Transformative Principal

Latest Episodes:

The Greater Dayton School with AJ Stich Transformative Principal 391 Feb 28, 2021

Show notes

Adam J. Stich (A.J.) is the founding principal of The Greater Dayton School. Prior to starting in this role, he spent nearly seven years as a principal in Chicago Public Schools, where he drove strong outcomes for students and teachers. Under A.J.’s leadership, Rufus M. Hitch Elementary achieved the district’s highest school quality rating for five consecutive years (2014–19).

Ultimately, A.J. is motivated by the opportunity to impact kids and change the trajectory of their academic careers. He believes his leadership should be grounded in decency, humility, and high standards, and he strives to achieve this when serving his students, school and community. AJ and his wife Kendra (also a TFA alum) have three kids and a rescue dog. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with family, running, reading, and cheering on the Green Bay Packers.

How are they going to spend $30,000 per kid per year?
Over $250,000 per student invested in the students’ k–8 career.
Larry Connor - the founder
Holistic focus on education.
What must be essential if we are going to really change kids’ lives
Age 27 goals:
Successful by their own definition
Physically and mentally healthy
Living lives of character and integrity
Financially independent
Established in a career
Wrap-around services
Clinic embedded in the school.
Backward map these goals.
Financially independent what does it look like when they are 23, 18, 12, 6?
What kind of teachers are you looking for?
Having a research partner really helps.
Great advisors in the education space and business space.
If this school looks like this in one year, we have a problem!
Change has to be a part of our DNA.
I came in thinking this is going to be simple.
Are you just trying to recreate what has been done?
Going to the status quo just isn’t going to cut it.
Hired first cohort of teachers - It starts and ends with teacher!
They need to have flexibility of mind. Traditional school model just isn’t what we are doing.
How do you capture a student’s thought process?
Competency-based - jumpstart
How to be a transformative principal? Start with strategic planning - Don’t get too technical. Start mapping out what you can do down to the day!
if you don’t do the strategic mapping, you find yourself responding and reacting to everything.

Sponsors TeachFX

Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com

John Catt

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles:

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

We’re proud 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 technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Overcoming Our Motivation Crisis with Mike Anderson Transformative Principal 390 Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Mike Anderson has been an educator for more than 25 years. A public school teacher for 15 years, he has also taught preschool, coached school swim teams, and taught university graduate level classes. He now works as a consultant providing professional learning for teachers throughout the US and beyond. In 2004, Mike was awarded a national Milken Educator Award, and in 2005 he was a finalist for NH Teacher of the Year. In 2020, he was awarded the Outstanding Educational Leader Award by NHASCD for his work as a consultant. A best-selling author, Mike has written eight books about great teaching and learning. When not working, Mike can be found hanging with his family, tending his perennial gardens, and searching for new running routes around his home in Durham, NH.

New book on motivation - Moving from systems of extrinsic motivation to supporting students’ intrinsic motivations
Extrinsic motivation is the default motivation in schools right now.
Motivate from without. Impose on others.
Punishments are also forms of extrinsic motivation.
Ditchie and Ryan - autonomy is the key intrinsic motivator.
Is there ever a time that extrinsic motivation is worthwhile.
We’ve taught them to think transactionally.
Book - Drive by Daniel Pink - animated video
Rote or Mechanical - extrinsic works in the short term.
You can lose creativity if extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within.
Self-motivation vs. Intrinsic motivators:
6 indicators:
autonomy - need for power and control
purpose - what we are doing has meaning
competence - need to feel good at stuff
belonging - connected to others
curiosity - naturally interested in
fun - playful, joy, energetic.
Motivation is very complex.
Set this up and incentivize it for them.
How do we make this shift in education?
Recognize that it is coming from a place of good intentions
Signaling - we signal that the action is something distasteful because we have to incentivize it.
Alfie Kohn on Oprah
Kids who were paid stopped playing with the puzzles.
Jethro’s TEDx Talk
Stop trying to motivate kids. Tap into their intrinsic motivations
Conflict in US history.
11 of 22 kids showed up on a Saturday morning, voluntarily.
Ongoing assessing throughout the project.
Take the content we have to teach and give kids control, purpose,
Numbers in expanded notation
Shift in thinking about content: It’s a means to an end, it shouldn’t be the end itself.
We should think of content as our playground.
Motivation - book Crisis focused? Learning to choose, choosing to learn.
Act of co-creation with Allison Zmuda.
How to be a Transformative Principal - Dig into the research on motivation. LiveBinder

Eduplanet21 courses

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Everybody Has an Opinion About What the School Should Be with Justin Bathon Transformative Principal 389 Feb 21, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Justin Bathon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies at the University of Kentucky and serves as a Co-Director of the Center for Next Generation Leadership.

He is the Director of Innovative School Models for the College of Education. He is a co-Director of the Next Generation Leadership Academy at the College and a co-director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). Justin works directly with schools and school leaders to reform the systems that support the learner experience in school.

STEAM Academy High School
Byproduct of Next Generation Leadership Academy. Original mission to smooth the transition to higher education.
So many involved in creating what that high school should be.
4 separate dual credit partnerships.
Paired relationship back to just Bluegrass community college.
Designing a high school from scratch is awesome.
Semester model, Canvas LMS
Lots of iterations, and still evolving,
Didn’t really want early graduation, but it started happening
In the early years, it was leader as designer.
Try an idea 3 times. If we weren’t satisfied then we would abandon it.
A lot of those ideas came from me, the ivory tower guy.
Everybody has an opinion about what the school should be!
We became gatekeepers of ideas.
That brought a lot more confusion into the space, and so we abandoned it.
There had to be something that made us feel like it could be great.
Second time, it couldn’t be worse.
Third time: Distinctly better.
That first year was pretty abysmal.
The kids didn’t mind the chaos because it was equal to what they experienced in the regular school.
Bias toward equity.
When you have a bias toward equity, you are always on the right ethical side of that choice.
Core equity practice to not do credit recovery online only.
Tina Stephenson, Chris Flores, and Eric Ridd
Can we do this model for all kids?
We abandoned the idea if it only worked for part of our kids.
We focused on models that built opportunity after opportunity for kids.
Some kids just need more time. We’re trying to buy them time.
Authentic relationships with our community.
You don’t just call yourself a PBL school, you have to learn that.
We gained trust in our community.
Our students accessed the whole of what Lexington felt like.
Things that took iteration.
Complete failure on Standards Based Grading.
How to work well with higher ed. Higher ed can be flexible.
The mentality about how they approach their perspectives is very different.
When working with Colleges on dual credit, come with a model and concept to someone at the provost level or above.
Project Moonshot - New approach to dual credit, focus on collaborative teaching.
Adding two adults to students - one from high school, and one from the University.
Only high schools that are willing to participate in the network get the dual credit in the schools.
Progressive, constructivist education.
Push is to change high school.
Help kids make the next step sooner and smoother.
Your future earning potential is deeply tied to what you accomplished after high school.
Broadly define college as a step after high school and not sole as the 4 year liberal arts degree.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? ...

Why I didn't Retire and Stayed Through the Pandemic with Bill Clouse Transformative Principal 388 Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

Bill Clouse is a principal in Wisconsin. He’s a 31-year veteran with 26 years in administration.

In this episode, we talk about using people in the right way, eliminating staff meetings, and how the mastermind kept him motivated and energized even though he could have retired.

One agenda item on staff meetings: To complain about what is going on.
Building Leadership Team - Leaders of PLCs.
4 months to create change.
In a staff meeting, you get a lot of mob mentality.
Using strengths
Knowing staff well enough to be a successful team.
How to get to know their strengths.
Need to be in their classrooms
If someone comes to me with their idea, they’re going to work to make sure it doesn’t fail.
A great admin team - 5 people.
We genuinely get along and like each other.
Initially, I was a little skeptical about the mastermind.
An outlet to talk through problems that we are having.
I’m the only high school principal we have.
The mastermind stoked the fire.
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
Stroke your racehorses and shoot your jackasses.
Where the bear shits in the buckweed.
Education is never wasted, so keep going.
How to be a transformative principal? Be present. People need to know that you care. Don’t change unless it has to be changed.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

The Model Code of Ethics for Educators with Dr Troy Hutchings Transformative Principal Special 1059 Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

Troy Hutchings researches, writes, and speaks in the areas of professional ethics, educator misconduct, and frameworks for an ethical and legal teaching practice. He presents to various state and national policy and practitioner groups across the United States and Canada. Hutchings also provides expert witness testimony in judicial hearings; collaborates on policy initiatives with state, federal and provincial agencies; and has been the subject matter expert on a variety of national projects dealing with educator ethics including the Model Code of Ethics for Educators and the National Council for the Advancement of Educator Ethics.

In this episode we talk about how to implement the MCEE in your school or district, or even state.

Check out the MCEE here.

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Reframing American Education with Dr. Tyrone Burton Transformative Principal 387 Feb 14, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Burton serves as a Turnaround Specialist for the Rensselaerville Institute based in Albany, New York. He was music teacher from 1983 to 1989, and then became a principal In August 2001 Dr. Burton was assigned as the Principal to Cherokee Park Elementary. At the time of his appointment the school was in Corrective Action with a SPS of 44.4, and about to be taken over by the Department of Education. Dr. Burton retired from Caddo Parish Schools in 2017 as a Distinguished Principal and was hired by the Rensselaerville Institute where he currently serves as a Turnaround Specialist. He is also the CEO and founder of Passion Driven Leadership. These allow him to pursue his passion which is to help and support leaders in education. He and his wife Wanda have twin boys and three lovely grandchildren. He is the author of Reframing American Education.

Academic Efficacy - If teachers trust principals and teachers and parents trust teachers, you create an environment of academic confidence.
Asking teachers if they’re willing to grow.
Teachers created and owned the school environment.
Our problem wasn’t getting teachers but choosing the right teachers.
How to turnaround schools?
Leadership implements attitudes and cultures that is going to turn around.
Kids first
Responsibility
Vision
Communication
Fiscally responsible
Using data to inform decisions, not drive it.
Four types of data: academic, perception, demographic, background.
Sometimes schools look at background data and superimpose that on their academic data.
Data-informed means you drill down deep and see what the context of the data tells them.
Implement strategies that help students think.
Close the hope gap before we close any other gap.
The Case Against Standardization
She thought the scores were high because she
We beat teachers up with data.
We get lost in doing the work.
Different skillset than just leading
Cracking the code of code cracking - Christopher - Seton Hall
There is NO empirical research regarding standardization that it works.
The power of coaching
It’s more about class than it is about black and white.
We do it because educators don’t control
How do kids learn better without standards?
We’ve hounded that teachers teach standards not students. This is wrong!
When students own the learning process, it’s a win win for everyone.
It’s hard for us to
Trust is very important. Accountability often erodes trust.
How to be a transformative principal? Change your mindset. Think about how you can transform yourself. Reflect.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Trust Based Observations with Craig Randall Transformative Principal 386 Feb 10, 2021

Show notes

Craig Randall is developing relational trust between principals and teachers, leading to risk-taking and growth. Author of Trust-Based Observations

Trust-Based Observations, my new book about a transformative method of doing teacher observations. In a nutshell the book and model are designed to help show administrators how to build trusting differentiated relationships with each of their teachers such that teachers are willing to work through uncomfortable feelings of vulnerability and embrace taking big risks to grow their practice. The model also directly connects the observation process to annual action research goals and schoolwide professional development through the creation of professional development communities tied directly to TBO areas of pedagogy.

What is wrong with our current observation protocols?
Everything has been well-intended, it just hasn’t been effective.
Gates Foundation 7 year research project to improve quality of teaching.
Matt O’Leary - predominate researcher on teacher observation.
When we evaluated teachers, they start to play it safe.
If we create the right environment, everyone will feel safer.
12 observations/week.
Monday-Thursday 3 20 minute observations. Tuesday-Friday 3 reflective conversations.
We want to spend our time as product?
Share what you notice, strengths you observed.
Don’t offer suggestions.
When you’re in classrooms so much, you start to see who is good at what.
Latent label?
We want to save our suggestions for something that is going to have a bigger impact.
If we don’t use emotional intelligence and trust, then we aren’t going to have a big impact.
Action Research Project.
It’s not top-down watching, it’s them there together.
Professional development - when people choose their own paths for choosing their PD, you see them taking more ownership of it and feel more empowered.
What about students’ self-driven opportunities?
How to be a transformative principal? Trust your teachers and build relationships of care for them. Start doing short observations, look for strengths.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Equity through Virtual Teaching with Dr. Michael Robinson Transformative Principal 385 Feb 07, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Robinson is on a mission to ensure that all students and educational practitioners receive the best experience in educational technology that will ensure immediate and future success in the real world. He believes in forming long-lasting partnerships with school districts and educational professionals in order to meet all students’ individual needs and the continuous promotion of differentiated learning.

Proximity Learning is an online education service company serving over 150 school districts and instructing over 50,000 students annually. They’ve been in the virtual learning space for 10 plus years, and their leadership team is made up of former teachers, principals, superintendents, etc. who see this as an opportunity to really make a difference in the education space as a whole.

Virtual Teachers fill the gap when we have teacher shortages.
LMS and virtual video conferencing software to make the magic happen.
Facilitator in the classroom when that is needed.
If you don’t need a full time teacher to teach a respective course, you can just select that one course.
Best practices for remote learning. Asynchronous student is on their own.
Synchronous the teacher is still with those kids.
Connectivity is really important.
What skills do teachers need to work in virtual environments?
Each school district needs a remote learning action plan.
During parent teacher conferences teachers and parents can still interact virtually.
Students have their own ways of communicating in the online environment.
What does the future of school look like?
We do have a teacher shortage, so we are going to have to do more with less, or make education more enticing to teachers.
When you have LMS and Virtual software to connect with kids.
Maybe we don’t have all the brick and mortar buildings that we currently have.
how to be a transformative principal? Open your mind, don’t think that everything has to be in a brick and mortar environment. Embrace synchronous virtual instruction.
If they don’t have a strong math teacher, they don’t have equity.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

How to Create a Burnout Proof Culture with David Shar Transformative Principal 384 Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

“Too many of us clock out of life as we clock into work. Where we were once looking for fulfillment and meaning in our careers, we now just show up for a paycheck… But what if we could change all that? What if we could reignite that passion in ourselves… in our coworkers…in our employees? David Shar was happily managing his small ice cream parlor in Baltimore City when his employee came in with tears in her eyes. Her boyfriend had been shot multiple times, she didn’t know if he would survive. David tried to give her the day off, but she refused, telling David that she had to be at work… work was her “happy place.” When David began his career he had no idea how much his crew of teenagers and young adults from the inner city would impact his view on work, life, & leadership. His experiences in that ice cream parlor led David on a journey of discovery to answer the question - What makes work one person’s happy place and another person’s purgatory? He discovered how organizations, through their leadership & culture can create burnout-proof work environments that engage and inspire employees to be the best versions of themselves. President of Illuminate PMC and creator of the FTF Burnout-Proof Culture Model, David is a keynote speaker, consultant, and trainer specializing in helping organizations improve their leadership and culture, combat burnout, and design meaningful work. David combines decades of leadership experience with the latest psychological research to help attract, retain, and motivate top talent. David holds his bachelor’s in human resource management from Colorado State University and his master’s in industrial / organizational psychology from the University of Maryland – College Park. He is a current doctoral candidate in business psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where he is studying the interaction between meaningful work and burnout. David is NOT your typical academic - as a scientist / practitioner translator, David makes leadership theory & business psychology accessible, implementable, and fun through the use of humor and storytelling.”

How do you support people who are going through struggles?
Their lives were so beautiful in so many ways, first and foremost.
Finding the beauty in someone else’s life is the first thing you need to do.
We did a lot of volunteering.
Ice cream was a tool to make Baltimore a better place.
Kids who saw themselves as the bottom rung started to see that they had something to give.
Stress is everywhere!
Work was an escape from that.
Work can be a place where we are in control.
Work can be a place where you feel like your hands are tied behind your back.
She’s a first grade teacher that cannot comfort her kids the way she always has.
Administrators can facilitate what people are experiencing
What is burnout?
How to help prevent burnout.
Give them some autonomy in their day.
This is a time for innovation!
Support is so crucial to prevent burnout.
Instrumental support, mental support.
If support comes in the wrong form, it can blow up in your face.
Instrumental support - jumping in to help.
Mental Support
Emotional support - being there as a sounding board.
Communication Cards
It’s not about the Nail
how to bring back the water cooler
Open the lines of communication
It’s really hard to separate from the challenges of their lives.
We’re so worried about encroaching on people’s time, but we need to make time to
How to be a transformative principal? Show vulnerability. It’s ok to not have all the answers. Ask their opinion.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit

The Principals Toolbox with Dr Justin Thomas Transformative Principal 383 Jan 31, 2021

Show notes

Justin Thomas, Ed.D., is an elementary school principal serving students, faculty, and community near Nashville, TN. Prior to his work in school administration, he enjoyed 8 years as a middle school and high school band director.

During his 6-year tenure as principal, his school team has been recognized multiple times by the Tennessee Department of Education for outstanding student growth and achievement gap closure. Dr. Thomas believes that the keys to success revolve around growth and gratitude - the ideas that all members of a school can ‘get better’, and that a spirit of thankfulness is key to strong culture.

Dr. Thomas is the author of “The Principal’s Toolbox: Real Talk on Tackling School Leadership” (2020). Noticing an abundance of philosophical books about leadership, his purpose in writing The Principal’s Toolbox was to take an honest look at many of the practical aspects of the principalship. Aspiring and new principals will find this title especially helpful.

Dr. Thomas is married (Susan) and they enjoy their busy life with 3 daughters in Nashville.

What is your policy on (some obscure thing)?
How to balance things you are passionate about with what people
The moment you think you have it figured out you learn more.
You can tell a lot about how people act when they
Are we frustrated that we
Cannibalize - we can’t eat each other alive over things both of us dislike
Too often we blame someone when we are frustrated with a situation.
How to overcome your frustrations.
Sit down and talk through the challenges that we are facing.
Relationships are central to finding change.
You can push through initiatives, but if you want spiritual believers, it has to be something that they feel like they had a hand in.
I don’t help them become anything.
It’s not what we do, it’s who we are.
There’s nothing that we can do or say that means anything in comparison with the little interactions on a daily basis.
How to be a transformative principal? Say thank you to someone who no longer hears it.

Sponsors TeachFX

John Catt

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL.

Simplify and streamline technology
Save teachers’ time
Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
Improve 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.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected