The Authority Podcast — Expert Insights and Fresh Ideas for Education Leaders

Welcome to Best of The Authority! Thanks to wonderful listeners like you, this Be Podcast Network original series is growing and growing and still going strong. In case you haven’t been with us since the beginning, the “Best Of” is designed to catch you up on some of the best and most popular episodes you may have missed. We’ll republish a previous episode of the show on Thursdays this fall for those who haven’t heard it before — or those who want to revisit.

This episode features veteran school administrator, educational consultant, and executive coach Pete Hall. Ross and Pete discussed Pete's latest book, Always Strive to Be a Better You.

Discussion points:

• Why Pete took on this ambitious project
• How to understand the potential as an asymptote
• The benefit of building his lessons around normal people
• The range of goals people pursue to live a better life
• The four tenets of the book: Know Thyself, Work for Love, Let Your Light Shine, and Rule the Day
• Key learnings about becoming a better you
• Why clarity precedes competence

Learn more about Pete’s work and the book Always Strive to Be a Better You at https://strivess.com. You can also find the book on  Amazon.

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About the guest

Veteran school administrator and educational consultant Pete Hall channels his experiences as a school principal, life coach, and small-business owner into manageable lessons for continuous growth, personal improvement, and positive mindset. Follow Pete on Twitter @educationhall

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC, a consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Kurtis and Lorna Hewson are award-winning educators with experience in the classroom, school and district leadership, and beyond. 

They are co-founders of Jigsaw Learning and co-authors of Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners (Corwin).

In this episode, Ross, Kurtis, and Lorna discuss:

• The origin story of Collaborative Response 
• How a Collaborative Response approach compares to Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
• Why the book presents a schoolwide approach to addressing individual student needs 
• What makes a good meeting?
• How Collaborative Response supports teacher collective efficacy
• Every child deserves a team — driving message of the book 

Find Collaborative Response at https://bit.ly/45AWGA2 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guests

Kurtis Hewson has been an award-winning teacher, vice-principal, and principal, as well as taught at the post-secondary level. 

Lorna Hewson is also an award-winning educator with leadership experience at the classroom, school, district and provincial levels. 

Kurtis and Lorna are the co-founders of Jigsaw Learning, co-authors of the text Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners (Corwin, 2022), and currently work with districts and schools nationally and internationally establishing Collaborative Response frameworks and interacting with thousands of educators annually.

Connect with them on social media:

• @hewsonk27 and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtishewson/ 
• @Lornahewson and https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorna-hewson-713a59104/

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Scott Miller has been the CEO and executive leader of several global beverage companies, including Tampico Beverages and Essentia Water. He is currently co-founder and CEO of YESLY Water. 

Scott’s first book is The Summit Mindset, co-authored with New York Times bestselling author James C. Moore. 

In this episode, Ross and Scott talk about:

• The objectives of the Summit Mindset
• Winning the battle of You Versus You 
• “Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it.” 
• Identifying an organizational North Star
• How a leader defines and lives an organization’s strategic pillars and values
• What leaders can do to create a culture of learning that embraces change 
• The business value of building an organization that prioritizes happiness for all its people

Find The Summit Mindset at https://summitmindsetthebook.com. 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with authors from education, business, leadership and beyond. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Scott Miller has been the CEO and executive leader of several global beverage companies. He began his career on the warehouse floor at Pepsi and learned the industry from the frontline to the boardroom. His reputation as an executive was built around a people first approach to conducting business and dealing with customers and vendors. Miller’s reputation has been one of innovation and market expansion through corporate social responsibility and a culture of community involvement for his companies. His most recent accomplishment was leading the growth and acquisition of Essentia, a national bottled water brand, to global food and beverage leader Nestlé.

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn. 

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Welcome to Best of The Authority! Thanks to wonderful listeners like you, this Be Podcast Network original series is growing and growing and still going strong. In case you haven’t been with us since the beginning, the “Best Of” is designed to catch you up on some of the best and most popular episodes you may have missed. We’ll republish a previous episode of the show each Thursday this fall for those who haven’t heard it before — or those who want to revisit.

In this episode, Ross spoke with Sarah Strong, a teacher at San Diego’s High Tech High, and Gigi Butterfield, her former student. Sarah and Gigi co-authored the book Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It. 

You'll hear about:

• Sarah and Gigi’s four-year student-teacher relationship and how they came to collaborate on the book
• What the “Dear Math” letters are and how Sarah was inspired to assign them
• The math stories and challenges that come up most frequently from students
• How to get over being “fraudulently fond” of math
• Designing a community where math is a liberator rather than a gatekeeper
• Making math learning collaborative while getting over the competitive instinct

Dear Math is published by Times 10 Publications. Find it HERE.

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guests

Sarah Strong has taught math to grades 6 through 12 at High Tech High in San Diego, and she also works for the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, teaching Math Methods and Advanced Math Pedagogy courses and supporting the new math teachers in the organization. She has led workshops on Project Based Learning in mathematics, student-centered assessment, and alternative grading systems. 

Gigi Butterfield is currently a screenwriting major at Loyola Marymount University and a former student of the Gary and Jeri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High in San Diego, California. Gigi has attended project based learning schools since the age of five and, even in college, is passionate about how PBL plays an integral role in revitalizing heavily antiquated math pedagogies. Gigi was captain of the basketball team, head of student ambassadors, leader of Model United Nations, a member of student senate, and a Jeopardy fanatic hoping to go into comedy writing.
 

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC, a consulting firm that helps organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano 

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Don St. John, PhD, a psychotherapist, has been immersed in the somatic, psychological, relational, and spiritual worlds for more than fifty years.

His latest book is called Healing the Wounds of Childhood and Culture: An Adventure of a Lifetime.

In this episode, Ross and Don discuss:

●      Using the word “wounds” instead of “traumas”

●      “This book is dedicated to all of you who intuitively know that ‘being normal’ is so far from who you can truly be.” 

●      Healing from health, relationship, or well-being issues. 

●      We are the authors of our own lives

●      Emotional intimacy and the consequences of living without it

●      Somatic vs. Physical

●      Other book recommendations:

○      Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

○      The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté and Daniel Maté

Find Healing the Wounds of Childhood and Culture on Don’s website www.pathsofconnection.com 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Don St. John, PhD, a psychotherapist, has been immersed in the somatic, psychological, relational, and spiritual worlds for more than fifty years. His academic roots are in traditional clinical psychology, but early in his career, he realized from his own experience that one’s body, relational intelligence, and spirituality must be included to achieve a thriving sense of wholeness.

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn 

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Welcome to Best of The Authority! Thanks to wonderful listeners like you, this Be Podcast Network original series is growing and growing and still going strong. In case you haven’t been with us since the beginning, the “Best Of” is designed to catch you up on some of our best and most popular episodes you may have missed. We’ll republish a previous episode of the show each Thursday this fall for those who haven’t heard it before — or those who want to revisit.

For this episode, Ross chatted with Jeffrey Benson, author of the ASCD best-seller Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL. 

Jeffrey and Ross discuss:

• Jeffrey’s extensive work with students who suffered the trauma of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 
• “Are you willing to bet that your lesson plan will work – and work for every student?”
• How “home-field advantage” can inform perspectives on the classroom
• Jeffrey’s personal definition of SEL 
• The process of co-creating social-emotional learning goals with students
• “Differentiated autonomy” in the classroom
• How an emphasis on SEL leads to improved formative assessment
• The critical importance of an intentional closure routine for lessons
• Reconnecting teachers with their “best moments of teaching [that] have always been informed by the social and emotional learning of [their] students”
• And more!

Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL is published by ASCD. Buy it HERE.

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators, now featuring 30+ shows.

About the guest

Jeffrey Benson has more than 40 years of experience as a teacher, mentor, and school administrator, with a focus on supporting schools that can work for all students. His books include Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL, Hanging In: Strategies for Working with the Students Who Challenge Us Most, and 10 Steps for Managing Change in Schools: How do we take initiatives from goals to actions? His website is JeffreyBenson.org. Connect on Twitter @jeffreybenson61 

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Rachel is a master coach and founder of MettaWorks. She had a distinguished career in HR and has since coached hundreds of business leaders at companies like GitHub and Okta, helping them become high-functioning and self-optimized.

Her book is Who You Are is How You Lead.

In this episode, Ross and Rachel (not that Ross and Rachel) discuss:

• What gets you into a “leadership position” isn’t the same as what you need to do once you’re in that position. How does it change?
• Habitual and emotional responses vs. thinking 
• How Rachel’s coaching questions differ from the norm
• What makes a leader coachable?
• “Work is where your demons go to hide.” 
• Is it possible to teach interpersonal skills?
• Importance of lived experience

Find Who You Are is How You Lead on Amazon. 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with authors from education, business, leadership and beyond. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Rachel Rider founded MettaWorks in 2015 after a distinguished career in HR, receiving executive coaching certification from Columbia University, and extensive training in meditation, Somatic Experiencing, and Polarity Therapy. Starting as HR Business Partner responsible for developing and coaching leaders and teams at Bloomberg, she went on to specialize in leadership coaching at AppNexus (since acquired by AT&T) and Digital Ocean, the third-largest hosting company in the world. Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn. 

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn.

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Welcome to Best of The Authority! Thanks to wonderful listeners like you, this Be Podcast Network original series is growing and growing and still going strong. In case you haven’t been with us since the beginning, the “Best Of” is designed to catch you up on some of our best and most popular episodes you may have missed. We’ll republish a previous episode of the show each Thursday this fall for those who haven’t heard it before — or those who want to revisit.

In this episode, Ross was joined by Dr. Peter DeWitt to discuss Peter’s latest book, De-Implementation: Creating the Space to Focus on What Works.

They talked about:

• The concept of de-implementation and how Peter began to study it
• How to understand what’s working and what’s not
• The benefits of focusing on “fewer things, greater depth”
• What surveys show educators are interested in de-implementing
• How de-implementation or “strategic abandonment” can create more time for effective instruction to take place
• “In fact, it is not possible to create tomorrow unless one first sloughs off yesterday” - Peter Drucker

De-Implementation is published by Corwin. Find it HERE.

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with authors from education, business, leadership and beyond. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Peter M. DeWitt, EdD is a former K–5 teacher (eleven years) and princi­pal (eight years). He is a school leader­ship coach who runs competency-based workshops and provides keynotes nationally and internationally, focus­ing on school leadership (collaborative cultures and instructional leadership), as well as fostering inclusive school climates. Peter writes the “Finding Common Ground” column for Education Week and co-created Education Week’s “A Seat at the Table” series, where he moderates con­versations with experts around the topics of race, gender, sexual orienta­tion, research, trauma, and many other educational topics. Learn more at https://petermdewitt.com or connect on Twitter @PeterMDeWitt 

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn.

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Landon Mascareñaz and Doannie Tran are co-founders of The Open System Institute and authors of The Open System: Redesigning Education and Reigniting Democracy (Harvard Education Press).

In this episode, Ross, Landon and Doannie discuss:

• The common trait in failing schools: families are cut off from the decision-making process and administrators are divorced from the realities of their students’ lives.
• Defining an “open system”
• Open systems are “adaptable and responsive to the needs of students, families, and communities.”
• Importance of strengthening community relationships
• The process of co-creating agreements
• Abundance Partnerships
• Are there appropriate guardrails around open systems? 
• The relevance of open systems to a strong democracy
• Colorado’s Homegrown Talent Initiative

The Open System: Redesigning Education and Reigniting Democracy is published by Harvard Education Press. Find it here: https://www.theopensystem.org 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Landon Mascareñaz is an educator, writer, and democracy builder who lives in Denver, Colorado. He is the co-founder of The Open Systems Institute, the chair of the Colorado Community College & Occupational Education Board, and works with organizations around the country to support community aspirations.

Doannie Tran is a partner at the Center for Innovation in Education. He formerly served as an assistant superintendent for the Academics and Professional Learning Department in Boston Public Schools and the Innovation Programs Division in Fulton County Schools.

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn 

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

Priten Shah is the CEO of Pedagogy. Cloud, which provides innovative technology solutions to help educators navigate global challenges in a rapidly evolving world, as well as founder of the civics education nonprofit United 4 Social Change. 

His book is AI and The Future of Education: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, published by Jossey-Bass (Wiley).

In this episode, Ross and Priten discuss:

• The cloud of rumors, confusion, and fear surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence
• Defining AI and machine learning
• Why it’s important to get not only to accepting, but embrace these technologies
• Ethical concerns to consider
• What should schools do around teacher training? 
• How AI can either solve or widen the achievement gap depending on how schools proceed
• What can teachers automate and make more efficient?
• The potential of AI that most excites Priten

Find AI and The Future of Education: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence at https://prtn.me/book 

Subscribe to The Authority to get more deep-dive interviews with education authors. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Visit https://bepodcast.network to learn more about the Be Podcast Network for educators.

About today’s guest

Priten Shah, M. ED, and B.A, Harvard, is the CEO of Pedagogy. Cloud provides innovative technology solutions to help educators navigate global challenges in a rapidly evolving world. He is the author of Wiley’s Jossey-Bass publication, “AI & The Future of Education: Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.“

Priten is also the founder of United 4 Social Change, a civics education nonprofit that focuses on helping teachers integrate interdisciplinary education into their curricula through animated videos, lesson plans, and innovative classroom activities.

Connect at instagram.com/pedagogycloud and linkedin.com/in/pritenhshah

About the host

Ross Romano is a co-founder of the Be Podcast Network and CEO of September Strategies LLC. He is a leadership development and performance coach for professionals in a range of industries and consults with organizations and high-performing leaders in the K-12 education industry to help communicate their vision and make strategic decisions that lead to long-term success. Connect on Twitter @RossBRomano and LinkedIn

Learn more about today's sponsor, Playworks:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation.