Transformative Principal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 information about someone is not helpful in the education environment. You don’t need to share information with your students in order to have a relationship with them. Responsibility to educate students about technology. Idea that smartphones need to have a learner’s permit. Cell phones are the equivalent of high powered equipment that needs training and supervision. Kids are experts in the operation of technology. Our current adult generation was blindsided by the introduction of technology. Develop ways of thinking about this to fold new technology into appropriate social interactions. 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

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. Expect teachers to be accountable for their work. Twitter is a educational toolbox. 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

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 reservation would be more appropriate. Throw-away kids - Kara wants to advocate for 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

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 courses. Google Certified Teacher, Level I and II. Teachers were responsive to the things they were learning. Advice: Continue to use good teaching strategies. But don’t be demeaning. District started doing magnet schools. Principal that just started in the position. Teacher leader for educational technology. Personable leader, understands the field, understands the kids. Ambassador as a teacher. Weekly email from the principal. Staff meetings are held in a different teacher’s classroom each week. What are we going to do that week that is interesting? Principal asks how he can support us. How to be a transformative principal: Trust the people that are working for you. 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