In this episode we talk with Dr. Wendy Oliver round digital safety. This is a simulcast with Dr. Oliver's Building the Bridge podcast. 

•  Links
  • Not Your Mama’s Classroom: What You Need to Know as a Parent About Your Child’s Digital Education
• Guest Bio
  • Dr. Wendy Oliver is a highly qualified Tennessee teacher and administrator who has pioneered digital learning across multiple states and school districts. She has authored digital teaching standards and developed software that allows teachers to self-assess their knowledge of digital instruction. Wendy is currently the Chief Learning Officer for EdisonLearning, leading efforts to deliver high-quality, innovative digital learning solutions to hundreds of schools across the U.S.
  • Wendy is author of a book for parents, “Not Your Mama’s Classroom: What You Need to Know as a Parent About Your Child’s Digital Education,” and the upcoming book for educators, Not Your Mama’s Classroom: Facilitating Engaging, Student-Centered Digital Instruction. No matter which hat she’s wearing, her goal is simple – to empower learners.
  • Follow Dr. Wendy Oliver on Twitter @oliver_dr
    • What is the outlook for the education system over the next 5–10 years? As more students of all ages are participating in online or hybrid schooling, how is exposure to online risks increasing?
    • How do educators have the right conversations with parents and students around digital safety?
    • K–12 education is trending toward digital and that’s not just going to stop. It’s not a system parents and students can just “opt out” of, but can they influence and change the system to work better? Particularly thinking about students’ rights, privacy and safety.
    • Are there legal and ethical obligations coming into play for teachers when students go online, which they may not even be aware of? What are they?

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!

Links I talk about:
Join the Mastermind
How to Be a Transformative Principal
Cybertraps Podcast
Webinar this month will be with Julia King Pool around communication

• Where I’m at now.
  • Consulting - mastermind leadership team trainings, cybertraps.
• Talk about student driven learning academy
  • Kids wanting schedules for themselves (and unique)
• Center for Cyberethics
  • Cybertraps podcast
• Mastermind - single best Pd for principals.
• Links to other podcasts about it.
  • Got some stuff in the hopper.

Episode 400

This is that special time where I give some updates about what is going on in my life. As you may know, several of my podcast episodes are recorded ahead of time. So, I like to give these updates at around the 50-show mark.

First things first, last June, I left being a principal to focus entirely on serving principals and schools through consulting.

It’s been awesome. I’m really enjoying it, although I was a little nervous to leave education when Coronavirus hit and there was time to do things so differently. But, thankfully, I’ve been able to help others through this challenge this last year.

Consulting

So, what does my consulting look like? Well, first and foremost, the mastermind has doubled in size since last year. It’s the best professional development out there for principals. We have talked so much about all the powerful stuff that people have learned during the pandemic and it has really been good. In fact, Bill Clouse, who you may remember said this, just last week in our mastermind.

The mastermind is the best professional development out there. Period. It’s amazing.

We help leaders overcome imposter syndrome, make better decisions, have more empathy, and so much more. Oh, and by the way, they are happier at work than ever before.

If you’re listening to this, you’ve probably thought about the mastermind, and you’ve probably had some trepidation about whether or not you should join it. Maybe the times haven’t worked out, maybe the cost seemed too high.

Well, I have just the thing for you. You see, I’m in the process of writing my next book, How to be a Transformative Principal, and I’ve discovered through the 399 previous episodes of this podcast that there are some key strategies that all transformative principals have in common.

It’s quite fascinating, actually. There are 12 things that all transformative principals have in place, and each month, I teach one of these four things in my “How to be a Transformative Principal” group. If you’re not quite ready for the mastermind. Maybe you’re an aspiring principal, maybe you’re an AP. or maybe you’re working on your doctorate! This is the program to help you get there.

On the shownotes for this podcast, jethrojones.com/400! you can find the links for this.

Here’s what comes in that:
1. 1 Monthly coaching call with me and all the other participants (including mastermind members, who get this for free)
2. A newsletter describing each strategy and what you action items you can take to make it better.
3. A monthly webinar about the topic we are studying.

For March, we were focusing on our people, and Dr. Greg Gardner gave a wonderful webinar about how he has removed obstacles for his people during Coronavirus.

For April, we are talking about Communication. Communication is HUGE, right? Our coaching call will be all about improving communication. Our webinar this month will be with Julia King Pool around communication. She is the founder at burninmindset.com, so you’ll definitely want to register for that session!

Then, in May, oh, my goodness, I am so excited! Cassandra Williams actually does teacher observations for a living. Like, that’s her whole job. She comes into your school and works specifically with your teachers to help them improve. it’s like having an instant instructional coach. So, she’s going to talk about what you need to focus on with observations. And we’re doing that at the end of the year to help you set a good intention for next school year.

I’m also doing consulting and speaking around the topics of Trauma-informed practicies and Leadership team development. If you’d like to get in touch with me about those opportunities, please reach out at jethrojones.com/speaking and I’ll be happy to plan something with you. I already have two weeks in August booked out, so get in touch soon.

Student Driven Learning

You know also, that I am very interested in student driven learning. Well, this year, when we moved to washington, we knew that online school for my three younger kids wouldn’t be great. Kids just went back hybrid this last week. So, we did something a little different. I started a micro school for just my kids, called student driven learning academy.

It’s been amazing to see my three youngest really strive in different ways there.

Is it perfect, you know it’s not!

But, after a couple months, we thought it would be beneficial for them to have some other support, so we hired a learning consultant to help them. That’s been great.

Her name is Hannah Costello, and you heard her on this podcast. In fact, when she said, on that podcast, “I don’t want to teach a class, I want to facilitate learning,” I was sold. That’s exactly what I was looking for. She’s done a great job sharing resources with my kids, but letting them own their learning.

A couple things that have been great about my kids doing homeschool like this:

1. They are developing their own personalities and learning interests. Each one of them has said they enjoy being in charge of what they are learning.
2. They are learning the power they have to determine their destiny. This is a little esoteric, but I think it is so important. They are starting to understand more and more that the course their life takes is up to them. This is a really important skill that I know will help them more and more as life goes on for them. It’s something I hope they never forget.

What’s that going to look like in the future? I’m not sure, but I’m excited about where it can go!

Center for Cyberethics

You have probably also heard that I have another podcast I started called Cybertraps. That’s with my friend Frederick Lane, author of the Cybertraps books.

I’ve always loved technology, but I got tired of teaching how to use google docs pretty quickly. I want to talk about big ideas in technology and that’s what we do on that podcast. We’ve delved into a bunch of amazing discussions and I have really enjoyed it.

We’ve had some amazing guests on there, and I’ll share a few of the favorite things we’ve heard here.

First up is an excert from Tony Anscombe, an evangelist at technology company ESET, who provides cybersecurity support. where he talked about parents believing that there child is not one who is going to be doing something inappropriate online.

Tony Anscombe 1

Another interview that was just amazing was with Dr. Jeff Temple, and he does research on preventing sexual violence. He’s out of the Univeristy of Texas Medical Branch, and he has some really great information to share. He talks about the real problem with sexting is the coersion that happens when kids sext.

[Jeff Temple 7]

Also, Dr. Eric Stephens talked about what critical thinking is. What is amazing about his story is that he wanted to help prison populations without violating their privacy. So, he used big data to understand what the rehabilitation process is in prison systems. Really fascinating stuff!

[Eric stephens 5]

Charles Logan talked about student surveillance, and treating students as criminals that haven’t been caught yet. He asked us to think about the relationship between schools and their students.

[Charles Logan 3]

That’s just a few of the guests that we have had on. And we have so many more coming out. Be sure to subscribe to that podcast ata cybertraps.com

In fact, we are doing more than just a podcast, we are doing a whole non-profit called the Center for Cyberethics. There’s even a twitter account CTR4Cyberethics!

There’s going to be a lot more coming out about that. Cybertraps.com and sign up for the mailing list there.

One thing we recently launched is a Raising Cyberethical Kids audio course that will help you as a parent create a family acceptable use policy. Just the conversation about that alone will be amazing. Again, links to that in the shownotes at jethrojones.com/400 If you’d like to get that for your whole school, reach for site license options.

Something not ready yet.

There’s one other thing that I’m just not quite ready to announce yet, but it’s going to be great. A lot of people have reached out for help with creating podcast. After so many episodes, I’ve figured out a lot of things with podcasting, and I want to share it and help others. There’s also a lot of people that have asked for help in starting to do more than teach or be a principal as a way to give back to the community.

I’m not ready to announce it yet, but it’s getting close! If that’s something you’re interested in, reach out and I’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Look for that in June.

Finally, I just want to say Thank you for making this one of the best podcasts out there. It means the world to me. I honestly can’t believe that this is episode 400! I wouldn’t have continued if you hadn’t been listening.

If you haven’t ever spoken to me, and you’re still listening, you’re obviously one of my people. Please send me a message. I’d love to talk with you and tell you thank you, and hear your experience with this podcast. Thanks again for listening, and please, seriously, reach out and say hello. If you’ve been listening for years, please leave a rating in Apple Podcasts or whatever else you listen in. And please, share your favorite episode with other principals, and let’s help more people become transformative principals.

Sponsors

TeachFX

Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com

Sponsors

TeachFX

Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com

InControl SEL for Middle School

In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.

The videos are 5-6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.

They’ve thought of everything-- because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.

Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night--and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.

If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year

John Catt

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

 

• Show Outline
  • Fred and Jethro: What’s New
  • “Raising Cyberethical Kids: An Audio Course”
  • You Are There – Signing of the Declaration of Independence
  • Educators are eager to use social media in and out of the classroom
    • Garett Talcott (@vividmichael) (TikTok) - #2021–03–24 Kindergarten teacher goes viral for enthusiastic remote field trip to zoo
      - #2021–03–23 Redmond kindergarten teacher gains social media fame for unique virtual lessons
    • Emmanuel Robinson (@RobsRobins) (Twitter) (_mannymoves) Instagram - #2021–03–04 Atlanta’s ‘Teacher Bae’ And His Virtual Classes Have Gone ViralAtlanta’s ‘Teacher Bae’ And His Virtual Classes Have Gone Viral
      - #2021–03–01 Meet Atlanta’s ‘Teacher Bae’ whose virtual classes have gone viral
    • Phil Cook (@chemteacherphil) - #2020–01–17 TikTok’s favorite chemistry teacher wants you to be careful with hydrogen peroxide
  • The Lure of Fame / The Need for Cash - #2018–08–31 Teachers Are Moonlighting As Instagram Influencers To Make Ends Meet
  • Defining EdTech
    • the combination of IT tools and educational practices aimed at facilitating and enhancing learning.
  • 92% of teachers believe tech is going to have a major impact on the way they educate their students in the near future
    • https://builtin.com/edtech
  • Privacy and Educational Technology
    • https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/
    • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
    • Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)
    • Potential challenges:
      • Intellectual property
      • Information sharing
      • Web hosting
      • Data storage
  • Benefits of EdTech
    • For Students
      • Increased collaboration
        • Response: potential for bullying
      • 24/7 access
        • Response: increased pressure, no down time
      • “Flipping the classroom”
        • Response: challenging shift in traditional power dynamic
      • Personalized educational experience
        • Response: possible loss of core educational goals
      • Attention-grabbing lessons
        • Response: ADD is already a problem; boredom happens
    • For Teachers
      • Automated grading
        • Response: growing emphasis on standardized tests and machine-readable answers is the opposite of personalization
      • Classroom management tools
        • Response: using edtech to manage classroom reduces actual teacher-student interaction
      • Paperless classrooms
        • Response: favors more tech-savvy teachers, has potential to increase digital divide
      • Eliminating guesswork in assessment
        • Response: again, pushes concept of standardized testing and scoring
    • Hack Education Audrey Watters http://hackeducation.com/2019/12/31/what-a-shitshow
  • Social Media Is NOT EdTech
    • Not specifically designed for classroom use
    • No specific privacy protections for students and families
    • Increased risk of misuse of information
    • Much more difficult to monitor
  • Some pedagogical benefit but care is required

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.
For more information on working with Scott & Buoyancy Digital, visit BuoyancyDigital.com or @scottrmedia on LinkedIn.

Check out this episode!

 

Janet Hale Twitter is passionate about supporting educators in making curriculum decisions that ensure, enhance, and enrich learning and teaching experiences.

She specializes in curriculum mapping; curriculum design using various models and frameworks; standards literacy and alignment; and documenting learning to assist schools, districts, dioceses, higher-ed programs, and educational organizations and businesses with their curriculum, instruction, and assessment needs and improvement plans.
Her Masters of Arts degree in educational leadership and curriculum development; plus teaching in elementary, secondary, and special education classrooms, enable Janet to provide insights and information conducive to making decisions that improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices for all learners—including teachers and administrators.

Beyond her own consultancy, Janet is a member of the Global School Consultant Group and works with clients worldwide to aid them in their curriculum decisions to create innovative learning environments while ensuring alignment to standards and accountability needs.  Janet has written professional books published by ASCD and Corwin Press that focus on curriculum mapping, upgrading units of study, and documenting learning.

• Personalized learning
• There are too many standards, so we must prioritize them.
• Looking at the standards structurally.
• All agree on which standards are the priority standards?
• Until we can get away from state testing we are going to be bound to what the state determines.
• We’re missing what it means to be student-focused.
• Testing isn’t the top priority, but it is a consideration.
• If we think of the standards, we need to allow for transferability.
• Trying to give kids real-world environments.
• A guide to documenting Learning
• How to be a transformative principal? A lot of teachers are experiencing a lot of lost time. Ask your students what they are wanting to learn!
• Karen Bailey - Sylvia Telesano

Sponsors

TeachFX

Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com

InControl SEL for Middle School

In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.

The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.

They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.

Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.

If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year

John Catt

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:

• Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
• Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
• The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
• Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Marc Edward Netka (Born January 19, 1963 in Bayshore NY) is an American Entrepreneur and CEO, recognized as an expert in the use and implementation of technology in classrooms. He has worked with many international companies, helping them successfully enter the US K–12 Education marketplace, and currently sits on the K–12 advisory board of D&H Distributing Company, a $3.5Bil technology hardware and equipment distributor.

His current company, STS Education, is one of seven Platinum re-sellers for Promethean, the worldwide leader in interactive flat-panel technology, to education.

Marc lives with his wife Gloria and three sons in Newbury Park California.

1. How can schools make better decisions about purchasing technology?
2. How can ed tech companies aid in the reduction of the digital resource divide that was so starkly revealed by the pandemic?
3. What considerations about privacy, ethics, and safety should schools consider when purchasing technology?
4. What role can parents play in influencing ed tech purchases and implementation in their schools?
5. How does STS Education solicit and integrate parental input?
6. What ed tech trends should schools and IT departments be following?

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!

 

Kimberly Vaiana is a principal in San Francisco, Education is her second career and she has spent most of the 20 plus years in middle school. She’s been an administrator in both high school and middle school. Currently she has been serving her middle school community, as principal, for the last three years. She was born and raised in San Francisco and have raised my children in the East Bay where she taught and worked in partnership with families and teachers for the future of our world.

* The core of who I am is about meeting and getting to know people.
* Getting kids to learn their story and share it.
* Starting brand new with people she never met before.
* The first thing you do as a principal is don’t change anything.
* Getting to know their why.
* I met with every single staff member.
* It is every staff member, not just the teachers.
* All staff members have an impact on our kids.
* Status quo was easy. It was easy to just do your job.
* Playing games. Sharing pictures.
* once we got to know each other, we could then start to share the other things we were doing.
* Why is it important to get to know people informally instead of formally?
* It’s really about how we relate to one another.
* When I was a teacher, I wanted people to come and see.
* When I became an admin, visiting classrooms was crucial to me.
* I can see the activities, and I can speak to those things.
* Communication - newsletters. Making sure that every parent and guardian is in my newsletter.
* Morning Virtual Visit with Vaiana!
* Purple hair being out there.
* I share the story of the things we are doing on this campus.
* Recognition
* Making a phone call and sending a text message.
* Changes - Recognizing the students and their needs. Using advisory periods appropriately.
* Grading - sticky area.
* Why is it important, and is it something we should always hang on to?
* Reworking the lunch system.
* By building relationships first, we can make the changes needed.
* How to be a transformative principal? Have a conversation with your staff, each person. See the people in front of you. We say hello and goodbye!

Sponsors

TeachFX

Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com

InControl SEL for Middle School

In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at.

The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level.

They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches.

Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way.

If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year

John Catt

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/.
Learn more about some of the newest titles:

• Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh
• Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli
• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley
• The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson
• Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves
Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

New Episode of @TrnFrmPrincipal

Show outline

• If you have questions you’d like answered, please visit the Questions and Feedback page on Cybertraps.com
• The focus today is on the interactions among adults in our school communities
• Teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents
• Social media has altered the traditional power dynamics of the school community
• School Board members
• 2021 CA – Entire school board resigns after swearing and joking about parents during virtual meeting
  • “They want their babysitters back.”
  • “Parents want to be home alone so that they can smoke pot.”
  • Profane, threatening language against a parent who criticized her on social media
• 2020 FL – School board member resigns after making racist comments on FB about Kamala Harris
• 2016 VT – Burlington School Board member sharply criticized for contents of FB feed
• Administrators
• 2020 VT – Principal fired for “insanely tone-deaf” Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter movement
  • Principal’s attempt to apologize not successful
• 2019 NY – Superintendent resigns after wife tweets out allegations of an affair with a subordinate
• 2018 TX – Superintendent resigns after writing on a public FB page that “You can’t count on a black QB”
  • “As an educator, this experience has taught me that I still have a lot to learn,” Redden wrote to board president Ted Wiggins. “My comments were not only uninformed but also hurtful, and I understand now why they were offensive to so many people.”
  • Redden said he mistakenly thought he was responding to a friend’s private message. He deleted the post, but Spring resident Matt Ericksen sent the Chronicle screenshots of the comment Monday.
• 2015 LA – High school principal and her husband get backlash for posting image of them wearing their “people of Walmart” Halloween costumes
  • Classism and racism?
  • Just having fun?
• Teachers
• One Scottish teacher’s union described the combination of smartphones and social media as “catastrophic” for its members
  • Orwellian scrutiny
• 2021 WI – High school english teacher (and wife of superintendent) placed on leave after series of racist, homophobic, and transphobic remarks on social media
  • Superintendent also on leave
  • New law firm brought in to investigate
• 2020 CA – Los Angeles teacher flees her home with her daughter after receiving death threats when an ‘angry parent shared a photo of her’ wearing an ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirt during a virtual class
• 2018 OH – Teacher fired after encouraging preschoolers to fight and posting videos to Snapchat
• 2017 NJ – Teacher fired and had license suspended for two years after she describes students as “losers” on Facebook
• 2017 ND – Teacher resigns after investigation over offensive tweets about her special ed students
• Parents
• Steady rise in social media bullying of teachers and administrators by parents
• Teachers argue that social media is making parents more aggressive
• Parents have access to much more information about schools and teachers, increasing the potential for complaints and activism
• 2020 – Multiple reports of parents drinking, smoking pot, and wandering around half-dressed during their kids’ remote classes
• 2018 Ireland – Teacher successfully sues parent for libel over social media post
• 2016 Mexico – Parents successfully demand firing of teacher after spring break dance video circulates online
• What Can Be Done?
• Should schools ask parents to sign agreements about how they will use social media with respect to teachers and the school itself?
• THINK before you POST!!!
• Know how the technology works
• Slow down

Check out this episode!