Transformative Principal

Formerly a high school English teacher and a new teacher coach in Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA), Jennifer Abrams is currently a communications consultant and author who works with educators and others on new teacher and employee support, being generationally savvy, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations and creating identity safe workplaces.   Jennifer’s publications include Having Hard Conversations, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicate, Collaborate & Create Community, Hard Conversations Unpacked - the Whos, Whens and What Ifs, and Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives.  Her upcoming book on being our best selves in our workplaces will be out in 2021.   Jennifer has been invited to keynote, facilitate and coach at schools and conferences worldwide and is honored to have been named one of the “18 Women All K–12 Educators Should Know,” by Education Week’s ‘Finding Common Ground’’ blog.  More about Jennifer’s work can be found at her website, www.jenniferabrams.com, and on Twitter @jenniferabrams. Writing books so you can learn something. There wasn’t a book out there to help me find how to say something. Robert Keegan Author & Psychologist Eliie Drago Severson If your way of meaning-making suits where you’re at, there is no reason to move forward. As a responsible educator, we need to stretch ourselves. We have to know our identities and where we might see bias How our upbringing affects how we perceive work Suspend our certainty Take more responsibility, not just for work product but also how we speak Engage with reciprocity. Build our own resiliency. Recognize how to deal with ambiguity. How to deal with our own emotional issues. How to reconcile how our upbringing affects what we do now? There are limitations to what you are seeing as you wake up in the world. Growthedgecoaching.com It’s like a fish in water. Externalizes the issues. If you mess it up, you clean it up. Framework: I did ____. Here’s why it was wrong: and here’s how I would like to make it right: Peter Bregman “13 Ways We Justify, Rationalize, or Ignore Negative Feedback” Humility and vulnerability of apology and responsibility. The thing that gets in the way is that we are the expert. How to provide accountability when you didn’t know that things were happening? You apologize for the impact. It’s about the shame and the guilt. Suspend certainty. Can we be humane and growth-producing? How to be a transformative principal? Slow down and say “say more”. Sponsors TeachFX Innovative school leaders across the country have started tracking online student participation using TeachFX because it’s one of the most powerful ways to improve student outcomes during COVID — especially for English Learners and students of color. Learn more about TeachFX and get a special offer at TeachFX.com InControl SEL for Middle School In Control created an effortless social and emotional, character development video curriculum for your students that’s ZERO-TEACHER-PREP AND it’s so cool looking- it feels like a Youtube or Netflix Series- and that’s purposeful, they meet students right where they’re at. The videos are 5–6 minutes, kids love them, teachers love them, and you will too. There’s no guesswork in the program because there’s a 21-video progression for each grade level. They’ve thought of everything– because it’s a group of award winning counselors, teachers, and principals that came up with this thing. It’ll help you save tons of time and headaches. Take it from me, it’s time to check that social-emotional learning box, the empty one that’s been keeping you up at night–and it’s time to do it in a meaningful, measurable, magnetic way. If you go to www.InControlSEL.com/jethro you can check out some of the videos and even receive 20% off if you pre-order for next school year John Catt Today’s Transformative Principal sponsor, John Catt Educational, amplifies world-class voices on timeless topics, with a list of authors recognized globally for their fresh perspectives and proven strategies to drive success in modern schools and classrooms. John Catt’s mission is to support high-quality teaching and learning by ensuring every educator has access to professional development materials that are research-based, practical, and focused on the key topics proven essential in today’s and tomorrow’s schools. Learn more about professional development publications that are easy to implement for your entire faculty, and are both quickly digestible and rigorous, by visiting https://us.johncattbookshop.com/. Learn more about some of the newest titles: Michaela: The Power of Culture by Katharine Birbalsingh Teaching WalkThrus: Visual Step-by-Step Guides to Essential Teaching Techniques by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli Putting Staff First: A blueprint for revitalising our schools by John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley The Teaching Delusion: Why Teaching In Our Schools Isn’t Good Enough (And How We Can Make It Better) by Bruce Robertson Stop Talking About Wellbeing: A pragmatic approach to teacher workload by Kat Howard John Catt is also proud publisher of the new book from Transformative Principal host Jethro Jones: SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves Visit this page to learn more about bulk orders and how to bring John Catt’s research-based materials to your school: https://us.johncattbookshop.com/pages/agents-and-distributors