Episode #56: Chris Dodge
Under Chris’ leadership, The Dexter Park Innovation School has moved to an inclusion school, servicing students through a co-teaching model of instruction.
Christopher Dodge is currently the Principal of The Orange Elementary School in Orange, MA, serving 500 students in grades PreK-6. He began his career as a grade 5 and 6 educator in Petersham, MA. Christopher’s passion as an educator included differentiating mathematics instruction for all students. Christopher is an advocate for adult and student’ social-emotional well-being, and the impact it has on student achievement. Christopher has served on the Board of Directors as the Elementary Committee Chairman for the Massachusetts School Administrators Association (MSAA). He most recently served on the Commissioner’s Teaching and Learning subcommittee for reopening schools. He is a connected educator who utilizes social media to make family and community connections, and is passionate about educators using social media as a form of ongoing, personalized professional development. He is also the coordinator of EdcampNQ in Orange, MA.
Tell me your trenches story: Relevant learning. Chris thinks about self as a learner.Has been able to reflect on his life as a learner. Was a good student but not necessarily engaged. Didn’t know himself as a learner until he got to college, the drive he had he didn’t realize he had. Is today the moment for us as educators, rethinking what school means? He knew how to play the game of school. Wasn’t necessarily an engaged learner. Are we teaching kids to pursue their passions and be great at things? Chris didn’t know himself as a learner until later in life. A lot of talk about hanging grades over their heads. Why isn’t school meaningful to them? How are we building mechanisms to go back to- teacher, group, club, team to go back to when they’re closed? If we go back to what we’ve already lost the opportunity. Could be up to Dept. of Ed, or states, being innovative in their approaches. His principal colleagues are trying to create practices that have always applied. He doesn’t put blame on educators or system. A lot is created by government. Systems, we’re held accountable by government systems.
Personalized Learning: On March 13, 2020, it felt good to have the freedom to pursue personalized learning. The system doesn’t always help with passions we want to pursue. They have shifted as a district to move more to personalized learning. In the remote classes, kids can access the content outside the 8-1 school day. It allows them to say to families about “how can we help you”? They’re developing Personalized Learning Plans for pockets of students of how a child is going to access things, what are your challenges and how can we work from those. Looking at every case individually. Some have device issues, parents working, etc. Chris offered opportunities and said to parents “you choose”. We need to keep up with practices we’ve been pursing. How can we help students still be engaged, but not in the typical way? Build in common planning & specials time. Whatever they provide synchronously they need to provide asynchronously as well. Closely monitor students through these programs. Chris & his deans meet weekly to discuss gaps in student engagement. They started a remote learning academy in December- a handful of disengaged students came into the building. They gave them tools to be a remote learner, send them on their way. 4-6 week cycle to see if the student is ready to move on. Make decisions based on individual students. We often assume kids have skills that adults don’t have. It’s taking that approach of teaching kids important life-long skills. They will have to learn to be a learner in this environment. Teacher doesn’t have to be that “stand and deliver” teacher, you’re a facilitator. It’s hard for families if we’re not all aligned, it’s not a one-size-fits-all model. Personalized learning doesn’t mean learning is optional. We will still intervene. We need to hear how it’s going for them.
Tell me about your virtual learning experience as a parent, his kids were also in remote learning (until early March ’21). He was on a re-opening commission across the state but they still asked every district to decide on their own. It’s interesting to listen & watch districts around them. What can we borrow from other leaders, talk to teachers about what isn’t working for them in their son/daughter’s district.
Evaluations, how does that look this year? Chris is the on principal’s advisory cabinet, it’s not really doable this year because it’s such a robust system. A neighboring district did decide to postpone evaluations this year. He can’t pretend he fully understands what teachers are dealing with this year. He’s doing it more as a formative coaching, can’t be used as a “got ya”. He’s using it to coach & reflect with his staff. If you think about assessment it would be great if we had time to do it right- holistic goal set with kids, tracking. Chris has 60 staff members he has to evaluate. Danielsen has a remote learning framework for reflecting with a teacher to look for in a remote setting. Click here to see my blog post, reflecting on this episode and with a link to the (Remote learning walk- through form from Danielsen) Dean & him look for evidence of what they’d like to share out. Recently, it’s been learning environment evidence. Him & his deans follow up with the teacher on what they saw. (framework to have a goal to learn, not critique). How can you share great things teachers are doing? He’s trying to give immediate feedback right after popping into zoom classes. He needs to know what’s happening in their world. Make sure your evaluation system is promoting teacher growth and not just filling out forms. You have to get in the classroom because if you don’t, teachers know when the evaluations are written. Staff start to look forward to you being in the classroom, feel like you’re invested in them, seeing kids, it’s bucket-filling.
Something that changed his career was getting connected on social. Follow #principinaction that group saved him to get out & gave permission to do those things we needed to do. Teachers are seeing other teachers on TicTok and wanting to try. It’s collaborative PD. All teachers are on a learning continuum, we have to respect that.
Best case scenario, how would you like to end the school year? Chris would love to end in person (they went back to the building early March). Would love to celebrate challenges, struggles, successes with both staff & kids. We need to recognize what’s been hard for kids. Honor all they have overcome. Recognize what they’ve accomplished. Better together after this. He hopes staff culture improves. He doesn’t want to go “back to school as usual”. He wants teachers to remember all the funny things that happened during remote learning. We will be OK. We’ll be better on the other side of it. He fears we’ll loose educators. We have to do a better job of protecting them.
Key quotes: ”keep breathing, control what you can control”. “Maintain positivity. Be genuine”.
Follow Chris on Twitter: @PrincipalDodge1 IG: @PrincipalDodge1 School FB: @everychildeveryday1 Voxer: @Cdodge33 Chris’ blog: http://oesleadlearner.blogspot.com/ View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BJ8_AZQAPKE
Episode #55: Justin Goldston, Ph.D.
Episode #54: Justin Goldston,Ph.D. (podbean.com)
Currently a professor of Supply Chain Management at Penn State, Justin has also given the TEDEx talk, “The Blockchain Effect” .
Justin Goldston, Ph.D., is a certified professional who has developed and executed a comprehensive supply chain strategic plan, resulting in optimal customer satisfaction and profitability for clients around the world. Experienced in consulting, planning and leadership roles while being knowledgeable of all aspects associated with Supply Chain Management, Agile Project Management, ERP implementations and business functions that are associated with relevant technologies.
Tell me about a time when you were in the trenches and managed to crawl out: (Justin) I think that my story is a little bit different. I think that one of the biggest times I felt that I was in the trenches was, whenever I wanted to make that shift into into higher education. I was nearing the end of my doctoral studies, and I was a management consultant. I was afraid, like most like many people, to make that shift, afraid of the unknown. I just made that transition, let the chips fall where they may. And I think that I was I was doubting myself, because I have a number of peers that, received their doctoral degrees and had a difficult time getting into higher education, although I was in adjunct roles, these roles don’t pay the bills. That was my biggest my biggest deciding factor. I think that that’s a story that’s a story for a lot of people within academia, whether you’re at the K 12 level or if you’re in higher education and administrative within administration, and you want to go to teaching to higher education or going into administration, there’s a lot of us with it within this discipline that won’t make that shift, but are just afraid of the unknown.
Talk about your work in the industry prior to teaching Higher Ed and explain supply chain management for the “K12 Educator in layman’s terms: (Justin) I spent a number of years as a management consultant working with manufacturers and distributors around the world. If you have heard of Blue Buffalo, the pet food company, I worked with them whenever they were in startup mode, they had just sold to General Mills for billions of dollars, I was working with them when they were 100 million. That was an exciting experience, and I worked with Intel as well as Siemens. During my time with with those organizations, I was working with them on digital transformations and implementing their enterprise resource planning applications. Within the higher education area, their is the LMS of business. So I was working with them on implementing those processes within their organization, from a supply chain management perspective. I think that a lot of people have heard the term, since in February and March during the start of the pandemic, when you would turn on your TV and hear “Supply Chain Management” going on the news stations because of shortages. Yeah, no toilet paper and hand sanitizer and things like that. So during the pandemic, we had a shortage of toilet paper. You know, we had a hard time with the demand of toilet paper and that created what we refer to as disruptions. So within supply chain management, we forecast products and we essentially guess how much toilet paper our Walmarts need, how much toilet paper our grocery stores need. Because of this spike, because of external factors, the manufacturers like Kimberly Clark and Procter and Gamble were unable to meet that demand. So if you amplify that to PPE, to hand sanitizer, that right now we have it we have a problem with lumber, when a building industry because you know that the interest rates are so low, a lot of people are trying to do DIY projects, there’s a lot of developers that are building homes. Because of that demand, the price of lumber has increased because there’s not enough supply to meet that demand. So that’s the ongoing issue we deal with and within supply chain management. There’s never a dull day, there’s never been a dull day since March. For me. There’s been a number of different disruptions from a global perspective as it pertains to supply chain management.
How would you advise teachers that want to make that shift to teaching higher Ed and what kind of positions would you advice K-12 teachers to apply to? (Justin) I would say the steps to make that transition do not occur overnight. I would say that for those that are currently in their their doctoral studies, whether it is in the coursework or whether it is during a dissertation, I say start now, I see a lot of doctoral students that I mentor, they wait until they have defended to start looking for those roles. So I would say that differentiator in my opinion, is to is to start is to start while you while you are currently while you’re currently completing your degree, start presenting at those conferences, start collaborating with your peers, all those peer reviewed journal articles, and I would say the most important part is to look for a mentor that’s been through it. One thing that I do explain to those that I mentor is you have to trust the system. They’ve though those individuals have been through the process, they understand the process, and they understand that rigor that goes into that goes into completing a doctoral study, if it was easy, everyone would have won. Mentorship was critical to my success with it within the industry. I will also say, you have to believe in yourself. So you have to believe in yourself, and you have to you have to push through because, I think that persistence is very important and critical to success and getting into higher education.
How is your approach to teaching higher Ed different? (Justin) Based on certain institutions, you have the teaching institutions, Penn State is a research institution. I think that the differentiator for me is that I stay close, I stay close with the industry, I stay close with the leaders of the industry, I refer to as a voice of the customer. So I collaborate with the leaders of these organizations to understand what they are looking for in undergraduate. What are you looking for in a master’s student? Because of some of the academic freedom that I have, I include real life cases into the curriculum of my courses. I think that that’s very important especially in my discipline, where supply chain is probably one of the most important disciplines. Right now, I explained in my class that Amazon saved the world in March. You have to you have to think Amazon sold books, Amazon started selling books, and they just need to work through supply chain management. In real life companies that can relate to tying in the Amazons and the logistics and logistics models that Amazon has, tying in the Tesla’s and the automation that Tesla has within their organization, they’re there, they’re going to understand the importance of it. Netflix uses artificial intelligence, Amazon uses artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence has been around since the 1950s. But now, we are seeing more awareness, we’re seeing how we can actually use it for good, that’s my biggest thing of using these technologies for good for a positive impact on the world. All of the issues we’re having in the world, we can use technology to kind of mitigate these issues, the risks that we have, we can use technology to fight global climate change and things like that. We can use artificial intelligence to fight this diversity and inclusion. People say, Well, how do you do that? You know, but that’s what I’m talking about. I thought that’s what I bring to the classroom. You have to make it interesting. Especially for freshmen.
What industries will be most quickly replaced by AI? (Justin) There are a lot of jobs that by 2030 and 2050, will be replaced by AI and however, instructors and teachers, there’s a very minimal chance that will be replaced by AI. When we think of that, like, maybe 30 years in the future, we’re thinking like agriculture, what is going to be most quickly replaced by AI, agriculture, cleaning, those type of things.
Tell me about your work on thee diversity and inclusion committee at Penn State? (Justin) First of all, you have to define your definition of diversity/inclusion and sustainability. 1 professor said there’s 11 categories. When you adopt initiative, you have to tackle 2-3, get voice of the customer- i.e. students, the consumers. From an organizational perspective, can be a comparative advantage. You are also part of Penn State’s Alumni sustainability institute. (Justin) There are a number of environmentalists, interdisciplinary, you have those who have a focus on diversity, inclusion. Look at the UN sustainability development goals, I always for every single one of my classes, what’s your top two? My top two are essentially tech, innovation, and education, and innovation in education are important to me. Because if I educate individuals on sustainability, if I educate individuals on social responsibility, if I educate individuals on on social justice on social justice, if I educate individuals on environmental justice, I can use technology to address all of the other issues within those sustainability development goals.
Name some positive things that have come out of the pandemic for you: (Justin) I have done a lot of conferences for Asian companies virtually. I have been in touch with top researchers in sustainability. I am getting that international speaking experience. Prior to pandemic, I only spoke to people in U.S. and did TedTalks. Very interesting that we think we have problems here, but others think theirs are larger, very eye opening. It opened his eyes to get diverse perspective. Like a research students in Australia, because they import from India, Bangladesh, they have a huge problem with modern day slavery. We have to raise awareness of modern day slavery. We have the platform to raise the awareness, because we’re teaching future leaders, we’re coaching future leaders, it’s kind of that, trickle down effect, where these leaders are going to be leading 10s of 1000s of people, you know, and they’re going to be developing these sustainable these sustainable environments within our organizations. And that’s where it starts.
Key Quotes: His mindset is about making the shift, his primary takeaway is challenging the status quo and thinking traditionally. His approach isn’t traditional, but his students like this approach. It relates to what he discusses in class (real-life situations). It’s not theory, it is practical application that organizations can implement things that students can take with them as they progress throughout their careers.
Find Justin online on LinkedIn Justin Goldston, PhD | LinkedIn Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/P5Hm7goklsI
Episode #53: Rachelle Dené Poth
Rachelle Dené Poth is an #edtech consultant, presenter, attorney, author, & teacher.
Rachelle teaches Spanish and STEAM: What’s nExT in Emerging Technology at Riverview Junior Senior High School in Oakmont, PA. Rachelle has a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University School of Law and a Master’s in Instructional Technology. She is a Consultant and Speaker, owner of #ThriveinEDU LLC Consulting. She serves as the past-president of the ISTE Teacher Education Network and serves on the Leadership team of the Mobile Learning Network. At ISTE19, she received the Making IT Happen Award and a Presidential Gold Award for volunteer service to education. She is also a #Buncee Ambassador, #Nearpod PioNear and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert.
Rachelle is the author of four books, ‘In Other Words: Quotes That Push Our Thinking,” “Unconventional Ways to Thrive in EDU” and “The Future is Now: Looking Back to Move Ahead,” Rachelle Dene’s latest book is with ISTE “Chart A New Course: A Guide to Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow’s World.” She has a new book coming out this summer, “Your World Language Classroom: Strategies for In-Person and Digital Instruction” (Routledge). Rachelle is a blogger for Getting Smart, Defined Learning, District Administration, NEO LMS, and the STEM Informer with Newsweek.
Tell me about a time you were in the trenches and managed to crawl out: The story of being an adult in law school. It gave her a better understanding of what students understand. She felt isolated. She was first a teacher then went to law school. She started subbing in Jan. ‘94, started law school in 2003. Taught while going to law school. It was a personal interest for her. She still teaches full time and works as a PD consultant. It’s great to have the connections in law. Early in her career, she was missing out on what was going to benefit her students. She was struggling in first couple years. There was no Twitter, PLN, today what a difference that would have made. She didn’t share her ideas until about 7 years ago. Took a lot of hard work. Being open to telling someone she failed. It helps her when dealing with students. She’s always wanted to take classes. She feels like she is in her students shoes a little bit. She adjusted the way she taught after law school. She got a better idea of what it meant to be a mentor, and had a tremendous one in law school.
Your world language teacher book is coming out this summer-
“Your World Language Classroom: Strategies for In-Person and Digital Instruction” (Routledge), how did that book project come about? It’s a mix of some students’ stories, to the vein of “Things I wished I knew when I started teaching”. It’s also about challenges in education and digital tools for remote learning. Her other books have been a mix, none have been specifically focused for WL teachers. Summer 2019, she was in Boston through Rutledge with Jeff Zoll and started to get ideas for the book. There are a variety of ways to collaborate globally. The book includes a lot about remote teaching environments and tech tools to try. Has reached out to other WL teachers to get vignettes from other languages from teachers from all over the world.
How do see tech tools continuing to evolve in the WL classroom? Much of what people have wanted to know this year is about how to get kids to participate more in the virtual setting. She teaches Spanish 1-3 this year. Normally she has all levels. She tries to think about tools, methods, like PBL, she tells teachers to make sure you have those things in place. She can’t just name 1 tool. Buncee is a multi-media creation tool. Students create and “about me”, 1000’s of templates. Can use it to create lessons for students. 35K choices available in the media library. They have added in AR (augmented reality). Nearpod is great to get a closer look at place they’d like to virtually visit. Can be student paced. Can put all details of lesson into 1 space. Flipgrid is good for speaking assessments. It provides a space where they can record it again. Classmates can then look the video on their own. Game-based learning tools- quizlet, kahoot, gymkit – gives students a chance to practice on their own. Edpuzzle when you’re creating videos, adds in different questions for assessment.
She has her own podcast: #ThriveinEDU available at https://anchor.fm/rdene915 It’s just her talking to herself. She started over a year ago to share ideas. She puts out her thoughts about things she’s read. An episode on every week for 12-15 minutes. It’s interesting to see which ideas people like the most.
When you got started with the EdTech certifications? She doesn’t have a specific favorite tool. Nearpod is a go-to with VR (virtual reality) tools. It helps kids develop empathy. Microsoft & Google certified Educator certifications are good ones to have. You’re able to meet educators from all over, they have different events, you can ask question in your network. You get a lot of info from the platform. A lot more like Kahoot, Screencastify are letting you get certified as well. It depends on your school. ISTE certification is an intensive process, helps you look at how you’re using tech in classroom. It’s a great tool for what you’ve been using last 2-4 years. Focus on a certification that is centered around the tech your school uses, such as Microsoft certifications if your school uses it. She has also gotten ISTE certification recently. Focuses on the “why” behind it.
Are you currently doing PD for your district? She did back in the spring because her district doesn’t have a tech coach. She is a FT consultant and FT teacher. She is involved in tech book clubs.
You received a Volunteer service award in 2016, how many volunteer hours did that entail? She got the award through ISTE. Could be anything from presenting a webinar, serving on diff committees. Was president of educator network. Provides opportunities. Does also book review for people who are writing books. With ISTE- they have different PLNs. You can volunteer on leadership team, review conference proposals. Twitter chats, answering questions for peopl who need help & support. Preparing for conferences, etc. Was involved heavily in 2 networks. They started a podcast- TEN things in 10 minutes. There are so many ways to get involved!
Key quotes: “It’s easy to be overwhelmed, especially now, but you don’t have to do everything”. “Start with 1 thing”. Try to figure out what is missing. What could students not finish? What frustrated them? How could they reach her beyond the hours of the school day? How could tech help you, or are you doing too much of the talking? Start with something that will help make them comfortable. Help your students develop public speaking skills, for example.
Find Rachelle online @ThriveinEDu Twitter & IG: @Rdene915 FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/THRIVEinEDU
Website: https://rdene915.com/ Podcast on Apple
Rachelle has a podcast, ThriveinEDU available at https://anchor.fm/rdene915
Her books are available at bit.ly/Pothbooks
She has a weekly show on LearningRevolution.com, ThriveinEDU
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ge0enKT0Zhg
Dr. TJ Vari & Dr. Joseph Jones
Episode # 52: Dr. TJ Vari & Dr. Joseph Jones
Dr. Joseph Jones is the Superintendent of the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District in Delaware. Joe is a former high school social studies teacher, assistant principal, and principal. As principal, he was named the Delaware Secondary Principal of the Year and during his tenure, Delcastle Technical High School was the first high school to receive the state’s Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. He received his doctorate from the University of Delaware in educational leadership and was awarded the outstanding doctoral student award of his class. Currently, Joe works closely with local and state leaders on student achievement and accountability and has spearheaded an aggressive and successful campaign to ensure student success. Joe is also an adjunct professor, teaching and designing curriculum, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels for various universities. He presents nationally on topics of school leadership and is the co-founder of the leadership development institute, TheSchoolHouse302. Along with T.J. Vari, he co-authored Candid and Compassionate Feedback: Transforming Everyday Practice in Schools. And, with Salome Thomas-EL and T.J. Vari, he co-authored Passionate Leadership: Creating a Culture of Success in Every School as well as Building a Winning Team: The Power of a Magnetic Reputation and the Need to Recruit Top Talent in Every School.
Dr. T.J. Vari is the Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools and District Operations in the Appoquinimink School District in Delaware. He is a former middle school assistant principal and principal and former high school English teacher and department chair. His master’s degree is in School Leadership and his doctorate is in Innovation and Leadership where he accepted an Award for Academic Excellence given to one doctoral student per graduating class. He holds several honors and distinctions, including his past appointment as President of the Delaware Association for School Administrators, his work with the Delaware Association for School Principals, and the honor in accepting the Paul Carlson Administrator of the Year Award. His efforts span beyond the K-12 arena into higher education where he holds adjunct appointments, teaching courses at the masters and doctoral level. He is a national presenter on topics of school leadership and the cofounder of TheSchoolHouse302, a leadership development institute. Along with Joseph Jones, he co-authored Candid and Compassionate Feedback: Transforming Everyday Practice in Schools. And, with Salome Thomas-EL and Joseph Jones, he co-authored Passionate Leadership: Creating a Culture of Success in Every School as well as Building a Winning Team: The Power of a Magnetic Reputation and the Need to Recruit Top Talent in Every School.
Tell each about a time when you were in the trenches and managed to crawl out: Joe: When he was an AP, they were really trying to move the needle for student achievement when he was an AP. He had a caseload of students whose attendance was sporadic. All things there associated with those types of situations these students embodied. How do we end the school to prison pipeline? Joe came out of the trenches, but didn’t use a formulaic approach. Teachers & admin rallied together. How do we make parent feel like they have a welcome place to come to? It’s not just single program; it didn’t take a week and was done. They had a common purpose. They focused on relationships they built with families. TJ- Yale National Initiative to strengthen public schools. He studied in it when teacher. He studied in a seminar and built a curriculum unit. Second time was about building an institute. Dr. Raymond Thilacker. Built an institute in DE like at Yale. Now it’s Delaware’s new teacher institute. Best PD he’s had. They helped build the institute.
“Building a Winning Team” is an essential book to have in schools where there is high turn-around. Have many districts/schools reached out to you esp. this hiring season due to increased turn-around due to COVID? A lot of schools are so focused on COVID that there’s been a halt on hiring winning teams (for now). Less and less people are going into the profession. They focus on telling their own story to attract people to wanting to become an educator. They felt at the time it was written a perfect moment because districts were in disagreement with labor. It’s interesting that people in a crisis forget about developing their people. They tend to be attracted to & retain employees because of growth strategies. It’s a great book to focus on. Joe Sanfelippo said people won’t change how they talk about school until educators change their way. When I read it, it seems like a must-have for new principals and ed. hiring managers. You give great examples of how teams can attract great talent, stand out to applicants, and how to cast a wide net in order to recruit the best fit for the opening. The book’s focused on creating a reputation, casting a wide net. It’s about building culture to tell. They have a follow-up book, “Retention for a Change: Motivate, Inspire and Energize your School Culture” coming out March 15, ’21. There is a focus on diversity. Now that you have a winning team, how do you keep those team members?
“Retention for a Change”, your Our One Thing Series podcast interviews are often with famous people, industry executives, top educational pioneers, and people we consider to be a leading force in their field. They have been doing it for over a year, about once a month. They publish thee long form blog. Recently, episodes have been about positivity, they had John Gordon on. Podcast episodes publish towards the end of the month about books they think should be published. It’s a quick 30 m. podcast. They pivot to 5 1 Thing Series questions. Their guests aren’t always educational leaders.
What is the difference between this and the #FocusEd podcast? They run induction programming in DE for principals & AP’s so to get their credentials. They do a live recording of that program called #FocusedEd. It’s not on their site because it’s a live PD recording. 16 episodes are sitting on google search results. They focus on a topic or book. They have 10-12 more lined up for remainder of school year. How long have you been blogging/working together on The Schoolhouse 302 and what got you started in this collaboration? All of this was very organic. It wasn’t constructed to reach an audience. They went on runs together, saw people fishing. TJ met Joe because he was his brother’s teacher. When they were both principals at the same time, they ran together and talked through problems, they realized they should record their conversation. They run & write together. At the time they were doing it for themselves, in 2015, they started to write a blog post. Led to PD they put on. PD was advertised at the state level. They tried to mirror best practices in the classroom on their blog. Grew to introducing people to a leader. Their One Thing series never focused on just educators. They were offered gig after gig. Books came from that. Their Candid book & Passion & Leadership books came of that. There was an article written for Principal Leadership magazine, so “Building a Leading Team” took place. PD has picket up since early summer. They present 2-5 times a month. Their blog, The Schoolhouse 302 Leadership Blog is about leadership, and each month they dive into the specific of one topic under the umbrella of leading better and growing faster. Their hope is to bridge business management tools with educational leadership so that you can lead better and grow faster. How is that going so far? They like to build concepts, models, present on that model, they’ll get questions from the audience, voila they have 35K words. They are planners, they believe in mission, vision. They had to put vision on paper for wives.
What kind of schools do you work with? Is it across the spectrum, or primarily schools that are at or near turn-around status? They work with smaller charters, to larger public school systems like 350 administrators or small elementary schools. Sometimes people will gravitate towards a particular topic. Principal EL works in a charter, they all 3 work in different types of schools. The 3 of them are a really nice connection with their ideas. Delaware is a small sandbox, but fairly unique and diverse. They are currently presenting in-person and via zoom. Do all the AP/principal induction program. They are offering a masterclass in candor & compassionate feedback. Master class will take more people. They are also starting a principal and AP Mastermind- that would be open to people across the country all under theme of leading better, growing faster. They support the principal seminar 3 & 3. Open to folks from Canada, S. Africa. Using the power of Twitter, they’re dealing with similar things as leaders in other countries. They need broader conversations, like how to handle diversity, relating to student achievement. Powerful- they want people to be able to build their own PLN. Even seasoned principal & APs need a gathering with like-minded people.
Key Quotes: Joe- “Building a winning team”, he want listeners to marinate, you’re hiring for an archetype. The dynamics extended content, prowess. It goes beyond the subj area you’re hiring for.
TJ- “we gotta keep pushing one another”. It’s better to lift than to push”, it’s the cul-de-sac conversation. It tells a story & builds a magnetic reputation.
Find TJ & Joe online: Twitter @tjvari @TSH302 @supt_jones FB: schooolhouse302 and visit their website: theschoolhouse302.com View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/k1kSwHjfezU
Around the time the next episode was published, Out of the Trenches hit 1K downloads!
Episode #51: Amy Valentine
Jen Cort is a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice consultant working with schools and organizations in multiple countries. As an educator and clinical social worker, Jen has served as an assistant head of lower school, head of a middle school, and senior administrator as well as a counselor in lower, middle and upper schools and private practice. Her goal is to create spaces where students, and all community members, can be seen and heard while learning to be visible and use their voices in productive ways.
Jen has presented at national conferences, hosts a diversity institute, is a frequent contributor to publications, and her work has been quoted in the Washington Post, and New York Times. Jen is the host of an internationally syndicated podcast “Third Space With Jen Cort”.
Jen has several trench stories: She talked about when she was the principal at a MS, had interns from deaf university & kids had been taught hand motions. Jen saw a student at the other end of the hallway. He looked tense, Jen asked how he was doing and said she had a meeting to go to. Before school opened the next day, his mom was there, was furious. She was understandably upset and Jen admitted what she did was wrong. She wanted to make it OK for the student & his mom. She said she did see him and could tell what had happened. She came up with a strategy, when you think you have heard or saw something, respond, don’t limit it to just hearing but not responding. She wants students & parents to be in partnership with her. Another the week of recording, she used wrong label “gender” instead of “sex” during diversity class. Asked students to “please let me know if you don’t get where I’m coming from”. She created a space where she could share that. She found resources she could email the students. She could do more work around her bias and shifted focus. On the same day, she was working with students in a different school. Had a jamboard (app) open, they need to share thoughts around a racism conversation. They created a new page on jamboard, she didn’t know they’d done this. She hadn’t given the right directions. The space was created for that to happen by Jen not being clear. In learning from mistakes everyday, she hopes kids will let her know what she does wrong. She works with inclusion, justice, and gender identity. Unfortunately our biased habits are so engrained.
Talk about your own podcast journey: She recently started her 3rd season. Had idea for a few years. “Third space” is a term in architecture. For the anniversary show- they did clips of “what’s one thing”- many recent episodes focused on debriefing election results with students. She had a dream of having a podcast. Spoke at an online conference (MADPD), didn’t know much about presenting online (this was pre-COVID). No one came to her session. During online happy hour, she was asked about what she learned. Talked about developing content but said that no one came. Her current podcast producer was on the happy hour. He said she should have her own show, even though she didn’t “fit the mold”. Brought in guests to bring in their expertise. She knew people from presenting with them. VoicED.ca- education forum by educators, podcast is through that site. She has a volunteer producer (Steven). It is for & by educators. She did no planning at all, was asked to do her own show. It’s her PD in front of the world.
Tell me about your AMLE speaking engagements: She is a regular speaker, writes for them a lot, has been involved with them from the beginning. Is on the board of PMALE who hosted an online conference late February this year. She has written for AMLE and PMALE many times during covid about caring for teachers, kids. They find resonance between what she writes about and and what they want to highlight. Recent piece on having zoom camera off or on & equity. Supporting LGBTQIA+ students is also a topic she writes articles about. Rosalyn Weisman, co founder of “Cultures of Indignity”, has been a guest on Third Space. Wrote Queen Bees and Wannabes.
Let’s speak about voices of the unheard, systems that keep inequity in place: Kids have a lot more language around diversity, inequity & justice today than even just 5 years ago. We need to say to kids we are learning and we make a lot of mistakes. There are so many terms around this that have been ingrained with kids. When she looks at structures within a school, and looks at inequities between teacher & student. We as adults need to examine our own bias. Focus on sustainable and systemic change. Talk to alumni students, parents, faculty. A lot of PD was just talking about bias but not addressing how to confront it. Do your policies reflect equity, hiring, goals? Even when you contract with vendors. She works around U.S. and intl. Many schools say they care about diversity but don’t know how to connect it. An example for LGBTQIA+ are assuming pronouns. We need to create a space for pronoun use. Provide anchor points to students. Say “parents” instead of “mom & dad”. Bring people along into the language. When you know more, you do more. People need to think how they’re messaging to vendors. She put out a workbook about hiring practices and diversity. She’d love people to read her resources from amazing thought-thinkers. Her work is centered on kids having teachers who understand how to bridge the gaps with students. It’s a process, you don’t always know how to proceed. Having agreements around students as to how you’re going to use gender pronouns is a place to start. When a student is changing their gender expression around gender, we need to listen and honor their labels. If it’s hard for you, you have a lot of bias. You may be cisgender. You have to work around gender and identity.
Tell me about the Montessori High School you currently serve as counselor at? Her school wanted to continue with the Montessori model up through high school. It has been around for 3 years. This year is the first year as 4-year high school. They’re co-constructing their own educational model, making up as they go along. Every 2 week the in- person students do experiential ed and go on hikes. They need to be physically connected despite socially distant. Jen has developed zoom scavenger hunts, and colleagues are helping her with remote counseling ideas. She supervises remote counselors as well, it’s good she’s able to be in the role as well. She’s working on an online escape room. Every student & teacher present on a topic they’re interested in every week. She hadn’t been a counselor for a while, now those she works with they are able to think creatively, post questions to other counselors how they’re doing with online services. She asks her students all the time “what do we need to hear from you”?
Key quotes: “Develop language around themselves around mistake making. Don’t have fear around making mistakes”. Use the time we’re in to not be in front of the room. Have students do more project-based work. “Deconstruct our internal systems of inequity. Admitting you have bias means admitting you are human”. AMLE has whole series on nurturing parent-teacher relationship during remote learnings.
Find Jen online on Twitter: @JenCortEdCon IG: @jencortedcon FB: @JenCortConsulting Website: www.jencort.com View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nx8E7OGmQGY
Episode # 50: Live Event Celebration!
B.Beck, B.Hughes, J. Molitor& C.Dodge (podbean.com)
Guests for this live event celebration were:
From episode # 5: Jen Molitor is a Speaker and Author of The Happy Teacher’s Handbook- From Overwhelmed to Inspired- Helping Teachers Embrace Resiliency. She is a first year principal at a 4th/5th grade campus in Ohio. Find Jen on Twitter @TeacherRenegade
From Episode #31: Brad Hughes is an elementary school Principal in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Brad recently launched his own podcast “Good news, Brad news”, on anchor.. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Hughes
From episode #34 joining us at 5 EST: Brandon Beck, Ed.D. is the Author of “Unlocking Unlimited Potential: Understanding the Infinite Power within to Guide any student toward success.” He has been a dual language teacher elementary teacher for 15 years in NY state. Follow him Twitter & IG @BrandonBeckEDU FB: Brandon Beck Visit his website: brandonbeckedu.com
From upcoming episode #63 (? TBD): Chris Dodge is currently the Principal of The Orange Elementary Schools in Orange, MA, serving 500 students in grades PreK-6. He is a connected educator who utilizes social media to make family and community connections, & as a form of ongoing, personalized professional development. Follow him Twitter & IG @PrincipalDodge1
Topics that we discussed: 1) Provide a snapshot of where you are currently- hybrid, remote, transitioning to either and wins you have experienced in this model: Jen: has been full in person since the beginning of the year. Have had to shut down 2x’s to go remote. Their goal is to stay open. There has been a huge gap in kids when a class or 2 is remote. Has been full in-person since Jan. Brad: right now both in-person and full distance in ON. His district got permission to fully open this past Monday. 100’s of students are participating in full remote. Challenge to manage teacher capacity. Chris: still remote, will go to hybrid March 1. Staff are ready. They have been very flexible. They’re making 1000 decisions a day. There’s a lot of decision fatigue, ton of things to get people in terms of wifi devices. Developed a remote learning academy to bring students in temporarily. Excited to get back to in-person in March.
2) New approaches you’ve used to show staff appreciation and decrease staff burnout since spring semester started: Brad: have tried to keep things as simple and clear as they can. Staff morale is about managing the gap. They’ve tried to simplify all information coming from province and district. He leverages the power of connection. Casual and positive check-ins. Doesn’t want staff to fell like they’re in a state of supervision. 2 questions he asks: “What do you need and How can I help”? Give people a chance to think about that. More of a cultural approach. Chris: small events to show appreciation. Has developed a culture where they’ve embraced the suck. Encouraged staff to make a self-care plan. It’s ok to say it’s really hard. He understands, admits he doesn’t have the answers. Have built a collaborative culture where they were headed towards something that prepared them for this. Jen: they have rallied around each other to support each other. She supported teachers with new math curriculum in the fall. Encouraged teachers to tell her what they need. Taking the village approach. Much more SEL strategies this year. Has been a challenge to support students’ needs. Staff shout-outs at the end of the day. Brandon: power of positivity. His admin has been practicing. He says “it took us a pandemic to recognize that mental health needs to be at the forefront”. His district has a 60% Latino with large FRL (free & reduced lunch) population. They don’t always have the supports at home. His district has been good at communication. His principal has been very patient. Every teacher has their own techniques that works for them so they have been able to push away from the standardization. Have added in a 45 m period “community building” SEL learning time.
3) Teacher evaluation, observation, coaching conversations- what have been your take-aways on what you want to improve upon these last 3+ months of the school year? Chris: feels like he’s become a better coach this year. The paperwork he’s let go of this year. He feels like the evaluation piece being taken away this year, he can have coaching conversations. Asks “tell me what I just saw, what didn’t I see?” Reflective questions. Can bring observation pieces to other teachers. “Let me listen to you.” Then a teacher will be able to open up more. They are more trusting. He’s made it a goal to be in classrooms just as much even though they’re virtual. He tells them “I have no idea how you’re doing this”. He has so much respect for first year teachers. This will help us rethink about breaking out of the industrial model of education. Looking at SEL and mental health. There’s a lot of good coming out of this. His teachers are still thinking through the old lens and beating themselves up saying “I’m not meeting my kids’ needs”. They’re putting themselves down. They shouldn’t believe they’re not enough. It’s got to be deeper than “let it go”. Jen: she feels like teachers are carrying a burden to be the teacher they’ve always been. They have to keep up with kids who are remote. They are so focused on data conversations. She went into it with “what are we noticing, what can we do to support kids?” “what if we got together and tried a different approach to support the kid?” Test scores are a temp check. She encourages teachers to keep doing what they’re doing. The conversations are much more personal, gentle nature. There’s the teacher ownership piece, how do we help them let go of the pressures? She tells them they aren’t held to a certain standard. It’s OK! Brad: Evaluation has to be founded on assuming competency. They can’t be in the process of fault-finding” gotcha”’ process. Their t evaluations have been suspended. Traditional evaluation model is assuming the teacher is teaching in their classroom. In a virtual environment it doesn’t work. The process has decentralized the admin-teacher gap. Experts are all over. Rather than being an evaluator his goal is to build the capacity. The only requirement is evaluations for new teachers. He says “I’m coming in to reflect on what he sees”. He watches teachers work their magic. He assumes their confident and capable. It’ an opportunity to challenge systems and look at what you’re called to do. Why should we do anything to educators that diminishes their chance of success. We’ve inherited a narrative of “not enough” and scarcity. Service professions are often least understood and most undervalued. We have an opportunity to challenge that narrative. We want to make sure we’re doing right by everyone. We have a fear of getting it wrong. Make a shift from gaps to growth. We’re worried about learning loss. We need to not ignore that growth that is occurring. Kids are all surviving a pandemic. There isn’t a playbook. We’re writing history. We’re in the heart of a deeply creative time. We need to shift the focus to growth rather than gaps. What are you creating because you’re meeting the needs of kids? Brandon: he has an informal evaluation tomorrow. The beginning of his EdD he started studying teacher evaluations. Linda Darlingham “Getting Teacher Evaluation Right”. He asked “what is the purpose of any evaluation?” He sees here that evaluation is to support educators. You have to return to the purpose of the evaluation. It’s an opportunity to fail. A lot of educators don’t necessarily feel that way though. It goes back to having his admin look at what he’s struggling with and he wants her feedback so he can see how to grow. If we can use the pandemic to help teachers grow in the right direction, he hopes that will stay.
4) One tip for leaders to remember to take with you for the remainder of the school year: Brandon: “Get out of your own way. Don’t measure things as you did in the past. You have to have the flexibility and patience. We have the ability to rise above this and understand we’re getting a lot out of our students. Look at the opportunities we have right now in our models. Focus on all the growth and keep pushing forward”. Jen: “I am enough”, ask yourselves at the end of the day “what difference did I make”. Chris: as a leader, get out of your staff’s way. In an effort to be helpful, he wasn’t being helpful. He understood to give staff space. He stepped back and watched. Give yourselves grace, be kind to ourselves and one another. We’re too critical of ourselves. Brad: Rae Hughart says “always strive for today’s best”’, our best is going to be top-notch, considering the circumstances we’re in. Have high and appropriate expectations. Recognize how much a % you’re giving on a particular day. What matter is you’re giving what you can to manage your own recourses. No one can ask more than your best. Give what you can today.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8VPcYgK1WHQ
Episode # 49: Unlock the Middle
Episode #49: Unlock the Middle: Chris Starczewski & Dean Packard (podbean.com)
Dean Packard (L) and Chris Starczewski (R) are middle school principals in Dudley/Charlton, MA.
Unlock the Middle are proud middle school principals co-hosting a videocast to celebrate and unlock all that is special about middle school. They are Chris Starczewski and Dean Packard and they live in Dudley/Charlton, MA. They get excited helping students, educators and parents learn and grow.
Chris Starczewski is the Principal of Dudley Middle School in Dudley, Massachusetts. He started out in Education in 1994. Taught math. He has three kids: Brooke, Abigail & John and two dogs: Princess & Rocco. In his spare time he likes to exercise, fish, read and find ways to become better.
Dean Packard is in his 28th year in education – 18th year at Charlton Middle School as an administrator. He spent 10 years teaching history in high school, and coaching boys’ varsity basketball. He has also spent the last 18 years in administration at Charlton Middle School, 7 as an assistant principal and the last 11 as principal.
Tell me about how you two met: When they were starting out as administrators, they have shared, collaborated and built paths together. They live about 25 minutes apart. Are at each other’s houses often. They are in agreement about how to empower people. Chris typically likes to talk more than Dean.
Tell me about a time when you were in the trenches and managed to crawl out: Chris’ story: back in the classroom, met the needs of kids, not having teacher-directed expectations. Took a summer gig as a computer teacher & counselor. Found passions there. Working in schools then taught him about abilities students have. Story about a student who wasn’t successful academically or socially, having had him in class and being on campus, he was able to open up to him, gave him support and assistance. Student was in a significant crisis. He was a camp counselor, figured it was an easy way to get work in education. Followed his wife into the classroom. Fell in love. Dean’s story: in 1993, he got a phone call from the superintendent. Was a new coach. There were 250 applicants for a teaching position. Had a mixed classroom with multiple ability levels. They were 7th graders, tough. It taught him the value of relationships. He learned a lot about who he was. Spent 10 years as a history teacher. Took 2nd M.A. in Leadership and migrated to Charlton Middle School. Everything we do is based around relationships with kids. Coaching teaches you about adversity quick. You’re always shaking and moving. Tough time was being a HS coach. Why did you start “Unlock the Middle”?– it came about in the summer. Around Dean’s kitchen and it came about. Theeir videocast is about nothing that means a lot, like Seinfeld. Middle school components are so big. They look all over Twitter, they have contemplated themes. Have off-shoots “Middle Marvels” how teachers impact their buildings. Are looking at hot topics like what they have with faculty + staff. They’ve had discussions about fairness, equity and inclusivity. Bringing in themes as a connection. Not necessarily a roadmap.
You’ve both been in Middle School administrative roles for a while. Talk about how you’re rethinking and reimagining schools: It’s never gonna be the same so approach the learning environment with “shouldn’t do” to “have to do”. You won’t allow shift towards formal traditional practices. When they started out together in Dudley/Charlton, they learned school can be anything you want it to be. Chris worked on transition from traditional to standards-based grading. Brought experiences into the district, spoke about things that really matter. He worked on a curriculum planning model. They both have amazing staff. Epiphany happened when they started having banter about best practices. Started the planning early on. Chris had no problem breaking down the walls. Empower the people who do the heavy work every day. They want to applaud teachers for taking risks.
Provide some examples of how you’ve empowered staff to be innovative: Chris– 2 7th grade ELA teachers wanted to utilize collaborative time. They turned it into the Titan Times newspaper. Got a grant. The teacher wasn’t teaching writing in a traditional sense. They were taught what a peer editing process looked like. They weren’t relying on teachers but peers to get feedback. Dean– used blended learning techniques. Financial literacy program that created school store. Kids find out how to build a business and market. As of recording, they were getting ready to get the store online. It helped the kids learn to use spreadsheets. It makes learning fun. They want to bring in student voice with video and podcast from their schools. Let the kids take it and “run with it”.
What has your videocast taught you since starting in July, did it happen suddenly, and tell me about some of the guests you’ve had: They don’t consider it to be work, are highly involved in two educational endeavors, both “Middle Marvels” which nominates teachers and their videocast. In the summer, they put their ideas for the videocast on paper. Had Dr. Greg Goings, Connie Hamilton on as some of the first guests. People want to tell their stories. We’re feeding the world about what education should be like. It’s about the product they’re providing for others. They walk the same walk. Reimagining education isn’t about blowing something up. Rick Wormelli & other guests have taught them something. They want to shift the spotlight on people they’re bringing in. They want to find people who have similar experiences and ideas about what we’re doing, ideas to shift the long-standing practice. Think of the analogy of a rock hitting a pebble and then causing a landslide. Making “earth shaping experiences”. They are currently booked out until mid March.
Why the title “unlock” the middle? They went through a few 100 titles. When think about middle level learning, we thing about, in some ways, catastrophic experiences. There are so many different keys to the middle school experience. The skeleton key is so complex. They want to bring in brain-based experts and theorists. The student voice piece will come out- will be phased in. Topics, areas on how they learn, why they learn. It’s about defining their “why”. Unlock the middle is about a gate being opened.
Key quotes: Dean “remember to be humble, be willing to listen to people, be able to build relationships”. He learns every single day how to connect with people. Everything about our business is about connecting with people. It will make or break you. Chris– “Bring back that relationship is primary”. They’ll remember you for how you treated them the first day, wrote the date on the board, etc. It’s about human capacity. The world needs great people right now. Those things aren’t necessarily embedded in the curriculum. We want students to be service-oriented to make positive change.
Find Chris and Dean online on Twitter, FB, IG @unlockthemiddle You can email them at: unlockingthemiddle@gmail.com & visit their website. Follow Chris and Dean individually on Twitter @CMSPrincipal1 @DMS_Leadlearner Their videocast, Unlock The Middle, airs live on Sunday nights at 8pm (EST) on Twitter (@UnlockTheMiddle), Facebook (@UnlockTheMiddle) and our YouTube Channel (Unlock The Middle). Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jwNUCB6ppjw