The Assistant Principal Podcast

Outline and Show Notes Show Title: What SPED Needs from You with Liz Capone Guest: Liz Capone Teaser: It’s pretty typical for new assistant principles to be given fairly substantial responsibilities, related to special education, especially in terms of attending IEP meetings. This is fine if the assistant principal has a background in special education, but when they don’t, it can present complex...

Outline and Show Notes Schools to Watch with Dr. Joe Coleman Teaser: Schools to Watch is a national program designed to promote middle school excellence. In today’s show I interview a state Schools to Watch coordinator, but the episode is more about good things happening in good schools than it is about the specific Schools to Watch framework. It’s really helpful to be able to visit many diverse s...

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline My 11 Morning Affirmations Teaser: I’ve been looking forward to doing this podcast for a while. Now we’re going to dig into my 11 morning affirmations and honestly and without exaggeration these affirmations have been huge in helping me to stay true to who I am to stay focused, and to be buoyant during a really challenging. In my life so let’s di...

Outline and Show Notes Reframing Resistance with Becca Silver Power Quote: What’s scary for us may not be scary for them.” Teaser:  | I’m really excited for today’s episode. You’ve heard me talk about reframing resistance as feedback by getting curious instead of judgmental. Today’s guest helps us dive deep into what comes next. This is a packed episode and if you aren’t driving you may want to ha...

Outline and Show Notes Urgency and Efficacy with Taylor Crosby Sponsor Spot 1: I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope Adventures for sponsoring today’s show. Lots of companies can help you organize class trips, but Kaleidoscope helps you organize adventures – because isn’t that what student trips should be? Kaleidscope is a full-service tour company offering a range of adventure opportunities and they exc...

Outline and Show Notes Leadership with Dr. Brian Martin Teaser: My guest on today show is a vice principal at an international school in Columbia, but almost everything that we talk about today is relevant to leadership in general and to school leader ship in particular.  This is a really fun discussion. We begin with a focus on teacher retention but also cover a wide range of topics, and I think...

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline Show title and release date: If I Had One Day With You 5/26/26 Teaser: The genesis for today’s episode came while I was hiking in the woods. I began thinking about what I would do working with someone if I only had one day. This “thought exercise” helped me think about the practices I teach that are most impactful, the ones that are simplest, and...

Outline and Show Notes Realistic Recharge with Dr. Julie Hasson Power Quote: "the wrong kind of hard" Teaser: Today I’m back with Dr. Julie Hasson. In part 1, we went deep into burnout, toxic positivity, and self-care. In today’s show we’ll dig into Julie’s Recharge model. This episode is every bit as practical and rich as the last show was. Sponsor Spot 1: So when it comes to student travel, I ge...

Outline and Show Notes What Does Burnout Mean? With Dr. Julie Hasson Power Quote: “The wrong kind of hard.” Teaser: Dr. Julie Hasson and I has so much fun recording our conversation – we just kept on talking, so instead of giving you a giant dump of stuff, we decided to break it into two distinct episodes. In part 1, we go deep into burnout, toxic positivity, and self-care. In next week’s show we’...

Power Quote: Am I a manager of priorities or a builder of people? Teaser: After recording today’s episode, I realized I needed to record the episodes on Strategic Action Cycles. Those episodes were a primer for this episode. If you haven’t yet listened to past two episodes on Strategic Action Cycles, I encourage you to do it now as this episode will have a bigger impact if you are already familiar...

Teaser: Today we dig into the second of our three-part series on the power of small change. Last week I covered some of the major challenges with BIG Change and then shared the four principles of leverage. I’ll give a quick recap of the principles of leverage in a few minutes, but if you did not listen to part 1 I strongly urge you to go to it before listening to this episode.  Sponsor Spot 1: If...

Teaser: We’ve all experienced it – BIG change. Not change as in the pandemic or a hurricane, or even NCLB. I mean BIG change initiatives that we do to ourselves. The programs or solutions we implement to great fanfare, that we pour money and time into, that almost inevitably fade out to be replaced by the next big thing. PBIS, Leader in Me, block scheduling, PLCs/teaming, standards-based assessmen...

Wow! 300! Power Quote: It’s all about the people and the relationships Teaser: You are about to listen to the 300th episode of the assistant principal podcast. We released our first episode on August 26, 2021 with the topic of Strategic Leadership and, honestly, that episode was so bad I pulled it from our platform. Producing this show has been such an incredible experience and I wanted to do some...

The Systems Supporting Teacher Growth with Isiah Williams Teaser: If you’ve listened to this show for longer than a month you have likely heard me talk about the flywheel – the “magic” system for driving continual teacher growth. In December I was at an administrators’ conference in Pinehurst, NC and happened to sit at a table with an enthusiastic and passionate young AP who shared with me some of...

Guiding Change with Dr. Christie Cooper Teaser: Building on DiSC styles and how they influence change processes. 50-70% of change initiatives Fail! Sponsor Spot 1: I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope Adventures for sponsoring today’s show. Lots of companies can help you organize class trips, but Kaleidoscope helps you organize adventures – because isn’t that what student trips should be? Kaleidscope is...

Leadership Styles with Dr. Christie Cooper Teaser: The leadership style activity I do with groups… Sponsor Spot 1: I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope Adventures for sponsoring today’s show. Lots of companies can help you organize class trips, but Kaleidoscope helps you organize adventures – because isn’t that what student trips should be? Kaleidscope is a full-service tour company offering a range of...

Five Change Lessons March 17, 2026 Sponsor Spot 1: I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope Adventures for sponsoring today’s show. Lots of companies can help you organize class trips, but Kaleidoscope helps you organize adventures – because isn’t that what student trips should be? Kaleidscope is a full-service tour company offering a range of adventure opportunities and they excel at customizing trips base...

Show Title: Make Every Moment Count with POY Jason Johnson Power Quote: Make Every Moment Count Teaser: The R word – relationships. Sometimes it feels like we talk about it too much but not enough. It doesn’t make sense, but I hope you know what I mean. In a digital world, it feels like relationships are an analog concept, but I think they are more important now than ever. Sponsor Spot 1: - If you...

Support, Don’t Solve Teaser: Becoming a strategic leader is a journey – a long one. It’s a journey full of stops and starts, and slow incremental improvement. But there are also some inflection points – places where leaders make a great leap forward. Those inflection points usually have more to do with changes in perception than the acquisition of knowledge or skills. Today’s topic is an inflectio...

When there are “I’s” in TEAM with Dr. Chad Dumas Teaser: I’m really excited about today’s episode. I had so much fun recording it and I think that lightness and positivity come out in the interview. It’s a great combination of high-level stuff and some really fundamental truths about teams and leaderships. This might be one of those episodes that you want to listen to twice and take notes. I hope...

What a Ford Mav-Wreck Can Teach Us About Leadership Sponsor Spot 1: Travel can positively impact students in a big way - but if your first thought is, “who is going to plan all of this?”, don’t worry because that’s where Kaleidoscope Adventures comes in. The KA team has been planning student group travel for more than 30 years! They handle the logistics from start to finish, so you can focus on yo...

Reimagining School Leadership with Dr. Lindsay Whorton   Power Quote: “Leadership has to be a team sport.”     Teaser: I hope you enjoy listening to today’s episode as much as I did recording it. It’s a wonderful combination of big picture thinking and exploring some new ideas but then also getting down and making some really specific suggestions about next steps so this wonderful blend of 40,000...

Dr. Lindsay Whorton has served as president of The Holdsworth Center since 2019, leading its growth from seven Texas school districts to 89 districts serving over 1,900 educational leaders.    A native of Independence, Missouri, Lindsay graduated from Drake University with degrees in secondary education and English. She captained the women's basketball team to a 2007 Missouri Valley Conference Tou...

The Five Gives   Teaser: It’s that time of the year for assistant principals when it just feels like you’re completely underwater all the time the thought you had at the beginning of the year of engaging in teacher development of doing observations and coaching those are kind of long lost dreams at this point, but there is a way out we don’t have to sit in the space today I am going to do a quick...

289 When Fall Didn’t End Very Well   Teaser:  “I would love it if you would consider doing a podcast episode on what happens when a principal gets off track and needs to get the trains back on track... Just as our students get off track around October (the honeymoon phase is over), I found myself last fall losing sight of our mission and goals for the year. My AP and I got excited and started gett...