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 dereka206.sg-host.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 dereka206.sg-host.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 [email protected] 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.
Learn More About Jennie Magiera, Head of Education at Google
Jennie Magiera is the Global Head of Education Impact at Google, bestselling author of Courageous Edventures, and the founder and president of the non-profit Our Voice Alliance (whose mission is to elevate marginalized voices and perspectives to improve equity and empathy in education). Previously, she was the Chief Innovation Officer for CCSD62, the Digital Learning Coordinator for the Academy for Urban School Leadership, and a Chicago Public Schools teacher. A White House Champion for Change, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Innovator, and TEDx Speaker, Jennie works to improve education globally.
She is also passionate about transforming professional learning, having served on the Technical Working Group for the US Department of Education’s National Educational Technology Plan, co-founding PLAYDATE and other conferences. You can follow Jennie on Twitter at @MsMagiera and pick up her book on Amazon.
Key Thoughts from Our Interview with Jennie Magiera
Understanding the Diffusion of Innovation Curve and how it applies to people and their adoption of innovation is profound for educational leaders who are transforming classrooms into innovation hubs. Don’t miss our discussion about Crossing the Chasm.
You have to hear how Jennie shifted her approach as an instructional coach to enable people to see how technology can radically improve student achievement and solve their unique problems as teachers.
Her insight into how educators define and see themselves provides an excellent window into why change can be so difficult.
Listen to how she is “double clicking” on the humanity of change and who she would love to have pizza with.
Her time blocking suggestion is powerful for go-getters who are looking for more space in their day.
You can’t miss why she wants to learn Korean.
She articulates how she accomplishes an enormous amount in a day, yet also knows when enough has been done.
Don’t miss Jennie’s protractor story and how she describes that technology is a tool, only to be used for the right reasons.
One Thing Series Summary
Jennie’s interview is a powerful blend of technology and human performance. She eloquently describes that a people-first mentality is needed to successfully lead an innovation revolution in our schools. We are grateful that she discussed how she was not always an innovator but sought disruption to improve the student experience.
We hope to hear from you about your favorite parts of both the blog and the interview. Please comment below. Follow, like, and share.
Use #onethingseries and #SH302 so that we can find you. For more great leadership content, follow dereka206.sg-host.com.
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.
Learn from Women Leaders: A Look Into Top Female Innovators
There is no substitute for effective leadership and taking the time to read and learn from diverse people from all industries only helps to expand a school principals’ ability to view complex issues through a broad yet critical lens.
We’ve discovered that innovation in schools can be limited by the culture of the organization. Fortunately, it is well within the scope of any leader’s reach to become more innovative by implementing a few key practices. Below is our School Innovation Leadership Model.
Topics We Cover Regarding Innovative Educator Leadership:
We discuss how to be innovative even during times of uncertainty and mass change. The Dual Pandemics of Covid19 and Racism have created opportunities to seize change and to be innovative in schools and the classroom.
We highlight that innovation can be incremental and that small adjustments can eventually make for major changes. We pointed back to Society Nine from our blog this month.
We talk about how values can create an environment that welcomes and embraces new ideas.
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 dereka206.sg-host.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.
Servant and Service Leadership: Harmony Between the Two for Superior Principal Leadership
Servant leadership is touted and recognized as an effective way to lead. Principals who embrace servant leadership build their winning team by empowering their school community at all levels. This month, we draw a simple distinction between servant leadership and service leadership. We contend that service leadership is the actionable aspect of effective leadership that goes beyond the general duties of the job. Service leaders provide something special and unique for each person on the team or for the community at large. They don’t just empower, they provide.
To better understand how to be a service leader, we offer the 4 Ps of Service Leadership, which we breakdown in this month’s 302 Thoughts. This component of our One Thing Series podcast, takes a deep dive into this month’s topic so that anyone in an educational leadership position–district leaders, principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders–all see how they can uniquely support a learning environment throughout the entire school community.
We discuss how service leadership is the engine behind servant leadership. Essentially, the way we empower others impacts how they can serve in their roles.
We break down the 4 P model and how it can guide our daily work.
We emphasize the power of a positive attitude and how it really is a choice.
We talk about turning pride into something of virtue rather than voice.
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 dereka206.sg-host.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.
A highly-regarded urban educator in New Jersey for over twenty years, Principal Baruti Kafele distinguished himself as a master teacher and a transformational school leader. As an elementary school teacher in East Orange, NJ, he was selected as the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, he was a New Jersey State Teacher of the Year finalist, and a recipient of the New Jersey Education Association Award of Excellence.
As a middle and high school principal, Principal Kafele led the turnaround of four different New Jersey urban schools, including “The Mighty” Newark Tech, which went from a low-performing school in need of improvement to national recognition, which included U.S. News and World Report Magazine recognizing it three times as one of America’s best high schools.
One of the most sought-after school leadership experts and education speakers in America, Principal Kafele is impacting America’s schools! He has delivered over two thousand conference and program keynotes, professional development workshops, parenting seminars and student assemblies over his 34 years of public speaking. An expert in the area of “attitude transformation,” Principal Kafele is the leading authority for providing effective classroom and school leadership strategies toward closing what he coined as the “Attitude Gap.”
A prolific writer, Principal Kafele has written extensively on professional development strategies for creating a positive school climate and culture, transforming the attitudes of at-risk students, motivating Black males to excel in the classroom, and school leadership practices for inspiring schoolwide excellence. In addition to writing several professional articles for popular education journals, he has authored eleven books, including his six ASCD best sellers — Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life, Closing the Attitude Gap, The Teacher 50, Is My School a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Principal 50,andThe Assistant Principal 50. He is also the author of the ASCD book, The Aspiring Principal 50. His next book – The Equity and Social Justice Education 50 will be released in May, 2021.
Key Thoughts from Our Interview w/ Principal Kafele:
Principal Kafele dives deep into how principals can best support their teachers to create an award winning school. He also delves into the topic of social justice and how every listener can better understand what this means to reimagine our schools for the future.
Listen to how Principal Kafele shielded his teachers, allowing them to focus on their classroom and their students.
Principal Kafele describes his philosophy regarding lesson planning and the power of only planning one week at a time. “If you’re not planning, you’re winging it.”
He describes what supportive leadership really is and what it looks like in practice. Don’t miss the story he tells about challenging his superintendent.
Principal Kafele identifies Frank Mickens and his success as a principal as instrumental in his own development.
You don’t want to miss his advice on how to regain your purpose and stay true to your why. His own why: “I want to build men out of boys.”
Similar to other guests, Principal Kafele describes his desire to jump from an airplane. He already knows how to fly one.
Several times, Principal Kafele described “holes” in our current conversations about equity in schools. He lists 4 books that everyone should read to have an understanding of race, racism, and social justice in America.
Listen to how Principal Kafele’s views have changed on teachers and what makes the difference in the lives of children. “We need solid people who can take care of business and who will learn what they don’t know.”
Principal Kafele’s interview is a powerful testimony of someone who has successfully led award-winning schools amid incredibly challenging circumstances. We are grateful that he discussed how social justice can be reflected throughout the curriculum and what we can do to better prepare ourselves as educational leaders. It was an awesome follow-up to our latest blogpost on service leadership.
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 dereka206.sg-host.com.
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.
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