Transformative Principal

Ami Shah is the Co-Founder and CEO of Peekapak, an award-winning social-emotional learning platform that engages elementary and middle school students to learn skills like self-regulation, empathy and teamwork and reaches over 450,000 educators and students. Peekapak does this using stories, evidence-based lessons, and game-based learning. Behind-the-scenes, teachers, and administrators receive real-time reports showing a student’s progress and emotional state.  This empowers educators to be proactive in helping curb future mental health issues. Educators can share pre-written class updates, activities, and stories with families to reinforce learning at home in English and Spanish.

Peekapak is backed by; Silicon Valley-based accelerator, Imagine K12, the Edtech vertical of Y Combinator and the Unreasonable Institute.

Ami has earned an MBA from INSEAD, a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and is passionate about improving youth education, and has previously taught in K–4 classrooms and advised & volunteered at education-related non-profit organizations. Ami has been featured on Toronto Life, Flare, TechVibes, CBC and numerous other outlets.  Ami has also spoken on topics such as social-emotional learning, student well-being, and mental health and education technology. Ami has spoken at conferences such as SXSWedu, Future of Education Technology Conference, LearnLaunch, ASU GSV and many more.

• Overcoming the barriers
• Interviewed over 300 educators to find out if SEL is actually important.
• It’s really hard to fit this in if it’s not required.
• Weren’t taught this, how am I expected to teach this to my students
• Shouldn’t parents be teaching this?
• How to involve parents in SEL.
• Family Well-being nights
• How to be a transformative principal? Help people feel heard.

Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

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.

Ryan Steuer launched the first Project Based Learning middle school in the country and is the founder of Magnify Learning, a PBL professional development organization that equips teachers, instructional coaches, and principals across the country to engage learners, tackle boredom, and transform classrooms. Prior to founding Magnify Learning, Ryan was an engineer for a Fortune 50 company, 8th grade English teacher, and missionary. He shares his education and leadership insights on YouTube and on the PBL Simplified podcast.

• New Tech Network
• Taught traditionally, and didn’t see results that I wanted.
• Kids were showing up to school and doing what they were supposed to.
• The Punnett Square
• Work is so authentic and worthwhile that they want to learn it.
• Grammar lesson has life to it.
• It can take time to make the switch. Just starting to see the engagement.
• Upfront time to create this
• Lots more resources and structures.
• Define the problem, research solution, try it out, reflect
• Umbrella of authenticity
• Bring the Why Closer
• Cool stories of PBL
• Going across the street to a forest to see how much CO2 schools are sucking in.
• Who cares about that work?
• how to increase rigor.
• We get stuck on engagement and rigor.
• Opportunity to expand their view of the world.
• Liaison’s for PBL. Community partnerships.
• Do more than just be the audience.
• Bringing partners in to be part of the teaching force.
• How to be a transformative principal? Go and talk to learners.

Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

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.

Andrew Terry is in his 24th year in education. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Spanish degree and received his masters in Education in 1999. He began as a Spanish teacher  at the middle and high school levels before moving into administration in 2006. In 2016 he became the principal at Anchorage Public School in the Louisville Kentucky area and has been there for 7 years.

• Observe dismissal procedures
• Small little area, no busses, many kids can walk to school
• Kids were going everywhere
• Teachers loved it immediately because they felt comfortable right away.
• Communication is simpler
• Go through a process and involve a committee and parents
• Pikmykid made it simple and easy for everyone.
• Kiddeo - keeping track of kids when there are emergencies, including communicating police and firefighters.
• Any time you have change, having time to adapt to it is important.
• Independent city school district
• HQIR - High Quality Instructional Resources
• Why such a focus now?
• Evidence-based data to support the kinds of things
• Combining state standards and evidence-based.
• textbooks first, secondary HQIR - internet resources,
• Go through a process with adopting HQIRs. Involve parents in that decision-making process.
• Philosophy in our reading and writing.
• Teachers became invested
• What Works Clearinghouse

Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

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.

Josh DeSmyter is the proud principal of Shrevewood Elementary in Falls Church, Virginia. He has worked in education for 15 years in Detroit, Washington D.C. and now in Virginia. Josh is currently in his eighth year as an administrator in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). He leads with the three core beliefs of Family, Excellence and Relationships at the forefront of his work. Josh has taken Shrevewood ES school from a 54% engaged school community to a 94% engaged school community in just three short years by instilling a Culture of Joy. He is currently a finalist for FCPS’s Outstanding New Principal of the year award. - culture of Joy. - handcuffs are coming off when you get the principal job! - positivity, modeling, consistency - Being a really good listener. - Knowing who they are - individual conversations, one-on-one - Influence others around you. - How to handle it when someone comes to you with something that doesn’t really matter. - We listen, and we go back to leadership teams. - Taking Action Book - Episode 100 of Transformative Principal - Professional Development team. - Parliament Team - wise owls - Collaborative Learning Teams - putting leadership in the hands of the teachers - Staff Engagement Survey - How to be a transformative principal? Be a learner every day. Find something you can learn from others in your building. Reeks excellence - can see that kids, family, and staff are happy. Process of the journey: What have you learned through other schools and leadership? Managing the message: importance of clarity, key stakeholders to support the message Leadership Teams: tell me about the team leaders that support culture? How have you developed their leadership capacity? Hiring: how have you hired teachers to support the positive culture? Community (students, staff, families): Consistency with the modeling Building aesthetics: How does an environment support culture? Relationships with students, staff, and families Visibility in classrooms, hallways, meetings, and community events Celebrations: with staff, school,  and community Being reflective and learning from mistakes Honesty and vulnerability The power of collaboration Sunday Scaries - blech 60% there to everyone being happy. “How was your break?” You can tell a lot by their response to that question. Culture - CulturedKids has helped bring

What do you do to help your people feel good about coming? You can’t control their feelings, but what can do you to motivate and inspire?

Improve your school dismissal and safety response with Pikmykid, the Schools Safety and Dismissal Platform. Help move your dismissal from chaos to calm, get kids to their families faster and safer.  Visit pikmykid.com/be to learn more

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

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.

This week is our first “coaching” call with Principal Eric Makelky. We jump on a zoom call, and hit record. You get to hear it.

In this episode, Eric shares how, a month into school, he’s getting pulled in all directions and can’t get focused on doing what needs to be done! Have you ever felt that way? I know I have!

He’s showing up late to meetings, getting too many todos, and just feels like he’s constantly drinking from a firehose!

We talk about three distinct strategies in this episode:

Strategy 1: add 15–30 minutes to however long you think each meeting will be.

Instead of scheduling an hour meeting, give yourself extra time. This intentionally reduces the amount of meetings you can have, prevents you from getting overbooked, and makes things better.

Strategy 2: You seem upset, what’s the best way to contact you when he gets back at X?

When people are upset, their needs can seem more urgent, so make sure they are heard, and that often softens the anxious feelings.

Strategy 3: intentional Drive-bys - Schedule time to go be visible.

Schedule time to go get the things people want to drop on you. They’re going to drop them on you anyway, might as well make it happen on your timetable as much as possible.

What do you think of these three strategies? Any good? Did we miss something? We want your feedback!

Also, Eric is looking for guests to interview on these three topics: - Retaining great teachers - Adapting to the culture of a new school

• Ideal Week -
• Being new, running into being a fire extinguisher instead of a leader.
• Start with Office team - 2 principals, 2 secretaries
• Shared calendars
• Managing your own time?
• Informal meetings - often showing up late.
• Why are you showing up late?
• Drive bys are causing me to be late
• Start and end on time is a norm.
• Strategy: add 15–30 minutes to however long you think each meeting will be.
• Fridays:
  • Red - no staff no students
  • Blue - staff 8–12, kids maybe or required 9–11
  • Black - 8–4 full day staff inservice
• Lots of questions from lots of PLCs
• Being pulled in a lot of directions for each Friday
• New expectation - This is what you tell someone if they stop by…
• Previous expectation - Someone asks for the principal, we get the principal.
• Give a respectful answer
• Why wouldn’t your staff do it as you are asking? Angry, appease because they are angry. People get defensive when others are upset.
• Strategy: You seem upset, what’s the best way to contact you when he gets back at X?
• Proactive things to do to prevent things from popping up
  • Quiet time outside of school hours to get other things done.
  • Regular emails - Friday memo to make sure people know
  • All the reasons why staff come down to office “Master doc”
  • Schedule time to pick up drive bys.
• Strategy: intentional Drive-bys - Schedule time to go be visible.
• We haven’t talked about me - why not?
• What was most valuable? Morning drive by lap.

How long will this last?

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.

Amelia Leighton Gamel shares her take on the real causes of educators burning out and leaving the classroom, as well as what solutions leaders need to be focused on to retain staff.  Classroom management bootcamps, teacher mentorship programs, parent involvement, and administrator support are all part of her equation to help teachers be successful and stay in the profession.  Happy teachers, happy principals!

Best way for listeners to reach out to Amelia: 

1. text/call 517.392.1207
2. direct email to my personal account - [email protected]
3. website- equitableEDU.org

About Amelia Gamel Amelia Leighton Gamel is a national speaker and consultant with comprehensive experience in the field of education having served as a public school teacher, published academic author, college professor and nationally recognized innovator of student success initiatives.

She is the recipient of the J. Ward Preston Outstanding Faculty Award and has devoted her career to encouraging student success and assisting educators in effectively engaging with students.

Her success is a result of her compassionate methods, interpersonal abilities, insights into the human experience and a thorough understanding of the experiences of historically excluded groups.

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.

Dr. Marcus Belin serves as the Principal of Huntley High School and President of the Illinois Principals Association. Dr. Belin, native of Chicago, Illinois. attended Bradley University, where he received his bachelor’s in elementary education (‘10) followed by a master’s in education administration (‘14). He completed his doctorate at National Louis University in July 2020.

• Why it’s important for kids to feel like they belong.
• Everyone who intercepts can pour into them
• If you signed up to work in a school and you think your title matters, you’re in the wrong place.
• How do you make the interactions worthwhile?
• It’s like watering plants.
• A teacher that has literally saved kids lives
• Classroom is a netflix genre.
• What a relationship can be, if trust is the foundation.
• They’ll tell you those things that you want to hear, but also those things you don’t want to hear.
• A pound of flesh in discipline
• restorative practices - it’s not being soft.
• It was about punishment, then it was about discipline, now it is about learning.
• Remember what you told me.
• Restorative is not just about
• Classroom as a netflix genre.
• 720 episodes in a high school career.
• Kids come together for a time, help it be meaningful.
• How to be a transformative principal? to actively listen and hear the stories and voices that exist within your building.

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.

James Moffett is a principal in Kansas and he loves kids.

• Pretty empathetic
• Relationships
• Teri Barilla
• Question things I did as an educator
• If you were doing these things before the pandemic, you were as ready as you could be for the pandemic
• If you wouldn’t accept it from your supervisor, don’t dish it out to your kids.
• Accountability, structure, consequences, - all structured in love.
• It’s such a mindset shift for educators because it’s not how school was for us.
• Model it, live it, let them experience it.
• How do we help schools see that kids are respected on day 1.
• Teachers are structured beings
• Each vs. every.
• The Rabbit Effect
• How to be a transformative principal? Rest and recover and put more focus on the relationships you have in your building.

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.

In this episode, there is a bit of passing of the baton, as we introduce the next Transformative Principal, Eric Makelky. Eric will be recording the majority of the podcast episodes you hear over the next few months as we try a little experiment. We don’t know how it will work out, but we are hopeful.

Each month, Jethro will have a coaching session with Eric that you will get to listen to see what a coaching session is really like, and to see how someone grows over the course of a school year.

We’ll try this out and see how it goes. There are other episodes that Jethro has already recorded that will be coming out throughout the year as well, so you’ll still hear from Jethro.

If you’d like to connect with Eric, he has an email at erik at transformativeprincipal.com or you can follow him on Twitter at emakelky

Here are some things Eric is looking for support in this year: - Matching expectations with culture - Onboarding and supporting teachers new to the profession and new to the principal. - Building trust with families.

Eric has a couple big goals for this year, too: - Measurable improvement on district goals. - Building trust - Defining the culture they want.

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.

Nadine Levitt Twitter is a Swiss-born German, Kiwi, US transplant, and founder of the music technology company, Wurrly, LLC. She began her career as a lawyer but after 6 years of practice, she began to pursue a career in music as a professional opera singer and songwriter. She has performed extensively all over the United States and the world, sharing the stage with David Foster, Andrea Boccelli, Kiri Te Kanawa, Roger Daltry, Christina Perri, and Steven Tyler to name a few. Passionate about music in schools she sits on the national board of Little Kids Rock, and in 2016 led the development of the music education platform WURRLYedu, which empowers student voices and makes it easy to bring a fun and effective music education to schools. Nadine is also an author of children’s books, including the My Mama Says book series, which teaches kids to identify, acknowledge and direct their emotions.

• PDReimagined.com
• Mary Ellen Imodino-Yang TEDX Talk
• Value
• Care package.
• Each month has a theme.
• Work in groups to come up with strategies to come up in daily life.
• Do things in 2–3 minutes or less.
• How do you get up when you don’t know where the ground is?
• The power of curiosity.
• It’s not an end destination, it’s a journey.
• Music to move you.
• The power of music in SEL situations.
• We shouldn’t teach music to be a musician.
• Physiological - music is one of the only things that can really get into our brains.
• Music can interrupt other emotional cycles.
• People are more inclined to buy expensive items when the store is playing classical music.
• How to rekindle their passion?
• Time scarcity - brought on by an emotional response that you’re feeling overwhelm.
• Interrupt overwhelm - do something different
• Free to teachers, cost to districts.
• The more you apply these skills the easier it is to avoid and manage overwhelm.
• Emotions are just messages
• We are engineered to see patterns. Thoughts are just patterns.
• Often our thoughts are not based in patterns.
• When you become aware you’re telling yourself a story, just tell yourself.
• Respond rather than react.
• Communication cards
• Need to speak freely: challenged and rewarded.
• When we share, we don’t feel shame.
• The need for people to take responsibility for their part.
• Leadership - formal and informal leadership opportunities.
• Leadership is having control over the outcome.
• Controlling your own identity.
• SEL - Teach emotions in an isolated way
• How you can use for deeper learning

Lead a school everyone can be proud of.

Being a principal is tough work. You’re pulled in all kinds of directions. You never have the time to do the work that really matters. Join me as I help school leaders find the time to do the work they became principals to do.

I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

Learn more at https://transformativeprincipal.com

Just Right Reader Decodables are a great way to help your students learn how to read, with research-based strategies that are proven to be effective. Each grade level has over 100 books. Send books home in packs of ten, with video lessons accessible via QR codes on each book, with lessons in Spanish and English. Learn more at https://justrightreader.com

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.