After a week of focusing on internal strength—from knowing your style to prioritizing wellness and learning—it's time to put that inner work into service. School leadership is constantly bombarded by noise and urgent-but-not-important demands. This episode provides definitive strategies for creating a strategic bubble of focus to protect your core instructional priorities and keep your work squarely on serving students.

Key Takeaways:

Define and Enforce Core Priorities: Rigidly align every initiative, meeting, and PD session back to three defined instructional priorities for the quarter. If it doesn't support them, the answer is "not now."

Create Focus Blocks for Deep Work: Schedule and protect 60-90 minute blocks for mission-critical tasks (e.g., analyzing data) by delegating interruptions and turning off notifications.

Filter Communication Flow at the Source: Empower front office staff and assistant principals to handle specific categories of issues, ensuring only true instructional or emergency dilemmas land on your desk.

Practice Student-Centric Prioritization: Before committing to any new initiative, ask: "How will this directly and positively impact a student in a classroom?" Eliminate the merely "good" to focus on the truly great.

Protecting your focus is protecting your legacy. Subscribe and commit to mission clarity!

Are you struggling to find time for professional growth? Sustainable leadership requires continuous learning, but a busy school leader's day rarely allows for hours of uninterrupted study. This episode shifts the focus from all-day professional development to micro-learning: targeted, quick bursts of professional engagement strategically integrated into your daily flow. We're providing just-in-time, just-for-me strategies to keep your leadership sharp, relevant, and consistently renewed.

Key Takeaways:

Create a 5-Minute Resource Feed: Curate resources based on identified growth areas (e.g., conflict resolution) and scan them during your first coffee or the last 5 minutes of the day.

Integrate Drive-Time PD: Transform your commute by swapping passive listening for targeted audio content, like short summaries or relevant podcast segments.

Pair a Problem with a Resource: When facing a challenge (e.g., classroom management), immediately dedicate 10 minutes to reading a short, relevant article for instant retention and transfer.

Make Learning Out Loud a Habit: Consciously share one new insight daily to reinforce your own learning and model a culture of continuous growth for your staff, similar to the process outlined in The Art of Coaching.

Finding time for growth is a vital part of authentic leadership. Never underestimate the power of the small moments. Subscribe and keep learning! To suggest a topic or reach out, visit awbeducation.org.

Feeling the drain? Your leadership capacity is directly tied to your personal sustainability. This episode is a vital conversation focused on the health and wellness of school leaders. The challenge isn't finding time for a retreat—it's securing five minutes of restorative space daily within the hurricane of duties. We share small, non-negotiable strategies to help you protect your energy and ensure you are leading from a place of strength.

Key Takeaways:

Mindful Transition: Schedule a 5-minute pause between home and campus to shift your mindset.

Physical Boundary: Block off 30 minutes for a lunch/walk appointment you cannot miss.

Communication Cutoffs: Establish clear off-hours expectations to prevent perpetual burnout.

External Passion: Cultivate a non-school related hobby for cognitive cross-training and renewal.

Protecting your personal wellness is the key to sustainable, long-term impact. Commit to filling your own cup today!

On this Morning Boost episode (Tuesday, October 28), the host explains how school leaders can move from isolation to intentional collaboration by creating a small, confidential cohort of peer principals. Topics include how to identify three to five cross-district colleagues, write a simple invitation, and set uncompromising norms of confidentiality and purpose.

The episode outlines practical structures for sustainability—regular monthly or biweekly meetings, a consistent agenda (wins, challenges, and a deep-dive problem presentation), rotating leadership, and using protocols like the critical friends model to surface diverse, actionable solutions. A real example is shared of a middle school principal who solved a complex boundary issue with support from her cohort.

Key takeaways: proactively initiate your group, keep membership outside immediate evaluation lines, commit to confidentiality and cadence, and rotate expertise so the cohort becomes a durable professional lifeline. Grundmeyer Leader Services supports this episode’s message of transforming education one leader at a time.

Are you trying to lead like a model instead of yourself? The most effective school leaders lead with authenticity, which is only possible through deep self-awareness. This episode dives into how understanding your unique leadership style is the key to unlocking your greatest potential. We'll share practical steps to help you identify your core values, synthesize 360-degree feedback, and deliberately lean into your signature strengths. Discover how aligning your actions with your convictions—like a leader whose core value is equity adopting a transformational style—builds trust, fosters a positive school culture, and ultimately improves decision-making. Stop wasting time trying to be who a textbook says you should be; embrace the leader you authentically are because it is your greatest asset.

Key Takeaways:

Identify your core values and non-negotiables as the foundation of your style.

Actively solicit and internalize 360-degree feedback to understand your impact.

Focus on refining your signature strengths rather than forcing a style that doesn't feel authentic.

After a week of diving deep into modern grading practices, experts Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley deliver the most impactful leadership behavior for navigating the inevitable "implementation dip" that comes with change. They argue that the most effective way to quiet staff and community resistance is to shift the focus back to the customer: the student. Leaders must prioritize creating opportunities for students to articulate their learning, celebrate their successes, and explain how clear, standards-based grading helps them own their learning.

The Solution: Center students in the conversation.

Key Takeaways:

The implementation dip happens when communication and confidence falter, leading to uncertainty for students and frustration for parents.

Student voice is the most potent communication tool. Leaders must actively create spaces for students to share their "before and after" stories of learning clarity.

A strong strategy is implementing student-led learning stations (rotations) that teach students directly about standards, scales, and the reassessment process.

Student understanding equals parent understanding. Use these student-facing resources (like recorded sessions) to educate the community.

You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Follow their work via the links below, and pick up their book, The Parent's Guide to Grading and Reporting. Thank you for listening!

Connect with the Experts:

Dr. Chad Lang: recalibrateedservices.com or on LinkedIn.

Dr. Matt Townsley: Search "all things standards based grading" or find him on X/Blue Sky at @MCTownsley.

Are your grading conversations stuck in the "old paradigm"? In today's episode of Your Morning Boost, authors and grading experts Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley (of The Parent's Guide to Grading and Reporting) reveal the most effective non-negotiable communication strategy for districts: equipping parents with new questions. They discuss how shifting parental communication from asking about a grade ("What can my child do to improve their grade?") to focusing on standards ("Which standards can my child still improve upon?") helps students own their learning and fosters a powerful home-school partnership. This shift transforms grades into meaningful communication about specific proficiency, rather than a permanent "tattoo."

Key Takeaways:

Parents typically want to know: "How is my kid doing?" but they often ask the wrong questions.

The critical communication strategy is to provide parents with a "new question bank" (like a T-chart or one-pager) to guide conversations about standards mastery.

This approach reinforces the concept that the grade is a form of communication, not a punitive measure.

It directly ties to research showing student self-identification of learning gaps leads to major growth.

You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Pick up their book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or bloomsbury.com! Listen, subscribe, and share this episode to build true partnerships with your school families.

Are your grading conversations stuck in the "old paradigm"? In today's episode of Your Morning Boost, authors and grading experts Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley (of The Parent's Guide to Grading and Reporting) reveal the most effective non-negotiable communication strategy for districts: equipping parents with new questions. They discuss how shifting parental communication from asking about a grade ("What can my child do to improve their grade?") to focusing on standards ("Which standards can my child still improve upon?") helps students own their learning and fosters a powerful home-school partnership. This shift transforms grades into meaningful communication about specific proficiency, rather than a permanent "tattoo."

Key Takeaways:

Parents typically want to know: "How is my kid doing?" but they often ask the wrong questions.

The critical communication strategy is to provide parents with a "new question bank" (like a T-chart or one-pager) to guide conversations about standards mastery.

This approach reinforces the concept that the grade is a form of communication, not a punitive measure.

It directly ties to research showing student self-identification of learning gaps leads to major growth.

You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Pick up their book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or bloomsbury.com! Listen, subscribe, and share this episode to build true partnerships with your school families.

Are you unknowingly using a grading system that actively punishes student growth? In this episode of Your Morning Boost, we continue our deep dive into grading reform with experts Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley. They expose the mathematical flaw of traditional averaging—specifically, the disproportionate, damaging impact of the zero on a student's final grade, which often represents a lack of submission, not a lack of learning. The discussion tackles why "Hodge Podge grading" obscures the truth about student progress.

The Crucial Question: What's the clearest step you can take to stop averaging from diluting competency?

Key Takeaways:

The zero has a six times more disproportionate, negative impact than a perfect score has a positive one.

Why a grade based on an average of compliance, effort, and knowledge is not true communication.

An immediate, actionable step: Replace the numerical zero with a non-numerical "missing evidence indicator" to preserve the integrity of the academic grade.

The clear alternative: Disaggregate the data and use descriptors (like Beginning, Developing, Proficient) to communicate mastery of specific standards.

You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Don't let flawed math misrepresent your students' learning! Listen, subscribe, and share this episode to communicate student progress accurately.

Are you wrestling with the myths around modern grading? In this critical episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive deep with leading grading experts, Dr. Chad Lang and Dr. Matt Townsley (co-authors of A Parent's Guide to Grading and Reporting). They tackle the single most critical philosophical misconception leaders must address: the notion that changing grading practices lowers the bar or reduces accountability. Learn why standards-based and standards-referenced grading actually raise the stakes for competency, focus on enduring learning, and provide students with clearer pathways to proficiency through structured reassessment opportunities. This conversation is a must-listen for leaders ready to move beyond tradition and establish a clear, modern purpose for grading.

Key Takeaways:

The difference between a "retake" and a meaningful reassessment requiring corrective work.

Why traditional grading can create an "inflated grade" that masks a lack of true competency.

The critical need to define the purpose of grading in your school or district (Hint: It’s communication!).

You can find out more about our guests by visiting https://www.awbeducation.org/contributors-lineup. Listen, subscribe, and share this episode to kickstart a meaningful conversation about equitable and effective grading practices in your school.