I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Chad Lang is an assistant superintendent of HR and school improvement in Glenwood Iowa.  He is passionate about grading, curriculum, and professional development.  On today’s episode we discuss the importance of curriculum and grading when preparing students for the “real world”.  He clarifies the difference between curriculum and resources, and explains why textbooks and companies should never be the curriculum for our students.  Chad also describes the importance of starting with a common definition of grades, with his definition aligning tightly to what we expect students to know and be able to do in reference to specific standards.   Chad can be reached on Twitter @chad_mLang or through his personal email chadmichaellang@gmail.comSponsorsTransformative Principal MastermindLead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com     We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Last time we talked about evaluation. What has changed? Put into practice - new frame of reference and mindset. Talking about blindspots that a teacher has is what makes the evaluation meeting meaningful. What are some things you want my perspective on in the classroom? In this episode we discuss: - How to help the evaluation process be successful. - What if they don’t want feedback? - Ask what they want to get out of the evaluation process. - What if they ask for just a pat on the back? - Self-evaluation - use that to look for blindspots Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Darrin Peppard is a school district superintendent, speaker, author, publisher and consultant focused on what matters most in leadership. Darrin’s an expert in school culture and climate as well as coaching and growing emerging leaders. He is known for his keen insight, culture-first leadership style, and dynamic personality. In 2016, Darrin was named Wyoming Secondary School Principal of the Year by WASSP/NASSP and was the 2015 Jostens Renaissance Educator of the Year. In 2017, Darrin earned his Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Wyoming. This past summer, Darrin was inducted into the Jostens Renaissance Hall of Fame. On today’s episode we discuss school culture and the road to awesome. Darrin describes the moment he knew his school had a culture problem and how he started down the road less traveled instead of the “gotcha” road. He started by changing what he controlled, himself, and then focused on empowering the students and staff to join him and take ownership in their school’s journey. www.roadtoawesome.net 307-371-89447 Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.PLCs in a Small School with Jeff Makelky Transformative Principal 516 Jeff Makelky has spent 41 years in public education and is currently the principal of Big Piney High School in Wyoming. He graduated from Dickinson State and Montana State, was recognized as the Wyoming Secondary Principal of the Year in 2020, and has published articles in Principal Leadership. His email address is jmakelky@sublette9.org In today’s episode Jeff discusses his proudest accomplishments as a building leader, why he thinks more teachers should consider a career in educational leadership, and how his staff has been working toward implementing PLC practices to fit a small school setting. Sponsors Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Opie Blackwell is the current principal of Ridgeview Charter Middle School in Atlanta, GA.  Ridgeview Charter Middle School is an inaugural recipient of the Association of Middle Level Education's (AMLE) prestigious Schools to Watch designation, a nationally recognized 2022-2025 elite "Lighthouse School to Watch" from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, is a southeast recognized "Showcase School" for AVID, and is an International Baccalaureate program school.  His email address is blackwello@fultonschools.org.   On today’s episode Opie describes the hard work surrounding interdisciplinary teaching and learning that his team has been prioritizing.  He lays out the entire journey and emphasizes why a focus of including student voice is so valuable to the success they’ve achieved at Ridgeview Charter Middle School.  Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.In this episode, Jethro and Damon Hargraves talk about ChatGPT. This is from a Twitter Spaces that they did in early January. And this has led to some pretty interesting conversations. Jethro has been contracting with a startup to do user research interviews about how we could use AI in schools. If you are intersected in this and would like to chat with us, please schedule a time here. We’ve done about 70 interviews since this Twitter space happened, and we are looking for more, so don’t be shy! We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.In this episode, we are continuing our coaching conversations with Eric. Please check in our previous episodes 510, 506, and 501 trying to make it a focus to be aware of people What’s on your mind? What’s the challenge you’re facing today. Today we focus on teacher evaluations. For New Teachers 5 informal observations 2 formal observations 2 formal observation post-conferences 2 summative conferences start, mid, and end of year with goals 14 touchpoints per teacher. For Experienced Teachers: 3 informal 1 formal start, mid, and end of year with goals 8 total touch points. Evaluation system is homemade. Current concerns: - Hard to make them meaningful - Less confident writing up evaluations because it’s my first year seeing everyone. - Feedback: is it accurate and in alignment with what is really happening? - What value does Eric see? - Good to give teachers feedback on a regular basis. - Good to give formal feedback - Post observation conferences are good to go over feedback. - From a teacher’s perspective - Some staff aren’t used to having observations and evaluations. - Picked one area on the rubric and only scored and gave feedback on that one thing. - Try chunking it, and then get some feedback. Suggestions for effective evaluations Johari Window The only feedback that matters is what people can’t see Purpose is to make them meaningful - finding blind spots. Jump through the hoops. Is the vision for the school actually happening. Self-evaluations at the beginning of the year. Sponsors Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com Just Right Reader Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Ryan Mackey is the principal of Douglas High School and is beginning his ninth year as a school administrator. Wyoming Principal of the Year 2022–2023.  He is also a certified McGrath Solutions TRUE-SPEAK trainer that allows him to work with other school administrators and frontline staff on communication within various organizations. He has been in education for 16 years and began his career teaching social studies while coaching football, basketball, and track. After teaching and coaching for seven years, his wife (Jessica) and two children (Brooklyn and Conlan) moved to Douglas as the middle school assistant principal and activities director. He then became the principal of the middle school in 2016 where he worked on transforming school culture through standards-referenced grading and reporting. In 2019, he was named the principal of Douglas High School and has worked to develop and establish a safe and supportive school climate and culture. He is passionate about continuous learning as well as creating and maintaining a transformative school climate and culture. Lastly, Ryan recently obtained his superintendent certification and is working on his dissertation for his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership at the University of Wyoming. Ryan Mackey shares his three phase plan for leaders focusing on the culture of their schools.  Starting with the adults in the building, then students, and finally focusing on the families and community members.  He emphasizes the importance of the school’s mission and vision driving everything the adults in the building do, having a collaborative approach, and his rallying cry is “we’re going to work hard and do what’s best for kids!” Best way for listeners to reach out to Ryan:  Email- rmackey@converse1.org Call- (307) 358–2940 Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Brad Gregorich is a proud alum of Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT.  He earned both his undergraduate and master’s degree in educational leadership as a Battlin’ Bear.  He has been a classroom teacher, junior high assistant principal, and elementary principal.  Brad is currently the principal of Hillcrest Elementary School in Gillette, WY.  On today’s episode Brad discusses how he prioritizes culture over strategy as a building principal.  He has focused on the culture their school is working toward through communication and staff leadership.  We also discuss some of his advice to building principals when trying to maintain a healthy balance between school and family time.  The best way for listener’s to get in touch with Brad is through his school email: bgregorich@ccsd.k12.wy.us Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I'm excited to announce my Book Study. Get more info and join me here.Eric Bransteter is a former 5th grade teacher, media specialist, and building-level administrator. Eric has always had a passion for technology integration in the classroom, which led to him co-founding the EdTech company iAspire. Eric now hosts The Employee Experience in Education podcast where he speaks with educational leaders, former educators, and industry experts to better understand the employee experience in education. Eric’s goal is to equip school leaders with realistic and actionable strategies to keep more teachers in the classroom. Eric discusses how schools can improve teacher retention by focusing on the employee experience.  By aligning the employer’s expectations, needs, and wants with those of the employee, schools can prevent turnover and retention in the classroom.  The four principles of the employee experience are connection with themselves, connection with others, connection with their role, and connection with the organization.  Happy teachers don’t quit! Best way for listeners to reach out to Eric Bransteter:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbransteter/ Sponsors Pikmykid Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more Transformative Principal Mastermind Lead a school everyone can be proud of. Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do. I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.