Episode 69: Spike is back from China

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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