Transformative Principal

  Dr. Grayson Maas is the Director of Communications for the Art of Problem Solving, a unique solution to teaching math anytime, anywhere. Motivated students in grades 2–12. We are the place students come to to learn math that they aren’t going to learn in school. Instill motivation in kids to want to do math. By and large math is traditionally taught with an emphasis on procedures, memorizing, an...

Creating Better Learning Environments with Kevin Stoller Transformative Principal 291 Social Media: Every school has defined their vision, the space should reflect that. Over the past 10 years, Kevin has visited over 1,000 schools and spoke with educators and students to learn how student outcomes are impacted by the learning environment. As CEO of Kay-Twelve , a company committed to improving lea...

Communicating to Create Happy Families with Jennifer Larson Transformative Principal 290 Social media: If you have a good communication system and everyone is engaged, there’s a positive buzz to the school. Jennifer Larson is he co-founder and CEO of Hive Digital Minds , which provides parent-school communication solutions through schoolbzz.com Completely overwhelmed Couldn’t keep up. Shift toward...

Danielle Nuhfer is a teacher who helps other teachers focus on self-care and you can find more information about her at teachingwell.life Teacher for 16 years. Not sure she was going to go back to teaching. Second burnout at year 10. Sabbatical in 2015 and 2016. What led to the second burnout. Lots of additional work responsibilities being taken on. Hard saying no to things. Reframe the No. “Let m...

My wife told me she just couldn't do it anymore. "It's too hard," she said. "Every time I drop him off, the tears, the yelling, and the crying. I just can't take him to school anymore. We've got to figure something out." We had talked about different things, from counseling to medication to other options. For the time being, our solution was that I would drop him off at school. For some reason, hi...

  Kip Motta is a principal in Rich Utah. You have to deal with people. Everything is about relationships. Doing what’s best for the team. Everyone is different, and you need to adapt your leadership to that person. A history of four-day school weeks. Change based on school district transportation costs. Waiver to reduce day requirement (152 vs 182) and still meet 990 hour requirement (now meet ove...

Revolutions Start with Relationships with Darren Ellwein Transformative Principal 286 Social media: Tailor everything to the learner - via @dellwein Darren Ellwein is my dessert bro and principal at the middle level in South Dakota! Revolution is about a group of people. From a staff culture standpoint: there was some kickback. It’s so much fun! Personalizing learning - what small steps do you nee...

After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be. How to change schools? Changing everything overnight - the sharp knives come out. Thoughtful, supportive resources at innovationplaylist.org Have your c...

After a career in innovation, Ted Dintersmith is most well-known to educators as the executive producer of the movie, Most Likely to Succeed, coauthor of the book of the same, and the man who traveled all fifty states to see What Schools Could Be. Education is the only antidote Machines are taking over so many jobs. Social media fueled technology is making it challenging to know what is real. What...

Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful. Partnering with community organizations. Schools often don’t know how to partner. Businesses don’t know how to join in the work with schools. Use coaching skills to build relationships. Learning is much more beneficial when...

Mia Pumo is a former teacher and math specialist and currently is the cofounder of Constructive Learning Design, which supports teachers and learners by making learning joyful. Making learning joyful I was really starting to contemplate leaving the profession I love because the joy was not there. We believe that if we design and deliver powerful learning experiences for educators, they will design...

  Brittni Schroeder is the founder of Compassion Clubs , dedicated to the memory of her late son who passed away tragically at the age of 14. Started with a scholarship fund for students. Received hundreds of cards and letters from people who cared about Gage. The “Can Man” People wanted to be with our family. “We only suffer when we think about ourselves.” - Tony Robbins We have to serve. That’s...

  Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath , @jchorvath is an educator and researcher with expertise in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, biological psychology, brain simulation, the learning sciences, and effective teaching/learning practices There is 1 learning process! It is the same for everyone. You don’t differentiate so students learn differently, you differentiate so students engage differently. If you...

Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challeng...

  Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has long been an advocate for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system through experiences leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital, all the while managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with practical, even life-saving, challe...

  Derek McCoy is a middle school principal in Georgia, and a fellow Digital Principal of the Year. He is also the coauthor of “The Revolution: It’s Time To Empower Change In Our Schools” We still sit in rows, we still deliver everything the same as we always. The time for shifting is over. Shift gives comfort, but we’ve got to make some change for our kids. We’re asking adults to change. 3 R’s is...

  Christopher is a principal at Whitman Hansen Regional High School. Transitioning to a new high school. A new position gives you the opportunity to reflect on where you want to go and who you want to go. Sharing yourself first. I’m not a student-centered principal! I’m a staff-centered principal. Build staff meetings around getting to know each other. Building relationships Every day, with some e...

  Mike Fisher author of Hacking Instructional Design. Shoutout to @elizabethfisher All this stuff that is eating up teachers’ time to plan. Easier to just purchase a program or a plan. Shift focus to contemporary instructional design. Why is it so hard to move away from Decision paralysis. So many decisions to make that we don’t know what to do. How well we need to design assessments. Standards, r...

This is a keynote that I presented for the Alaska Society for Technology in Education Conference in February. Here is the link to the video of it.  We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL .  IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by indepe...

  Byron Darnall is the principal of Potter Gray Elementary School in Bowling Green Kentucky Long term sustainable change is slow. How do you improve something that is already successful? Examine the student experience. Who’s school is it? As educators we tend to operate from the center. Busyness is the disease of our time. How are you? Busy! <-bothersome “I would love to, but I’m too busy.“ Am...

RTI process for Lyn Marsilio' s elementary school. Set a couple goals: know their letters, ICU. 4 rotations, 6 minute rotations Letter writing, letter sorts, tracing, sound sorts. After the first 20 days, graduated kids went back into the classroom. Did a round 2 to add rhyming and took out tactile piece. Taking attendance for kids to see how many times they went to this intervention. Out of the 2...

Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin. Leadership team, started with 12 people, now we have up to 20 people come to the leadership team meeting each month. Follow up leadership team meeting after PD. Anybody who wants to be part of leadership team can join us. Leadership Meeting norms. Six Step Process Weekly article share at 7:30 Book studies. Tight and loose. Need m...

  Larry Villiard is the principal of a K-12 school in Bruce Wisconsin. Larry has been there since 1995 Moved from a junior high school to a middle school. About 500 students 2 classes per grade Middle school has a separate schedule from everyone else. Extended core classes 80 minutes long. The staff is the key to making kids successful. How has the PLC approach helped you. Took ideas from the staf...

  Dr. Barbara is Executive Director of The Institute for Childhood Education, a professional development and consulting firm for those who live and work with children. Barbara started rocking abandoned babies when she was in high school in Washington, D.C. First year teaching was in the inner city. The role of spirituality and faith in children. Faith community is a resilience factor. Faith enable...

    Jason Glass is the superintendent of Jeffco Public Schools 85,000 students on the west side of Denver, Colorado. Lots of great people in the district. Community is politically divided 1/3 democrats, 1/3 independent, 1/3 republican When it comes to our kids, it should be an area where everyone can work together. PBS Documentary about the Jeffco recall Things that disturb the balance here get no...