August 09, 2015

How do You Contribute to Education with Dr. Robert Dillon Transformative Principal 084

32 minutes

Bob Dillon Twitter Web Site is the Director of Technology and Innovation for Afton School District. He has been a middle school principal for 15 years in three different places and currently helps many other principals improve their practices.

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1st order change - simple, fixit types of problems, typically exciting that help people feel good about things, but don’t really move the needle in improving a school.

2nd order change - moving from management to leadership. Changes that will last after you are gone. People start to feel like they are part of a special organization. Sometimes it is messy, people don’t know how things will play out.

Doug Timm Principal in Delaware.

Need to focus on what matters in the long term.

1st order change - painting over water stain on a house you just bought.

2nd order change - taking off the drywall and cleaning (or replacing) studs and insulation.

Playing the short and the long game.

Higher-level conversations

Difficulty of dealing with minor problems.

If you are working hard daily, people will be more likely to give you a break.

Build up key communicators in the building.

Trust your teachers to say things in a way that you know will be beneficial.

People need to hear the same in multiple ways.

How to help teachers be comfortable taking risks.

Need to scaffold to the higher level of risk-taking.

Part 2

Director of Innovation. My role is to keep the system lubricated.

Keep technology systems moving at a fast rate. Jump technology ahead.

Looking for other places that slow growth and inhibit innovation.

Empower the teachers that are moving forward and working hard.

Most of the rest of my career I will have jobs that don’t exist yet.

Important to change mental model of where and how kids learn.

Our teachers get better when they tell our story.

If it is not your strength to share, allow it to be the power of your students and allow them to share.

Give kids a voice.

Authentic audience raises the quality of work.

Book Ethic of Excellence

How are you contributing to Education beyond this school?

It is about being humble, and knowing you don’t have all the answers. If I want other people to help me, I need to help other people.

What prevents teachers from contributing?

Powerful connecting to other schools. Bettendorf High School and their partner school learning from each other. Doc Seacrist St. Joseph in Missouri(LINK)

Why Jimmy Casas continues to be a principal.

Leadership

K–1–2 Makerspace about the philosophy of allowing kids to grow creativity and problem solving.

Create, make, design for empowerment, engagement.

Helping kids become solution makers.

How you can be a transformative principal: Go read something that doesn’t have to do with education with your principal hat on. Lateral capacity building. Brendan Hufford

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