This is Season 3, Episode 3 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Jethro Jones. It was originally recorded live for a studio audience in Delaware, provided as a professional development experience for Delaware teachers and leaders. Don’t miss what Jethro has to say about students learning faster, better, and more. 

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Jethro Jones Brings Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Jethro Jones is the 2017 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year, former principal, and current host of the Transformative Principal podcast. He is also the founder of The Center for Cyberethics, an independent, non-partisan educational institute dedicated to the study and promotion of cyberethics. 

Jethro is the author of the book, SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves! He currently helps principals, schools, and districts find simple solutions to complex problems. Jethro has worked as a principal at all K-12 levels, and he has served the profession in several roles, including his work in a prison school, as a district coach, as the distance learning team lead, and as an English teacher.

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Show Notes: FocusED with Jethro Jones

Jethro’s leadership hierarchy: 

Warm body–it sucks but sometimes you just need someone in the role

Manager–takes care of process and programs 

Leader–has a vision for the school 

Designer–someone who is designing the environment and adapts the school to meet the needs of the community as groups change over time

Becoming a designer is likely getting fit; you don’t do it all at once. ~ Jethro Jones 

Jethro: “The best way to develop empathy is to experience what others are going through.” Jethro suggests shadowing a student in your school to see what their day is like. 

Jethro says that teacher feedback and improving instruction is about working with each individual teacher and not making bold statements to everyone because of one thing you say in a single classroom. 

Jethro mentions Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about what Amy Fast did in her school to find out about the student experience, and he recommended a book called The Coaching Habit by Michael Stanier. 

Jethro brings up The Conscience Code by Richard Shell, which was an awesome connection because we just interviewed Richard on our OneThingSeries. 

Jethro’s goal is to impact 100 million students’ lives by supporting principals in schools. His next book will uncover the secrets that he has learned in over 450 podcast interviews with school leaders. 

Don’t miss his work at transformativeprincipal.com. 

The next step for a great leader, as Jethro explained, is to ask people how they can contribute to the vision.

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Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ dereka206.sg-host.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.

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. 

Author Jeffrey Benson Joins FocusED to Discuss How Educators Can Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL

This is Season 3, Episode 2 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Jeffrey Benson. It was originally recorded live for a studio audience in Delaware, provided as a professional development experience for Delaware teachers and leaders. Don’t miss what Jeffrey has to say about improving the student experience in every classroom. 

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Jeffrey Benson Brings Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Jeffrey Benson has worked in almost every school context with over 40 years of experience in the field of education: as a teacher in elementary, middle, and high schools; as an instructor in undergraduate and graduate programs; as an administrator in day and residential schools. 

He has studied and worked side-by-side with national leaders in the fields of special education, learning theory, trauma and addiction, school reform, advisory programs, math curriculum, adult development, and conflict resolution. 

His books include Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL, Hanging In: Strategies for Working with the Students Who Challenge Us Most, and Ten Steps for Managing Change in Schools.

The core of Jeffrey Benson’s work is in understanding how people learn, the starting point for everything that schools should do.

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Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ dereka206.sg-host.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.

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. 

High Expectations for All Students, What Educators Should Stop Doing, and Much More with Guest Basil Marin

This is Season 3, Episode 1 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Basil Marin. It was originally recorded live for a studio audience in Delaware, provided as a professional development experience for Delaware teachers and leaders. Don’t miss what Basil has to say about treating all students with high expectations and some of what we get wrong when we schedule students into lower-level courses.

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Dr. Basil Marin Brings Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Dr. Basil Marin hails from the Central Virginia area. He is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He later earned a Master of Teaching in Special Education from Liberty University. After moving to the Virginia Beach area in 2014, he pursued an Educational Specialist in Administration & Supervision from Old Dominion University. Dr. Marin recently earned an Executive Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Old Dominion University in 2020.

Dr. Marin is one of the proud assistant principals of Chamblee Charter High School, a diverse high school located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Marin brings an authentic and refreshing perspective to the field of education. As an administrator, he works hard to foster equitable opportunities and inclusive learning environments where ALL students and teachers are valued and respected. 

Dr. Marin works daily to build meaningful relationships with students and desires to be the administrator he needed when he was growing up yet did not have access to. As a former struggling student himself, Dr. Marin is humbled to be able to give back to students who historically have fallen through the cracks of education and have not been given a second chance.

Dr. Marin has been afforded some incredible opportunities through the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) organization such as being selected as a 2017 Emerging Leader and being appointed as a “featured speaker” at the 2019 Empower Conference in Chicago. In addition, he met with U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy Devos and her executive team to speak on behalf of marginalized and underserved students and he explained how the lack of funding has impacted their educational experiences. Currently, Dr. Marin is the President for the Emerging Leaders ASCD National Affiliate. Dr. Marin is a contributing author in several books including Personal, Authentic, & Unconventional Leadership, Modern Mentor, Forces of Influence, and It’s Me. And today we’re talking about 100 No-Nonsense Things That All Teachers Should Stop Doing.

Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ dereka206.sg-host.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.

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. 

Dan Domenech Brings Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Daniel A. Domenech has served as the executive director of the AASA, The School Superintendents Association, since 2008. Domenech has more than 45 years of experience in public education; for twenty-seven of those years, he served as a school superintendent.

Prior to joining AASA, Domenech served as senior vice president for National Urban Markets with McGraw-Hill Education. In this role, he was responsible for building strong relationships with large school districts nationwide.

Before he took the position at McGraw-Hill, Domenech served for seven years as superintendent of the Fairfax County, Va., Public Schools, the 12th largest school system in the nation with 168,000 students.

Domenech began his teaching career in New York City, where he taught sixth grade in a predominantly black and Hispanic community in South Jamaica, Queens. He then became program director for the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which is the largest intermediate school district in the State of New York. Following this, he was first named superintendent of schools for Long Island’s Deer Park Schools and then became superintendent of schools for the ethnically diverse South Huntington School District, also on Long Island — a position he held for 13 years. From 1994 to 1997, he was district superintendent of the Second Supervisory District of Suffolk County and chief executive officer of the Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Domenech, an AASA member since 1979, served as president of AASA from July 1998 to June 1999.  He is also a past president of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, the Suffolk County Superintendents Association, and the Suffolk County Organization for Promotion of Education. He was the first president and co-founder of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education.

In addition, Domenech has served on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment Governing Board, the advisory board for the Department of Defense schools, the board of directors of the Association for the Advancement of International Education, the Board of Overseers for the Baldrige Award and the boards of the Institute for Educational Leadership, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Sea Research Foundation, and Education Policy Institute. Currently, he serves on the boards of the Learning First Alliance, National Student Clearinghouse, Center for Naval Analyses, Horace Mann Educators Corporation,  ACT, USAC, and board chair for Communities in Schools of Virginia.  

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College in New York City and a Ph.D. from Hofstra University in Uniondale, N.Y.

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Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ dereka206.sg-host.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.

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. 

Starr Sackstein Brings Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Starr Sackstein was a Teacher Center teacher and ELA teacher at Long Island City High School in New York. She also spent nine years at World Journalism Preparatory School in Flushing, New York, as a high school English and journalism teacher where her students ran the multimedia news outlet WJPSnews.com. As a teacher, she completely got rid of grades, teaching students that learning isn’t about numbers, but about the development of skills and the ability to articulate growth.

Starr also has experience as the Director of Humanities (Business, English, Library, Reading, Social Studies, and World Languages) in West Hempstead, New York. It was from this experience that she wrote From Teacher to Leader: Finding Your Way as a First-Time Leader Without Losing Your Mind.

She is the author of many books (I’m not going to list them all). Here are a few of her titles: 

• Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective 
• Blogging for Educators, Teaching Students to Self-Assess: How Do I Help Students Grow as Learners?
• The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry, Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School
• Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside of the Classroom co-written with Connie Hamilton
• Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empower Students to be the Experts with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
• From Teacher to Leader: Finding Your Way as a First-Time Leader without Losing Your Mind in 2019 (DBC)
• Assessing with Respect: Everyday Practices that Meet Students’ Social and Emotional Needs (ASCD), which just came out in March of 2021
• Hacking Learning Centers in Grades 6-12: Teaching Choice and Providing Small Group Learning Opportunities in Content Rich Classes co-authored with Karen Terwilliger which is set to come out in 2021

At speaking engagements around the world, Starr speaks about blogging, journalism education, bring your own device, and throwing out grades, which was also highlighted in a recent TEDx talk entitled “A Recovering Perfectionist’s Journey to Give up Grades.” In 2016, she was named one of ASCD’s Emerging Leaders.

In recent years, Starr has spoken internationally in Canada, Dubai, and South Korea on a variety of topics from assessment reform to technology-enhanced language instruction.

She is now a full time consultant with the Core Collaborative, working with teams on assessment reform and bringing student voice to the front of all classroom learning. She is also the publisher with Mimi and Todd Press, helping other authors share their voices around making an impact for students such as Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity: The Keys to Successful Equity Implementation by Cobb and Krownapple. Most recently, Arrows: A Systems-Based Approach to School Leadership by Rosebrock and Henry.

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Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ dereka206.sg-host.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.

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.