Episode 70 - Chris Nesi

You can find more information about Mr. Chris Nesi at http://www.chrisnesi.com/

Discover more of the Education Podcast Network members here: http://www.edupodcastnetwork.com/

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Episode 69: Spike is back from China

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The PrincipalPLN made it on the NAESP Blog post of Great Blogs and Podcasts for Education Leaders

This episode is longer than normal, but completely worth it. We start out to catch up  and hear about the Thanksgiving feast at Theresa's school and the writing celebrations at Jessica's school.

A snapshot of students giving feedback during their writing celebration.

Then we spend the entire time hearing all about Spike's experience in China and how life and school is SO different than ours in the United States.

Here is Spike's video tour of his China experience:

Want to know more about the China/USA educational experience? Check out Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? By Young Zhao 

Spike and the rest of the NJ Educator's crew will be working on an e-publication on their trip to China. Stay tuned for more!

#PrincipalPLN is a part of the Education Podcast Network

Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

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Episode 68: Random Musings about Balance with Principals

In this episode we just catch up on what we are each up to. Find out what country Spike is traveling to, how many half-marathons Theresa has run, and Jessica’s struggle with lunch. We talk about the challenges principals face in making time for themselves.

#PrincipalPLN is a part of the Education Podcast Network

Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

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Episode 67: Out of Isolation into a Groove

source: beerandjoysticks.com

In this episode, Jessica and Spike discuss aspects of their new book Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader available through Corwin Press. They start off with a big congratulations to their co-host Theresa Stager who recently finished the Chicago Half Marathon!

Jessica and Spike had a focused discussion about the aspects of isolation that lead them to write the book. Basically, the more you become connected, you increase your chance of becoming isolated... it is a modern day conundrum.

The PrincipalPLN crew talked about how they really began to encourage each other to establish, and more importantly, maintain a work/life balance. They are really eager to discuss this because they are currently working on ideas to expand this concept (stay tuned).

A couple of great articles to read (in addition to our book) on isolation include:

• Eric Sheninger’s blog post “Excellence Should Not be Isolated”
• Forbes article “Do You Feel Lonely As A Leader? Study Says You Are Not Alone”

We also mentioned the book ‘Mindful School Leader ‘by Kirstin Olson and Valerie Brown.

Be sure to check out the companion website to the book for all of their resources.

Thanks for tuning in and connecting!

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Episode 66: Running Away From Isolation with Jay Posick

In this episode, Jay Posick joins us to talk about being a middle school principal, being a connected educator, and leading a balanced life as a principal/family man/runner.  Book titles shared during our discussion: Beyond the Bake Sale  and  How to Walk to School.

You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out why this happened:

Great start to the day. #principalsinaction pic.twitter.com/2EFnEkq7fh

— Jay Posick (@posickj) September 11, 2015

If you'd like to read more about Jay and other administrators breaking out of isolation, then it's time to buy our book that is finally out, just click on the image to order it from Amazon.

#PrincipalPLN is a part of the Education Podcast Network

Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

Subscribe on iTunes

If you have read our book, we'd love to hear your thoughts on it or better yet...please leave us a rating/review on amazon! 

Episode 65: Exploring Multi Aged Classrooms

In this episode, Theresa Stager shared a fascinating solution to a problem.... As her school faced declining enrollment, they used it as an opportunity to try something new. In preparation for this, she reached out to her PLN and was able to gather resources to help her teacher establish Multi-Aged Classrooms. Even though they are only 8 days into the new format, the feedback has been positive.

Here are some resources for establishing Multi-Aged Classrooms:

https://multiagejourney.wordpress.com/

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/instrctn/in500.htm

http://www.cu-portland.edu/coe/thesis/documents/matt%20kemmis%20thesis.pdf

http://www.multiage-education.com/multiagen-b/themulticlass.html

http://www.sdccs.org/ourpages/auto/2011/10/2/41474490/TheMultiageClassroom.pdf

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev184.shtml


At the conclusion of the episode, Spike and Theresa talked about how exited they were to receive their new book Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader through Corwin Press. The next few podcasts they will review the book and invite contributors to share their story of overcoming isolation.

#PrincipalPLN is a part of the Education Podcast Network

Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

Subscribe on iTunes

Episode 64: Head Held High with Todd Nesloney

In this episode, we were able to chat with our friend Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd). We wanted to check in with the Tech Ninja to see how his first year as a Principal went, as well as explore topics related to his recent blog post Head Held High.

Todd provides insight into the ups and downs of being a first year Principal. He is very honest in saying that there were as many ups as there were downs, and he learned a lot about leadership. Todd also talked with the PrincipalPLN crew about receiving news on the assessment scores, and how his school didn't make the accountability measures. He also talks extensively about the other indicators that his school did achieve, and how Social Media allowed him to tell the whole story. This is an episode you do not want to miss!

Want to listen to the podcast with Todd right before he became principal? Click here 

Check out #KidsDeserveIt and #PeriscopeOut on Twitter.


Our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be released on August 25, 2015. You can order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 63: Serving Up High School On a Spoon

To continue on our theme of getting ready for the new school year, we are joined in this podcast by Sarah Johnson to give voice to the secondary level.

In this episode, Sarah talks about her goals for this school year, specifically the beginning of the year. We talked about cultural differences among New Jersey, Michigan and Wisconsin (We learned about Donkey Basketball). Sarah also discusses several technology initiatives such as one-to-one Chromebooks, BYOD, and online classes. At the end of the episode, we brought back the infamous Word Association game. Sarah did a great job of playing and represented Wisconsin!

School Culture Resources:

School Culture Rewired by Todd Whitaker and Steve Gruenert

How to Create a Culture of Achievement by Fischer, Frey and Pumpian

Equity and Diversity Resources:
Paul Gorski - Follow Paul on Twitter for updates and articles on Equity and Diversity
EdChange - This is an excellent resource for schools looking to begin the conversation on Equity and Diversity.



Our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be released on August 25, 2015. You can order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 62: Back to the Future with Amy Fadeji

No, we didn't just come back from an 80's party or lose our sanity, we did actually dress up in this episode for a reason...

In this episode, Amy Fedeji joins us from California where her school is already back in session to talk about the opening of her school year and help the rest of us think about anything we might be forgetting before our school year starts. We applied our creativity in thinking of "Back to the Future" and for obvious reasons (maybe only to us) had to dress in 80's attire for this! We had several join the discussion to share ideas that you can find here: Todays Meet Discussion transcript

Amy shared great ideas from her staff kick-off, like the unveiling of their theme and the teachers' first activity with iPads.

We announced winners of our book Breaking Out of Isolation (coming out in September) and also shared another contest opportunity to win our book: Tweet with the #principalpln hashtag a back to school tip or your back to school nightmare. We'll announce the lucky winner on our next podcast!

In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 61: Welcoming New Teachers

In this podcast we discuss ideas to welcome new teachers to your school and provide support throughout the year. Live listeners joined us for the conversation in Todays Meet; you can find the transcript here:

TodaysMeet conversation

Just a few of the resources shared in this conversation included:

#NTChat led by Lisa Dabbs

Books:

Standing in the Gap: Empowering New Teachers Through Connected Resources

The 21st Century Mentor’s Handbook

In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 60: Getting Ready for the New Year

Jessica and Theresa discuss what they're working on right now to get ready for the new school year and thinking about the first staff meeting and what to read to students the first week of the school year.  Here are some of the resources they mentioned in the podcast:

Summer To Do List for Principals

Resources for New Principals (includes first meeting ideas, youtube links)

Tickler File

The Principal’s Checklist

Getting into classrooms the first week of school:

Spruce and Lucy by Todd Nesloney

Why am I Here? by Matthew Kelly

Jessica's post on Books for the First Week

Books we’re reading right now: Lean In, A Principal’s Guide to Leadership in the Teaching of Writing

And just a reminder, Tweet us using #principalpln or comment below about first staff meeting ideas and one lucky responder will get a copy of our book Breaking Out of Isolation in September. 




In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 59: Edcamp Recap

Edcamp Chicago Selfie (or is it Ussee?)

Chicago schedule/google doc of notes

Periscope - live stream/recording to share from conferences or share school events with family/community.

How are you using periscope? Tweet us using #principalpln or comment below about ideas for using Periscope and one lucky responder will get a copy of our book Breaking Out of Isolation in September.

Great way to introduce new staff members: All Star Press Conference by Brad Gustafson

EdcampPLN-

Want to join the PrincipalPLN Voxer group? Click on the Voxer image on the right side of the blog to add your info to the google form so we can add you into the group to join in on great conversations.

Jess and Theresa finally meet in person!

pre Edcamp dinner




In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 58 - #NAESP Collaboration with #30SecondTake!

Theresa worked with Brad Gustafson during the NAESP conference in Long Beach June 30-July 2. We found a ton of great principals with some amazing advice for new administrators. Check out what they had to say - you will not regret it!



Audio


Video

 

In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 57: Jethro Jones interviews the PLN on their new book

Jethro Jones reached out to us to interview the PLN on our book being released in September. He was kind enough to let us also share it with our viewers! It will be on the Transformative Principal near the end of July, but our listeners will get a sneak peek today :) Jessica and Theresa were on the podcast, Spike was taking shelter from a tornado ripping through South Jersey! We missed him but are so glad he is safe!

Thanks so much Jethro! Be sure to check out The Transformative Principal on iTunes and Twitter (@TrnFrmPrincipal) and follow Jethro on Twitter: @JethroJones

In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon or from Corwin.

Subscribe on iTunes here

Episode 56: Time to Get a Life!

What do principals do over the summer? Here’s a starting point: Summer To Do List

Great blog post: The Principal’s Summer Excellence Checklist by John Wink In this blog post he asks great questions for you to reflect/plan on that have to do with:

• culture
• instruction
• assessment
• intervention
• extension
• college and career
• master schedule
• leadership
• student behavior
• communication
• celebration

In other news...our book, Breaking Out of Isolation: Becoming a Connected School Leader will be out in September, but you can pre-order it now HERE.

Subscribe on iTunes here