Transformative Principal

You Get what You Expect

Nicholas A. Fischer is a school-management consultant and coach. He was the superintendent of the New London, Conn., school district from 2009 to 2014. Previously, he was the superintendent of schools in Fall River, Mass., and the Christina School District in Newark, Del.; the assistant superintendent in Fairfax County, Va.; and the associate commissioner for finance and accountability in the Massachusetts Department of Education.

• Leading a District Can Be Controversial, Embrace it

• Be clear to yourself about what your values are.

• Working in public schools is very important.

• Started working Florida as a principal when corporal punishment was still allowed.

• Telling kids what we wanted them to do instead of what we don’t want them to do.

• Problems in American Public education: Our expectations are too low.

• All of us have special abilities

• Every child can be expected to be out a maximum effort.

• What we expect in engagement is different than what kids are taught growing up.

• What are the ramifications of doing the right thing?

• What are the right questions to ask a supervisor?

• Are you mobile enough to find the right places to work?

• Know what you believe, and talk to your supervisor, let your spouse know the ups and downs you will face.

• That’s one way of doing it, but here’s a better way.

• You have to know what the stakes are going in, and be willing to live with them.

• Average tenure of Superintendent is 2-3 years. Average tenure of principals is a little longer.

• Reasons for moving vary.

• In some situations, leaving a situation can be a badge of honor.

• Why are you staying if you’re struggling?

• Get candid feedback about how you’re portraying yourself.

• Much better off being honest with those we are talking with.

• Don’t use the statement, “Don’t take this personally.”

• I’d like to hear your version of what you see yourself doing.

• Set up an active listening conversation.

• We too often end a statement with “You know what I mean?”

• Distinguish between what a person is doing and what you would like to see them doing.

• Tell me what you think I’m asking you to do.

• Sit down a couple weeks later and talking about what they have changed.

• I don’t assume anything.

• How to be a transformative principal? Transformative to do what? If you were to describe what you are trying to accomplish, define what is happening right now in your school. Think through how you frame things. Define what you perceive happening. Start to talk about what the difference is between what people are doing what you want them to do.

• If you’re going to have a safe school, everyone needs to be involved.

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

This is my "practice" of my opening day remarks to my staff. I practiced it as though I was going to give it to the staff, so I didn't record when I was giving it to the staff. Here is the Powerpoint to go along with it if you are interested. 

The actual meeting with staff took an hour, so this is an abbreviated version. 

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.

We make time for what we really believe. Good collaboration takes time, but bad collaboration takes even more time.

Tom Hierck can be found at his web site.

• superintendent department of ed, 34 years in education.

• Great educators all over the place.

• Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom

• I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints.

• If you build them, they will learn.

• Learn every kid’s DNA, Dreams, Needs, Abilities

• Start with something simple.

• Every kid wants adult time and we should make that positive.

• Focus on the kids

• Kids don’t get consequenced to better behavior.

• Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.

• Have adult conversations about what we are going to do with kids.

• You can’t manage every classroom from your office.

• Be the “Judicious Parent”

• What is managed within and what is managed without the classroom.

• The difference between rules and expectations.

• What it looks like, feels, like, sounds like.

• If we don’t model what we expect, then we should expect what we model.

• How to work with challenging team members?

• If everyone is nodding their head in agreement, you know somebody is leaving in disagreement.

• Sometimes, we just follow someone and deal with what they left behind.

• Leadership Rule #1, whether you create it or condone it, you own it.

• How to deal with the comfortable, but not good.

• Get clarity on our purpose.

• Knowing the skills you have, how do you see that aligning with our purpose.

• When it gets tough, we will turn to each other when we have clarity of purpose.

• We do construction work in times of calm.

• Ineffective practices = easy.

• We have to get to the hard stuff and be willing to get messy to service 100 % of our kids.

• How to find time. We make time for what we really believe.

• Good collaboration takes time, but Bad collaborations takes even more time.

• Chase time doesn’t work

• How to be a transformative principal? Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.

Tom Hierck can be found at his web site.

• superintendent department of ed, 34 years in education.

• Great educators all over the place.

• Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom

• I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints.

• If you build them, they will learn.

• Learn every kid’s DNA, Dreams, Needs, Abilities

• Start with something simple.

• Every kid wants adult time and we should make that positive.

• Focus on the kids

• Kids don’t get consequenced to better behavior.

• Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.

• Have adult conversations about what we are going to do with kids.

• You can’t manage every classroom from your office.

• Be the “Judicious Parent”

• What is managed within and what is managed without the classroom.

• The difference between rules and expectations.

• What it looks like, feels, like, sounds like.

• If we don’t model what we expect, then we should expect what we model.

• How to work with challenging team members?

• If everyone is nodding their head in agreement, you know somebody is leaving in disagreement.

• Sometimes, we just follow someone and deal with what they left behind.

• Leadership Rule #1, whether you create it or condone it, you own it.

• How to deal with the comfortable, but not good.

• Get clarity on our purpose.

• Knowing the skills you have, how do you see that aligning with our purpose.

• When it gets tough, we will turn to each other when we have clarity of purpose.

• We do construction work in times of calm.

• Ineffective practices = easy.

• We have to get to the hard stuff and be willing to get messy to service 100 % of our kids.

• How to find time. We make time for what we really believe.

• Good collaboration takes time, but Bad collaborations takes even more time.

• Chase time doesn’t work

• How to be a transformative principal? Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

Click here to schedule a call with me about joining the mastermind.

Click here to read more about the mastermind

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.

Gain empathy

• Live day-to-day changes to scheduling.
• Basic level of master scheduling.
• Deeper level of how everything works in a school.
• Real instructional minutes. Where people are and when.
• How to learn about struggles that people have.
• Hired a principal to help guide the decision.
• worked with 1 school.
• Then worked with many schools.
• How to affect change in others’ lives.
• Get to the next level of detail.
• All changes to school require a holistic understanding of the impact.
• How to be a Transformative Principal? Gain empathy.

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

Schools are being forced to lie to their systems to get their information correct.

Adam Pisoni is a serial technology entrepreneur who is most notably known for being the co-founder and CTO of Yammer, the enterprise communications software that was bought by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. He is considered a pioneer of the Enterprise Social Network (ESN) concept and a visionary in organizational design and management. After a short stint at Microsoft, Pisoni spent a year researching education in America and realized that master scheduling is a game changer for the future of K12 education. See Pisoni’s byline Why I started Abl in Student Voices.

ABL Schools

• Startups since 1995 and founded Yammer with David.
• K-12 education wasn’t that positive.
• Where you go to school matters.
• How did he know that scheduling was a problem.
• Progressive schools.
• Instead of asking what’s possible in schools, what prevents traditional schools from iterating.
• Teachers don’t have the power to make some changes.
• Where is the greatest lever for change?
• We find countless examples of district schools that are doing innovation.
• Schools are being forced to lie to their systems to get their information correct.
• Master scheduling.
• Launching in July at Principal’s conference
• Multiple steps that are disconnected.
• Abl brings them all together. Conflicts and coteaching scenarios are all in the same dynamic system.

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.

The Transformative Leadership Summit is going to be amazing this year. I hope you enjoy this short teaser. Please sign up here: Click Here to Learn More

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!

Join my group coaching program

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.  

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.