It's the Mission with Amy Fast Transformative Principal 132

This file is to help us prep for the podcast. If you have something you would like to share in addition to what you filled out on the form: 

Systems that make you do your best, even when you don’t want to.

Please add your bio here: 

Please add questions that we would ask here, and you can add anything that you would like to add as well. 

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, nor will we ask everything that is on here, but will help guide the conversation. 

Our podcast interview is scheduled for: December 4, 2023 in the America/New York time zone. And the link for our meeting is: https://sqdc.st/studio/ZbtK

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Today's episode is super fascinating. Rick Meyer shared his dashboard, and you might want to check out the YouTube video for this episode because it is incredible what he’s doing with teacher data. 

• The power of the data hub
• Very reactive in MTSS to start
• Didn’t know how to do formulas to start
• Data entry comes from Google forms
• Main test scores entered by admin/instructional coach
• Progress monitoring is done by paraprofessionals
• Students enter data
• Teachers don’t put any data in. 
• Daily: Checkin/attendance data
• Weekly: Sonday Phonics Progress monitoring - Color coding based on their MAP Scores. 
• Monthly or as needed: Raider badges & Freckle Intervention program 
• Behavior data - Ownership rooms
• Protecting the data: hLookup Query and other formulas
• Wiping out the old data.
• How to be a transformative principal? Identify what you want to collect! 

About Rick Meyer

Rick Meyer is an elementary principal in Sidney, NE. He has been in education for 19 years, the first 7 as a kindergarten teacher. He then transitioned to a technology coordinator for his district for the next 5 years, where he helped implement technology and taught K-5th grade technology integration. He then moved into administration and is in his 7th year as a principal. Meyer is married to another elementary principal in Sidney and they have two children, a daughter, 16, and a son, 12. He holds a master's degree in administration and is currently working towards his specialist degree to become a superintendent. Meyer has been passionate about technology in education since he entered teaching.

• How she stays at the same place for so long. 
• Relationships
• Street cred and reputation exist, but they don’t know me personally. 
• Each family is a new relationship
• Honesty and transparency
• People don’t always love the news I give them, but they do appreciate the honesty and directness
• Don’t need to sugarcoat things because it doesn’t actually help. 
• Call and connect with new families. 
• Calling to share good news. 
• Our students deserve our A game every day
• Developing teachers when you have a good relationship. 
• Be a good listener, open the door for reflection. 
• Work together, rather than against each other. 
• 90% of teachers want to be here for the right reason. 
• Seeing brilliance
• The meat of your work is not in doing observations. 
• Small moments of walkthroughs are where the growth really happens.
• Keep a sense of humor
• Weird, hard, and funny happens every day. 
• Don’t make rash decisions - Somebody else thought I should make a decision quickly. 
• Don’t let anyone rush your decisions.
• How to be a transformative principal? Think about students you’re worried about and make a phone call to the family. 

Please add your bio here: 

Marianne Lescher is a life-long educator. Her 40 years in public education span Massachusetts and Arizona.  Dr. Lescher started as an elementary and special education teacher and Assistant Principal in Westwood, Massachusetts and eventually moved to Arizona, where she has been in the Kyrene Elementary District for over 26 years.  In Kyrene, Marianne started at the District Office as a Specialist and Director in Curriculum.  Marianne’s heart is with children and families, so she moved to an elementary school and has been a K-5 and K-8 principal for 25 years.  Over these years, Marianne’s schools have achieved the A+ School of Excellence Award from the Arizona Educational Foundation four times and her current school was honored with the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Recognition in 2015.  This is the highest honor a school can achieve from the Department of Education in Washington DC.  A highlight of Marianne’s career as a Principal has been her work to envision and bring to life the goal of a K-8 campus for Kyrene Traditional Academy.  Marianne was charged with not only developing and training a staff in new curriculum and instructional strategies, but also to work with architects and construction crews to add two new buildings to campus and overseeing the renovation of the existing school building, all on an active school campus!   With her staff, students and community, Marianne’s school has almost doubled in enrollment and continues to achieve amazing results and has been recognized with numerous awards.  Marianne is a life-long learner as well, and received her undergraduate degrees from Boston College in elementary and special education, her M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and her Ph. D. from Boston College in Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation. She is a proud Double Eagle from BC!  Marianne continues her own professional development and study through her work with the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) where she trains and mentors new and aspiring school leaders. She also works closely with the Arizona Educational Foundation in supporting school leaders and is an adjunct with Grand Canyon University.

In this episode, Dr. Erin Bailey joins Jethro Jones to talk about how to engage families in inspiring the joy of reading in children. 

• Making reading backed by research, powered by joy
• Concerns in children’s reading - not teaching it correctly
• Teaching teachers to be culturally responsive
• Train teachers in getting to know their students. 
• Things we should do to teach kids reading: phonological awareness (hearing and manipulating sounds), phonics, vocabulary, fluency (rate, accuracy, expression), and comprehension.
• Typically science of reading stops at the first two.
• There’s no one way to teach reading
• Motivation to read
• Giving children access to books that they own and choose
• Link between motivation and reading, and motivation and comprehension
• Bookmobile, printed, Skybrary
• Getting joy from the experience
• Parents are the primary educators
• You can’t out-teach the culture of the home.
• Teacher PD about family engagement systems
• Family engagement vs. family involvement
• Family engagement is the family system and the school system working together 
• Power of story
• Family Literacy Evening - bring families on board to plan the event, rather than just having the school do everything, involve food, childcare (or activities) for other siblings, and give away books. 
• Outreach is important, reach out to see why people didn’t attend. 
• The location where you have your events is important - where else could you have the event? 
• RIF coordinators getting books to kids during the pandemic.
• How to be a transformative principal? Listen to your families and make a connection. 

About Erin Bailey, Director, Literacy & Content, Reading Is Fundamental

Erin Bailey, Ed.D., joined Reading Is Fundamental in 2021 and currently serves as the Director of Literacy and Content. Her role includes serving as the subject matter expert and developing, curating, and managing content and professional learning for educators and families on literacy. Dr. Bailey has been an educator in U.S. and international classrooms. Her teaching experience spans from PreK-8 including roles as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, English language learning specialist, and university instructor. Her interests include professional learning for teachers on family and community engagement, instructional strategies for multilingual learners, and literacy instruction. She is interested in the ways that partnering with families and communities, particularly for children from historically marginalized communities, can transform literacy instruction. Additionally, she designs curriculum and professional development for utilizing play-based learning to teach language and literacy to young children.

Dr. Bailey has a robust and interdisciplinary research repertoire including learning through informal spaces such as public gardens, art museums, and social movements. She takes up art processes such as film, photography, and sound mixing to expand approaches to qualitative inquiry. She has presented her work at several major conferences including the American Education Research Association (AERA) and the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) and has published in academic journals including Qualitative Inquiry, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and Journal of Literacy Research.

In this episode, Matthew Ebert joins Jethro to discuss how to actively and intentionally create the space for educators to be their authentic selves at work and how that impacts a greater school community.

• Ongoing, authentic, and messy
• 1:1 meetings with all the staff.
• Slack as a schoolwide communication tool - How to implement without teachers feeling like they need to be in the 
• Avoid performative care
• 6 staff meetings in one year. 
• Use Slack as you need it - Autonomy
• Power of muting channels
• Hilarious communities
• The power of continuous meetings. 
• All development is personal. (The Personal is Professional)
• Must have holistic approaches to all things. 
• Try, fail, cry, and try again. 
• 6 staff meetings
• The Art of Gathering
• Initiatives came from the teachers, not from the administration. 
• Grades were not an accurate reflection of what kids really could do. 
• Care vs. accountability 
• Schools are not families, they’re teams. 
• How to be a transformative principal? Stop going to meetings and start going to classrooms. 

About Matthew Ebert

Matthew Ebert is a human-centered leader with 20+ years of experience in education, primarily focused on school leadership in urban settings. Matthew's consulting is grounded in his experiences as a teacher, director of academic innovation, academy leader, and a decade of successful leadership as a public charter school principal. 

Throughout his leadership tenure, Matthew has developed teams that exceed expectations, consistently achieving strong results. He is committed to cultivating healthy work and learning environments in which individuals feel seen, heard, and valued. In addition to helping team members consistently attain their personal and professional goals, Matthew has facilitated dramatic and consistent growth in student achievement in both Baltimore and Boston, in metrics focused on academic achievement and school climate. Matthew's leadership is based in the idea that we are all here to take care of one another.

Jethro sits down with David Bryan to talk about how to make school more worthwhile. 

• The difference between public and private schools
• More freedom in a private school to address issues in their schools.
• How to manage high tuition.
• All students paid tuition.
• Why he started New Roads to connect people. 
• The richness of a diverse population leads to amazing environments.
• Schools that are worthwhile are flexible, nimble, and messy. 
• What does the future of education look like? 
• Schools have to invest in those areas where kids are interested.
• Improving the conversation by being together.
• Every human being has been learning from the time they were aware. 
• “Getting Credit” for their learning.
• Kids learning skateboarding tricks. 
• Fan the flames that are there. 
• Grade school teachers 
• David Bolton - Educational Activist
• Curiosity Invited Podcast
• How to be a transformative principal? Pause before you say no. 

About David Bryan

Through a decades-long career in the trade, business, and education spaces, Dr. David Bryan has garnered the skills to be a curious and eager student of many fields. Having taught at middle school, high school, and university levels throughout the United States, Dr. Bryan gained the experience to spearhead his own venture, co-founding  New Roads School, a unique independent school in Southern California that devoted between 40 to 50 percent of its annual budget to need-based financial aid. That allowed New Roads to create a private school population that was ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse.

Bryan served as a faculty member, Founding Head of School, and President from 1995 until his departure in 2013. Following this, he founded his own consulting business and lectured in economics at UC Santa Cruz.

In 2020, Dr. Bryan relocated to rural Wyoming, and for the first time in years found himself outside of the classroom. The podcasting space has been steadily growing, allowing people all over the world to connect. Leveraging the podcasting format and fortified by his “enduring belief that a person can learn a great deal about the world and other people by simply being curious about what folks do”, Dr. Bryan launched his largest “classroom” yet, the CURIOSITY INVITED podcast. 

Between the podcast, participating on several boards, and spending time with his wife, Shelly Graham, exploring the many splendors of Wyoming terrain, his calendar and inbox are both pretty full.

• How to converse with Chatbots using other tools
• Background in ELA teaching
• Thinking of the tool as a reading assistant
• What is a reading assistant?
• Getting an executive summary 
• Get an idea if I should really dive into this idea. 
• Process - find the text, ask what it is, then zoom in, 
• Zoom out as needed
• Hallucinations exist, but they are reduced when the text is there. 
• AI For the rest of us - Augmentation
• How does this make Rod a better learner?
• Focuses my time better and helps me know what I should spend my time on. 
• How leaders talk to one another. 
• Finding a gap in the research - hard to discern the landscape. 
• Reading more scholarly research because I have a tool that helps me know I’m going to get something from it. 
• Science Direct and Google Scholar to find resources.
• Like the autonomy of interacting directly with the source. 
• @rodjnaquin everywhere but check out the substack.

This is a trailer for a new show I just started called A Vision for Learning. In it, we focus on the Apple Vision Pro, AR, VR, XR, AI, and the future of learning. I've already released some great episodes, including two interviews with people who have been using AR in schools for years already!

Click here to subscribe and get my learning-focused review of the Apple Vision Pro this weekend!

If you listen to Transformative Principal, you'll love A Vision for Learning. 

• What we teach and how we teach
• PK-8th grade over a quarter million devoted to students
• Small class sizes, 2 teachers in a class of 20. Started at 85 students
• Incredible amount of individual support
• Transportation is 7% of the budget. 
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day
• Wraparound services
• On-site partnership with Dayton’s Children's Hospital - full-time mental health, doctor, and other services for kids.
• Startup year - be naive about what starting a school entails. 
• Temporary site - Fire marshall
• Working with a local Medicaid provider
• 30% higher in every category than every other child on Medicaid
• Looking at lots of data for whole-child outcomes
• 51% at grade level at the start, and 85% at grade level at the end of the year.
• Not all roses and sunshine
• Screenings for character, mental health, etc. 
• Age 27 goals. 
• How they teach - Tried finding instructional strategies that really moved the needle. 
• Influenced by Hattie’s work - prioritized by effect size.
• Teacher quality matters
• Benjamin Bloom’s Research - Acton Academy
• Using personalized tools in a smart way. 
• Zearn math program - typically used as supplemental
• Thrown the idea out the window
• Mixed-age classrooms. 
• Start teaching at the instructional level, not the age or grade level.
• Personality and character benefits
• Looking at Age 27, and how that reflects in 1 year. 
• Hire in the top 10% of teachers. 

About AJ Stich

Adam J. Stich (A.J.) is the founding principal of The Greater Dayton School.  Prior to starting in this role, he spent nearly seven years as a principal in Chicago Public Schools, where he drove strong outcomes for students and teachers.  You can hear his first interview on Transformative Principal at this link.

In this show we talk about creating a personal operating system, the core four needed to make yourself an amazing human being. You’re going to love this interview. 

• You can’t lead others to do something you’re not willing to do yourself.
• Self-leadership in four core areas. 
• Gap in what 
• Leader who has a deep level of integrity 
• Because of the depth of your own integrity
• You can be better, but a great leader is someone who can find people who are better in their area of expertise. 
• The thing that we are unwilling to do will cause resentment in those we lead. 
• Nobody expects the leader to be better than everyone at everything
• Leaders give people authority and trust to own that part of the organization
• This all starts at home. 
• Servant-hearted leadership is the most powerful leadership. 
• Doing it at home with your family makes it easier to translate to the workplace. 
• The more I hold onto stuff, the more I’m the bottleneck.
• You have to let go in order to grow. 
• Priority and sequence to everything. 
• Get myself on point so I’m on the highest level of capacity to serve the people that matter the most. 
• The family gets what is best first. 
• If I’m on point with my wife and kids, and the family is thriving, that gives me a clarity to work in the workplace. 
• Everything is connected. 
• Relationships healthy
• Struggling everywhere, systems and processes made things better. 
• Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
• You need a system to help you be on point. 
• Core Four - Body, Being, Balance, Business
  • Sweat and Green Smoothie
  • Prayer/meditation and journal
  • Note to wife and children and one act of service
  • Learn something new every day applicable to your career
• More powerful to experience than to explain. 
• So easy to run and hide when things are difficult. 
• Weaponizing your body - making your body the weapon to do the work you need to do. 
• Download your tracker to change your life in 30 days at TheWorldNeedsMen.com

About Franklin Swann

Franklin Swann, an entrepreneur from Tyler, Texas, is the proud owner of Swann Furniture and Design. Beyond the realm of business, he is a loving husband to his beautiful wife, Brooke, and a devoted father to two remarkable children, EF and Camilla. Deeply rooted in his faith, Franklin is a committed follower of Christ, infusing his values into both his personal and professional life.

Franklin is the torchbearer of a remarkable legacy, serving as the fifth-generation owner of Swann's Furniture & Design, a rich 128-year history. His leadership reflects a relentless pursuit of personal growth and development, setting the tone for the continued success of the family business. But Franklin is more than his furniture empire, like all of us. He is a multifaceted individual dedicated to family, faith, and the enduring pursuit of excellence.

You can listen to his podcast at theworldneedsmen.com

Explore more BE Podcast Network shows:

• The Authority Podcast: https://bit.ly/48dhakQ 
• Morning Motivation for Educators: https://bit.ly/42dLGJa
• The Learning Bridge with Richard Gerver: https://bit.ly/3Hw3AgC
• Sideline Sessions: https://bit.ly/3Rp0QGt