Episode #10

Ryan Sheehy is principal of Highlands Elementary School in Concord, CA. He is in charge of executing the school’s vision, building and implementing an instructional framework, and collaboratively working with staff and community to design a school that is student focused.

I was introduced to Ryan Sheehy by Adam Welcome who had a conversation with me earlier [Running Because Kids Deserve It]. I first connected with him on Twitter and it became really apparent how passionate he is about doing whatever he can for kids. Ryan came up with something I just had to share with my audience. Be the One! Below are excerpts from the podcast I had with Ryan. Enjoy!

 

Can you tell me about you, your family, and your background?

I grew up in San Diego and am the second oldest of eight kids. I had a diverse educational background. I went to public school, got home schooled for 3-4 years, went to private Catholic school, and then went to public high school. I met my wife in community college a couple of weeks after I turned 18 and have been married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children: Robert (10), Joshua (9), Juliana (7) and Zachary (4). We have a busy household and am currently moving to a new home. School Website

 

How did you come up with Be the One for your blog? Why is it important for you to write about this?

I met Adam Welcome who was my vice principal in another district, and he encouraged me to start blogging so I took the challenge. I try to put out one or two blog posts a week. This is something I feel very passionate about. I found my voice through blogging. I’ve worked at 14 different schools because I was an elementary physical education teacher working at 3 to 6 schools at a time and every staff room had one thing in common. People were scared to take that step to go outside the box and “Be the One” that changes it.

I’m passionate about the idea that one person can change the life of a child and change education for all. For me, I’ve been the one really pushing the envelope and changing things so now it’s time for me to share my message, my manifesto with the world. It’s been a model I’ve lived my life by. We all have the power to “Be the One.” All educators can live their life by this model because we’re in the business of kids and we need to “Be the One” for them, for each other, for our families, for education, and for life. Website: Be the One

 

You ask 2 questions in your blog “Who Tells Your Story” to teachers that tell you everything about the climate and culture in their classrooms: How do you connect with your families?  How do you tell your classroom story?  Why these questions?

When you walk into a classroom, you can instantly get the feeling in the classroom. Is this teacher showcasing everything they are doing in their classroom? These tell you how invested they are in their kids.  We as an education profession have a hard time bragging about all the wonderful things that are happening in our classrooms. Most of us are in this for the right reasons, and we really need to showcase that. We need to “Be the One” that tells those stories. Too often we hear about all the negative things that happen in education and rarely hear the positive things. We know that there are negative things that happen and constantly face adversity.

We can “Be the One” that flips the script and tells the positive story. We can flood positivity through social media, newsletters home, and any other ways we connect and communicate to share our successes with everyone. Back to the two questions, I ask these questions when I do presentations with teachers and...