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 comfort zone and learn and grow. 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 conversation and ability to help other people in the group. You know there are a lot of lurkers. You also know that sometimes your questions and needs don’t get answered. Sometimes you don’t even ask questions because you can’t articulate what the problem is without giving a big back story. A mastermind is different. You commit to being there for yourself and for your teammates. You commit to answering their questions, to supporting them, and, most importantly, to investing in yourself to help you be the best you can be. Schedule a call with me right now The truth is, a mastermind isn’t for everybody. Answer the following questions and see if you might be one of the ten principals in the country that will be able to join this mastermind. Do you want your work and home life to be in balance? Do you want to lead with a new level of confidence and ability? Do you want to learn how to communicate with your teachers and students so they understand the vision you have? Do you want to learn how to work with other principals and leaders in your district to be on the same page, working towards the same mission? Do you want to be healthier? Do you want to have better relationships with those you love? If you answered yes to the questions above, then let’s set up a call and talk further about the possibilities. Click here to set up the call What do you get as a member of the mastermind? Weekly meetings online to facilitate the mastermind. A group of principals that are willing to help you as you help them. A monthly leadership book club A DISC personality profile test to help you understand how you communicate, and help people communicate with you. Free access to events and trainings. Private Facebook group and Voxer group. A rotating weekly problem-solving session that allows you to go deep into the primary problem you are facing in your school. Specific curated podcast list of the best podcasts available. Celebrations of overcoming obstacles at your school with people who will understand the complexity of the obstacle. A time to reflect that will energize you for the next week to be your best. Lifelong relationships with other principals. I hope you will join me, and take your leadership to a level you never could have imagined. Click here to set up a call with me If you are still not sure, please read through the frequently asked questions below and set up a call with me! What is the time commitment? We will meet each week online for about 60–90 minutes. These sessions will be jam packed with useful information, problem solving, and reflection. Why does it cost money? I can join a Voxer group for free! This is more than a Voxer group. This is a group of people, meeting regularly, to make sure that we are being the best we can be. Simply put, if you don’t pay for it, you will likely get “too busy” and blow it off. When you invest an amount of money you are going to be more dedicated to it. Your level of commitment and dedication will be commensurate to the monetary value associated with it. Your monetary investment in yourself shows that you are serious about learning and growing. What if I don’t have the time for something like this? Then it is not for you. What if I don’t find it valuable? If you’re not satisfied with it, you can call me and ask for a refund. I’ll ask for feedback about how to make it more meaningful, and happily refund your money. What if I just want to listen and not participate? The mastermind is for those who want to do. It won’t be as beneficial if you are on the sidelines. That being said, we won’t be forcing anyone to do anything. You will get out of this what you put into it. 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.

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 about the opportunity to build a connection with the student after a situation and help the student see what they could have done. Should be about the student growing, not about consequences. Professional development focused on three areas: 1. Differentiation 2. Habits of mind 3. IB-specific training Helping all faculty integrate Theory of Knowledge questions. Preparing students well for assessments, but helping faculty collaborate daily. Guiding principle is helping each student maximize their potential. Recruited 5 people over the past month and a half who are the best. Build passion and enthusiasm in their class, because it is about student learning. We want every teacher to be at the top of their game every year. If you’re really really careful about who you hire, you can be successful. Tell faculty to recommend those who are great. Only recommend top 15%. We want our kids to experience a star, each and every day. Start with Why Simon Sinek TED Talk Don’t measure student success on a specific score on a specific assessment. It is different for each student. It’s not about a number, it is about them. 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 learning?” 3 Rs - Rigor, Relevance, Relationships IB provides external accountability for Rigor. Help students see how what they are learning is relevant to their life. Relationships are enhanced with smaller numbers (2 campuses with 400 students each). School culture has a deep impact on the students’ learning. Don’t do ranking, valedictorians, etc. Want students to be their own personal best. To help students be successful, they need a lot of support, counseling, and care. Schools can unintentionally create systems and events that detract from student learning. Recruiting outstanding faculty is the most important thing I do. Relationship is the most important thing about school. 23"37’ 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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. Really want to be a good listener as a leader. How to be a transformative principal: Ask 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 money if that made the experience better. His teacher let him read all day for two days. Electronic Frontier Foundation National network of campus clubs for EFF. Email Shahid@eff.org for more information. 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 vision to the district and its programs.  During his time in the position, the district has jumped into social media, adopted the Google Apps for Education and started to build a paperless environment with Google Docs. He helped spearhead the LEAP (Learning and Engaging through Access and Personalization) which put 1:1 iPads into the hands of all K–12 students at Eanes. See more at Mr. Hooker's Web Site! Director of Innovation How to engage people for professional development Building in reflection Brain Breaks Search on Twitter Would I want to be a learner in my own class? Reverse Charades Padlet Ben Breedlove Story Dropvox PechaFlickr - Powerpoint Karaoke - Here's what I did during this session: https://youtu.be/-smF0nG2KYk 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.

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 to be found by your students. Make accounts as private as possible. Select different social media channels for different purposes. Difficult to pull things back once you put them out there. How to be a transformative principal: Communication is the key to all of this. Post unto others as you would be posted to. 1:1 education - when schools provide the technology, they need to play an aggressive and firm role in monitoring what kind of activity happens in school. The real problem is bypassing the schools network. Ongoing education, clear acceptable use policies, more education. Web site 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 for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey 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.