Transformative Principal

My wife told me she just couldn't do it anymore. "It's too hard," she said. "Every time I drop him off, the tears, the yelling, and the crying. I just can't take him to school anymore. We've got to figure something out." We had talked about different things, from counseling to medication to other options. For the time being, our solution was that I would drop him off at school. For some reason, his reactions to his anxiety seemed to be less when dad dropped him off. Any parent who has experienced this knows how difficult it is to deal with the intensity of the emotions on a daily basis. This was especially challenging for me, because I struggled with this as well. All the way until I was 19, any new change was especially difficult. My heart broke for him every day, because I knew how powerless he felt. When he started kindergarten, we were living on a small island in the gulf of Alaska, and the community didn’t have the resources to offer a lot of help. We did all kinds of things to try and help, meditation a

  Kip Motta is a principal in Rich Utah. You have to deal with people. Everything is about relationships. Doing what’s best for the team. Everyone is different, and you need to adapt your leadership to that person. A history of four-day school weeks. Change based on school district transportation costs. Waiver to reduce day requirement (152 vs 182) and still meet 990 hour requirement (now meet over 1000 hours) Start school at 8 am, out at 3:30. Parent teacher conferences count as Very few breaks - Labor Day, thanksgiving, Christmas for 1 week. Student and staff attendance increased. Ask staff and community to do personal appointments on Fridays 4 day school week is much more difficult for elementary school. Helped us go down the road of standards-based instruction. Struggles with 4 day school week Finding coaches is difficult Daycare for Friday’s with no school. You have to do everything through the lens of what is best for the most children. Kids are more recharged after a 3-day weekend every week! March an

Revolutions Start with Relationships with Darren Ellwein Transformative Principal 286 Social media: Tailor everything to the learner - via @dellwein Darren Ellwein is my dessert bro and principal at the middle level in South Dakota! Revolution is about a group of people. From a staff culture standpoint: there was some kickback. It’s so much fun! Personalizing learning - what small steps do you need to take? Tailor everything to the learner. Mastery projects - success criteria You have to give up control. Relationships “it feels like my family.” Let the kids decide the norms. Waiting on content for 2-3 weeks. Done with our standards before we get to the standardized tests. personalizedlearningtools.com Personalized Learning is not about sitting in front of a computer all day. Starts with a relationship, then goes on to flexible content. Those kids broke in adults every year! Hannah and Alex - there was a pace set for everyone, even though it didn’t match. She would tell you she wouldn’t go back to the way it

After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be. How to change schools? Changing everything overnight - the sharp knives come out. Thoughtful, supportive resources at innovationplaylist.org Have your community define essential competencies for your kids. Look for success points in your school. Encourage the innovators to do things. Ask them to keep an open mind. Native villages Carving up a moose carcass. How to be a transformative principal? Spend some time with young kids and recognize that this is the fight we can take on. change happens slowly right up until it happens quick What do teachers have in common that do innovative things within the system? What are you seeing China? Deleted scenes about kids not having homework from Most Likely to Succeed - share that story. http://teddintersmith.com/innovation-pla

After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be. Education is the only antidote Machines are taking over so many jobs. Social media fueled technology is making it challenging to know what is real. What they could do vs. what they do. the people who get to the top of these bureaucratic systems are bureaucrats If we just focused on setting up the conditions for educators to do their best work. It’s time for us to be more like activists. What are you working on and why? The purpose of school is to rank kids. Why isn’t that the way we do it? New Hampshire portfolio assessment system. 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

Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful. Partnering with community organizations. Schools often don’t know how to partner. Businesses don’t know how to join in the work with schools. Use coaching skills to build relationships. Learning is much more beneficial when they come together and make a real impact. Experiential learning - year long process developing a plan around a real issue. You never know what seeds have been planted through that experience. How to start the conversation. Focus on quality partnerships. How to be a transformative principal? Active listening to create a shared vision. We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena. AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidenc

Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful. Making learning joyful I was really starting to contemplate leaving the profession I love because the joy was not there. We believe that if we design and deliver powerful learning experiences for educators, they will design and deliver powerful learning experiences for students. Coaches can transform the learning and cultural experiences of a school. You can’t afford to not have coaches! There are many ways to incorporate coaching into a culture. Leaders with coaching skills are more effective and more impactful. Communication, active listening, developing a culture where coaching and feedback are part of the norm. Have leaders take on that coaching role as part of what they do. Developing culture falls on the leader. Set up protocols and structures to make that an enjoyable experience. Coaching cycles The best professional developmen

  Brittni Schroeder is the founder of Compassion Clubs, dedicated to the memory of her late son who passed away tragically at the age of 14. Started with a scholarship fund for students. Received hundreds of cards and letters from people who cared about Gage. The “Can Man” People wanted to be with our family. “We only suffer when we think about ourselves.” - Tony Robbins We have to serve. That’s how we heal. Gave kids pizzas and told them to sit with kids who didn’t have anyone sitting with them. Elementary and secondary curriculum. Secondary the kids lead it. Elementary is teacher/counselor/parent run. If they don’t know how to serve and think outside of themselves they are going to have a rough adult life. 12 different values: compassion, kindness, gratitude, charity, courage, etc. Teach about the value, share a story, then serve. Teenagers don’t seem to have coping skills. Nominate kids for scholarships and grants. My son’s legacy is compassion. Most successful club in Michigan. How to be a transformative

  Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, @jchorvath is an educator and researcher with expertise in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, biological psychology, brain simulation, the learning sciences, and effective teaching/learning practices There is 1 learning process! It is the same for everyone. You don’t differentiate so students learn differently, you differentiate so students engage differently. If you want to learn something you have to engage in it, but not too much! Attenborough effect. Science of learning and craft of teaching. Thinking principle Learning principle - all learning has to begin with facts. Semantic memories for the key 10 or 15 facts. Three episodic memories for a fact. Episodic memories vs. semantic memories. All starting of learning builds episodic memories. How we use inquiry wrong in education. Surface learning is semantic facts. Binary. Conceptualization - how are you going to organize your facts. Forming a concept. Can’t be binary. Contextually emergent skills. Fear of failure Learning res

Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challenges. Every single kind of problem was transformed based on relationship. It’s the adult’s job to be the relationship manager. Live up to your goals. Relational breakdowns. How do we promote the relationship between the boy and the teacher. Breakdowns happen all the time. It’s the responsibility of the relationship manager to monitor whether it has broken down. The boy that simply checks out and underperforms. Book I Can Learn From You: Boys as Relational Learners I won’t learn from you You may have to develop new skills out of your repertoire to reach kids. Every type of boy can be reached. When a teacher reaches th

  Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challenges. The stereotypes of women has changed significantly in the last 40 years. There’s been very little to counteract stereotypes of men and boys. Stereotypes shape boys’ lives early on. We cannot say that women are limited because of biology, but we still say that about boys. When Boys become “Boys” - Judy Chu Started out as direct, authentic and able to articulate themselves. Traveled from presence to pretense by way of posturing. Inauthentic and less willing to articulate their feelings. Conditioning comes from everywhere: teachers, parents, peers. A man box study - messages about being a man. Stoic, unemotional,

  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 o

  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

  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 Principa

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.  We're so grateful to our sponsor AI Coach by Edthena. AI Coach enables your teachers to go through coaching cycles based on their own needs. The virtual coach guides teachers to reflect on their teaching, set a goal, and create an action plan… all based on gathering classroom evidence. It gives support between PD days  and other coaching cycles.Get a free trial for your teachers here.

  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 a

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% o

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

  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 Day

  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