

Transformative Principal
Jethro Jones
Jethro Jones interviews instructional leaders from around the nation to learn and teach what it takes to become a transformative principal. Episodes address topics like Response to Intervention (RTI), Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), the latest advances in educational research, standards-based grading, and interviews with industry leaders like Bill Daggett, Rick Wormeli, Todd Whitaker and even people outside the education like Seth Godin, JeVon McCormick, Liz Wiseman, and more.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 18, 2015 • 23min
PICE Learning with Ashley Drill and Jamie Tewksbury Transformative Principal 094
Jamie: Jamie enjoys seeing students complete learning independently. Jamie teaches 3rd grade at Greenwood Elementary School in Plymouth, Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from University of Iowa. She completed her Masters in Education from Hamline University in Minnesota.
Both Jamie and Ashley feel that learning should be meaningful and authentic for their students.
PICE Learning is a new and improved way of teaching comprehension skills for our 21st century learners. The PICE approach gives students ownership in their learning while using the common core standards. Students are able to connect with each other and independently learn in our 21st century. PICE Learning was developed by Ashley and Jamie, they wanted to connect students’ learning to skills that they will use everyday and in their future.
If you’d like more information check out: www.picelearning.com
Gives Students an opportunity to be engaged learners.
Started as coteachers
Not 1:1 - 3:1 or 4:1
Engaging our students.
Kids were already eager learners
Model with the students how to learn together
Weekly Lessons - Project starts on a Monday, and they have all week to work on it.
Not about using an app, it is about learning.
Sequencing activities - visualizing.
How they are presenting their learning is up to them.
Students can listen to stories through the Moodle site.
Two students have jobs of being the Tweeters.
Kids are wanting to see themselves.
Twitter papers teach kids about character limits.
Twitter Mrs. Tewksbury
Twitter Mrs. Drill
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Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
Buy Communication Cards
Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
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LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Oct 11, 2015 • 19min
Giving Up Control with Michael Shapiro Transformative Principal 093
Michael Shapiro is serving in his second year as the principal of Highland Tech Charter School in Anchorage School District. A recent transplant from the Chicago area, he previously served as principal of Shepard Middle School in Deerfield, Illinois for seven years, during which time the school earned a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award. Prior to that he served as an assistant principal for five years in two different schools. Mr. Shapiro began his educational career as a computer applications teacher and director of instructional technology. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Administration and Supervision at Loyola University in Chicago.
Highland Tech is a 6th–12th grade charter school that promotes personal mastery through student centered, individualized learning and varied assessment strategies. Student placement is based on academic ability, rather than chronological age, ensuring students are challenged each day. Students are encouraged to take an active role in their education and master core content and the skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. Technology integration and project-based assessments are critical components of Highland Tech’s rigorous model.
Professional Development - content expertise and deep understanding of the standards.
Focus on building a curriculum that is standards-based.
Planning meaningful activities that align with standards.
Help teachers help students refine and revise work.
Time is a huge barrier.
Giving up control to students.
Advisory - take this incredibly seriously.
School visit in Michigan.
In the traditional model, we don’t demand that they master, we demand that they pass with an average.
Redos and Retakes
Be present. Be in classrooms learning every day.
Uncomfortable being called boss, because he is really a servant.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Oct 4, 2015 • 22min
Student Mastery Learning with Michael Sharpiro Transformative Principal 092
Michael Shapiro is serving in his second year as the principal of Highland Tech Charter School in Anchorage School District. A recent transplant from the Chicago area, he previously served as principal of Shepard Middle School in Deerfield, Illinois for seven years, during which time the school earned a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award. Prior to that he served as an assistant principal for five years in two different schools. Mr. Shapiro began his educational career as a computer applications teacher and director of instructional technology. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Administration and Supervision at Loyola University in Chicago.
Highland Tech is a 6th–12th grade charter school that promotes personal mastery through student centered, individualized learning and varied assessment strategies. Student placement is based on academic ability, rather than chronological age, ensuring students are challenged each day. Students are encouraged to take an active role in their education and master core content and the skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. Technology integration and project-based assessments are critical components of Highland Tech’s rigorous model.
Not one and done approach, focused on student Mastery.
Time bound, but a lot of flexibility.
Real-world project based learning.
Rubrics at every level.
Takes some time for kids, teachers and principals even to get used to it.
Lots of misperceptions in the community.
Reinventing Schools Coalition RISC
Different Levels - Standards and Rubrics
Kids can be in 8th grade math and be in 10 grade ELA.
Require up to Alg. II/Trig in math at Highland Tech.
Integrate levels as much as possible.
Paying attention to outliers.
Variety of assessments qualify for standards. Not just the paper-pencil type.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Sep 27, 2015 • 20min
Good Teaching on Steriods with Piper Riddle Transformative Principal 091
Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years.
ELA in English and Math in target language
Teachers more intentional in working together on content between languages.
MobyMax to supplement schoolwork. Reflex Math to focus on computation skills.
What she’s doing is working because Draper Elementary ranked 22 in the state in math.
How you ensure good instruction is taking place when you don’t speak the target language?
Anyone should be able to understand topic in the classroom when they are in the target language.
Good instruction on Steroids.
9 tenets of instruction from State of Utah
Listen.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Sep 20, 2015 • 23min
Dual Immersion Chinese with Piper Riddle Transformative Principal 090
Piper is the principal of Draper Elementary in Draper, UT. She has been a long-time friend and mentor to me, personally, and has helped me learn so much over the last few years.
Dual immersion schools - what is the process, and what challenges are unique to you?
200 dual immersion schools in the state, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French
What barriers are there to having native speakers come teach in America?
A/B schedule at elementary level.
Teachers come from mainland China and local areas.
Immersion teacher and non-immersion teachers and culture issues.
Personalizing issues with culture.
Specials to integrate the two cultures.
Dragon Training
Seeking input to learn what was important to the students, faculty, and parents.
Blanket monkey.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Sep 13, 2015 • 29min
Facing History in Ourselves with Henry Turner Transformative Principal 089
Henry Turner is a fantastic principal doing some great things at Bedford High School outside Boston. He blogs at Leadingtolearn.
Implementing iPad initiative.
Focus on creating iPad content.
Fundraising
Upstander anti-bullying program. Facing History in Ourselves.
Asking curious questions.
Kids create public service announcements with their iPads.
Achievement gap strategies.
Data teams
Putting kids in levels, but not tracking them.
Conversations and district support.
The Calculus Project.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Sep 6, 2015 • 30min
SIte Vists with Henry Turner Transformative Principal 088
Henry Turner - Principal of Bedford High School outside Boston.
Site visits is where the interview teams comes to the school to meet with the teams that work with the principal.
Tips to prepare.
Choose a diverse group of people.
Avoid some pitfalls: lack of preparation, only asking rockstars.
How to prepare people for the visit: Announce early to community.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Aug 30, 2015 • 40min
Establishing PLCs with Geri Parscale Transformative Principal 087
This week Geri Parscale came to visit us in Kodiak and teach us about PLCs. The teachers walked away energized and excited. On Twitter she is @ParscaleG.
In this episode she talks about PLCs and culture. PLCs are a way of life, not a program, and that is what I have always enjoyed about the PLC approach.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Aug 24, 2015 • 31min
Ditching Grading Periods with Mike Kelly Transformative Principal 086
Mike Kelly - Principal Eyer Middle School. East Penn School District. Mike on Twitter: @principalmkelly Mike’s Blog
The importance of blogging and reflection, sharing learning.
Personal growth mindset post.
The end of marking periods.
Starting removal of marking periods in 6th grade!
Arbitrary dates to complete learning on certain topics.
Extended learning program greatly reduces academic failures.
Many additional clubs and activities are offered.
“Required” extended learning program.
Perception of ELP.
Time and support are the variables and learning is the constant.
How to prepare for big changes in schools.
Parent concerns about end of marking periods.
Start with small parent groups.
How to gain teacher support for the end of marking periods.
The case against 0
The power of 0
Retesting and redo
How to be a transformative principal? Surround yourself with transformative people.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.

Aug 16, 2015 • 31min
Breaking out of Isolation with Theresa Stager and Jessica Johnson Transformative Principal 085
Today I am joined by Theresa Stager and Jessica Johnson who talk about their book “Breaking out of Isolation”.
After the sad end of the Practical Principals podcast with Melinda Miller, Theresa and Jessica and Jethro all started a podcast at the same time.
Being connected sometimes makes you feel isolated.
On being a student again.
Fixed vs. growth mindset.
We are still in the middle of learning how to be connected.
You must always watch what you are saying and be cautious of what you are saying.
Connected Educator Series
How you can break out of isolation:
Jump on Twitter
Join #principalPLN and create your own personal little mentors.
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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.
LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.comWe’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.