Have a Good Life

Jethro interviews Sondra Jolovich-Motes, principal of Dee Elementary in Ogden School District. 

Here is some background information about Dee Elementary: 

Dee Elementary, formerly dead last, sees huge gains in reading scores

Ogden schools see dramatic spike in student proficiency scores

Dee Elementary school grade

Links that JM talks about:

 Teaching Channel is one way JM helps teachers identify where they can use some help. 

 Annette Brinkman did some work with JM and Dee Elementary.

 University of Virginia Turnaround School Program. 

Books: 

Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction

Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools

Sponsor: 

http://paperlessprincipal.com learn how to be a paperless principal. Remove clutter, streamline your processes. 

Check out this episode!

Do you know someone who is a transformative principal? Please let me know who you think I should interview next!

Jethro interviews Sondra Jolovich-Motes, principal of Dee Elementary in Ogden School District. 

Here is some background information about Dee Elementary: 

Dee Elementary, formerly dead last, sees huge gains in reading scores

Ogden schools see dramatic spike in student proficiency scores

Dee Elementary school grade

Links that JM talks about:

 Teaching Channel is one way JM helps teachers identify where they can use some help. 

 Annette Brinkman did some work with JM and Dee Elementary.

 University of Virginia Turnaround School Program. 

Books: 

Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction

Leverage Leadership: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools

Sponsor: 

http://paperlessprincipal.com learn how to be a paperless principal. Remove clutter, streamline your processes. 

Check out this episode!

After much contemplation, I have decided to start doing a podcast. It is called Transformative Principal. Each month, I will interview a principal that is making a real difference in students' lives. I hope that you enjoy it. First episode is embedded below. This is the RSS feed: http://transformativeprincipal.libsyn.com/rss

My wife takes some pretty cool Instagram pictures. I helped her get them ready to print on 4x6 so that they turn out to be 4x4 pictures. Print Instagram I did it using Automator, AppleScript, and Hazel.


Have a Good Life.

The other day I walked into a teacher's room and found he was supplementing Reading Street with a great video on YouTube. Though not in his case, there can be times when ads or related videos may not be appropriate for our kids, so here is YouTube's acknowledgement and help for that problem:
http://www.youtube.com/schools

Videos are a powerful way to supplement your curriculum and, if correctly implemented, are an excellent way to build some background knowledge quickly.

Here are two tips for making videos successful in your classroom

1. Load the video before kids are in the classroom (avoid searching for a video in the moment, as you will likely find many inappropriate videos on your way to that video you want).

2. Ask the students questions that cause them to relate it to your objective. Obviously, it should be tied into your curriculum, but also find a way to ensure that the kids really are getting something positive from it.