Kim Bearden is the cofounder and a language arts teacher at the highly acclaimed Ron Clark Academy, an innovative middle school and educator-training facility in Atlanta. Each year, over 15,000 educators from around the world visit Kim’s classroom and attend her workshops to learn better ways to engage students, build relationships, foster creativity, enhance communication, and create a climate and culture for success.

In 2016, Kim was honored at the White House for being inducted into to the National Teachers Hall of Fame. She was selected from over 70,000 nominations to be honored as the Disney American Teacher Awards Outstanding Humanities Teacher, and the Milken Family Foundation selected her to receive the Award for Excellence in Education. She is the winner of the InfluencHer Award, the University of Georgia Outstanding Educator Award, and the Turknett Character Award for Servant Leadership. Mercedes-Benz recognized her in their Greatness Lives Here campaign, and Women Works Media Group has named her one of Georgia’s Most Powerful and Influential Women.

Over the past thirty-four years, she has been a teacher, instructional lead teacher, curriculum director, school-board member, staff-development trainer, and middle-school principal. Kim is a bestselling author of three books: Fight Song: Six Steps to Passion, Power, Peace, and Purpose; Talk to Me: Find the Right Words to Inspire, Encourage, and Get Things Done; and Crash Course: The Life Lessons My Students Taught Me. Additionally, Kim shares her passion and love for her craft with audiences around the world as a keynote speaker and professional development trainer.

Kim resides in Atlanta with her husband Scotty. Her three sons attend college, and her married daughter Madison lives close by.

• How we handle this time. Relationships, books,
• Shared beliefs with Ron Clark
• Open doors to RCA.
• RCA is a gift to teachers everywhere.
• Student engagement
• Low expectations are the manifestation of what you believe.
• Susan Barnes is not a table jumper!
• When you exude passion, people are drawn to it.
• We like to sprinkle magic.
• Meeting the needs of many kids.
• RCA-isms - give them attention to who is speaking - hand can’t be raised when someone is talking.
• Every child is seen
• Respect looks very different to different people.
• Summer orientation, meeting everyone in the building.
• How to be a transformative principal? You must exude what you hope to create.

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

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: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

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

LinkedLeaders: You need support. Get just-in-time mentoring at LinkedLeaders.com

We’re thrilled 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.