The Assistant Principal Podcast

Show Description: I will lead off this episode with a couple apologies:1.     I’ve got a cold and am low energy, so I’m admittedly not bringing my A-game this week. Paraphrasing BB King…2.     I know this episode’s title has a click-bait feel to it, but it is the best I could come up with today (see apology 1 above). The premise for today is that most of you are 4-8 weeks into your school year and...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! Today’s shout out goes to… Mitchell Hall, Gifted and Talented Education Specialist, Garrett County Public Schools, Maryland who emailed me about the relationship matrix we featured on our August 30th daily email: Hi Frederick, I enjoy the relationship matrix!  As I looked over the different categories...

You make it what you want with Sean Olson   Show Description: It would be a trope if there wasn’t so much truth to it – become an AP and spend countless hours “doing” discipline. It’s hard to support and grow your teachers if you are handling discipline all day. But what if we could change this narrative? Would if we could invest some front end time in order to spend less time doing discipline AND...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! Today’s shout out goes to Caitlin and the whole team at EB Academics. Caitlin was kind enough to interview me on episode 243 of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. Caitlin is a wonderful interviewer, and we had a powerful conversation about the four essentials: Your support network Healthy morning...

Assistant Principal Podcast Content Episode Outline   Show title and release date: Presence   Show Description: Ask 100 school leaders for their best piece of wisdom and the majority of respondents will likely tell you that it is all about relationships. That’s great, but how do you turn “its all about relationships” into a strategy you can execute every day? It is surprisingly simple, and if you...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast! Today’s shout out goes to AJ Bianco, Vice Principal at East Brook Middle School in Hillsdale, NJ. AJ also was a contribute rot last week’s episode on veteran teachers. You may recall at the end of that show that I asked for some feedback and AJ kindly responded with these words: I just wanted to let yo...

  We assume that being an educational leader revolves around making deposits. What I mean is that we invest our time supporting and growing others. When we help others, we are, usually, making deposits. There will come a time however, when we need to make a withdrawal – when we need to have someone do something they don’t want to do or have a conversation they don’t want to have. This pattern of m...

TodHello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!   Today’s shout out goes to the instructional coaches of Lexington 4 school district in Gaston, SC. Emily, Mary Beth, Kari, Katie, and Amanda, I appreciate you taking time to give me critical feedback on the virtual leadership courses we’ve been talking about and helping me understand micro-credenti...

Last week’s show was about growing veteran teachers. I focused largely on the importance of relationships. At the end of the episode, I encouraged you to ask your veteran teachers three questions:o   What is your teaching super-power?o   What’s the biggest difference between who you are now as a teacher, and who you were when you began?o   If you could get students to do one thing differently, wha...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!   Today’s shout out goes to…William D Parker, host of the Principal Matters Podcast and a kind, gentle, and caring human being who is quickly becoming a good friend. Will released his interview of me back on August 9. My biggest fan – my wife Pam – said it is the best I have done in an interview and Wi...

I was a coach before I was a teacher. Literally, I volunteered as a football coach right after I graduated from high school. I played three years of high school and four years of college football, and I had position coaches, defensive coordinators, and head coaches all involved in my development as a player. Some of my coaches were good, some weren’t, but I was reliant on them in a way which is ha...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!   Today’s shout out goes to… I don’t know. It’s been a quiet week at the podcast as everyone gears up for school. Please consider emailing me, DMing me on LinkedIn, or leaving a review of the podcast on Apple podcasts – so I can give someone a shout out – so I can give you a shout out!     Today’s epis...

Today’s episode is packed full of amazing information, ideas, and inspiration. We are going to conclude today’s show with a simple technique for putting everything in the show into practice. It is simple, and you can become competent in the technique with almost no practice, and it will take you less than five minutes a day. The result will be profound. Please, walk with me through this episode an...

Hello Colleagues and welcome to another 5 for Friday episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast!   So much to celebrate today:   ·      WOW! This is number 150 of The Assistant Principal Podcast! ·      We topped 4500 downloads in July – a new record! ·      I keep hearing from listeners telling me how the podcast has helped them land their first AP job, or work with a teacher, and more.    Today’...

Congratulations! You finally have that brand new AP job! Or maybe you’re walking into a different new leadership position, or moving into a different school. Or maybe you aren’t going anywhere... yet. Today my special guest and I are going to dig into the four essentials that many of the support programs for school leaders miss. These are four essentials to help you take care of you so you can sta...

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 31-August 4, 2023.

Passion! Remember when you were just starting out and you wanted to set the world on fire? I know, you are in school leadership, so you are still setting the world on fire – in a good way – but maybe some days it feels like your box of matches is running a bit low. Maybe? Today we have a very special guest who is on the front end of her career, with matches to spare. Her passion and wisdom are con...

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 24-28, 2023.

You can’t do it alone! Building a support network is essential to any leader’s success but is critical to first-year assistant principals. A good network consists of four roles which we will explore today.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 17-21, 2023.

Accountability is compassionate. Conflict builds trust. Switches influence our mindset. At first glance, none of these statement may seem to make a lot of sense, but 30 minutes from now you will probably be embracing the ideas behind them – ideas that lead us to powerful truths which will improve life and leadership. Today, we dig into compassionate accountability with a very special guest. 

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 10-14, 2023.

What if I could give you three strategies to magically prevent burnout? Do I have your attention? Full disclosure – I don’t have three strategies, because burnout isn’t about you. It’s about something bigger. And you can’t prevent burnout. It requires something greater. Sounds a bit confusing? Playfulness aside, today we are looking at something essential to everyone listening. We are going to tal...

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 3-7, 2023.

One of my favorite books is Jim Collins’ Good to Great – a book about what separates great companies from good ones. Collins’ book focuses on organizations, so what about leaders? What separates a great assistant principal from a good one? If you aren’t at the level of leadership you’d like to be, how do you get to being awesome? Today’s guest will help us take a few important steps on that journe...