Learning with Your Mistakes with Tom Whitford Transformative Principal 029

Monday, June 23, 2014 by jethrojones


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!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 by jethrojones

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. 


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How to Overcome Fear with Alice Peck Transformative Principal

Monday, June 16, 2014 by jethrojones


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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Reflecting on a Great Principalship with Alice Peck Transformative Principal 027

Monday, June 9, 2014 by jethrojones


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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Building Relationships with Curt Rees Transformative Principal 026

Monday, June 2, 2014 by jethrojones


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Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

  • How to manage time on social media with being a principal, doctoral student, etc. How to connect with others.
  • It is about connections that is most beneficial.
  • Connecting with Bill Ferriter and John Pederson
  • It isn’t about the tech itself, it is about the real.
  • Technology just helps you connect with others.
  • What Curt is most proud of that is happening at his school right now.
  • Remodeling his school thanks to a funding referendum his community.
  • Student-produced newscast. (Led by Crystal Brunelle)
  • His school’s Facebook page
  • Going out in the school and snapping pictures.
  • International Happy Day “Wouldn’t this be cool to do?” - said a teacher at his school.
  • People make stuff up on the Internet
  • Humility - Curt is constantly deferring praise to others and deflecting praise and comments to his staff and other people around him.
  • Strengths-Based Leadership Great book!
  • Great leaders need to be excellent listeners.
  • How Curt grew to learn about himself. Evaluating others.
  • Giving feedback that is based on what is seen in other classrooms, rather than, “When I was a teacher…”
  • We have to notice others around us.
  • Spend time to get to know people. Make sure you’re winning hearts and minds before you try to do anything.
  • We aren’t a bunch of independent contractor.
  • Techlandia podcast. And on Twitter - If you listen to this on Sunday, you’ll find something that you can put to use on Monday.
  • How to be a Transformative Principal: Be well read.
  • What motivates him: Nice notes from teachers, parents, students.
  • “You are responsible for the energy you bring into this space.”

Shoutouts: Bill Ferriter Solution tree Crystal brunelle


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Why Apple Buying Beats is a Condemnation of the Current Education Reform Policies

Thursday, May 29, 2014 by jethrojones

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. 

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The 4 C’s with Curt Rees Transformative Principal 025

Monday, May 26, 2014 by jethrojones


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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.

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