Transformative Principal

Livonia Michigan Suburban district with 300 students, 16,000 in district Pre-K–4th. 5 years, 21 years in 14 years as a principal @jon_wennstrom sparkoflearning.blogspot.com teacher blog http://wennstromweekly.blogspot.com parent blog PBIS school, 7 Habits of highly effective students, Positive phone calls, student led announcements, PSAs. Class Dojo, 23% ELLs Wall feature. School-wide meetings. PBIS school. Monthly, student of the month meetings. Stephen Covey’s 7 habits 3 to be pledge, respectful, responsible, safe Poster contests for that 90–95% parent attendance rate for kids who are students of the month. Weekly meeting. Sunrise and sunset meetings. Goal: build community Sean Gallard #celebrateMonday meetings Doesn’t a weekly meeting take away a lot of instructional time? Increase time-on-task Support staff who help K students get ready. Videos for students, less than 3 minutes. Perseverance, Stephen Covey’s 7 habits for highly effective kids Art teacher creates a canvas to help students showcase their

Participate.com use it for chats–it works really well. Check out this cool minute-long video about how it works. View a longer webinar about participate learning. Everything in there is based on conversations that Brad has with users. Chats are great, but how do you pay attention to everything that you learned from it? Calendar of chats Create collections from chats in the time period. Create collections and share with others. Schools and district hashtags can be involved in this as well to share their resources. Participate as a social network. How to be a transformative Principal: Have a growth mindset and empower everyone in your building. @participatelearn brad@participate.com @spirrison   Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Pri

This is part 2 of my interview with Susie Wise. Susie has had multiple incarnations at the d.school – teaching EX-Tools back in the trailer days, launching the K12 Lab in 2007 with the Nueva School Innovation Lab project, and jumpstarting Media Ops and Hootenanny design for the inauguration of Building 550 in 2008–2010. Back again in 2012 she is leading our efforts to support the movement bringing design thinking into K12 teaching and learning. Susie stumbled upon design thinking when she took a course with David Kelley in 2003 and the experience helped her make sense of the universe. Susie is motivated by the simple belief that humans are by nature designers. Recently a design strategist and innovation coach at Intuit, her practice centers on inspiring teams to use empathy to get to innovative outcomes. Susie has a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford’s School of Education and is a co-founder of Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland. She lives there with her husband and daughter

Susie Wise has had multiple incarnations at the d.school – teaching EX-Tools back in the trailer days, launching the K12 Lab in 2007 with the Nueva School Innovation Lab project, and jumpstarting Media Ops and Hootenanny design for the inauguration of Building 550 in 2008–2010. Back again in 2012 she is leading our efforts to support the movement bringing design thinking into K12 teaching and learning. Susie stumbled upon design thinking when she took a course with David Kelley in 2003 and the experience helped her make sense of the universe. Susie is motivated by the simple belief that humans are by nature designers. Recently a design strategist and innovation coach at Intuit, her practice centers on inspiring teams to use empathy to get to innovative outcomes. Susie has a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford’s School of Education and is a co-founder of Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland. She lives there with her husband and daughter (yes, the one in the movie Babies). Shadow

Jon Laffoon is the principal of Pea Ridge High School in Arkansas, where they are using a dynamic schedule called the flex mod schedule to allow time to serve students, rather than students serving time. It is pretty remarkable and impressive. Save $10,000 on paper because of 1:1 Don’t hire substitutes Expectation is that teachers post everything to Google Classroom when they are absent. Subs are just babysitters Time serving students rather than students serving time. Redesign cafeteria to make it a modern space like a starbucks. Supervision of students. 3 Core Values: Leave no trace, be responsible, use time wisely Teach them personal responsibility. You have to take on a growth mindset to make changes. Students skipping a class still happens, but it has not increased, though the way to work with kids has helped. Phase Balance - can’t have every class meet 3 days (Phase 3) a week or every class meet 4 (Phase 4) days a week. Schools can come learn from PRHS. Conference in the summer. Office of Innovation fo

Jon Laffoon is the principal of Pea Ridge High School in Arkansas, where they are using a dynamic schedule called the flex mod schedule to allow time to serve students, rather than students serving time. It is pretty remarkable and impressive. Flex Mod schedule Form of a block schedule. Certain classes that might meet 4 days a week or 3 days a week. Videos explaining the schedule Empower the teachers - get them out of their silos The gray ILT times keep the classes from conflicting. The schedule to look at Independent learning time: with great power comes great responsibility. Designing a PE unit based on their fitness goals. 210 clock minutes whether you meet 3 days or 4 days a week. ILT time is class time. Many teachers have flipped their classes. 60% of students each year were going to a 2 year or 4 year institution. Only 25–30% of students were staying in school. SLT Structured Learning Time is some RTI time. 2000-student high school designed for the Flex Mod schedule. Teachers don’t teach in the same

Ken Spero of @edleadershipsim seeks to help leaders develop their decision-making ability by running simulations of realistic situations. Experience is the best teacher What simulations in a box look like. Engage one’s own imagination Experiences of those who go through it. This is an experience to be able to talk about what you could do. Valuable and engaging. Stories engage people. Running simulations as part of assistant principal training. Analyze the thinking of your team. Janice Case Become a Patron Focus is on critical thinking and judgment. Experience can be about getting things wrong. How he creates sims. Alternate Reality (sims) vs. Alternative Reality (games). How to be a transformative principal: what experience do you need to have to learn and grow? Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Pape

Loading… Glenn Robbins (Twitter and Blog) is the 2016 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. Duties of digital principal of the year. Things that were done to gain attention for this award. Idea Street Turtles in an aquarium in the school. Digital Shop. Design thinking. NCMS Innovates blog EdCamp Period. 5 days in a 45 minute period. We want to create designers. Using technology when appropriate. Design thinking and deprogramming them. The Extraordinaires Program It’s saying yes more than no. Responding to kids’ feedback. How to be a transformative principal? Be connected digitally and in person. Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show. Buy Communication Cards Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com Download Paperless Principal.   Sponsor: Sanebox Web Site Transformative Principal on Stitcher Refer A Principal Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey We're so grateful to our sponsor AI

Leyden East High School Principal Jason Markey, assistant principal Anita Huffman and principal-to-be-current-special-education-teacher Meaghan O’Neil join me to talk about the Assistant principal for Student Services - The importance of a title Breakfast with students to support the new students coming in. ACCESS Program - extra 25 minutes for freshman to help them get acclimated. Hand-schedule students with ACCESS teacher so they have a single adult to Learning2breathe study time for students to focus on mindfulness. Teaching the whole child. “Yes, And” thinking. Giving kids the time and space to be creative. Innovation incubator. Disengaging from PLCs to be in a new group focused on design thinking. Design thinking Trust and vulnerability is vital. It is an unknown. What can you do to be a transformative principal: Work to empathize more with our students and teachers [#shadowastudent](http://shadowastudent.org) Have a PLN and connect with others to help reflect and continue to grow. Step out of your c

Today, Daniel Bauer and I talk about our Mastermind. I encourage you to join. Check it out here: Transformative Mastermind.   If you still have questions or are ready to join, please set up a brief phone call. Schedule a call Daniel and I are both setting up masterminds. I interview him on his podcast: Better Leaders Better Schools    Mastermind For Principals We all know that being a principal can be a lonely job. It is isolating to be the only one who has to deal with everything that goes on in your day-to-day life. Some of us have assistant principals, some of us have co principals, but each of us know that there are some things that are just hard to help other people understand what you’re going through. Enter a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people who are dedicated to investing in themselves to improve their lives. We all have social networks which help us in various ways. If you have been on Twitter, in Facebook groups, or Voxer groups, you know there can be an ebb and flow with the conversatio

A continuation of my discussion with Eric Heiser, Exectuve direction or Sturgis Public Charter school in Mass. Teachers go above and beyond often. Teachers who join us are into teaching students, not content. Students thrive on feedback, and if they feel they are going to get it, they are going to go to teachers for it more often. Teachers mindset has to be, I’m going to do everything I can to help kids be successful. How do you tease out that mindset? If I took over your class, and I had no clue about what you were teaching, what words and phrases would your students have about you? How does the teacher see their role and connection? Tell me something that went really well in the last week and why it went well. Tell me something that didn’t go well and why didn’t it? How did you choose your university? Tell me about your favorite class at university and why they were your favorite? How do you connect outside the classroom and why do you do that? Student discipline is not about the consequence, but it is abo

Eric Heiser is the Exective Director of Sturgis Public Charter School in Massachusetts, where students have a 20% chance of getting in if you don’t have a sibling International Baccalaureate has programs from K–12 and early college. IB Diploma program the best preparation for College. IB Program is a whole conception of a program. Rigorous courses and also character building. Theory of knowledge, Creative action and service activities. Gain points for what they know, rather than losing points for what they don’t. Very few multiple choice tests in the assessments given. IB for All - no non-IB courses for grades 11 and 12. 9th and 10th grade IB Prep. Students challenge themselves, and grow into their commitment of becoming all they can be. Special Needs at Sturgis on the web site Guiding points on vision: 1. Help each student maximize their own individual potential. 2. Student learning is why we are here and should drive every decision we make. Moving away from the word teach and saying “How do we create lear

Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school. PLCs Leadership Team 25 minutes each week with principal discussing the instruction and learning. Instructional coach. Essential Questions Meet weekly as a team Sense of urgency is happening. PD for Leadership Team Smart professionals can choose their own tools for the job. Also more fun to let them experience their own success. New focus is seeing students Comprehensive needs assessments Students need shared ownership Specific feedback Universal screeners for our students, they showed they were really struggling. DIBELs gives an indicator Phonics Screener Still need to create common formative assessments to help students demonstrate proficiency. Consultants come in to work with team to facilitate the needed changes. How to facilitate difficult conversations. Strict schedule is needed. R

I was so honored to chat with Todd Whitaker and Rick Wormeli after their keynote at the #nassp16 conference. This was a really fun conversation today. These two guys were so excited about what they were talking about they just kept going. It was awesome. Professional Development. Twitter chats (Comprehensive list of Twitter Chats) Twitter is the best free professional development there is. Exposed to newer research-based information How sad that we use research as an excuse to not do something. The teachers is a ceaseless researcher in their classroom. When there is a great teacher, there is no research, because it has never been done. How to help your great teachers fly. How to help struggling teachers.   Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher.  Ready for a Modern Web Site for your school? Simple School Sites is the place to go for high quality Wordpress sites specially designed for schools. Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal fo

Cory Doctorow is a Canadian journalist and science fiction author. Follow him on Twitter, Web site, BoingBoing Cory spoke at ASTE this week, and I am excited to share the things I learned from him. Failing well We tend to ignore failing. What we should teach kids about technology Reidentification - people can figure out who you are. What we should teach kids Anonymity + distance = jerky behavior Should we be critical of the software and systems we use? Proprietary vs. open There’s never been a field or endeavor where scrutiny by your peers has not helped. Adversarial peer review. You can lock yourself into bad systems if you’re not careful. If 10% of a group got together and spent their money on developing open source software then they would produce something better that what is available. We did this at Kodiak Middle with our Pickr app Collective action threshold What is one thing that you can do to be a transformative principal? Got out of the students’ way. Employees were empowered to cost the company m

Special Episode! This weekend I am at the ASTE Conference, and I had the privilege of learning from Carl Hooker for a leadership workshop all day on Saturday. It’s always fun to learn from a great presenter, and Carl is one of those. Carl did a great job of engaging a bunch of administrators, helping us get our guard down, and making the conversation great. Carl has been involved in education since graduating from the University of Texas in 1998. He has been in a variety of positions in both Austin ISD and Eanes ISD, from 1st grade teacher to Virtualization Coordinator.  He’s a father of three girls, Sophia, Lauren, and Caroline and a wonderful, understanding wife Renee, all of which play a large role in any presentations he gives or blogs he writes. Carl is the Director of Innovation & Digital Learning in the Eanes Independent School District. He is also the founder of the learning festival called iPadpalooza. As Director, he utilizes his background in both education and technology to bring a unique visi

Kimberly Miles is the principal of East Gresham Elementary School. 425 kids, mobility rate 64 students moving in and out since the beginning of the year. 33 percent ELL students. SUN School - community support in the school. Turnaround principal. Everyone had the choice to leave or apply to stay. Looking for a willingness to do what works. How are we as a team going to fulfill that need for our kids? So much work to be done. Where would you start first for equitable student achievement? Are you willing to do the work? Building a culture of change. We GET to do this, and isn’t that exciting? As a leader, I go fast. Go slow to go fast. 3 things we did: 1. Culture change 2. Targeted Professional Development 3. Effective instruction Focus on literacy. How to teach the Big 5 in literacy. Grit and growth mindset. I can’t do it, yet. Feedback and trust are vital. Learning to trust each other and admit that I don’t know. Willingness to try something different. Loading… Please take a moment to rate this podcast in

Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com. Less concerned about teachers communicating directly with parents. Not really a problem unless they are having a problem or argument. Need to have the mindfulness to step back and get someone else involved if there is a disagreement. General rule of thumb. No unmediated electronic communication between a teacher and a student. Digital communication inherently strips out that humanity, so why not have it mediated. Take whatever steps necessary to make it difficult

Frederick Lane is an author, attorney, educational consultant, and lecturer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of cybersafety, digital misconduct, personal privacy, and other topics at the intersection of law, technology, and society. Lane has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, the BBC, and MSNBC. He has written eight books, including most recently Cybertraps for Educators (Mathom Press 2015). All of his books are available on Amazon.com or through his Web site, FrederickLane.com. Cybertraps - problems that people have dealt with for many years Technology makes things easier. We don’t have a good clearinghouse across the country. Don’t need technology to be a predator. Slippery slope of boundary violations. Most common cybertraps: productivity within the school environment, oversharing of personal information, use of social media to start or engage in an inappropriate relationship. Digital technology has a leveling effect. Personal informa

Kara is an assistant principal at Edwin Lowe Elementary in New Town North Dakota. Her generation doesn’t feel that people are coming in to take away their culture. There’s nothing we can’t learn from each other. How to help kids choose to be in education: Be that outstanding teacher! Having authentic conversations. History of Indian Education in America. Boarding schools were opened up. Goal was to assimilate the natives. Have to be willing to learn to respect their culture. Pow-Wows are very vital. Community Being fair, being willing to learn from others. To help students, you need to have a good relationship. Pair people up with support staff. Providing resources for students as they are growing and developing. Mediators help bridge the gap. How paraprofessionals can help. They need lots of training. In the eyes of the student, there is not much difference between paraprofessionals and teachers. How to be a transformative principal: Maintain work-life balance, be authentic and have authentic conversations