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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Welcome to your Booster Shot from the AWB Education Network.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:08 This podcast series is our opportunity to dive even deeper into the topics and
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 skills that will help you lead your school with confidence.
00:00:11 --> 00:00:15 Check out information on our partners along with additional resources and services
00:00:15 --> 00:00:19 at www.awbeducation.org.
00:00:19 --> 00:00:25 Now here is your Booster Shot. Well, hello and welcome to another episode of your Booster Shot.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:30 Today we are joined by Dr. Darren Pepper. Burton. He is from The Road to Awesome.
00:00:30 --> 00:00:32 Welcome, Darren. Thanks for joining me today.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:35 Yeah, absolutely, Adam. Thanks so much for having me on. Well,
00:00:35 --> 00:00:38 The Road to Awesome, that name is, well, I'm just going to say it.
00:00:38 --> 00:00:39 It's awesome. It's really catchy.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:44 Tell us a little bit about this program and what in your background inspired
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 you to create The Road to Awesome?
00:00:46 --> 00:00:51 Yeah. So actually, Road to Awesome goes back to my time as a high school principal.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:56 That's when we actually coined the phrase Road to Awesome. And it actually goes
00:00:56 --> 00:01:00 back to a time when I was an assistant principal at the same high school.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:05 And in a nutshell, the story is this, the high school where I became an assistant
00:01:05 --> 00:01:09 principal, I was in charge of all discipline and attendance for the entire high school.
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 So like, this is the job where you feel sorry for me. That's right.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 And it was it was just the constant, right?
00:01:16 --> 00:01:21 Just that cookie cutter discipline, everything from kids who were skipping class
00:01:21 --> 00:01:25 to we had probably a fight a week, at least in the in the hallways,
00:01:25 --> 00:01:26 you know, just you name it.
00:01:26 --> 00:01:30 Right. And even all the way to the kid who wouldn't bring a pencil to class.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:34 Right. I did over twenty two hundred discipline referrals for eleven hundred
00:01:34 --> 00:01:39 kids my first year in this world. And we're, our culture was all about catching
00:01:39 --> 00:01:40 people doing things wrong.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:45 And we're in a staff meeting and it's the staff meeting we've all been in, right?
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 We're going to solve the most important issues in education.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:49 You know what I'm talking about, right?
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 What are we doing about hats? What are we doing about cell phones?
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 I was in that staff meeting, right?
00:01:56 --> 00:02:00 And partway through the meeting, somewhere between let's buy those calculator
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 things and hang them on the wall. and my shop teacher named Harvey,
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06 who said, let's just smash one with a hammer. The kids will get the message.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:11 A sane voice, a sane individual raised a hand and said, Darren,
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 why does it always have to be about what they do wrong?
00:02:14 --> 00:02:18 Why can't it be about what they do right? And for me, and this is that whole
00:02:18 --> 00:02:19 Robert Frost thing, right?
00:02:19 --> 00:02:24 You know, two roads diverged, right? For me, wow, two roads.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:27 I mean, because I was the hammer, they're the nail. I mean, that's the road
00:02:27 --> 00:02:31 I was traveling, maybe just maybe we start to do some things a little bit differently.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 And we didn't coin the phrase then, but that's really when it happened,
00:02:36 --> 00:02:40 right? That's when we started to say, hey, let's shift the culture of our school.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 Let's start to look for the great things that are happening on our campus.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:49 Not that we didn't still have consequences for behaviors, all that kind of stuff,
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 right? But just shifting our focus.
00:02:53 --> 00:02:57 And that's that's really where the road to awesome began. And so fast forward
00:02:57 --> 00:03:01 a number of years, I was I was principal at that school for quite some time.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:06 And then I became a superintendent and and I was writing my first book.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 And I met with a couple of different publishers and both of them.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:13 It was so funny. I had all these different titles in my head and this old this
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 is going to be about this kind of leadership. And both of them were like,
00:03:16 --> 00:03:21 Darren, you have used the hashtag road to awesome for years on social media.
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 Why would you call it anything but that?
00:03:24 --> 00:03:28 And I'm like, oh, okay. And so from that point forward, not only,
00:03:28 --> 00:03:32 you know, my first two, my first two books, we did a kid's book road to awesome.
00:03:33 --> 00:03:38 The name of our company is road to awesome. I mean, that's just who we are.
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 And I identify as a traveler of the road to awesome. Sure.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:45 You know, we have a choice every day, Adam. We have a choice every single day.
00:03:45 --> 00:03:49 You know, we can go down that road where we look for the negatives and,
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 you know, we want to be the complainer.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 We want to be the thermometer that just tells you what's wrong.
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 Or we can take that other road.
00:03:56 --> 00:04:00 And on that other road, that's where, you know, maybe we look for the positives.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:04 Maybe we're more of a thermostat than a thermometer, right? We actually help solve problems.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:08 And so I can riff on Road to Awesome for hours, but there you go.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 That's in a nutshell what Road to Awesome is and what it's all about. about.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 Well, that's good. I mean, we know that if you chase that same road,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:17 you're just going to chase it forever, right?
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 If it's just always about the consequence, it's never going to have a positive impact.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 And if that's what you want to do all day, every day, then that's what you're
00:04:24 --> 00:04:26 going to get if you keep going down that road.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:32 100%. Well, so you offer a ton of, you know, a variety of resources for school leaders.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 As I've kind of looked through the stuff that you have here,
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37 there's a lot of stuff that's within
00:04:37 --> 00:04:41 the program that are there for school leaders to be able to succeed.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 Can you elaborate on a few of those different resources and maybe some of the
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 professional development opportunities that are available?
00:04:46 --> 00:04:51 Right. Absolutely. So, yeah. So, one of my, another one of my two road moments
00:04:51 --> 00:04:56 was as, as early in my principal career, I really struggled when,
00:04:56 --> 00:04:58 when I took the principal role on,
00:04:58 --> 00:05:03 I found that I was just constantly running around, putting out fires,
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 you know, trying to take care of everything. I thought I had to be the superhero, right?
00:05:07 --> 00:05:12 You know, which a lot of principals fall into that trap. So I was I was very fortunate.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15 We had we had a new superintendent who hired leadership coaches for all of us.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 And it completely changed me as a leader.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:23 So I fell in love with coaching my assistant principals. I fell in love with,
00:05:23 --> 00:05:24 you know, with coaching aspiring leaders.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:30 And so the core work of what we do at Road to Awesome is exactly that.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:35 It's that leadership coaching and consulting that really helping individual
00:05:35 --> 00:05:41 leaders, but then also leadership teams to get really crystal clear on what
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 it is that they are trying to accomplish.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:49 You know, like what is that compelling vision that they have for their school?
00:05:50 --> 00:05:54 And then let's get really intentional. Let's let's backwards map this thing.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:58 Let's really figure out how do we get from point A to point B.
00:05:58 --> 00:06:05 And so as that person who struggled, as that person who did it at a high level
00:06:05 --> 00:06:08 and figured out how to go from point A to point B.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:13 That's where I'm coming in and working with leadership teams all over the country
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16 and actually all over North America, because I work with some in Canada now, too,
00:06:16 --> 00:06:23 to really figure out how we can be clear, how we can be intentional and how
00:06:23 --> 00:06:27 we can really walk in our purpose instead of just be that firefighter.
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 So that's kind of our core support.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:35 The next level of stuff that we do really ties in with that culture piece.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:41 And that's culture piece or that culture work, rather, that we do with school teams,
00:06:41 --> 00:06:48 with leadership teams, with teacher teams, where, you know, especially when
00:06:48 --> 00:06:53 leaders are fairly new to the campus, you know, they say, hey,
00:06:54 --> 00:06:55 I want to help change the culture of my campus.
00:06:55 --> 00:06:58 They don't know how to get there.
00:06:58 --> 00:07:02 Right. They don't know how to make that move.
00:07:02 --> 00:07:07 So a lot of that that culture work. I lean a lot into that.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:13 I do a lot of speaking. I speak at conferences, I keynote, you know, those types of things.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:18 And I talk about those two things that we discussed. And then the last thing,
00:07:18 --> 00:07:22 I guess it's not the last thing, the second to last thing would be the Principal
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 Academy, which is our new digital element.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 I know we're going to talk about the Principal Academy maybe a little bit more
00:07:26 --> 00:07:31 that's designed to be a resource for principals that, you know,
00:07:31 --> 00:07:34 maybe aren't going to work with a full time leadership coach,
00:07:34 --> 00:07:35 but they're looking for, you
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 know, hey, give me something that I can lean into this particular thing.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:43 And then the final thing at Road to Awesome is we're also an independent publisher.
00:07:43 --> 00:07:48 So we created the Road to Awesome Publishing, oh, almost four years ago.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:55 And that's actually my wife's half of our business. She is 100% running Road to Awesome Publishing.
00:07:55 --> 00:08:00 And so we've done a lot of books, probably about 35 books, I think, at this point in time.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:06 A lot of school leadership, a lot of things related to pedagogy and related
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 to classroom and building culture, those types of things.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 So a lot of things happen in here at Road to Awesome.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:16 That's good. You know, you're talking about that working with principals and,
00:08:16 --> 00:08:20 you know, mentoring them and moving through that process with them.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 You know, like in the state of Iowa, where I reside, there's a lot of mentoring
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 programs for that first year principal, right?
00:08:27 --> 00:08:31 The school administrators of Iowa, they've got a mentoring program and a lot
00:08:31 --> 00:08:32 of people sign up for that. And it's great.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:36 And you get hooked up with somebody that's done this job and you get a chance
00:08:36 --> 00:08:37 and you work with them. And that's great.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:42 But that's usually the first year. And let's be honest, that first year is survival,
00:08:43 --> 00:08:45 right? I mean, we're just trying to get through the first year.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:50 And then we can start dreaming about the real changes we want to try to make as we move on.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:56 Then a lot of times those built in mentorship programs, they either kind of
00:08:56 --> 00:09:01 tail off a little bit or they're only going to be as good as you continue to make them be. Right.
00:09:01 --> 00:09:05 And so, yeah, I think some of the work that you're doing and this principal
00:09:05 --> 00:09:08 academy, which, yes, I'd like to talk about that here in just a little bit.
00:09:08 --> 00:09:13 I think these are those opportunities for all school leaders to continue to try to get better.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:17 I've been doing this quite a while now. I'm getting up on to my second,
00:09:17 --> 00:09:21 or getting on actually finishing my second decade in this work.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:25 And I still learn stuff every single day. There's always a new challenge.
00:09:25 --> 00:09:28 There's always another opportunity for me to be able to work with a colleague.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:33 And I have the luxury right now of having colleagues that are in the same work
00:09:33 --> 00:09:38 with me that I can touch base with. Not everybody has that luxury.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 And so hearing these opportunities, I think is really important.
00:09:41 --> 00:09:46 So let's move on to that piece, the Principal Academy. How does that program
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 align with the mission and the vision of Road to Awesome?
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 So it aligns extremely well with it.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:59 I've been thinking about the addition of digital courses, a mastermind,
00:10:00 --> 00:10:04 you know, just pure virtual coaching with individuals.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:11 Typically, the leadership coaching work that I do is a hybrid mix of me being
00:10:11 --> 00:10:15 on site with Principal but then also some time on Zoom.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:21 But this past summer, I don't know, I spoke at dozens of different conferences,
00:10:21 --> 00:10:27 but it seemed like every conference, there were four or five leaders who would
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 catch up with me after the conference.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:34 Have a conversation with me, and they really wanted that additional support.
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 They're exactly what you're talking about, Adam.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:41 They've gotten through that first year, but now they're like, okay, how do I do this?
00:10:42 --> 00:10:48 You know, how do I implement change? How do I, you know, really drive impactful
00:10:48 --> 00:10:52 instruction? How do I empower student voice? Whatever it might be, right? Right.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:57 They weren't necessarily in a position where they could say,
00:10:57 --> 00:11:01 hey, I want to hire you as a, you know, as a full time coach or something like that,
00:11:01 --> 00:11:05 you know, and I think, you know, we certainly live in a, you know,
00:11:05 --> 00:11:09 a day and an age where having digital content, you know, right there at our
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 fingertips, right there, you know, on our phones where,
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 you know, we can we can go in and jump in and take a short little course or,
00:11:16 --> 00:11:22 you know, listen to, you know, I mean, obviously, we've got free PD all the time with podcasts.
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24 I mean, holy cow, there's so many great podcasts.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:28 You know, your podcast is wonderful. I've got, I think, a really good podcast.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:34 So many others. But having that digital content where, and right now there's
00:11:34 --> 00:11:38 one course, well, there's actually two inside the Principal Academy.
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 One, that's kind of our signature course. It's like six modules long.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:46 And then there's one that's a free course. It's a one hour webinar that we did
00:11:46 --> 00:11:52 here not too long ago. So just just a little bit of the beginnings of the principal academy.
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 And eventually, I think we'll take that that signature course and break it into
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 small modules that you can purchase just one module at a time or something like that.
00:12:01 --> 00:12:06 And then, of course, I mentioned the mastermind, too, where there's so much power in networking.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:12 There's so much power in being able to come together with a group of eight or
00:12:12 --> 00:12:18 10 or 15 people who are in a similar situation to you and to be able to brainstorm
00:12:18 --> 00:12:19 and kind of work that stuff through.
00:12:19 --> 00:12:27 So just being able to help leaders gain clarity, be intentional and walk in
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 their purpose, which is which is the mission of Road to Austin.
00:12:30 --> 00:12:34 That is what we are all about is helping leaders gain clarity,
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 be intentional and walk in their purpose.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:41 And I think the Principal Academy absolutely falls right in line with that.
00:12:41 --> 00:12:47 You mentioned in your descriptions of that, the take control of your leadership
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 piece. And I think that's kind of what you're talking about there is it's it's
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 either going to happen or or you're going to help make it happen.
00:12:54 --> 00:12:55 Right. Either one of those two.
00:12:55 --> 00:12:59 That's awesome. Yeah. And I think, I think let's maybe chase that just a little
00:12:59 --> 00:13:03 bit more. I mean, just that taking control of your leadership.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:09 When I reflect back to when I went from that nonstop firefighter to actually
00:13:09 --> 00:13:15 now the guy who is working on the high impact leadership things, is delegating well,
00:13:15 --> 00:13:19 is managing his time well, those types of things.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22 It was because I was able to take control of that.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:27 And I think that's something that, you know, I love how you talked about the
00:13:27 --> 00:13:33 one year mentorship, like, like all of a sudden after a year of mentoring,
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 you're going to be just, hey, I've got it all. You bet.
00:13:35 --> 00:13:39 It was it was year three easily for me year three before I was like,
00:13:39 --> 00:13:44 OK, now I think I really am ready to really move this school.
00:13:44 --> 00:13:47 Right. So I think that's a big piece right there.
00:13:48 --> 00:13:53 And for each of us as individual school leaders to really take control of our
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 own leadership, we've got to take a step back.
00:13:56 --> 00:14:00 I call it balcony level leadership. It's a piece that I talk about in my book
00:14:00 --> 00:14:06 where we've got to kind of get up there, up and look down on what is it that
00:14:06 --> 00:14:10 we're focusing on, where are we spending our time, all of those types of things.
00:14:10 --> 00:14:15 And so that to me, that's kind of how that taking control of our leadership is a key piece.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:19 Is there an ideal candidate for the principal academy, you know,
00:14:19 --> 00:14:23 or something maybe that somebody is struggling with or really needing some assistance
00:14:23 --> 00:14:27 on that would be maybe the best, you know, candidate for this program?
00:14:27 --> 00:14:32 Yeah, absolutely. And I would tell you, you know, one of my favorite quotes
00:14:32 --> 00:14:37 of all time, we are uniquely positioned to help the person we once were.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:43 And so the person who I once was, was the new principal who couldn't get his
00:14:43 --> 00:14:48 head above water, then became that principal who at least had head above water,
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51 but needed to know how do I go to the next level.
00:14:51 --> 00:14:54 And that to me would be the ideal.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:59 Ideal client. I'm early in my career as a school leader, whether that's year
00:14:59 --> 00:15:03 one, year two, year three, typically for me, that's kind of that sweet spot
00:15:03 --> 00:15:07 for this is what this work is really all about.
00:15:07 --> 00:15:11 Now, if you're an experienced principal, can you benefit from it? Absolutely.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:16 You can. It's a great refresher on some things that you probably have learned along the way.
00:15:16 --> 00:15:22 But ideally, I think it's those year one, two and three principals who maybe
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 they're breathing through the snorkel, you know, they still got the head underwater
00:15:25 --> 00:15:30 a little bit, but maybe also that the head has kind of popped up out of the water now.
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 And they're like, okay, now how do I go forward?
00:15:34 --> 00:15:38 What are some key benefits or outcomes that you would say, if I'm kind of on
00:15:38 --> 00:15:42 the fence thinking about this, like, oh, I know that I'm going to get this out
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 of this program. Yeah, absolutely.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:49 Number one is how do you set that compelling vision? How do you get really clear
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 about where it is that you're trying to go.
00:15:52 --> 00:15:58 Number two, time management. It's the number one struggle for early career leaders
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 is how in the world do I manage my time?
00:16:00 --> 00:16:06 And there's some phenomenal pieces in there on time management,
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08 strategies with your secretary,
00:16:09 --> 00:16:13 strategies with your team, and then strategies individually with how do I actually
00:16:13 --> 00:16:19 structure my time so that I'm not just at the whim of whatever fire happens to be burning.
00:16:19 --> 00:16:23 And then, I mean, there's a lot of really great stuff in there.
00:16:23 --> 00:16:27 If I would say one more, I would say the school culture and climate piece.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:32 That's actually the biggest module in that course is the school culture and climate one.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:35 And let's be honest, that's one that we can all work on all the time,
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 because as soon as we think we've got everything all figured out,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 then, you know, a COVID shows up or whatever else it is.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 Yeah, no kidding, right? Yeah, it just makes you have to adjust and keep working.
00:16:44 --> 00:16:48 No, that's good. Do you have any success stories or anything with the program
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 that you want to share in particular that people have gone through the program,
00:16:51 --> 00:16:52 how it's impacted their leadership?
00:16:53 --> 00:16:57 You know, I'll tell you, obviously, I mean, it's only been out for a short period
00:16:57 --> 00:16:59 of time and heard some great pieces of feedback.
00:17:00 --> 00:17:06 But I'll tell you that I've built the course right from essentially how I coach leaders.
00:17:06 --> 00:17:11 And so I'll share I'll share this success story and I'm going to give him all the credit.
00:17:11 --> 00:17:14 But I love that I've had the opportunity to work with him now for about three years.
00:17:15 --> 00:17:20 One of the schools that I work with pretty, pretty heavily is right here in the Omaha area.
00:17:21 --> 00:17:26 And with that particular school, it's a high school here in the area, about 1900 kids.
00:17:27 --> 00:17:32 The principal, the principal actually connected with me, found out I was in Omaha.
00:17:32 --> 00:17:35 We got together, had a conversation. He's like, I want to hire you to coach
00:17:35 --> 00:17:37 me. And I coached him his first year.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:42 And the next for the last two years, I've been coaching him and his entire leadership team. Okay.
00:17:43 --> 00:17:49 They, they went from a group that really did just kind of run around from,
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 from fire to fire, the whole group.
00:17:51 --> 00:17:56 I would tell you, I was in the building yesterday and the conversation that
00:17:56 --> 00:18:00 the principal and I were having, I was sharing with him how I think they have
00:18:00 --> 00:18:05 one of the highest functioning leadership teams I've ever been around. That's good.
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 Just seeing that team all focused on
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 the same outcome that that whole team
00:18:11 --> 00:18:15 when they make decisions now coming
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 back to does this bring us closer to our goal or
00:18:18 --> 00:18:23 is this just a shiny object that's not going to help us watching that particular
00:18:23 --> 00:18:28 team the outcomes from that particular school not just on the you know on the
00:18:28 --> 00:18:34 academic side but the decrease in turnover on their campus the increases in
00:18:34 --> 00:18:38 the positive of culture, just the vibe in the building.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:42 It's, I mean, it's, it's one of those schools when I'm in that school,
00:18:42 --> 00:18:48 I just, I feel, I feel something special when I walk in the door with them and
00:18:48 --> 00:18:52 I see the relationships that they've built with their students and with their staff.
00:18:52 --> 00:18:58 And that's one that so much of what is in that course is built right off of
00:18:58 --> 00:19:01 the work that, that I've done with that school and with many other schools.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:05 But that one, especially because I was in the building yesterday is really fresh in my mind.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:09 Well, that energy is contagious. And so if you're getting that out of your leadership
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11 team, that's just that trickle down effect is so positive.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 That's that's cool. That's awesome to hear that. While I got you here,
00:19:15 --> 00:19:18 Darren, talk a little about you got a new book coming out and you've got one
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 coming out here in a couple months or so.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:23 Can you let us know a little bit about what that's going to be and give us a little preview?
00:19:23 --> 00:19:27 Yeah, absolutely. I'm super excited about this book. So thank you for for asking.
00:19:27 --> 00:19:33 So a little while back, I partnered with an absolutely phenomenal educator from
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 Oklahoma City named Katie Kinder.
00:19:35 --> 00:19:38 For people who maybe they're like, hmm, that name is familiar.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:41 She's the teal glasses lady. So if you're on social media and you see the girl
00:19:41 --> 00:19:43 with teal glasses, that's Katie Kinder.
00:19:44 --> 00:19:49 Katie and I have some real shared passions around classroom culture.
00:19:49 --> 00:19:57 And so we really started pouring into these ideas around How do we move from
00:19:57 --> 00:20:04 this focus on classroom management to classroom culture as the primary focus?
00:20:04 --> 00:20:08 And the book itself is titled Culture First Classrooms, Leadership,
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 Relationships and Practices that Transform Schools.
00:20:11 --> 00:20:18 And in this book, we're really diving into what are those key elements that
00:20:18 --> 00:20:22 we need to be focusing on in each one of our classrooms?
00:20:22 --> 00:20:27 You know, how do we as teachers empower our students and for that matter,
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 feel empowered ourselves to really
00:20:30 --> 00:20:34 take control of the culture in our classroom? And and it's not just.
00:20:34 --> 00:20:38 You know, it's not one of those books where it's, you know, Katie and myself
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 just saying, here's what you need to go do.
00:20:40 --> 00:20:46 We actually have 21 different contributors from mostly from the United States.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:50 There's a little bit from from Canada. And phenomenal teachers.
00:20:50 --> 00:20:54 Principals and superintendents who provide their own input,
00:20:54 --> 00:21:00 own take on how you build the culture in the classroom that you want to see
00:21:00 --> 00:21:06 that really takes that classroom to just unbelievable heights academically, socially.
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 And just, you know, it's an exciting book.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 We're really, really stoked for that to come out. It's going to be out in late
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 March and it's it's another road to awesome book. So we're really,
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 really, really excited to have that thing coming out. Oh, that's cool.
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 No, that's neat. We'll make sure we get that out there for our listeners as
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 well, so they can find that when that comes out.
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 You said in March, late March, right? Yes, it'll be on March. Yep.
00:21:29 --> 00:21:32 Well, kind of to wrap up here a little bit, just kind of looking ahead,
00:21:32 --> 00:21:36 what are some of the trends you see shaping the future of school leadership?
00:21:36 --> 00:21:40 And then, you know, how's the road to awesome going to be there to help us navigate
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 those trends and navigate those adjustments?
00:21:43 --> 00:21:47 Yeah, for sure. You know, I think it's been interesting over the last couple of years.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 You know, when you take a look at school leadership, there's been a tremendous
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52 amount of turnover in school leadership.
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 And there were a few different reasons for that. I mean, every year there's
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 going to be retirements and that kind of stuff.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:02 But I think there were a number of people like myself who maybe stepped out
00:22:02 --> 00:22:05 of public education a little bit earlier than what the original plan was.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:12 And that kind of created a bit of a vacuum in leadership. And certainly the
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 leadership pipeline wasn't emptied.
00:22:14 --> 00:22:18 You know, there were plenty of people to come moving forward in there.
00:22:18 --> 00:22:24 But as a result of that, we've seen a lot more school level leaders,
00:22:24 --> 00:22:31 first time school level leaders who are a little less prepared than perhaps
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 what we traditionally would see.
00:22:33 --> 00:22:37 And I don't necessarily mean that, you know, they don't know what they're doing.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:39 And that's not what I'm what I'm saying.
00:22:39 --> 00:22:45 But typically what what we've experienced is as you kind of progress through
00:22:45 --> 00:22:50 your teaching career, you're given some opportunities to take on different leadership
00:22:50 --> 00:22:54 roles prior to jumping into a principal chair.
00:22:54 --> 00:23:03 And so many, so many leaders are jumping in a lot quicker than previously was the issue.
00:23:03 --> 00:23:07 And so I think one of the trends that we're seeing is...
00:23:08 --> 00:23:14 A lot of leaders who just need a lot of support in order to support their teachers.
00:23:14 --> 00:23:17 Obviously, we know there's there's this, you know,
00:23:18 --> 00:23:25 looming teacher shortage and having leaders who who aren't prepared to build
00:23:25 --> 00:23:30 that culture in the organization where teachers feel like they're seen and heard
00:23:30 --> 00:23:33 and valued and trusted can perpetuate that.
00:23:33 --> 00:23:40 So I think I think a lot of the big need and I see this more and more and more
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 districts are coming on board with the idea of, you know what,
00:23:43 --> 00:23:49 let's not just get the other principal in the district to mentor the new principal.
00:23:50 --> 00:23:54 Let's actually bring some support on board with them, because let's face it,
00:23:54 --> 00:23:57 district level employees, they don't have time.
00:23:57 --> 00:24:02 I just finished a call with another district that, you know,
00:24:02 --> 00:24:08 both superintendent and executive director, they don't have time to go coach their principals.
00:24:09 --> 00:24:14 They need somebody else. And so at Road to Awesome, how we're providing that
00:24:14 --> 00:24:19 support is really leaning into those opportunities to partner up with those
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 schools, with those districts, to support those principals.
00:24:22 --> 00:24:27 So they're able to not just get their head above water, but to really.
00:24:27 --> 00:24:34 Really have a great deal of success, which leads to them actually staying in the job.
00:24:34 --> 00:24:37 I mean, that's that's one of the biggest concerns. Right. I mean,
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40 we get people in there. We don't provide the support.
00:24:40 --> 00:24:45 And then it's OK, well, we need to move on from them. Well, or they move on
00:24:45 --> 00:24:47 on their own. They're like, I'm done.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:51 I've had it. I don't want to do this anymore. You know, so I think that's one
00:24:51 --> 00:24:54 of the biggest trends is leaders who just need a lot of support.
00:24:55 --> 00:25:00 And honestly, that's why I jumped out to do what I do. There's a lot of things that we offer.
00:25:01 --> 00:25:06 I want to pour back into as many school leaders as I possibly can,
00:25:06 --> 00:25:10 because I got that support and it made a huge difference for me.
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12 So I just want to do that for as many as I possibly can.
00:25:13 --> 00:25:16 That is great. Tell our listeners here how they find out more about you,
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 how they can get hooked up with Road to Awesome.
00:25:18 --> 00:25:22 And what's the best way to get in contact with you to join your team?
00:25:22 --> 00:25:27 Absolutely. So there's a couple of different ways. You can go to the website,
00:25:27 --> 00:25:29 which is roadtoawesome.net. from there.
00:25:30 --> 00:25:33 Literally every page has a contact us that's going to pop up.
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 So, so do that, get on our mailing list.
00:25:36 --> 00:25:39 You'll see, you know, our weekly newsletter and some of the other stuff that we're doing.
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 If you're really interested specifically in the principal Academy,
00:25:43 --> 00:25:47 if you go to the principal academy.com, that's the place to go that you'll see
00:25:47 --> 00:25:49 all the information on that there.
00:25:49 --> 00:25:51 And if you're just somebody on social media and you're like,
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 you know, Hey, I want to get, you know, I want to get connected with Darren.
00:25:54 --> 00:25:57 I want to check out his podcast, all of that kind of stuff at Darren and Pepperd
00:25:57 --> 00:25:59 on literally every platform.
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 And the podcast is the Leaning into Leadership podcast.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 Well, thanks, Dr. Pepperd. I really appreciate your time today.
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 And I just love the stuff that you're doing. Cause again, I just don't think
00:26:08 --> 00:26:09 there's enough of this out here.
00:26:10 --> 00:26:13 I just, there isn't enough support for all of our administrators to do a job
00:26:13 --> 00:26:16 that let's be frank is really, really, really difficult.
00:26:16 --> 00:26:20 And there's only a few people that can do that out there and we need all the
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 few, we need every one of them. That's awesome.
00:26:22 --> 00:26:26 Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that so much, Adam. Thanks for having me on today. Absolutely.
00:26:26 --> 00:26:30 Well, thank you, listeners, for joining us again today. Reach out to him if
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 you have any questions. And again, thanks for joining us today.
00:26:32 --> 00:26:33 We appreciate your time.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:38 Thank you for listening to this episode of your Booster Shot from AWB Education.
00:26:38 --> 00:26:43 Want to join in this mission? We are always looking for partners to help provide
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45 what our school leaders need to thrive and survive.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:51 Contact us through our webpage at www.awbeducation.org to get connected.
00:26:52 --> 00:26:56 Otherwise, remember you are doing the job that only a few are strong enough to do.
00:26:57 --> 00:27:00 Thanks for being one of the few. We will talk with you again next time.