Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Alice Peck, one of the best principals I have ever worked with. You’ll love to get to know her in this episode.
- How she came to be where she is at.
- What she noticed coming from Texas to Utah.
- What she really enjoys about how things have changed since she came to her current position.
- How she got her staff on board right from the beginning with PBIS.
- The art program at Oakdale.
- The process of starting PBIS at her school. Practical advice of how to get things going.
- How important it is to have the whole staff involved in school-wide initiatives (speaking of PBIS specifically).
- Why an actual form for Office Discipline Referral form is important.
- Where to go when processes are established and ready to maintain.
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- How to manage time on social media with being a principal, doctoral student, etc. How to connect with others.
- It is about connections that is most beneficial.
- Connecting with Bill Ferriter and John Pederson
- It isn’t about the tech itself, it is about the real.
- Technology just helps you connect with others.
- What Curt is most proud of that is happening at his school right now.
- Remodeling his school thanks to a funding referendum his community.
- Student-produced newscast. (Led by Crystal Brunelle)
- His school’s Facebook page
- Going out in the school and snapping pictures.
- International Happy Day “Wouldn’t this be cool to do?” - said a teacher at his school.
- People make stuff up on the Internet
- Humility - Curt is constantly deferring praise to others and deflecting praise and comments to his staff and other people around him.
- Strengths-Based Leadership Great book!
- Great leaders need to be excellent listeners.
- How Curt grew to learn about himself. Evaluating others.
- Giving feedback that is based on what is seen in other classrooms, rather than, “When I was a teacher…”
- We have to notice others around us.
- Spend time to get to know people. Make sure you’re winning hearts and minds before you try to do anything.
- We aren’t a bunch of independent contractor.
- Techlandia podcast. And on Twitter - If you listen to this on Sunday, you’ll find something that you can put to use on Monday.
- How to be a Transformative Principal: Be well read.
- What motivates him: Nice notes from teachers, parents, students.
- “You are responsible for the energy you bring into this space.”
Shoutouts: Bill Ferriter Solution tree Crystal brunelle
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Curt Rees Twitter is a tech-minded principal at Northern Hills Elementary School in Onalaska, WI. He is also one of the hosts of the Techlandia Podcast, a great education podcast.
- Experience as a principal and a teacher around the country.
- Why he has moved around so much.
- Doctoral Program and how he balances that with being a principal and what he hopes to get out of it.
- Clay Shirky Cognitive Surplus
- Every single day I learn something about being a school leader.
- The 4 C’s: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity
- Ninja video by his kids. (And the Harlem Shake)
- Technology as a tool that supports the kind of learning we want for our kids.
- Voxer App. Sharing things a little more privately and allowing for a little more emotion.
William D. Parker is the principal of Skiatook High School. His web site and Twitter. He has also done some amazing interviews himself. I have learned a ton from reading those, and I am sure you will, as well.
Due to technical difficulties, we recorded our phone conversation, so the quality is a little old school. But, I almost felt like a radio DJ with a call-in show.
- What he learned as the Assistant Principal to the Principal at his school, who recently retired.
- Bonuses for students who take all the assessments they are required to.
- What skills he had to learn as an educational leader, that he wasn’t taught in school.
- Key Responsibilities Areas from Entreleadership tells people who is in charge of what area. Here is his blog post about KRAs.
- Michael Hyatt leadership podcasts.
- How he has dealt with student loss. They have tragically had 2 student deaths this year.
- Excellent and a lot of communication.
- Be visible.
- Maintain as much stability as possible.
- Open to creative and spontaneous.
- Show appreciation to the kids who are present.
- Tried to communicate well to media.
- Allow yourself to grieve.
- How he knew what the right thing to do was. Be part of a good team. Trust your people.
- How he has established collaborative culture of trust.
- Hiring great instructors and compassionate people.
- Treat teachers how you would want to be treated. Shotgun blast of directives is not effective.
- Relationships matter.
- His blog rocks!
- Give him some more followers on Twitter, because he has great things to say. I have learned so much from Will.
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Doug Robertson (Twitter) teaches 3rd grade in Southern Oregon.
Here’s his blog or media empire homepage.
Youtube Channel
Facebook Fan page
He is the author of “He’s the Weird Teacher” (paperback) (Kindle edition).
I interviewed Doug because I read his book and was really fascinated by it. I have learned that not everyone teaches the same way (DUH!). But, also, our own life experiences have taught us and shaped us into the people we are today. To be a great teacher, you don’t need to be like [Enter Great Teacher’s Name]. Doug and every excellent “popular” or famous or movie teacher have two things in common:
- A strong desire to be your own person, regardless of the status quo or anybody else’s judgments.
- A passion to help kids learn.
As part of this podcast, I want to start interviewing master teachers who are really great at what they do. I am especially interested in teachers that are great at making their kids enjoy class and learn life lessons, not just making sure they are acing the tests. ;)
Notes from my conversation with Doug:
- He used to teach in Hawaii, so we talked a little about that before the official interview started, but it was fascinating, so I included it.
- Teaching is a performance art
- Acting vs. Teaching.
- Importance of trust in teaching.
- What happens in my classroom happens because I want it to.
- To Principals: You hired me to do my job, now let me do it.
- Chris Hardwick
- How he takes away the opportunity to make excuses.
- How swimming helped him learn to stop making excuses.
- Why you can’t keep complaining without doing something to fix it.
- It is OK to vent about kids. “But, my kids don’t give me much to complain about.” (That is because if they did, he would take responsibility for it!)
- “My classroom is noisy because it has to be noisy.”
- “My students are weird, what am I doing to make them weird.”
- I give two cents on why I like a noisy cafeteria.
- Some discussion on the term “digital native”.
- We should call what we do “Practicing Education” just like lawyers practice law and doctors practice medicine.
- How being a good teacher and establishing the basics allows us to know how we can change things up as we go along.
- What kind of an environment does Doug need to thrive? Trust!
- How trusting students is an extension of the trust from administration.
- Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire by Rafe Esquith
- How to have your own style. Don’t teach like someone else. Teach like yourself.
- Some kids don’t respond well to the style of Doug’s teaching.
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In this second part of my interview with the amazing Chris Wejr, we go deeper into the ideas of student discipline and learning. We also discuss some other cool things that are happening at his school.
- Punishment. How to approach it correctly.
- How do we help students with disabilities.
- How to deal with parents of victims that are upset that there are not visible consequences for misbehavior.
- If we don’t teach this child, he will continue doing this.
- Following up with parents a couple weeks after an incident to ensure it is not still happening.
- Restorative practices - should be tied to negative behaviors.
- Finding opportunities for kids to serve others.
- Be proactive to find opportunities to prevent problems that may arise.
- FedEx Prep - giving teachers time to be innovative and productive on their own with their own passions.
- Advice for being a transformative principal. “It comes from the teachers, of course. I can’t transform something in a classroom.”
- Something in his office that motivates him. I asked him to send me the picture of him with the paddle.
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I was super excited to interview Chris Wejr. He is one of those principals that I have been following for a long time and his take on discipline and behavior is inspiring.
- Moving from a lower SES school to a higher SES school.
- If kids are driven by rewards, then they are across all areas.
- It is very easy to go too far with rewards, and focus only on providing rewards for kids to “get us through the day.”
- The problem with determining how to properly implement PBIS.
- The complexities of correcting a student’s behavior by giving them a reward when they behave correctly.
- How important it is to have sense of belonging to help students avoid negative behaviors.
- Strategies to help students who struggle with negative behavior overcome those struggles.
- It sometimes takes 2 years to get kids to overcome their struggles.
- How to buy yourself some time to make decisions and help get through the day to make sure you help kids who are struggling.
- The bouncy ball trick that worked for me every time after I interviewed him.
- The difference between a program and a system.
This is a great interview. Chris is amazing!
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- Why are we going to let other people tell our story?
- What they believe in.
- Every choice they make is thoughtful.
- How Tony shares his story daily.
- Storify - An example of how Tony uses Storify.
- Cantiague Hashtag
- Video updates
- Touchcast app
- How he shifted brand management from him to the staff and the kids
- How to make sure the brand experience matches the brand promise. For example, here is an exchange between Tony and someone who knows what his school’s brand promise is:
@TonySinanis @mrkempnz I know you do!! :) All groups are equally respected and treated at #Cantiague.
— Lisa (@lisaodavis) April 17, 2014 * Transparency has changed the relationship between the school and community. * PTA meetings have taken a new direction since they are so open. * Build it from the inside. * Faculty Enhancement opportunities instead of faculty meetings * How to be a transformative principal like Tony. 1. It’s not about you! 2. Stay current on research. 3. Don’t take yourself too seriously, but take the work you do seriously. * What he has in his office to keep him focused on how to be the best principal he can be. * Jericho Schools
You have to make sure the brand experience matches brand promise As the principal, you need to be learning the most.
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A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of interviewing Tony Sinanis. Little did I know, that he would be named the New York Elementary Principal of the Year! So, I interviewed him before he was famous. Tony Twitter is a great principal and one who is eager to share what he is doing well. He is also incredibly humble and self-aware. I hope you enjoy his interview. I sure learned a lot from him. Here is his BrandED podcast
- Tony discusses his background and how he is a first-generation college graduate, and not only that, he is working on his PhD and already has two Masters!
- Tony still keeps in contact with his first year’s class. Wow!
- Moving into his first school. Tony’s humility recognizing that he wasn’t the right fit for the school.
- Separating Tony the principal from Tony the Person.
- Recognizing that his cultural perspectives that were wrong for his school.
- The difference between white guilt and recognizing differences.
- Education is more than just the Common Core and High-Stakes Testing. We are disconnected from what the real world is.
- We try to make kids fit into this little box, totally discongruent to how the world works.
- He calls himself the Lead Learner, not the principal, because there is a real difference between the two.
- How Cantiague gives voice to the students.
- He demonstrates his learning whenever he can. He pushes himself out of his comfort zone as often as he can.
- The post about the term Lead Learner by Pernille Ripp
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I had the great pleasure to attend (and present) the UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Conference this last Thursday and Friday. While it was a lot of fun, it was also ver powerful and transformative for me. I solidified some educational philosophies and had some time to actually think about what I am doing every day and how I am inspiring (or not) my teachers. George’s keynote was very inspiring, but it was also practical, and I love practical presentations. I loved meeting George after following him for so long. This was a great interview.
One thing that was really awesome was that he made me wait a few extra minutes to ensure that he had gone through and read every single tweet about his keynote, and replied to those that he felt needed a response. it was amazing to hear him say three or four times, "Just a minute, I need to get through all these tweets. There were a ton of tweets!"
- His keynote called “Innovate! Create! Voice!” and what he was trying to communicate with that.
- The importance of creating and sharing with others.
- How he encourages teachers and principals to create and share.
- What the remix culture is about.
- Why it is important to focus on what is really helping kids.
- What it means to be a school teacher.
- If you don’t know what a hashtag and twitter are, you are illiterate. Why does George believe this?
- How you can leverage your network to make things happen.
- Why Twitter is about learning and sharing.
- How do we do things when our leaders aren’t on board, yet?
- We need people who are willing to push.
- The one thing you can do to be a transformative principal.
- Connected Principals (#cpchat) and how to get in touch with him (follow him on Twitter: @gcourous)
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I had the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Fidel Montero, the principal of Alta High School (Twitter) in Sandy, Utah. Fidel is inspiring from the first moment that you speak with him. He is incredibly smart, very caring, and wants students to be the most successful people they can be. Here is his TEDxCSDTeachers talk: Care. This is part two of my interview with him. I hope you enjoy it. We barely scratched the surface of what makes him transformative.
- How he counsels teachers and puts them in their areas of strength.
- How he evaluates himself and the initiatives he implements.
- How he delegates and guides the implementation of his vision.
- Michael Barber - Deliverology
- Some missteps the school took as they rolled out some new initiatives.
- How he responds when people complain about being overworked.
- How he gets feedback from teachers.
- What you can do to be a transformative principal. The President’s Club
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I had the great pleasure of speaking with Fidel Montero, the principal of Alta High School (Twitter) in Sandy, Utah. Fidel is inspiring from the first moment that you speak with him. He is incredibly smart, very caring, and wants students to be the most successful people they can be. Here is his TEDxCSDTeachers talk: Care.
- The Doctoral research that Fidel conducted for his degree in urban school management.
- Parents pick up on who is being supportive, regardless of whether or not they spoke the native language of the parents.
- The demographic shift that Utah is currently experiencing, and why he wanted to conduct his research in Utah.
- Specific strategies for engaging and supporting Latino families in your school.
- Microagression
- The balance of talking about race when your race is either the same as your demographics or different.
- How including multicultural families in your school and recognizing their heritage and history actually encourages them to feel more pride in your country.
- His work with Greta Pruitt in Los Angeles Unified School District to teach parents to work together.
- His thoughts on School Improvement versus CSIP plans.
Thanks for tuning in! Have a Good Life.
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Show Notes Andy Greene is a transformative principal at Candlewood Middle School. We talk mostly about professional practice and professional development. Andy is a master at these two things. I learned so much from Andy, and I am so thankful he took the time to speak with me.
Here are some bullet points from our discussion:
- How he ensures that teachers are continuous learners
- How he ensures that faculty meetings are like miniature college courses.
- How he uses backwards design for his faculty meetings.
- How he ensures that teachers come to faculty meeting and make sure that they all get something out of it.
- Mission and Vision Document
- Professional Expectations Document
- How he helps everyone see they are a member of a team.
- What it means to bow low.
- This:
- How he has hard conversations with teachers and balances that with positive feedback.
- When he decides to divulge information to teachers about how they are perceived.
- The importance of having staff that can tell you how things are really playing out among the staff.
- The intentional things Andy does to make sure his staff feels that they are in a comfortable learning atmosphere.
- Seek first to understand before being understood.
- How Andy would approach a staff that he needs to “clean up.”
He sent a bunch of stuff over to me, and sharing is caring, so here it is for you. First, he sent two files that I read from in the interview:
Expectations 2014 (Word Doc) - This document goes over the expectations he has for the staff at his school. Updated as often as needed, and discussed just as often. There are some great gems in this document.
Mission and Values (Word Doc) - This document discusses what the mission and values of Candlewood Middle School are. Again, there is some great information here.
PLCs (Word Doc) - We didn’t get a chance to discuss this document, but it includes a lot of great information about PLCs and some great quotes to get people thinking about them.
The following are emails that Andy sends out to his staff after each mini-university-course faculty meeting. You can tell that he spends time thinking about what to say to his staff, how to motivate them, and encourage a culture of learning. He pretty much never lets up.
An example of a “post-discussion” faculty meeting conversation Good discussion on objectives yesterday…[refer to the packet from yesterday for other examples]
A personal example to help clarify!
Faculty Meeting Big Idea For the Year-Staff will understand that standards are not curriculum: curriculum needs to reflect best practice and user needs while also honoring standards. Essential Question-What is understanding? What follows for curriculum and unit writing? Faculty Meeting Instructional Objective-At the end of the meeting, staff will be able to identify the three types of “learning” for their upcoming unit: acquisition, meaning-making, and transfer.
Other example Big Idea: Student should understand that good readers employ specific techniques to help them make meaning of what the text says.
Essential Question-What do good readers do, especially when they don’t comprehend a text?
Lesson Instructional Objective-Student will be able to use identify the two persuasive techniques the author employs in _____.
Let’s continue the discussion! A reminder…please have a manila folder for each faculty meeting so you can keep the handouts that are given out… Yesterday, there was a packet that we did not have a chance to get to but we will use it in October. To save paper, I do not want to make other copies!
Thanks
Andy
Another example of CC vocabulary for all classes… Good Morning,
As I start to look at some of the assessments that faculty members are sending in, I want to encourage everyone to use the verbs we have discussed not only as you ask student questions in class, but how you frame your questions on assessments. Here are some suggestions:
- Instead of saying “Which inequality is represented in the graph below,” add the word “Evaluate” at the start of the sentence [e.g., “Evaluate which inequality is represented in the graph below, and pick the best response from the choices listed.”
- Instead of saying “Which is the best title for the series of maps at right,” add the word “Suggest” [e.g., “As you look at the graph to the right, what would you suggest would be the best title from the choices below.”
- In music, tech, art, LOTE, etc, use sentences such as “What conclusion can you draw from the information presented?” “In measures 15–20, cite the key signature and dynamic levels.” “Summarize the information regarding the best tool for this particular job and explain why it is the one you would recommend.” “Distinguish between the choices below; which country is considered to be the birthplace of the Spanish language.” I encourage everyone to plan your lessons keeping the vocabulary words “upfront and center.”
(:
Andy
Cognitive/Conative Per our discussion at the faculty meeting…
Whenever you can integrate the cognitive and the conative skills identified below into your unit plans, please do so. In addition to the vocabulary terms we have discussed, these are skills that every teacher can incorporate [where applicable]. Use your creative juices to determine where-in your content area-these would work best.
Cognitive skills are traditionally defined as those needed to effectively process information and complete tasks. Cognitive skills are required for tasks involving retrieval, comprehension, analysis, and utilization of knowledge. The majority of the practice standard skills from the CCSS are best classified as primarily cognitive in nature.
Conative skills are traditionally defined as the skills that allow a person to examine his or her knowledge and emotions in order to choose an appropriate future course of actions. A useful way to think about conative skills is in terms of interacting with others and controlling oneself.
Within the framework, Marzano and Heflebower (2012) identified specific classroom strategies that teachers can employ to teach cognitive and conative skills in their classrooms. This category included key words and phrases such as:
- Construct arguments
- Develop ideas
- Build on others’ ideas
- Integrate information
- Respond to others’ arguments
- Compare arguments
- Explain flaws in arguments
- Decide if arguments make sense
- Decide if arguments are correct
- Determine domains to which an argument applies
- Clarify arguments
- Improve arguments
- Draw conclusions
- Justify conclusions
To help teachers address this category of skills, we identified three specific cognitive strategies from the Marzano and Heflebower (2012) framework:
- Generating conclusions
- Identifying common logical errors
- Presenting and supporting claims
Another category of practice skills that we identified was perspectives. This category included key words and phrases such as:
- Points of view
- Open-minded
- Divergent cultures, experiences, and perspectives
- Varied Backgrounds
- Collaborate
- Interact with others
- Reflect
- Step back
- Shift perspective
- Different approaches
To help teachers address these skills, we identified four specific conative strategies from the Marzano and Heflebower (2012) framework:
- Becoming aware of the power of interpretations 1. Taking various perspectives 1. Interacting responsibly 1. Handling controversy and conflict resolution
In effect, we selected specific classroom strategies for each of the categories of practice standard skills that we identified in the CCSS.
Cognitive Strategies Teachers can use the following ten strategies in the classroom to embed the cognitive strategies found in the ELA and mathematics practice standards into instruction:
- General conclusions 2. Identifying common logical errors 3. Presenting and supporting claims 4. Navigating digital sources 5. Problem solving 6. Decision making 7. Experimenting 8. Investigating 9. Identifying basic relationship between ideas 10. Generating and manipulating mental images
Andy
Visible Learning… Expert teachers can identify the most important ways in which to represent the subject that they teach.
In Visible Learning, it was shown that teachers’ subject-matter knowledge had little effect on the quality of student outcomes! The distinction, however, is less the ‘amount’ of knowledge and less the ‘pedagogical content knowledge’, but more about how teachers see the surface and the deeper understandings of the subjects that they teach, as well as their beliefs about how to teach and understand when students are learning and have learned the subject. Expert teachers and experienced teachers do not differ in the amount of knowledge that they have about curriculum matters or knowledge about teaching strategies but expert teachers do differ in how they organize and use this content knowledge. Experts possess knowledge that is more integrated, in that they combine the introduction of new subject knowledge with students’ prior knowledge; they can relate current lesson content to other subjects in the curriculum; and they make lessons uniquely their own by changing, combining, and adding to the lessons according to their student’s needs and their own teaching goals.
As a consequence of the way in which they view and organize their approach, expert teachers can quickly recognize sequences of events occurring in the classroom that in some way affect the learning and teaching of a topic. They can detect and concentrate more on information that has most relevance, they can make better predictions based on their representations about the classroom, and they can identify a greater store of strategies that students might use when solving a particular problem. They are therefore able to predict and determine the types of error that students might make, and thus they can be much more responsive to students. This allows expert teachers to build understandings as to the how and why of student success. They are more able to reorganize their problem-solving in light of ongoing classroom activities, they can readily formulate a more extensive range of likely solutions, and they are more able to check and test out their hypotheses or strategies. They seek negative evidence about their impact (who has not learnt, who is not making progress) in the hurly-burly of the classroom, and use it to make adaptations and to problem-solve.
These teachers maintain a passionate belief that students can learn the content and understandings included in the learning intentions of the lesson(s). This claim about the ability to have a deep understanding of the various relationships also helps to explain why some teachers are often anchored in the details of the classroom, and find it hard to think outside the specifics of their classrooms and students. Generalization is not always their strength.
The results are clear: expert teachers do differ from experienced teachers – particularly in the degree of challenge that they present to students, and, most critically, in the depth to which students learn to process information. Students who are taught by expert teachers exhibit an understanding of the concepts targeted in the instruction that is more integrated, more coherent, and at a higher level of abstraction than the understanding achieved by students in classes taught by experienced but not expert, teachers.
Andy
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In this second part interview, Sharyle and I discuss the following:
- Community helping out those who need it.
- What the best parts are of having a new intern every year.
- She answers the question of how to be a transformative principal. Look at the big picture.
- She answers the question of what is in her office that inspires her. Then we talk about all the great ways she has involved her community in her travels, and how she gets them to see the big picture of helping others.
- Because she is so involved in her community, she knows what skills and
- Partnership with Apa Sherpa Foundation and Healthy Draper. Article about Apa Sherpa’s retirement
- Going to Peru and involving the whole school.
- Going to Africa and involving the community and school.
- How she convinces parents and her community to get on board with her ideas.
- How she connected Meet the Masters art program with music and dance.
Sponsor: Sanebox, erase email insanity!
Sharyle Karren has been a principal for the last 22 years! She has a lot of experience and this interview is a really great opportunity to learn from a great principal about how much she has helped students over the years.
In this interview, we talk about the following:
- Her history as a principal and some of the trials she went through.
- The common theme through her experiences is that she had a positive attitude and knew that the people she worked with were amazing individuals.
- How she opened a new school, her current school.
- Establishing positive community relationships.
- How she went to each local organization and “dug her roots into the community”.
- How she established walking field trips to further establish a positive community relationship.
- How she manages intern principals. She has a great balance of allowing interns to make decisions, but making sure that they know that they need to talk to her. She gives them an opportunity to learn, but allows them the authority to make decisions
- What things she keeps for herself and refuses to delegate to her AP or interns.
- Challenges associated with training interns and Assistants.
- How she establishes relationships with schools that are close by.
Sponsor: Sanebox Avoid email insanity. Start saving time by using Sanebox which acts as a personal secretary, keeping all the unimportant emails from interrupting my day. I get an email digest of all the emails that I missed during the day at a time when I choose. I love Sanebox and I think you will, too!
I’m really excited about this interview with Eric Sheninger@NMHS_Principal.
Eric goes over the 7 pillars of Digital Leadership in his new book:
- Communication
- Public Relations
- Branding
- Student Engagement/Learning
- Professional Growth/Development
- Reenvisioning Learning Spaces and Environments
- Opportunity
Eric talks about how his school’s journey and how that can be a template for changing from a mandate-driven school to one of empowerment.
Our conversation includes the following:
- How social media has changed and pushed his view of the world.
- What we don’t know we fear.
- Why it is important to give students a voice.
- How to get students to be the focus on the essential skill sets.
- How to make learning for students applicable to their (and our) real lives.
- How to change midstream from one way to do things to how he does them now.
- We need to be the lead learners.
- How to get all teachers on board with a vision (hint: it is all about mindset).
- How he gives his teachers autonomy in what they are doing in their classrooms.
- How making learning fun contributes to higher scores, graduation rates, and college graduation rates.
- What you can do to be a transformative principal today. Get on Social Media and don’t reinvent the wheel.
- What motivates and inspires him. His students. He has pictures on his walls in his office that help him focus on what is most important.
Eric talks about how he pulled 5 teachers aside in 2009 to instill his vision in their minds. He joined Twitter in March 2009, and so he really did have a change of heart. He shows that when he learns something new, he knows that it is important to implement it and change his life.
Have a Good Life.
Eric's Book Summary:
It’s time for the next generation of leadership. Digital leadership is a strategic mindset and set of behaviors that leverages resources to create a meaningful, transparent, and engaging school culture. It takes into account recent changes such as ubiquitous connectivity, open-source technology, mobile devices, and personalization to dramatically shift how schools have been run and structured for over a century. Leading in education becomes exponentially powerful when using technology to your advantage.
Eric Sheninger—“Principal Twitter”—shares his Pillars of Digital Leadership to help readers:
• Transform school culture by initiating sustainable change
• Use free social media tools to improve communication, enhance public relations, and create a positive brand presence
• Integrate digital tools into the classroom to increase student engagement and achievement
• Facilitate professional learning and access new opportunities and resources
The time is now, whether you are a building level or teacher leader, to boldly move schools forward in the digital age.
In this episode I have the great opportunity to interview Melinda Miller (@mmiller7571). I have followed her for a long time on Twitter, and I loved the podcast she did with @ScottElias called Practical Principals. That great podcast partly inspired me to start this podcast. I still haven't found a podcast that talks about the real issues that are facing to
Our conversation covers these topics:
- Positive intentions - how she approaches teachers who need to be corrected.
- Turnover and how she gets great people to come to her school.
- Her quick-start personality and how she shares results of her evaluations with the teachers.
- Adaptive schools trainings were conducted at her school, and here is more information about it.
- How she uses Twitter for her own learning and how she teaches others, she is a Twitter grandmother according toSpike Cook.
- How she uses Pinterest to help her teachers.
- Using a Voxer group of principals to talk a little more privately about topics that are
- Jethro's Twitter failure when he was a teacher.
- What is one thing a principal can do to be a transformative principal like you are?
- What is something in her office that is meaningful to you?
She has a lot of great information on her blog. If you read blogs by principals and you aren't reading hers, you are missing out.
Have a Good Life.
In this episode I have the great opportunity to interview Melinda Miller (@mmiller7571). I have followed her for a long time on Twitter, and I loved the podcast she did with @ScottElias called Practical Principals. That great podcast partly inspired me to start this podcast. I still haven't found a podcast that talks about the real issues that are facing to
Our conversation covers these topics:
- How she gets teachers on board with technology.
- How she allows teachers to filter out what she says and when.
- She gives her thoughts on requirements for teacher's blogs, which are a requirement for her.
- How Melinda deals with the roadblocks of implementing new things (including technology).
- How she knows how hard to push her teachers, and what to focus on when she is pushing her teachers.
- How she allows her faculty to talk to her about when she is pushing too hard.
- How she implemented 1:1 Chromebooks in 4th grade when a bunch of other stuff was coming down the pike.
- How she prepares for the beginning of a new school year. (And here is the ASCD article on her flipped faculty meeting.) Keep your flipped faculty meetings short, to the point, and give teachers plenty of time to look at the information.
- Most important tip for starting flipped facutly meetings.
- How important it is to have video or audio to help people not misunderstand what they are doing wrong.
In this second part of the interview, I am priveleged to talk with Doug Hallenbeck. Doug was recently named the Assistant Principal of the year from the Utah Association of Secondary School Principals. Doug has worked under four really great principals and he shares some great insight about how to be an amazing assistant principal.
I wanted to interview Doug because he has a great story. He is a thoughtful, caring, and transformative leader. He has been a guiding force in our district since its inception. We are very fortunate to work with him.
In this second part of the interview, Doug discusses:
- How to attract and retain great talent.
- A nice little side discussion about general trends in teaching hiring.
- His advice for an assistant principal to be a transformative assistant principal like him.
- What special thing he has in his office.
- His experience discussing education with Chinese educational leaders.
- How he makes parents feel good when their kids get in trouble.
- What he suggests APs should do to be transformative Assistant Principals.
Here is more information about the Tier 2 retirement in Utah
You'll really enjoy this interview with Doug. He is amazing.
Let's make sure to give him a few hundred more followers on Twitter. He is @Hallen100.
In this episode, I am priveleged to interview Doug Hallenbeck. Doug was recently named the Assistant Principal of the year from the Utah Association of Secondary School Principals. Doug has worked under four really great principals and he shares some great insight about how to be an amazing assistant principal.
I wanted to interview Doug because he has a great story. He is a thoughtful, caring, and transformative leader. He has been a guiding force in our district since its inception. We are very fortunate to work with him.
In this first part of the interview, Doug discusses:
- How he got to where he is.
- How he manages working under someone who has a different leadership style and may make different decisions than he.
- The mentors that have helped him become a better leader.
- Why he turned down a principalship and stayed as an assistant.
- Advice for new principals from his perspective as an Assistant Principal.
You'll really enjoy this interview with Doug. He is amazing.
Let's make sure to give him a few hundred more followers on Twitter. He is @Hallen100.
In this second part of the interview with Jeff Paul, we will learn about:
- How he handles the stress of being a principal
- How you can be a transformative principal
- Why you should follow the people below on Twitter
- The special thing in his office
Jeff says these are the twitter accounts to follow:
@williamparker, @KleinErin, @principalspage (MichaelSmithSupt), @ToddWhitaker, @educationweek, @NMHS_Principal (Eric Sheninger), @drjolly (Darin Jolly), @principalJ, @andyrgreene.
Jethro is joined by Jeff Paul (@okprincipal), principal of Smith Elementary, where he had the unique opportunity to take over for a principal who had been there for the previous 25 years!
In this part of the two-part interview, Jeff talks about the challenges and positives associated with his unique situation. He also talks about the evaluation system his district recently started.
I hope you enjoy this. Please tweet, post on facebook, or email to share it with your principal friends.
Also, if you have someone that you think is a transformative principal, please let me know who they are by emailing me at jethro.jones@gmail.com. Or you can hit me up on twitter @jethrojones.
Sandra is a great principal at Sandy Elementary. She has received numerous awards in her 7 years as an administrator:
- Community Leader of the Year
- Rookie of the Year
- Distinguished Principal of the Year
- CITES Recognition
- National Board Certified Teacher
And, she is pretty much always being praised and recognized by her peers. I am fortunate to be able to work with her.
Here is Sandy’s web site and Twitter.
Big Goals: Wants to make people feel like they are at home-that her school is a family. Wants to be with the children as much as possible. Wants to provide a holistic education, especially to her disadvantaged students.
It is interesting to hear that she strives to really know her students, but is ok with not knowing every student’s name. I find this fascinating. In the last episode, Dr. Villar was very focused on knowing every student’s name. I don’t know that either way is the best method, but I do believe that their intent is the same. They both want their students to know that they are cared for and feel safe. That is what matters.
In this second part of the interview with Bernardo Villar, we will learn about the following:
- How Dr. Villar communicates with parents enough that they miss his communication when he leaves a school.
- Twitter and Facebook
- How Dr. Villar acknowledges the positve in every teacher and every student...
- ...which leads to improved student behavior.
- What you can do to be a transformative principal, according to Dr. Villar
- A focus on making sure every student feels comfortable in his school.
Thanks to our sponsor: Paperless Principal
This great interview with Bernardo Villar is broken up over two episodes. I hope you enjoy it. It was a great interview for me.
Bernardo Villar is the principal of the Title I school Vae View Elementary in Layton, UT. In this interview, you will learn about the following ways Dr. Villar is a transformative principal:
- Word of the year: rigor
- How to get teachers to ask for help
- How to not be defensive
- How to ask for help and thus generate buy-in
- How to run data team meetings
- How to create an environment that invites students and parents to be a part of the school community.
Thanks again to my sponsor: Paperless Principal
Jethro interviews Sondra Jolovich-Motes, principal of Dee Elementary in Ogden School District.
Here is some background information about Dee Elementary:
Dee Elementary, formerly dead last, sees huge gains in reading scores
Ogden schools see dramatic spike in student proficiency scores
Dee Elementary school grade
Links that JM talks about:
Teaching Channel is one way JM helps teachers identify where they can use some help.
Annette Brinkman did some work with JM and Dee Elementary.
University of Virginia Turnaround School Program.
Books:
Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction
Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools
Sponsor:
http://paperlessprincipal.com learn how to be a paperless principal. Remove clutter, streamline your processes.
Jethro interviews Sondra Jolovich-Motes, principal of Dee Elementary in Ogden School District.
Here is some background information about Dee Elementary:
Dee Elementary, formerly dead last, sees huge gains in reading scores
Ogden schools see dramatic spike in student proficiency scores
Dee Elementary school grade
Links that JM talks about:
Teaching Channel is one way JM helps teachers identify where they can use some help.
Annette Brinkman did some work with JM and Dee Elementary.
University of Virginia Turnaround School Program.
Books:
Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction
Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools
Sponsor:
http://paperlessprincipal.com learn how to be a paperless principal. Remove clutter, streamline your processes.
Welcome to the Transformative Principal. In this first episode, I share my TEDxCSDTeachers talk from November about increasing our average daily attendance to 96% by doing one simple thing!
Enjoy.
Have a Good Life.