Transformative Principal

Be the One with Ryan Sheehy Transformative Principal 233

Social media: Work doesn’t always have to be done in the traditional space.

Ryan Sheehy is an educator, speaker, author and Elementary Principal @HighlandsMDUSD, Professor at @stmarysca Lifelong Learner, Father, Husband, Author of Be The One For Kids.

• Following a principal that was not well received.
• Kids are running to us, not running away.
• I’m a culture guy, so I was excited for the opportunity.
• I look at everything as an opportunity.
• I’m a principal of action.
• Excited to build a culture around the idea of being in classrooms.
• There’s no reason for me to be stuck in my office.
• Work doesn’t always have to be done in the traditional space.
• Being in the classroom allows me to have those conversations.
• Locked down in meetings before and after school when teachers are available.
• Too often we think the problem is with the kids.
• Getting bogged down by teachers slow to change.
• Be the one for kids: Stories about Ryan’s educational experiences.
• Be the one who changes the dream. It’s ok to change the dream, but keep dreaming.
• How do you help kids understand that it is ok to have a different dream?
• Are your habits of today on par with your dreams of tomorrow?
• Kids can achieve anything. Set up your habits today to achieve your dream.
• It’s about the relationships.
• How to deal with so many different challenges that we face.
• The power of a strong PLN. We’re never standing stagnant. We want to always be improving.
• If education isn’t fun, who would want to be a teacher or a principal?
• How do you build powerful relationships?
• We talked about everything but school. Really getting to know each other.
• Taking the time to go off course.
• Put yourself in the problem areas so you can get to know the kids.
• You’ve got to take time to build relationships.
• How to be a transformative principal? Get yourself out there and sit down with each person on your campus and make sure they know you believe in them by trusting them and encouraging them!

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

;

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.

Can Do U with Jeff Becker Transformative Principal 232

Social Media: A vision is a filter you make decisions through.

Jeff Becker is a former motivational speaker who is now working on making a real impact on students he works with. Learn more at http://candou.us.

• Motivational Speaker vs. Can Do U.
• We help busy school leaders create the school they dream of.
• Character education programs don’t really work.
• Programs are incomplete - Pumps them up, but now what?
• Work Sets with teachers that make it easy for teachers to do.
• A vision is a filter you make decisions through.
• Curriculum needs to speak “student.”
• How to speak the same language as an adult.
• Something powerful is going to happen when we can bridge the gap between generations.
• How to figure out your own strength?
• Once I founded out who I was much more excited to take that on!
• Myers-briggs and DISC
• Best part of CandoU.us is alumni retreat.
• Strategic goal setting.
• Empowering students to make their own strategic plan for the school.
• Focus on Key Results Areas and look at the data.
• Gaps, data driven SMART goals, interventions.
• How to be a transformative leader? Walk slowly.
• Education is the vehicle.

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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 Burnett is a veteran teacher of Math who took a few years to do research, and is back in the classroom making a big splash with going gradeless.

• Study measuring the effect of immediate feedback and whether it helps kids learn. It does.
• Change is hard.
• How to help educators change.
• Why Andrew made the change when he came back to the classroom.
• Teachers going Gradeless.
• Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler
• Student Self-assessments, engaging math.
• Isn’t every kid going to say they deserve an A?
• Show me what you can do - low stakes, no grade.
• We spend a lot more time on student “show me what you can do’s“
• Give specific details on what they did well and what they did not do well.
• Not grading assignments, but giving feedback on learning.
• No grades go on the papers.
• They were no longer looking for a grade.
• Evidence vs. completion
• Seesaw online portfolio
• Workload decreased in some areas and increased in other areas.
• Worst-case scenario is I could go through all their work and give them a grade if I needed to.
• Learning opportunity vs. homework.
• Many of these grades had no indication of whether students understood the concepts!
• Students complete learning opportunities on assistments.
• Check-ins vs. Grade book accountability.
• Why did I not learn this sooner?
• Teachers say they have to have a minimum number of grades.
• Need support around you.
• Letter to parents.
• Other barriers: fear of change.
• It’s ok to wait for the new year to start.

Doesn’t this mean that kids never show anything because they aren’t getting a grade for it?

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.

Amy McDonald helps kids have a strong web of support

• The goal is for youth to have a strong enough web that they can come back.
• The Survey that kids take at Phlight Club. The other side of the report card.
• It’s their score card - others don’t see it.
• Youth get a kaleidoscope bar graph.
• Focus Declaration - the kind of person that they want to be.
• Start with the strongest.
• Kids come to Phlight Club because it is fun.
• The reason she stayed in this district is because of Phlight Club.
• Different people come. Application process for kids to come.
• How to get started. Brightwayslearning web site and send an email to get started.
• People say these events are only for small balloons. But Jill said this is not just for “at-risk” kids.
• Kids leave with their stack.

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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.

Amy McDonald helps kids have a strong web of support

• Working with kids vs doing work for kids.
• Developmental ecology of a youth
• Strengths-based
• Lots of training for teachers and youth.
• Prince Wales Island in Alaska
• Eat sleep and work in gyms.
• 70 kids and 20 adults. 3 day lock in events
• Brightways Learning runs Phlight Club.
• Descriptions of the ROYGBIV story from the link above.
• Red – The Rule of Five: The foundation for a personal village for each youth by five caring adults (or more,) having high expectations and providing opportunities, teaching skills, and celebrating relative best in appropriate ways.
• Orange – Tangible Strings: Measurable supports provided through the anchors that shape the home, school, and community environment of each youth.
• Yellow – Intangible Strings: Important, yet difficult to measure, beliefs, values, and behaviors that are being taught to and caught by the youth.
• Green – Resiliency/Growing the Balloon: These DNA based characteristics and talents that increase the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to any web that they are given. How are you smart rather than how smart are you? Grit optimism, how am I smart, gender, wonder gene.
• Blue – Scissor Cuts/Problem Reduction: Decreasing or eliminating the conditions, actions, and attitudes that erode the supports being created by the adult anchors.
• Indigo – Caring for the Carers: Supporting those who anchor the web so they do not drop out of their lives even when circumstances in their own lives change.
• Violet – Social Norms: The climate and culture of the social environment (home, school, and/or community) that have been accepted or agreed upon by a critical number of adults.

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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.

Join me for the Transformative Leadership Summit

Strategic goals line up with the district’s strategic goals. Our vision for Tanana is “give people what they need, when they need it.” This vision applies to staff, students, parents, and other community members as needed.

Our vision for the future of Tanana is clear and has been reviewed throughout the year. Here is the updated 4 year plan. At two times this year, I have met with each teacher individually to discuss the vision for the school and ensure that we are able to make collaborative decisions about the future. Additionally, the Leadership Team Running Agenda reviews and gives information about the trajectory of our school, as well as our Faculty Meeting Running Agenda and our PLC Session Board.

While academic success is surely one of our goals at Tanana, in this building year, there has not been a lot of focus on traditional school data. While we have certainly analyzed and reviewed MAP data, PEAKS data was essentially not useful, and we have focused more on other issues.

One of the major areas of concern related to attendance and tardies. We have systematically documented tardy issues and found that typically less than 5% of our students are tardy, which indicates it is a small problem, and not a widespread issue. We have identified 19 students who are consistently tardy and in the halls and have created a student contract for them. To enable us to identify the students who were the ones causing issues, we created hall passes for teachers to use to monitor student hallway use.

Additionally, we used informal qualitative data to determine next steps for our school this year, asking teachers the areas in which we needed to focus. A review of our progress will be completed at the conclusion of this school year.

Furthermore, at the beginning of the year, Dr. Orr and I met with each teacher to review MAP data and how it would impact their classrooms. We used the documents in this folder for our review with the teachers.

At Tanana Middle School, our success cannot be dependent on the principal’s ability to manage many different initiatives. That is a recipe for disaster. Teachers and other staff take a prominent role in ensuring that plans are successful.

One such area is our advisory options. Each teacher (and staff member that wants to) may submit a new advisory option every two weeks. This list shows all the different options that have been created this year. Each teacher takes responsibility for creating something of value for students. Many items on that list are also student-generated ideas that came from students wanting to have a bigger say in what we do.

Our school librarian was given the directive at the beginning of the year to make the library a “place where we learn and create” and has been given decision-making authority to accomplish that. Mrs. Martin redesigned the library, removed a wall, facilitated technology distribution, and created makerspaces in the library, that change nearly every single day.

Mr. Balash has adjusted his way of delivering instruction in the classroom to ensure all students are engaged in the process of learning and acting.

The beginning of the year, end of the year, and many other activities throughout the year have been organized by teachers working in committee to make meaningful change to our school.

One of my favorite ideas is that we are never done improving. It doesn’t matter how much we do or don’t do, we can always get better. There is always room for growth, no matter what we are doing. One small example is that our hall passes were not as effective as we wanted, and so we created a second hall pass that met the teachers’ needs. One group of teachers needed additional support, so they created their own processes for dealing with hall passes in their section of the hallway.

A good example of our belief in continuous improvement relates to the Leadership Team Running Agenda. On the April 25 agenda, we had this posted on our agenda: Reevaluate schedule B, please…comment from teacher ”Does Schedule B really help us grow into the schedule we want for the future?  Does it help train students to be ready to handle the freedom of an open schedule?”

Even when we make a decision, we know that we have a long way to go to be where we want to be. Nothing in our school is too sacred to talk about.

Each faculty meeting, we start with celebrations. There are many areas when I have failed at something this year. I usually refer to those on my podcast. One of the failures that we had this year was an attempt to roll out a school-wide service learning program. A couple teachers came to the leadership team with an idea, and we tried to roll it out to the staff. It was too soon, and I let the leadership team know that I had jumped the gun too much on that.

Another area where I failed this year related to collaborating with principals relating to personalized learning. I attempted to have weekly meetings with other principals around personalized learning. Nobody showed up, and so I waited “by the phone” each week. I’ve recently started doing a Fairbanks mastermind with four other principals in the district on Friday mornings. This has been a much better solution and much more powerful because there are just a few of us. Even so, we have only had a couple meetings, so we will see where it goes.

Personalized Learning Student Reflections - One of our teachers

Each week, I schedule out my week and plan to spend the morning with teachers. I used to think that I needed to be in classrooms observing teachers, but I’ve realized it’s much more powerful when I think of that time as coaching teachers. I might be in their room while they are teaching, or I might be talking with them during their prep, talking about how we can meet their goals. Other items that I time block include writing newsletters to parents, collaborating with my assistant principal, and making time for district-focused work each Tuesday afternoon.

Having time blocks has really helped me to be present in the moment so that I can devote attention to the things that are really important.

One of my goals this year after reading “The One Thing” has been about being more proactiv...

Robyn Bagley is a former principal of Career Path High. She is now consulting now and working with Heather Staker on a project for Acton Academy. She is also chair of Parents for Choice in Education, located in Utah. You can email her here

• Acton Academy is an amazing model.
• Over 8,000 applications to start their own. How do we replicate that?
• How to approve partners and facilitate the success of their schools.
• How do you help kids not blow everything off?
• In a traditional model, we’ve removed all the opportunities to have kids lead.
• The first thing to think about is how to empower students.
• It kills their love for learning.
• You need to empower students.
• The second thing is to set up processes for accountability.
• It’s ok to fail as long as you are failing forward.
• Every student had a success coach with whom they met every week.
• Accountability: consequences like losing freedom and stopping college courses.
• Support: You must have good support systems in place. Lots of processes in place to help them stay on pace and set their goals.
• Three legs of a stool: Parents, students, school (teachers and administrators)
• We never apologize for bothering you with communication
• Four: give them something to be excited about in their pathway: i.e., have your certification when you finished school.
• The light came back on.
• The success coach was the real piece of accountability each week. Success coach had constant communication with parents, too.
• Give recognition with accountability.
• How to be a transformative principal? Collaborate with your team!
• Changing the culture from top-down directives to a collaborative culture.

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.

Robyn Bagley is a former principal of Career Path High. She is now consulting now and working with Heather Staker on a project for Acton Academy. She is also chair of Parents for Choice in Education, located in Utah. You can email her here

• The power of Networking with so many other people
• Operating at 30,000 feet vs ground floor.
• Policy vs. working in schools
• Giving parents and kids options to have more control over their learning.
• Statewide online learning
• You don’t really understand the challenges until you are in the trenches.
• First opportunity writing a charter.
• How desperate parents are for control and choice in their education.
• So many hoops to jump through.
• There’s a lot of silliness out there that takes away your focus on the kids.
• Issues that exist on the ground floor.
• Administrative and clerical work to satisfy reporting.
• Having the information in the system.
• Kids not required to be there, and balancing what the law required and what was good for kids.
• When you start to run into problems, be vocal to your elected officials.
• You can still give good things to kids even in the system.
• It’s teachers and a principal who is the change agent
• Top-down dictation makes it hard for people to innovate.
• Sharing of ideas in a collaboration is necessary!

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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.

Naphtali Hoff is an educational consultant and coach who helps school leaders solve their biggest problems. impacfulcoaching.com/epic

• Understaffing is a mindset issue.
• They work harder to make up for it.
• Underestimate their own leadership impact.
• We have so much power within us.
• Develop a sustainable process where they are leading through their
• Expect, Pull together, Influence, Communicate
• Expect - Set clear targets so that everyone is focused and engaged.
• Pull together - Pull your team together and connect them deeply to the mission.
• Influence - Influence and lead those around you.
• Communicate - Communicate clearly and openly.

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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 Shea is the Matt portion of Personalized Learning with Matt and Courtney, a podcast about, well, personalized learning. It is one of my favorite new podcasts and you can find it at plearnmc.com or in your favorite podcast player of choice!

• Matt is a district administrator in Maine
• Courtney is an instructional coach in Maine
• Worked in Maine for his whole career
• 10 schools in five communities
• Goal: set up same systems in schools - it didn’t work
• tenets of learning: applied learning
• How do we design that culture so that there’s a balance between kids taking advantage of their own learning and teachers providing a range of options?
• What teachers can provide in their place
• What works for you?
• District administrator as more of a support role
• Talk about the tenets a lot.
• “Cultivating hope in all learners”
• Culture is a number 1 thing for all of us.
• Designing a culture that involves the learners in their learning
• Progression of learning
• Social grade levels not academic grade levels
• Place students on an academic progression where they are, and help them move forward.
• Continuous flexible grouping - School building and schedules create a challenge for them.
• Tried to do schedules in all the same way.
• 15:16 We are the problem. We are the ones that have all the issues!
• How do we get adults to be more like kids?
• What’s our ultimate goal?
• Guiding principles: They’ll find that information when they need it!
• Interview with Seth Godin
• You don’t really fail, you just are where you are.
• It’s not just about the 80% of our kids that will do well no matter what, but about all the students
• When she’s ready to take the next step, she’ll be ready for it.
• End College Career Readiness
• Many teachers have been teachers only.
• The “real world“ is something different to everyone.
• Provide kids with the skills and attitudes.
• How to be a transformative leader? Design a culture in your building where it is ok to fail in a positive way. Failing upward. Failing forward. Take away some of the negative aspects of what school is.

Schedule a call with Jethro

Are you feeling like you are always behind at school? Do you feel like you need about 2 more hours each day to accomplish everything? Here’s how I help principals work manageable hours: Create your ideal week, so that you can leave work at work and enjoy your life!

Please take a moment to rate this podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher. 

Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.

Buy Communication Cards

Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com

Download Paperless Principal.  

Take Control of your email

Web Site

Transformative Principal on Stitcher

Refer A Principal

Best Tools for Busy Administrators Survey

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.