Leadership Conversations: Building Better Schools

Hosted by NAESP member, author, and keynote speaker Adam Welcome, NAESP Leadership Conversations is a new way to bring you professional learning and in-depth conversations from thought leaders in the field. Through these conversations, you’ll learn strategies to do your job better with more satisfaction, collaboration, and flexibility and gain tools you can use daily.

In this episode, you will hear from Robyn Jackson, Ph.D., who is passionate about building better schools. As the CEO of Mindsteps Inc., she has helped thousands of K-12 administrators and teachers develop the clarity and confidence to turn their classrooms and schools into success stories.

 Top 10 Takeaways:

1. All children deserve to be successful at school.
2. You must have master teachers to achieve that 100% success! You also need BUILDERSHIP! Where 100% of students in a school are successful.
3. Principals, stay in the room during professional learning.
4. Start at your vision, it is the vision that drives the work. If you don’t know where you are, you can’t know where you are going!
5. Know the importance of mentoring principals.
6. Build the optimal team – anchored by your mission, vision and core values which are non-negotiable.
7. Podcasts are the new Match.com
8. How do you simplify – it starts with your vision and then aligns everything to it! Give yourself permission to focus!
9. Micro-slicing – look at everything that you are working on as a school and create a one plan.
10. Best advice – get clear about your vision, it changes everything! Identify what you are building at your school.

Reflection Questions:

• What does it take to be the type of principal that builds master teachers?
• What does it take to have the mindset of a builder and serve every student?
• Do you have a compelling vision, share it the right way, and create buy-in with your stakeholders?
• Will this PD Day move you closer to your 100% student goal?
• Is your team bound together by family or by your mission, vision, and core values?
• Are you maintaining the organization (central office directives) as opposed to supporting your kids at your school?

UNITED Pre-Conference Session

Stop Leading. Start Building: How to Turn Any School Into a Success Story With the People and Resources You Have Right Now

In this session, you’ll learn how to escape the “school improvement hamster wheel” and finally create the school that you, your teachers, and your students deserve.

Presenter: Robyn Jackson, CEO of Mindsteps Inc., which helps schools improve schools by using the teachers and resources they already have.