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 128: Five for Friday May 22-26, 2023
Last Friday I began with a shoutout to Soupman2545 for leaving a review and helping me improve the show. It felt good to begin the show with a thank you so I’m going to begin doing this regularly on Fridays.
Today I want to acknowledge the daily email readers and podcast listeners who responded to last week’s challenge to identify the band associated with the titles of each daily email’s subject line.
Today I want to acknowledge the daily email readers and podcast listeners who responded to last week’s challenge to identify the band associated with the titles of each daily email’s subject line.
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Air Date: May 26, 2023
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Episode 127: Pause, Breathe, Flourish with William D Parker
I know… you don’t have time to pause, you barely have time to breathe, and you are saving flourishing for summer. You are too busy with all the tasks, and taking care of everyone else. Except for being in this moment, and, right now, this is the only moment that matters because it is the only moment you have. And I am so glad you are here, and today’s very special guest is going to help both you and I make the time to pause, to breathe, and to flourish.
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Air Date: May 23, 2023
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Episode 126: Five for Friday May 15-20, 2023
If you listened to Tuesday’s incredible show with Tequilla Lamar, you noticed something new – music!
Mara and Collin have been suggesting for some time that we needed to add a few musical transitions, but I have been dragging my feet until I read a recent review of the show
Shout out to soupman2545, who left a review that began glowingly…
“I am going to be an AP next year and have already begun using ideas from content in this podcast to improve my practice and increase my capacity in my current leadership position.”
I love getting kudos, but it was the next think part of the review that was golden:
“If I could offer one piece of feedback, it would be for show aesthetics… something so small as a jingle or catchy tune, might help hook others in and give them something to look forward to each week.”
Soupman2545, THANK YOU. It takes time and effort to write a review, and it takes a bit more to offer thoughtful feedback in a way that helps make things better.
So, we are beginning this episode with a thank you to soupman2545- you have helped make us better.
Link to Ranford Almond Spotify
Mara and Collin have been suggesting for some time that we needed to add a few musical transitions, but I have been dragging my feet until I read a recent review of the show
Shout out to soupman2545, who left a review that began glowingly…
“I am going to be an AP next year and have already begun using ideas from content in this podcast to improve my practice and increase my capacity in my current leadership position.”
I love getting kudos, but it was the next think part of the review that was golden:
“If I could offer one piece of feedback, it would be for show aesthetics… something so small as a jingle or catchy tune, might help hook others in and give them something to look forward to each week.”
Soupman2545, THANK YOU. It takes time and effort to write a review, and it takes a bit more to offer thoughtful feedback in a way that helps make things better.
So, we are beginning this episode with a thank you to soupman2545- you have helped make us better.
Link to Ranford Almond Spotify
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Air Date: May 19, 2023
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Episode 125: Are you worthy? With Tequila Lamar
Let’s face it, you aren’t cut out for this job. You are in over your head, and soon everyone will discover it! What were you even thinking? You can’t help your teachers grow. You should never have done this, and you will certainly never make it to the next level.
Ouch – such terrible thoughts! There is a diagnosis for this kind of negative thinking and it is called imposter syndrome – the feeling that, despite everything you have achieved, you are somehow not fit to do the job you are doing.
If you, like me, are one of those afflicted souls, stay tuned. We are going to turn imposter syndrome on its head! If you have never suffered from imposter syndrome, you need to listen to this episode because many of your colleagues do suffer from it.
Ouch – such terrible thoughts! There is a diagnosis for this kind of negative thinking and it is called imposter syndrome – the feeling that, despite everything you have achieved, you are somehow not fit to do the job you are doing.
If you, like me, are one of those afflicted souls, stay tuned. We are going to turn imposter syndrome on its head! If you have never suffered from imposter syndrome, you need to listen to this episode because many of your colleagues do suffer from it.
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Air Date: May 16, 2023
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Episode 124: Five for Friday May 8-12, 2023
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of May 8-12, 2023.
Celebrations: Garden planted out! New AP (1 & 2) mentoring program progress!
Celebrations: Garden planted out! New AP (1 & 2) mentoring program progress!
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Air Date: May 12, 2023
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Episode 123: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Dr. Jacque Jacobs and Dr. Kevin O’Gorman
That my friends is a musical introduction to today’s theme – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
We aren’t talking about spaghetti westerns, but rather a valuable process to help school leaders
get an honest snapshot of what is working, what’s not working, and most importantly what to do
about it. My guests are two incredible educational leaders and human beings and you’ll be
tapping into over 100 years of leadership experience in today’s show.
We aren’t talking about spaghetti westerns, but rather a valuable process to help school leaders
get an honest snapshot of what is working, what’s not working, and most importantly what to do
about it. My guests are two incredible educational leaders and human beings and you’ll be
tapping into over 100 years of leadership experience in today’s show.
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Air Date: May 9, 2023
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Episode 122: Five for Friday May 1-5, 2023
Today we will begin with the end. There are many big and complex problems we need to solve, but the process will be slow and require great effort.
In contrast, there are small quality-of-life improvements we can make that are simple and yield immediate results.
We looked at three this week:
In contrast, there are small quality-of-life improvements we can make that are simple and yield immediate results.
We looked at three this week:
- Get rid of things that aren’t essential
- Produce a minimally viable version as quickly and simply as possible
- Let your colleagues know how glad you are that they are here today!
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Air Date: May 5, 2023
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Episode 121: 10 Simple Steps to a Better School
Back in episode 44 I shared the story that drives me in which I talked about Kelli, an assistant principal who was overwhelmed with discipline. I visited her around 10:00 o'clock on a spring morning in her rural elementary school and she already had seven office referrals. When I asked Kelli how many of those referrals reflected teacher problems more than kid problems she said five.
The bad news was that there were five kids getting in trouble who shouldn't be getting in trouble and that Kelli was being overwhelmed and prevented from doing her job of developing teachers. The good news was that if we could find a way to get Kelly into those teachers’ classrooms we could stop the cycle. The best news is there's a way to help those teachers with minimal cost, minimal training, and minimal effort.
The bad news was that there were five kids getting in trouble who shouldn't be getting in trouble and that Kelli was being overwhelmed and prevented from doing her job of developing teachers. The good news was that if we could find a way to get Kelly into those teachers’ classrooms we could stop the cycle. The best news is there's a way to help those teachers with minimal cost, minimal training, and minimal effort.
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Air Date: May 2, 2023
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Episode 120: Five for Friday April 24-28, 2023
If you get my daily email, you already know that this week’s messages involved me going head-to-head with ChatGPT on the topic of creating a positive organizational culture. What I didn’t have space to discuss in the emails is how we can use the framework of the six dimensions of organizations to help provide a more coherent understanding of organizational culture. So today’s five for Friday will be substantially different from the weeks emails and will give you some important things to think about whether you are a daily email reader or not.
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Air Date: April 28, 2023
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Episode 119: It is simpler than you think!
At the beginning of this school year, North Carolina embarked on a two-year, $90-million journey to train every elementary and teachers and administrator in a program called LETRS, which aligns to Science of Reading standards, a research-based approach to teaching reading. The training focuses on building a knowledge base about how students learn to read, as opposed to being a collection of strategies. This knowledge base comes at a steep price – about 160 hours of study and training in order to learn it. Breaking down the numbers, over the two years, each administrator and teacher will be asked to spend almost 30-minutes a day learning LETRS, and NC will spend a minimum of $2,000 on each person.
For experienced teachers who have the time and desire to dig into the science of reading, LETRS might be a great resource, but for the teachers who are struggling just to survive each day, for the early career teachers who are still working through the basics of managing a classroom, planning lessons, and using formative assessments, a huge comprehensive program makes no sense.
For less than 30-minutes a day and less than $2000, you can help many of your teachers to live and teach better immediately. Better yet, the process is simple. Not always easy, but simple.
For experienced teachers who have the time and desire to dig into the science of reading, LETRS might be a great resource, but for the teachers who are struggling just to survive each day, for the early career teachers who are still working through the basics of managing a classroom, planning lessons, and using formative assessments, a huge comprehensive program makes no sense.
For less than 30-minutes a day and less than $2000, you can help many of your teachers to live and teach better immediately. Better yet, the process is simple. Not always easy, but simple.
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Air Date: April 25, 2023
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Episode 118: Five for Friday April 17-21, 2023
Famous leadership theorist and author John Maxwell said, “leadership s influence, nothing less, nothing more.”
Is that it? Is that really all leadership is?
Is that it? Is that really all leadership is?
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Air Date: April 21, 2023
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Episode 117: Crisis Prevention with Dr. Kevin Mabie
When I say “People before Purpose” what do I actually mean? When I say the silver bullet -the one truly magical solution – is to build relationships, what does that look like? Today we will unpack two relationship forms. Congenial relationships are based on personal connections, while collegial relationships are based on professional connections. We will dig deeper into each of these and into how to lead when teachers are in crisis.
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Air Date: April 18, 2023
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Episode 116: Five for Friday April 10-14, 2023
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 10-14, 2023.
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Air Date: April 14, 2023
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Episode 115: All the Answers Are Already in the Room with Dr. Tiffany Brunson
Saying that great leaders are great listeners has almost become cliché. Listening is one of those
things that sounds simple, but which can be challenging to execute – especially when all the
craziness is happening. Part of the challenge is that listening requires presence – full presence.
I’m going to ask you for something special today. Today, as you listen to this podcast, don’t just
listen. Really listen. What’s the difference? You are about to find out
things that sounds simple, but which can be challenging to execute – especially when all the
craziness is happening. Part of the challenge is that listening requires presence – full presence.
I’m going to ask you for something special today. Today, as you listen to this podcast, don’t just
listen. Really listen. What’s the difference? You are about to find out
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Air Date: April 11, 2023
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Episode 114: Five for Friday April 3-7, 2023
If I can’t do everything, doesn’t that mean that I choose what does get done – and what doesn’t? And if I’m choosing, do my choices reflect my values? These three ideas make up my three epiphanies:
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 3-7, 2023.
- I can’t do everything
- Therefore, I choose what gets done
- And my choices do – or should – reflect my values
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of April 3-7, 2023.
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Air Date: 4/7/2023
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Episode 113: Trust-Based Observations with Craig Randall Part 2, 4/4/2023
You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.
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Air Date: 4/4/2023
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Episode 112: Five for Friday March 27-31, 2023
I had a lot of fun writing this week’s emails. Last week I met and worked with some incredible people, and it just made the whole week special. I hope that positivity radiates through this week’s messages. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 27-31, 2023.
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Air Date: 3/31/2023
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Episode 111: Trust-Based Observations with Craig Randall, 3/27/2023
You’ve heard me talk about the flywheel. It is the process of providing professional development,
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.
following it up with targeted observations, and using observation data to drive the next round of
professional development. As with so many things, while the concept is simple, execution is
difficult. The flywheel will look different in different schools, and today’s guest shares with us a
highly developed and coherent version of the flywheel. I guarantee that you will leave today’s
conversation with a couple big ideas lodged in your head! Ideas that I hope you will decide to act
on.
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Air Date: 3/28/2023
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Episode 110: Five for Friday March 20-24, 2023
Simple fences, small wins, and three tips for interviewing. But wait, there’s more!
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 20-24, 2023.
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 20-24, 2023.
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Air Date: March 24, 2023
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Episode 109: Examples of Five-Minute Coaching
So many teachers to coach but so little time! A simple coaching cycle might consist of a Five minute pre-conference, 30-minute observation, 10-minute post conference, and 30 minutes of professional development. Most APs don’t have 75 minutes to invest in a single coaching cycle. But what if there was a form of coaching that would allow you to do 15 coaching sessions in the same amount of time as a traditional coaching cycle. You could support 15 teachers instead of one, or work with three teachers five different times! In a world that moves so quickly, seventy five-minute coaching may not make sense, but 5-minute coaching most certainly does!
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Air Date: March 21, 2023
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Episode 108: Five for Friday March 13-17, 2023
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of March 13-17, 2023.
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Air Date: March 17, 2023
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Episode 107: The Keys to Greatness with Dr. Todd Whitaker, March 14, 2023
Are the keys to being a great teacher the same as the keys to being a great principal? And are
those keys the same for being a great assistant principal? We will unlock the answers to those
questions today, with a very special guest.
those keys the same for being a great assistant principal? We will unlock the answers to those
questions today, with a very special guest.
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Air Date: March 14, 2023
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Episode 105: You Are the Master of Time with Danny Bauer
Do you work too many hours? Do you feel like there is never enough time? Do you ever miss
your family and friends? Today, my guest, Danny Bauer and myself will explore some keys to a
mindshift that will help you rethink how you approach your work and, more importantly, your
own health.
your family and friends? Today, my guest, Danny Bauer and myself will explore some keys to a
mindshift that will help you rethink how you approach your work and, more importantly, your
own health.
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Air Date: March 7, 2023
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Episode 104: Five for Friday February 27-March 3, 2023
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of February 27-March 3, 2023.
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Air Date: March 3, 2023
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Episode 103: The Journey and The Guide
Air Date: February 28, 2023
Episode 102: Five for Friday February 20-24, 2023
For about three weeks we had a tight focus on mentoring. I hope you embraced the three core messages:
This week’s big idea: You can’t move forward by staying where you are.
- Spend more time with and show more appreciation for your mentor
- If you don’t have a mentor, find one
- Be intentional about mentoring others
This week’s big idea: You can’t move forward by staying where you are.
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Air Date: February 24, 2023
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Episode 101: Wisdom in Two Parts with Dr. Jan Osborn, Part 2
Part two of our incredible interview with Dr. Jan Osborn. This week we learn more life lessons and hear more good stories from Jan!
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Air Date: February 21, 2023
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Episode 100: Without People, We Have No Purpose with Dr. Jan Osborn
One of the beauties of life is that over time we collect special ideas from cherished people. Through deep connections with friends, colleagues, and mentors, we become better people. Some of us even become referred to as wise. Wisdom is not something mysterious. Wisdom does not come from contemplating life on a mountaintop. Real wisdom comes from a unique combination of thievery and sharing. Wise people are like Robin Hood – they steal ideas from people who are rich in great ideas, and then they share those riches with others. Today we are talking with Dr. Jan Osborn – the person in my life who I have stolen the most from, and who has taught me to give it away.
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Air Date: February 17, 2023
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Episode 99: Mentor Me
In my junior year of college Dr. Bob Kelly said to me, “I predict that someday you will earn your doctorate.” His statement planted the seed of an idea that had not been there before. In 1994 I enrolled in a Special Education course at the University of Findlay. That course was taught by Dr. Jan Osborn, who not only pushed me to get that doctorate, but supported me every step of the way, and continues to mentor me to this day. Dr. Jacque Jacobs hired me at Western Carolina University and helped me grow into a servant leader by being one herself, and by intentionally nurturing the best I had to offer others. And Dr. Rob Knoeppel took me under his wing when I was my most broken and damaged, and taught me that it is okay to not be our best, that it is okay to take the space to heal. These four people were mentors to me and to countless others. Today we will dig into what it means to be a mentor and how you dear colleague, can grow your ability to mentor others.
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Air Date: February 14, 2023
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Episode 98: Five for Friday February 6-10, 2023
None of this week’s messages were earth shattering or focused on big changes, but that is the whole point. It is the small changes that matter. Making one or two small changes today lets us invest an extra minute or two in supporting someone who needs it – and that is where the big change happens. Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of February 6-10, 2023.
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Air Date: February 10, 2023
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Episode 97: Every building, every class, every day!
Unless you are a first-time listener, you have heard me talk about the flywheel – the core set of
instructional practices that drive continual teacher growth. But what does this flywheel look like
in practice, in a real school? We explore the answer today with a special principal who has a
reputation for supporting and growing teachers.
instructional practices that drive continual teacher growth. But what does this flywheel look like
in practice, in a real school? We explore the answer today with a special principal who has a
reputation for supporting and growing teachers.
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Air Date: February 7, 2023
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Episode 96: Five for Friday January 30-February 2, 2023
This week was all about leadership as a concept. What is leadership? Beyond what leadership is, we looked out how leaders gain power, and the ability they have to build – or destroy. In today’s episode I will deviate significantly from the short messages of the week and expand on these important themes.
This week’s big idea: Real leadership is about people
This week’s big idea: Real leadership is about people
Episode 95: All Other Duties as Assigned with Dr. Ryan Donlan
There are a couple of closely related questions am frequently asked:
As an AP, what’s my role in helping to support the principal’s vision?
How do I lead if my principal and I have different leadership styles?
How do I practice instructional and/or visionary leadership if I’m stuck doing butts, buses, and books?
This gets at an essential challenge in developing principals. The job of the assistant principalship is very different than the job of the principalship, and it can be hard to prepare to be a principal when you are busy being an assistant principal.
These are questions focused on assistant principals, but the answers will be relevant to principals and other school and district leaders, so I hope you will stay with us as we unpack what to means to be number 2 (#Today I’m joined by Dr. Ryan Donlan, a Professor of Educational Leadership at Indiana State University, a former p-12 school leader, and author of All Other Duties as Assigned: the Assistant Principal’s Critical Role in Supporting Schools Inside and Out.
As an AP, what’s my role in helping to support the principal’s vision?
How do I lead if my principal and I have different leadership styles?
How do I practice instructional and/or visionary leadership if I’m stuck doing butts, buses, and books?
This gets at an essential challenge in developing principals. The job of the assistant principalship is very different than the job of the principalship, and it can be hard to prepare to be a principal when you are busy being an assistant principal.
These are questions focused on assistant principals, but the answers will be relevant to principals and other school and district leaders, so I hope you will stay with us as we unpack what to means to be number 2 (#Today I’m joined by Dr. Ryan Donlan, a Professor of Educational Leadership at Indiana State University, a former p-12 school leader, and author of All Other Duties as Assigned: the Assistant Principal’s Critical Role in Supporting Schools Inside and Out.
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Air Date: January 31, 2023
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Episode 94: Five for Friday January 23-27, 2023
Outside of Monday, the theme running through this week’s emails is care. We look at care from a couple of different perspectives that include increasing attention, decreasing attention, and giving some love to the second principle of leverage – working A-B.
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of January 23-27, 2023.
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of January 23-27, 2023.
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Air Date: January 27, 2023
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Episode 93: Cultivating Motivation with Mike Anderson
There once was an old man who didn’t like baseball. He likes quiet and solitude. But every day all summer long, the neighborhood kids would gather at the empty field next to the man’s house and play ball all day long, yelling, screaming, and sometimes crying. The man put up with the noisy kids for years, until finally, he came up with an awful, evil, dastardly plan. And if you want to hear what that plan was, stay tuned because today we are taking on the complex issue of motivation!
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Air Date: January 24, 2023
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Episode 92: Five for Friday January 16-20
Today’s Five for Friday will be a bit different. Leading off we will talk about the best pot to use for cooking oatmeal. I bet you didn’t see that coming! After the brief cooking lesson, we’ll invest the rest of our time exploring a question I received from a reader last week.
This week’s big idea: Strategies for coaching up
This week’s big idea: Strategies for coaching up
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Air Date: January 20, 2023
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Episode 91: Meet the New Principal with Dr. Sam Sircey Part 2
Join us for part two of our incredible interview with Dr. Sam Sircey!
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Air Date: January 17, 2023
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Episode 90: Five for Friday January 9-13, 2023
This week’s big idea: We are here to support people, and the first step in supporting is listening.
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of January 9-13, 2023.
Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of January 9-13, 2023.
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Air Date: January 13, 2023
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Episode 89: Meet the New Principal with Dr. Sam Sircey Part 1
I’m working with three new principals this year. They are all first-year principals in new schools, two of them in a new district. Going to a new school is never easy, not for a new principal, not for a new assistant principal. However, most of you listening have either gone through that experience or will go through that experience or both. Today, we have an experienced principal with us who is also in a new school this year, and she is going to help us think about leading in a new school.
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Air Date: January 10, 2023
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Episode 88: Five for Friday December 31-January 6, 2022 and 2023
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 December 31-January 6, 2022 and 2023. Happy New Year!
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Air Date: January 6, 2023
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Episode 86: Five for Friday December 26-30, 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 December 26-30.
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Air Date: December 30, 2022
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Bonus: 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.
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.
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Air Date: December 27, 2022
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Episode 85: Five for Friday December 19-23, 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 December 19-23, 2022.
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Air Date: December 23, 2022
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Bonus Episode: Courage with Dr. Mary Hemphill
Are you living your leadership journey courageously? Before Dr. Mary Hemphill became CEO & Founder of The Limitless Lady 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: December 20, 2022
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Episode 84: Five for Friday December 12-16, 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 December 12-16, 2022.
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Air Date: December 16, 2022
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Episode 83: The APs Journey with Maria Werner
Are you stuck in the gravitational pull of the black hole of urgency? Or maybe, you are figuring out some ways to escape that force and move towards being a more strategic leader. Or, perhaps, you have already figured it out. Depending on where you are in the journey, today's show will offer you a chance to see a path forward or to reflect on how far you have come. Or maybe both! We will do this by reliving our guest’s journey from a new AP to a third-year veteran.
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Air Date: December 12, 2022
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Episode 82: Five for Friday December 5-9, 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 December 5-9, 2022.
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Air Date: December 9, 2022
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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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