The foundation to a student's success is their well-being. Sometimes that means taking a step back and focusing on the individual student's needs before focusing on their academic success.

Heather Williams is a Baylor doctoral student and won the National Outstanding Assistant Principal award in 2021. Today, she joins host Jon Eckert and shares stories about how she has created a culture of community within her elementary school and how focusing on each student's well-being first sets the foundation to foster academic success. 

To learn more about how to see humans first in a difficult teaching position, pre-order Jon's book, Just teaching: Feedback, engagement, and well-being for each student.

The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work.

Be encouraged.

Timestamps:

[3:20] - We're introduced to Baylor doctoral student Heather Williams.

[5:00] - Heather shares a story about a time when she saw one of her students as a human before worrying about his academic outcomes.

[7:40] - It's important to connect students and families to community resources.

[10:37] - When a student is acting out, it's important to find out why.

[14:00] - How can we meet each individual student's needs?

[16:30] - Heather is catalyzing her students' growth, not trying to save them from their traumatic pasts.

[18:40] - As an administrator, building relationships with the community is important to be able to provide resources to students and staff.

[20:05] - Building relationships and community within your school helps administrators begin to see humans before outcomes.

Books:

Just teaching: Feedback, engagement, and well-being for each student by Jon Eckert

Connect on Social Media:

Baylor MA in School Leadership

Baylor Doctorate in Education

Jon Eckert: @eckertjon

Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl