Transformative Principal

[00:00:00] Welcome to Transformative Principal.

I am honored and excited to have Garrett Cook back on the show after four years, if you can believe it. He has dedicated 15 years of his life to education with nine of those years as a principal. His journey in education has taken him to the states of Kansas, Missouri, and Texas, , where he has left a lasting impact as an educator.

His core values to be a positive influence on all individuals. He interacts with serving others through his actions, and he strives to live out his faith in God through his daily walk, aiming to inspire and uplift those around him. His passion for [00:01:00] education is unwavering commitment to serving others, have made him a respected and valued leader in the field of education.

And as I mentioned, he, this is his second time on the show, and the last time he was on was episode 4 53 in October of 2021. And I'm gonna put a link to that in the show notes so you can go back and listen to this. And let me just tell you something, since I've known Garrett for a few years now, the confidence and, and assuredness with which you're speaking now, Garrett is palpable. Like when I first met you, you were like, I don't know what I'm doing. This is tough. There's a lot of big things I gotta do and I'm not sure that I can handle all this. And now you're like, man, we got this thing whipped into shape and it's so exciting to hear.

So Garrett, welcome to Transformative Principle. Welcome back to Transformative Principle.

Thanks Jethro. I really appreciate it. And yeah, rookie principle. Real life, right? Authentic, yeah. Yeah. To veteran principal and actually having some [00:02:00] foundation to stand on with some programs, some systems in place that you believe in and your staff can get behind.

I mean, it's night and day man when you're starting from scratch. And then when you put the work in for several years and you got a team of people that understand the direction and the vision that you want ahead.

It's it's awesome. So we're gonna be talking about the power of ICU. Give us an overview of the power of ICU to set us up here.

Yeah. So when I get asked about it, I always give the simple one sentence answer. So, power of ICU is just a program or a system where it provides extra time and support for students. The program is defined by three pillars, completion, healthy grading, and quality assignments.

Okay, so you know, the first part of that is like giving kids extra time, like we've heard of that before, but you're gonna talk about how this is different and I'm really looking forward to great stuff in this conversation.

We'll get to my interview with Garrett here in just a moment. (ad here)

[00:03:00] so what is ICU and how did you even get connected with it?

So, the power of ICU is really it's a program that provides kids with extra time and support at school. It offers layers of support. To different schools and they kind of fit and mold those to fit their needs for their students.

That sounds like pretty much every RTI kind of thing that is out there. So how is this different than that?

It is so very different Jethro, and here's the big reason it brings us all back to tier one instruction. So many things say that they do that. And they end up pulling kids out or they don't get the same instruction that they would because it's given by a different adult in the building.

And don't let me, you know, speak negatively on special education teachers, but some of them don't have the training or the support background, education wise. That our core [00:04:00] content teachers would have, right? So a teacher teaching honors algebra in an eighth grade math classroom in my building is not going to be able to support a special education student in the same way that tier one instructor would.

And what this program does is it adds all these different layers to where multiple adults in the building are supporting each other. Students know that there is true healthy accountability, that they're not going to fail, that they're gonna have scaffolds, and we call it an ICU menu in our building of options that they can go to before, during, and after school to get extra help.

It does not take them out of the class that they're getting the tier one instruction. So they're still getting that instruction from the person that's the expert in that content. Does that make sense?

Yeah. You know, one of my problems with afterschool programs and summer school is that we spend all day telling kids they're dumb.

And then we say, your punishment for kind, [00:05:00] for being dumb is that you have to come to school more and be told that you're dumb more often. Now, of course, nobody actually says you are dumb, but it's how we do things that make them feel like they're dumb, and how is this not making kids feel like they're dumb and actually supporting them in a healthy way?

I'm so glad that you asked that question. One of the things that we had to do in my building specifically that we're still learning and growing with, this is year three for us, and we had to change our language, right? Like so often we're pointing the fingers at kids, and like you said, we're not telling 'em we're dumb, but we're repeating, oh, what do you want to do in the next 10 years when they're 12 and 14-year-old kids in a junior high setting like mine with grade seven and eight only.

My kids aren't thinking about what they want to do. 90% of 'em could care less about tomorrow. They're in the moment, right? So we changed our language to how can I help you? What can I do for you? These are the options that I have available. We're not [00:06:00] gonna let you off the hook. We're gonna be right here behind you to support you, to help you learn.

Just like everyone else has to learn these learning standards. We're just gonna make sure that you're able to learn 'em at your own pace.

And so what does that look like in practical terms? So like somebody's doing you know, a, an eighth grade algebra teacher, for example, what does that look like when she goes to the kid and she still has a full load of classes to teach?

Like, what does that look like for her to be able to be successful with that?

Yeah, so that's one of the, what I would call the layers of support with the program. They have what are called lifeguards, and I never heard of this before, getting to be a part of this, and I think it's just ingenious.

So I haven't had to hire any staff members and I have set any new staff members, and I have seven lifeguards in my building. Jethro. What I do is I use what we call ICU time, which is a. Traditionally you'd hear it called an advisory period, but I don't even like that word 'cause it's totally the opposite of what we used to do with advisories.

And [00:07:00] I've tried all the things right, like I've done wind time, what I need for kids. I've done RTI deal just for math and language arts and. This is different because it's every subject. We've got nine different departments in my building, teaching departments, and every subject's involved, and everything matters.

It's not just the four core areas over others, so teachers can get behind that. These seven lifeguards. Have a period during ICU time. It's a 35 minute window, so it's a little longer than the traditional period. Two. Most of the ones I've done in the past were 25 minutes, 30 minutes or less. And long story short, they walk around and they use that language I just shared with you.

They have a list of students and they have a caseload that we've divided up within our building, and they go serve those students directly. Giving them what we call love beeps, which are just reminders, kinda like your seatbelt in a car. The founder, Danny Hill of the program uses that as an analogy. Back in the seventies, nobody wore seat belts, skits flew [00:08:00] around in the backseat when parents slammed on the brakes, right?

Today, you don't wear your seatbelt. You go over 10, 15 miles per hour. Your car's beep. So we just have adults throughout the day. It doesn't matter if it's an administrator, a counselor, a lifeguard, you name it. They're going around and giving love beeps to kids. And then when kids are getting things done Jethro, it's so different because the approach is different and the way we talk to our kids is different and the accountability is healthy.

My kids are giving high fives or handshakes or fist bumps and saying, I'm off the list. And that's another piece I'd probably get into here in a little bit when I say, yeah.

Well, before we get there, let me ask about those love beeps, because the. The signal to create the love beep in the car is the seatbelt, right?

So what's the equivalent of the seatbelt for you, and how does the person know to go check in with that kid?

Great question. So we have just over 600 students in grade seven and eight. In my building in particular, we've [00:09:00] divided that caseload up among all those teachers. So they have less than a hundred students around 75 or so, depending on what section of the building they're in.

And they only have to caseload manage those kids. So really outta 75 kids, they're gonna have a given 10 that might be challenging or what we call heavy hitters that they've gotta visit with more. And what prompts all this is a teacher designed for teachers by teachers. That's a communication tool called the ICU database.

And it's a pro, it's a program that we can, it's web-based. Our teachers plug in assignments on there, and when an assignment's put in Jethro, it immediately sends an email and a text message to parents. So. So often you and I have been in these situations. You're a former principal, right? You led multiple building settings.

So have I, we get in this conversation and this battle back and forth with a parent because the teacher's calling the parent, but they've called 'em too late, and [00:10:00] the quarter's almost over the semester's, almost over the kid's behind, and they're not gonna get the assignment done, and the grade's not gonna be what the parent and the child think that they deserve.

Right. Well, this is immediate. There is no waiting on a call. There is no missing that when teachers put it in, it's uploaded into that database. It's transparent for my whole staff to see. And our parents immediately know if we've got situations we've ran into with divorce households. Very common, right?

Or people live in two separate houses and they switch back and forth. Well, it sends the notification to the primary parent in both households. So. It's just awesome and it makes life easier on teachers. And then teachers have support, more support and more awareness from administrators. Counselor, my social worker even has these conversations with kids when they come in, Hey, how's it going?

Have you checked your list yet? Is there anything you need help with? Or can I help you out with that? Because we're all focused on learning when that [00:11:00] hasn't been the goal. And it definitely hasn't been consistent in my experience at schools in the past.

So when this assignment goes in there, how much detail is given with that?

Is it just there's an assignment and it's, you know, read chapter one in the Lord of the Flies? Or is there something different? Is there more context to that?

So we're working on getting better and improving that area, right? Because sometimes whenever folks put things down and you don't clearly identify, all right, this is the right way to do this, or this is a better way to do this with your staff.

You can get all kinds of things. And we went through that the first year for sure. But we've got kind of a litmus test at this point. And if this kind of gets into one of the pillars of the power of ICU, which is healthy grading, we don't want to grade an assignment Jethro unless it's got a learning target.

I. That's easy to identify for parents, kids, everybody. It should be very easy to understand what that kid's working on. And additionally, [00:12:00] whenever they upload an assignment this graded assignment should be tied to a learning standard. I'm in Missouri, so we require to have all the kids learn the Missouri learning standards.

So if those two criteria are in there, that's the only thing that should be going on, and we call those essential assignments into the database. It will normally read our standard that we teach all our staff to put these assignments in is your student is missing. And then it should be three to five words that should have, and it should be easy to identify, like I just said.

It could be, if it's math, again, we're working on integer integers 1.0. That's only two words. Right? If it's in the music department, we talked this out last year. If we're doing Bohemian rap city. That's the song's name. Obviously the kid's working on a section of the song. It could be Bohemian Rap City, section one, and that's the first part of the music that they're gonna be playing or learning and working towards.

So it should be very clear [00:13:00] communication and teachers are putting that out and they, additionally, we don't require it, but a lot of our staff do. It can put an attachment so the parent can see what that assignment is when it's uploaded into the system.

Yeah. So that. So my example of the assignment is read.

The cha, the chapter in the book, that's not actually tied to a learning standard. No, sir. And so that's probably not a good example of an assignment that you have put in there, right?

Correct. That would not be a good example. That's your standard traditional school setting, right? Like let's just assign 'em something.

So we keep 'em busy and we are working towards getting out of those habits. Like my staff's understanding like it's okay to hover around this same learning standard for two or three weeks and not have a grade in the grade book. If we're working towards that goal and we're getting better and kids are getting more practice with the content expert in class, and the more that our staff understand that and the more that they're aware, like, okay, I can do some project-based learning [00:14:00] things.

I can do some things that take a little more time. I can have the kids do a presentation where they have to demonstrate their understanding of the standard in a multiple ways, even possibly. Or with some differentiated instruction activities. So it's not just one right answer and all kids have a chance to, again, get that support and that scaffolding so they can learn the Missouri learning standards that are required at their grade level.

Okay, so, so there's an essential assignment, and then I imagine teachers are still doing other assignments, but nobody's following up on those or paying attention to those because they're not the ones that trigger the love beeps.

Right. You nailed it. Yep. So, and that was a selling point, right? For doing something different is like, Hey, we're not gonna ask you overnight, all of our teachers to come up with all this new content right away and just be this perfect, stellar group, right?

Like, and all of us are a work in progress. One of our core values in my building, Jethro, is humans not heroes. We're [00:15:00] humans. And we're definitely not heroes. Teachers get called that all the time and we do great work and it's very rewarding and it's very challenging, but we realize like. My staff are parents, they have kids, they have their own lives.

Some days they're gonna be out sick, so we're not so like everything's gotta be perfect right now. But we understand we're a work in progress. And so what we told our staff was, Hey, if you've got this activity you've been doing the last five years and it works for you and you don't have anything else to go to, but it's extra practice that you think is quality in your classroom, that's fine.

You have a 45 minute period and we want you to keep our students. Busy with content and instruction. However, as we get moving down the road, we're gonna challenge you to write assignments that are at a depth of knowledge with at least two questions that are D. Okay. Three level so that kids are challenged to critically think.

That are tied to those Missouri learning standards so that most of what we [00:16:00] start spending our instructional time on is essential assignments and quality material that we're presenting in class and spending our time on with our kids practicing while they're at school.

Well, and that, that is really important, that the focus is on those things that actually matter and are beneficial and too often.

We spend our energy, especially in these RTI or support situations, like for example, there's one that was called the zeros aren't permitted. And so it was like no zeros on a grade, which means you turn something in for everything. And while that's all well and good, if the assignment sucks and it isn't actually helping then it doesn't matter if you get a zero on it because.

It doesn't matter if you get a hundred on it either. 'cause it's not actually an effective thing. And so that's one thing that I like about this approach is that it's focusing on essential assignments and not just [00:17:00] any assignment. And I think that's really powerful. So, so there's the lifeguards and I wanna go back to that real quick.

'cause these lifeguards, they don't have classes during this time. Correct. Other teachers do have kids in class during this time, but they don't. That's right. And so, so they get to go find their kids and go work with them and see what they need. That, that's always a sticky situation. How do you manage that and how do you determine who the lifeguards are?

Because that looks like, oh, this is an easy, this is a benefit for them because they don't have kids and teachers get real. Snippy about some teachers having lower class sizes than others, and there can be a lot of frustration around that. So how do you decide who they are and how do you manage the other teachers who are like, why don't I get no kids?

I wanna be able to just walk around the school and have no accountability.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's a, that's a great question too. And I think that it's there's a lot to unpack there. So. First of all, those people aren't just hanging out. Right? And like we've [00:18:00] defined that for our building and we've given everyone what their responsibilities and roles are.

And I think where it really helps Jethro, like our year one, that was the feeling and the thought that you just described, right? Yeah. Like, this isn't equitable. Like we're not doing the same things. Like, how can you justify this and who are you gonna pick? Like you said, like these four are gonna have off time.

No. So. When we first started three years ago, we only had four. Then last year we went up another lifeguard, and then this year we went up another lifeguard. And we've actually gotten to seven. We only have six during ICU time, but our seventh is actually a new class that we just added this school year with another layer of support, which is a math access.

And I can get into that later if you're curious. But to answer your question. These lifeguards, not only are they reminding kids, but this is the biggest selling point. Our staff is seeing them work that caseload and they're actually pulling a couple kids out. That might be just like totally blowing off, getting assignments done or [00:19:00] wasting time, or maybe even being a distraction in those ICU classes.

So when they're going around, they're picking those kids up, or another staff member can give them a call and say, Hey, I need you. You know, it's okay if it's not today, but by the end of the week, can you pull Bobby or Susie and have them come in your room and just work with them in a small group? Or they'll say, you know, Susie really doesn't need help in math.

She just needs the time to get it done. And she can't focus when she's in here with my other 17 kids. Can you take her? And they're seeing the benefit of how other adults are helping with that Lifeguards. Jethro also make phone calls for us when our teachers can't do that 'cause they're supervising other students.

One of the lifeguards can take and make a couple phone calls and say, Hey, we've seen that this assignment's been on here for two weeks. Ma'am or Sir, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Susie isn't done with this still. Is there anything we can do? And I wanna walk you through what our menu of support is for our kids, but also if there's something that you could do at home to reinforce this, we would really [00:20:00] appreciate it.

And then we're working with home to get a partner, but the teacher didn't have to stop what they were doing. Or do that outside of school time 'cause it's already being taken care of for them.

That makes a lot of sense. So how do you choose who these who the lifeguards are they the core content area teachers or are they somebody else?

What, how did you decide that?

That's a great question. So some of them were, because they were good fits for that when we first started, but we've actually worked away from that 'cause we want those content teachers. Available during ICU time. Another thing that we do is we do what we call our mini blitzes.

We do big blitzes, but we do mini blitzes, and that's where a couple ICU classes between teachers. All our ICU classes are the smaller classes throughout the school day that our teachers have here in our building. So it's 18 or less students. For most staff members, there might be like a class of 19 kids, but they're under 20, and so.

Our teachers as a math department or a language arts department, if you will, [00:21:00] can come together and do what they call mini blitz, where they'll grab, eight to 10 kids. So it's smaller group. They'll take them with one content specialist, and these kids have a similar assignment that they're behind on.

They may need reteaching or support, and they're gonna get it again from that tier one expert. And the rest of those other kids are consolidated between the other two or three department team members. It would be within that same language arts or math department. And then those kids are getting what they need.

And the teachers are getting the time that they wouldn't have otherwise.

Interesting. All right, so let's talk about the math access and then I wanna talk about the menu of support.

Sounds good. So, math access, we just added this year what we're learning, which has been really interesting for me.

It's making me a better building leader 'cause I'm so much more involved with this program. With the instruction and the daily content that my kids are being exposed to. Like, I'll get [00:22:00] to working lunch too. That's another, that's gonna be you. But math access. When we started this, we started to see math is the subject that most kids need support in, for whatever reason.

Language arts and math, as we know, those are probably the two priorities across the board, across the US and the world. Kids need help in those areas. And math is the one that if kids don't have these skills, you've heard math teachers say it your whole career, Jethro, then they're, if they don't have A and B, then they're not gonna be able to do C and d like we want 'em to be.

Yeah. And so we've noticed that because we need more support. We actually switched, I had a five 50 position in my language arts department. And what does that mean? Five 50 in the state of Missouri is like a halftime person that is retired, but they can come back. Okay. Keep their recruitment and then because they've got that content background, they can keep teaching for you, but it's for a partial day.

And they can put 550 hours [00:23:00] into a school year. To support you in your building, however you see fit. Okay. So we changed that position to a halftime position in math instead of language arts because we noticed that math was the highest need in our building. We wouldn't have identified that without this program because it's so transparent.

When teachers put in things into the ICU database, it's got a top 10 of kids missing assignments, a top 10 of teachers who have put out more assignments or have more missing assignments out there. And back to what you originally asked me about was math access. When we realized that was our toughest or our biggest area of need, we hired this.

Part-time position, brought in a new math teacher that only teaches a few hours a day, but they're also our extra lifeguard. And they're a content expert, so they're pulling kids to support them that are getting further behind, but they're not pulling them out of any tier one instruction in any core class.

It's during the [00:24:00] school day. They're helping them out with what we call working lunch or that ICU time, and it's just an extra content expert that's able to support kids and learning those standards.

Yeah, this is one of those really cool ways that we're dealing with. Some of the things we need in education.

Being able to allow retired teachers to come back and still contribute, but not giving them a full load and allowing them to do things in a little different way, I think is a really powerful way to, I. To continue to give them value and help out and not punish them for no doubt for retiring when, you know, when you get to that age of retirement, you don't necessarily want to have a full load of classes, but that doesn't mean that you're no good anymore.

Right. And my, my son had a retired math teacher who came and tutored his class and pulled kids out. For, you know, like just an hour a day if that, maybe half an hour. It wasn't even [00:25:00] that long. But man, she was working some magic and awesome. She was just volunteering her time just with that class because she was friends with the teacher that was still there.

And if we could systematize and make those things more accessible for people who are experts, that would be really great. So let's talk about your menu of support. What is, what does that look like and what does that mean?

Yeah, so. We just started calling it this other schools that are strong in ICU, like, it's like everything else.

Jethro, like when we do a new program, right? If we do it with fidelity, we're really working all together. Everyone understands what your vision and your mission is, and they're working together. Like anything can help or support. Now, some things may have their limitations, like most things do and not be as strong.

What I love about power IU is it's a holistic program. There's about 18 schools in southeast Missouri alone that I know have dabbled what I would call dabbled in ICU or the power of ICU, but there are two. [00:26:00] Our area of the state that I would say our model ICU schools and we're working our way into being one of those these layers of support. The ICU menu thing, which is a thing we came up with as a staff this year where we're just gonna do a one pager and send this out to our families so they can see all the things that I'm about to share with you. But our layers of support are before school, when kids come in our building.

This was new just as a safety protocol, which is obviously a top priority for us. Only second to learning safety's first, right? We did.

Well I actually disagree with that, but that's okay. I won't derail you by talking about that, but we can after we're done.

No worries.

And,

And I think that would be a good conversation, but, we A actually implemented weapons detectors. There's a school district grade seven through 12, and knowing that was coming last year, we changed our arrival procedures around which power of ICU is already pushing us that way because learning was becoming such a priority in my building and what [00:27:00] I would say if I had to answer that anyway with the comment you just made is one a.

Would be safety and one B would be learning. 'cause they're both like number one. Okay. Well, all

right, let me just get in for a second because I think I'm gonna give you a gift right here. Yeah. Yeah. Safety. Safety is the cost of doing business. If you can't keep your kids safe, then you don't deserve to be a school.

So it's the cost of doing business. It's not a priority. It's the barrier to entry. It is the thing that makes it possible for us to do anything else. So rather than saying it's our priority, we say it's our baseline. There's a difference because we do the things to make sure that your kids are physically safe, but they are not going to be mentally safe in our schools because if they are mentally safe, then they're never going to learn because we will coddle them and prevent them from ever being or feeling like they might be wrong.

That's not what we're about. We're about learning. [00:28:00] Is and should be the priority in schools. And in order for learning to happen, the safety has to be there. So it's not a priority, it's a entrance fee. It's the cost of doing business and without it then it's not going to work. So we can still have things be safe, but it, the priority has to be learning.

And that's the way I phrase it. That makes it. Tenable to be able to talk about that because when you say safety is your priority, then you're saying. You can only have one priority. It has to be learning. Otherwise, what are you doing? If safety is your priority, then you're a babysitter. You don't want to be a babysitter.

You want to be a learning institution. So safety is the cost of doing business, but learning is our priority. And sometimes kids are not going to be mentally safe because they're gonna be proven wrong and they're gonna have to learn new things and it's gonna be difficult. That's okay. We can do that.

Hey, that was perfect timing for that walkie-talkie. We can cut that out in post,

[00:29:00] wasn't it? I can get behind that. Yeah, I can get behind that. And yeah, it's never, it's definitely not the work that we do all the time. It's just a requirement and it absolutely is the criteria that we've gotta meet. But I can get behind that, especially if you put it that way.

Yeah.

So layers of support, okay. At our junior high, this is what we offer. Before school starts, our kids have to come in through like I just said, weapons detectors. That was just new this year. But power of ICU had already made us come in one entrance of the building, grade seven through 12. The high school had to make this big change.

This year we didn't because we were already doing power of ICU things. So if our kids are behind and they've got multiple missing assignments, we pick what that criteria is. It's usually around three to five. But whatever we choose on that, our kids get a red card or a green card because learning is a priority in our building.

If they get that red card, they have to go to our designated area for [00:30:00] morning ICU and there are content specialists in that area. We have ICU time, I've explained that a little bit, but it's between second and third periods. It's a two year. Kids are only in our building for two years, and they're placed with that same teacher that entire time.

And then they have a lifeguard that's placed to their caseload as well. We have a working lunch. If kids are missing five or more assignments, a lifeguard's gonna go around and assign that. If a kid's not taking care of business with the menu on their own, an adult is gonna hold them accountable and say, Hey, I see that you're struggling with this.

I'm gonna get you set up for working lunch. That way you can get the help that you need. We can get you off here and when you can move on about your business and be caught up. Then we have after school, which is Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's an hour. And we have again, content specific teachers after school to give kids support during that time, and that's as needed.

We rarely assign that unless a kid is a real, what we like to call a heavy hitter. They're just live on the list and [00:31:00] they're kind of being a slug at school and not doing, pulling their own weight, so to speak. We have the lifeguards, which is one of our layers of support. We have a common language, which I described a little bit before with the love beeps the ICU database, this is that communication tool that I described before that was created by teachers and it's obviously for teachers.

And Gary, is that separate from your grade book?

Yes, it absolutely is. And when my teachers heard that, they were like, that was a hard line to sell there because it was like, Hey, you want us to record grades, but you're gonna have us use this other program?

And you told us this wasn't an add-on. It was like what we were gonna be doing. Yeah. Help us. Right. And once they get into it and they see that, okay, I don't have to stop and make these phone calls, but everyone's in the know, the communication in my building has improved so much and this teachers were scared.

Honestly, you had throw three years ago when we got this going. They were [00:32:00] thinking exactly what I knew they would be thinking. You mean everything I put out there that I'm grading is gonna be transparent? People are gonna know about it right away. Yeah. That's gonna be a notification that goes out. That's, and I gotta put it out twice.

Yeah. Technically you do. And so that was a big conversation that we had to have. And I used a lot of teachers at two model schools. There's one in Tennessee and there's one here in southeast Missouri that I mentioned before that I would call model of ICU schools and Jethro, I'm gonna throw this out there, but you it's gonna be hard to believe, but just take a minute to digest this.

Both of these schools have done this for over 10 years, the power of ICU program, and both of these schools have attained 100% completion rate on every assignment they've assigned every student in their respective buildings. So that junior, the other junior high that does it, that's a model school has around 900 students a year.

The model. High school has around 2,400 [00:33:00] students outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and they've collect all those since they've started this program.

So, and to be clear, these are what the teachers categorize as essential assignments. Correct. So this is not like do this worksheet, this is a Correct. An assignment with that is tied to a learning standard and has a learning target.

Right. Are those the two criteria?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And then lastly, which we have not talked about, these would be the other layers of support or part of that ICU menu. Just pieces of accountability that we have in our building now. We do blitz days and what a blitz day is. Jethro is a condensed day of the full schedule of the school day.

But our class periods are 45 minutes. They reduced to 30 minutes, and then we have an hour and a half window at the end of the school day. We put that ICU class at the end, so it's more manageable for our staff because I told you before, those were the smallest class sizes that we have, and for an hour and a [00:34:00] half at the end of a normal school day.

So again, this is built into the school day. This is extra practice with content. Teachers, my parents and my guardians, my community members can get behind this. 'cause we're doing these things with our kids during the school day as we should. And it doesn't mean some kids don't need practice outside of school 'cause they do.

But we don't assign homework. We are a no homework school. That being said, hallelujah. Yeah, I know brother. You and me both man and both of us have kids that are school age so great. Yep. But blitz stays so. There's an hour and a half period and we make it a party. Ben, our kids that are off the ICU list, they get free time, supervised time, and we change it up.

One year. We did one of the blitzes, we did a laser tag. One year we did like bounce houses that were inside 'cause it was bad weather and it's wintertime, it was cold. Other times we've just taken 'em outside and we've done like three different sports and nine square and had like a yoga [00:35:00] station with community member that came in and taught like yoga for free.

And we make it a party. Our kids have food trucks. They know that they're gonna have 'em. So kids are highly intrinsically motivated. To get out of that situation and have their assignments completed. So they get to enjoy what we call an ICU Blitz Day, and teachers are extremely motivated to help kids and get things done because I give 'em an hour and a half.

Those that aren't on supervision, they're there working with kids that they needed to see. One of the things that we as administrators ask our teachers all the time every year, right? Like, you gotta have your grades in, you gotta have your assignments taken care of. We've gotta let parents know what's going on.

Well, this takes care of all that. And that window of time, I had a new teacher two years ago, she's probably one of the best teachers in the district. If you look at her on paper and data wise and helping kids get better and improving their understanding of whatever it is, the content that they're at.

She's taught at the elementary level, and this is the highest grade level she's [00:36:00] taught at, and she said, I. Garrett, why did I never hear about blitz days before? Like, what is this? Because I can get the kids that I need, I have time with them during the school day, then I can get grading done that I don't have the time to get done otherwise, and I don't have any disruptions because as kids earn their way off the list, Jethro.

They get to go join their peers and have fun at school during the day and get social time, which 95% of kids, 99% of kids are more interested in that than core curricular content that they're exposed to at school. (ad here)

Yeah. On that note, one thing that's really interesting that my daughter made the observation of their school did away with cell phones this year.

So cell phones are not allowed in school, which is. Which is very good, and my daughter who's junior said, um. The kids in class are not on their phones anymore, but [00:37:00] they're just socializing and talking with each other instead of getting work done. And she's like, why don't you just use your time effectively in class and get the work done because then you won't have homework.

And these kids then go home and complain about having all this homework. But if they would've just done it in school, then they would've been in better shape. 'cause she almost never has homework because she. Uses her time in school better. And like you I'm a fan of no Homework and Wish all schools were no homework schools, but they aren't so Right.

So anyway, that's that's one of those things where kids do wanna socialize and that's an important thing and that kind of stuff needs to be built in to our schools. And like, you know, I've got some concerns about you don't get to go have fun. And we're gonna punish you because you're dumb. I have concerns about that, but I have to reach for that with what you're saying.

And that's not, A lot of times that is what it's like. You don't get, have fun 'cause you're dumb. Whereas with you, it's like, [00:38:00] no, these are things that need to be done and then you can have fun and we work. First and then we play later. And that is the feeling that I'm getting from talking with you about that.

And I can get behind that, but I have a hard time with the, you don't get, you don't get the fun stuff 'cause you're dumb. 'cause some kids, they just get stuck in that trap and school's hard for 'em. And so then they never get to have these good opportunities. Have you seen anything with that or are the kids floating in and out pretty regularly?

Float in and out. Now, when we first got started working lunch was a disaster. Okay? Uhhuh. We actually changed our entire Master bell schedule so that we could have a 45 minute lunch period. And we only had two lunches. We went from three to two so that we could have that extended time, had to change supervision, everything.

You know how big of a change that is? Yeah. Yeah. So when we did that too, we had more kids than lunches, right? So like we had to figure out supervision, we had to separate kids. We had to start using our library more, which that, [00:39:00] that led to better things because we have kids that just like to be in the library and they wanna read and they want to have.

They wanna play cards or they wanna do something like that. They don't wanna be with all the social butterflies or the big area. So it led to a lot of good things. But there were definitely growing pains and Jethro when we first got started, we'd have 25 sometimes 30 kids in a working lunch with me and I, because I told my staff, I said, Hey, if we're gonna do this.

I'm gonna do the servant leadership thing and I'm gonna do it with you. I'm not just gonna let you guys figure it out and or drown with this 'cause I know it's gonna be new. So I had one supervisor at lunch with me and we had about 30 kids a day and they weren't getting off the list, but it kind of became that thing where.

It was like, look, we're not giving up on this and you need to know that. Like this is, and you said it, well, we're going to work, then we're gonna play. And like life, that's what we've gotta do, right? Like if you wanna earn this thing so you can buy a new bicycle, like you better be working [00:40:00] to earn that money and save it up so that you've got the funds to do so.

Right. Well it's very much that life lesson in our building. And because now. This is ingrained Jethro. Our kids, if they want to go to a school dance, which we host one in the fall and one in the spring, they can't be on the ICU list. If they want to go to some extracurricular activities that are bigger events, they can't go unless they're off the ICU list.

If they want to participate in a football game. They wanna be at a cheerleading event and they want to cheer for the basketball team 'cause they're a cheerleader at our school. They don't get to do it unless they're off the ICU list. And with having that holistic perspective, it's just an expectation across the board now and we see kids going on and coming right off.

As soon as they come off, when our teachers remove that, which the teacher that added the assignment on the database is required to remove it within 24 hours is our rule of thumb. If they get that assignment, they don't have to have a graded, they don't have to have all that in, but they need to remove it off the database.

If [00:41:00] the kids turned in quality work is the way we say it, then our students are removed and their parent also gets that notification by email and text message. So it goes both ways. And when our families start to understand that and like this is for your betterment, because learning is actually a priority in our school building, and we are gonna have healthy accountability, it means you're gonna have more responsibility, but it also means you're gonna have a ton more support.

People can get behind that. When you explain, look, I don't wanna punish your kid with a bunch of homework. I don't want 'em just doing stuff to do it, but I want 'em doing it To learn essential learning standards that our state has set as a requirement for us. And every kid in my building can get to this bar that we're setting for ourselves, not some of our kids.

It flips the script. Jethro. The coolest thing about this man has been watching my a and b Honor Roll. Kids Soar. After three years, Jethro. 77% of my students in grade seven and eight have [00:42:00] experienced being on the honor roll. Wow. Tell me where you've heard of that statistic.

Seriously. So, so that's pretty powerful.

The a hundred percent completion rate is pretty powerful. Yeah that's good stuff. So the last thing that I want to ask about, and really I want you to try something because I just interviewed Eric Francis, who's like the expert on depth of knowledge, and he created this thing called Maverick Education ai, which is a way to help teachers simplify and speed up the process of creating, assignments assessments and tasks related to different levels of depth of knowledge. And so I want you to check that out and see what that looks like and see if that would be helpful with your teachers. 'cause

One of the things that we're in this weird stage with is that AI is helping with a lot of things, and technology has always been like they're helping with a lot of things, [00:43:00] but there are some aspects of it where it's not actually all that helpful and depth of knowledge. You know, you go to chat GPT and ask about it.

It's, it gives you like a surface level thing. But Eric created this really to be more deep and I hear like when you're saying. There's an assignment that has a learning target and tied to a learning standard that really like gets at what the actual depth of knowledge is. That sounds really valuable. I.

If that's good. But so many times it's not actually that good. And depending on how much your teachers have been trained on or how well they, how fluent they are with it, they may or may not be doing a great job. Like I'm terrible at it personally because I just haven't been exposed to it. I've had to, do whatever we do with standards, break down the standards or whatever. I can't remember the word for it and I hated that work 'cause it seems so annoying [00:44:00] and pointless to me. Right. But I've done it and, um, and I can see value in it, but it just, it seemed like a lot of work for very little gain. And it's an area where.

And AI should be able to help with that. And the AI tools that I've played with on that haven't really helped. So I'll send you a link to that and you can check it out. Yeah. 'cause you would probably have a better perspective on how good that is than I would. But even my limited knowledge, I thought it was a significantly better than chat GBT for example.

So. Awesome. Okay. Well, this was pretty awesome.

Do you mind if I just share quick few statistics that I think are worth mentioning? Yes. Yes. Let's hear it. So, after our, I'll just start with A and b, honor roll. Okay. Fall of 2022. This is the first time we took statistics on this, and again, we've been doing this for three years now, or we're [00:45:00] not even doing it three years.

We've done it for two years. We're in our third year, currently fall of 2022. At the end of that semester, my students in my building had 248 students on a and b honor roll. Okay. Fall of 23 a year later. 376 kids outta my 600 kids approximately in my building. Were on a and b honor roll by the spring of 2024.

So the end of last school year, 439 kids. Wow. That's what it was telling you. 77% of the student body, our a and b honor roll shot up in two years and over 34% increase. Discipline in the spring of 2023. Was at 1,526 total negative be behavior referral events, and that went down in the spring of 2024, the end of last school year by almost 500 1,059.

It was a [00:46:00] 30.6% decrease in discipline rates in my building. Wow. The F rate is probably the most powerful. And then I'll give you our completion rate. Just to wrap it up ifs. After the second full year of implementation, we only had 70 Fs total in the building. Not 70 kids with Fs, 70 total Fs in the building of 600 students with seven classes throughout a school day.

That was a 75% decrease in the failure rate in my school building. So think about the experience my seventh graders are having when they come to this building from a building that doesn't do power of ICU, the way that we do it, and then they don't experience that failure rate here. And then finally you know, the end of last school year, we haven't reached a hundred percent completion rate yet, but we have two years in a row where we've gotten 99.3% the first, the end of the first year, and 99.5% at the end of this [00:47:00] last school year.

We actually had two days of school stolen from us at the end of the year too. Our last week, we only had three days of a school week, and two of them were taken on a Monday and Tuesday. I really think last year we'd hit that 100% completion rate if we'd had the to school. So my kids are feeling success.

That some of those kids, especially the ones you were worried about, and I worry about too, 'cause school was not my favorite thing when I was a junior high kid. Those kids are experiencing intrinsic motivation and what it feels like to get something taken care of, to be appreciated and valued at school because they did what they're supposed to do and they did the right thing and their grades are going up as a result.

So they may not add that in a school previous to us or elementary grades, but when they hit us. You're gonna get this done and we're gonna put people around you that can help you get it done 'cause we believe in you. That's a totally different message and I'm so proud that my staff is getting behind it at this point.

Yeah, that's, those are pretty awesome stats that are valuable [00:48:00] and meaningful. And most importantly, like the completion rate. That doesn't matter if the assignments are trash. Right. So, right. You are so and so, like I, I haven't put a lot of stock in grades and completion rates because they really don't matter if.

If it's trash. And it's too easy to say that it is trash because all grades are made up. And so when all grades are made up and a teacher can grade however she wants then they all become meaningless. And that's just the truth of the matter. And it's tough to say this is what good grades actually look like.

Right. But that's what you're saying. And when you say that and you mean it, and you can show how that's really the case. Becomes really valuable for the students, for the teachers, for the parents, for everybody. And. Kids hate doing busy work just as much as everybody else, right? Sure. Absolutely.

Man. That's one of the reasons you and I weren't so fond of school back in the day. That's right, man. We love learning, but we don't wanna do stuff that's a waste of time. Right? [00:49:00]

Yeah, no kidding. And in, I'm in my doctoral program right now, and boy, lemme tell you. They're still busy work at the doctorate level and it's just crazy because what is the point?

And you know, it, it is so frustrating because it doesn't have to be that way. And yet I second you

wholeheartedly. I'm in a doctorate program in year three right now, and I have experienced that the same. Yeah. Yep.

Alright, so, final thing. The question I always ask, what is one thing that a principal can do this week?

You've talked about a lot of stuff that you could implement. What's one thing that a principal can implement this week to be a Transformative Principal like you are?

You know, lately I've really seen things differently. I'm working on my dissertation currently, year three in the doctoral program myself.

And I was just challenged by my academic. Well, my dissertation chair, I keep calling him an academic advisor to look at my theoretical framework through which I'm viewing the work that I'm [00:50:00] doing. And I'm studying power of ICU, right? Like, it's a passion. It's something I've seen that's helping my school building so much.

And looking at that, at the, through the lens of a principal. So I'm actually doing a qualitative study where I'll be interviewing other administrators and servant leadership. Just truly fits what this program does. And I listened to a guy, I can't tell you his name, I can't remember, but it was just a YouTube short, and he was talking about servant leadership, and that's what caught my eye, because I'm studying this right now.

And he said, you know, the difference of this and the typical business or organizational model is everybody's got a answer to a supervisor and someone that's more superior and they always win. But when you flip that upside down in a business model or organizational model where the leader is servant, the customer or the student, or the people that we're actually doing the work for, they win.

And in my school, [00:51:00] my kids are winning. So what I would challenge other administrators to do is find a way that you can serve the others around you so that they'll serve the kids in your building. They'll serve the custodial staff in your building, and you'll start getting that to be part of your culture.

Because when that starts to change. Everybody's looking out for everybody and we're in this life Jethro for more important things than making ourselves look bigger and better. But we are called to do a work that's serving others and lifting others up and any anything that we can implement that goes along with that, I can get behind.

Yeah, and I'm right there with you. So I do I do appreciate you being here. If people wanna learn more about the power of ICU, they go to the power of icu.com. If they wanna get in touch with you and see what you're talking about and your experience, how would you recommend they do that?

Hook g@capetigers.com is my email.

I'm happy to connect or answer any questions. It's been a journey for us and we're still [00:52:00] learning and working on improvement. I'll tell you the three pillars of power of ICU are completion, healthy grading, and quality assignments. We're just starting to scratch the surface on that quality assignment, which we hit in our conversation today.

That is a work that's gonna take some time, my friends. So, I'm happy to help people get started and we've got systems and structure in place finally and we're working it, which is a beautiful thing in my building, but we have not arrived and it's gonna take some time when you talk about putting out the best quality assignments and instruction in the classroom that we could for our students.

Very good. Okay. Well, thank you for being part of Transformative principle and for being here today. This was awesome.

Thanks ma'am.