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.

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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.

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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.

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Mastery Learning with Ken Daly Transformative Principal 047


Show notes and listener survey on http://transformativeprincipal.com


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Innovation Team with Ken Daly Transformative Principal 046


Show notes at http://transformativeprincipal.com/ken-daly. Please take the listener survey at http://transformativeprincipal.com


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Moving the blog


I've been blogging here for a long time, since 2006! I know there are a lot of people who follow this blog, but don't comment. If you don't mind, I would love to hear what you have to say.

I'm moving this blog over to jethrojones.com. (Subscribe to the new blog here.) I hope you'll join me over there and provide some feedback about how I can create content that is interesting to you.

Please take a couple minutes to give me some information about yourself and what you want to see more of on the blog!

Take me to the Survey!!



Have a Good Life.

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.

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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.

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Give it a Go with Colin Andrews Transformative Principal 041


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

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Envirokids with Colin Andrews Transformative Principal 040


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.

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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.
  • 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.

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Being Positive with Jordan Collier Transformative Principal 038


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.

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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!

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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](https://twitter.com/MsKCairns/status/497443796661960704)
  • 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.

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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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Doing Things You Hate So You Can Do the Things You Love

As a new principal, I want to get to know all my teachers. I also want to know what they see as the vision of our school. So, I am meeting with them all. I am really excited because meeting new people and getting to know them is something that I really love. In order to make that a reality, I had to something that I really don't like much: I had to use the phone. Despite the hours spent on the phone courting my wife, I have never liked talking on the phone. It is just not fun to me. I had to call people to set up the appointments, which, by how I was procrastinating and delaying, you would have thought was a much more difficult task than pushing buttons on a phone. 


When I approach a task that I really don't like to do, I deal with it one of two ways:

1. I reward myself by doing something fun. 
2. I make a game of it. 

Today, it was all about the reward. The reward for my (hard to me) work is that I get to spend the morning tomorrow talking in person to many of my teachers. That will be worth it. 

What has been fascinating for me to learn is that different people enjoy different things. To me, talking to people on the phone is near torture for me. For other people, they would much rather call than talk in person. 

What I think will be vital for me, is to be sensitive to what people prefer and meet them where they are. As the principal, I am much more willing to make myself uncomfortable in order to make sure one of my teachers is more comfortable. 

Have a Good Life. 

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! 


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Moving to Alaska!

In case you haven't heard, we are moving to Alaska. I will be the principal of Kodiak Middle School! My family and I are really excited! You can follow our journey here:  http://wearedrivingtoalaska.com

PLCs and RtI with Bob Sonju Transformative Principal 032


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:
    1. Why do we exist
    2. Describing a perfect school
    3. 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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I don't like the kind of people they are becoming!

I was talking to a student today about what kinds of things she thought needed to happen in her school with the new year coming up. 

She said something so insightful, that I could not believe that it was a 7th grader saying it to a bunch of adults. She elaborated on a concept that many teachers do not yet grasp. The clarity and simplicity with which she came to her conclusions was astounding. 

She said (a little paraphrasing from my memory), "We need to do something about the discipline at our school. When I see what these kids who have to go into ISS (in-school suspension) become…well I dot like the kind of people they are becoming. Going to ISS doesn't help them do anything different and that makes me sad."

I asked her what she thought should happen and she said, "I don't know what the best thing to do is, but I know ISS is not working for the kids at my school, because it doesn't make them change anything." 

We were then able to have a discussion about what we, as adults, can do to help kids who make mistakes learn how to make better decisions. This girl was a little sheepish to say these things to a bunch of educated adults, but she was right on the money in her assessment of the situation. 

I admire this girl for saying what she believed. I admire her for being perceptive and aware of the situation. 

Have a Good Life. 



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


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Apple is a technology company that excels at making software that is inspiring and innovative. If any company were able to create something with technology that would be amazing and inspiring, it would be Apple. 

They just purchased a company called Beats, which makes headphones, speakers, and in just January of this year, released a music steaming service in a field crowded by Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio and more. 

The coverage is mostly about the streaming music service as the reason for the purchase. 

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said, "We get a subscription music service that we believe is the first subscription service that really got it right. They had the insight early on to know how important human curation is. That technology by itself wasn’t enough — that it was the marriage of the two that would really be great and produce a feeling in people that we want to produce." Emphasis added. 

Apple gets what our current scripted programs, Value-Added Measures, computer programs, focus on big data, and an emphasis on standardized tests doesn't get - it is the human connection that matters. 

Education is about connecting people. It is not about standards,  racing to the top, international test scores, or high stakes tests. It is about teaching people to be human beings. 

Furthermore, the Beats Music programming team consists of experts who are dedicated to their craft

"The Beats Music programming team is comprised of qualified music experts with a combined 300+ years of experience representing virtually type and format of music available. Their unique backgrounds are as diverse as their musical tastes—from mainstream music magazines, to specialty music blogs, to radio promotion, label A&R, and much more." Emphasis added. 

This idea of establishing the human connection with people who have devoted their lives to one thing sure flies in the face of current churn and burn practices and Teach For America cohorts we have now. 

In education now, experienced teachers are often viewed as old stodgy people who just get in the way and cost too much. 

Well, Apple just showed that the things we are forcing out of education are still highly valuable by spending 3 Billion dollars on a company to get its human connection and experience. That is 7 times as much as it paid for its largest acquisition previously (NEXT for about $400 million )
And that is more than the state of Utah spent on all public education in 2011 (page 4 of this).

In education and business we often look to Apple as a case study for creativity, iteration, shipping a product, innovation, and more. It is time we look at it as an example of the importance of human connection and start getting more of that into education. 

Have a Good Life. 

The 4 C’s with Curt Rees Transformative Principal 025


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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.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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.
    1. Excellent and a lot of communication.
    2. Be visible.
    3. Maintain as much stability as possible.
    4. Open to creative and spontaneous.
    5. Show appreciation to the kids who are present.
    6. Tried to communicate well to media.
    7. 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.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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Refer A Principal

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:

  1. A strong desire to be your own person, regardless of the status quo or anybody else’s judgments.
  2. 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.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


 

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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.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

The Problem

Last Friday we had kindergarten orientation. Last year, we thought it would be fun to take pictures with the school mascot and share them with the families. The only problem is that we didn’t have a way to get the pictures printed and distributed to the families, so we took a bunch of pictures and they sat on the person’s camera and nothing was done. A great gesture, but not helpful in the end.
This year, I was tasked with making sure the families got a picture of their student with our mascot. The picture would be on the bottom half of an 8.5x11“ piece of paper. On the top of the paper it said, ”Future Cougar, Class of 2027" and that was already printed out. So, I needed to get the picture on those papers.
The original idea was to print 2 pictures on 8.5x11" paper and then cut them out and tape or paste them on that piece of paper. I knew that we wouldn’t have enough time to cut all those pictures out.

The Solution

Here is what I wanted to do:
  1. Since the papers were already printed, and just needed the picture, I could print right onto the paper that said “Future Cougar”.
  2. I created a Word document that had a top margin set to about 6" (which is about how much space the words took up).
  3. I would insert all (expected) 70 Kindergartner pictures in the Word document.
  4. I would then print them.
Here’s the thing, Edit -> Insert Picture -> From File and then navigating to that folder would be really annoying to do 70 times!

Another wrench that quickly messed things up is that printing pictures from a camera that takes high resolution pictures takes a long time on our computer, especially if it makes the Word document really big. So, I would also need to reduce the size of the pictures to something much smaller, so they wouldn’t create a bottleneck at the printing process.

The Automated Solution

Automator is an app that comes with every Apple computer, and it automates things you would do on your computer. It is pretty awesome.
I already created the Word document. I already had a folder that I would put all the pictures in. I just needed to get them reduced in size and inserted into the Word document.
Automator takes care of that for me.

Here are the Automator steps:

  1. Get Selected Finder Items - This gets the Finder items that are selected in the frontmost finder window. I just selected the photos that I had taken. 
  2. Scale Images -  I needed the images smaller, but not too small I had to play around with this one, but I got it to work well at about 50% scaling. 
  3. Move Finder Items - To not confuse myself, I had Automator move the pictures from the folder they were in to a folder in Dropbox called “Print these” which is shared with the office staff, where the pictures were printed. They did quality control and made sure all pictures printed correctly. 
  4. Insert Content into Word Documents - This is where the magic happens! Automator takes care of the annoying mouse clicks and just inserts the pictures into the document. I chose the bottom of the document, so that they would be in the same order as they were taken.

Bonus

We took the pictures using the iPad. I had Camera Uploads turned on, so that when we took a picture, it almost instantly went to the camera uploads folder on Dropbox. That got it to my computer quickly. Using Hazel, I created a rule that watched the Camera Uploads folder for new files and moved them to a folder and then ran the Automator workflow on those files.

BAM!

Dropbox, Automator, and Hazel allowed me to take pictures on my iPad and by the time I got back to my office, they were in a Word document ready to review and print on pre-made stationary!





Have a Good Life.

 

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Refer A Principal

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!


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

  • 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:

  • 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.


New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal


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Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal