Have a Good Life

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Joan Irvine has worked in technology, sales, and marketing for companies such as ADP (Automatic Data Processing), System Development Corporation, and Goal Systems. For the last 20 years, she has been a leader in online child protection technology.

In this episode we talk about how the cannabis industry can keep kids from purchasing their products by self-regulating. 

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Fie on Goodness! Child Access to Adult Content and Products

• Adult Content and Products
• Legal But Age-Restricted (in theory)
  • Gambling
  • Pornography
  • Cigarettes
  • Alcohol
  • Prescription Drugs
  • Weapons and Explosives
• Illegal
  • Obscenity / Child Pornography
  • Controlled Substances as defined the Drug Enforcement Agency
  • Schedule I – heroin, LSD, marijuana, ecstasy, peyote, etc.
  • Schedule II – Vicodin, cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, oxycodone, fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin
  • Schedule III – Tylenol with codeine, ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone
  • Impure or corrupted versions of known drugs
  • A range of designer/synthetic, uncategorized drugs
• Shift in Laws and Social Acceptance
  • Alcohol – Prohibition
  • Marijuana – Spreading legalization
• Scope of the Problem
• Examples
  • 2020–12–23 One in six children steal money from their parents to pay for addictive computer game ‘loot boxes’, survey reveals – as campaigners call for them to be classed as gambling
  • 2020–12–12 This 6-year-old racked up $16K on mom’s credit card playing video games
  • 2020–12–04 Schoolgirl, 15, died at gathering with friends after taking ecstasy supplied by two teenagers who bought the tablets off the dark web, inquest hears
  • 2020–11–08 One in 10 children admit gambling with their own money amid fears thousands of families are being plunged into ’tidal wave of misery’
  • 2020–08–26 Gambling giants flout advertising rules to target children by using websites popular with youngsters
  • 2020–08–18 Schoolboy, 15, AVOIDS jail after he sold three super-strong Donkey Kong ecstasy pills to a 13-year-old on Snapchat before he died hours later from ‘severe reaction’ to Class A drug
  • 2020–01–03 Children are fueling marathon gaming sessions with ‘dangerous’ stimulants that have DOUBLE the caffeine of Red Bull and are promoted by YouTube stars like KSI and FaZe Jarvis
  • 2018–05–14 Twitter and Instagram are accused of ‘playing with people’s lives’ for continuing to host pages advertising deadly counterfeit Xanax
  • 2014–02–26 Buying a gun on Facebook takes 15 minutes
  • Schoolgirl 15 died taking ecstasy supplied two teenagers bought dark web inquest hears
• Exposure
  • Peers
  • Social Media Influencers
  • Advertising
  • In-Game Purchases
• Facilitation
  • Social media – algorithms, influencers, unmonitored groups
  • Web sites – poorly designed and unethical
  • Product-specific sites
  • Private seller sites (eBay)
  • Dark web – TOR
  • Surface web – 4% of visible internet
  • Deep web – non-indexed, non-accessible sites (government, corporate, etc.)
  • Dark web – requires special browsers like TOR, I2P, or Freenet
  • 2013 – DEA, Homeland Security, and FBI take down Silk Road, notorious dark web drug bazaar
  • Encryption for communication (Sigaint, PGP)
  • Delivery services – poor practices, disregard of regulations re signatures, etc.
  • Parents – lack of supervision, access to credit cards/finances
  • Payment methods
  • Reloadable credit cards
  • Cryptocurrency (BitCoin)
  • Barter
• Why Is Age Verification on the Internet So Difficult?
  • 1984 New Yorker cartoon – On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog
  • Buttons and verification screens are laughable
  • Birth certificates are issued locally, not nationally
  • Social security numbers are given to children
  • Credit card companies don’t want the hassle
• A Range of Child Protection Initiatives
  • Governmental
  • General
  • More and more systems requiring real-time scan of driver’s license
  • United Kingdom
  • The Digital Economy Act – any website with more than one-third of pornographic content must securely verify that their visitors are 18 or over.
  • United States
  • 2021–01–29 – UPS ends home delivery of vaping products
  • 2020 – The Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act
    • Same safety measures as those for traditional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco
    • Verify the age of customers for all purchases.
    • Require an adult with ID to be present for delivery.
    • Label shipping packages to show they contain tobacco products.
    • Comply with all state and local tobacco tax requirements.
  • 1997 Child Online Protection Act – required all commercial distributors of material harmful to minors to restrict their sites from access by minors.
    • Ruled unconstitutional in 2007 by U.S. District Court. 3rd Cir. agreed in 2008, and SCOTUS denied cert in 2009.
• Software and Services
  • A wide variety of software companies are competing to create effective age verification systems
• Labeling
  • Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection
  • Restricted to Adults label for web sites
  • List of organization and software tools aimed at protecting children
  • Guidelines for parents
    • Install and use parent control software on all computers
    • Know what sites your children frequent and monitor their online activity
    • Foster communication with your children so they understand the potential dangers they may be exposed to online.
• What Can Parents Do?
  • Monitor the Use of Devices
  • Install Filtering Software and Use Parental Controls
  • Check Browser History
  • Lots of Conversation
  • Be Confident in Discussing Online Activity with Your Child
  • Pay Attention to Your Child’s Behavior
  • Don’t Be Afraid to Discuss Influence of Friends
  • Sign Up for Delivery Notification and Check All Packages / Consider Installing a Smart Doorbell
  • Keep a Close Eye on Your Finances
• Get Help
  • American Addiction Centers
  • Get Smart About Drugs (DEA)

Thanks to our mission partner:

Buoyancy Digital is proud to be the inaugural Mission Partner for the Cybertraps Podcast series. A digital advertising consultancy with an ethos, Buoyancy was founded by Scott Rabinowitz, who has been in digital media since 1997 and has overseen $300 million in youth safety compliant ad buys across all digital platforms. For IAB, Google and Bing accredited brand and audience safe advertising sales solutions, media buying and organizational training for media publishers, let’s chat.

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

RODRIGUEZ, Raymond “RJ”, is a Licensing Specialist for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board (HTSB), and currently the lead for the HTSB work regarding the Model Code of Ethics for Educators. He was a classroom teacher for ten years in a variety of settings: elementary school, middle school, and high school (including charter school experience). He has also spent seven years working for a teacher union providing professional development for educators.

The Mirage LINK

From Quicksand to Solid Ground LINK

Guskey LINK

Guskey eval link

MCEE NASDTEC resources LINK

NEA Micro-credential LINK

HTSB Ed Ethics LINK

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

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.

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

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.

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Joshua Spodek, PhD, MBA is a three-time TEDx speaker, #1 bestselling author of Initiative and Leadership Step by Step, host of the award-winning This Sustainable Life podcast, and professor at NYU.

He holds a PhD in astrophysics and an MBA from Columbia, where he studied under a Nobel Laureate and helped launch a satellite (having emerged from some of Philadelphia’s most dangerous neighborhoods). He left academia to found a venture to market an invention that showed animated images to subway riders between stations.

This podcast features a discussion of addiction to technology and how that relates to the environment. 

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

In today's episode, we are going to talk about sexting and the law. We are going to look at the legal risks for children, educators, and parents, and what to do if you see something on kids' devices. Content warning, we are going to talk about sexting and child pornography.

Show Outline

• In today's episode, we are going to talk about sexting and the law. We are going to look at the legal risks for children, educators, and parents, and what to do if you see something on kids' devices. Content warning, we are going to talk about sexting and child pornography.
• Background
  • Obscene Profits (2000)
    • https://link.cybertraps.com/OP_PB
  • Computer Forensics
  • The Decency Wars (2006) / The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
    • https://link.cybertraps.com/DW_HB
    • https://www.cc.com/video/6xa63e/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-frederick-lane
  • Cybertraps for the Young (2011)
    • https://link.cybertraps.com/C4Y_PB
• A Brief History of Relevant Technology
  • Almost every technology has been used to take nude selfies
  • Things didn't really take off until images could be created easily without third parties
    • Late 60s to early 1970s -- Instant cameras take off
    • Mid-1970s -- Video recorders
• Federal and State Child Pornography Laws
  • Federal Law
    • 18 U.S. Code CHAPTER 110— SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND OTHER ABUSE OF CHILDREN
      • Sexual exploitation of children (production) -- 15-30 years
      • Production, distribution, reception, and possession -- 5-20 years
      • Increased penalties for second offenses, severity of offense, etc.
    • Law prohibits depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. Mere nudity can constitute "sexually explicit conduct."
    • Interstate commerce is required for federal jurisdiction. This covers transport in U.S. Mail, private carriers like UPS or FedEx, and the Internet.
    • Even an image remains within one state, federal prosecutors may assert jurisdiction if the items used to produce or store the images themselves traveled in interstate commerce (i.e., a digital camera, smartphone, computer, CD-ROM, USB stick, etc.
  • State Laws
    • Every state prohibits child pornography
    • Virtually all use language similar to the federal statutes, although there are some minor variations
• "Romeo and Juliet" Statutes
  • In general, there is no "selfie" exception to federal and state child pornography laws
  • However, several states have adopted so-called "Romeo and Juliet" exceptions
• Legal Risks for Children
  • Prosecution for production, possession, or distribution of child pornography
  • Prosecution under laws penalizing "revenge porn" or "electronic sexual assault"
  • link.cybertraps.com/ESA
• Legal Risks for School Administrators and Educators
  • Handling of student sexts
    • Ting-Yi Oei: https://www.wired.com/2009/04/sexting-hysteri/
  • Failure to report teen sexting
  • Collecting student selfies
  • Creation of nude selfies
• Legal Risks and Obligations of Parents
  • Children have no expectation of privacy with respect to devices which you have bought and for which you supply the data plan
  • No parental exception to child pornography laws
    • Kellyanne and Claudia Conway
  • If you see sexting images of your child
    • Frank conversation with your child
    • Potential consequences
    • Review family rules regarding dating, texting, and sexual behavior
  • If you see sexting images of another child, do you have a duty to report?

Check out this episode!

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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

- Awo Aidam Amenyah is Child Online Africa’s founder and Executive Director. Child Online Africa a child and family focused charity working in Ghana and beyond through strategic partnerships. In this role, Awo leads a team of professionals and volunteers committed to influencing policies and changing practices in favour of child well-being keeping the child in Africa safe while they are online.
- Since 2013, Awo has been at the forefront of the call on government and other stakeholders to put in place measures safeguard children within the cyberspace and this call resulted in a revolution regarding Child Protection interventions in Ghana. The team's work influenced the National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy in Ghana in 2015 and the Africa Union’s Agenda 2040 in 2018 to prioritize Child Online Protection.
- Prior to her current role, Awo has facilitated platforms for engagement between state and non-state actors to influence policy and development decisions specifically related to education, violence against girls, Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Child Online Protection, among others. Before her current position she worked with the Education Coalition on an ActionAid-Big Lottery Fund project. The key milestone for the project is the draft Ghana Gender Education Policy.
- Awo is DQ World Training Partner, a member of the National Child Online Protection Steering Committee (Ghana) and Child Online Protection implementation partner for ITU, the International Telecommunication Union. She has been involved with the Recovery and Reintegration from CSE working group and National Association of Media Literacy Education. The passion to make things happen for the child in Africa compelled her to start the rallying call for Safer Internet Day celebrations in Ghana since 2015 evolving into Safer Internet Day Africa in 2019 which saw 12 other African countries participating. In her quest to sustain the continental level discussion and the anger of slow pace of action saw the saw her summiting successfully on Mt. Kilimanjaro (19341 Ft AMSL) in August as a social cause to raise awareness on Child Online Safety and Wellbeing in Africa

In this episode we talk with Awo about the challenges they face in rolling out internet access in Ghana, Africa. 

Check out this episode!

“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

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

In this live conversation, we talked about the impact of the pandemic on society, teachers, parents, and students. 

Check out this episode!