No One Really Cares About Your Title: I met with Dr. Darrin Peppard for an inspiring conversation! He has a podcast (Leaning into Learning), a newsletter, and a book (The Road to Awesome). Check them all out on his website: https://roadtoawesome.net/. Dr. Peppard has been a state principal of the year and a national educator of the year! I guarantee you will learn something valuable from his work. We discussed many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

Culture is What You Allow: I met with Lacey Griffiths, an associate principal in Longview. She was the 2019 AWSP Assistant Principal of the Year for Washington. She is a well-known and well-respected AP across our state. I have been fortunate to know her for five years, and we finally sat down for an in-depth leadership conversation. What a great time! We discussed many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

Just Breathe: I met with Jennie Ehleringer, a former special education teacher who now had her own private practice. Check out her website: https://www.jennie-ehleringer.com/ to find out about the great services she can provide. We had a great, and wide ranging conversation, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

Bring Education Back to Life: I met with Luc Goudreault, the CEO of Vireo. They are doing great work around gardening in classrooms, but they do so much more. Check out the website to see what they can offer to your school.https://www.vireoeducation.com/en/home. Luc and I met in the summer of 2023 and kept in touch. We finally met over Zoom to talk leadership; it was a great conversation! We discussed many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

Never Wish Anyone a Mistake Free Career: I met with Lisa Parry, a principal from South Dakota. Lisa is a fantastic person, an engaging speaker, and has really interesting thoughts on education. You can find out more about her on her website: https://principalparry.com/. We talked about many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

Edutopia published my latest article this week about being a Time-Starved School Leader! 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/time-management-school-leaders

I am grateful to Edutopia and also to Tom Berger and Brittany Collins for their help with the article. 

I’ve been mentioning this idea for a while now, and this article only scratches the surface. I’ve submitted some conference proposals, so NAESP and others, I would love to expand this into a breakout session in the summer conference! 

A Time-Starved Leader is based on two main ideas:

Getting a Better Return on Your Time

Addressing the Idea of Balance in Your Life 

Check out the article for more details on each.

School Leadership Matters!:I met with Jack Arend, Deputy Director at AWSP. Every conversation with Jack is incredible! I’ve been fortunate enough to attend many of his trainings, and this time I got to ask my specific leadership questions. Be sure to check out the great work that is going on at AWSP! We talked about many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

It’s Never About You: Joseph McQueen is a 6-12 principal and author of Calming Young Minds https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW2HRF61/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_7ZY7CBFE29ZGDJBT5XV7 We had a great conversation and I encourage you to check out his book! We talked about many things, but I always narrow it down to three key takeaways. 

This week I am highlighting the top 7 blog posts/podcast episodes from 2023! These posts either had the most number of people read the article, react to the post, or listen to the episode. Given all of the awesome people I met with, I didn’t want to limit it to the top 2 or 3. Today’s post will be my top takeaways from looking at all 7 of these interviews together. Now, most people do things like this at the end of the year, but I was taking some time off and I am pairing it with some announcements. Let’s start with announcements before moving on to the takeaways! 

Now, turning back to the top posts of 2023. After going through all of the information, I couldn’t help but group everything into parts of the Leadership FRAMEwork. The Leadership FRAMEwork was a large focal point of mine during 2023, and I introduced it in depth on the SEEing to Lead Podcast. F - Find Opportunities. R - Relationships. A - Align your values, goals, and passions. M - Master Your Craft. E - Execute and Take Action. Looking ahead to 2024, my main takeaways from today also connect to The Time Starved School Leader (stay tuned as I will release more information on that coming soon!). The 7 top posts were (in order of when I posted them).

Jayne Ellsperman - Every Child Should Attend a High Performing School Episode #35