Before we get started, I have two quick announcements

1.     I’ve been hearing a strong interest in how to support beginning teachers. I went into some key practices last year in episodes 214 and 215, so if you are in the mode to think about how to support your BTs (and ECTs), give a listen to episodes 214 and 215

2.     The July 22 episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast we feature a panel discussion with myself and five assistant principals. Some are national/state AP of the Year awardees and others are just wrapping up their first year as assist principals. The focus of our discussion is being a first year AP! We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, topics, advice, or stories, please consider sharing. Please email them to me at [email protected]. I would love to be able to name contributors but will only do so if you explicitly give permission for us to include your name and affiliation. We are recording on July 15, so don’t wait.

Okay, now onto the episode…

Show Notes, Episode 47: From first year AP to AP of the Year with Dr. Tia Jones Pt. 2

About this show:

What does it mean to be an assistant principal? What is your job? What are the essential skills? One of the reasons being an AP is so challenging is because there aren’t really clear answers to these questions. Outside of busses, books, and butts, there isn’t a strong consensus for what makes a great AP. This is one of my motivations in starting this podcast – it sometimes feels like the assistant principalship is this ever changing role of mixed-up expectations, and that doesn’t seem fair. I hope through this podcast we can bring some clarity to the role and to the essential elements of being a great AP. Today, we have a wonderful guest who can help us do that.

Notable Quotes

Tia Jones

“You want to make sure that you build that capacity with your teachers, so that they can build it with their students, and not only with the students, but with the parents. The parents, that's the key.”

“People won’t know what you need or what you’re interested in unless you say something”

“One of the biggest things that has helped me personally and professionally is journaling”

“Many of us, when we get up in the morning, we might look at the phone and some of us are on social media first thing. If you replace going to Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, if you replace that moment in time to write a sentence about how you want your day to go, that is one change that you can make that can be positive for you in the long run”

Frederick

“We need to remember as assistant principals, most teacher ed programs don’t have parts where they have their intern teachers sit down and make phone calls to parents. They’re not taught that”

“When you are at the district level and you have an AP comes to you and says ‘hey, I want to grow in this area, I want some help’, that person is now on your radar, because that is the kind of person you can grow”

Links:

Tia’s Foundation: https://www.empoweringjustice.org 

Tia’s Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/tiajonesed1

Tia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-tia-s-jones-2ba62b29 

My email: [email protected] 

The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html 

Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition 

Website: www.frederickbuskey.com

Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)