Transformative Principal

Jethro Jones: Welcome to transformative
principle episode 240 today.

I'm just going to talk a little bit
about my first few days of school.

Actually, I've only had two days of
school, so I'm just going to talk about

those and then tell you what we're going
to talk about on our third day of school.

So

Jethro Jones: if you go back and you
remember episode 229 and 230 of this

podcast, transformative principle, you.

Remember Amy MacDonald talking about
flight clubs and how is she builds webs of

support and connectedness with students.

And it is really cool.

Anyway, go back and listen
to those if you have not

yet,

Jethro Jones: because it's really neat.

And we had her and her team
come up here to Fairbanks and

do that with our students.

And let me tell you, it was amazing.

I enjoyed it so much because we got
an opportunity to talk with the kids

about what they thought was important.

We spent the whole first day of
building connections, teaching

them about webs of support.

And it was really, really great.

Our second day, we spent all focused
on expectations, beating building

team spirit, school, spirit, and
making sure kids knew what we

expected of them about school.

Um, our new assistant principal of
Carla Marquand is fantastic and, uh,

brought a pep rally type energy to
our school, which, um, I have learned

is definitely an area where I'm weak.

I definitely, I used to think
that I was good at that stuff,

but now I realize that I'm not.

So it was really good to have her there
and be able to bring that in as well.

So, um, Really great.

First couple of days, and the rest
of this podcast, I'm going to share

with you a, uh, a video that I made
for the students to, um, talk about

synergy, which is a new thing that
we're doing this year, which is like our

personalized learning journey on steroids.

So I'm really excited about it.

I think that it's going to be great.

And I think our kids are just.

Love it.

So, um, some of them are going to hate
it, but that's just, that's how it goes.

Right.

So we're doing it to give kids
opportunities, to do cool things, to

not have the restraints of being in
a content area, classroom over them.

So I'm really looking forward to it.

I think it's going to be fantastic
and they're going to love it.

So, um, I'd love to hear
your feedback and thoughts.

Um, you can reach out to me on Twitter at
jets or Jones, or you can, uh, send me an

email jethro@paperlessprinciple.com or you
can always give me a call 8 0 1 7 Jethro.

Love to chat with you.

If you have thoughts or
ideas of how we can do this.

Or if you're listening and you want
to do something with our synergy

group, that would be awesome too.

Even if you're far away, we'd love to
have your voice in the conversation.

Thanks so much.

And here's my little
recording for the students.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome
to day three at town on middle school.

I know it's already late
in the day, but I am just.

Excited for what we're
going to talk about.

But first I want to recap where we've
been, first of all, on the first day

of school, we talked about connections
and building webs of support.

This is so important for you as
young adults to start learning who

you can rely on and how to build
those webs of support to help you

become the person that you can be.

There's a man named Jim Rohn, who has a
quote that says you are the average of the

five people you spend the most time on.

Now that is really important, especially
in middle school, because I want

you to spend your time with people
who are doing amazing things and

helping you be the best that you can.

On day two, we talked about expectations.

We did a lot of team building and
we did a ton for our school spirit.

That was an awesome day.

I loved every minute with you guys,
and I am super excited for what we're

going to do together this year, today.

So far, we've been
talking about technology.

And you know what?

You still have not started meeting with
your regular classroom teachers yet.

You've been meeting with teachers who
have been here supporting you, and you're

likely going to have them as a teacher,
but nobody's been to first period yet.

Why do you think we're doing that?

We're going to talk about synergy here
in just a minute, but first, why are

we starting school so different from
how you've always started before?

Go ahead, talk together and come up with
some ideas of why you think that is.

Okay.

Come on back together.

I'll tell you why.

I think we did it so differently.

We do school differently because
we are trying really hard to help

you know, that you are geniuses
and you can change the world.

And in order to do that, you
need a different kind of.

In order to do that, you need
someone to give you permission

to do things differently from
the very beginning of school.

And that's exactly what
we're trying to do.

So let's talk about synergy.

What is synergy?

Synergy is your chance to change the
world with support from your school?

Another way to phrase it is that
as student driven projects, that

help you learn without limitations.

So everyday you come to school
and you do a bunch of stuff.

You can learn in a silo, language
arts here, math here, science over

here, what we want synergy to be as an
opportunity for you to learn a whole

bunch of different things that may
have nothing to do with each other, but

not be in a silo because you're going
to learn them together as a group.

Now here's, what's amazing is you
have a chance to change the world.

Let's talk about somebody who did
just that just a few short months

ago, five students from Downey
high school in Downey, California,

decided that they were going to be
called the Downing space innovators.

They participated in an event
called the Conrad channel.

Or their goal was to change the
world with something relating

to space and space travel.

So what they did is they said,
you know, when astronauts go up

into space, their muscles get
weak because there's no gravity.

So they designed a suit that the astronaut
will wear that has bungee cords on it.

That can be adjusted.

And those bungee cords make it so
that the astronaut, every time they

move their bodies, they have an
opportunity to have tension on their

muscles, which makes it so that they,
their muscles don't atrophy as much.

How crazy is that?

Five teenagers came up with that.

Where was NASA?

Where was space X?

They came up with that themselves.

They created the product, they made it.

I think that's amazing, but you know what?

Maybe you don't care about space.

That's okay.

Maybe you care about widows.

Maybe you care about old women who can't
get out and shovel their driveway and

you want to change their world and you
want to start a group that goes around

and shovel snow for those old ladies.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, when you're
at school and you take your friends

and you go out and you shovel their
driveways and you make sure that all

of them have a clear path for them
to get in and out of their home.

Maybe that's what you care about.

Maybe you care about
something totally different.

What you're going to have an
opportunity to do is you're going

to have an opportunity to do that
thing that changes the world that

makes our community, our world.

You're going to spend two hours, twice
a week doing that here at our school.

Now I know a lot of your parents and a
lot of teachers are going to be wondering

what is happening during this time?

What are kids actually learning?

How are they meeting the standards?

How are they learning?

What the state says?

We need to learn all
that stuff is important.

And we definitely want to
continue learning that.

But we also know that you learn
differently when you're focused

on doing something to improve
the world for someone else.

And so you're going to
learn all those things.

As you're learning about
different ways of doing things,

you're going to be researching.

You're going to be
writing down your ideas.

You're going to be brainstorming.

You're going to be trying
to persuade others.

Why your idea matters.

And this is what's important.

You can learn a lot through that process.

Some of you are going to do really
amazing things and it's going to

be awesome and others, well, you're
going to try something really amazing,

and it's just not going to work.

I do want to share a success story
with you from our very own school

last year, because it was amazing.

So we had a bunch of girls get
together and say they wanted to

create a town and our step team.

It was their idea.

They got our former assistant
principal doctor or to work with

them and they went on to be on the
news to be presenters at our board

meeting, to present at our perform at,
uh, pep rallies and, uh, assemblies

and sporting events at halftime.

They did all kinds of great things because
they had this idea that they wanted.

To make people feel
excited about something.

They did an amazing job.

Are they perfect?

No, they weren't.

They had a lot of struggles, but you
know what they did, they worked hard to

be their very best and to do something,
to make a lasting impact on our school.

And they certainly did that.

They changed their own lives.

And made themselves better in the process.

They learned way more through that
opportunity than we could have ever gotten

them to learn through our textbooks.

And so textbook learning has a
place, but it's not everything.

And so we want to expand your
horizons and help you learn new and

different things that you're just
not going to get from a textbook.

So by August 30th, you have
three things that you need to do.

Number one, You can decide what
it is that you're going to do.

Number two, you need to decide
who you're doing that work with.

Number three, you need to identify the
adult that is sponsoring you and get their

permission and their support in your idea.

You've only got a few days, so between now
and then you need to be talking about this

as much as you can coming up with an idea
of what are you going to do to change the.

Your teachers have a list that
we brainstormed together to give

you an idea, a starting point.

We don't want this to be the end point.

We want this to be the beginning
of your ideas of how you

can make the world better.

It's just the beginning.

It's not the be-all and end-all,
and we want you to work hard to

come up with something amazing.

We're giving you this opportunity
because we trust you and we

respect that you can do it.

That's the honest truth.

Your ready to make an impact on the world.

That's why you're here at Tana this year.

And this year we are
going to soar together.

So in summary, you have three things to
do, figure out what you're going to do to

change the world who you're going to do it
with and identify an adult sponsor at our

school to help you through that process.

It's not going to be easy,
but it is going to be awesome.

And I'm so excited to see what you create.