Today’s episode is a short presentation by members of the Mt. Adams School District Dream Makers and the third installment of the Samantha Skunk series. 

The Dream Makers is a youth coalition that started in 2007 when a group of students, under the guidance of school counselors, saw an opportunity to make a difference in their community within the Yakama Reservation. 

Dream Makers provides a place for students in the Mt. Adams School District to discuss their problems concerning family, school, poverty, substance abuse, and suicide. 

In this episode, titled “The Story of Samantha Skunk and How She Loved Her Os”, we meet Samantha Skunk - a magenta skunk - and her friends Solomon the Parrot, Penny Penguin, and Pat Panda. 

In this story, Samantha has tried smoking and she can no longer run as fast or keep up with her friends. With the help of her friends, she learns how smoking anything can hurt her lungs and her ability to get Oxygen to her muscles. 

Core learning points of this presentation are: 

Os are tiny Oxygen molecules – which are in the air;

You need oxygen to exercise and play.

Smoking anything makes it hard to get your oxygen.

Smoking makes you slower because the oxygen can’t get to the muscles as well;

Smoking hurts your body and prevents you from running and playing as well.

Smoking may make it hard to keep up with your friends.

The Samantha Skunk Program uses Samantha Skunk and her friends to present a positive message on health. The stories are designed to be taught primarily at the Pre-k through 2nd grade level and address issues related to prescription and medicine safety, smoking, lung health, and exercise. 

Each story is normally taught by members of our Harrah Elementary Dream Makers in brightly colored, full-body costumes. Due to COVID-19 restrictions we have adapted this presentation as an audio performance.  

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode is a short presentation by members of the Mt. Adams School District Dream Makers. The Dream Makers is a youth coalition that started in 2007 when a group of students, under the guidance of school counselors, saw an opportunity to make a difference in their community within the Yakama Reservation. 

Dream Makers provides a place for students in the Mt. Adams School District to discuss their problems concerning family, school, poverty, substance abuse, and suicide. 

In this episode, titled “Medicine Safety”, we meet Samantha Skunk - a magenta skunk - and her friend Solomon the Parrot. 

In this story, Samantha has tried medicine that wasn’t hers and it has caused her to turn from her beautiful unique magenta color to a sickly green. Solomon leads Samantha to return to her original color by following his advice and agreeing to help others learn to be safe around medicine.

Core learning points of this presentation are: 

Someone else’s medicine might be bad for you,

Never give yourself medicine; and,

If you find medicine – tell an adult.

The Samantha Skunk Program uses Samantha Skunk and her friends to present a positive message on health. The stories are designed to be taught primarily at the Pre-k through 2nd grade level and address issues related to prescription and medicine safety, smoking, and lung health and exercise. 

Each story is normally taught by members of our Harrah Elementary Dream Makers in brightly colored, full-body costumes. Due to COVID-19 restrictions we have adapted this presentation as an audio presentation. 

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

In today’s episode, with the help of Ms. Jenks’ second grade class, we thought we’d try something new.

In the first half of this episode, Ms. Jenks’ students and I explore the question “What sounds or noises do you love?” and in the second half of the episode, the students and I explore the question, “What sounds or noises do you not love?” 

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode is a short presentation by members of the Mt. Adams School District Dream Makers. The Dream Makers is a youth coalition that started in 2007 when a group of students, under the guidance of school counselors, saw an opportunity to make a difference in their community within the Yakama Reservation. 

Dream Makers provides a place for students in the Mt. Adams School District to discuss their problems concerning family, school, poverty, substance abuse, and suicide. 

In this episode, titled “Smoking Stinks”, we will meet Samantha Skunk - a magenta skunk - and her friend Solomon the Parrot, as Samantha deals with the unfortunate side effects of smoking.

The Samantha Skunk Program uses Samantha Skunk and her friends to present a positive message on health. The stories are designed to be taught primarily at the Pre-k through 2nd grade level and address issues related to prescription and medicine safety, smoking, and lung health and exercise. 

Each story is normally taught by members of our Harrah Elementary Dream Makers in brightly colored, full-body costumes. Due to COVID-19 restrictions we have adapted this presentation as an audio presentation. 

Each episode is recorded and produced by yours truly. 

Our intro and outro music is Helix Nebula by Anamanaguchi

The music used during the performance was Testing by Ketsa

All audio content is used under the Creative Commons license 

The content of today’s performance was used with permission from Dover Youth to Youth - a youth empowerment program based out of Dover, New Hampshire taking on the threat of alcohol and drug abuse. 

A big shout out goes to Danielle Watkins and her Harrah Elementary Dream Makers crew for lending their theatrical talents to this episode.

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode is the second part of a two part series originally created with the purpose of being shared with our staff as part of a recent professional development session regarding Social and Emotional Learning and equity in education. 

The resulting conversations were too good not to share and reflected the type of content we hoped to capture when we set out to create this podcast. 

Our guest today is Francisco Xavier Tzintzun. He is a 2020 White Swan High School graduate. During his time at White Swan, he created the district’s first Gender Sexuality Alliance. The goals of the alliance is to: 

...provide an opportunity for participants to increase their breadth and depth of LGBTQ+ vocabulary. 

...increase participant exposure and knowledge of a variety of terminology. 

...to emphasize how powerful language is. 

...clear up any misconceptions or questions about terminology or common phrases.

Francisco is on track to graduate from the University of Washington in 2024 with a degree in Business with a focus on Entrepreneurship. Francisco is a talented photographer and filmmaker and is unapologetic about his inability to turn down a good tamale. 

This episode was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing guidelines were maintained as all participants joined from the safe confines of their homes, offices, classrooms, or cars via Zoom. We apologize ahead of time for any audio irregularities caused by bandwidth limitations. 

A big shout out goes to Cesar Hernandez, DeeDee Gasseling, and Hayley storm for making this interview a reality.

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode was originally created with the purpose of being shared with our staff as part of a recent professional development session regarding Social and Emotional Learning and equity in education. 

The resulting conversation was too good not to share and reflected the type of content we hoped to capture when we set out to create this podcast. 

Our guest today is Alex Craig. Alex is a self-described movie buff and a 2011 White Swan High School graduate. 

He graduated from Eastern Washington University in 2016 with a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communication Design with an emphasis on print design and web design. 

He is currently the program director for the First Nations MESA Program at Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington. 

Up First Nations MESA engages high school, middle school and elementary schools in the Yakima Valley in math and science-based activities to prepare underrepresented students for STEM based careers. 

This episode was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing guidelines were maintained as all participants joined from the safe confines of their homes, offices, classrooms, or cars via Zoom. We apologize ahead of time for any audio irregularities caused by bandwidth limitations. 

A big shout out goes to Cesar Hernandez, DeeDee Gasseling, and Hayley storm for making this interview happen. 

We do want to let you know this episode does contain a singular reference of a word used as a term of abuse and disparagement towards members of the LGBTQ+ community that may be disturbing or triggering to some. Although we do not condone the use of these terms, we felt it was appropriate in the context of this discussion. 

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode takes a look at our current effort to improve teaching and learning at Harrah Elementary. 

Through a series of state and federal accountability measures, schools in Washington State are identified for three tiers of support.  

Foundational (Tier 1)

Targeted (Tier 2) 

Comprehensive (Tier 3) 

Harrah Elementary has been identified as a Tier 3 or Comprehensive school. Schools at this level are in need of the most intensive supports, including coaching, priority access to professional development opportunities, and additional funding, among others.

Our guests today are the members of our Instructional Leadership Team. The ILT is composed of  teacher representatives from each grade level, Special Education teachers, support staff, specialists, and administrators. 

What you will hear is a candid and unguarded conversation between this team of professionals as they discuss their experiences - good and bad -  navigating the school improvement process. 

This episode was recorded at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing guidelines were maintained as all participants joined from the safe confines of their homes, offices, classrooms, or cars via Zoom. We apologize ahead of time for any audio irregularities caused by bandwidth limitations. 

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a podcast.

Today, we have the opportunity to meet another member of the Microsoft team, Ayuna Vogel. 

Ayuna is currently the technical product manager for Microsoft in Redmond, WA. 

She has worked as an IOS Engineer for LinkedIn, an IOS developer for Vimeo, been a translator for the United Nations, founded an independent educational project that welcomes volunteers from all over the world to teach at the rural schools in Russian Siberia, taught intensive Russian language course to college students in Malaysia, wrote for Look-At Media, and has traveled to Germany, Russia, Mongolia, China, Viet Nam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos

She is a co-founder and a developer of Neverlate, a self-improvement iOS app for people who are often late. 

She was selected one of 30, out of 620, applicants to become an iOS Fellow at the Access Code, an intensive, project based iOS Mobile App Development program in New York City. During her time at Access Code, she worked with leading iOS engineers from Google, Yahoo, Artsy, and Betaworks.

Ayuna is a co-organizer of the iOSoho meetup, the largest iOS meetup in NYC. She also founded the Women in iOS meetup. the only NYC meetup focused on highlighting the work female iOS developers do in the industry.

In her free time, she volunteers with Coder Dojo and helps kids learn the basics of HTML & CSS, and with Women Who Code where she helps beginner programmers and provides mentorship to women looking to enter the tech field.

Today’s episode was made possible by a partnership with the Mt. Adams High School STEM/CTE program and and the Microsoft TEALS program. The TEALS program is designed to help high schools build and grow sustainable computer science (CS) programs. They pair volunteer CS professionals across the US with classroom teachers looking to make a lasting impact in their students’ lives. TEALS volunteers help shape students’ futures and career opportunities by providing them with computational knowledge and skills they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

In this episode, we meet RJ Ray, a member of Microsoft’s Indigenous team. The Indigenous team seeks to honour, share and celebrate Indigenous cultures within Microsoft and across Mother Earth while shaping inclusive technology to empower future generations. 

RJ was born on Whidbey Island, Washington. From an early age, RJ was interested in electronics, from home and car stereos to video game consoles. RJ attended Portland State University and received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & B.S. in Physics.

RJ interned at Hewlett-Packard’s Imaging and Printing Division in Vancouver, WA. This internship led to a 10-year job designing hardware and traveling the world supporting the transitions of designs from prototype to production manufacturing. 

RJ left HP to join Microsoft where he worked on the original Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X and the yet to be released Xbox Series X|S 

Today’s episode was made possible by a partnership with the Mt. Adams High School STEM/CTE program and and the Microsoft TEALS program. The TEALS program is designed to help high schools build and grow sustainable computer science (CS) programs. They pair volunteer CS professionals across the US with classroom teachers looking to make a lasting impact in their students’ lives. TEALS volunteers help shape students’ futures and career opportunities by providing them with computational knowledge and skills they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

Welcome to If You Give a Principal a Podcast, a podcast production of the Harrah Elementary School Associated Student Body  and the Mt. Adams School District. I’m your host, and Principal, at Harrah Elementary, Rob McCracken. 

Today’s episode takes a little different approach.

Your host today is Dallas Wilson, the Computer Science teacher at Harrah Elementary. Her guest today is Gracie Ermi, a Software engineer from Seattle. 

In addition to being a knitting and outdoors enthusiast, Gracie is a software engineer that develops and builds machine learning technology that saves endangered wildlife and preserves ocean biodiversity. She works for Vulcan Inc. in Seattle, where they’ve developed artificial intelligence models that help scientists count and study elephants in their natural habitats. They have also developed a machine learning model for the Global FinPrint Project that helps identify oceanic species. Her work saves researchers’ time in interpreting and collecting data, so that they can work more efficiently! Gracie hopes that her work can inspire others, especially women and girls, to pursue computer science as a way to create change in their communities and in the world.

If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome to the show and if you’re a returning listener thanks for coming back. So, pull up a chair and see what happens when you give a principal a a podcast.