The Assistant Principal Podcast

Last week’s show was about growing veteran teachers. I focused largely on the importance of relationships. At the end of the episode, I encouraged you to ask your veteran teachers three questions:o What is your teaching super-power?o What’s the biggest difference between who you are now as a teacher, and who you were when you began?o If you could get students to do one thing differently, what would it be? I recognize that some of you have been in school for several weeks while others still may have a week or so of summer left, but hopefully you have at the very least been able to reflect on those questions, and if you have not asked them of someone else, maybe you have asked them of yourself. I also stated, “next Tuesday I’ll offer some additional steps to build on what you find out.“ My intention was to provide some explicit “tips and tricks” but instead I decided to ask some of my connections on LinkedIn about their tips for working with veteran teachers. This group included administrators at all levels as well as veteran teachers. I’ve taken their feedback and put it into a tidy visual framework because… that’s what I do! Inset Show Intro Celebrations: My new truck! Apologies if that sounds a bit vain and materialistic, but I ordered a Ford Maverick – a minuscule size pickup, in Sept, 2022 and finally got it last week. It’s the perfect vehicle for me, able to haul mulch, lumber, and trash around our rural mountain roads and get 30 mpg on my trips to Columbia, Greensboro, and elsewhere. The Big Idea Today’s episode takes place in two acts. In Act I I’m going to smash the stereotype of the veteran teacher being a curmudgeon or burned-out resistor. Remember that change begins within, and the first step in working with experienced teachers is reframing how you perceive them. In Act II I’ll present a simple 4-stage framework for working with veteran teachers. Act I: You don’t know me Change… trauma… change Sure, it’s not all been bad, but if you have been in this profession very long you have experienced change, trauma, and more change. First the change… I began teaching in 1988, so I would be beginning my 35th year had I remained in p-12 education. You may be working with a few teachers who began teaching in that same year, or perhaps in the early 90’s, and education has changed dramatically. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things that weren’t around when I began my teaching career. No:· Standardized tests· Computers in classrooms· Laptops· Cell phones· Social media· Canned or structured teaching programs Principals were paid to manage things and instructional leadership was largely in the hands of teachers. There were far fewer grand initiatives, and teachers were largely expected to close their doors and teach. And although teachers were not above being questioned or criticized, it was nothing like what it is today. This might not be a universal experience, but it was my experience. So, point 1, veteran teacher possess a sense of history and have experienced profound – profound – changes over the course of their careers. For many of them, in many ways, the profession they find themselves in now is not the profession they entered. Now the trauma… I believe that teaching is the greatest profession in the world. Not necessarily in its current condition, but the ability to transform live and enrich the future is unparalleled. That said, teaching can be a traumatic endeavor. Trauma can occur in conflicts between teachers and the students and families they serve, the form of trauma that is most pertinent to our discussion is trauma with administration. Especially around the teacher observation and evaluation process. The average tenure of a middle school principal in the US is 3-5 years. As a 35-year veteran teacher, on average, I have had 7-12 principals, and countless assistant principals. Think about this… Seven times new “leaders” have come into my school, brought their vision, changed school culture, asked me to buy-in, and then they have left. More than likely, some of those principals have acted like this was their school, not my school. And in their quest to stamp their identity on the school, they may have erased part of my identity, even erased part of my school. In addition, with so many leaders cycling through, it is very likely that most experienced teachers have had at least one very negative – traumatizing – experience with an administrator. Imagine, having pride in your craft, having invested years in working with kids, receiving solid evaluations year after year, and then someone with half your experience comes in and tells you not only that you need to get better, but that they know better than you how your craft needs to improve! Seriously? And maybe things are very different today, but two decades ago is was not that uncommon to have administrators who yelled at teachers. Not a lot of them, but they were out there – and many experienced teachers have experienced a humiliating dressing down a

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! Today’s shout out goes to…William D Parker, host of the Principal Matters Podcast and a kind, gentle, and caring human being who is quickly becoming a good friend. Will released his interview of me back on August 9. My biggest fan – my wife Pam – said it is the best I have done in an interview and Wil made it easy. That’s episode 356 of The Principal Matters Podcast. Will was also kind enough to leave a glowing review on Apple podcasts, so thank you Will!---Takeaway1. Relationships exist in two basic spheres2. When we understand how, in an individual’s life, their work and home lives influence each other, we can be confident that we have a collegial relationship3. The collegial relationship helps us to serve the person because:a. We know what they wantb. We have insight into how to help them get therec. We can coach them , which is one of the best ways to help people grow. That is this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. ---Please remember to subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the show helps others find it, and if you want to be a superfan, consider leaving a review. Again, you’ll be helping others find the show and you’ll be making me smile. And maybe you will even find yourself getting a shoutout at the top of the episode. I’m Frederick Buskey and thank you again for joining me on this episode of the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers! Frederick’s Links:Email: [email protected]: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicleadershipconsulting Daily Email subscribe: https://adept-experimenter-3588.ck.page/ff61713840

I was a coach before I was a teacher. Literally, I volunteered as a football coach right after I graduated from high school. I played three years of high school and four years of college football, and I had position coaches, defensive coordinators, and head coaches all involved in my development as a player. Some of my coaches were good, some weren’t, but I was reliant on them in a way which is hard to explain. Today’s episode is about growing veteran teachers, but we are going to invest most of our time and attention into examining the coaching relationship rather than the technical aspects of coaching. Why? Why talk about the relationship instead of the actual nuts and bolts of working with veteran teachers? I think you already know the answer… Celebrations: New beginnings upon new beginnings Let me begin by clarifying some terms and connecting some dots:· Your two primary responsibilities:o Keeping people safeo Support and grow your teachers· Support and growth· The flywheel (e.g. coaching cycle)· The conundrum: how do we choose the first PD? This is the essential question, especially for veteran teachers.· Back to coaching:o As an athlete, § I was dependent on my coaches§ I assumed they knew more than I did§ I was highly motivated to get better§ The power differential was hugeo As a teacher§ The dependency was different§ I was not convinced my principal knew more than I did· Especially in PE· Perception v. reality· What I wanted my classroom to be like§ I was still highly motivated to get better, but…· I was not as dependent on my principal as I was on my coach· Asking my coach for extra reps was a plus, asking my admin for extra attention could be perceived as a negative§ The power differential was not as big – I could keep playing without his approval My own story:· My progression as a teacher (PE, SPED, SS => NBCT)o Unique challengeso I was reflectiveo I had blind spots· The “official” rubric and the process· My two real struggleso Boyso SPED Lessons from my own experience:· When we are competent, we can lose sight of how complex our craft is· We may or may not recognize our own pain points· We know what we want, even if what we want may not be the most important thing· In all likelihood, there are many elements of our teaching that we know better than someone who is trying to help us How do we grow veteran teachers?· Put them in the lead· Help them clarify their desires, needs, and goalso Example: Spending way to much time prepping lessons and taking care of a sick parent· Help them define what success looks likeo Example: Still have good lessons, but am able to focus on my mom instead of thinking about school· Help them identify resources and map a plan (e.g. Teaching Middle School ELA and EB academics)· Be the accountability partner, help gather the data, and then hold up the mirror that helps them to assess how they’ve done and what comes next· In short – become a servant A couple cautionary thoughts:· Trauma· Growth is a process, not an event. A single “I wonder” statement is not helpful if it isn’t a part of a larger process.· Focus on entering the process based on your capacity. It is better to engage in the process with fidelity with three people and ignore the rest than to do one-offs or be haphazard with 20. Know your capacity and choose appropriately. (see episode 8 Who Should I coach?) – link in show notes.· To care is to help people grow in the direction they want to grow, and to grow veteran teachers, you need to care.· You don’t know as much as you think you do. We all have biases and gaps which make our ability to determine the “one best thing” a teacher needs to work on an impossible task. The Big IdeaHold up the mirror for the veteran teacher. Get to know them, to understand them – their aspirations, triumphs, burdens, and fears. Help them clarify their own needs – the things that will allow them to gain more joy from teaching. Help them develop a plan for growth. Help them collect and analyze the data around their implementation of new strategies. Hold up the mirror, with caring and a servant’s heart. And if you can’t do that, don’t try and grow your veteran teachers. Show Outro So how do we put this into action? I encourage you to:· Check in with your veteran teachers this week and ask them three questions:o What is your teaching super-power?o What’s the biggest difference between who you are now as a teacher, and who you were when you began?o If you could get students to do one thing differently, what would it be?· Don’t respond to the answers, just listen and think. · Do this for a week, and next Tuesday I’ll offer some additional steps to build on what you find out. I look forward to seeing you again on Friday when we recap this week’s daily emails, which were all about the same theme underlying today’s episode – relationships! It was a fun week of emails, so I hope you will tune in. Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. If you’d like to walk more with me, I

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! Today’s shout out goes to… I don’t know. It’s been a quiet week at the podcast as everyone gears up for school. Please consider emailing me, DMing me on LinkedIn, or leaving a review of the podcast on Apple podcasts – so I can give someone a shout out – so I can give you a shout out! Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 14-18, 2023. New plus new = good! New teachers want close relationships with their administrators. In the end, we stay in organizations because of the relationships we have with leaders. TakeawayFriday’s email summarized it all. If your school culture isn’t where you want it to be, there are two critical things to look at:· First is the quality of the relationships you have with others. If those aren’t where you want them to be, go back to Friday’s email, print it off, and cut out the list of bullet points. Tape them to your computer, your door, mirror, everywhere. Just begin asking questions that help you learn about people.· Second, and this will be an upcoming episode, look at the alignment within your organization. The easiest thig to check is the demand you are putting on people’s static resources:o Resources come in two formso Time and attention are different (giving time to something when you are fried)o Backpack sizeo Lightening the load can improve culture That is this week’s Five for Friday rendition of The Assistant Principal Podcast. Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. Thank you for including me on your leadership journey. If you’d like to walk more with me, I have a couple simple ways to do so:1. Invest no money but a little time and download our free checklist on building your support network.2. Invest $9 a month and about 20 minutes of your time to become a supporting member of our community. You’ll get early and unfettered access to our free courses, a discussion area, a library of past content, and the occasional webinar. You will also be helping me to continue investing both time and money in producing this podcast, writing the daily email, and producing free content.3. Finally, you can become a full member of our APEx community and join me for monthly group coaching and lots of other perks. You can get the details and links for all of these on my website at fb.com I look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday when we play with some ideas about how to support veteran teachers. Please remember to subscribe and rate this podcast. Rating the show helps others find it, and if you want to be a superfan, consider leaving a review. Again, you’ll be helping others find the show and you’ll be making me smile. And maybe you will even find yourself getting a shoutout at the top of the episode. I’m Frederick Buskey and thank you again for joining me on this episode of the Assistant Principal Podcast. Cheers! Frederick’s Links:Email: [email protected]: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicleadershipconsulting Daily Email subscribe: https://adept-experimenter-3588.ck.page/ff61713840

Today’s episode is packed full of amazing information, ideas, and inspiration. We are going to conclude today’s show with a simple technique for putting everything in the show into practice. It is simple, and you can become competent in the technique with almost no practice, and it will take you less than five minutes a day. The result will be profound. Please, walk with me through this episode and you can step out the other side refreshed, renewed, and ready.Notable Quotes Angela Maiers:“Every person has a sign on them saying, “do I matter to you?” This is not a hollow question… this is encoded in our DNA.”“The drive to matter affects everything from the moment we were born.”“We don’t have to guess anymore, these practices make the biggest difference with people.”“Mattering is the sense that you have significant to others… We need others around us to know we matter.”“We asked 500,000 thousand kids one question: what would make you run to school on your worst day? The results came back – they wanted to know someone was excited about their existence.”“Three behaviors: Noticing, naming, and meaning”“Your presence is what it takes to make a mattering moment, 2-20 seconds.”“When you go through the world feeling invisible, it changes your state.”“Connection before content.”“How you greet people and how you leave people are the two most important parts”2-5-2 (2-20 seconds, how you greet and how you leave):· 2: Pause, smile, look at them, (quadruple bonus points for slipping in their name)· 5: Five people a day to acknowledge· 2: Wow moments: 2 seconds to share something that made you smile“Every single day I pick 3-5 people and I share something I noticed about them.” Frederick:“The purpose gets distorted… people matter and we need to start there,”“Asking the second question, ‘no, really, how are you’ signals to you that I care.”Angela Maiers Links:Email: [email protected]: https://angelamaiers.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamaiers/Free Resources: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u205KzVYNdkYnLrtqD-GrvUV7-mTyQQr/view Frederick’s Links:Email: [email protected]: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicleadershipconsulting Daily Email subscribe: https://adept-experimenter-3588.ck.page/ff61713840

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! So much to celebrate today: · WOW! This is number 150 of The Assistant Principal Podcast!· We topped 4500 downloads in July – a new record!· I keep hearing from listeners telling me how the podcast has helped them land their first AP job, or work with a teacher, and more. Today’s shout out goes to… You my colleague. All of you, and most especially, · The 16 of you who have invested a minute in rating the podcast!· The numerous people who have emailed me or DMd me on LinkedIn to share how the show has helped them. I hope you understand how powerful that is, and how much it motivates me to get better. Honestly, talking into the void taps my courage every episode, but having feedback helps me remember that I’m not speaking into the void, that people are listening, and that this show matters.· The people who forward this show and recommend it to their colleagues. Very few listeners found this show in social media. Most of you either joined via my email list or heard about the show from someone else. Thank you for being a part of growing this show.Frederick’s Links:Email: [email protected]: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicleadershipconsulting Daily Email subscribe: https://adept-experimenter-3588.ck.page/ff61713840

Congratulations! You finally have that brand new AP job! Or maybe you’re walking into adifferent new leadership position, or moving into a different school. Or maybe you aren’t goinganywhere... yet.Today my special guest and I are going to dig into the four essentials that many of the supportprograms for school leaders miss. These are four essentials to help you take care of you so youcan stay play the long game. Leadership isn’t a sprint. I’m not sure it’s a marathon wither –maybe more like my recent Pennine Way through hike of 270 miles, but... longer. The thing is,you can’t stay in the game if you’re injured – whether that’s physically, emotionally, orspiritually. Today’s podcast will help prevent those injuries and keep you in top form so you cancontinue supporting and growing others for years to come.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 31-August 4, 2023.

Passion!Remember when you were just starting out and you wanted to set the world on fire? I know, youare in school leadership, so you are still setting the world on fire – in a good way – but maybesome days it feels like your box of matches is running a bit low. Maybe? Today we have a veryspecial guest who is on the front end of her career, with matches to spare. Her passion andwisdom are contagious, and whether you have an abundance or dearth of matches, or aresomewhere in between, today’s guest will bring a smile to your face and a spark to your heart.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 24-28, 2023.

You can’t do it alone! Building a support network is essential to any leader’s success but is critical to first-year assistant principals. A good network consists of four roles which we will explore today.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 17-21, 2023.

Accountability is compassionate. Conflict builds trust. Switches influence our mindset. At first glance, none of these statement may seem to make a lot of sense, but 30 minutes from now you will probably be embracing the ideas behind them – ideas that lead us to powerful truths which will improve life and leadership. Today, we dig into compassionate accountability with a very special guest.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 10-14, 2023.

What if I could give you three strategies to magically prevent burnout? Do I have your attention?Full disclosure – I don’t have three strategies, because burnout isn’t about you. It’s aboutsomething bigger. And you can’t prevent burnout. It requires something greater. Sounds a bitconfusing? Playfulness aside, today we are looking at something essential to everyone listening.We are going to talk about burnout, but I promise you this will be a unique conversation andsomething different from the “walk away from work and get your exercise” that is typical ofburnout conversations. Yes, we will encourage you to get exercise, but today is more aboutreframing than rejuvenating.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 3-7, 2023.

One of my favorite books is Jim Collins’ Good to Great – a book about what separates great companies from good ones. Collins’ book focuses on organizations, so what about leaders? What separates a great assistant principal from a good one? If you aren’t at the level of leadership you’d like to be, how do you get to being awesome? Today’s guest will help us take a few important steps on that journey down the road to awesome!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 26-30, 2023.

We are in an era where teacher and school lead autonomy is under a lot of pressure. It is becoming common practice, especially at the elementary level, for teachers to be handed a tightly structured curriculum and scripted teaching package and told “do this.” We even hear the term “teacher-proof” being used to refer to the idea that anyone, even a struggling teacher, can do this program.On the other end, we have mandatory evaluation processes that, while well-intentioned, concentrate time and attention on a summative process that actually detracts from the formative work that helps teachers to grow in their craft.Both of these situations put processes and purpose before people, so today Mike Anderson and I are going to help you think about how to be more strategic and to leverage these two phenomena to put people first and to help grow a better school.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 19-23, 2023.

In behavioral psychology, a punishment is defined as any change that reduces the likelihood of abehavior occurring again. Retribution is defined as legal revenge, with something being taken orinflicted upon someone else for a wrong.Let’s be honest, we mix these terms up a lot. Students can only act in the ways that they havelearned, and only cope using the strategies they have.What if there was another way to “do discipline”? One that didn’t chew up half your day andthat actually did decrease the likelihood that you would be dealing with the same kid and sameissue over and over? If your curiosity is piqued, stay tuned!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 12-6, 2023.

One of the most common laments I hear from school leaders involves the lack of student engagement present in so many classrooms. What drives engagement isn’t activities, its learning – deeper learning. But what is deeper learning, and how do we help teachers learn about it and implement it? I hope you are ready as we go deep into deeper learning on today’s episode.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 4-9, 2023.

I’ve been hearing from a number of people who are getting ready to be brand new assistant principals in the fall and I have been thinking about the most critical things for them to do during the summer and the first few weeks of school. Of course, you need to build relationships and learn how your school does all the paperwork, and you need to get familiar with your policies. Your new principals and district leaders will help you with all of that.For my suggestions, I wanted to get away from the obvious, so I have 3 suggestions for you to get ready for the wildest ride of your life. And if you aren’t a new AP, I hope you will stay with me because all of these tips will be helpful for experienced leaders too!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of May 29 – June 2, 2023. I’m going to go completely out of order today and just work through the overall theme which was about solving problems. In today’s episode we will touch on the six dimensions of organizations, the role of leadership, change processes, and an example of identifying root problems. This episode will tie together several of my key conceptual frameworks in more detail than the emails did, so be ready for a meaty episode that begins at 40,000 feet but takes us right down to ground level. The whole week was inspired by a training I did last week with a group of non-profit leaders. We worked through an example of the process of identifying problems and landed in a slightly unexpected space. I’ll share what happened at the end of this episode, so please stay with me.

Last fall I offered a five-page guide on ten activities to support new teachers during the first two-weeks of school. The activities were designed to achieve three goals:● Create a trusting relationship with the teacher● Lay the foundations for a well-managed classroom● Provide curricular guidanceToday’s guest has been doing some remarkable work using a high-quality teacher satisfactionsurvey to identify keys to teacher retention. What really stands out to me is that he can providedistricts with data that is most applicable to them, not to every other district in the state orcountry. That said, there are some common things that assistant principals and other schoolleaders can do to help increase teacher retention. So how do these rigorously researched factorscompare to my goals for APs of building the relationship, laying foundations for classroommanagement, and providing curricular guidance? We are about to find out, but I want to offeryou a challenge before we get any further – if you hear one or more simple actionable strategiesto increase teacher retention, will you actually implement them? I wonder...

Last Friday I began with a shoutout to Soupman2545 for leaving a review and helping me improve the show. It felt good to begin the show with a thank you so I’m going to begin doing this regularly on Fridays.Today I want to acknowledge the daily email readers and podcast listeners who responded to last week’s challenge to identify the band associated with the titles of each daily email’s subject line.

I know… you don’t have time to pause, you barely have time to breathe, and you are saving flourishing for summer. You are too busy with all the tasks, and taking care of everyone else. Except for being in this moment, and, right now, this is the only moment that matters because it is the only moment you have. And I am so glad you are here, and today’s very special guest is going to help both you and I make the time to pause, to breathe, and to flourish.

If you listened to Tuesday’s incredible show with Tequilla Lamar, you noticed something new – music!Mara and Collin have been suggesting for some time that we needed to add a few musical transitions, but I have been dragging my feet until I read a recent review of the show.Shout out to soupman2545, who left a review that began glowingly…“I am going to be an AP next year and have already begun using ideas from content in this podcast to improve my practice and increase my capacity in my current leadership position.”I love getting kudos, but it was the next think part of the review that was golden:“If I could offer one piece of feedback, it would be for show aesthetics… something so small as a jingle or catchy tune, might help hook others in and give them something to look forward to each week.”Soupman2545, THANK YOU. It takes time and effort to write a review, and it takes a bit more to offer thoughtful feedback in a way that helps make things better.”So, we are beginning this episode with a thank you to soupman2545- you have helped make us better.

Let’s face it, you aren’t cut out for this job. You are in over your head, and soon everyone will discover it! What were you even thinking? You can’t help your teachers grow. You should never have done this, and you will certainly never make it to the next level.Ouch – such terrible thoughts! There is a diagnosis for this kind of negative thinking and it is called imposter syndrome – the feeling that, despite everything you have achieved, you are somehow not fit to do the job you are doing.If you, like me, are one of those afflicted souls, stay tuned. We are going to turn imposter syndrome on its head! If you have never suffered from imposter syndrome, you need to listen to this episode because many of your colleagues do suffer from it.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of May 8-12, 2023.Celebrations: Garden planted out! New AP (1 & 2) mentoring program progress!

That my friends is a musical introduction to today’s theme – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.We aren’t talking about spaghetti westerns, but rather a valuable process to help school leadersget an honest snapshot of what is working, what’s not working, and most importantly what to doabout it. My guests are two incredible educational leaders and human beings and you’ll betapping into over 100 years of leadership experience in today’s show.

Today we will begin with the end. There are many big and complex problems we need to solve, but the process will be slow and require great effort.In contrast, there are small quality-of-life improvements we can make that are simple and yield immediate results.We looked at three this week:Get rid of things that aren’t essentialProduce a minimally viable version as quickly and simply as possibleLet your colleagues know how glad you are that they are here today!

Back in episode 44 I shared the story that drives me in which I talked about Kelli, an assistant principal who was overwhelmed with discipline. I visited her around 10:00 o'clock on a spring morning in her rural elementary school and she already had seven office referrals. When I asked Kelli how many of those referrals reflected teacher problems more than kid problems she said five.The bad news was that there were five kids getting in trouble who shouldn't be getting in trouble and that Kelli was being overwhelmed and prevented from doing her job of developing teachers. The good news was that if we could find a way to get Kelly into those teachers’ classrooms we could stop the cycle. The best news is there's a way to help those teachers with minimal cost, minimal training, and minimal effort.

If you get my daily email, you already know that this week’s messages involved me going head-to-head with ChatGPT on the topic of creating a positive organizational culture. What I didn’t have space to discuss in the emails is how we can use the framework of the six dimensions of organizations to help provide a more coherent understanding of organizational culture. So today’s five for Friday will be substantially different from the weeks emails and will give you some important things to think about whether you are a daily email reader or not.

At the beginning of this school year, North Carolina embarked on a two-year, $90-million journey to train every elementary and teachers and administrator in a program called LETRS, which aligns to Science of Reading standards, a research-based approach to teaching reading. The training focuses on building a knowledge base about how students learn to read, as opposed to being a collection of strategies. This knowledge base comes at a steep price – about 160 hours of study and training in order to learn it. Breaking down the numbers, over the two years, each administrator and teacher will be asked to spend almost 30-minutes a day learning LETRS, and NC will spend a minimum of $2,000 on each person. For experienced teachers who have the time and desire to dig into the science of reading, LETRS might be a great resource, but for the teachers who are struggling just to survive each day, for the early career teachers who are still working through the basics of managing a classroom, planning lessons, and using formative assessments, a huge comprehensive program makes no sense.For less than 30-minutes a day and less than $2000, you can help many of your teachers to live and teach better immediately. Better yet, the process is simple. Not always easy, but simple.

Famous leadership theorist and author John Maxwell said, “leadership s influence, nothing less, nothing more.”Is that it? Is that really all leadership is?

When I say “People before Purpose” what do I actually mean? When I say the silver bullet -the one truly magical solution – is to build relationships, what does that look like? Today we will unpack two relationship forms. Congenial relationships are based on personal connections, while collegial relationships are based on professional connections. We will dig deeper into each of these and into how to lead when teachers are in crisis.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 10-14, 2023.

Saying that great leaders are great listeners has almost become cliché. Listening is one of thosethings that sounds simple, but which can be challenging to execute – especially when all thecraziness is happening. Part of the challenge is that listening requires presence – full presence.I’m going to ask you for something special today. Today, as you listen to this podcast, don’t justlisten. Really listen. What’s the difference? You are about to find out!

If I can’t do everything, doesn’t that mean that I choose what does get done – and what doesn’t? And if I’m choosing, do my choices reflect my values? These three ideas make up my three epiphanies:I can’t do everythingTherefore, I choose what gets doneAnd my choices do – or should – reflect my valuesToday’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 3-7, 2023.

You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round ofprofessional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution isdifficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us ahighly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’sconversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to acton.

I had a lot of fun writing this week’s emails. Last week I met and worked with some incredible people, and it just made the whole week special. I hope that positivity radiates through this week’s messages. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 27-31, 2023.

You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round ofprofessional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution isdifficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us ahighly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’sconversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to acton.

Simple fences, small wins, and three tips for interviewing. But wait, there’s more!Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 20-24, 2023.

So many teachers to coach but so little time! A simple coaching cycle might consist of a Five minute pre-conference, 30-minute observation, 10-minute post conference, and 30 minutes of professional development. Most APs don’t have 75 minutes to invest in a single coaching cycle. But what if there was a form of coaching that would allow you to do 15 coaching sessions in the same amount of time as a traditional coaching cycle. You could support 15 teachers instead of one, or work with three teachers five different times! In a world that moves so quickly, seventy five-minute coaching may not make sense, but 5-minute coaching most certainly does!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 13-17, 2023.

Are the keys to being a great teacher the same as the keys to being a great principal? And arethose keys the same for being a great assistant principal? We will unlock the answers to thosequestions today, with a very special guest.

This week I took a break from the daily emails. Mara did a great job filling in, but rather than try and tell her story today, I thought I’d share a bit about what waterfalls can teach us about school change. I often think about leadership, and the prevalence of water in the Smoky’s almost guarantees that it will feature prominently in my thoughts, so here are some things we can learn about school change from understanding waterfalls:1. Waterfalls don’t start out as waterfalls, they start in many places and slowly collect together. a. Change should come from the individuals furthest upstream – the teachersb. Allow people to come to the change in their own time2. Water takes the path of least resistance – meaning that the waterfall occurs because there are barriers blocking water in some places and low points making it easier for water to flow in others. a. Make it easier for people to adopt the change by providing support and removing obstaclesb. Make it more difficult to avoid the change by adding barriers3. The power of the waterfall is dependent on the flow of water, when water is diverted or in short supply, the waterfall slows.a. Taking your attention away – diverting – will slow the change4. Leader is like the land, contouring and shaping, but not controlling. The water does the work, the land just creates the conditions Change is a strange feature of organizations:· Schools rarely stay the same but also resist many efforts at change· Everyone can and needs to grow, but many change initiatives take the attention away from individual improvement, thereby making each teacher’s development more challenging· Change should be driven from the bottom and adopted by the entire organization only when it has demonstrated success, yet we often go the opposite way, driving mandatory changes from the top and abandoning them only after they fail.· Change is a natural process and leaders need to shape change, but they can’t control it. The waterfall I build in my backyard can never rival the majesty of those in nature, so know the difference between what you are trying to build and what is naturally building itself. And remember, people want to get better, they want to grow – that is the natural course of things. Think about how to work with that rather than trying to control or usurp it.