Episode Details

Connie Hamilton has served many roles in over two decades as an educator. She has been an elementary and middle school teacher and instructional coach. As an administrator, Connie held positions as a principal at both the elementary and secondary levels and a central office curriculum leader. Her experience in these positions fueled a passion for supporting high quality instruction.

Dr. Joseph Jones is the Superintendent of Schools in the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District. Joe is a former high school teacher, assistant principal and principal. As principal, he was named the Delaware Secondary Principal of the Year and during his tenure, Delcastle Technical High School was the first high school to receive the state's Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. Joe received his doctorate from the University of Delaware in educational leadership. He is also an adjunct professor for various universities.

Dr. T.J. Vari is the Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools and District Operations in the Appoquinimink School District. T.J. is a former middle school assistant principal and principal and former high school English teacher. His master's degree is in School Leadership and his doctorate is in Innovation and Leadership. He holds several honors and distinctions, including his past appointment as President of the Delaware Association for School Administrators and the Paul Carlson Administrator of the Year Award. He teaches educational leadership courses at the masters and doctoral level.

Together, Joe and T.J. present nationally on topics of school leadership, and they co-founded TheSchoolHouse302, which is a leadership development institute specializing in leadership coaching for new and experienced school leaders. They have written five books together, co-authoring several of those with their friends, Principal EL and Connie Hamilton.

Show Highlights

• 7 mindset shifts designed around accepting whatever happens with model solutions to implement.

• The "Octopus Approach" will get in the right mindset so the crisis doesn't crush you, but rather catapult you.

• Technical tips with practical solutions and strategies to avoid professional development that doesn't land.

• Get into the dirty details of how to solve your biggest obstacles with a model shaped around your immediate needs.

• Creative ways to rethink, embrace and implement new scheduling, teacher retention and technology that works specifically for your school.

• The questions you need to ask to identify somebody willing to be a part of your learning culture and join your system.

• Systems outside of education that will transform your schools from the inside out.

"Remember is that nothing really comes easily and it may take some effort, but solutions are out there. We have plenty of resources available to help us to achieve some goals and we have plenty of evidence that we can do things that we never thought were possible before."

-Connie Hamilton

Get the episode transcript here!!

• Listen Now