Jimmy Casas served twenty-two years as a school leader. He is a best-selling author, speaker, leadership coach, and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Drake University teaching a graduate course on Educational Leadership. Jimmy is the CEO and President of J Casas and Associates aimed at serving teachers, principals and superintendents in school districts across the country by providing high quality, practical and meaningful coaching support.

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I’ve been following Jimmy on social media, have read his books and refer to his book, “Culturize” especially when helping schools develop positive cultures. I had so much fun talking with Jimmy and even learned something that I think he never told anyone before. Enjoy!

 

You and your family

I was born and raised in Iowa and continue to live in Iowa. I also have a home in Chicago since it is the hub and easy to get in and out of. A good reason for moving there was my oldest son, AJ, recently got transferred to Kalamazoo, Michigan and works for Stryker Corporation. He’s done really well and we’re very proud of him and all of our three children. My oldest daughter, Miraya, graduated from college, lives at our home in Bettendorf, and is a full-time nurse in labor and delivery. My youngest daughter, Marisa, who is 18, is a freshman at the University of Iowa. We’re all proud to be hawks and feel very very blessed that we have three beautiful children who are very kind young people. As parents, that’s all we can ask for is that our children are good people who have good hearts.

What Connected Educators Do with Jimmy Casas – YouTube

Experiences in and out of school that impacted you

I struggled in school, but I did have teachers in elementary school who really cared about me, supported me and tolerated me. Somewhere along the way when I got to middle school, I lost my way. That was due to a loss of confidence and struggling in terms of reading. Literacy was always an issue for me. I was good at math in elementary school, but when I got to middle school, I lost confidence in math also. By the time I got to high school, academics was very difficult for me.

“All of these experiences lead us on a journey to who we are and what we do with that. What do we do with the experiences to make a change in a positive way in our personal lives and hopefully in the lives of others?”

When I left school I didn’t intend to become an educator. I actually had other ideas of what I wanted to do. Life comes at you and I wasn’t ready for the rigors of college. I was not only a dropout of college once, twice, but three times. At one point, i gave up and thought college was not for me so I left and went to work in a sales job for a year which went really well. In fact, they wanted me to stay on. When my mentor was released, I was asked to take his place. I was 19 at the time taking a 49-year-old gentleman’s job who has children in college. It dawned on me that he didn’t have an education either and thought, “is that same thing going to happen to me where someone is eventually going to come along and take my job away?”

That’s what prompted me to go back to school and rethink things. I remember how upset the company was at me for leaving. It dawned on me that they really didn’t care about me. They only cared about me if I was making them money. As soon as I made the decision to go back and invest in school and my studies, it didn’t take long for me, I began to build confidence that I could do this right and finally committed to it. Post-secondary is about having opportunities for young people to find themselves and figure out their own path.

Don’t put a timeline on you that others expect you to get this or that done by a certain time. Take your own journey and then you will figure it out.

My father always said to me was “to make hard work your passion because then it doesn’t matter what you decide to do and you will be successful. Don’t label yourself that you have to be this or have to be that. Make hard work your passion. Whatever you decide to do, you will be successful.” Wise words from a person who never finished school.

 

So what path did you take?

I did my undergrad, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do. I decided I wanted to be an FBI Agent so I went back to follow that process. They told me it would take a couple of years and that I should do something in the meantime just in case I didn’t make it. So I went to grad school and decided to volunteer at an elementary school starting at 4 hours a week, then 4 hours a day to eventually working full-time. They needed help and I wanted to help. I had the time to do it plus the more I did there, the more I liked it.

At Christmas, I got a call to go to Quantico to do my final testing, a physical. I didn’t pass the test because of my eyesight, so I went back to retake it and failed it again. My heart was broken. I even got my picture was taken and ready for the FBI. I really got to know the people over two years who had corrected vision. You see, once you’re in, it didn’t matter. To get in the FBI, you had to qualify in a certain range and it was crushing to not make the range. So I went back to school to do my masters to become a teacher.  Later, I had laser surgery to correct my vision, but I realized then that teaching was my calling.

 

Your journey as an educator and then principal at Bettendorf HS

My first teaching job was as a bilingual teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools. I was blessed because there were people who saw potential in me and encouraged me to go back to grad school in an Education Leadership program. Then I spent four years in the classroom and then at the age of 26, I became a principal after being in 3 districts, Milwaukee PS (3 years), Iowa City School District (5 years), and then, in 2002, took the job as principal of Bettendorf High School in Iowa for 14 years, 22 years all together.

We had a great group of people with great support at Bettendorf so we were able to do things we are very proud of. Bettendorf has always been looked upon as one of the best schools in the state of Iowa, but I started thinking that I was walking into an adult-centered culture instead of student-centered. They still had great success. The challenge of that is how do you move an organization that sees themselves as successful so why would they do anything differently? What they didn’t see is that they could be so much better. We needed to do great things for all of our kids. To shift that mindset is very difficult. The good news is that we were blessed to have a real core group of people who understood that. The second thing, in terms of success, is the ability to sustain leadership over a long period of time. The more change in leadership the more issues we create for ourselves and stress on an organization. If we’re doing it right, building a community of leaders, no one principal can do it by themselves. To be truly successful, we need to build our capacity and grow more leaders in our organization. To build the skillset to do this, you need to have the conversations in a way that doesn’t hurt your culture. By avoiding the conversations, you can make the culture worse.

 

Culturize: Core Principles of Positive School Culture

People want to do really good things for kids, but they get exhausted with a myriad of variables that come into play and over time they lose their focus. They forget their sense of purpose and why they went into the profession. Part of leadership is to keep people focused, energized, and reminding them that what they do does make a difference. But not just telling them, you have to show them. In order to do that, you have to lead from the core.  I’m certainly not the same principal at year 22 than what I was at year 1. We are always evolving in the role as principal.

The idea of culturize is leading from the core. Those core principles are:

• Champion for all students
• Expect Excellence
• Carry the Banner
• Be a Merchant of Hope

When you lead from your core, we have to live that core. If we are not living it, then it comes across pretty disingenuous and losing credibility. People confuse the idea of being a champion for kids. It doesn’t mean we are going to let kids get away with things or that they are always right. It means to hold kids to the highest expectations. When you care about children and you have kids that are struggling in school, it’s really easy to start feeling sorry for those kids. We can’t do that. The reality is that when we begin to feel sorry, we pull back and make things easier for them and we shouldn’t be doing that. To me, it’s an equity issue. So we really should be holding all kids to the same accountability in terms of what we expect from them. What we need to begin to do is see it through their lens and be more empathetic. They don’t need our sympathy, they need our empathy. We need to remember what it feels like to be a child who struggles in school, to know what it feels like to have fear, anxiety, and worrying about what other kids feel about them, and not to let others down. That’s what it means to be a champion for kids.

I shared the story in my book about my baseball coach who was not my champion but I learned from that. Mr. Kelly Morgan, vice principal, was truly my champion for me and many other students. He had a difficult job as a disciplinarian, but he went out of his way to know everyone. He knew me, my family, and helped them navigate the system. What I learned is that I don’t judge anyone for the specific circumstances. It’s what we do with those experiences.

 

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This is Barbara:

I really enjoyed the conversation with Jimmy and shared so much but there is more than we have here. Please listen to the entire podcast and leave a comment for Jimmy or a review on iTunes. I’m so honored that he shared so many experiences and ideas. He has a new book released on December 9th with his co-author Jeff Zoul, “Stop Right Now: 39 Stops to Making Schools Better.” 

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Jimmy Casas served twenty-two years as a school leader, including fourteen years as Principal at Bettendorf High School. Under his leadership, Bettendorf was named one of the Best High Schools in the country three times by Newsweek and US News & World Report.

Jimmy was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as one of three finalists for NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. Jimmy is also the author of three books, “What Connected Educators Do Differently,” “Start. Right. Now. – Teach and Lead for Excellence,” and his latest release and best-selling book “Culturize – Every Student. Every Day. Whatever it Takes.”

Jimmy currently serves as an adjunct professor for Drake University, teaching courses in educational leadership. Finally, he is the owner and CEO of J Casas & Associates, an educational leadership company aimed at organizing and providing world-class professional learning services for educators across the country.

 

Jimmy’s Contact information

• Twitter: @casas_jimmy –  Twitter hashtag: #culturize
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jimmycasasculturize
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-casas-bb863432
• Website “Lead with Passion”: https://jimmycasas.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casas_jimmy/

 

Intro music:

“BossaBossa” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

 

 

Julia Torres is a Librarian and Language Arts teacher at a public high school in Denver, Colorado and writes and publishes on Medium.com for her students and the wider audience. As an advocate for all students and public education, Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about equity, anti-bias/anti-racist education, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and literacy in the digital age.

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I met Julia at the 5Sigma Conference at the Anastasis Academy in Colorado. As soon as we started talking, it seemed like we had always known each other. I sat in her session about teaching tolerance and knew that I had to connect with her. We kept in touch, saw each other at SXSW, and just had to follow up with a podcast. Enjoy the podcast and what Julia wrote and shared below.

 

Let’s talk about you and your family.

I am originally from Southern California, but when I was a teenager, I lived in Brazil and this changed my life.  My father died when I was young, and my mother raised me. She is bilingual (Spanish and English), so she taught me Spanish from birth. In Brazil, where I lived for one year and have been traveling on an almost-yearly basis for the last 23 years, I learned Portuguese, which I consider to be the language of my heart.  As such, multiculturalism and multilingualism is a big part of who I am. I currently live and teach in Denver, Colorado where I am lucky to work in the largest (and only urban) school district in the state. I have taught Language Arts since 2005, and am currently what is termed a teacher-librarian. My main job is to help students re-ignite their passion for reading by finding new and creative ways to introduce them to books, authors, and the written and spoken word.

 

What was it like when you were young and in school?

When I was young, I remember liking school because I was a very curious person.  I was also always in a book. I have always been a passionate reader and a secret writer.  I remember school being easy because I was one of those kids who just knew how to do school.  Language arts was always really easy for me, but math was where I struggled. My math classes traumatized me. Friends who are math teachers now chastise me all the time for labeling myself as “not a math person”, but I still think it’s true!  I cried a lot because of my math grades. I was that person with all As and a D bordering on an F–in math class. I remember school being about impressing the teacher with how well-behaved, obedient I could be, and how well I could do what they wanted.  I definitely suffered from “pretty brown-girl syndrome” in which we are taught to be quiet, obedient, and twice as skilled as anyone else…I internalized the lesson many Black women are taught by society, that you have to be twice as good to receive half as much.  Half as much pay, praise, half as many rewards. I knew that I would always be punished for the slightest misstep, and rewards would seldom if ever come my way…only after working very, very hard. It is for this reason that I consider myself and so many other Black women I know to be masters of our crafts.  We often have no choice not to be.

 

What is your passion? What you love and want to learn?

Every once in a while, I read books about metaphysics and/or astrology.  I read one recently called “Astrology for the Soul” that offers a pretty simple way of calculating your North and South Nodes.  I won’t go into that for folks who don’t believe in such things, but the basic message was that I am at my best when I’m with children or teaching people how to best serve children.  When I read those words I was SHOCKED. It said that IN PRINT. It blew me away. It said a lot of other things, like I’m supposed to be working with words and literature because working with such things would be gifts I would be given to help me with my primary mission of working with children, but the way this has all manifested lately is that I just love helping kids love reading again.  Too many of our children in what are labeled “Title 1” “Low-income” or “Hard-to-Serve” schools–and I use those labels begrudgingly, because no situation is that simple, right?

But anyhow, I will use the language I have to say that too many children in school environments like mine have had their love of reading systematically stolen. The high-stakes culture of testing coupled with an unhealthy and irrational fixation on forcing “The Classics” down students’ throats leads to secondary students in grades 6-12 associating reading with pain, suffering, insecurity, in short, misery.  I dedicate every day to doing something about this. Part of it is because I love reading so much, and I consider it an honor to be paid to help children love it too, but a bigger part is that I know that their ability to fully participate in life will be dependent upon their relationship with words. Take somebody’s language away, and you’ve taken away a huge piece of their humanity. As so much of my work is oriented toward anti-racist teaching practices, I believe that this work is an essential part of liberatory education.

My speech from Ignite Denver 2018 – “Love is a Verb: Education is Liberation”

 

How do we, all of us, celebrate our differences? And then teach our children to do that?

We should definitely teach children to celebrate differences, but in order to celebrate them, you first have to learn not to fear them.  Humans are wired to fear differences. But, what are we here for if not to evolve. I don’t jive with the folks who say, “This is my lizard brain, that’s just the way we are wired.  There is no moving beyond it.” I disagree. I think we are at this stage in human evolution where we can and should work to move beyond it. That’s what this global interconnectedness and the great thing called the world wide web has afforded us–a chance to work together, connect, share passions, and make the world a better place.

 

The Educator Collaborative Gathering Fall 2018 https://youtu.be/f4OZsj4hJBM

 

Who are your favorite authors?

I recommend Jesmyn Ward–all Jesmyn Ward.  Her books will change your life both with the stories that are told, the emotions they will bring out of you, and the sheer craft behind them.  Lately, I’ve been working hard to go back in time and fill in some gaps from my miseducation, so Assata Shakur’s new Autobiography is helping me to do that. It is not only Black people who need to reclaim our history, but all people also need to reclaim whole slices of history that they were not fed.  Go get after them. As for YA or kid lit, I can’t pick favorites, but I’m definitely on an Ibi Zoboi kick right now. She has an anthology coming out called Black Enough that needs to be part of EVERY creative writing class everywhere– probably every 9th grade English class. It’s just a bunch of dope, beautiful, creative people who came together to write these beautiful stories of Blackness.  The Poet X is another one that will change your life.  It speaks to the bilingual soul, and despite what has historically been the case, more and more of us are bilingual.  Monolingualism is not a thing, so folks need to stop referring to students as “monolinguals” when they are such themselves.  Just because a student only speaks Spanish, but YOU only speak English does not mean they are somehow deficient and you are not… Two more: Jason Reynolds–all Jason Reynolds books and Trevor Noah–Born a Crime along with some books on my table.

 

What does librarianship look like these days?

 I am far from the expert.  I can tell you that I have been at it that long, but I know that librarians are a very underutilized asset. I know that there is a disturbing trend across the nation where secondary librarians are retiring and not being replaced, and I think that is extremely sad.  The teacher shortage is really sad, but to me, the deliberate destruction of libraries is criminal. A society that steals language, love of that language, and the joys of reading for pleasure from children is a society that robs itself of its future. We may not see the error of our ways yet, but what we have done will catch up with us.  It is a mistake to think that just because the world is moving in a digital direction, the old-time pleasure of reading books is no longer valid. Yet, I manage Project Lit Montbello and encourage reading and find the greatest selections for our kids to read. Here are a few books for #MontbelloReads:

 

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Julia E. Torres is a Language Arts teacher at a public high school in Denver, Colorado.  She finds humor in everyday moments with her family, friends, and students she teaches. Julia’s favorite genres to read are biographies, historical fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Julia has had the great privilege of traveling to Mexico, Canada, Iceland, Bermuda, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, and Costa Rica.  She lived in Brazil as a teenager and continues to be close to her adopted family and friends who live there.

Many pieces that Ms. Torres writes and publishes on Medium.com are for her students to read, and the wider audience of her peers in the field of education.  She believes in students having a reading and writing teacher who is also a reader, and a writer.  As such, she does her best to model the types of writing she asks students to produce, then shares them with a real audience, as real writers do.  “Ms. Torres”, “Miss”, “Torres”, or “Mama T”, as her students call her, enjoys teaching writing primarily because the field is constantly evolving in both content, and form.  She also feels that now, more than ever is the time for students to develop their voices and use them to produce positive change. Julia feels that helping students develop their own personal writing voice and style is the gift that keeps giving.  She remains passionately committed to amplifying student voices by any means possible. Teaching, aside from her family, is Julia’s greatest love. As an advocate for all students and public education, Ms. Torres regularly undertakes speaking engagements, facilitates workshops and professional conversations about equity, anti-bias/anti-racist education, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and literacy in the digital age. She also serves on several local and national boards and committees that promote educational equity and progressivism.

Reach her via the contact form here or contract her services through The Educator Collaborative

Twitter: @juliaerin80

#hfellow @EducolorMVMT
co-founder #DisruptTexts @ncte @TheEdCollab
co-founder #POCPD#MontbelloReads

 

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray,
click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

 

 

 

 

 

Hans Appel has been a Counselor at Enterprise Middle School in the Richland School District in WA for the past 17+ years. Recently, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and this fall rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation.

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Hans is absolutely driven to helping students and educators find purpose and joy in life. Just listening to his passion when he talks about school culture and Character Strong made me want to learn more about him, his life, the kids, and his school. Below are excerpts from our conversation.   

 

About you and where you live

I was born in Westfield, New Jersey, and an only child. My family moved to Corpus Christie, Texas when I was a little kid. My dad was a chemical engineer and my mom was an art teacher and interior designer. When I was in second grade, we moved to Richland, Washington so he could work at the Hanford Nuclear site. I spent most of my life here and went to Hanford High School where I met my wife, Jennifer and been married for 19 of the 24 years we’ve been together. Jennifer is a passionate educator and teaches at the same school as me, Enterprise Middle School, as a Language Arts teacher and teaches leadership. We are fortunate to work together and talk the same language.

We don’t have children of our own. Our kids are the kids at our school where we spend our energy. We have two dogs that are Shelties who are babies who we love and spoil. We live in the city of Kennewick which is in the Southeast corner of Washington and is much drier than Seattle. It is more like the climate of Napa, CA so it is conducive to growing wine.

Your journey in school

A school was good up through elementary school. Middle school was where school got really hard for me. My parents were fighting a lot in kind of an abusive home and not the greatest situation for me at that age. Learning in school really became secondary. I didn’t get good grades in middle school and didn’t find my own until high school where I got into sports. I’m 6’4” so I was a basketball player. The more I got into basketball, the more I realized that grades mattered. I had to keep my grades up to stay eligible, but that is also where I started getting excited about my education. I went to Central Washington University which was 2 hours away. I took business and psychology classes. The more psychology classes I took, the more I realized I was more into human behavior and how to help others.

While I was in college, my parents went through a divorce, and I became their mediator. This was a weird role to play as a 19 or 20-year-old kid, but I kind of helped both of them through that experience. So while all of that was going on, Jennifer was in the education program. She had come from a long line of educators who asked me if I ever thought of education. As I took more psychology classes and was learning to help others, it just felt like a natural fit. When I was graduating with a masters in school counseling and because of my own experiences, I knew, unequivocally, that I only wanted to work in middle school. I believed that was where the kids needed me the most.

School Counselor at Enterprise Middle School (EMS Counselor)

When I graduated, I went to work at Hanford Middle School which was my alma mater which closed in 2005. The district built Enterprise MS where most of the Hanford MS staff went. There’s this core group, two-thirds of us, that have been together for 15 to 20 years. It’s like we’re a family here, and it is pretty special. I’m lucky to have the best administration in the district and top of the line support staff and teachers who put kids first and care about making this place amazing. I realized as a school counselor there are a lot of things I don’t have influence over what happens to students at home or around decisions made at the district office. As a counselor, I have a lot of influence on what our school culture looks like and how that impacts experiences for students. Love this quote from Peter Drucker:

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

That makes so much sense to me because there are so many intentional small things we can do on a daily basis that lift other people’s spirits

 

About Wildcat Nation

Wildcat Nation is Our Brand. We have spent a few years building that brand. Joe Sanfellipo has this quote that really stuck with me.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not around.”

School brands have to go beyond mascots and logos and have to be rooted in authenticity. It can’t be a couple of people coming up with a cool name or idea. It has to be something that grows naturally. We focused on three main parts with these questions:

• Character: Will you do the right thing?
• Excellence: Will you do your best?
• Community: What will you do for others today?

Wildcat Nation has become who we are. A student mentioned to me that school for her is “a place where kindness is normal.”

 

Kindness and Social Emotional Learning program

We’ve been doing advisories for about 8 years that involve three areas:

• Social-emotional learning
• College and career
• Academic

The first 30 minutes of every Friday, students learning one of those aspects of education. Students loop with their teachers so they build relationships with their teachers that last three years. It has been pretty successful for a while, but we decided it was time to update our social-emotional curriculum.

We found in our research CHARACTER STRONG that was created by John Norlin and Houston Kraft who have combined character ed and social-emotional learning. We realized we were missing the character ed piece because character really gives social-emotional the why. Instead of teaching kids what not to do, it’s more a proactive way of teaching them how to be kind, to serve, and use empathy. It’s highly experiential because it gets kids up and moving around. Not only in lessons, but there are also challenges outside of advisory. They do things called “Character Dares” where they are asked to do things in the community, in the school, in other classes, and at home. There is part of this program that will move you to tears and impactful for teachers and students. The two-day training I had a year ago on Character Strong was the best professional training that I’ve had my entire career. It was a life changing event for me and highly recommend it for other educators. It really helps you deeply discover your why and is so powerful in how you can use that message to change the world.

 

What Character Strong looks like at EMS

Every morning, our kids greet others as they come to school. There are high fives, fist bumps, and music playing. It’s so powerful. No matter what the weather is, the kids make everyone feel welcome to our school. We have something that we call “Golden Broom” which is a demonstration of service to those who serve us. It is really special when we recognize people like our custodian and had the kids work for the custodian for 30 minutes to give him a break. They also made hot cider and cookies and brought those to the bus drivers. Those kinds of things were sprinkled throughout the year.

Golden Broom: “A Demonstration of Service to those who SERVE US.”

Blogging about Special Magic

It started because our school was getting attention and people wanted to see what is the special magic that is happening at Enterprise Middle School. John Norlin and Houston Kraft reached out to me to start writing some blog posts for Character Strong just sharing our story. That basically morphed into having other people at our school writing. So we asked educators and others  LA Teacher, Parent, B-Ball Coach, Math Teacher who were experiencing the magic like I was. What they found was that those were some of the most popular blogs that were posted on Character Strong. When the students started sharing their stories, that’s when I got excited about student voice.

 

Student-led podcast

In early Spring 2018, I attended the annual SERVUS Conference in Kent, Wa where students, speakers, authors, celebrities, and athletes showed up with 7-8 hours of inspiring work. Just imagine all the best leadership minds in your state together in an arena to learn from each other. I was listening to some of the speakers and there was this holocaust survivor that was talking. I mentioned to my wife that we need to make this happen more than once a year.

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Listen to more from Hans Appel about the student-led podcast and how it was created in the podcast along with information about the following awards:

-2018 ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington
-2017-2018 Global Class Act Award for Random Acts of Kindness

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Hans Appel has been a Counselor in the Richland School District, for the past 17+ years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened in 2005.  He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington, for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy.

 Additionally, RandomActs of Kindness chose Wildcat Nation as the 2017-2018 Global Class Act Winner for “making kindness normal.” Recently, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and this fall rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation.  Hans is absolutely driven to help students and educators find purpose and joy in life.

Contact Info

HansAppel094@gmail.com
#AwardWinningCulture
@hansappel094
@emswildcats1

 

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray,
click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bethany Hill serves as Lead Learner, Chief Energy Officer, and Chief Storyteller at Central Elementary in Cabot, Arkansas. She has been in education for 19 years in the roles of kindergarten, first, second, and third-grade classroom teacher, curriculum coach, assistant principal, and principal. Bethany is one of the originators of #EduAR and founder of #JoyfulLeaders.

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I have been following Bethany on Twitter for some time and am constantly inspired by her especially as Chief Energy Officer. I also really wanted to talk about what it means to be joyful. Below are excerpts from the podcast:

 

You and your family

I live right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas about 30 minutes from the capital in a community of Cabot. I went away for college and came back to live here. All of my family lives here. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 24 years. We have two boys. Tyler went to the University of Arkansas as a secondary education planning on teaching math at the middle or high school level and coach. Garrett just finished 9th grade at the Cabot Freshman Academy in the same district I serve as a principal.

 

Your background in education

When I was a little girl, I grew up with the best parents ever. We did not have a lot of money, grew our own food, and my mother made our clothes. That was my world, but I never wanted for anything because I was very loved and cared for. From the time I was very little, I just wanted to teach. I pretended to teach my stuffed animals, created a teacher name for myself, and it was always what I did. No one in my family went to college so that was a big dream for me and I did in spite of not having the financial backing for it. We found ways to make it happen. I’m the first one to graduate from college in my family and then to go on and get a masters. I’m very proud that my son will be the second one to graduate from college from my side of the family.

Transitioning to Principal of Central Elementary

We have about 500 kids in pre-K to 4th grade. We have quite a few young children, around 100 of the kids four-year-olds. We have 70 certified and classified staff and we’re in Cabot School district with about 12,000 which for Arkansas which is quite big. When I first became principal there, we were around 400 kids but we’ve had a growth in our community in the last couple of years. I added a new Pre-K classroom a couple of years ago and last year an additional Kindergarten classroom, so we’re full now with no extra room.

Amanda Picard • Assistant Principal, Bethany Hill • Principal

 

An Energy Bus Model Campus

I was assistant principal at a different school down the street and had to step into a new role with a new staff. I didn’t know what to expect and either did the staff. We spent a whole year building relationships. We started with the Energy Bus by Jon Gordon that the whole staff read even though it was really not about education and was for adults. The book has 10 rules that are guiding principles on how to live a joyful life. The story is around a parable of a man named George who was negative with the glass half empty, had a lot of negative things happen to him, and was in a negative place in his life. He meets someone called Joy who shows him a different perspective. Over time, he begins to learn that it really is how he sees the world not what’s happening to him. It’s a very empowering book and wanted to start with it because I didn’t know where everyone was professionally speaking.

The book was a starting point for forming a bond, growing the same vision, and caring about ourselves as educators before we take care of kids. That first year was really great to get to know everyone, know the kids, and learning the culture of the building. The second year, we kept on learning from the Energy Bus and grow from that and became an Energy Bus Model Campus. Things fell into place because we were celebrating success. When Jon Gordon decided to transform that part of his company, he had been following some of the things we were doing at out school. They reached out to us to see if we would pilot the idea of a Model Campus and that has been a great experience. We embedded that language into our building and families and community picked up on it. After they review the 10 rules, there is a teacher pledge about having a positive outlook over the school year. It is a great way to kick off the year in a big and positive way to set everyone up for success.

There is a children’s book also about the Energy Bus with 5 rules in it. All of our classrooms have that book and they read the book to their kids to go over the 5 rules and take the student pledge. There are a free discussion and activity guide for teachers and parents. www.EnergyBusKids.com.

Niki Spears created the Energy Bus for Schools and we are using this idea to push leadership for kids. We work with them to discover their interests, passions, and goals and turn that into something they want to pursue. We started with Niki and were the first school, then there were 5 and now there are over 50 schools.  https://www.smore.com/chzss-the-energy-bus-for-schools

 

#EduAR

 

 

 

 

 

 

#EduAR for Arkansas is every other Thursday evening from 8:30 to 9:30 pm CST with me, . We focus on various topics and sometimes we do a series that might last two or three weeks on a particular topic. Sometimes the originators: myself, Lindsay Bohler @Lindsey_Bohler, and Karen Norton @nortalk, moderate together or alternate but we also have guest moderators too. We went on a long streak where we didn’t moderate at all because we had so many guest moderators lined up. Some of the people include Dave Burgess, Todd Nesloney, Aaron Hogan and so many more awesome educators and authors.

 

#JoyfulLeaders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#JoyfulLeaders is where I’ve grown my PLN that just had its second birthday last December. It started as a doodle in my journal. It is not a set time or a chat but it can be a daily dose of joy through ideas, quotes, graphics, animations, and small statements that go out in tweets. It is a really great place to go when you just need a little fuel to add to your day. It can also be a place for you to share something that you feel can help someone else. What I love about is the people that go there to get things also contribute back to the Twitter feed so it just runs constantly and grows. I go there several times a day and see dozens of contributions to it. All you have to do is add the hashtag, #JoyfulLeaders.

 

From Barbara: Bethany and I went into a deep conversation about behavior and why punishment is not the answer. Instead of putting the transcript in here, I hope you listen to why the world needs your “AWESOME.”

The link Bethany mentioned in the podcast: Repair: Relationship Restoration Response to Student Decisions

 

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Bethany Hill serves as Lead Learner, Chief Energy Officer, and Chief Storyteller of Central Elementary (@CentralCabotpK4) in Cabot, Arkansas. She has been in education for 19 years in the roles of kindergarten, first, second, and third-grade classroom teacher, curriculum coach, assistant principal, and principal.

Central Elementary, where Bethany serves as the lead learner, became the very first Energy Bus for Schools Leadership Journey model campus. Since the summer of 2016, more than 50 schools have joined Central on the bus! She is one of the originators of #EduAR, a weekly Twitter chat for the state of Arkansas. The chat takes place Thursdays at 8:30 CST.

Bethany is the founder of #JoyfulLeaders, a movement on Twitter devoted to trending positivity in the education profession. Follow her Facebook Page, Inspiration for Educators to receive resources and positivity regarding education.

Website: https://bethanyshill.com/

Bethany’s Twitter hashtags and handles: ‏

• @bethhill2829
• Lead Learner @CentralCabotpK4
• #JoyfulLeaders
• #EduAr
• Chief Principal Partner @EnergyBusSchool
• @Flipgrid Certified Educator
• @Buncee Ambassador
• #CEtribe–Learning hashtag for the Central Staff
• #CEunited–Central Elementary’s brand, community connection hashtag
• Facebook Page: Inspiration for Educators
• Instagram: bethanyhill1

 

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray,
click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Wettrick is known for his award-winning work as a middle school and high school teacher; educational and innovation consultant; and educational speaker. Don is the CEO and founder of StartEdUp, author of “Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level” and Innovation Specialist at Noblesville High School, central Indianapolis.

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I’ve followed Don on social media and on his podcast for years and enjoy learning from him online. Now it’s my turn to interview him. I was excited to learn about FutureReadyU for kids and sharing it with my audience. Below are excerpts from our conversation:

 

About you, your family, and where you live

I’ve been in the Indianapolis area all my life and love it. I live in Indianapolis, IN with my wife, Alicia, and my three children: Ava, Anna, and Grant. It is literally the crossroads of America.

Everyone in my family was from education. My dad was a teacher, my mom was a stay-at-home mom which made her a teacher, and my sister is a teacher in deaf education. When I was young, we traveled all my life usually by pop-up camper always on a budget. I think one of the things that were instilled in me is that the best money you can spend is on (a) your loved ones and (b) on memories. Every summer was a road trip somewhere.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t be a teacher, but I wanted to be like my dad. I wanted to be the dad that my dad was. Part of it was to spend time with my children. The current position I had didn’t look like it was going to be as family friendly. My dad always had an optimistic view of education. He was very upbeat about things and wanted to keep what he taught fresh. So after 3 years out of college not being a teacher, I decided to go back and get my teaching degree. My favorite quote from my dad is what was at the heart of innovation:

“Don, I don’t care if you go on teaching for the next 20 years, but please don’t teach one year 20 times.” Chuck Wettrick

Curiosity has always been a part of my genetic code. I have a little more of my mom’s confrontational side where we used to get in these great arguments and enjoyed a good debate. My dad is more the agreeable type so I’m hoping I am a good combination of the two. I remember my first few years teaching in middle school, the kids would rush in and tell you all these things that happened over the break. Then when I started high school, the first thing the kids did was not talk. That whole middle school excitement and the social aspect of it was great. I taught ten wonderful years at middle school.

 

Teaching Innovation and Open Source Learning

Daniel Pink mentioned in his Ted Talk that most adults are not driven by money but by mastery, autonomy, and purpose. The lure of money didn’t necessarily put people over the top. I thought about what he said and wondered if kids are in school to work for grades or work for the sake of learning. Because of how the system is set up, they are working for the grade and school is something they have to get through not something to enjoy. This isn’t learning. This is just an exercise in compliance.

 

Why We Must Teach Innovation – Don Wettrick – Sparks Tech

I’m deeply concerned about what we are not doing in education. I don’t think “innovation” is the be all, end all. In fact, you cannot be innovative, if you cannot read or write, don’t know math, or cannot understand or appreciate history. I still think a large part of our standards is there for a reason. But, I do strongly believe that there should be a part of your school day that is centered around innovation and entrepreneurship. I started this wacky, weird class on innovation seven years ago at the high school level. We’ve been experimenting and doing strange things. They don’t work for me, I work for them. I help them find the tools, mentors, and open source their learning. If this comes across that I’m bragging about my students, I am, because they have done amazing things.

“The hardest things we do are the things we decide to do because we want to do them.”

The innovation class is about 7-8 weeks long on the innovative process, and I’m learning along with them. I have no idea in my class how they are doing what they are doing. Teaching them how to learn as they see fit is the hard part. What I have fallen in love with is being part of this cult of doers. The more I got deeper into this class, the more I realized I was only scratching the surface.

Actually, Daniel Pink, provided us feedback when we started this class. After that, it was Tina Seelig from Stanford University who helped us go deeper and pull the layers back. The class started out as a class on creativity and then was driven by the differences between creativity and innovation. Now the last few years, it is now driven by the differences between innovation and entrepreneurship. If you have a great idea and don’t do anything with it, then what does that do? Take a good idea and bring it to the world.  No matter what age, you have the ability to bring any idea you have to the world. That’s entrepreneurial!

Article on Forbes magazine: Endorsed by Entrepreneurs how this High School Teacher is Making the Classroom a Safe Place to Fail.

Don Wettrick with Gary Vaynerchuk

 

Preparing for the Future

In 2020, 45-55% of the world’s jobs will be gig related or freelance. So who’s going to find those jobs? People who understand patterns, where the trends are going and the opportunities are everywhere. People who are innovators and creators. So why do we continue to teach the same way we have that prepares them for jobs that will no longer be there? I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but my class and what it stands for is the most important thing we need for education. That’s not to say that everything else is not important. But if you are not doing anything with the knowledge you have, no one cares.

 

StartEdUp

For the past two years, StartEdUp has been empowering schools to provide #innovation  #Entrepreneurship & the entrepreneur MINDSET! Now we are taking our mission directly to students that don’t have this opportunity. StartEdUp is about enabling student-led entrepreneurs and bringing an entrepreneurial mindset into classrooms. This will help kids that are home-schooled. In fact, Seth Godin said to me that all kids are home-schooled. My kids are home-schooled. They get home after school and then we talk about school

Please go to http://www.futurereadyu.com  to be a part of our network!

 

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Don Wettrick is the Innovation Coordinator at Noblesville High School, and is the author of “Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level.” Wettrick has worked as a middle school and high school teacher; educational and innovation consultant; CEO, and podcast host. He is also the founder of StartEdUp, an organization dedicated to helping transform the school culture toward innovation and enable student-led entrepreneurship.

Don has lectured across the US, Europe, South America and Africa about collaboration, social media use, and work environments that enable innovation. Through his travel, he has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley to Ghana, and seeks to bring that entrepreneurial mindset into our classrooms. His podcast, StartEdUp, has featured some of the most successful entrepreneurs, authors, and thought leaders in the world- focusing on educational change. Most importantly Don works with educators, students, and entrepreneurs to bring innovation and collaborative skills into education. 

Company/Podcast: http://www.startedupinnovation.com/
Twitter: @DonWettrick
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwettrick/
Book: Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dean Shareski is the Community Manager for Discovery Education Canada since 2012. From 2002-2012, he worked as a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. Previous to that Dean taught grades K-8 for 14 years and specializes in the use of technology in the classroom.

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Dean wrote “Embracing a Culture of Joy” and a new book with Scott McLeod, “Different Schools for a Different World.” I’ve been lucky to attend several of his keynotes and am honored to have a conversation about culture, joy, and so much more. Dean mentions no selfies but I’ve had a few with him so I had to include one. We didn’t talk about why he loves to take pictures of people jumping but I had to add a picture of Dean jumping. Below are a few excerpts from the podcast, some of his presentations, and about his books.

 

About you and your family

I always share my family in my presentations. It is controversial about how much to share about your personal life. I’ve always focused on the idea that you learn from people you like and there has to be some kind of connection so you can relate to them. So I hope that sharing my story helps connect to some of their own experiences. We live in the middle of Canada. My wife is an educator also and we have four wonderful children, three of whom are married. My youngest is in her first year of post-secondary school. Most exciting of all is that we are grandparents for the first time last October. Everything I talk about now is about my granddaughter who is just a real joy and delight.

 

Your background as a teacher using technology in the classroom

When I first started teaching in 1989, there wasn’t a lot of technology around. We were just starting to get a computer or two in the school. The idea of a computer lab kind of emerged somewhere in the mid-90s. I didn’t have any specific fascination with technology more than probably most teachers did then. I kind of remember a distinct turning point for me around the use of technology. One was access to a video camera and a digital camera which I took home and used first as a way of documenting my family. Then I started thinking how these could be used with students. I remember giving a session on an in-service day sharing what I learned about the digital camera with other teachers. That began my journey using technology and moved pretty quickly to the late 90s to where I believed that it had great potential. As the Internet began to emerge and software became more user-friendly, there was more of an opportunity to explore and use those resources. When I think of technology, the whole media production aspect is what I captured my interest.

I began teaching first grade and there weren’t many opportunities for them to create at that time. But when I taught middle school, there were a lot of opportunities so I had kids doing video production and even did video poems and other powerful stories. When I look back I was lucky to work with small groups of gifted students where I could really explore with and learn from them. It was an important time in my own learning.

• When Beauty Leads to Empathy (TEDx West Vancouver September 2016)
  

 

Being a Digital Learning Consultant in Moose Jaw

I became the Digital Learning Consultant in 2002 at our school district. I adopted that title Digital Learning Consultant to support the district-wide use of technology and pedagogy instead of Technology Coordinator. That was a great experience and opportunity to go even deeper with my own learning. For better or worse, by design or by luck, I tended to reach out to people I thought might be interested. I’d find something new and go to a school and share with a teacher what I thought would be perfect for them or mention to another teacher that they might be interested in this. It’s interesting that they say we might have to get everybody doing the same thing in the spirit of equity, and at the same time, some teachers were not ready for it. There was no way they were getting the kind of background.

That approach may seem somewhat haphazard really was exciting. I never came up with huge resistance. Some teachers were not ready for blogging where others requested my support. Forcing something on teachers was a mistake that we had made and continue to make. Somebody’s good idea for everybody isn’t the right approach. The idea of moving toward something when you are ready is a better way of approaching change than forcing everyone to change. It’s better to have some time and ownership first.

 

Your work as Community Manager for Discovery Education Canada

That was a nice opportunity for me in 2011 and was asked if I would like to do this. Discovery had been developing a community for many years in the US and had a presence in Canada, but it was more of a third party presence. They were just reselling their products to the school districts. In fact, in my role as Digital Learning Consultant, I helped bring Discovery to our school district. But they really wanted to get the community idea rolling so people are feeling connected. I first took a leave of absence from my district, but after two years I continued as Community Manager. It is a fabulous role. The work we do is so rewarding, interesting, challenging, and I work with such good people. It’s a move I never regret doing really important work.

When you’re not the smartest person in the room

Dave Weinberger wrote a book “Too Big to Know” about what do we do with so much information. He is the one that quoted “the smartest person in the room is the room.” For me, it was a personal testament to the fact that I had made so many connections over the years around the world. In 2005, I started blogging, and then in 2007, started Twitter and go to some conferences. The online connections became really real to me. It became evident in my role that there were people that I what I knew about video production, that there are people that know way more than I do. So why not connect to those people?

The moment you bring an Internet connection into the classroom, you open up your students to a vast world of knowledge and possibilities. Many teachers are beginning to realize this but are struggling to make it a reality. The shape of knowledge is shifting and what we as teachers and leaders can do to model ways to leverage the best of what this new frontier can offer.

 

Whatever happened to joy?

In a data-driven, achievement focused system, does joy in learning matter anymore? Not that these are mutually exclusive but in our attempts to see results we often forget that joy should not be a means to an end but a worthy and important goal on its own. So how do we ensure our students experience joy and wonder every day?

Book: Embracing Culture of Joy

Book: Different Schools for a Different World co-authored with Scott McLeod

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Dean Shareski is the Community Manager for Discovery Education Canada since 2012. From 2002-2012, he worked as a Digital Learning Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. Previous to that Dean taught grades K-8 for 14 years and specializes in the use of technology in the classroom. Dean holds a Masters of Education in Communications and Technology through the University of Saskatchewan and is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Regina.

Since late 2004, Dean has been immersed in understanding what the Read/Write Web is all about and how the new shape of knowledge changes how we all learn. He believes teachers and students ought to use technology to connect ideas and learners in safe, relevant, authentic ways to answer questions, share ideas and develop community. Learning can be and should be, fun and personal. Dean was fortunate to be awarded the 2010 ISTE Award for Outstanding Leadership in Technology and Education. Dean humbly quoted after receiving the award “This honor is mostly a reflection of the great people I work with both within my school division and beyond. My greatest asset is that I know smart people and how to find them.”

Dean mostly blogs at Ideas and Thoughts but occasionally for Tech and Learning Magazine and the Huffington Post as well as on the DEN blogs. In 2016, he published a book called “Embracing Cultures of Joy” which details and summarizes my work and belief around a topic that best describes my beliefs around learning and community.

Website: Ideas and Thoughts http://ideasandthoughts.org/
Presentations at http://slideshare.net/shareski
Photos by Dean: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shareski/

From Dean: the spaces where I share(ski) www.shareski.ca/

• The Blog Where all the thinking happens
• Twitter A place to see the complete me
• Facebook I barely hang out here
• LinkedIn The professional stuff
• Delicious Stuff I’m reading
• Slideshare My slide decks
• Vimeo More videos
• YouTube Most of my videos
• Flickr All my photos

 

 

Joy Kirr, a middle school teacher, author, and speaker, was nominated for a Golden Apple award for excellence and teaching in Illinois. Joy has been a National Board Certified Teacher since 2007 and is the author of Shift This: How to Implement Gradual Changes for Massive Impact in Your Classroom.

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I’ve been following Joy on Twitter for some time and have been so impressed how much she shares online, on YouTube, and on social media. After reading “Shift This,” I reached out to Joy to have a conversation with her. Below are summaries of what we talked about in the podcast along with some resources and links.

 

Your background

My teaching career has been a series of shifts—in mindsets, practice, and experience. My first seven years was as an itinerant teacher in the “wilds” of McHenry County, Illinois with students ranging from three to eighteen who were deaf or hard-of-hearing. They needed to learn to read so I went back to earn my master’s in reading. Then I spent the next seven years as the reading specialist at my current school, became the ELA (English Language Arts) department chair, and became National Board Certified.

About Joy https://youtu.be/kaFYe6zM1bg

Being a middle school teacher

In my fifteenth year, I transitioned into a seventh grade ELA position in the inaugural year of the ELA “block” (reading and writing for 80 minutes). I was also going to be on a team consisting of two ELA teachers, one math, one P.E./Health, one science, one social studies, and one resource (special education) teacher with two teams per grade.

This was my first classroom so I had my plans and worksheet originals ready to fill up the four-drawer filing cabinet well before the first day of school. I also filled the shelves with books organized by author’s last name. Halfway through the year, I started questioning all sorts of things about the room I’d so carefully planned and arranged. All I knew were worksheets, grading, and compliance. My own experiences in school were all I had to draw upon.

 

Gradual change

After a few years, I decided to give my students time to learn what they wanted to learn. I needed to give some ownership to the students because what I was doing seemed too rigid. As the “sage on the stage,” I was working harder than the kids because I had all the control. I was on Twitter and learned some ideas to help initiate the changes I desired for my class. I now know I could never go back to the way things used to be. Finding a system that works for my students and for me did not happen overnight. You wouldn’t recognize my classes now. I don’t decorate the room, student choice is ubiquitous, we have time built in to personalize learning, students teach each other, and we use feedback in lieu of grades.

Check out Joy’s Class YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/MrsKirrsClass/videos

 

Genius Hour

When you assign something, do you make sure you complete the assignment before your students do? Thanks to A.J. Juliani, I joined the Genius Hour / 20% Time MOOC in the summer of 2013. I learned a ton about what I was assigning students, and what I needed to change.  Genius Hour is just a piece of something bigger than all educators are aiming for. I jumped into Genius Hour. Once I made the leap, I began to question and alter many other aspects of classroom time. I realized that you don’t have to dive in all at once to make huge, positive changes. 

Genius Hour LiveBinder (tinyurl.com/GHLiveBinder)

Teach Me Your Talent https://youtu.be/8BpHeBRnoDA

[This podcast was recorded in December 2017 so we brought in new ideas on the blog post about changing teaching so Genius Hour is not just one hour. It is now all the time. Joy mentions in the podcast that now we look at what Genius Hour did for the kids. Joy even mentions that all her kids signed her book.]

 

About the Book: Shift This!

I began writing this book during my twentieth year because I felt I needed to share how (and why) I’ve created the shift into teaching the way I believe we are supposed to be teaching–with a focus on children first and content second. My main goal with Shift This! was to share my journey and the small shifts I’ve made to promote student-owned, student-led learning in my classroom. I’m hoping other teachers will begin to feel comfortable and confident enough to make the shifts toward creating the kind of classroom culture they have dreamed of. Putting my ego aside and starting to cater to the students’ needs made all the difference. I realized that my teaching is not all about me and what I do during class. It’s all about the students and what they do during class. With these changes come great trust and a classroom culture that will surprise you. I started asking loads of questions. Why change if things are going well? Why not? Our kids are changing, and we need to change alongside them. It’s time to ask more WHY questions and HOW questions over and over again. So the book asks and provides ideas for WHY and HOW to…

• Shift student-centered learning
  
• Shift learning spaces
  
• Shift conversations to get kids thinking
  
• Shift away from homework and grades
  
• Shift time spent at school to balance life

Book site: http://shiftthis.weebly.com

 

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Joy Kirr is a middle school teacher, author, and speaker. Her 7th grade ELA (English Language Arts) classes are working to improve their lives through student-directed learning – without marks throughout the year. She teaches in a truly supportive district in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Joy is passionate about students owning their learning. She enjoys being known as a “Genius Hour Evangelist,” and is grateful for how her students have stepped up their learning while giving and receiving feedback in lieu of grades. Joy is sought after for her workshops on how to bring student-directed learning into the classroom. Presenting around the nation has helped Joy spread the message that educators need to strive for all children to become lifelong learners.

Joy earned her bachelor’s degree in special education with an emphasis on deaf and hard-of-hearing in 1995, and she later earned her master’s degree in reading from Northern Illinois University. Recently, she was nominated for a Golden Apple award for excellence and teaching in Illinois. Joy has been a National Board Certified Teacher since 2007 and is the author of Shift This: How to Implement Gradual Changes for Massive Impact in Your Classroom.

Twitter: @JoyKirr
Website: http://joykirr.wixsite.com/portfolio
Book site: http://shiftthis.weebly.com

 

Blogs & Links:

My Own Genius Hour: http://geniushour.blogspot.com/
Genius Hour LiveBinder: tinyurl.com/GHLiveBinder
Feedback LiveBinder: tinyurl.com/FeedbackBinder

 

Twitter Personalized Learning & Sharing

Personal resources for teachers interested in Genius Hour
Talks with Teachers Podcast on 5/20/14
Parent Resources for Grading
EdCamp Home session moderator on 7/10/14

 

Shift This: Celebration

Humans are naturally social beings. It is all about the relationships we build and grow. The better the relationships are at school, the happier and more productive students and teachers will be. When we have positive relationships, everything we do will be more enjoyable. When relationships are working, everyone is happier, more innovative and creative.

 

1. Create the Culture

Put aside at least two weeks at the beginning of school to build a caring, compassionate culture before jumping into academics. The more you get to know each child up front will save you time later worrying about discipline and behaviors.

 

2. Build Trust

Trust is the foundation of every good relationship. If you trust the people at school, you can be open and honest with your thoughts and actions. Put time aside to discuss issues and let everyone have opportunities to speak. If there is a conflict, give time and support for the people involved to resolve it.

 

3. Develop Mutual Respect

When you respect the people in your school, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective insight, wisdom, and creativity.

 

4. Be Mindful

Mindfulness means taking responsibility for our words and actions. Those who are mindful are careful and attend to what they say, and they don’t let their own negative emotions impact the people around them.

 

5. Welcome Diversity

People with good relationships not only accept diverse people and opinions, but they welcome them. For instance, when your friends and colleagues offer different opinions from yours, you can take the time to consider what they have to say and factor their insights into your decision-making.

 

6. Schedule Time for Relationship Building

Relationships take time to develop and grow. Devote a portion of your day toward relationship building, even if it’s just 20 minutes, perhaps broken up into five-minute segments.

 

7. Appreciate Others

Show your appreciation whenever someone helps you. Everyone wants to feel that their work is appreciated. So, genuinely compliment the kids and other teachers when they do something well. This will open the door to positive relationships.

 

8. Be Positive

Positivity is attractive and contagious, and it will help strengthen your relationships with your colleagues. No one wants to be around someone who’s negative all the time. But we are human and things happen. When you have good relationships, you can also reach out to others when you are having a bad day. Read about Intentional Positivity

 

9. Practice Active Listening

People respond to those who truly listen to what they have to say. Focus on listening more than you talk, and you’ll quickly become known as someone who can be trusted. Read about Active Listening

 

10. Go Mobile with Care

Teach how to use mobile technology to build relationships effectively. Kids today are going to use their smartphone and other mobile devices to connect. We need to be there and show them how to thoughtfully connect and collaborate online

 

11. Be Kind

Kindness first. Everyone has other things happening in their lives. Practice empathy so you can understand what others might be going through. Be aware of the child who is alone or depressed, reach out, and listen. Kindness always.

 

12. Model Positive Relationships

Teachers can be the role models for positive relationships. We need to be mindful, kind and accepting of all the people in the school. All of our kids look to us for guidance. We need to reach out to those children that need the extra time to listen, really listen. We need to build the relationships with the other teachers and administrators and be careful what we say even in the staff room.

 

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Building positive relationships with students, teachers, and all school staff in school will spill over to the school community. Parents will feel more comfortable when their children are happier and feel cared for at school. Kids today need other kids and the world can be a scary place. We need to model kindness and be there for each other.

 

 

 

 

My heart is so heavy after what happened in Parkland, FL on Valentine’s Day and recently in Santa Fe, TX. The idea that one person could cause so much heartache and pain hurts so much. I pray for the families of the beautiful children who had their lives shortened so violently. I pray for the families of the teachers and coaches who gave their lives to save many children.

Every child is a gift. Every teacher shouldn’t have to figure out if they have to give up their lives to save the children. A school needs to be a safe place to teach and learn. Teachers are heroes every day and will do whatever they can to protect the children. Parents need to know that when they say to their child “have a great day” in school, that they don’t have to be concerned if their child will die that day. I can’t even imagine what the families are going through or how the children who lived through the horror will be traumatized for life. I don’t know what children think when they go to school now.

How many children dying will it take to say #ENOUGH?

Reality is starting to kick in by the children who survived. Funerals of their friends are happening this week. Teachers are on edge and trying to figure out how they can keep the children safe. How many shootings have there been since Newtown, CT?

What is going on in our country?

I know we can make the changes we need to make to save another child. This has to stop. The world is watching. We can all start with each of us being there for every child by believing we can make changes that focus on love and kindness first. I think if each of us believes we have the power to make even the smallest change happen, we can reverse the focus in our country from FEAR to focus on LOVE and KINDNESS.

FEAR stops us in our tracks and keeps us from moving forward. The only way to get through this is to embrace change and consider that demonstrating love and kindness will make us stronger together. Here are some posts from a few of my friends on Twitter who wrote about #kindness after Parkland.

• Tamara Letter @tamaraletter wrote I Can
• Rich Czyz @RACzyz wrote Let Love Win
• Roman Nowak @NowakRo wrote In the End Only Kindness Matters
• Tara Martin @TaraMartin EDU wrote Unconditional
• Pernille Ripp @pernilleripp wrote I don’t want to be a hero

When I read what my friends wrote, their writing made me think, reflect, and want to write also. We are not alone. When I read Pernille’s post, she is right. Teachers shouldn’t think that they have to die to protect the children. They also shouldn’t have to carry a gun. How would that protect them against a semi-automatic gun?  We can all reflect on how this makes us feel, what it means for kids, and help us on our journeys to #BetheChange:

 

Here’s what I believe:

• I believe that each and every child matters.
• I believe all of us have a purpose to be here.
• I believe every child needs a support system – “it does take a village.”
• I believe if a child is in trouble, we need to work together to get them the help they need so they don’t hurt themselves or anyone else.
• I believe we need to build communities that foster a culture based on respect, trust, and kindness.
• I believe now is the time to ban semi-automatic weapons.
• I believe teachers and parents can model and encourage “Kindness” to others.
• I believe we do not need more guns to stop school shootings.
• I believe we need children to tell and share their stories.
• I believe teachers need to tell their stories and be valued as the professionals they are.
• I believe that schools can be community learning centers where everyone is a teacher and a learner.
• I believe we can have a mindset to do what’s best for our kids and our country.
• I believe it is time to know each and every child in the school.
• I believe in building a caring community that encourages compassion and empathy.
• I believe it is time to address equity and social justice for all children.
• I believe that each of us is unique and needs to express our hopes and dreams.
• I believe it is important to listen more so you really hear what someone is saying.
• I believe people are mostly good and kind.
• I believe our country is better than this.
• I believe that we have to say “enough” now.
• I believe each of us can #BeTheChange!

 

 

 

This past year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone. I wanted to try some new experiences, but something was holding me back. I couldn’t figure it out. I think what was keeping me from finding my magic was fear. Fear of not having enough money so I kept taking jobs that kept me comfortable. Fear of looking foolish so I kept doing the same presentations. Fear of letting my family down. Actually, my family was pushing me to go out of my comfort zone. I didn’t realize I had a fixed mindset that I couldn’t do something. It was me holding me back.

So I decided to start over and rethink what I’m doing with my life. I needed to find my WHY, my purpose. You probably notice a theme around passion and purpose in my posts and podcasts lately. I tried to figure out why I was letting fear take over so I had help from my family, friends, and a coach. Here are some tips that helped me:

 

1 – Know Your Fears

Fear is a valuable thing. It keeps you safe and encourages you to be cautious when you need to be. But fear also limits you. Not everything you’re afraid of deserves fear or caution. Sometimes, courage and bravery are needed to make your life better. First, review your fears and if they are real. I had no idea I was holding myself back when I didn’t have to. So I took time to address each fear one at a time and talk about that fear. I needed to figure out on a scale of one to ten how real that fear really was. There were no fears in my work that were 10s. I made the fears bigger than they really were.

2- Challenge Yourself with Small Activities

One of my fears was changing the direction in my work. Before I jumped straight in, I needed to identify the direction I wanted to go. I had been blogging on my website Rethinking Learning since 2010 and before that blogged as Rethinking Learning on My eCoach since 2004. I really love to write and share. I figured the easiest thing to do was to start blogging again around passion, purpose, kindness, and agency. So I did. I’m loving it and writing every day. It’s about going slow and dipping your toes into what you’re passionate about.

3- Think of it as a Blesson

I learned from my husband that everything you do that takes you out of your comfort zone can be a blessing and a lesson: a Blesson. I love that. I decided to ask me a few questions: “What happened that I can learn from and learn about me? What am I learning about the other people who have gone through a similar discomfort? How can I use the information from both of these questions in my professional and personal lives?”

4- Be Your Own Coach

I am a coach for others and even help schools with their coaching programs. My coach asked me: “What questions do you ask when you are coaching someone out of their comfort zone?” I knew the questions and realized that I could do this for me. These are the questions I asked me: “What are the worst things that could happen if I go out of my comfort zone? What are the best things that could happen? Will I and others benefit from my actions? Would it be better to stay where I am? What is holding me back?”

5- Get a Handle on your Fears

After I identified some of my fears, I needed to do research on different topics. I needed to reinvent myself. That seemed so big, that I just kept doing the same thing even though it wasn’t working for me. I guess I didn’t feel confident in myself. I needed to get out and talk to people, visit schools, and travel. This is a mental trick anyone needs to do. It is about believing that you can do something if you do the research on what it is you want to do. The research builds knowledge. When you have that knowledge, you build the confidence you need to move forward.

6- Living with Uncertainty

Being uncomfortable is kind of the new norm today. The world is changing so fast that no one knows what is ahead for us. There is an uncertainty about the type of work is needed in the future. That impacts all of us. For me, I knew I couldn’t keep going down the same road because it wasn’t working for me and for others. The best habit for me was to practice becoming familiar with uncertainty and discomfort. I try to pick one thing each day that kind of scares me and act on it. The one big thing I did was start my podcast show. Each show puts me out of my comfort zone. I needed to push myself so I did big time. I really recommend the idea of picking one thing each day that scares you and go and do it. You will be amazed at how you will be able to live with uncertainty easier every day and build a growth mindset about whatever you want to do.

 

 

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When you take at least one small step to living uncomfortably and tackle your fears, you will be amazed at what magic occurs within you.