Transformative Principal

About This Episode

To spot harm on a student's device, a safety tool has to look at what the student does on it. That tension is at the center of this conversation with Bella Davis, founder and CEO of Monarch AI Technologies. Her privacy-first platform flags early signs of bullying, grooming, self-harm, threats of violence, and mental health concerns on school devices. She started building it after watching Mark Zuckerberg testify before Congress while parents sat behind him holding photos of their children.

Jethro presses Bella on where safety ends and surveillance begins. She explains how Monarch keeps students anonymous, who sees an alert, and what happens next, and she shares a principal's story about a bullied student whose warning signs were sitting on a school Chromebook. Jethro talks about the years he spent as a principal chasing down reports, and admits he doesn't know the right answer. If you're weighing a monitoring tool for your school, this conversation gives you the questions to ask first.

What You’ll Learn

• Why keyword alerts bury principals in reports, and how Monarch tries to flag only serious patterns
• How Monarch keeps students anonymous: the company sees a device number, and only school leaders can unmask a student
• What happens after a flag, from an early warning to a threat to a student's life
• Why false positives decide whether your staff keep trusting an alert system
• Where safety ends and surveillance begins, and why Jethro still has concerns
• One thing you can do this week: encourage families to cut back on devices at home

Chapters

• 0:00 — Welcome to Transformative Principal
• 0:34 — Meet Bella Davis and Monarch AI
• 1:44 — Why Bella built a safety tool for schools
• 3:18 — How Monarch handles student privacy
• 6:38 — The workload problem with school alert systems
• 9:21 — Where monitoring falls short
• 12:21 — Why schools keep reacting to new technology
• 14:37 — Safety or surveillance?
• 17:14 — Why principals can't check every device
• 20:34 — What happens when something is flagged
• 21:42 — What data Monarch keeps
• 23:04 — False positives and trust
• 24:24 — How to connect with Monarch and what it costs
• 25:28 — One thing principals can do this week

Resources

• Monarch AI — Bella's student safety platform. The pilot is free right now; Bella expects it to cost about $10 per device once it scales.
• Bella Davis on LinkedIn — Connect with Bella, or email [email protected] to ask about a demo or a pilot.
• Heat Initiative — The child-protection group Bella mentions building a partnership with.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

A teacher improvement plan often becomes a second job for the principal, who has to follow up on everything. Jethro plays a clip from the My First Million podcast with executive coach Joe Hudson, then shows how to put responsibility for improvement back on the person who needs to improve.

Jethro describes a teacher on an improvement plan who believed nothing was wrong. Halfway through, he made her responsible for showing how her lesson plans met the standards and for inviting him into her classroom, while he kept his own drop-ins. The pressure moved to where the work was.

What you'll learn

• Ask the person to bring you a plan, as Hudson does with 'sales are off, I need a plan,' instead of handing over your own list of fixes.
• Make the teacher show the evidence, such as how lesson plans align to standards, and invite you in when they can demonstrate it.
• Ask open-ended questions and find out whether the person sees a problem before you have the hard conversation.
• Keep your own drop-ins so you still see what happens when you are not invited.
• Notice which classroom-level decisions you are carrying, because you do not have the capacity to make them all.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why improvement plans can become the principal's problem
• 2:01 Joe Hudson on putting the responsibility for change where it belongs
• 6:49 Translating the idea into school leadership
• 10:40 Listening before deciding what the problem is
• 13:20 Why principals cannot carry every classroom-level task
• 15:10 A challenge for school leaders

Questions this episode answers

How do you put a teacher on an improvement plan without doing all the work yourself?
Jethro says he moved the responsibility to the teacher. She had to show how her lesson plans did what they had discussed and invite him in when she could demonstrate it, while he kept making his own drop-ins. That put the pressure on her, not him.

What should a principal do before a hard conversation with a struggling teacher?
Hudson says to ask open-ended questions, make the person feel heard and learn their context first. Jethro adds that you should find out whether the teacher thinks anything is wrong and whether the issue is worth tackling at all.

How can you tell whether an organization has a healthy culture?
Hudson uses two metrics when he assesses a company: how quickly people have the hard conversation, and how quickly they resolve it. He says a yelling leader and a conflict-avoidant leader both end up with hard conversations that never happen.

Links and resources

• My First Million on Overcast
• Transformative Principal website

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Jethro Jones explains Project Paideia, an effort by a group of dads to give teens ages 13 to 18 a better first look at AI: build something that solves a problem instead of consuming AI slop. He separates AI in education that expands learning from AI that shortcuts the thinking.

The first Buildathon runs Saturday, November 21, at Utah Valley University, in two sessions: 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. There are no grades, rankings or competition. Parents come along but must keep their hands off the keyboard, so kids can try, fail and fix it themselves.

What you'll learn

• Judge student AI use with one test: does it expand the learning or shortcut it?
• Let students choose projects that matter to them, because an adult cannot build meaning for a kid.
• Keep your hands off the keyboard when kids build, and let them fail, struggle and fix it.
• Give students a real problem to solve for someone else, not just content to consume.
• Drop grades and rankings on open-ended builds so kids work for themselves.

Chapters

• Why teens should build with AI, not consume it
• What happens at the November 21 build-a-thon
• AI slop is real, but not all AI is slop
• Why AI-assisted building is here to stay
• What paideia means: educating the whole child
• Expanding learning versus shortcutting it
• How parents help and how to register

Questions this episode answers

Is using AI cheating in school?
Jones says using AI to circumvent or shortcut the learning is cheating, but using it to accelerate or expand learning is not, because it helps you do what you are trying to do. He thinks schools that call all AI use cheating are wrong.

How should parents help kids with an AI project?
Jones says parents should come along and support, but never put their hands on the keyboard. Kids should struggle, fail and fix it, because the learning is in trying, failing and trying again. The project has to matter to the kid, not the parent.

What does paideia mean in education?
Jones says the Greek word originally meant raising a child to be a citizen. He translates it as raising the whole child with the family involved, and he says education is a personal endeavor that you can't fully outsource to a school system.

Links and resources

• Project Paideia and the build-a-thon

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Christopher Grode, Ph.D., retired after 19 years as an Illinois superintendent and wrote The Leader Within on how school leaders grow. He and host Mike Caldwell agree that principal burnout lives in days spent reacting and managing instead of leading, and that every leader needs an honest outside voice, whether a coach, a mentor or a trusted peer.

Grode walks through his routines: a monthly 90-for-90 review of the next three months, including family time, a weekly review on Sunday, and a five-minute morning journal where he names three priorities. He rereads entries from one and five years ago to put old crises in perspective.

What you'll learn

• Track how much of your day goes to reacting and managing, then decide where you want to make room for leading.
• Spend 90 minutes once a month reviewing the next 90 days, and put family dinners and personal time on the same page.
• Review last week every Sunday to see what got in the way before you plan the next one.
• Journal for five minutes each morning, name three priorities, and note the next day whether you finished them.
• Find someone you can tell "I don't get this" without worrying about your board or staff hearing it.

Chapters

• 0:00 Lightning round: books, hydras and culture
• 3:49 19 years as an Illinois superintendent
• 14:34 Reacting versus leading: where burnout lives
• 19:58 The monthly 90 for 90 planning system
• 25:36 A five-minute journal and rereading old entries
• 29:54 The leadership gateway from attitudes to purpose
• 37:56 Separating your identity from your job
• 43:08 Find someone to talk to

Questions this episode answers

Why do school leaders burn out?
Grode agrees with host Mike Caldwell that burnout lives in constant reacting and managing. He says it creates cognitive dissonance: you want to be a leader, but you spend your days as a manager, and what you do stops matching what you think.

What is a 90 for 90 and how do you use it?
Grode spends 90 minutes each month listing everything for the next 90 days, from work projects to children, house and time for himself. He plans each week from it, reviews the prior week on Sunday, and checks the same months from last year.

Why should a principal or superintendent have a coach?
Grode says leaders keep their cards close because a board that sees you struggling may hire someone else. He says you need someone outside who asks honest questions, and if you lack a coach, you need a suitable helper of some form.

About Christopher Grode

Retired Illinois superintendent of 19 years, former teacher and principal, and author of The Leader Within.

Links and resources

• Christopher Grode on LinkedIn
• The Leader Within at Bloomsbury

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks, tells Jethro Jones how organized recess builds belonging and emotional resilience, and why it helps student attendance. Playworks is a national nonprofit that has spent 30 years training school staff and coaching on the playground so every child can join a game.

Cushing cites an outside study that found 25 minutes per day, per class recovered when recess conflicts stop following kids into the classroom. She also explains junior coaches, the 15 to 20 fourth and fifth graders per school who lead games for younger students, and the funding sources schools use, including Title I and Title IVA.

What you'll learn

• Set up known games in marked areas with simple rules so every student knows where to join in.
• Choose games where students get out fast and get back in fast, like four square or Sharks and Minnows.
• Play alongside students yourself; Cushing says adults playing builds relationships and shows kids that play matters.
• Ask your fourth and fifth grade teachers which students need a leadership opportunity, then give them junior coach roles leading games for younger kids.
• Check Title I, Title IVA and professional development budgets before ruling out paid recess coaching.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Transformative Principal
• 0:59 What Playworks changes on the playground
• 2:45 Games that keep every student included
• 5:30 Bringing play into classrooms
• 7:01 Why play builds emotional resilience
• 10:16 Adults, attendance, and belonging
• 13:30 Junior coaches and student leadership
• 17:25 How schools pay for Playworks
• 19:37 Why every age needs meaningful play
• 20:40 Transforming a playground community
• 23:10 Recess, school pride, and belonging
• 25:40 A practical invitation to go play

Questions this episode answers

How does play help kids build emotional resilience?
Cushing says play is how kids learn to resolve disagreements, be on a team and get through disappointment, because the stakes are low. Losing a game costs only a little pride. She links regular play to lower bullying in school.

Can better recess improve school attendance?
Cushing says Playworks Title I schools have a lower proportion of chronic absenteeism than non-Playworks schools, because kids feel they belong. She shares a principal's story of students asking at dismissal whether three-line basketball would be played at recess the next day.

How do schools pay for a recess program like Playworks?
Cushing says schools and districts pay for part of it and Playworks raises philanthropic dollars for the rest. Schools use Title I for engagement and climate, Title IVA for safe and healthy students, PTA fundraising, and professional development money for staff training.

About Elizabeth Cushing

CEO of Playworks, a national nonprofit that partners with schools and districts to make recess a daily source of belonging and connection.

Links and resources

• Playworks website
• Playworks podcast and attendance reset

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

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.

Suzanne "Suzie" Myers, Jocelyn Washburn and Bonnie Palysak of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning present iSTAR, a web-based tool that turns the Strategic Instruction Model's sentence and paragraph strategies into teacher-led writing instruction with auto-scoring and adaptive practice. They recorded this session live at ISTE 2026.

Washburn shows how a ninth grader she taught, called Mario here, went from simple sentences to semicolons and full paragraphs. Palysak explains the practice loop: a student who misses mastery gets a model video, and the teacher gets an alert after a second miss. The team is looking for three pilot schools in grades six through nine.

What you'll learn

• Keep writing teacher-led, and use software only for practice, reteaching and progress tracking, as the iSTAR team insists.
• Teach grammar tied to students' own writing instead of skipping it for fear of teaching it in isolation.
• Use a student interest survey to give practice sentences and prompts students care about.
• Set up a flag so a teacher sees any student who misses mastery twice and can pull a small group.
• Ask whether your school fits the pilot: iSTAR needs three schools in grades six through nine next year.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Kansas built the iSTAR writing tool
• 3:06 Core principles of the Strategic Instruction Model
• 14:42 Mario's growth from jumbled to sophisticated writing
• 28:43 Building with developers who aren't English teachers
• 35:57 Adaptive practice, auto-scoring and instant feedback
• 45:47 Audience designs family and administrator dashboards
• 48:04 How to join the pilot study

Questions this episode answers

What is iSTAR and how does it help teach writing?
Washburn and Myers describe iSTAR as a web-based version of the Strategic Instruction Model writing strategies. The teacher still teaches, while students practice sentence and paragraph writing, get auto-scored feedback and model videos, and progress through adaptive levels.

Why don't teachers teach writing more explicitly?
The presenters say many teachers were never explicitly taught to write or to teach writing, and grading takes too long. Myers recalls teachers avoiding grammar entirely because they were told not to teach it in isolation.

How can a school take part in the iSTAR pilot?
The team is entering year three of a five-year project and wants three schools for a pilot study, in grades six through nine. Interested educators can scan the QR code shown in the session or email the team.

About Suzanne "Suzie" Myers, Jocelyn Washburn and Bonnie Palysak

Myers and Washburn co-direct the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning; Palysak is their colleague on the iSTAR project.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Nanette Merrill, executive director of the Idaho Charter School Association, has visited close to 60 schools in her first year on the job. She tells Mike Caldwell what builds a strong school culture: a leader who knows the mission, can say it out loud, and sticks to it.

Merrill's test for a good leader came from parents: "I don't know what you do in this school, but they're as happy when I drop them off as when I pick them up." She also describes the coaching program she is starting for Idaho charter leaders, with six coaches and five artifacts each school builds.

What you'll learn

• Practice your mission until you can say it in 90 seconds to a parent or legislator who has never heard it.
• Get out of your office and into classrooms to check the joy factor, as Merrill urges leaders to do.
• Treat your school as a school of choice, whatever its type, and be ready to say why families should pick it.
• Practice difficult conversations at low stakes, including with an AI sparring partner, before the high-pressure ones arrive.
• Find a coach or mentor, whether you are aspiring, brand new or near the end of your career.

Chapters

• 0:00 From stay-at-home mom to executive director
• 5:33 Rapid fire: books, advice and AI
• 15:17 First signs of a strong school culture
• 17:44 Is mission focus only for charter schools
• 26:26 What 60 school visits taught her
• 31:02 What school leaders need most right now
• 36:09 Idaho's new coaching program for charter leaders

Questions this episode answers

What are the signs of a great school when you walk in?
Merrill says the strongest schools have strong leaders with a clear mission. The leaders can state it, know their students and staff by name, and the culture shows in the walls and every classroom. Students high-fiving the principal is a good sign.

Do traditional public schools need a mission like charter schools have?
Merrill sees it as both/and. Traditional schools have broader missions, and charters have niche ones. Host Mike Caldwell argues every school competes for families, so every leader should believe in the mission and sell it.

What do school leaders need most right now?
Merrill hears four needs: leadership development and coaching, board governance training for new board members, finance help when funding is thin, and training in difficult conversations. Single-site charter leaders especially want thought partners.

About Nanette Merrill

Executive director of the Idaho Charter School Association, a former principal and the 2013 Oregon Teacher of the Year.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Kip Glazer, principal of Mountain View High School in California, joins Jethro Jones live at ISTE 2026 to talk about principal stress and the many groups a school leader has to answer to. She wrote Ready to Lead with AI: A Practical Guide for School Leaders, with a checklist at the end of each chapter.

Glazer asks one question when a parent, student or colleague pushes back: what problem are we trying to solve? Some people lack information, and she explains the state rules and board policies. Others are just upset, and she has learned to sit and listen. She also posts her school's good news on social media.

What you'll learn

• Ask 'What problem are we trying to solve?' when someone disagrees, to separate people who lack information from people who are simply upset.
• Explain state regulations and board policies to parents who want to know why the answer is yes or no.
• Post positive stories about your school yourself, because if you do not say your teachers are amazing, no one will.
• Read How People Learn, which the National Academies put out free online as a PDF and Glazer calls transformational for educators.
• Reach out to someone you trust, even a student, and ask how they are doing to build your empathy.

Chapters

• 0:00 Kip Glazer and her book Ready to Lead with AI
• 2:05 The stress of answering to many stakeholders
• 5:06 What to do when people disagree with your approach
• 6:20 Why principals should share their school's good stories
• 9:15 Why How People Learn still matters
• 13:12 Ask what problem you are trying to solve
• 14:41 Adults coming back from the pandemic broken
• 17:04 One thing to do this week

Questions this episode answers

How should a principal handle a parent who disagrees with a school decision?
Glazer asks what problem they are trying to solve. If the parent lacks information, she explains state regulations and board policies, and says parents appreciate knowing why the answer is yes or no. If the parent is simply angry, she has learned to sit and listen.

Why should principals share positive stories about their school?
Glazer says media favors exceptions to the rule, while kids showing up and loving learning is not scandalous enough to be news. She became active on social media to celebrate her school because if she stays quiet about how amazing her teachers and students are, no one else will.

Why is school leadership so emotionally demanding after the pandemic?
Glazer says the intensity comes from parents and teachers feeling they are failing kids. She adds that people talk about kids coming back broken but pay less attention to adults, and leaders are asked to sit through that discomfort without much support.

About Kip Glazer

Kip Glazer is principal of Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California, and author of Ready to Lead with AI: A Practical Guide for School Leaders.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Kevin Donohue, a Catholic school leader turned consultant at FACTS Education Solutions, explains how AI can take work off the plate of professional learning communities. Recorded at ISTE 2026, he shows how to use AI for scheduling, agendas, norm-setting and missing expertise, and how to keep student data out of the tools.

Donohue leads a session for about 150 teachers and leaders and names five places to plug in AI. His privacy fix is simple: with 24 students in a class, label them A through X so the AI never sees a name, birth date or address, yet can still say which student needs support.

What you'll learn

• Give AI your teachers' schedules and energy levels in the prompt and ask when your PLC should meet.
• Use AI to write agendas and questions, and to moderate norm-setting so no one teacher steers the conversation.
• Bring AI in as the missing expert on topics like English language learning, ADHD or dyslexia, with clear guidelines and guardrails.
• Strip student names, birth dates and addresses from spreadsheets and meeting notes, and use letters A through X instead.
• Look at student data yourself first, then ask AI to check your own bias in grading and data discussions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Kevin Donohue's path through Catholic school leadership
• 2:06 Where AI fits in a PLC
• 3:47 AI as moderator and missing expert
• 6:34 Making AI another voice at the PLC table
• 8:00 Protecting student data when you use AI
• 10:19 Grading versus feedback: where humans stay in
• 15:13 Leveled readers and differentiation with AI
• 16:51 One thing principals should do this week

Questions this episode answers

How can AI support a professional learning community?
Donohue sees five places to plug in AI. It can find a meeting time, build agendas and questions, moderate norm-setting, supply missing expertise such as English language learning or dyslexia, and act as another voice at the table. He says it should add to the team, not replace it.

How do you protect student privacy when using AI with student data?
Donohue says once you give data to an AI, the company has it. He tells teachers to remove names, birth dates and addresses from spreadsheets, agendas and AI meeting notes, and to label students A through X so the AI can still point out who needs support.

Should AI grade student work or give feedback?
Donohue thinks humans should look at student work first, because that builds relationship and shows gaps, and AI can then check teacher bias. Jethro Jones says AI can grade right-or-wrong work, but feedback needs nuance and should come from the teacher.

About Kevin Donohue

Kevin Donohue is a former Catholic school teacher and principal in Los Angeles and Boston who now consults for FACTS Education Solutions.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

Thanks to our Sponsor Broadcast Made Easy who help you start a news broadcast at your school by having everything you need in one easy-to-download place. Check it out today and get your kids creating. 

We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Evin Schwartz, co-founder of Thinkering, meets Jethro Jones at ISTE/ASCD 2026 to talk about teacher-led projects and why teacher voice matters. Thinkering runs 10-week cohorts for teachers and, as a nonprofit, raises money to build the project each teacher designs around humanizing education.

Schwartz shares two projects. One teacher planned a district-wide slam poetry event and said she probably needed more than $80. Another teacher started a school garden in a food desert, with plans to take it from courtyard to cafeteria to farmer's market. Jones adds that a coffee shop could host the poetry slam.

What you'll learn

• Describe your project idea and its value clearly, because Jones says money can appear pretty easily once you can articulate what you are doing.
• Look to local businesses for small needs, such as a coffee shop that would host a poetry slam and welcome 100 customers for the day.
• Look for a real community need behind a project, as the garden teacher did when she saw her neighborhood was a food desert.
• Build a cohort of 10 to 12 teachers who share projects, so one teacher's idea sparks ideas in the rest.
• Start a podcast to clarify your thinking, since saying your beliefs out loud makes you ask whether you really hold them.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Thinkering and BE Podcast Network fit together
• 2:52 Why teachers should start a podcast
• 5:17 Inside Thinkering's 10-week teacher cohort
• 9:07 Funding teacher projects like an $80 poetry slam
• 12:30 A school garden built for a food desert
• 15:18 Teacher retention and the sub shortage
• 18:40 How to get connected with Thinkering

Questions this episode answers

How can teachers get funding for a school project?
Schwartz says Thinkering, a nonprofit, raises capital for the projects teachers build, with an average cost of $4,000 to $5,000. Jones adds that money can appear once you state the value of your idea, and a local business like a coffee shop can help with a small one.

What is Thinkering's cohort program for teachers?
Schwartz describes a 10-week virtual program where 10 to 12 educators work together with a mentor for about two hours a week. By the end, each teacher builds a project on humanizing education in their own community, and about nine out of ten times Thinkering helps make it happen.

Why should an educator start a podcast?
Jones says a podcast lets you reach people asynchronously without permission and clarifies your own thinking, because saying what you believe publicly makes you test it. He says one principal told him he had listened since 2016, when deciding whether to become a principal.

About Evin Schwartz

Evin Schwartz is co-founder of Thinkering, a nonprofit that runs 10-week cohort programs for teachers.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

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