Creating Belonging, Experience, and Memories with Robyn Hamasaki – PMP519
Sep 23, 2026
Show notes
Meet Robyn Hamasaki:
Robyn Hamasaki is Managing Director of Leadership Development for the National Principals Association, supporting efforts to develop PreK–12 school leaders, National Honor Society advisers, and student councils. Previously, she served as a teacher, assistant principal, and PreK–8 principal and helped establish the Principal Leadership Institute with the Colorado Department of Education. She also served as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Born and raised in Hawaii, Robyn brings a deep commitment to servant leadership, coaching, belonging, relationships, and developing others.
The Realities of School Leadership:
Robyn begins by discussing one of the persistent realities of school leadership: it can be lonely. Whether leading a rural school, serving without an assistant principal, or simply carrying responsibilities others may not fully understand, school leaders need meaningful connections with people who understand the work. Robyn emphasizes the importance of networks, coaching relationships, and communities where leaders can safely talk through challenges, exchange ideas, and learn from one another.
Belonging:
A central theme of the conversation is belonging. Robyn explains that belonging matters not only for students, but also for teachers and school leaders. When people feel seen, heard, and connected, they become more committed and confident. The progression can be summarized in this way:
The conversation also explores lessons Robyn has learned from decades of leadership across education and the military. She identifies five principles that continue to guide her:
I can’t do it alone.
It’s not about being right and making someone else wrong.
Include and empower others in leadership.
Lead by example.
Trust your gut and the experience behind it.
2027 National Principals Conference:
Robyn also previews the February 2027 National Principals Conference in Tampa, built around the theme “One Conference, One Community.” She shares how the conference is being designed as a PreK–12 gathering focused not simply on professional development, but on creating meaningful experiences, relationships, and memories for school leaders. Conference strands will address teaching and learning; belonging and well-being; systems leadership; community voice and shared responsibility; and innovation, technology, and AI.
Closing Comments:
As the conversation closes, Robyn offers a reminder to school leaders to cherish the experience of leadership. The work is difficult, but leaders have an extraordinary opportunity every day to influence students, teachers, families, and communities. She encourages leaders to notice and celebrate what’s going well, reach out when the work becomes difficult, build a community of support, and remember the power of something as simple as noticing another person and saying hello.
Staying Connected:
To connect with Robyn Hamasaki, you can shoot her an email at: robyn.hamasaki@principals.org.
If you would like to learn more about the 2027 National Principals Conference, you can visit https://www.principals.org/ or see the information below!
National Principals Conference 2027: February 6–9, 2027 Tampa Convention Center | Tampa, Florida https://npc.principals.org/
MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – Helping Teachers Avoid Burnout
Sep 21, 2026
Show notes
This week on Monday Matters, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker discuss helping teachers avoid burnout. They start out the conversation by going over the differences between fatigue and burnout. Next, they spend some time talking about the benefits of proactively addressing burnout. Then, Will and Jen address the ways that school leaders can be proactive about teacher burnout. School leaders do have some responsibility to provide teachers with the tools they need to avoid burnout. Some ways that leaders can address the risk of burnout with teachers:
Auditing the invisible load
Learning to protect focus over volume
Normalizing boundaries
These three practices are a great way for leaders to open the discussion about burnout with their teachers and minimize the risk of teacher burnout down the line. The tools discussed in this week’s episode are also great ways for leaders to proactively address their own burnout. Will and Jen remind listeners that this job is a gift, but even gifts can be handled in a way that leads to burnout. Give yourself grace as you navigate the highly emotional and impactful work you do!
Now It’s Your Turn:
Think about a time that you felt exhausted or lonely in your work. What did you do to resolve that?
Listen to the full conversation for more takeaways! If you would like to read Jen Schwanke’s full post about burnout, you can find it here. As always, thank you for doing what matters!
Why Rural Schools Matter with Dr. Mara Tieken – PMP518
Sep 16, 2026
Show notes
A Quick Note to Listeners:
Before each week’s interview, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke take some time to answer a listener question. This week’s question is:
If we know best practices for strong student outcomes, why are so many schools not implementing them?
Listen in to hear their response!
Meet Mara Tieken:
Mara Casey Tieken is a professor of education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Her research focuses on educational equity for rural students and communities, including rural college access, rural school closure, and rural racial justice. She is the author of Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—and What it Costs Them (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which was a 2025 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award winner, and Why Rural Schools Matter (University of North Carolina Press, 2014). She is currently working on two projects: one focused on school closures in rural Black communities, and another studying rural-serving college access organizations. An award-winning teacher, Mara also designed and maintains a web-based toolkit for rural communities fighting school closure. She began her career in education as a third-grade teacher in rural Tennessee.
“We give rural students an awful choice: college or community. We need to help them think about it as navigating different worlds rather than choosing one or the other.”
Mara Tieken
In this week’s episode, Dr. Jen Schwanke leads the conversation with author and researcher Dr. Mara Tieken to explore the unique challenges and strengths of rural education. Drawing from her experience teaching in rural Tennessee, Mara discusses the invisible barriers that rural students face when navigating higher education and the cultural cost of leaving home.
The “College vs. Community” Paradox:
Rural students often feel they must choose between pursuing a degree and maintaining their community identity. Educators must help students see college not as a replacement for their roots, but as a path to navigate multiple worlds.
Recognizing Rural Assets:
Rural students bring immense practical skills—like problem-solving, development of systems, and establishing routines—that are often undervalued in traditional academic settings. High school leaders can help students frame these life experiences as professional and intellectual strengths.
The Myth of “Schooling” vs. “Schools”:
There is a critical distinction between the business of education (test scores, mandates, data) and the sanctuary of a school (relationships, safety, and community). Successful principals “clear the clutter” so that the human element of the school remains intact.
The True Cost of School Closures:
Research shows that closing rural schools rarely saves the money promised by policymakers, yet it can flatten a community’s social and economic hub. Listening to student voices during these transitions is vital for mitigating trauma and preserving community hope.
Normalizing Help-Seeking:
Many first-generation rural students feel isolated in elite environments because they aren’t aware that certain resources (like emergency funds or tutoring) are meant for everyone. Administrators can bridge this gap by coaching students on how to advocate for themselves before they leave high school.
Staying Connected:
If you would like to learn more about Dr. Mara Tieken, you can visit her Linked In profile.
MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – A Tribute to Wendell Berry
Sep 14, 2026
Show notes
Thinking about Wendell Berry’s Lessons for Schools
When Andy Catlett, Wendell Berry’s character, a nine-year-old boy, visits his grandparents in 1943 over a Christmas vacation, he narrates the everyday happenings of a three-day journey. In one scene, he describes his Grandma’s button box. According to Andy, everyone had button boxes in every home he visited in those days — an assortment of glass, brass, or pearl buttons in different shapes and colors collected over the years from worn or discarded garments. These could be used to adorn new handmade clothes or to replace the lost buttons on other shirts or dresses. For Andy Catlett, playing in these boxes was like searching for hidden treasure.
On this particular visit, however, Andy realized he no longer liked playing with buttons. In one sense, he was surprised at the realization. On the other hand, it was an acknowledgment that growing up means losing interest in some things and finding it in others.
At the same time, Andy was realizing his interests were shifting to more adventuresome objects like rifles or mule teams. Even as he thought of this moment from childhood, the grief in his voice is evident as he says, “Maybe it was because I was now traveling away from home…by myself, but I knew suddenly and finally that my time of playing with buttons was past, just as one summer evening a year or two later, when I had found a perfect slingshot fork in the top of a tree, it came to me that I was no longer interested in slingshots, and I climbed down and left the perfect fork uncut” (Berry 457).
In addition to Andy’s realization that button boxes and slingshots had lost their interest for him, he also realizes that small farming practices are going out of style as well, and this sad reality brings more serious consequences for entire communities. In fact, it is this loss that shows up most as one of the major themes for most of Wendell Berry’s characters.
Almost all of Berry’s books contain themes that run up against the losses of treasures we so easily discard in the name of progress or modernization. From his nonfiction work, The Unsettling of America, to his poems of protest against practices like strip-mining, Berry’s works create a masterpiece of classics that help us relate to the everyday lives of his characters while yearning to redeem or repair the damage being done to their places and lives.
Some of these losses, Berry acknowledges, are a natural part of living. Others, however, he shows, have been thrust upon us by outside forces bent on taking rather than giving.
In his novel about Hannah Coulter, the grandmotherly narrator is able to show her patriotism while also pointedly convincing you of her hatred of war and violence.
Jayber Crow, the town barber, in the book he narrates, helps readers grieve the loss of forests and natural field boundaries that protect farms from erosion and land devastation.
As a Kentucky farmer, Berry lived near the very Kentucky River he describes in his fictional town of Port William. He also practiced what he preached. The Berry Foundation, established by his family, has helped small farmers reclaim more than 2,000 acres of Kentucky farmland to reestablish regenerative farming practices that are not dependent on industrialized farming methods.
What do Wendell Berry’s stories have to do with school leadership?
Growing a community of learners can very easily be compared to the growth of a healthy garden or farm.
Both require healthy soil as the culture for healthy growth.
Both require a commitment to long-term investment of careful husbandry versus quick fixes or trendy applications.
Both require an investment in the people involved in the work as much as the work itself.
As I’ve said in other posts, strong schools (or any community, for that matter) require commitments to three areas:
strong shared beliefs,
committed people of strong character, and
sustainable, effective systems.
Strong beliefs include the shared values that every child can learn and include an unbending commitment to doing whatever it takes to hold them to high expectations while providing high supports.
Committed people have the hearts, not just the heads, for good teaching and learning. Character is more important than competency, and competency goes much further when carried by people with character.
And without strong, sustainable systems or structures in place, you cannot achieve outcomes. You can attract good people with the right beliefs, and you can have the right collective outcomes in mind, but if the structures are weak, many of those same people will grow frustrated in the work and likely go somewhere else.
It is the responsibility of leaders to set the tone for beliefs, to invest in supporting people, and to create the structures for sustainable outcomes.
This school year, you will be venturing into the hard work of growing a healthy learning environment. Wendell Berry’s books remind me of the wonders and joys of being a child. They also remind me to honor the legacies of brave everyday men and women who are often our best examples of human flourishing.
He calls his readers to think deeply about our relationships not just to people but also to places. He inspires us to improve or redeem the places and times we live in now, not just yearn for the past or look to the future.
Wendell Berry’s ability to take simple, everyday occurrences and turn them into moments of reflection is a gift that keeps giving over and over again in his books and poems.
These sentiments may be best captured in one of his most famous poems, “The Peace of Wild Things,” where he says:
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives might be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 1999)
Now It’s Your Turn
This school year, what commitments can you make to the beliefs, people, and systems that produce healthy learning outcomes?
How can you stay timely in your understanding of your students and your practices while also holding to the timeless principles that have always made learning possible and will keep on working long after we’re gone?
Other Source Cited: Berry, Wendell. Port William Novels & Stories: The Civil War to World War II. Edited by Jack Shoemaker, Library of America, 2018.
Teachers Are The Engine of School Success with Chien Nee – PMP 517
Sep 09, 2026
Show notes
A Quick Note to Listeners:
Before this week’s interview, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke take some time to answer a listener question. This week’s question is:
What is a story with a student, teacher or community member that reminded you why you are an educator?
Listen in to hear their response! They also invite listeners to reflect on this question as they finish their work week.
Meet Chien Nee:
Chien “Ray” Nee, is a transformational education leader with more than two decades of experience. He currently serves as a Performance Specialist in Maryland’s second-largest school district, where he supports, monitors, and evaluates instruction across 104 elementary schools, impacting more than 50,000 students.
Chien’s work is grounded in a belief in thinking bigger. Before moving into district leadership, he served as principal of a K–8 charter school, where he led the school to its first four-star rating on the Maryland State Report Card, a distinction it maintained throughout his tenure. He also served as an assistant principal and resident principal in Baltimore City Public Schools.
A graduate of the New Leaders program, Chien believes teachers are the engine of school success. His leadership focuses on instructional rigor, intentional coaching, strong relationships, and celebrating great teaching, with a commitment to the daily habits that drive lasting student achievement.
A Consistent Mission with a Broader Lens:
Chien emphasizes that while his role has evolved from classroom teacher to school leader to district-level support, his core mission remains the same: creating meaningful academic impact for students. What has changed is his vantage point. He now sees how individual teacher effectiveness scales into system-wide success, reinforcing the importance of every educator’s role.
The Core of Student Achievement:
At the heart of Chien’s message are three essential elements that drive student success: engagement, relationships, and relevance. When teachers actively engage students, build strong relationships, and make learning meaningful, classrooms become places where students want to be. These elements not only improve learning outcomes but also influence key indicators like attendance and overall student motivation.
Supporting Leaders and Schools:
Chien describes his work as deeply collaborative, supporting district leaders, principal supervisors, and school principals. His favorite part of the role is being on-site in schools, working directly with leadership teams that include principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders. Through job-embedded professional development, he helps teams strengthen their instructional practices while honoring the unique ecosystem of each school.
Building Trust Through Relationships:
A key part of Chien’s leadership approach is building trust through authentic relationships. He explains that effective coaching begins with being a reliable and consistent thought partner. Because leaders’ time is limited, every interaction must be meaningful and valuable. Trust is built over time through consistency, responsiveness, and a genuine commitment to supporting others.
Balancing Expectations and Support:
When it comes to holding leaders accountable while supporting their growth, Chien offers a practical framework built on three guiding questions: What do they already know? What are they currently wrestling with? What will be immediately useful? These questions ensure that coaching is personalized, timely, and actionable, helping leaders grow in ways that directly impact their work.
Creating Healthy School Systems:
Chien also shares insight into building healthy systems within schools. He encourages leaders to prioritize visibility and connection, making time for brief but meaningful interactions with teachers throughout the day. Small actions—like visiting classrooms or leaving positive feedback—can shape a school’s culture and climate. He challenges leaders to increase their presence intentionally, knowing that these moments build trust and reinforce support.
Consistency Over Intensity:
One of the most powerful ideas from the conversation is the importance of consistency over intensity. Sustainable impact comes from daily habits and intentional actions repeated over time, not from occasional bursts of effort. By consistently showing up, engaging with teachers, and supporting leaders, school leaders can create lasting and meaningful change.
Bloom Where You Are Planted:
As the episode closes, Chien leaves listeners with a simple but powerful message: “bloom where you are planted.” He reminds educators that while the work is challenging, focusing on doing the best with what is in front of you will lead to meaningful impact.
MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – Proflection
Sep 07, 2026
Show notes
Happy Monday, Principal Matters Listeners! This week, Jen Schwanke and I are talking about a term called “proflection”. Coined by Jen, the term “proflection” means “proactive reflection”. Typically, reflection is a passive process, but proflection is intentionally taking charge of what you intend with your work and what you think about your work. In practice, this looks like reflecting before an event, during the event, and after the event to figure out what you want the event to look like, how the event is going, and what you could have done differently. Jen says that there are four steps to proflection:
Plan
Pause
(Perhaps) Pivot
Plan Again
This cycle will provide you with the ability to improve your practice as a leader through proflection. Listen in to hear all our takeaways.
Now It’s Your Turn:
Reflecting is good, but what are you going to do with those reflections to improve your work or your school? Take some time this week to proactively reflect while you work.
Here is the link to purchase Jen’s audio book! Use code PRINCIPAL30 for a 30% discount!
Rooted Leadership in a Mobile World with Dr. Tyler Watkins – PMP516
Sep 02, 2026
Show notes
A Quick Note to Listeners:
Before each week’s interview, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke spend some time answering a listener question. This week’s question is:
What advice would a teacher want to give to a new principal?
Listen in to hear their response!
Meet Tyler Watkins:
Tyler Watkins, Ed.D., is the principal of Petal High School, one of Mississippi’s top-rated high schools and a 2022 National Blue Ribbon School. He began his career in 2011 as a teacher and baseball coach before moving into school leadership.
His work centers on building belonging, creating predictable systems, and leading through stability. Dr. Watkins earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership from William Carey University, where his research focused on the academic effects of student transiency.
Dr. Watkins’ passion for this topic didn’t begin with theory. It began with what he was seeing every day. Students were constantly entering and leaving his school, and even in a high performing system, each new student was starting over. That led him to ask a deeper question, what are we doing to make students feel rooted, even when their lives are not. In today’s landscape of school choice and increased mobility, this isn’t a niche issue. It is everywhere. Whether a school is high performing or struggling, students are navigating transitions, and schools must be ready to respond.
It’s Not Just Academic, It’s Human:
One of the biggest shifts Dr. Watkins describes is recognizing that student mobility is not just an academic issue, it is a human one. New students are not simply catching up on content. They are trying to understand new teachers, new systems, and new social environments, often while carrying emotional weight from their transitions. Too often, schools focus first on academics. But Dr. Watkins emphasizes that stability has to be intentionally designed, not assumed.
Start with the First 10 Days:
At its most practical level, Dr. Watkins encourages leaders to focus on the first 10 days of a student’s experience. Every new student should have a clear plan, not just a schedule. That plan should include intentional check ins, clear expectations, and a structured way to help them navigate the building. Without this, students are often left to figure things out on their own, which increases stress and disconnect.
Every Student Needs an Adult Connection:
Along with a clear plan, every student needs an immediate connection with a trusted adult. At Petal High School, Dr. Watkins and his team assign students to an administrator and counselor by alphabet, and they meet them right away. It is simple, but it matters. Students need to know someone knows their name, where to find them, and how to reach out when they need help. That connection is often the difference between feeling lost and feeling grounded.
Consistency Reduces Stress:
Another key insight Dr. Watkins shares is the importance of consistency across classrooms. It is overwhelming for students, especially new ones, to relearn expectations from class to class. Schools must align expectations so students can focus on learning rather than constantly adjusting to different systems. Clarity and consistency do not just support behavior, they create stability.
Communicate Early with Families:
Dr. Watkins also highlights the power of early communication with families. A simple message home letting a parent know their child had a great day can immediately build trust and connection. These small moments send a clear message, your child matters here, and we are paying attention.
High Expectations with High Support:
A common misconception is that schools must choose between being welcoming and maintaining high expectations. Dr. Watkins challenges that thinking. You do not lower expectations for new students, you increase support. You teach the systems, clarify confusion quickly, and give students the tools they need to succeed. Confusion should not be punished, it should be addressed with clarity.
Leadership Sets the Tone:
This work does not happen by accident. It is a leadership responsibility. Dr. Watkins emphasizes that leaders must design systems that create predictability and ensure consistency across the school. Teacher attitudes toward new students are critical. When staff see new students as opportunities instead of interruptions, it changes everything. Leaders set that tone through clarity, communication, and example.
From Classroom to Campus Leadership:
Reflecting on his own journey, Dr. Watkins describes a shift many leaders experience. As a teacher, the focus is on running a great classroom. As a principal, the focus becomes building a school where every classroom reflects that same level of excellence. For new leaders, he offers practical advice. Set clear expectations, follow through consistently, protect instructional time, and keep systems stable. These foundational practices create the environment where both students and staff can thrive.
Belonging, Predictability, and Purpose:
At the heart of this conversation are three essential elements, belonging, predictability, and purpose. Dr. Watkins emphasizes that students need to feel known. They need systems they can rely on. And they need to understand that what they are doing matters. When those elements are in place, students can succeed, even in the middle of constant change.
What Students Need to Succeed:
Drawing from Ruby Payne’s research on under resourced learners, there are key resources every student needs in order to thrive in school.
Financial resources
Emotional stability and self regulation
Mental and academic skills
A sense of purpose or direction
Physical health
Support systems such as family, friends, and trusted adults
Motivation, persistence, and grit
Knowledge of hidden rules, expectations, and social cues within a school
For students who are constantly moving, many of these supports are disrupted. That is why schools must intentionally step in to provide them.
Final Thoughts:
Dr. Watkins leaves us with a reminder that is both simple and powerful.Students do not need perfect schools, they need stable ones. And that is something every leader can influence.
Below are some ways to stay connected to Dr. Watkins:
MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – A Positive Start to the School Year
Aug 31, 2026
Show notes
Welcome back to another episode of Monday Matters! This week, Jen Schwanke and I are discussing ways that school leaders can influence a positive start to the school year with a few shout-outs to school leaders we’ve admired. Below is a brief overview of our conversation:
Set the tone with staff and students
Enjoy teamwork and camaraderie with staff as you set the tone for the school year. Hard work can be accomplished in a way that is lighthearted and fun for staff and students.
Model expectations
Start out the school year by creating an environment that feels like home for students. Foster a sense of community so that students feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves.
Schedule in advance what’s most important
Ensure that teachers know, in advance, important dates that are happening throughout the school year. Allow them to plan around the schedule so no one feels rushed or out of the loop when it comes to PD days or other important events.
Identify key responsibility areas and support new staff
The beginning of a new school year can be overwhelming for new staff and admins. Key responsibility areas can help the start of the year run smoothly for these individuals and diminish feelings of overwhelm.
Expect the unexpected
No matter how much you plan, you can’t plan for everything. By shifting your mindset to expect the unexpected, you can handle anything the school year throws at you.
Stay calm
Everything feels like an emergency in schools, but very rarely is something truly an emergency. Be the calmest person in the room when you can, and that will set the tone for the rest of the room.
Now It’s Your Turn:
What are some methods that you used to influence a positive start to the school year at your school? Are they similar to what we discussed in the episode, or are they different? Think about what worked and what didn’t.
Listen to the episode to hear all of our takeaways! We hope your school year started on a positive note, and, as always, thank you for doing what matters!
Collaborative Team Meetings: The Missing Piece with Kurtis Hewson – PMP515
Aug 26, 2026
Show notes
A Quick Note to Listeners:
Before each week’s interview, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke take some time to answer a listener question. This week’s question is:
I’m new to my role as a principal after years as an AP, and I’ve set my calendar for what I believe are the most important priorities. How do I prepare for the unknowns — those responsibilities or expectations I won’t be aware of until they happen for the first time?
Listen in to hear their response!
Meet Kurtis Hewson:
Kurtis Hewson is an award-winning educator, former teacher and administrator, and a respected post-secondary instructor. He is the co-founder of Jigsaw Learning and works with schools and districts across North America and internationally to design and implement Collaborative Response frameworks that improve outcomes for all learners.
Known for his practical, systems-level approach, Kurtis supports thousands of educators each year in strengthening collaboration, assessment, and responsive instruction. He and his wife, Lorna Hewson, have an upcoming book, Collaborative Team Meetings: The Piece Connecting PLCs and MTSS, focused on helping schools build powerful collaborative team meetings—an essential structure within the Collaborative Response framework that empowers educators and directly impacts student success.
Joining us from Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, Kurtis brings both classroom experience and leadership insight to help schools create systems that truly support every learner. He previously joined me on Principal Matters in 2024. You can listen to that episode here.
Moving from Groups to Teams:
One of the most powerful themes from our conversation was the distinction between working in groups and working as a team. Kurtis reflected on lessons learned from Richard DuFour and explained that many schools operate as collegial groups where people enjoy one another, share ideas, and support each other. While those qualities are valuable, true collaboration requires something deeper. Teams are willing to challenge assumptions, examine practices openly, and engage in conversations that can sometimes feel uncomfortable because they are focused on growth rather than simply maintaining harmony.
The schools that make the greatest progress are not necessarily the schools with the most programs. They are the schools that intentionally build trust, safety, and structures that allow adults to learn together. As Kurtis put it, collaboration often means becoming comfortable being uncomfortable because meaningful learning happens when we invite others into our thinking and practice.
The Four Layers of Collaboration:
Kurtis described four layers of collaboration that exist in effective schools. He emphasized that these layers apply whether a school has five staff members or 150. Each serves a distinct purpose, but together they create a connected system of support.
The first layer is Collaborative Planning, where teams focus on curriculum, standards, assessments, and instructional planning. This is where traditional PLC work often lives.
The second layer is Collaborative Team Meetings, which Kurtis describes as the missing piece. These meetings focus on instructional challenges, shared problem-solving, and expanding the collective capacity of teachers before concerns escalate to formal intervention processes.
The third layer is the School Support Team, which coordinates additional interventions, services, and supports for students who need more than classroom-level responses.
The fourth layer is Case Consult, where teams focus on individual students or families whose situations require highly personalized attention and, in some cases, support from outside agencies.
What struck me most was Kurtis’s observation that many schools have the first, third, and fourth layers in place but often overlook the second. Without that bridge, teachers can quickly move from classroom concerns to formal referrals without fully leveraging the collective expertise already present within the building.
What Makes Collaborative Team Meetings Different?:
Traditional meetings often begin with a student. Collaborative team meetings begin with a challenge. Instead of launching into a lengthy discussion about a particular child, the teacher identifies a key issue such as reading comprehension, task completion, classroom engagement, or on-task stamina. The conversation then focuses on strategies rather than stories.
This subtle shift changes everything. When teachers discuss the challenge first, they quickly discover that others are experiencing similar issues. The conversation becomes less about diagnosing a single student and more about expanding the team’s toolbox of responses. The result is a culture where educators learn from one another and leave meetings with practical ideas they can implement immediately.
A Meeting Structure That Builds Collective Efficacy:
One of the most practical parts of our conversation was Kurtis’s explanation of what these meetings actually look like. Several elements are consistently present in effective collaborative team meetings:
Begin with celebrations and successes.
Ask what contributed to those successes.
Identify a specific instructional challenge.
Invite colleagues to share strategies and ideas.
Commit to one action step before leaving the meeting.
Rather than treating success as something to acknowledge briefly before moving on, Kurtis encourages teams to examine it closely. Asking, “What did you do that contributed to that success?” helps educators identify effective practices and share them with colleagues. Over time, this creates stronger collective efficacy because teachers begin to see the impact of their actions more clearly.
Why This Matters for School Leaders:
I was particularly struck by Kurtis’s observation that collaborative team meetings are not ultimately about meetings at all. They are about creating habits of thinking. The real evidence of success is when teachers begin asking one another for ideas, experimenting with new approaches, and seeking solutions together long after the meeting has ended. As we wrapped up, Kurtis challenged us to think beyond immediate solutions and instead create structures that empower others to respond effectively. Sustainable improvement happens when systems, not just individuals, become stronger.
Now It’s Your Turn:
As you prepare for a new school year, consider where collaboration is strongest in your school and where it may be breaking down. Are your meetings creating new learning, or are they simply sharing information? Are teachers leaving with practical next steps, or are conversations ending without action? Most importantly, are your systems helping adults learn from one another in ways that ultimately benefit students? Those questions may reveal the next leadership move your school needs to make.
You can connect with Kurtis Hewson via his website, and view his Collaborative meeting Starter Kit here. Or find his new book, Collaborative Team Meetings: The Piece Connecting PLCs and MTSS here.
Thank you for listening to Principal Matters, and thank you for doing what matters!
MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – Examine Your Influence
Aug 24, 2026
Show notes
Welcome back to another episode of Monday Matters! This week, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke reflect with listeners about the importance of examining your influence.
Your influence matters. Every day, the way you interact with students, teachers, colleagues, and families contributes to the emotional and cultural atmosphere around you. Are you helping others breathe healthy air, or are you contributing to an environment that feels toxic?
In this episode, we examine five practical ways you can positively influence others:
Be a mentor. You need input and encouragement, but so do educators with less experience than you. Look for opportunities to pass along what you’re learning.
Be a servant leader. Stay willing to jump in and help when needed—even if that means serving in the cafeteria line, picking up trash, or taking on an unexpected task.
Lead by example. Don’t simply tell others where to go. Be willing to go first and invite them to follow.
Keep teaching. Whether you’re working with students, teachers, parents, or colleagues, look for opportunities to instruct, model, encourage, and help others grow.
Build platforms. Use the opportunities available to you to share what you’re learning and to broadcast, amplify, and celebrate the successes of students and educators.
Finally, remember the author Jon Gordon’s warning about becoming an “energy vampire.” Instead, choose to be an energy builder—someone whose presence helps others breathe a little easier.
Now It’s Your Turn: What kind of atmosphere are you creating for the people around you? Where could you be more intentional this week about mentoring, serving, leading, teaching, or sharing?
Listen in for the full conversation. As always, thank you for doing what matters!
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