Transformative Principal

Leyden East High School Principal Jason Markey, assistant principal Anita Huffman and principal-to-be-current-special-education-teacher Meaghan O’Neil join me to talk about the Assistant principal for Student Services - The importance of a title Breakfast with students to support the new students coming in. ACCESS Program - extra 25 minutes for freshman to help them get acclimated. Hand-schedule students with ACCESS teacher so they have a single adult to Learning2breathe study time for students to focus on mindfulness. Teaching the whole child. “Yes, And” thinking. Giving kids the time and space to be creative. Innovation incubator. Disengaging from PLCs to be in a new group focused on design thinking. Design thinking Trust and vulnerability is vital. It is an unknown. What can you do to be a transformative principal: Work to empathize more with our students and teachers [#shadowastudent](http://shadowastudent.org) Have a PLN and connect with others to help reflect and continue to grow. Step out of your c

Today, Daniel Bauer and I talk about our Mastermind. I encourage you to join. Check it out here: Transformative Mastermind.   If you still have questions or are ready to join, please set up a brief phone call. Schedule a call Daniel and I are both setting up masterminds. I interview him on his podcast: Better Leaders Better Schools    Mastermind For Principals We all know that being a principal can be a lonely job. It is isolating to be the only one who has to deal with everything that goes on in your day-to-day life. Some of us have assistant principals, some of us have co principals, but each of us know that there are some things that are just hard to help other people understand what you’re going through. Enter a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people who are dedicated to investing in themselves to improve their lives. We all have social networks which help us in various ways. If you have been on Twitter, in Facebook groups, or Voxer groups, you know there can be an ebb and flow with the conversatio

A continuation of my discussion with Eric Heiser, Exectuve direction or Sturgis Public Charter school in Mass. Teachers go above and beyond often. Teachers who join us are into teaching students, not content. Students thrive on feedback, and if they feel they are going to get it, they are going to go to teachers for it more often. Teachers mindset has to be, I’m going to do everything I can to help kids be successful. How do you tease out that mindset? If I took over your class, and I had no clue about what you were teaching, what words and phrases would your students have about you? How does the teacher see their role and connection? Tell me something that went really well in the last week and why it went well. Tell me something that didn’t go well and why didn’t it? How did you choose your university? Tell me about your favorite class at university and why they were your favorite? How do you connect outside the classroom and why do you do that? Student discipline is not about the consequence, but it is abo

Eric Heiser is the Exective Director of Sturgis Public Charter School in Massachusetts, where students have a 20% chance of getting in if you don’t have a sibling International Baccalaureate has programs from K–12 and early college. IB Diploma program the best preparation for College. IB Program is a whole conception of a program. Rigorous courses and also character building. Theory of knowledge, Creative action and service activities. Gain points for what they know, rather than losing points for what they don’t. Very few multiple choice tests in the assessments given. IB for All - no non-IB courses for grades 11 and 12. 9th and 10th grade IB Prep. Students challenge themselves, and grow into their commitment of becoming all they can be. Special Needs at Sturgis on the web site Guiding points on vision: 1. Help each student maximize their own individual potential. 2. Student learning is why we are here and should drive every decision we make. Moving away from the word teach and saying “How do we create lear

Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school. PLCs Leadership Team 25 minutes each week with principal discussing the instruction and learning. Instructional coach. Essential Questions Meet weekly as a team Sense of urgency is happening. PD for Leadership Team Smart professionals can choose their own tools for the job. Also more fun to let them experience their own success. New focus is seeing students Comprehensive needs assessments Students need shared ownership Specific feedback Universal screeners for our students, they showed they were really struggling. DIBELs gives an indicator Phonics Screener Still need to create common formative assessments to help students demonstrate proficiency. Consultants come in to work with team to facilitate the needed changes. How to facilitate difficult conversations. Strict schedule is needed. R

I was so honored to chat with Todd Whitaker and Rick Wormeli after their keynote at the #nassp16 conference. This was a really fun conversation today. These two guys were so excited about what they were talking about they just kept going. It was awesome. Professional Development. Twitter chats (Comprehensive list of Twitter Chats) Twitter is the best free professional development there is. Exposed to newer research-based information How sad that we use research as an excuse to not do something. The teachers is a ceaseless researcher in their classroom. When there is a great teacher, there is no research, because it has never been done. How to help your great teachers fly. How to help struggling teachers.   Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal fo

Cory Doctorow is a Canadian journalist and science fiction author. Follow him on Twitter, Web site, BoingBoing Cory spoke at ASTE this week, and I am excited to share the things I learned from him. Failing well We tend to ignore failing. What we should teach kids about technology Reidentification - people can figure out who you are. What we should teach kids Anonymity + distance = jerky behavior Should we be critical of the software and systems we use? Proprietary vs. open There’s never been a field or endeavor where scrutiny by your peers has not helped. Adversarial peer review. You can lock yourself into bad systems if you’re not careful. If 10% of a group got together and spent their money on developing open source software then they would produce something better that what is available. We did this at Kodiak Middle with our Pickr app Collective action threshold What is one thing that you can do to be a transformative principal? Got out of the students’ way. Employees were empowered to cost the company m

Special Episode! This weekend I am at the ASTE Conference, and I had the privilege of learning from Carl Hooker for a leadership workshop all day on Saturday. It’s always fun to learn from a great presenter, and Carl is one of those. Carl did a great job of engaging a bunch of administrators, helping us get our guard down, and making the conversation great. Carl has been involved in education since graduating from the University of Texas in 1998. He has been in a variety of positions in both Austin ISD and Eanes ISD, from 1st grade teacher to Virtualization Coordinator.  He’s a father of three girls, Sophia, Lauren, and Caroline and a wonderful, understanding wife Renee, all of which play a large role in any presentations he gives or blogs he writes. Carl is the Director of Innovation & Digital Learning in the Eanes Independent School District. He is also the founder of the learning festival called iPadpalooza. As Director, he utilizes his background in both education and technology to bring a unique visi

Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school. Turnaround principal. Everyone had the choice to leave or apply to stay. Looking for a willingness to do what works. How are we as a team going to fulfill that need for our kids? So much work to be done. Where would you start first for equitable student achievement? Are you willing to do the work? Building a culture of change. We GET to do this, and isn’t that exciting? As a leader, I go fast. Go slow to go fast. 3 things we did: 1. Culture change 2. Targeted Professional Development 3. Effective instruction Focus on literacy. How to teach the Big 5 in literacy. Grit and growth mindset. I can’t do it, yet. Feedback and trust are vital. Learning to trust each other and admit that I don’t know. Willingness to try something different. Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in

Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com. Less concerned about teachers communicating directly with parents. Not really a problem unless they are having a problem or argument. Need to have the mindfulness to step back and get someone else involved if there is a disagreement. General rule of thumb. No unmediated electronic communication between a teacher and a student. Digital communication inherently strips out that humanity, so why not have it mediated. Take whatever steps necessary to make it difficult

Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com. Cybertraps - problems that people have dealt with for many years Technology makes things easier. We don’t have a good clearinghouse across the country. Don’t need technology to be a predator. Slippery slope of boundary violations. Most common cybertraps: productivity within the school environment, oversharing of personal information, use of social media to start or engage in an inappropriate relationship. Digital technology has a leveling effect. Personal informa

Kara is an assistant principal at Edwin Lowe Elementary in New Town North Dakota. Her generation doesn’t feel that people are coming in to take away their culture. There’s nothing we can’t learn from each other. How to help kids choose to be in education: Be that outstanding teacher! Having authentic conversations. History of Indian Education in America. Boarding schools were opened up. Goal was to assimilate the natives. Have to be willing to learn to respect their culture. Pow-Wows are very vital. Community Being fair, being willing to learn from others. To help students, you need to have a good relationship. Pair people up with support staff. Providing resources for students as they are growing and developing. Mediators help bridge the gap. How paraprofessionals can help. They need lots of training. In the eyes of the student, there is not much difference between paraprofessionals and teachers. How to be a transformative principal: Maintain work-life balance, be authentic and have authentic conversations

Kara is an assistant principal at Edwin Lowe Elementary in New Town North Dakota. Grew up Cheyenne-Sioux South Dakota. Foster education. Emancipated as a young adult. Knew what it took to survive in life. Dropped out of High School. Started school again in her 20s. Life on the reservation due to socio-economic and other issues. She saw the world starting to pass her by. Writing a paragraph sounds so simple to most people, but it is very difficult if you haven’t done it in 14 years. Working on a Doctorate. So much to give back now to others. No student cannot succeed when they have the resources to be successful. Uncle was a good mentor. Making connections instructors. Not being afraid to ask questions that were on my mind. Most people want to help others. You have to be open to saying “I don’t know” You have to be reflective. Be reflective in your successes. Need to relax, slow down, and wait for things to happen. Felt drawn back to the reservation. Groomed to teach in Bismarck, but felt that working on a re

Teacher-led Professional Development with Nathan Adams Transformative Principal 107 Nathan has been a special education teacher for 8 years. He has taught in middle, high, and elementary levels. Teacher led professional development Sponsored by the local teacher’s union. Joined the union that has supported him, in an effort to give back. Idea of helping general education teachers and special education teachers understand the needs of each other. Brotherhood of professionals. Need to find a way to offer this for credit to improve skills but also have incentive. NEA grant that supported professional development for teachers teaching teachers. Institute for Professional Development. Will align in the future to make the district PD calendar aligned with what the association is wanting. Surveyed members to determine what they wanted to learn. This is a perk/benefit for the members of the association. Challenge is finding the time to make this happen. Highlights: Teachers posted what they found beneficial from the

Kristin Bentley is a 2nd grade teacher in a Title I school. She created an awesome app that helps manage classroom behavior: Color My Day Introductory Video Why use this rather than Class Dojo. Think Time forms and Office Discipline Referrals are built-in to the app. Shoutout to Tricia Skyles ODRs going down means nothing if teacher morale is going up. The process of creating an app from the ground up. Crayons and paper Lucidchart Found a graphic designer. Found a programmer. Tell people about your ideas, find out what people are looking for in their schools. Do something to make people’92s lives easier. Make sure it is not something extra for teachers or admins to implement. Need 3 people: Expert, designer, and developer. Three ways to get it off the ground: pay someone, find someone to buy into your vision, find investors. Planbook Support teachers who are building apps to support students. Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your

Kristin Bentley is a 2nd grade teacher in a Title I school. She created an awesome app that helps manage classroom behavior: Color My Day [Introductory Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4IrMJpInOk&feature=youtu.be) Using card pulls is not very effective. Clip charts use separate clips to show that positive and negative behavior. The two clips gave the ’93naughty’94 kids a chance to have a good day. Goal for card pulls is to stay positive. Card pulls don’92t give chances for kids to see what they can accomplish. Clips change kids self-esteem. Physical chart helps kids see and experience changes. Digital version allows teachers to collect and analyze data. Think Time form allows student to fill out the form with teacher and record it in the app. Data is collected school-wide and allows teachers to customize their individual reasons for clips up and down. Digital version of clip chart allows teachers to have data to collect and prepare for RTI, special ed referrals, and more. The app keeps track of

Principal of South Heights Elementary in his 20th year. Rob doesn’t just look at his students currently, he has a much bigger vision of what they can accomplish and how they can make life better forever. Rob keeps in contact with kids who went to The 1199 many years ago and makes sure that they can still find ways to be successful. Special things you do during Christmas for your schools You can be an awesome combination of tradition and innovation. We celebrate all of our holidays. We take all of our kids to a movie. Santa’s Treasure Island Mall! Most schools going away from all this extra stuff, and it seems you are going toward it full steam ahead! Work hard, play hard, succeed! Neighborhood Christmas parade. Go big or go home. How has the community changed since you’ve been doing these things? This school not prison, so let’s make it enjoyable. Big ideas are going to happen. People are willing to go out and make it happen. People are willing to come in and do extra as well. Expensive endeavors require the

Rob Carroll Principal of South Heights Elementary in his 20th year. Rob doesn’t just look at his students currently, he has a much bigger vision of what they can accomplish and how they can make life better forever. Rob keeps in contact with kids who went to The 1199 many years ago and makes sure that they can still find ways to be successful. Man cave show on home and garden channel gave them at Own version of Harlem Children’s Zone Timeline of success milestone From conception to career, how does every child succeed. Not just a K–5 school. We help them after they move on. Help them in high school. Help them for college applications. We really love our students. Circle of life sustains change. 11 years of doing college tours. Kids had an unrealistic expectation of college. K goes to local community college Each grade goes to a different college. Our 5th graders understand more about college than a lot of juniors and seniors. If it’s good enough for my biological kids, it’s good enou

Brian Costello is in his 7th year of teaching in Southern New Jersey.  Brian started his career as an instructional aide before going on to teach Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades.  He is an avid writer, blogger, and Twitter user that has published his first children’s novel: Will McGill and the Magic Hat.  Brian speaks at Educational conferences on topics including educational technology, leadership, communication, and professional development.  See Brian’s previous posts for CUE.   Here is what we talked about today: Will McGill and the Magic Hat Independent Publisher CUE blog Classroom Community World Tour - helping kids see what happens in other places. Tour Builder - “Tour Builder is a new way to show people the places you’ve visited and the experiences you had along the way using Google Earth. It lets you pick the locations right on the map, add in photos, text, and video, and then share your creation.” The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds You use this to show students what life is like in another place. Twi

Brian Costello is in his 7th year of teaching in Southern New Jersey.  Brian started his career as an instructional aide before going on to teach Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades.  He is an avid writer, blogger, and Twitter user that has published his first children’s novel: Will McGill and the Magic Hat.  Brian speaks at Educational conferences on topics including educational technology, leadership, communication, and professional development.  See Brian’s previous posts for CUE.   Here is what we talked about today: Working with the youngest kids provides you with some things that start to disappear as they get older. The light bulbs go off way more than when they are older. Rotating through content areas 1–4th grades. Give teachers a chance to focus more on a content area. Can be more difficult to build relationships with students. Works together with other teachers more on because of their transitions. How to deal with mean teachers. Confront them directly. State the appropriate professional response. H