The Assistant Principal Podcast Frederick Buskey

Are you living your leadership journey courageously? Before Dr. Mary Hemphill became the Director of Academic Standards for the North Carolina Department of education she was a passionate and innovative principal. Before that, she was an assistant principal with the courage to stand up for her convictions. The assistant principalship is loaded with values conflicts. How do you stay true to your values amidst complex power dynamics and competing interests? Mary helps us figure it all out in this week’s episode.

“We need to increase family engagement.” I hear this all the time. We know what we want from families, but do we know what families want from us? Today’s episode will take us beyond reading rallies and pizza nights and even beyond my favorite parent event - donuts for dads. Today we focus on what teachers can do to build stronger parent partnerships and how school leaders can support those partnerships.

I’m asking for your help.

I’ve put together an MVP (minimally viable product) training video and am looking for a few people to pilot it. In exchange for access to this mini-PD, you would be committing to the following:
• Watching the video (about 45 minutes, but can be chunked into six parts)
• Completing the feedback form (5-15 minutes)
• Providing your email address knowing that I will not spam you but will provide you with updates on the project and updated materials

The pilot will run from May 3-17, so you would have two weeks to watch the video and complete the feedback form.

If you want to make this commitment, please email me (frederick@frederickbuskey.com). You will then receive an invitation to join my website as a member of the 4-patterns pilot group and will have access to the video.

PLEASE – if you don’t have time to follow through, save both of us stress and pass on this opportunity. There will be others.

April showers bring May flowers and May flowers bring…. Testing in schools! Many of the assistant principals I work with also serve double duty as test coordinators. It is a challenging job, but today’s show should contain some tips that make the job a bit easier.

If you have ever played buzz-word bingo, and had “growth mindset” on your card, you knew you odds of winning were good. But what is “growth mindset” all about? As an assistant principal, you probably already know where this is going. Yes, we want our kids to have a growth mindset, but if we can get our teachers to also have that growth mindset, then we will be in great shape!

In today’s episode, guest host Mara Buskey leads us through a discussion with two relatively new teachers about what they need from their assistant principals, how they view leadership, and what kind of feedback and style of coaching best meets their needs. This is an inspiring episode that may yield some surprising but valuable insights.