Be a better Leader in 5 Minutes a Day!
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Being a strategic leader is about building the systems and implementing the daily habits that support developing better teachers.
Sometimes though, all we have is five minutes, so I thought it would be helpful to share several specific things that you can do in just five minutes a day. |
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A weekly podcast to improve the quality of life and leadership for assistant principals.
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"Dr. Buskey plants seeds with his words & he waters them with his actions." |
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Episode 81: What’s your problem?
What do (a) too many discipline referrals, (b) a poor teacher, and (c) an overflowing car line have in common? The answer is not that they are all problems. In fact, they are all symptoms. And they are all things that plenty of people will have stock answers for. Put them in ISS, put them on an action plan, redo your parking lot.
And if we are stuck in urgent mode, we might be tempted to jump at these stock answers because acting is better than doing nothing and because it seems like the answers will fix the issue. Unfortunately, the answers only address the symptom, and, in each case (discipline, teaching, car lines) if we don’t invest in identifying the problem, our actions may be wasted.
And if we are stuck in urgent mode, we might be tempted to jump at these stock answers because acting is better than doing nothing and because it seems like the answers will fix the issue. Unfortunately, the answers only address the symptom, and, in each case (discipline, teaching, car lines) if we don’t invest in identifying the problem, our actions may be wasted.
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Air Date: December 6, 2022
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Episode 80: Five for Friday November 28-December 2, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of November 28-December 2, 2022.
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Air Date: December 2, 2022
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Episode 79: Just be visible with Dr. David Franklin
“Can Every School Succeed?” That’s a big question and I’m not sure about the answer. I do
know that every school can get better. Is that enough? Again, I don’t know. But I do know
someone who does and he is our guest on the show today!
know that every school can get better. Is that enough? Again, I don’t know. But I do know
someone who does and he is our guest on the show today!
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Air Date: November 29, 2022
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Episode 78: Five for Friday for November 21-25, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of November 21-25, 2022.
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Air Date: November 25, 2022
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Episode 77: The Flywheel Part 2
Last episode we looked at the flywheel through the lens of normative, or group, professional development. Remember, the flywheel refers to a set of practices that, when executed over and over again, build positive momentum that improves the organization and leads to fulfillment of the purpose. In a school, this translates to supporting teacher growth by providing professional development, following up with targeted observations that gather data about the implementation of the practices from the PD, and then using the data to drive the next PD session. Today we will look at how the flywheel changes when we focus on a specific teacher’s growth as opposed to developing a group of teachers.
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Air Date: November 22, 2022
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Episode 76: Five For Friday November 14-18, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of November 14-18, 2022.
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Air Date: November 18, 2022
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Episode 75: The Flywheel Part 1
The leader’s journey consists of three stages: caught in the blackhole of urgency, becoming strategically reactive, becoming strategic. Strategic leaders focus on developing and supporting people and the most powerful way to do that consistently in a school is to set up the flywheel – a combination of structures, practices, and skills that will help create a better school by consistently growing better teachers. In today’s episode we look at the flywheel by going through a specific example of its application with a group of struggling early career teachers.
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Air Date: November 15, 2022
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Episode 74: Five For Friday November 7-11, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of November 7-11.
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Air Date: November 11, 2022
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Episode 73: Professional Development
"Those sessions do nothing for me" This was a quote from a teacher about some PD and it was shared by an admin seeking feedback on a social media site. More specifically, the teacher was commenting on a mandatory PD session. The situation and large amount of often conflicting advice got me to thinking. Are there a couple of core principles that should drive professional development?
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Air Date: November 8, 2022
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Episode 72: Five For Friday October 31 - November 4
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast. I’m your host Frederick Buskey. The goal of this podcast is to help improve the life and leadership of assistant principals. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of October 31-Nov. 4, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: November 4, 2022
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Episode 71: Through the Heart with Josh Stamper
Change Starts from Within. That was the title of Episode 20 in which we talked with Dr. Gabby Grant about introducing restorative practices into your school. Before taking external action, we need to take internal action and examine and reform our own attitudes and perspectives about things like discipline, punishment, and justice.
Today, we will dig into what that journey might look like and where it might lead.
Today, we will dig into what that journey might look like and where it might lead.
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Air Date: November 1, 2022
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Episode 70: Five For Friday October 24-28, 2022
So let’s recap. As you may know, Frederick (or my dad) has been with my mom in Kenya for the last two weeks so I had the opportunity to fill in for a week and write all the daily emails. I started off every email this week reminding our readers that these come from the perspective of me, a 23-year-old who is still very much working on her own leadership. I also ask them: What can you learn about empowering young people after reading this week’s messages?
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Air Date: October 28, 2022
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Episode 69: Procedures - Small Tweaks, Big Gains!
Every teacher should have a procedure for beginning class. Most opening class procedures share some common elements:
I’ve been teaching procedures for about twenty years, but this summer I made one small tweak in my format that promises to pay big dividends.
- What to do with materials
- How or when to sit down
- Getting started on bell work or an activator
I’ve been teaching procedures for about twenty years, but this summer I made one small tweak in my format that promises to pay big dividends.
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Air date: October 25, 2022
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Episode 68: Five for Friday October 22-28, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast I'm your host, Frederick Busky. The goal of this podcast is to improve life and leadership for assistant principals. Today's episode of five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of October 22 through 28, 2022. This is the second week in a row where we're republishing greatest hits while I'm off adventuring in Kenya.
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Air Date: October 21, 2022
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Episode 67: Blooming Where You Are Planted with Robyn Jackson
“As an assistant principal, you must learn to bloom where you are planted. If you do, you will open up huge opportunities to make a meaningful difference right now in your career and build the skills you need to make an even greater difference once you become a principal.”
These aren’t my wise words. They were first spoken by Dr. Robyn Jackson, addressing a common concern of assistant principals: How do you grow your own leadership in the shadow, or at least presence, of another leader?
These aren’t my wise words. They were first spoken by Dr. Robyn Jackson, addressing a common concern of assistant principals: How do you grow your own leadership in the shadow, or at least presence, of another leader?
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Air Date: October 18, 2022
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Episode 66: Five for Friday October 10-14, 2022
Hello colleagues and welcome to the Assistant Principal Podcast I'm your host, Frederick Busky. The goal of this podcast is to improve life and leadership for assistant principals. Today's episode of five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of October 17 through 21. With a caveat. Although we did indeed publish these emails this week, they are actually repeats from our list of greatest hits. This week as well as next week, I am in Kenya and so we just thought that this would be a fun way to kind of cover our bases, but also still continue to provide you some value while I'm away playing and learning and being in schools in Kenya.
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Air Date: October 14, 2022
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Episode 65: The Four Patterns of Observation
Have you ever popped into a classroom, just to see what’s going on, and have the teacher stop the lesson and begin explaining to you what they are doing? Or have them continue teaching but give that look of, “what are you doing in my classroom?” Or, after one of these pop-ins, had the teacher run to you after class and want to know if you thought they did okay?
None of these things is helpful, and they stem from a common problem – the inadequate language of classroom observations.
None of these things is helpful, and they stem from a common problem – the inadequate language of classroom observations.
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Air Date: October 11, 2022
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Episode 64: Five for Friday October 3-7, 2022
Today's episode of five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of October 3rd through 17th, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you'll find some added value here. And if you don't already subscribe, you can find a link on my homepage at frederickbuskey.com Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day.
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Air Date: October 7, 2022
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Episode 63: Productive Disruption with Dr. Mary Hemphill
● The teacher shortage is not going away
● The academic setbacks from COVID will ripple through our schools for ten years
● Continued trauma has exacerbated already challenging mental health issues among
our students, their families, and even our teachers.
● Politics – enough said.
The only thing that’s constant is change. Organizations have this strange property in which
they are always changing and yet always resisting change. The past two school years have
created stress, loss, and incredible turmoil. They have also created an opportunity. Let’s be
real:
The new normal is abnormal and our old systems aren’t working anymore. Instead of
mourning and lamenting, what if we embraced this moment? What if we continued the
work of dismantling and then rebuilding what school looks like? The last big wave of
educational reform was the standards movement of the 1980’s. Like so many reforms, the
promises have not been kept. So, what’s possible? What’s next? What can we do?
● The academic setbacks from COVID will ripple through our schools for ten years
● Continued trauma has exacerbated already challenging mental health issues among
our students, their families, and even our teachers.
● Politics – enough said.
The only thing that’s constant is change. Organizations have this strange property in which
they are always changing and yet always resisting change. The past two school years have
created stress, loss, and incredible turmoil. They have also created an opportunity. Let’s be
real:
The new normal is abnormal and our old systems aren’t working anymore. Instead of
mourning and lamenting, what if we embraced this moment? What if we continued the
work of dismantling and then rebuilding what school looks like? The last big wave of
educational reform was the standards movement of the 1980’s. Like so many reforms, the
promises have not been kept. So, what’s possible? What’s next? What can we do?
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Air Date: October 4, 2022
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Episode 62: Five for Friday, September 26-30, 2022
Today's episode of five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of September 26-30, 2022. If you already get my daily emails, then I hope you'll find some added value here. And if you don't already subscribe, you can find a link on my homepage at https://www.frederickbuskey.com
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Air Date: September 30, 2022
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Episode 61: The Three Epiphanies
How did your to-do list go today?
How about yesterday?
How will it go tomorrow?
If you missed last week’s webinar on escaping the black hole of urgency, you may still be focused on the to-do list. I won’t recap the entire webinar here, but I will pull a couple of highlights.
How about yesterday?
How will it go tomorrow?
If you missed last week’s webinar on escaping the black hole of urgency, you may still be focused on the to-do list. I won’t recap the entire webinar here, but I will pull a couple of highlights.
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Air Date: September 27, 2022
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Episode 60: Five for Friday, September 19-23
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of September 19-23, 2022.
This weeks theme revolves around a single quote uttered by a friend at a party we had a couple weeks ago. It was later in the evening and most people had gone home and my friend said, “Everyone who’s not here has left.” Of course, my head went to leadership, and to thinking about the people who had left.
This weeks theme revolves around a single quote uttered by a friend at a party we had a couple weeks ago. It was later in the evening and most people had gone home and my friend said, “Everyone who’s not here has left.” Of course, my head went to leadership, and to thinking about the people who had left.
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Air Date: September 23, 2022
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Episode 59: What Do Your Big Initiatives Actually Cost?
Everything has a cost. That cost can be easily measured in time, money, and attention. But the larger and more important cost is opportunity cost. Opportunity cost reflects what we could have done with the time, money, and attention that we spent on doing whatever we did. Because our schools have unlimited needs, everything we do displaces something else that we could have done.
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Air Date: September 20, 2022
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Episode 58: Five for Friday, September 12-16, 2022
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of September 12-16, 2022. We can’t be great leaders without being intentional. An easy way to become more intentional is to begin your day with a leadership reading. Here’s my invitation for you. Subscribe to my daily email (you’ll find a subscription link in the show notes or at frederickbuskey.com. Then, each day, when you are at the point of opening email, read my email first. 100-300 words, so it should take about 90 seconds. Then give yourself another 90 seconds to think about the message and set a leadership intention for the day. It will make a difference, and that difference will compound over time.
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Air Date: September 16, 2022
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Episode 57: Supporting New Teachers with Dr. John Schembari
We all know how critical it is to support new teachers, but do we actually know how to support them? Today we answer four questions:
Between the podcast and our monthly micro-journal – Quadrant2, we’ve been investing a lot of time on new teacher support and for good reason. Today we will go another layer deeper with our special guest Dr. John Schembari
- What do we mean when we say “new teacher?”
- How can APs build collaborative relationships with new teachers?
- What specific actions can we take to meet the personal and professional needs of early career teachers and
- How do we fit those actions into the crazy days of the assistant principalship?
Between the podcast and our monthly micro-journal – Quadrant2, we’ve been investing a lot of time on new teacher support and for good reason. Today we will go another layer deeper with our special guest Dr. John Schembari
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Air Date: September 13, 2022
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Episode 56: Five for Friday, September 5-9, 2022
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of September 5-9, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: September 9, 2022
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Episode 55: The Black Hole of Urgency!
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For many of us, our goals – our dreams – of leadership revolve around helping others:
But those goals, dreams, intentions, slip away from us as we get sucked into the pull of the urgent. |
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Air Date: September 6, 2022
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Episode 54: Five for Friday, August 29-September 2, 2022
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 29-September 2, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com.
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Air Date: September 2, 2022
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Episode 53: What New Teachers Need from You
In my teacher education program at The Ohio State University, I had two professors who literally wrote the book on managing students and spaces in physical education. Some of our student teaching lessons were taped, and the video was analyzed in six-second increments. Time was coded based on what a specific student was doing and the codes, as I remember them, were: Listening to content, listening to instructions, waiting, off task, and active learning time, or ALT. The goal was to have close to 80% of ALT time. In other words, students would be actively engaged in performing a task for 32 minutes during a 40-minute lesson. This required us as teachers to run highly managed spaces using concrete procedures.
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Air Date: August 30, 2022
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Episode 52: Five for Friday, August 22-26
Episode 51: Who Are You? with Craig Martin
Last spring several of the assistant principals in our APEx group asked if we could work on how APs can influence school culture without over-stepping their boundaries. One AP noted that this could be especially problematic if you and your principal had very different styles. Back then I approached this as a culture question, but today I’m looking at it differently. Today, I’m thinking about this through two lenses. The first is authenticity: how do I do a job where everyone is watching me all the time, and make sure that I am true to myself? The second lens is sociological.
If we were in a room together and someone introduced me as “a leader” you would not be surprised because I look the part. I’m a 6-2 white male in my late 50’s, I have a good speaking voice and I know how to engage with people. And yes, I coached football. In other words, I meet the societal expectations of what leaders look and sound like in our culture.
But what about everyone else? What does it mean to be a leader in schools when you don’t look like me? How do you maintain your authenticity when the expectations of who can lead and how they should lead are still relatively narrow and rigid?
If we were in a room together and someone introduced me as “a leader” you would not be surprised because I look the part. I’m a 6-2 white male in my late 50’s, I have a good speaking voice and I know how to engage with people. And yes, I coached football. In other words, I meet the societal expectations of what leaders look and sound like in our culture.
But what about everyone else? What does it mean to be a leader in schools when you don’t look like me? How do you maintain your authenticity when the expectations of who can lead and how they should lead are still relatively narrow and rigid?
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Air Date: August 23, 2022
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Episode 50: Five for Friday, August 15-19
Episode 49: The ILT
This episode is titled THE Instructional Leadership Team. Why “THE Instructional Leadership Team” ? Why not the instructional leadership team? The fun reason is because I’m an Ohio State grad, and The Ohio State University sounds way cooler than Ohio State. But the real reason is because “THE Instructional Leadership Team” is the fundamental building block of school improvement. Most schools have instructional leadership teams, but fewer schools have “THE Instructional Leadership Team.”
What’s the difference you ask? The answer is coming…
What’s the difference you ask? The answer is coming…
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Air Date: August 16, 2022
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Episode 48: Five For Friday, August 8-12
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 8-12, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. By listening to this podcast you are already growing on your leadership journey.
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Air Date: August 12, 2022
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Episode 47: From first year AP to AP of the Year with Dr. Tia Jones Pt. 2
What does it mean to be an assistant principal? What is your job? What are the essential skills? One of the reasons being an AP is so challenging is because there aren’t really clear answers to these questions. Outside of busses, books, and butts, there isn’t a strong consensus for what makes a great AP. This is one of my motivations in starting this podcast – it sometimes feels like the assistant principalship is this ever changing role of mixed-up expectations, and that doesn’t seem fair. I hope through this podcast we can bring some clarity to the role and to the essential elements of being a great AP. Today, we have a wonderful guest who can help us do that.
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Air Date: August 11, 2022
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Episode 46: From first year AP to AP of the Year with Dr. Tia Jones Pt. 1
What does it mean to be an assistant principal? What is your job? What are the essential skills? One of the reasons being an AP is so challenging is because there aren’t really clear answers to these questions. Outside of busses, books, and butts, there isn’t a strong consensus for what makes a great AP. This is one of my motivations in starting this podcast – it sometimes feels like the assistant principalship is this ever changing role of mixed-up expectations, and that doesn’t seem fair. I hope through this podcast we can bring some clarity to the role and to the essential elements of being a great AP. Today, we have a wonderful guest who can help us do that.
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Air Date: August 9, 2022
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Episode 45: Five For Friday, August 1-5
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of August 1-5, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: August 5, 2022
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Episode 44: The Story That Drives Me
Many of us have a story that drives what we do. We had a special teacher, or a great mentor, or even a horrible experience. Whichever it might have been, there is a story that is so deeply rooted in our psyche, that it drives what we do and how we do it. Today… my story.
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Air Date: August 4, 2022
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Episode 43: Five for Friday, July 25-29
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 25-29, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: July 29, 2022
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Episode 42: The Curmudgeon with Nat Ellis
When we talk about teachers resisting change, we often conjure up images of the curmudgeon – the 30-year veteran teacher who hasn’t changed and refuses to “get with the program.” However, often times there are good reasons to resist change. Just as importantly, our veteran teachers can be great allies in building and improving school culture. Today, we learn from Nat Ellis, my favorite curmudgeon and a teacher whose passion and wisdom should inspire you.
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Air Date: July 28, 2022
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Episode 41: Five for Friday, July 18-22
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 18-22. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: July 22, 2022
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Episode 40: Team Coaching with John Willis
Today, I am joined by John Willis, the founder of the Teaming Edge. John is here with us today to explore Team Coaching.
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Air Date: July 21, 2022
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Episode 39: Five for Friday, July 11-15
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of July 11-15. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: July 15, 2022
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Episode 38: Just Put the Key in the Door with Maddie Jurek
Yay! You finally found time to get into a classroom and do a big observation! You sit down, congratulating yourself for prioritizing, and the teacher and students dive into a lesson on quantum physics. Wait! What? Of course, this is an exaggeration, but most of us have found ourselves tasked with observing a teacher whose content we did not fully understand. We dive into this topic today with our guest, Dr. Maddie Jurek.
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Air Date: July 14, 2022
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Episode 37: Five for Friday, July 4-8, 2022
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Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the week’s daily leadership emails for the week of July 4-8, 2022. If you already get my daily leadership emails, then I hope you’ll find some added value here and if you don’t already subscribe you can find a link on my home page at frederickbuskey.com. Many readers like to begin their mornings by reading the email and setting a leadership intention for the day, but please don’t feel any pressure to subscribe. You are already doing more to grow yourself than many others out there, simply by listening to the podcast.
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Air Date: July 8, 2022
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Episode 36: Parent Partnerships with Dr. Leigh Ann Alford-Keith
“We talk a lot about social emotional learning and the whole child, but the whole child includes the family.” These aren’t my words. They came from today’s guest when she appeared on the show back on episode 25. We went on to discuss what a partnership is, and how teachers’ thinking needed to change. We concluded by noting that the first step in building better partnerships was to view parents as equal partners, not adversaries. It was a rich episode, but we only scratched the surface of parent partnerships. Today, we get below that surface with our very special guest, Dr. Leigh Ann Alford—Keith.
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Air Date: July 7, 2022
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Episode 35: Recapping the Daily Emails, June 27-July 1, 2022
Episode 34: Persistent Growth with Emily Parks
We are all teachers here, right? So, I can be honest, Right? We love all children equally and we have no favorites. That said, there are always those students who give us energy. They bring a passion for learning that inspires us to be at our best. I had those kinds of learners when I was a middle school teacher, when I was a professor at Clemson University, and I have them now as I work with APs in the APEx program. In fact, today’s guest is one of those special “students” because she is passionate about her learning, always brings her A game, and inspires me to be better.
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Air Date: June 30, 2022
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Episode 33: Recapping the daily emails 6-20-24
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This is an experiment! Each weekday at 6 am I send out a 100-330 word email on leadership. I thought it might be fun to do a recap of those emails to share with the podcast audience. In the future I'll try and do better tying the content specifically to APs, but this was the first attempt and I'm going to roll with it.
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Air Date: June 24, 2022
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Episode 32: The Flywheel with Dr. Melissa Burns
In Jim Collins’ Iconic book, “Good to Great”, he describes the flywheel. An organization’s flywheel consists of some core practices that, when executed consistently, drive organizational excellence. If you’ve been listening for a while, you ‘ve heard me reference the flywheel, but we’ve never done a deep dive. The basic flywheel for schools goes like this: provide professional development for teachers, follow up with targeted observations, use the observation data to inform the next round of PD. When we execute this cycle repeatedly, we grow great teachers, and great teachers equals great schools. Let’s be real, and let’s be clear – the flywheel is going to look different in different schools. This fall in APEx we will be focusing on building each part of the flywheel, so I thought it would be a good time to bring back Melissa Burns, one of our most popular guests, to talk about their instructional team and what that flywheel concept looks like in her school.
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Air Date: June 23, 2022
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Episode 31: Prioritizing Your Own Leadership Development with Maria Werner
Dealing with discipline, being the test coordinator, and taking care of a million things for everyone else. Somehow you find the time. But do you find – or make – that time for yourself? What are your strategies for nurturing your own growth? Today, Maria Werner talks with us about how she juggles school, kids, and even dogs, and manages to still prioritize her own growth. We also discuss how Maria has grown her leadership through APEx and some of her key takeaways.
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Air Date: June 16, 2022
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Episode 30: Six Ways to Eliminate Interruptions
In a noisy world, is it possible to find the quiet necessary to do work that moves us forward? In this episode, we cover six suggestions for creating a saner and more productive leadership life
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Air Date: June 9, 2022
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Episode 29: Culture with Brad Coleman
Culture. What is it? How do we shape it? Why is it so critical? You could fill an entire library with books related to culture and how leaders influence it. Or you could listen to this episode of The Assistant Principal Podcast with our special guest, Brad Coleman.
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Air Date: June 2, 2022
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Episode 28: The Ship is Sinking
Imagine you’re on a nice little boat, floating along a gentle river or out on a calm lake. Everything is fine until you hear a gurgling sound. You look down and are astounded to see water pouring in from a how in the bottom of the boat. You grab your red Solo cup and begin scooping out water, but it isn’t enough. You look around for something to patch the hole with – nothing. As you look around despondently, you notice a faded plastic bucket floating your way. You manage to get ahold of it and redouble your efforts. Aided by the size of the bucket you begin to get the boat emptied and over the next few hours you alternate between bailing and rowing. The shore is getting closer. You may make it.
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Air Date: May 26, 2022
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Episode 27: Why is Instructional Leadership so Hard?
Have you noticed how many first-year teachers have trouble managing their classrooms? And if they never receive really good support, they become 5 and 10-year teachers who can’t manage their classrooms. And then they leave the profession.
But guess what? We have a similar problem in the principalship. Most (not all) principals are not fully prepared to meet the challenges of instructional leadership. And if they never get really good support, their trajectories can mirror that f the teachers I just mentioned.
This issue is the reason I started this podcast, the reason I do a daily leadership email, it is the focus of my trainings and courses, and it is at the heart of my APEx program. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that instructional leadership is a common focus. Today, we are going to look at the problem of developing instructional leaders and some things I think we can do about it.
But guess what? We have a similar problem in the principalship. Most (not all) principals are not fully prepared to meet the challenges of instructional leadership. And if they never get really good support, their trajectories can mirror that f the teachers I just mentioned.
This issue is the reason I started this podcast, the reason I do a daily leadership email, it is the focus of my trainings and courses, and it is at the heart of my APEx program. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that instructional leadership is a common focus. Today, we are going to look at the problem of developing instructional leaders and some things I think we can do about it.
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Air Date: May 19, 2022
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Episode 26: Courage with Dr. Mary Hemphill
Are you living your leadership journey courageously? Before Dr. Mary Hemphill became the Director of Academic Standards for the North Carolina Department of education she was a passionate and innovative principal. Before that, she was an assistant principal with the courage to stand up for her convictions. The assistant principalship is loaded with values conflicts. How do you stay true to your values amidst complex power dynamics and competing interests? Mary helps us figure it all out in this week’s episode.
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Air Date: May 12, 2022
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Episode 25: Parents and Community with Dr. Leigh Ann Alford-Keith
“We need to increase family engagement.” I hear this all the time. We know what we want from families, but do we know what families want from us? Today’s episode will take us beyond reading rallies and pizza nights and even beyond my favorite parent event - donuts for dads. Today we focus on what teachers can do to build stronger parent partnerships and how school leaders can support those partnerships.
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Air Date: May 5, 2022
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Special Episode 24: The Four Patterns of Observation
I’m asking for your help.
I’ve put together an MVP (minimally viable product) training video and am looking for a few people to pilot it. In exchange for access to this mini-PD, you would be committing to the following:
The pilot will run from May 3-17, so you would have two weeks to watch the video and complete the feedback form.
If you want to make this commitment, please email me (frederick@frederickbuskey.com). You will then receive an invitation to join my website as a member of the 4-patterns pilot group and will have access to the video.
PLEASE – if you don’t have time to follow through, save both of us stress and pass on this opportunity. There will be others.
I’ve put together an MVP (minimally viable product) training video and am looking for a few people to pilot it. In exchange for access to this mini-PD, you would be committing to the following:
- Watching the video (about 45 minutes, but can be chunked into six parts)
- Completing the feedback form (5-15 minutes)
- Providing your email address knowing that I will not spam you but will provide you with updates on the project and updated materials
The pilot will run from May 3-17, so you would have two weeks to watch the video and complete the feedback form.
If you want to make this commitment, please email me (frederick@frederickbuskey.com). You will then receive an invitation to join my website as a member of the 4-patterns pilot group and will have access to the video.
PLEASE – if you don’t have time to follow through, save both of us stress and pass on this opportunity. There will be others.
Episode 23: Testing Coordination with Carrie Prochaska
April showers bring May flowers and May flowers bring…. Testing in schools! Many of the assistant principals I work with also serve double duty as test coordinators. It is a challenging job, but today’s show should contain some tips that make the job a bit easier.
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Air Date: April 28, 2022
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Episode 22: Growth Mindset with Becca Silver
If you have ever played buzz-word bingo, and had “growth mindset” on your card, you knew you odds of winning were good. But what is “growth mindset” all about? As an assistant principal, you probably already know where this is going. Yes, we want our kids to have a growth mindset, but if we can get our teachers to also have that growth mindset, then we will be in great shape!
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Air Date: April 21, 2022
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Episode 21: Meeting the Needs of New Teachers
In today’s episode, guest host Mara Buskey leads us through a discussion with two relatively new teachers about what they need from their assistant principals, how they view leadership, and what kind of feedback and style of coaching best meets their needs. This is an inspiring episode that may yield some surprising but valuable insights.
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Air Date: April 14, 2022
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Episode 20: Change Starts from Within with Gabby Grant
The topic of this show is restorative practices, but the show title is the key to implementing such practices: Change starts from within. In this episode we take a detour from the common one-two-three approaches to kicking off a restorative justice program in your school. Instead, we focus on you. Or more accurately, we focus on getting you to focus on you? If the discipline approaches you are relying on aren’t working, then this podcast is for you. Just don’t expect a magic bullet or paint-by-numbers approach. The change will start from within.
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Air Date: April 7, 2022
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Episode 19: Exceptional Student Support with Elizabeth Schumpert
Serving exceptional students can be one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of school leadership. In this episode Elizabeth Schumpert, Director of Student Support Services for Saluda County Schools, helps us gain some insights into supporting exceptional students and their families, and working with the variety of support services and personnel that make up part of the team that cares for exceptional students.
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Air Date: March 31, 2022
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Episode 18: The Math of Leverage
The four principles of leverage, described last week in episode 17, can guide us to creating progress in our organizations. A key to progress is focusing on incremental progress as opposed to big changes to fix things. In today’s episode, we will apply leverage to a real school situation.
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Air date: March 24, 2022
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Episode 17: The Four Principles of Leverage
Ever wonder why we are always driving change in our schools? Ever wonder why change initiatives rarely seem to produce the promised results? What if there was a better way? What if, instead of making sweeping changes, we just made tomorrow a little bit better today? If the concept of incremental yet immediate change appeals to you, then listen to today's show on the four principles of leverage
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Air date: March 17, 2022
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Episode 16: Becoming Strategically Reactive!
Developing teachers is important, but it is rarely urgent. When we are proactive, we can plan ahead and do this most important work of developing teachers. However, assistant principals operate in an environment where being reactive is a defining feature. One of the ways to move from being driven by the urgent to being driven by the purposeful is to become strategically reactive. What does that mean? Stay tuned!
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Air date: March 10, 2022
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Episode 15: Teacher Leadership with Melissa Burns
Dr. Melissa Burns is the principal at Sara Collins Elementary School in Greenville, South Carolina. Melissa is a remarkable principal and leader who balances wisdom and practicality. One of Melissa’s many superpowers is developing other people’s leadership. In the first half of this episode, we discuss the importance of developing teacher-leaders and how to do it. In the second half of the episode, Melissa provides some practical advice for how busy assistant principals can hone their instructional leadership skills.
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Air date: March 3, 2022
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Episode 14: The Teacher Tracking Document
Why does it always feel like improving teacher quality is an uphill battle? One big reason is that our schools are not structured to facilitate consistent teacher growth. Focusing on helping teachers to grow requires us to focus on the structures that can support growth first. In this episode we look at on important structure, the teacher tracking document. The teacher tracking document helps us to develop and document a coherent and consistent approach to helping individual and groups of teachers grow.
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This episode includes references to graphics, foremost of which is the Teacher Tracking Document. The video is about 13 minutes long and includes the sections of the podcast that describe the TTD as well as the Six Dimensions and the Eisenhower Matrix.
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Air date: February 24, 2022
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Episode 13: What Makes a Great AP with Brenda Byrd
Today I’m joined by Brenda Byrd, an Assistant Superintendent for School Leadership (and a former South Carolina Elementary Principal of the Year and a National Distinguished Principal). Brenda works for Greenville County School District in Greenville South Carolina. Brenda is here with us to talk about what makes an AP great.
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Air date: February 17, 2022
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Episode 12: Becca Silver and Instructional Coach Relationships
Today I’m joined by Becca Silver the founder and lead consultant at The Whole Educator. Becca has been posting some great stuff on LinkedIn, which is where we met. Becca is here to help us explore the AP – Instructional coach relationship.
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Air date: February 10, 2022
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Episode 11: O is for Omicron with Meagan Tarbert
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Air date: February 3, 2022
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Episode 10: O is for Omicron with Emily Parks
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Air date: January 27. 2022
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Episode 9: O is for Omicron with Libba Mattison
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Air date: January 20, 2022
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Episode 8: Who Should I Coach?
In this episode we look into the surprisingly complex question of “Who should I coach?” We examine the five ways that teachers grow, we overview what a systemic approach to teacher growth looks like in a school, and we answer the question. If you only have time to coach one or two people, then you can’t afford to choose the wrong person to coach. This podcast should help.
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Air date: January 10, 2022
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Episode 7: Dr. Sam Sircey and Perspective Taking
Today I’m joined by Dr. Sam Sircey, the Principal of North Buncombe High School in Weaverville NC. Sam is here with us today to explore perspective taking! As we change roles our perspectives change. Sometimes we get locked into our own perspective, but a key leadership skill is being able to take the perspectives of the different people we serve.
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Air date: December 9, 2021
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Episode 6: A Coaching Grab Bag
Today’s podcast addresses a variety of aspects of coaching teachers. We consider the approach to coaching, who to focus on, and how to break coaching into A-B steps. This is NOT a training on how to coach, but rather is a discussion about some of the issues that pop up in the coaching process.
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Air date: November 20, 2021
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Episode 5: Your Relationship with Email
On today’s episode, we examine your relationship with email. Email is such a critical thing because it impacts all four of the principles of strategic leadership!
• The way we typically use email today reinforces the primacy of the urgent at the cost of being purposeful.
• Email does not lend itself to deep and meaningful analysis and conversation, so it is almost always focused on surface level symptoms instead of root problems.
• Because email feels so urgent, we focus more on responding to email than actually using it to create progress.
• Finally, email consumes a disproportionate amount of time and attention at the cost of human interaction and helping people grow.
• The way we typically use email today reinforces the primacy of the urgent at the cost of being purposeful.
• Email does not lend itself to deep and meaningful analysis and conversation, so it is almost always focused on surface level symptoms instead of root problems.
• Because email feels so urgent, we focus more on responding to email than actually using it to create progress.
• Finally, email consumes a disproportionate amount of time and attention at the cost of human interaction and helping people grow.
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Air date: October 14, 2021
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Episode 4: 5-Minute Coaching DEEP Dive
This is a special edition of The Assistant Principal Podcast inspired by some work I did recently with nine assistant principals as part of the APEx program. This podcast assumes that you are familiar with 5-mc. If you aren’t, you can go to frederickbuskey.com/resources and download a one-pager. This is a deeper look at the purposes and techniques of 5-mc.
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Air date: September 30, 2021
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Episode 3: P-AP Relationships with Dr. Rhonda Rhodes
Dr. Rhonda Rhodes is a National Distinguished Principal with Greenville County Schools in South Carolina. An experienced principal, she is in her first year at the Rudolph Gordon School in Simpsonville. RGS is a K-8 STEAM focused school. Dr. Rhodes works with four assistant principals who are all relatively new to administration.
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Air date: September 23, 2021
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Episode 2: From AP to P with guest Holly Miller
Our guest this episode is Holly Miller, the first-year principal of Sandhills Primary School in Swansea, South Carolina. Holly is here with us today to share her experiences on going from an AP to a principal. Holly brings a wealth of experiences and perspectives to the job. We also touch on the challenges of COVID and the power of relationships.
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Air date: September 9, 2021
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Episode 1: The Strategic Assistant Principal
This episode covers three critical frameworks for strategic assistant principals. By the end of the episode listeners should be able to ask the four critical questions of strategic leadership.
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