Don’t miss this vblog on YouTube or catch our Read This segment of our One Thing Series podcast–books you need to read to lead better and grow faster.
Featured Author: Danny Bauer
Featured Books: Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader
Why We Love This Book for School Leaders
We’ll say it up front and just get it out of the way, Danny is a friend of TheSchoolHouse302, and we are thrilled about his new book. You might say we are biased, and that is impacting our review. Honestly, we would agree 100%. But only because we curate authors as often as we curate books, and Danny’s last book was a hit with us as well.
We carefully select what we read at this point, and each page that we turn is with the expectation that we will learn something new to apply in our roles. This book achieves that for us with a twist. As Bauer quickly writes in the beginning of his book, Masterminds are not a new way to develop leaders. In fact, we first read about the concept of a Mastermind in Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich. Before we go on, if you have not read Think and Grow Rich, pause right now and buy it. Don’t let the title fool you. The riches Hill describes are far beyond material wealth and include what many educators truly desire–making a difference for the betterment of this world.
Back to Danny’s new book. Here’s why we consider this is a must read:
Danny tackles several taboos that limit our growth as school leaders.
The book uncovers the A, B, & C of successful professional learning.
It is written almost as a testimony to how Masterminds have changed leaders for the better. The case studies are fantastic.
The book dives into the power of emotional intelligence, which is needed now more than ever.
A Better School Leader
To be a great leader we have to be willing to venture out and experience learning in new and different ways that can stretch and challenge our thinking. Reading is a great way to do that if you build a system to implement what you read. Another great way is to join a community of individuals who don’t want to be average leaders and who truly want to do something great for their community.
The second best thing you can do right now is to take the time to learn about the power of masterminds and how they can transform and unlock your thinking. The first best thing you can do is to enroll yourself today.
PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or an email.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
We live in a time that has been deemed the “information age.” Some argue that in the 21st Century we can be exposed to more information in one week than those who lived in the 17th Century would be exposed to in their entire lives. In many ways that makes our mere existence more challenging as we look to lead our schools effectively. We need discrete skills that enable us to process and filter an abundance of information. Knowing how to discern and weed through all of the channels in order to make sound decisions is a marquee skill of any effective principal. That skill needs to be coupled with another critical and complementary skill, which is knowing how to apply that knowledge in actionable and strategic ways.
Who is John Dewey and How Did He Impact the World?
Effective principal leaders know how to synthesize information and apply it to the unique needs of their schools.
This is what brought us back to the work of John Dewey this month. We wanted to study the claims that Dewey might have made about teaching and learning during COVID19. And, we explore this in our 302 Thoughts this month.
Taking what we’ve learned and experienced from the pandemic, we sought to embark on a tried and true classroom practice: problem based learning. We focus on the good that can come from such a tumultuous time in education. We wanted to add an abstract element to spark creativity, so we did our best to filter our ideas through the powerful lens of the great educational reformer, John Dewey.
Critical Ideas from our 302 Thoughts: Student-Centered Learning
Students and teachers need support in multiple ways and beyond just learning in the classroom. As humans we are confronted with challenges that stifle and limit teaching and learning. Great principals need to understand, recognize, and build support for students and teachers.
A Creative Way to Support Students
Affinity Groups
A Creative Way to Support Teachers
Faculty-led before or after school wellness classes (such as yoga).
Engagement is everything. Students need to be engaged in the classroom and teachers need to be engaged in their departments and the school as a whole.
A Creative Way to Engage Students
Require students to create questions, not answers, on what is being learned. Stoke their creativity.
A Creative Way to Engage Teachers
Ask them to specifically identify the professional learning experiences that they want.
Opportunities are found in the right mindset. Going through the last year and not learning from all of our trials would be an injustice to our school system.
A Creative Way to Provide Opportunities for Students
Continue to employ the various instructional tools and supports that helped students learn (stay tuned for our ESSER focused blog next month).
A Creative Way to Provide Opportunities for Teachers
Create ad hoc groups to determine the aspects of hybrid and remote learning that should not be discontinued.
Ultimately, it is up to us to decide if we will learn from the great thinkers and reformers of the past and capitalize on the opportunities of today, no matter what form they take. COVID19 was completely unexpected, and it certainly upended our educational system. Let’s take advantage of what we accomplished and the lessons we learned thus far.
We hope you like this month’s 302 Thoughts as we continue to discuss leadership and the impact that you can have on your community. Next month, we go live with our first ever open audience 302 Thoughts; we hope to see you there.
Stay tuned for more nuggets of wisdom, podcasts, books to read, reflection sessions, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster in schools. Follow us at theschoolhouse302.com to join thousands of leaders who get our content each month. Send this to a friend.
As always, let us know what you think of this with a like, a follow, or a comment. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCloud. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen.
TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Here’s Why Every Principal Leader, Administrator, and Educator Should Read These Books by John Dewey
Leaders are busy. Educators are always running short on time so it is of the utmost importance to select the right books, ones that will take your leadership skills to another level.
Think about the following reflection questions as educators:
Do you want to think more clearly about thoughts, balance of mind, and how to think critically?
Do you want to understand how to analyze your school and thoughtfully determine what decisions will lead to the greatest gains for students?
Do you want to better understand how to lead change, maintain high standards, and not suppress individuality?
If you answered a BIG YES to these questions then take some time and enjoy these two incredible books by one of the most influential educational reformers in history, John Dewey.
Experience and Education
We’ll start with Experience and Education. Honestly it’s tough to choose what books to select since John Dewey was such a prolific writer. However, these two do a great job encapsulating the guiding thoughts of John Dewey.
Experience and Education is a relatively short work in which Dewey analyzes education. This is one lens to read this book from–not only to learn what John Dewey thought and believed in but to also understand how he critically examined our profession as a philosopher. This is a very important skill for any administrator.
What we find sobering is that when you delve into this work and read how Dewey contrasts traditional and progressive education, you almost can’t believe that it was written so long ago. It reads like a present day reform effort. There is no doubt that education has advanced, but the system itself has not fundamentally changed.
How We Think
The second book we chose was How We Think (free download), partly because it shines an amazing light into what it means to be human, and, also, because we are educational leaders, we must understand the importance of how we operate as people. Our thoughts and our actions are what define us as leaders; by understanding ourselves better, we create greater potential for success in others.
An example of how Dewey delves into our inner workings is in Chapter 2 with our need to train our thinking. This is a concept that has spanned many works from Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within, to books on Emotional Intelligence. Check out Dewey’s quote below.
PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or an email.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Here’s Why Every School Principal Should Read This Book About Appreciation for in the Workplace
Lead with Appreciation is great because it’s written by practitioners. Principals and school leaders are looking for ideas that they can implement right away. Look no further on how to show appreciation than this fantastic book.
Not everyone accepts appreciation or desires to experience appreciation the same way. This book not only features some great tools like the enneagram, but it digs into our work-appreciation languages. P.S. You can find our interview with enneagram specialist, Kaley Klemp here.
This book is littered with primary resources. The pictures are real, and they add an element of authenticity and reassurance. As a visual learner, this is awesome and takes away some of the mental wrestling that occurs when you are trying to understand what something would look like.
Another great takeaway is that this book is written with most of the chapters focused on the months of the school year. It’s a power planning tip when we can pre-populate our calendar with action items months ahead of schedule.
PS — If you have a topic you want us to cover or need recommendations on books to read in a particular area of leadership, just send us a tweet or an email.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
The school year, especially May, is a busy time of year for everyone. Add on to this reality the Covid19 pandemic and we are faced with a recipe of fatigue, frustration, and possibly a dollop of uncertainty. We want to acknowledge these feelings and actually put them on the table to be known. By acknowledging how we feel and what we are experiencing, we begin to exercise a level of control.
As Echart Tolle reminds us, “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” It is ok to be tired, to desire normalcy and desire a routine. Great principals understand this reality and use this energy to positively end the school year on a high note.
We know from Dan Kahnemann’s work that finishing the school year strong and successfully is paramount. No matter how challenging this year was, educational leaders have the ability to leave a favorable and lasting positive impression on all of their teachers. What is terrific is that regardless of how challenging the year was, these final moments are what will be remembered throughout the summer. Yes, this year has been tough but there is no doubt that this was a year of triumph, so celebrate.
Take note as we close out the school year to recognize the great things that have happened. Actually, take some risks and pull a page out of the book of Krasinki and feature Some Good News. Why not start a daily YouTube video featuring the terrific work that’s been accomplished.
In education, we live by a few unwritten and untold rules that bind us to a world of caution. We are not suggesting being reckless but rather demonstrating unbridled and unique appreciation and gratitude. We hold back because we worry about precedence and opinion, but now is not the time to sit back, but to step forward and truly appreciate others.
We are not in any way suggesting that this year wasn’t tough and that the road ahead won’t be filled with challenges. What we are saying is that at the end of the year we need to connect with everyone on the staff, continue to be consistent and present, communicate often, and celebrate!
We hope you like this month’s 302 Thoughts as we continue to discuss leadership and the impact that you can have on your community.
Stay tuned for more nuggets of wisdom, podcasts, books to read, reflection sessions, and the best resources for leading better and growing faster in schools. Follow us at theschoolhouse302.com to join thousands of leaders who get our content each month. Send this to a friend.
As always, let us know what you think of this with a like, a follow, or a comment. Find us on Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, & SoundCould. And, again, if you want one simple model for leading better and growing faster per month, follow this blog by entering your email at the top right of the screen.
TheSchoolHouse302 is about getting to simple by maximizing effective research-based strategies that empower individuals to lead better and grow faster.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Amber Teamann serves as the Director of Technology for Crandall ISD, a fast-growing district outside of Dallas, Texas. During her educational career, Amber’s comprehensive understanding of student learning has resulted in a successful blend of technology and leading. Through her campus and district level leadership, she has helped initiate instructional change district-wide, empowering teachers at all levels.
Amber knows that we can all be better together and strives to make every day the very best it can be for each member of her staff and students. As an award-winning administrator, she has been a featured speaker in multiple states helping motivate, encourage, and help develop the capacity of teachers and leaders nationwide. Recognizing the power of social media, working with districts and campuses on finding their voice, and leveraging the power of connected educators has led her down a path she completely owes to the power of a professional learning network.
Key Thoughts from Our Interview with Amber Teamann:
Amber wastes no time diving into key strategies to stay connected with teachers and remain sensitive to the time of year and all the stresses associated with wrapping up this school year. Her wisdom will guide any listener who is looking to finish the school year strong and who wants to be mindful of the various activities that could easily send the wrong message.
Listen to how Amber continually recognizes that the classroom is the most important space in every school.
Amber reminds us that we always have to remember that as leaders our position precedes us as people–it is our responsibility to maintain the same level of energy and enthusiasm throughout the entire year.
Don’t miss Amber’s third key strategy, which is focused on how not to overwhelm our staff.
Amber identified Angela Watson as her go-to resource for herself and her teachers.
There is no doubt that Amber is techie, but you don’t want to overlook her sage advice on setting boundaries with social media.
One of her professional goals will resonate with any district leader who is really striving to make an impact through service.
Throughout this interview, Amber displayed a level of insight and wisdom. You can’t miss her testimony on how she learned the power in identifying what she doesn’t know.
Amber puts an end to this wonderful conversation by amplifying the concept that the smartest person in the room is the room itself.
Amber’s interview is filled with very specific strategies to end the year in a supportive and encouraging way, coupled with high expectations. We are grateful that she discussed her experience as a principal and those early lessons she learned that taught her how to effectively lead. It was an awesome follow-up to our latest blogpost on effective educational leadership and how to finish the school year strong.
We hope to hear from you about your favorite parts of both the blog and the interview. Please comment below.
Please follow, like, and share. Use #onethingseries and #SH302 so that we can find you. For more great leadership content, follow theschoolhouse302.com.
On July 12th and 13th, we bring to you our Masterclass in Candid and Compassionate Feedback. It’s just 4 hours, 9-11AM EST, on both days. Email contact@theschoolhouse302.com to reserve your seat. Also, on July 19th and 20th, we’re offering our first Masterclass in Building a Winning Team. Both days, 9-11AM EST, you’ll learn ways that you can build your reputation, tell your story, and attract top talent to your school. Email us today.
This episode was brought to you by GhostBed, a family-owned business of sleep experts with 20+ years of experience. With 30K+ 5-star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GhostBed. Their mattresses are handcrafted, and they come with a 101-night-at-home-sleep trial. For a limited time, you can get 30% by using our code — SH302 — at checkout. And, even if you tell someone about GhostBed, you can earn a $100 referral reward. Go to Ghostbed.com today and use SH302 at checkout.
Claim Your FREE Copy to Our Praise Practice- Practical Praise Giving Tips for Principals
Learn how you can give practical praise each day as you lead your school to develop a better and more positive culture through this complimentary eBook we use in our workshops to help principals all over the nation and subscribe for more resources like this one delivered to your inbox.
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