In this episode, we're shining a light on a pressing issue in the educational landscape: teacher burnout and attrition. With schools across the nation feeling the impact, we turn to expert Chase Mielke, author of Illuminate the Way: The School Leader’s Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout (ASCD, 2023), for insights and solutions.

If you're a school leader, educator, or anyone passionate about creating a positive and sustainable teaching environment, this episode is a must-listen. To learn more about Chase and his work, you can find him here: https://www.facebook.com/chasemielkespeaker, https://www.instagram.com/chasemielke/.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues. Additionally, if you have other non-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

DEI feels like it’s becoming the (a) third rail in K-12 education. The quote in the title is from Verna Myers, VP of inclusion strategy at Netflix, and is included in Ruchika Tulshyan’s book Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. In this episode, Jenn and I have a real and practical conversation with Ruchika about what you can do personally and as an organization to help everyone feel like they belong.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues. Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

Many of us as educators have assumed that the kids with strong grades and strong test scores were set up for success. Isn't that what we were supposed to work toward in schools?

Dr. Borba has interviewed scores of students and has found that these 2 areas – grades and test scores  –  are not the markers of success today in the 21st century. Instead, as educators, leaders, and parents we should be focusing on 7 character strengths: self-confidence, empathy, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance, and optimism.

Dr. Borba is an educational psychologist, author, and parenting expert. She has written over 20 books and has worked with everyone from Harvard to Sesame Street – mostly about the power of character skills and character education.

Dr. Borba’s work has profound implications for us in the field of education right now.

 Listen to Dr. Borba share how these seven are what truly contribute to our students' well-being and how we can all foster these important skills.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues. Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

Everyone has hidden potential for growth and achievement, but standard approaches to studying, practicing, coaching, and organizing education often leave this potential untapped. The practices of high-achieving individuals (and a high-achieving school system) reveal the surprising skills, scaffolds,and systems that unlock potential. Even better, anyone can learn them, and anyone can teach them, too.

In this episode we have a great conversation about Adam Grant’s book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things and how to apply his insights to our own lives as busy educators.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas  to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

In this conversation between Dr. Andrea Terrero Gabbadon and Jenn, we talked about the reasons educators of color are leaving: working conditions and leadership behaviors. The good news is that school and district leaders can actually do something about this, and Dr. Gabbadon walks you through how. She shares 6 principles, backed by research, that will help you create the types of inclusive schools where educators of color will want to work and will thrive. Educators of color benefit all students in our schools and it's time to look at the changes we can make in the culture, school practices, and frankly our own leadership behaviors that can make a real difference now in supporting and retaining teachers of color.

To learn more about Dr. Andrea Gabbadon Terrero and her work, take a look here: https://www.ilmconsultinggroup.com/.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas  to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

In this episode, I talk with Becky Gerdes and Ryan Siegle about their book Six Steps Toward Teacher Retention and a Long-Lasting Legacy. We focus mainly on their Six Steps to Maximize Your Leadership Impact and Improve Teacher Retention:

• Step One: Lead Authentically

• Step Two: Build Teacher Self-Efficacy

• Step Three: Foster Collective Efficacy Among Your Staff

• Step Four: Cultivate a Culture of Trust

• Step Five: Listen to Your Staff with Empathy

• Step Six: Unite Around a Shared Vision

This was a great conversation with a ton of practical steps that school leaders can use to help build an environment where teachers want to stay, which we all know translates into better experiences for students.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

In this episode, Jenn and I talk about Sharone Bar-David’s book Trust Your Canary: Every Leader's Guide to Taming Workplace Incivility. Bar-David provides some simple strategies for helping leaders see incivility (even when it’s hard to recognize) plus a whole toolkit of easy-to-implement ways to address it (so you can stop doubting yourself when it’s time to intervene). These skills are critically important for school leaders because two of the drivers of incivility are organizational change and high stress levels – both of which are rampant in schools right now. 

As we mentioned during the show, Jenn created this 8 Ways Leaders Fail to Address Incivility at Work (click on the title) document based on the concepts in the book.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

Sometimes in education it helps to hear from our end users. In this episode I interview fellow Coke Scholar Raleigh Dewan (‘19). Raleigh is a 23-year-old entrepreneur and business owner (https://steadispoon.com/ and https://sistershaq.com/) from Austin, Texas. Raleigh and I talk about his experiences in K-12 and higher ed. and the advice that he has for aspiring and practicing school leaders.

Raleigh has offered a discount at Sister Shaq tea for listeners of the show. Use promo code schoolleadership for 20% off your first order or follow this link: https://sistershaq.com/discount/schoolleadership 

Raleigh also helps me brainstorm ideas for the name of a newsletter that I am planning on starting. It’s pretty funny listening to him hammer on my suggestions, but we may have gotten there by the end of the conversation. If you have suggestions on a name for the newsletter and/or content ideas, please email me: [email protected].

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected]. Don't forget to rate the podcast in iTunes and leave a comment. And please pass the show along to your colleagues. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

 

More than anything, organizations should strive for organizational health. In this episode, Jenn David-Lang and I talk about Patrick Lencioni’s 2012 book  The Advantage Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. This book clearly and powerfully explains what your organization needs to do to become healthy:

1) Build a cohesive leadership team,

2) Create clarity,

3) Overcommunicate clarity, and

4) Reinforce clarity.

Check out this great two minute video of Lencioni describing the 5 dysfunctions of a team: https://www.tablegroup.com/topics-and-resources/teamwork-5-dysfunctions/

And here is the self assessment to see which of the 5 behaviors your team is strong in and needs to improve: https://alonso-cadenas.github.io/team-dysfunctions-assessment/assessment

 

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

In the field of education, we have no choice, AI is here to stay. So, listen to this whimsical conversation with Technology Coach, Jason Strzalkowski, whose enthusiasm for all-things-AI-in-schools is infectious!

Yes, we share ideas to spice up teaching to make learning more engaging, accessible, and equitable. But we know our listeners are busy educational leaders so you will be excited to hear ways to save principals and district leaders TIME with some AI efficiency hacks specifically for our field.

And Jason was kind enough to compile a list of AI Tools for Educators: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w1WbVM1pubX5FP4m9zcGyvQ07guJz7lFHbl-ilvdTPw/edit 

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].

In this episode, Jenn and I interview Peter Liljedahl, the author of Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning. As former math teachers, Jenn and I had a great time talking with Peter about concrete and actionable ways teachers can improve math instruction. The practices are simple, high impact, and are easy and cheap to implement. Given what we know now, not implementing these 14 practices borders on educational malpractice.

As always, send your comments, questions, and show ideas to [email protected].  Consider rating the podcast in iTunes and leaving a comment.  And please pass the show along to your colleagues.  Additionally, if you have other NON-education books with implications for school leaders, send those suggestions our way, too. And finally, If you or someone you know would like to sponsor the show, send Mike an email at [email protected].