Jason Kennedy Brings a Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Jason Kennedy is a 24 year educator, author, school administrator, district curriculum and professional learning director, instructional coach, and presenter.

He has tons of experience at all levels of education, elementary through college. 

He has been a part of Cognia review teams, statewide professional learning, and local curriculum design teams, making the intentional designing of instruction for learning his main goal.

FocusED Show Notes with Jason Kennedy

Jason tells us that the original book title was “let’s quit teaching,” which the publisher was a bit squeamish about and so they changed it to “let’s ‘stop’ teaching.” The point is that the focus should be on learning, not just teaching. 

He explains that shifting from teaching to learning is a bigger mindset move than one may realize because many of us, as educators, have been trained to teach…include content delivery. 

Jason says that we’re always chasing programs versus creating better designs. He explains the difference between planning and designing. 

Kennedy reminds school leaders that Tier I should be based on standards and curriculum resources, not a program. Don’t miss what he says about combining the what, the who, and how to make the best designs possible. 

School leaders will gravitate toward what he says about making a daily commitment as educators. 

We were thrilled to discuss effect sizes and highly impactful teaching strategies, including success criteria. 

Kids who don’t like their teachers, and, worse yet, kids who don’t feel like their teacher likes them, will struggle to learn. ~ Jason Kennedy 

He covers the concept of a learning design framework, which is what teachers and students should be doing throughout the instructional period. All teachers should work within a framework to incorporate high impact strategies with flexibility to make decisions. 

Don’t miss what he says about using AI to build lesson plans. 

Jason talks about what gets him excited, including working with teachers and collaborative teams. 

We loved the team names that his teachers use when the collaborate, ELA teachers calling themselves “get lit.” 

He tells us to go to Corwin for other authors, and mentions John Hattie and VisibleLearning.  

We loved what he said about “intentional design choices” and what happens when kids come to school and already know the material.

Jason ends with “learning is the job.” “The second that the adults stop learning, the kids stop as well. 

Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ theschoolhouse302.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district. Let us know who you would like to hear from next.

Let’s Stop Teaching with Jason Kennedy

Lauren tells that she was inspired to write the book, The Leader Inside, because of her journey and the people who mentored her along the way, including her parents who were teachers and a special teacher who she names on the show. 

She told us a story about how George Couros challenged her to blog and then eventually write a book. She writes to reflect on her learning, and the pieces about coaching and mentoring resonated most, which led her to the content and the title of her book. 

She hopes that the book will help people to recognize their gifts and amplify them for themselves and others.

She tells us a story about her own growth and the realization that it's special to be able to collaborate with people and learn through interactions with others. 

Lauren calls out the importance and nobility in having a career in education. Don’t miss what she says about intentionally identifying your personal core values and then connecting them to the vision and mission of your school or district. 

Joe asked about the power of mentorship. Lauren dives into her former role as a mentor coordinator and the need for a great mentor match, especially in early-career educators. 

She reminds us about mentoring standards and professional learning networks that can both guide and support our work. 

In the mentor-mentee relationship, the mentee has a ton of value and the framing should be that both people are learning with and from one another. 

She talks about her reading habits, reading more than one book at a time, and what she calls “slow reading.” 

Lauren says that it’s the leader’s job to create structure and processes for others to lead.

The Leader Inside with Lauren Kaufman

This is Season 6, Episode  of FocusED, and it features our guest, Nathan Tanner; we discuss what it means to be an unconquerable leader…and so much more.

Nathan Tanner Brings a Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Nathan Tanner is an executive coach who helps CEOs, founders, and high impact leaders scale themselves and their companies. He has coached leaders at high growth startups and bellwether companies including DoorDash, Google, Autodesk, Electronic Arts, LinkedIn, Procter & Gamble, and Lyft.

Prior to becoming a full-time coach, Nathan was the vice president of people at Neighbor. Prior to Neighbor, Nathan spent half a decade at DoorDash where he was hired as the head of HR and scaled the company from 250 to more than 5,000 employees. There he built the company’s first leadership development program and coached more than half of the executive team. 
Prior to DoorDash, Nathan held several roles on the HR team at LinkedIn. He started his career on Wall Street at Lehman Brothers where he had a front-row seat to the largest bankruptcy in history.

Nathan is the author of two books, Not Your Parents' Workplace and his new book, The Unconquerable Leader. Nathan has been an advisor at Y Combinator and has written for Forbes, Inc., Fast Company and other publications. He's an IRONMAN triathlete, holds an MBA from BYU, and was trained as an executive coach at the Co-Active Training Institute. Nathan lives with his wife and their four children in southern Utah.

FocusED Show Notes with Guest Nathan Tanner

Run an experiment; it may not work, but you’ll learn something from it. ~ Nathan Tanner

Nathan starts by telling us that too much of our leadership training is focused on the “external” work, such as technical skills for hiring, training, and supporting others, versus the “internal” work, including mental and emotional resilience. 

Nathan tells us a story about being stretched thin at work and how he responded. Too often, we don’t even check ourselves when the warning signs are clear. 

Nathan says that the leadership burnout can happen to anyone, especially people with the best of intentions. 

Nathan dives into the strategies for managing our emotions. He mentions four. The first is the “unsent angry letter.” 

He tells us about the “power of walking,” including the science behind it. 

Nathan does an exercise of deep breathing with all of his clients. This slows our heart rate and helps with a number of physiological benefits.

You’ll want to hear what he says about practicing gratitude. 
Character creation: 1. Identify 2-3 characters who you play in your life (husband, father, leader, brother, etc.), 2. Define how you need to show up in each of these characters, 3. Pick the times that you need to be any of these characters. 

One major challenge to the character creation strategy is shifting between them. We have to pause and intentionally make the change. 

Joe asks Nathan about how new leaders can avoid mistakes. Nathan responds by saying that consistency is the most important strategy. 

He told the story of the 49ers and how staying the course is critical, especially when you have clear principles.

Nathan tells us about how he continues to learn and grow, including his reading strategy, which is 30 books a year for the last 10 years. 

He has a “daily practice,” and he knows that when he does these practices consistently, he shows up at his best. 

In life the challenge is not to figure how best to play the game but rather to figure out what game you’re playing. ~ Nathan Tanner

The Unconquerable Leader with Nathan Tanner

Ben starts off by telling us about a committee that he has going to help unpack “emerging technology,” and things are literally changing overnight. 

For us to lead in a tech-driven environment, Ben says that we have to be willing to say “I don’t know what that means, yet.” 

He tells us about the human-centered design process that they use at his schools--building something for empathy for the end-user of whatever we’re building. 

Joe asks Ben to talk about anything traditional that they’re abandoning in the curriculum to be able to spend the time they do on future-driven learning. 

Don’t miss what he says about grading. They figured out how to create a competency-based system that spits out a letter grade at the end. 

Ben talks about the influences of his background: Beijing, Montessori, Thacher, Bowdoin, and more. All of this feeds his ideas about schools teaching more of an entrepreneur thought process. 

He shares about the competitive nature of the marketplace for schools in Beijing. Students literally need to have an international passport. This means that the schools are all working to differentiate themselves from others like them. 

We discuss what it looks like to prepare students to do jobs that don’t exist yet. Ben talks about the fact that one important thing we can do, even though we don’t know what the jobs are, is to help students learn how to navigate competition within a start-up environment. 

It's awesome to hear how he elevates student voice by asking them to tell him what the future of schooling, including the use of AI, should look like. 

Joe reminds listeners of our podcast with Don Wettrick. 

Ben recognizes that many parents are still a bit leery about system changes, and he comes back to what students are going to need for the rest of their lives, including the moral responsibility to use these new tools ethically. 
Philosophically, he wants his students to explore their passions in the evening versus doing more school work. 

All 9th graders at NEIH take Foundations of Entrepreneurship. 

Ben invites our listeners to reach out to him at NEIH. He calls it the gift of time to just sit and talk. 

Ben tells us about an experience he had in Rwanda that showed him that if they could overcome what they needed to overcome, we can do anything.

Educating for Our Students’ Futures with Ben Farrell

This is Season 6, Episode 5 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Kate Koch; we discuss women in leadership positions, mentorship, balance at work…and so much more.

Kate Koch Brings a Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Dr. Kate Koch is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Lemont-Bromberek SD113a.

She has served as an elementary principal, an assistant principal, and a middle school history teacher.

She is also the co-host of the Unsupervised Leadership Podcast and the author of Unsupervised Leadership: Celebrating and Elevating Fun, Fab, and Fierce Females. 



FocusED Show Notes with Guest Kate Koch

“Unsupervised leadership” is about being in a space where you can lead authentically. In these cases, the leader can be themselves without fear of making mistakes. 

Kate talks about women in leadership, specifically in education where the balance is off between the number of women in the profession versus the number of administrators who are men.

Kate has been getting feedback from listeners that her message about women in leadership is giving them the confidence to apply for jobs and ask for the highest salary possible. 

Dr. Koch tells us a few stories about her experience with leadership roles and what she faced in interviews and other spaces as a female. 

Kate talks about the differences between the way women lead and the way that men lead and the need for both perspectives. TJ brings up the Jane Goodall episode with Tim Ferriss where Goodall says that women should not try to lead like men because we need female leaders, not just more males. 

She tells us about what “balance” means for her. Two strategies: turn it off and have an accountability partner. 

Kate shares a story about how much time she was putting into her work and the feeling that she might need to walk away; we need to create conditions where people have balance or we will continue to lose educators. 

Joe asks Kate who inspires her and she told us about her mentor, Kate Chambers, and her podcast co-host, Courtney Orzel. She calls out several other peers and mentors who guide and support her work. 

Kate talked about listening to books, and her current favorite read is Anxious Generation. 

Thanks for listening to FocusED, an educational leadership podcast brought to you by TheSchoolHouse302 @ theschoolhouse302.com where we publish free leadership content. Go to the site, subscribe, and you’ll get all of our content sent directly to your email. 

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular focus for teachers and school leaders so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district. Let us know who you would like to hear from next.

Unsupervised Leadership with Kate Koch

This is Season 6, Episode 6 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Peter Cookson; we discuss community leadership, supporting students in poverty, school culture…and so much more.

Peter Cookson Brings a Tons of Experience to FocusED Listeners

Peter Cookson serves as a senior researcher with the Learning Policy Institute, a founding principal investigator for the American Voices Project based at Stanford University, and an educational policy teacher at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University. 

He has written extensively on the causes and consequences of American poverty and advocates for a new vision for public education. He began his career in education as a fifth-grade teacher in rural Massachusetts.

He received his doctorate from New York University and most recently completed a Master of Arts in religion from the Yale Divinity School where he held the Katsuso Miho Scholarship in Peacemaking. 

He founded the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation at Teachers College and The Equity Project at the American Institutes for Research and before that, he was the executive director of Ed Sector in Washington D.C.

Peter is the author of School Communities of Strength: Strategies for Educating Children Living in Deep Poverty.

FocusED Show Notes with Guest Peter Cookson

All kids learn in environments where threats to their self-esteem are diminished. ~ Peter Cookson

Peter starts by defining “communities of strength.” Included in his definition is that the whole community believes that every student can learn and that learning is joyful. 

Peter says that he learned more doing the project for this book than any other project he has done. 

He tells us that 5 million kids in the US live in “deep poverty,” that’s 50% or more lower than the national threshold. 

Peter tells us about the resilience of students in poverty is inspirational. 

Peter’s passion for this work comes from his time as a 5th grade teacher in a school where many of the students lived in deep poverty. This motivated him to go back to school to become a sociologist to study the intersection between poverty and learning. 

He unfolds a story about his time as a teacher where he was able to experiment. He was doing project-based learning before it was a thing. 

Peter’s vision for the book when he started was to make it a practical guide versus just a sad story about the current scenarios in schools that serve students in poverty. 

The book includes the science of learning because we know more now about how to teach and how people learn than ever before. 

One key, says Peter, is that the staff has to bring a “second to known” mentality to their approach to teaching the whole child.  

He tells us that the primary responsibility of the school leader is to create an environment for teachers and students. 

Peter tells a story about a superintendent who fired any principal who didn’t fully believe that all students can learn. Don’t miss what he says about the commitment factor.

Peter mentions Linda Darling-Hammond as an expert on the science of learning, among other things. 

He says that each of the principles in the book comes with implementation guidance.

Communities of Strength with Peter Cookson

Shawn tells us that “future-ready” is about students recognizing their purpose; he reminds us about the goal of education and the gaps that exist right now with what we provide and what students actually need. 

Dr. Dilly talked about the need for leaders to stay true to who they are, that relationships matter, and that we should celebrate our differences. 

Shawn elevates competencies that students need, including what he calls “human skills.” 

He talks about a “tsunami of change” that is coming our way along with the advent of AI and other disruptive technologies. 

Shawn tells us that part of the systemic barriers that perpetuate the problems with the curriculum, instruction, assessments, and resources is that we’re too highly regulated and legislated to change fast enough. 

He describes a problem for schools in that 65% of our students in school now will be working in jobs that aren’t currently available yet. 

Joe asks Dr. Dilly to help leaders to advocate for change that isn’t just based on policy requirements. 

Shawn calls to action that leaders align themselves to people who are thinking about problems in a way that we can work together to drive change. He also says that it’s important for school leaders to get involved in their state agencies at the highest levels. 

Shawn encourages leaders to ask the question: are our students ready? And, if the answer is no, what’s missing? That will drive what we need to do next. 

One change that he emphasized is the need for more student collaboration in schools--a life skill that everyone will need. 

He talked about the need for students to exercise imagination and curiosity as well as oral and written communication. 

Shawn names our biggest challenge as keeping up with AI in schools and classrooms. 

Dr. Dilly tells us that students will need to learn global dexterity and branding. They’ll need to work globally with people who are vastly different from them and yet maintain their identity. And, they need to be able to compete in a global world by selling themselves by integrating the proper credentials with an attractive reputation. 

Shawn mentions McKinsey and the World Economic Forum. Joe asks about other resources that he frequents. Check out the book list below.

Schools for this Century and Beyond with Shawn Dilly

FocusED Show Notes with Guest Christina Hidek

Christina starts out with some suggestions about how school leaders can get on the same page with the PTO/PTA President by meeting on a regular basis. The key is to meet ahead of the actual PTA meetings and separate from them. 

School leaders should explain their vision for the school and the school year to the parent groups, starting with the PTA President. 

School leaders and PTA Presidents should have a clear understanding of how they want to communicate. 

Christina describes the strongest relationships that she had with principals and the trust and openingness that it takes. 

School leaders should attend their PTA meetings and the measure of success is a lack of turnover in the group. 

Every parent group should have at least one teacher liaison; the main point of the role is to bring the parent group information back to the teachers so that it doesn't fall on the principals. 

Christina reminds us that parents are volunteers, and they may need training. As soon as a group is formed, they need to be empowered and equipped with the right tools and information to go in the right direction. 

There’s no PTA school. ~ Christina Hidek. 

Christina consistently brings the conversation back to professional learning for parents. They can’t be a resource if they don’t know how. 

She talks about her parent group raising $26K and what that means to the school community. 

She hates the movie Bad Moms. 

A tip for school leaders is to celebrate and highlight the work of their parent groups. 

Christina tells us that there aren’t enough resources for PTOs/PTAs and school leaders who want to engage parents in the best way. 

PTOAnswers/principals.com has resources for principals who want to better engage parent groups. 

Check out FamilyEngagementTools.com. 


Successfully Managing Parent and Community Groups with Christina Hidek

This is Season 6, Episode 9 of FocusED, and it features our guest, Nason Lollar; Joe and TJ interview Nason about educator professional conduct, human resources, managing and sustaining a positive culture, school leadership…and so much more.

Promoting Educator Professionalism with Nason Lollar

FocusED Show Notes with Guest Vicky Essebag

Vicky starts by defining “relationspaces” as the way that we bring ourselves to the spaces where we develop relationships. 

Vicky tells us that we have preconceived notions about how we’re communicating and sometimes it’s effective and other times it’s not. 

Vicky gives us an example of where our communication as teachers to students might be landing wrong in a way that only supports more misbehavior. 

It’s better to minimize our noticing of the behaviors that are not desirable and maximize our noticing of the desired behaviors. 

Solution-Focused is a strength-based approach. And, the future aspect of it asks the question, what does the person want? 

Vicky says that success happens in small increments. Change happens gradually. Her advice is to take a few steps back when things aren’t going the way we want them to and then to become more inclusive. 

She tells us that relationships have to be the foundation of everything we do and have to be prioritized as important in the minds of every leader. 

Vicky explains that Solution-Focused has a premise that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it; if it’s working, don’t change it; and if something is wrong, do something about it.”

Don’t miss what she says about future-oriented types of questions. 

Vicky talked about a scenario and exercise that she did with students who were refusing to come to school, and they built hypothetical machines to help bring them back to school. 

She talks about her own growth and a program she’s in right now to gain a certification that she wants for more international credibility. 

Vicky says that the most important part about commuting with others is our presence. 

We asked Vicky to give us some techniques for asking questions. She says that the best questions are open-ended and up to the person being asked to provide their answer versus searching for the right ones. 

If we can inspire people with hope, why not. ~ Vicky Essebag


Developing Stronger Relationship with Vicky Essebag

FocusED is your educational leadership podcast where our mission is to dissect a particular problem of practice and/or pinpoint a place of progress so that you can learn to lead better and grow faster in your school or district with more knowledge, better understanding, and clear direction on what to do next.