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Transformative Principal

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May 5, 2019 • 26min

The Revolution with Derek McCoy Transformative Principal 277

  Derek McCoy is a middle school principal in Georgia, and a fellow Digital Principal of the Year. He is also the coauthor of “The Revolution: It’s Time To Empower Change In Our Schools” We still sit in rows, we still deliver everything the same as we always. The time for shifting is over. Shift gives comfort, but we’ve got to make some change for our kids. We’re asking adults to change. 3 R’s is how we conduct business, and it always has been. That’s not going anywhere. We also know better. Shifting from the three R’s Passion - finding something that you’re passionate about. You might have some parents that can’t get into all the fundamental three R’s. When you’re passionate about it, you don’t give up. There is a disconnect with schools and parents now. We know better. We know how the brain works. Learning is more social than it is memorization. Don’t be the teacher you had as a student, It’s about learning new, and trying new for our learners. Change is going to happen, so we can embrace that change for our students. How do we get the whole system to change? The revolution@ries primary responsibility to build a vision! Committing to learner-centered change! Find your pusher who is going to support you through it and ground your thinking. Significant change is relative. Survey and talk to kids? Getting learner input. Control vs. Trust 5 core values: communicators, collaborators, __, have integrity, act with purpose Giving kids opportunity to provide input. Ask the kids, “How do you see this working?“ How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms. Spend half your day in there talking to kids. Let that be the formative assessment for how you Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey     Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Apr 28, 2019 • 33min

Supporting Engaging and Empowering Your Staff with Christopher Jones Transformative Principal 276

  Christopher is a principal at Whitman Hansen Regional High School. Transitioning to a new high school. A new position gives you the opportunity to reflect on where you want to go and who you want to go. Sharing yourself first. I’m not a student-centered principal! I’m a staff-centered principal. Build staff meetings around getting to know each other. Building relationships Every day, with some exceptions, I’m in classrooms giving feedback to teachers. Out in front playing music with kids. Using Voxer to give immediate feedback and face-to-face meetings. Three simple questions: What’s working? What do I need to stop doing? What can I do to make your life better or easier? Start by supporting, then you engage them, then you empower them. A good leader is a servant leader. A good leader becomes a better leader by making others more successful. Clear the road for others. Experience is so important and we have to fail to keep learning. We don’t know how good we can be. Every student leaving the high school with something in their pocket to prepare them for the next level. Key components of S1 to raise failing grade to passing grade. Empowering teachers to give kids hope and keep integrity of the grades. Teachers choose most important units and then give kids an opportunity to make things happen. 92% of the kids who did winter school passed the year-long course. Summer Read Smackdown! Interdisciplinary days - kids don’t come back to a test on the book. How to be a transformative principal? Get into classrooms and give honest feedback to teachers so you can have a conversation with them.   Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey   Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Apr 21, 2019 • 29min

Hacking Instructional Design with Mike Fisher Transformative Principal 275

  Mike Fisher author of Hacking Instructional Design. Shoutout to @elizabethfisher All this stuff that is eating up teachers’ time to plan. Easier to just purchase a program or a plan. Shift focus to contemporary instructional design. Why is it so hard to move away from Decision paralysis. So many decisions to make that we don’t know what to do. How well we need to design assessments. Standards, resources, external assessments. The What - standards The How - activities The How Well? - assessments. Tripticks from AAA Trying things out - gives you some freedom. Being a lead learner is pushed aside to get things done. Right-sizing the work. Allow students to be cocreators in instructional design. Breaking the standard into manageable bits for teachers and for students. Learning targets “standard statement“ with I can in front of it. Help students have high level of mastery. Kids do not care about your grades! Let them be accountable to each other and accountable to the world. How to be a transformative Principal? Invite conversation, collaboration. How do we remain loyal to the learner and learning? Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Apr 14, 2019 • 21min

ASTE Keynote with Jethro Jones Transformative Principal 274

This is a keynote that I presented for the Alaska Society for Technology in Education Conference in February. Here is the link to the video of it.  Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Apr 7, 2019 • 26min

Stop the Busyness with Byron Darnall Transformative Principal 273

  Byron Darnall is the principal of Potter Gray Elementary School in Bowling Green Kentucky Long term sustainable change is slow. How do you improve something that is already successful? Examine the student experience. Who’s school is it? As educators we tend to operate from the center. Busyness is the disease of our time. How are you? Busy! <-bothersome “I would love to, but I’m too busy.“ Am I too busy to get better? How to be less busy? Every day shouldn’t lead to absolute exhaustion. There is nothing easy about it, but we have to be open to finding someone we trust to give us good feedback about our time management Systems thinking - not exposed to it as a teacher or Centralize school-wide communication through a blog. If it matters, it is on the blog. If it can’t be said in 1-2 sentences, it’s a conversation. How to be a transformative principal? Talk to your students and ask them questions. Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey     Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Mar 31, 2019 • 17min

RTI for Real Gains with Lyn Marsilio Transformative Principal 272

RTI process for Lyn Marsilio's elementary school. Set a couple goals: know their letters, ICU. 4 rotations, 6 minute rotations Letter writing, letter sorts, tracing, sound sorts. After the first 20 days, graduated kids went back into the classroom. Did a round 2 to add rhyming and took out tactile piece. Taking attendance for kids to see how many times they went to this intervention. Out of the 20 days, some kids only made 14, and so called him to make sure kids Our third round, the teachers are finally seeing why we take data. Kids making the goals early are taking off in other areas because they had those foundational skills. 80% on grade level vs. 40% that were on grade level last year. Narrows down who needs special skills. In the past, title I data has felt like a collection with no meaning. Up until this year, that has been data that we collect, not that we use. Teachers plan it, teacher assistants implement it. 1st grade - 46 kids, three title I teachers are working with these kids. We have seen 84% of the kids in 1st grade making progress. Co planning with the reading teachers. In second grade, about 50% of kids have rotated out because of progress. There is a great benefit in being targeted. 3rd graders, all but 2 of the 25 kids needing intervention are making great progress. Lots of young staff, and they are still doing well. Teachers are seeing why the planning is affecting instruction and what that impact is. foundational skills in 2nd and 3rd grade: decoding, then once they hit grade level, push comprehension. Holding on to them a little longer. Got push back in the beginning because we are doing something different. Now that they are seeing why we structured that the way did, there is more excitement. 2nd and 3rd grade, asked teachers for input to make sure they felt supported. Success is contagious. What haven't we figured out: 4th and 5th grade. Looking at budget as people and not programs. We are getting kids to be readers.   Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Mar 24, 2019 • 21min

Including Everyone in Leadership with Larry Villiard Transformative Principal 271

Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin. Leadership team, started with 12 people, now we have up to 20 people come to the leadership team meeting each month. Follow up leadership team meeting after PD. Anybody who wants to be part of leadership team can join us. Leadership Meeting norms. Six Step Process Weekly article share at 7:30 Book studies. Tight and loose. Need more time if we are going to teach the curriculum with fidelity. Seniors leave a week earlier than the rest of the student body, so they are going to do a test run with the new schedule. How to be a transformative principal? Have an open mind. Tap into your talented staff. call bruce high school. Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey     Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Mar 17, 2019 • 20min

When PLC is not just a meeting with Larry Villiard Transformative Principal 270 1

  Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin. Larry has been there since 1995 Moved from a junior high school to a middle school. About 500 students 2 classes per grade Middle school has a separate schedule from everyone else. Extended core classes 80 minutes long. The staff is the key to making kids successful. How has the PLC approach helped you. Took ideas from the staff to make it successful. Transitions getting kids moving around more. Give kids 20 minutes of homework time during the class period. Lengthened class periods decreased ODRs. A small little man can't make all the decisions. People couldn't believe that people just went about their business when they visited the school. In one school year, we lost superintendent and elementary principal. I was going to be moved out of my comfort zone. They came back like new staff, like new people. A PLC cannot be a set of meetings! A PLC has to become your culture. Take what is working best and eliminate what is not working. Data Days 3 times per year - drives all interventions Were dead last in our achievement and now are in 1st place. Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey       Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Mar 10, 2019 • 28min

Behavior Speaks for Itself with Barbara Sorrels Transformative Principal 269

  Dr. Barbara is Executive Director of The Institute for Childhood Education, a professional development and consulting firm for those who live and work with children. Barbara started rocking abandoned babies when she was in high school in Washington, D.C. First year teaching was in the inner city. The role of spirituality and faith in children. Faith community is a resilience factor. Faith enables us to have connection. Children have innate understanding of God. When you have that child standing in front of you that can sometimes get on your last nerve, ask not what is wrong with you, but what has happened to you? Impacts us at the cellular level. I look at you with compassion for your story. The kids’ history has told them that the world is not a safe place. “Children act out“ in behavior what they do not have the words to say. How much do we need to know about student’s trauma? The trauma determines the impact. The behavior speaks for itself. Need to look at trauma with a broader lens. What happens inside a child’s body when they experience trauma. FAE and Pre-natal drug exposure impacts organization of brain. Most vulnerable time is in-utero and first two months of life as it relates to brain development. Dr. Perry and neurotransmitters. ADHD medication manipulates one of the three neurotransmitters. Dendrites on neurons related to quality and health of early life. Trauma can interrupt two hemispheres of the brain. Memory, language, using symbols can be compromised by trauma. Moral classrooms, moral children. Children with trauma will only thrive in a community. Developmentally appropriate practice with kids exposed to trauma - Narrow window of strategies. Children with significant trauma act at half their chronological age. Active learning engagement for kids exposed to trauma. Primary strategy is a do-over or reboot. “Let’s try that again!” - may need to model that first. Goal is not to manage behavior but to heal them from inside out. Ignore the no and give two choices! Cozy corner: “You let me know when you’re ready to go back to class.“ Simply changing the location is sometimes enough. Pattern, repetitive movement is calming to the brain. Wet washcloth is a tangible symbol of empathy. How to be a transformative principal? When you see those children who are struggling, remind yourself it’s not about what’s wrong with you, but about what’s happened to you. I know who you are. Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey     Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.
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Mar 3, 2019 • 22min

Changing the student experience through changing the student task with Jason Glass Transformative Principal 268

    Jason Glass is the superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools 85,000 students on the west side of Denver, Colorado. Lots of great people in the district. Community is politically divided 1/3 democrats, 1/3 independent, 1/3 republican When it comes to our kids, it should be an area where everyone can work together. PBS Documentary about the Jeffco recall Things that disturb the balance here get noticed How do we prepare the students for the right future. Green Mountain Youtube Video Changing the student experience through changing the student task Information is really easy to acquire. Problem and project-based learning across the entire organization Three categories of practitioners: those who have always taught in authentic: Allow those teachers to be influencers. Second group is those who see the changes and are willing to engage but don’t know how: provide lots of opportunities for them to see what it looks like. Third group: waiting to see if this is a fad. How do you inspire your leadership to do these things as well? This is simultaneously the easiest and most difficult change to make. “This is exactly why I got into education” Really hard because this is not a technical change Much deeper and more meaningful change approach. Have the changes really changed what students experience how to be a transformative principal? Principals can support, encourage and help a teacher take a risk to create an authentic meaningful approach for a student. @cojasonglass Jason.glass@jeffco.k12.co.us Schedule a call with Jethro Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life! Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Take Control of your email Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey     Join the Transformative Mastermind Today and work on your school, not just in it. Apply today. 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.

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