Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker

Hi, friends, and welcome back to Monday Matters! Today Jen and I are discussing the value of consistency, which is one of the chapters in my new book Whose Permission Are You Waiting For? An Educator’s Guide to Doing What You Love . To start out the conversation, Jen shares the heartwarming story of a nurse, Grace, who helped care for her during a recent hospital stay. Jen recalls how Grace shared...

Happy Friday! This week’s Encore Episode is one from 2022, a dynamic interview with Dr. Chris Jones. We discuss teacher-centric leading and supporting teachers, to name a few discussion areas. I feel like this is the perfect encore episode to wrap up teacher appreciation week. Listen in to hear our conversation or check out the original blog pos t to learn more. Thank you for doing what matt...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Will Parker answers a question from a student in Jen Schw...

Welcome back to another episode of Monday Matters! This week, Will and Jen are talking about another chapter from Will’s new book, Whose Permission Are You Waiting For? An Educator’s Guide to Doing What You Love . Throughout their conversation, Will and Jen discuss how important it is for school leaders to stay curious. One of the ways that leaders can accomplish this is through remembering why th...

Happy Friday! This week our encore episode is a conversation between Jen Schwanke and I, focused on encouraging and motivating staff. Listen in to hear us discuss the following reminders for education leaders: Listen. Remove competition. Present “expectations” with care. Look inward. Build teachers up. Tune in to hear the full conversation or check out the original blog post to learn more. Thank y...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Will Parker answers a question from a student in Jen Schw...

Welcome back to Monday Matters! This week, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke are discussing a chapter from Will’s new book, Whose Permission Are You Waiting For? An Educator’s Guide to Doing What You Love . The chapter is on avoiding the binary, and discusses innovative ways for readers to approach decision making in their work through the use of the Odyssey Process (Burnett and Evans, 2016). Whe...

Happy Friday! This week’s encore episode is one from 2021, a conversation between Will Parker and Jen Schwanke about school discipline. Listen in to hear them talk about several different ways to approach consequences for student discipline, as well as some great advice and practical applications to approaching discipline. You can learn more by tuning in to their conversation or by reading t...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals , when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Will Parker answers a question from a...

This week on Monday Matters, Will and Jen talk about professional pathways for educators and getting through the end of the school year. They discuss strategies for powering through what Will and Jen call the “slog” at the end of the school year, and share how they have each adjusted their mindset to have a more positive outlook towards the “slog”. Next, Will shares some insights from his new book...

Happy Friday! Our encore episode this week is one from 2021, another interview with D.J. Klein. His interviews on this show are popular for a reason; he always has sage advice to offer listeners! Check out this interview to hear him share ten lessons he learned in his first year as an assistant principal. Listen in to hear the whole conversation or follow this link to read the original blog post....

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listene...

Happy Monday, friends! This week for Monday Matters, Jen and Will are taking some time to catch up and talk about the exciting work we have been doing recently.  Jen talks about a presentation she gave recently. By the time this recording comes out, she will have returned from speaking at national school boards association with some of her colleagues. They are presenting about their social wo...

Welcome back to Encore Friday! This week’s episode is one from 2021, a conversation with Jen Schwanke about gaining buy-in and building leadership teams. Tune in to hear us answer the following questions from principals: How do you gain ‘buy-in’ among staff vs just ‘setting expectations’ when it comes to structuring or implementing new programs to support student learning? How do you start a...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listene...

Hi, friends. This week for Monday Matters, Jen and I are taking some time to talk about an exciting new offering from Principal Matters, led by Jen Schwanke! Based on her book, The Principal’s Guide to Conflict Management , Jen will be leading a 3-hour masterclass on June 3rd, 2025, at 11 am EDT. This dynamic virtual training equips school leaders with practical strategies to transform confl...

Happy Friday, friends! This week, we are re-releasing an episode from 2022, an interview with a rockstar leader DJ Klein. DJ Klein has been featured on the podcast several times throughout the years and he is still doing the same phenomenal work in 2025 that he was doing in 2022. Listen in to hear the full episode or follow this link to read the original blog post. Thank you for doing what matters...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listene...

Welcome back to Monday Matters! This week Jen Schwanke and Will Parker are sharing some lessons learned from doing PD with school leaders. They talk about some of the strengths that leaders who are women bring to the table, as well as strengths that leaders who are men bring to the table. During their conversation, Will and Jen discuss an article from the Harvard Kennedy School called “The Advanta...

Happy Friday! This week’s encore episode is one from 2022 with Garth Larson. He chats with Will Parker about guiding leaders and helping them build their leadership. Listen in to hear the full conversation or check out the original blog post to learn more! The post ENCORE FRIDAY – PMP292: The Profile of a School Leader with Garth Larson appeared first on Principal Matters .

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listene...

This week on Monday Matters, Jen and I talk about some of the responses to the “Dear Colleague” letter sent out by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. Sent to educators across the country, this letter has generated a multitude of responses from teachers, principals, and superintendents alike. If you would like to read the full letter, you can find it here . Some of the topics c...

Happy Friday! This week’s encore episode is one from 2022, in which I interview Jen Schwanke about her book The Teacher’s Principal: How School Leaders can Support and Motivate Their Teachers . Jen shares a ton of great takeaways in this episode; I learned a lot from her as I listened back to this it! Give this episode a listen or check out the original blog post to learn more! The pos...

A Quick Note to Listeners: —- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks. Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —- Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answer a listene...

On this week’s installment of Monday Matters, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke have a conversation about leaving your legacy and making your mark. Some topics covered in the conversation are: Remembering that you will always be treasured by someone Treating other with dignity and respect – because they will remember that for a long time Knowing that our influence continues long after we ar...