Homeroom Attendance w/ Edward DeShazer

Picture the student who disrupts your classroom. The one who talks back, refuses to sit still, and has a reputation that travels the hallways before they ever walk through your door.

What was the first word that came to mind?

In this episode, Edward breaks down why that word matters — and why the lens educators see students through often has more to do with history, bias, and expectation than anything a kid has actually done in front of them. He walks through the suspension cycle, what the research says about where it leads, and why changing the question from "what's wrong with this student?" to "what is this behavior trying to tell me?" changes everything downstream.

You don't have bad students. You have students making bad decisions. One is a verdict. The other is a moment. And moments can change.

This is part one. Tune in next week for the tools.

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School culture doesn't wait for September. The decisions you're making right now, the conversations you're having, the things you're letting slide — that's your culture being built. August doesn't fix it. July builds it.

Last week Edward named what most schools won't say out loud. This week is about what you do with that. Five concrete action steps you can start this summer before you set foot back in your building: have the honest conversation you've been putting off, invest in your culture carriers before they burn out, collect the culture data your building actually needs, audit what you're celebrating publicly, and start measuring before the year begins.

Edward also shares how to get free access to his School Culture Compass program. Send an email to [email protected] and mention Homeroom Attendance.

Awareness without action is just a well-informed version of staying stuck. This one moves you forward.

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There's a gap in education between what people know and what they're willing to say out loud. That gap is where a lot of the dysfunction lives.

In this episode, Edward names four things that people inside school buildings have been walking past and pretending not to see: the mental health of the adults nobody's asking about, toxic cultures that survive because the people running them genuinely care about kids, the believement gap between what educators say they believe about students and what their behavior actually shows, and the "we're fine" culture that keeps all of it protected by making honesty feel dangerous.

Naming something isn't the same as fixing it. But you cannot fix what you won't name.

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Here's a question worth sitting with this summer: what are you actually practicing?

Not what you're planning. Not what's on your reading list. What you're doing, repeatedly, in the weeks between June and September — because that's what shows up with you on the first day of school.

Edward makes the case that summer isn't just rest and recovery. It's formation. The educator who walks back through that door in the fall is being built right now, whether you're intentional about it or not. And your students — all of them, from the first day — can feel the difference between the educator who used the summer and the one who just survived it.

This episode is for everyone in the building. Teachers, support staff, front office, custodians, cafeteria workers. If you touch the student experience, this is for you.

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Two or three weeks into summer, when the June exhaustion finally starts to lift, something else shows up. The quiet. And in the quiet, a voice that starts second-guessing everything — the students you didn't reach, the lessons that didn't land, the feeling that everyone else has it figured out while you were just trying to get through the year.

Edward calls it the quiet lie. And it doesn't come in one big dramatic moment. It comes in small ones, stacked up over weeks, using real moments from your year as evidence against you.

This episode is about negativity bias, the believement gap, and what it actually looks like to push back on a voice that counts on you being alone with it.

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You made it to summer. But surviving the school year and being ready for the next one are two different things.

In this episode, Edward gets honest about what burnout actually looks like in education — not the dramatic version, but the quiet one where you're still showing up, still doing your job, but that version of you that used to get genuinely excited about a lesson idea at 8am hasn't shown up in a while.

He covers what real rest actually looks like (and what fake rest is costing you), why reconnecting with who you are outside the building matters more than people admit, and why you need to answer the question "why am I going back?" before September gets here.

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We draw a sharp line between reacting and leading when disruption hits schools, and we name the hidden habits that turn stressful moments into lasting dysfunction. We choose clarity over fake certainty, and we ground leadership in values and presence for principals, teachers, and anyone who serves students. 
• why the old school playbook stops working during disruption 
• what reacting looks like in schools and how it becomes permanent policy 
• fight flight freeze and why the nervous system cannot run a school 
• how to lead without having all the answers 
• the pilot in turbulence metaphor and why calm sets team speed 
• performing certainty versus providing clarity that builds trust 
• why teachers are leaders and classrooms face disruption daily 
• classroom examples of reacting versus leading with curiosity 
• commitment and values as the anchor when plans fall apart 
hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. please leave a written review or a star review. share this episode with someone. 

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We launch Homeroom Attendance by asking a simple question with sharp edges: are we truly present in our schools or just physically in the room. We challenge the addiction to new initiatives and make the case that trust and culture, not binders and acronyms, determine whether students and adults can do their best work. 

• reintroducing the show and why the rebrand matters 
• defining “attendance” as presence for students and adults 
• naming the big three issues: teacher burnout, teacher turnover, student disengagement, plus leadership fatigue 
• explaining why new initiatives fail when the culture stays the same 
• shifting from “what programs do we need” to “what conditions do we need” 
• unpacking culture as the operating system of a school 
• real example: behavior problems rooted in broken trust 
• sharing my background and why this work is personal 
• reflective questions: what can’t be solved by another initiative and what version of your school you’re building 

If you enjoy this episode, I want you to share it with someone. Please like, please subscribe, stay connected with Homeroom Attendance, and message me the challenges you’re having and the questions you need answered. 

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The Teachers Ed Podcast ends today and it’s personal. I’m not dropping an announcement and walking away; I’m sitting with you for an honest thank you, a clear apology for the times I went quiet, and the real reason I can’t keep building this the old way. Educators do not have extra time, extra energy, or extra patience for things that don’t serve them, and I’ve felt the weight of that every time you pressed play after a long day.

I take it back to March 2020, when schools shut down overnight and teachers were handed laptops and told to figure out remote learning through a crisis nobody trained us for. That’s when I started recording at my kitchen table because we needed something real: not a district memo, not a lifeless professional development deck, but a place to talk about the pressure, the joy, the exhaustion, and the purpose of teaching. That mission stays, but the structure has to change if I’m going to serve you with consistency and care.

So here’s the shift: Teachers Ed is ending, but nothing disappears from your feed. We’re rebranding and evolving into Homeroom Attendance, launching late April from a brand new Homeroom Media studio. Expect better sound, a bigger table, more guest voices, more in-person conversations, YouTube video episodes, and an education news segment designed to inform you and help you do the job while feeling better doing it. The promise is simple: you are not the problem. This show exists to help you navigate the systems that are.

Stay subscribed, share this with a teacher or school leader who needs it, and when Homeroom Attendance launches, come listen and leave a review so more educators can find the room.

www.homeroomattendance.com

We challenge the idea that growth means titles and argue for growth as trust, feedback, and purpose. We show why recognition must highlight effort and progress, not just results, to build durable school culture that lifts students.

• defining growth as psychological before positional
• the three growth questions staff ask
• feedback that builds and trust that expands responsibility
• recognition as fuel and what to celebrate
• the danger of outcomes-only praise
• leader prompts to align strengths with stretch
• culture trickling down from staff to students
• simple checks to see if staff feel seen and growing

Email me to get the free Building Bridges culture survey.

www.homeroomattendance.com