During this conversation, Jenn and I talk about her summary of the book The Mindful School Leader: Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School, a book by Valerie Brown and Kirsten Olson. We both make a case for the need for school administrators to develop their own mindfulness practices. Science, stories, and strategies. It's all here. And if you don't think you have time for mindfulness practices, then you need them more than anyone.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I'm a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn's work. She's offered to send listeners of this episode a free summary of The Mindful School Leader if you send her an email at [email protected]. It's definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visit www.patreon.com/leadership.

In this episode veteran superintendent Dan White and I have a wide-ranging conversation about context-based leadership. Much of what we talk about is drawn from our many years of working with school leaders on the state, regional, and national levels. This is the first in a series of episodes with Dan related to the nuts and bolts of leadership in general and school leadership specifically based on our popular workshop Liquid Gold for Leaders: 30 Rules No One Has the Guts to Tell You. Enjoy this conversation with Dan White.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visit www.patreon.com/leadership.

Jenn David-Lang makes her fifth appearance on the show. She still holds the record. And there's a reason I keep talking to Jenn - I always learn so much. Jenn produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book. Jenn has over 30,000 subscribers and has an incredible perspective on all things education. We talk about David Allen's updated edition of his classic Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. We get into Allen's organizational system to help "people with too much to do and too little time," Jenn's words.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I'm a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn's work. She's offered to send listeners of this episode a free summaries of Getting Things Done if you send her an email at [email protected]. It's definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visit www.patreon.com/leadership.

Jenn David-Lang makes her fourth appearance on the show. She now holds the record. And there's a reason I keep talking to Jenn - I always learn so much. Jenn produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book. Jenn has over 30,000 subscribers and has an incredible perspective on all things education. We talk about Paul Bambrick-Santoyo's new book Get Better Faster: A 90-Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers. We get into Paul's model for coaching and how he recommends setting up an entire system. The part about real-time, in-the-moment feedback is really cool.

You can reach Jenn at her website for The Main Idea (www.themainidea.net). I'm a happy subscriber of The Main Idea and a big fan of Jenn's work. She's offered to send listeners of the show some free book summaries if you send her an email at [email protected]. It's definitely worth the time. Enjoy this interview with Jenn David-Lang.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visit www.patreon.com/leadership.

My favorite Professional Office Organizer, Kacy Paide, and I go a second round on getting and staying organized. Kacy shares many strategies and tips to help us all get our acts together. From the perils of too many systems to the power of structures, we get into lots of areas of organization and productivity. Kacy and I talked about the following resources during the interview:

• Evernote software to organize and retrieve your stuff electronically: www.evernote.com
• Podcast Recommendations:
  • Debbie Millman's Design Matters
  • Asian Efficiency
  • Mike Vardy's The Productivityist
  • The Leverage Podcast by Ari Meisel

You can learn more about Kacy and her work at www.theinspiredoffice.com. I can't say enough about her work and how much she has helped me become more organized, efficient, and effective at work and at home. Enjoy this follow up interview with Kacy Paide.

Send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. If you would like to support the show, visit www.patreon.com/leadership.

Parenting and educating teenagers can be challenging. Teenage girls can take that challenge to a whole new level. In this episode Jenn David-Lang and her Husband Tim David-Lang and I discuss Lisa Damour's 2016 book Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood. Not many books have had the impact on my thinking, my work, and my parenting that this one has had. Jenn, Tim, and I have a lively conversation about what we learned from the book and our own experiences putting the information into practice at work and at home. You'll remember Jenn from two previous podcast appearances. She produces The Main Idea (http://www.themainidea.net/), a monthly summary of a current education book and has a ton of experience in education. Tim David-Lang is a guidance counselor for the New York City Department of Education and has worked with teenagers for many years. And like me, Jenn and Tim are the parents of teenage girls. Enjoy this conversation about a great book. Jenn has graciously agreed to share discussion questions and a summary of helpful language from the book. You can email her directly at [email protected], and she'll send them to you.

Support The School Leadership Show by becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/leadership. Help mae the show even better!

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

If you'd like help improving your productivity and leadership skills, please contact me at [email protected] or on Twitter @doughtymike.

In this episode I interview Brad and Genevieve Ermeling, two experienced educators who have collaborated on the bestselling book Teaching Better: Igniting and Sustaining Instructional Improvement. I loved talking with this husband and wife team about everything from what works in changing practice to mistakes and pitfalls administrators can avoid. The depth of their collective experience in teaching, learning, research, and school improvement is impressive. Information about Brad and Genevieve and their book can be found at their website www.teachingbetter.com (And why didn't I register that domain name?). You can also follow them on Twitter @BradErmeling and @Graff_Ermeling. I hope you enjoy this interview with Brad and Genevieve Ermeling.

Brad and Genevieve will be hosting a free webinar on June 6, featuring more information on many of the topics discussed in this interview. You can learn more and register at www.Corwin.com. Choose online learning from the menu and click on webinars.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

In this episode I interview Dr. Maurice Elias, an accomplished author and professor of clinical psychology and clinical health at Rutgers University. He is also the director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab, and Academic Director of The Collaborative, Rutgers' Center for Community-Based Research and Service. Maurice and I talk about the importance of social emotional learning and character development, particularly when it comes to adolescents. We get into emotional intelligence, misconceptions about SEL, what’s most important for school leaders to know, trauma-informed care, fostering a supportive climate, and mistakes to avoid. Maurice mentions several helpful links during the interview including the following:

• The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (http://www.casel.org/)
• http://character.org/
• The National School Climate Center (http://www.schoolclimate.org/)

He also blogs at edutopia.org: http://www.edutopia.org/user/67. And I encourage you to check out his book The Other Side of the Report Card: Assessing Students' Social, Emotional, and Character Development. I found it on Amazon.com. You can learn more about Maurice and his work at http://www.secdlab.org/.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

Dr. Rebecca Stobaugh is an experienced teacher and principal who is now an author, consultant, and college professor. Early in her career as a middle school principal, Beckie saw the need to improve the critical thinking skills of her students. We talk about what she learned during that process including the five misconceptions about critical thinking. While we focus primarily on supporting teachers as they support students developing critical thinking skills, the conversation transcends the specific content and hits many important leadership concepts - the importance of mentors, achieving critical mass for change, focusing initiatives. This was a great conversation, and you can learn more about Beckie and her work at the Mentoring Minds website: https://www.mentoringminds.com/meet-us. You can also follow Beckie on Twitter @RebeccaStobaugh.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.

Mike Vardy is the host of the wildly popular Productivityist Podcast (http://productivityist.com/). He is also a writer, speaker, and productivity strategist. He’s also great to talk to. Mike and I have a lively discussion about all things productivity. What’s cool is that we start with the big picture: task centric vs. time centric thinking, mode-based theming for your days, and Mike’s own NOW Year Method. Then we move into specific skill and techniques including approaches to scheduling and setting up anchors. Mike generously provided a link for School Leadership Show listeners to download his NOW Year Method Basic Workflow (https://productivityist.com/doughty).

You can learn more about Mike and his work you can visit the Productivityist website or Mike’s personal site at http://mikevardy.com/. And make sure you subscribe to The Productivityist Podcast in iTunes and other podcast outlets.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Consider rating the podcast in itunes and leaving a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues.