As a bonus episode today, we’re publishing a conversation from The Authority Podcast with guest Mitch Weathers, about his book Executive Functions for Every Classroom: Creating Safe and Predictable Learning Environments Grades 3-12. You’ll hear about the following and more: You can listen to the entire conversation here: About The Authority Podcast: Hosted by leadership…
Category: School Leadership
EP 160: Turning disagreements in to alliances in K-12 education (with Dr. Barb Flowers)
There’s a lot of “us vs. them” thinking happening relating to what’s going on in the school systems. Parents feeling like teachers don’t want to accommodate students with diverse learning needs. Teachers feeling like administrators don’t understand because they aren’t in classrooms anymore. Therapists feeling like teachers don’t want to reinforce strategies in their classrooms,…
EP 153: Debriefing, de-escalation, and relationship repair (with Crissy Mombela)
Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors don’t have to define us. This is an important thing to remember for adults dealing with professional burnout and compassion fatigue; and it’s also important to model for kids. When school discipline focuses on punitive measures alone, we miss out on opportunities to teach kids how to manage emotions or…
EP 152: The cost of caring: Compassion fatigue in education and healthcare (with Crissy Mombela)
People working in school or medical settings are in a position to be caring for others in their professional lives; which makes it difficult to leave work at work. When you combine that with relationships outside of work, family responsibilities or having a child with a disability, there’s a high risk of burnout. I invited…
EP 151: Does your SYSTEM support your policy and your curriculum? (with Jalita Johnson)
If we try to make schools in the US more like schools in other countries, will that result in more effective practices? Why do policies work in some districts, but not others? Many ideas sound good on paper; but the people working with students or leading schools are telling a different story. That’s why I…
SEEing to Lead: Seeing the whole staircase (with Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan)
This week, I’m sharing an interview I did with another host on the BE podcast network because I think it’s something you’ll really enjoy. The episode is going live in the De Facto Leaders podcast feed. Dr. Chris Jones has been an educator in Massachusetts for 22 years. His experience in the classroom ranged from…
EP 150: Am I influencing or trying to control? Reframing advocacy and clinical leadership (with Candice Noss)
There’s a difference between influence and control. Whether we’re making suggestions to a coworker, asking a supervisor for support, setting expectations with kids, or interacting with someone in an online forum…we’re all attempting to create behavioral change. In “helping people” professions, it’s easy to get emotionally involved with our work. This makes it difficult to…
EP 144: Becoming a school founder and empowering students through project-based learning (with Tanya Sheckley)
Many people working in K-12 education have ambitions to start their own company where they have the ability to redesign the way student learning happens. The motivation often comes from wanting to create a scenario where they feel less constrained, more innovative, and more impactful. When I ventured into self-employment, I found that many of…
EP 143: Developing a cultural competemility mindset for educators and clinicians (with Melanie Evans)
Many clinicians are trained to focus on checklists and evaluations so we can walk in to work confident; knowing exactly what our protocols are. And while systems and processes are extremely important, we have to know how to use them flexibly. When we think about this in relation to cultural competency; we often think of…
EP 140: Creating an intentional career and life with alter egos (with Meg Niman)
Many leadership initiatives in education need to come from the top… But change can happen when direct service providers emerge as leaders on their teams without waiting for permission from someone else. School administrators and other people making decisions at the district and policy level are constantly pulled in different directions. The further up the…