Transformative Principal

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In this episode, Tracey Ezard interviews me about How to be a Transformative Principal and I also weave in interviews with Rima Meechan, the principal of that Kindergarten Peptoc school and Jessica Martin, the creator of that hotline ((707) 998–8410). To donate to that hotline, go to wesideusd.org - Why it’s important to be a transformative principal? - open ourselves up to the collective wisdom. - ask, don’t tell. - conversation around what defines us as a special school. - empathy - do I see empathetic acts as compassion or make me weak - Shutting them down - humble swagger

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.

Matt started his career as a 5th-grade teacher in the Spring-Ford Area School District. He earned a Masters degree and Principal’s certificate. He then spent 3 years as an assistant principal at Schuylkill Valley Elementary School in Leesport, Pennsylvania. From there he moved to his current position as principal of Rupert Elementary School in the Pottstown School District. He is in his 16th year as principal of Rupert, and absolutely loves it. He recently completed his course work for his letter of eligibility to be a superintendent.  For the last ten years he has been the district’s safety coordinator and certified CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention trainer. He has served numerous roles and on a variety of committees during his time in the Pottstown School District.

• Hearing the stories of other distinguished principals.
• Book Series podcast
• The adventures of David and Donald: Basketball Bewilderment.
• Each book focuses on social emotional skills.
• Being assertive without being aggressive.
• Teacher at his building is illustrator.
• What did you win the award for? Relationships
• Be a servant to build relationships.
• Give help and step up when needed.
• Understanding different cultures - generational poverty
• Respect other’s opinions and culture, even if we don’t understand it.
• Hire the right people who are opening
• How to be a transformative principal? Get into the classroom and be there every day!

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.

Not only is Dr. Joaquina Kankam an expert in youth protection compliance and risk management, but her practical experience has made her a leader in understanding the needs of youth serving organizations. In addition to being an educator (K–12 & Higher Education), Joaquina has presented at several national association conferences and participated as a panelist in several discussions regarding youth.

The Importance of Senior Leadership’s Involvement in Youth Protection Decision-Making.

• CAPTA (Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 1974)
• Children youth-service organizations.
• Background checks and mandatory reporting training
• Sexual abuse or other harm?
• Audit systems to ensure organizations are helpful in preventing harm to kids.
• We do only what we know how to do.
• Our procedures are good enough, we’ve talked with the attorneys and they approved them.
• Protecting image of university
• Loudon County, VA school board member resigns
• We don’t differentiate in adult professional development
• Start with a good understanding of what the law is.
• How to teach schools to do this work correctly.
• It’s too much to put on my plate.
• how to be a transformative principal? If sometihng bothers you, don’t let it go. Fix it!

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.

• Lead the Way EDU Podcast
• Staying strong in the storms
• Take care of yourself
• Take lunch every day!
• Use your vacation days!
• Don’t take it personally.
• Taking time during the storms to protect ourselves from the storms.
• The work is always going to be there. You’re never going to finish it.
• It sticks to us.
• The most important time of your day as a principal is dinner time with your family
• Focus on the goal: Keep kids in school.
• Press.transformativeprincipal.com
• This is temporary.
• How to be a Transformative principal? Take some time this week to fill up your tank!

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.

Attachment Trauma Network’s Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference was this week in Houston. - I presented with Tessa - 2 sessions Social Media Exacerbates Trauma and Suicide Prevention - Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential model - The joy of being with people - If you’re interested in the trauma stuff I offer, go to jethrojones.com/trauma

Book Launch: - describe it - - prizes - giving away books (success mindsets, Impact Players, My book) - Jethrojones.com/how2be - 10 seats in the mastermind to current administrators - Free book study for everyone. - A PDF of the book we write - Goodies for those who preorder

Hiring: - While in Houston, I visited the Fay School. - From the web site: Your child and your child’s future represent the most powerful gift for The Fay School and the future of the world. The Fay School leverages a future-focused curriculum integrated into leadership development through emotional intelligence to transform your child’s potential into a powerful toolkit and reliable compass that launches them into middle school and beyond. - Once you and your child step onto our outdoor-oriented campus, we believe you will experience what separates us from the other independent schools in Houston. Most importantly, you will learn how The Fay School has begun taking steps to intentionally transform the landscape of early childhood and elementary education through innovation. All of what we do and aspire to become places your child first. - I’ll release episode 473 with Melissa Sherman, the principal there in a couple weeks, on March 20th. - This month, we are talking about Hiring, and, since Hiring is the most important job you will do, I’d like to read an excerpt from my book about Hiring.

Reports of teacher shortages have been a constant backdrop in the United States for several years now. Transformative principals typically don’t have a problem finding new staff for all the reasons we’ve spoken about in this book. If you have a Vital Vision, communicate effectively, build positive relationships, and support your teachers, you’ll find that there is an endless list of people who want to be part of your school. It’s a natural byproduct of the things we have been talking about. You can have that, too.

Hiring the best people for your school is vital. Todd Whitaker says that hiring may be the most important thing a principal does: “You can get a teacher more on board in 5 minutes in your interview than 5 years in your building.” It behooves us as principals to ask the best questions we can to find out if someone will be a good fit for our school. As Bill Daggett says, “Culture trumps strategy. Every. Single. Time.” When interviewing, you must find the best person you can. It is even acceptable to wait as long as you need to until you find that person. Sometimes, a person serving as a long term sub is better than a poor teacher. If you have ever hired the wrong person for a job, you know that is true. Just preparing to hire teachers is a multi-step process.

Hiring is a year-round job, one that takes on different aspects at different times in the year.

Hiring can be risky. Or rather, I should say, hiring is RISCHI (pronounced risky).

Recruit Introduce Hire Screen Cultural fit Hire Introduce ![[How2be Figure 4.excalidraw]]![[how2be figure 5.excalidraw]]

I like to see this as a three-circle Venn diagram because there is overlap in the areas. We’ll dive into each of these areas shortly. It is also effective to think of this as a never-ending circle! Where you are regularly doing each of these activities. With teacher shortages that have plagued our industry for years being exacerbated by the pandemic, more than ever we need to take a serious step in hiring people effectively. A recent study by the Learning Policy Institute called “A Coming Crisis in Teaching: Teaching Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S.,” shows that in 2021 the demand for new teachers would be 300,000 and the amount of teachers available would be less than 200,000. That’s a projected shortage of 100,000 teachers! And that was in 2016, before the pandemic was even a thing. In 2021, we’ve had governments requesting retired teachers come back to take the load off of other teachers. Districts are offering signing bonuses and trying to attract teachers. While those may be nice, that’s nothing compared to you implementing what you read in this book! Being a transformative principal is how we solve our teacher shortage. And I’m going to show you how to do recruit and hire amazing teachers. I’ve worked hard to include actionable advice for you here to make sure you can attract the top talent to your school and that they will want to stay there forever! But remember, they will come for the job but they will stay for the Vital Vision. Before we go any further, imagine for a moment what hiring process could look like in five years. In five years, you have very low turnover. It happens, but people want to stay at your school because it is such a great place. When there is turnover, and opportunities for new staff to come on board, you first make sure all your current people are in the correct places. Then, you get to take your pick from the people who you already know will be great at your school and invite them to join you. You have the perfect placement for them, and they already have friends at your school so you know they will be a good fit. Just imagine how powerful that would be for everyone. It’s possible, and that’s how transformative principals hire new staff.

• Why Fay School?

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staf...

Miriam Campbell (Skills for Connection) is a SLP, MSW and teacher. She developed a SEL RTI model that schools and therapists are loving! It is adaptable, supports teachers and is the only effective generalization model. School leaders are revolutionizing the way they support SEL development with this tool. Check out her website https://skillsforconnection.com/.

• SEL RTI model
• Generalization - can’t teach kids generalized skills unless you have a system in place.
• Reinforce skills that kids are learning in therapy
• Bonus: it helps teachers as well
• Teachers have to be the owners of it.
• When behaviors get in the way of our goals, they are problems.
• How to develop kids into the adults we want them to be.
• Starting basic, with something like self-awareness.
• “I see I think I feel I choose” as a construct to help kids self-regulate
• Tier 2 and Tier 3 responses are more repetition and deeper conversations
• “My Teacher needs to understand me.” is not a helpful self-talk strategy, but our teachers do need to understand our kids.
• How to be a transformative principal? Behaviors are learning opportunities.

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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. Lorea Martínez is the award-winning Founder of HEART in Mind Consulting, a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate social emotional learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. She is also the author of the book, Teaching with the HEART in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning.

• false dichotomy between academics and sel.
• We cannot have thoughts without feelings
• Designing with emotions in mind
• Teach skills explicitly
• There was no place to teach the skills.
• Lens of parents not doing enough.
• How to deal with parents at-home culture.
• Lead with understanding.
• How to tell a parent you’re calling child protective services.
• How to be a transformative principal? Pay attention to your own social emotional capacity. Emotions are data and information explaining what’s happening inside.

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.

Tracey Ezard Twitter is known for her ‘Ferocious Warmth’ leadership approach and professional collaborative culture work via The Buzz Academy. Tracey’s collaborative framework The Buzz which creates an environment of learning, trust and innovation is used in education and organisational systems throughout Australia.  Her Buzz Diagnostic has been used by over 5000 schools and has had over 9500 educators participate. Tracey has run leadership programs for education and system leaders for over 15 years in all education sectors in Australia and in New Zealand.   She also works with education federations in the UK. The Buzz Academy is an online portal that assists school leaders skill up their learning leaders in building authentic professional learning culture.

Tracey is an author of three books.  In 2021 Tracey launched her third book ‘Ferocious Warmth - School Leaders Who Inspire and Transform’.

Her previous books are ‘Glue -The Stuff that Binds Us Together to do Extraordinary Work’ for leaders across all sectors who want to lift beyond convention to create high performing teams and ‘The Buzz – Creating a Thriving and Collaborative Staff Learning Culture’, designed for education leaders to support schools to bring about transformation in education.

While her experience is varied, her last education position was as Assistant Principal in the Australian school system.

Tracey has been running her own speaking and consulting practice for sixteen years. She has two teenage children, two dogs and when not at work loves spending time exploring the world. She is Board Chair of the social enterprise The Corner Store Network.

• Great leaders draw from the head and the heart
• Hard edged - results driven
• Soft edge - people driven
• Each person has a story
• How we get people on board is heart work
• Psychological safety to help people learn
• If we are not expansive, it’s very hard to get others to be expansive
• Expansive, Connection, courage, authenticity,
• Authenticity is bringing our best self
• Measuring too much of the wrong stuff
• What would you do in your school if you were bolder?
• If we’re not seeking to work out what the trigger was that got me there.
• Always learning about myself and growing.
• No matter what role you are doing, you have the responsibility to combine the head and the heart for the people you lead.
• How do you learn from people who have great skills?
• Chuck feedback culture adopt learning culture.
• When teachers can explain why they decided what they did when they were in the classroom.
• Are you a partner in learning with your teachers?
• How the brain responds when people engage (or not) in conversation.
• Self-awareness, knowing our triggers, and other strategies for going to each side of the ferocious warmth.
• Dance of ferocious warmth.
• How to be a transforamtive principal? Do some reflection on where you fit in your default reaction style.

THE KEY PIECES OF THE [[Ferocious Warmth - School Leaders Who Inspire and Transform]] FEROCIOUS WARMTH FORMULA •The Infinity symbol – a visual that brings the concept to life. •Three Intelligences – areas of thinking and skill development that, when blended, form Ferocious Warmth leadership and create buy in, continuous improvement and potential. •Four Elements – underpinning ways of being that serve as the foundation of Ferocious Warmth leaders.

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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 month, we are talking about Culture. If you are not part of the How2be coaching, I would love to have you join us. We focus on one aspect of how to be a transformative principal each month through a newsletter, a podcast episode, a webinar, and a coaching session. For more information, check out jethrojones.com/how2be.

Today, we’re talking about Culture, and I’m going to use an example of a basketball coach who is building culture. Now, we know that we play sports to win. obviously, that is the purpose, but many people will tell you there are so many more reasons for playing sports. Health, fitness, exercise, team building, perseverance, grit, and so much more!

That is all well and good. IF it was all about winning, then we would have a lot of guys in the NFL say, “You know, I’m done with this, since we didn’t win the super bowl.” Nobody hangs it up because they don’t win the super bowl in a given year.

As a side note, Eric Weddle was called out of retirement to play safety for the Los Angeles Rams this year. He played 13 seasons in the NFL for three different franchises, and didn’t ever make it to the Super Bowl. But, he will be playing next week in that game for the first time in his 13 seasons and one bonus post-season.

So, sports is about a lot more than winning. We know that, but we still focus on winning.

My daughter is manager of the freshman basketball team. Her coach is teaching about a lot more than winning basketball games.

![[culture model.excalidraw]]

Culture is about what we believe, act, and say. Let’s examine each of these.

What do we believe? In the sports example with my daughter’s basketball coach, he believes that all kids have value and something to contribute. He said 45 freshmen boys tried out for the team, and he could only keep 15, and even that is too much sometimes! (Although with COVID, it’s been good to have a deep bench!) But, he has my daughter as the manager. When I ask him how he thinks the game went, he always says some things are coming together. In a couple weeks, I’ll be talking with Lorea Martinez on this podcast about SEL and other things. One of the things we will talk about is that you cannot have thoughts without feelings. That applies here because what you belief will influence both your thoughts and your feelings. She also argues that we need to teach these skills explicitly. While that’s a great idea, kids will learn so much more from what we model for them than what we explicitly teach. Coach Mike is teaching the kids what he believes As is often the case in basketball, tempers can flare, especially with missed calls and bad calls by the referees.

How we act matters, and it sets the tone for the culture that we have. Coach Mike does yell sometimes, but because he believes that everyone can learn, he is patient and usually calm. By having my daughter as a manager, he is signaling to the boys, their families, other teams, and the school that someone with a disability can contribute. It’s 2022! You’d think we wouldn’t have to constantly emphasize that, but we do. A couple weeks ago a boy went home and told his mom (who later told us) “I think Katya (my daughter) is the most popular kid. She knows everyone and everyone says hi to her!” My daughter is naturally outgoing and social, and loves everyone, and this strength of hers is compounded because she has found community. One particularly tough game, our team was getting slaughtered. A parent said from the stands, “Try a different defense! This isn’t working!” Coach Mike showed great humility in how he acted next. He nodded his head, and changed the defense the next time the other team had the ball. Mike modeled in that moment how to be coached himself. Inside, maybe he was fuming, maybe he was grateful. Regardless, he humbly acted how he should when someone pointed out what was obvious. I’ve seen coaches harangue their players when they do something wrong and then act incredibly defensive when someone criticizes them. In episode 470, coming out at the end of this month, Miriam Campbell touches on one of my favorite topics, which is teaching kids how to be adults. We are too shortsighted when we are preparing kids for the next grade level. That’s a waste of time. We need to teach them how to be the kind of adults we want them to be. Do you remember the Anti-drug PSA from the 80s? I learned it from watching you dad!

How we act improves or impedes our culture. How we act teaches more than whatever we may teach explicitly. The “Do as I say, not as I do” and “Rules for thee, but not for me” idioms really do matter. People see how we act, and judge our culture based on that.

What comes out of our mouths betrays what we believe and further emphasizes how we act. You can’t have awful things coming out of your mouth and think you’ll have a good culture. We also need to be honest, though. A vital part of coaching is identifying what someone is doing wrong. When we correct someone, we do need to do it in a way that is clear and that they can understand. And it’s not just about what we say, but also how we say it. Tracey Ezard, who’s podcast episode is coming out next week calls this Ferocious Warmth. We need to go back and forth and dance between the two approaches, ferocious and warm. That doesn’t mean we go to the extremes, but we need to balance ferocity with warmth. It can sometimes be challenging, but it is the job of a successful school leader.

So what does this look like all together? Let me close out the sports analogy with my daughter’s basketball team. Towards the end of the season, Coach Mike told me that he had something special planned for my daughter and the other manager on the team. They were going to get a chance to play a visiting team. Not only did Mike make this happen, he also scheduled it so it would be before their other game, and let parents know they could come early to watch it! He gave the managers a jersey, and they warmed up with the boys. They set the clock for 10 minutes, and the kids played a game. This was a culmination because we saw how what Mike had believed, said, and how he acted played out. The kids played a game, patiently giving the managers opportunities to shoot, and when they made baskets, as they both did, the cheers rang through the gym. The power is that the kids. I saw how the culture of the team was playing out. Our team would go on to lose the game, but the kids won something more. Kindness, compassion, perseverance, patience, support, encouragement, and so much more. Your culture matters. It is made up of so much, but it starts with what you believe, what you say, and how you act. https://youtu.be/YnSAz8yCn70

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s...

• Teachers need day-to-day strategies.
• Gamification - helps in powerful and subtle ways
• Small wins.
• Moving in the right direction.
• We need data - when you test kids, it creates anxiety
• Teacher greeting at the door.
• One-sentence intervention
• Even if it is small, it can still make a difference.
• Coffee talk - background noise to calm kids.
• Getting a perfect amount of slight background noise.
• Distracts you enough from other distractions.
• Right-size seating
• When you move the body you move the mind.
• Breathing exercises - 4–5–8 breathing exercise
• Goal setting - What are my goals for becoming better. 4% outside their comfort zone.
• Build on small wins over time.
• How to be a transformative principal? Listen to everyone.

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

Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms.

John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools.

Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: - The Coach’s Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov

• The Feedback Pendulum: A manifesto for enhancing feedback in education by Michael Chiles

• Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley

• 10 Things Schools Get Wrong (And How We Can Get Them Right) by Jared Cooney Horvath and David Bott

• Let’s Talk About Flex: Flipping the flexible working narrative for education by Emma Turner

• A Parent’s Guide to Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain

John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors

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.