Episode Details

Michael (Mike) Nelson began his career as an elementary school teacher before becoming an elementary school principal. As a district leader, he led learning initiatives in two Washington state school districts. As the superintendent for Washington's (EEE)Enumclaw school district, he led several initiatives to improve cultural support and academic outcomes for Native students. In 2019, the Washington Association of School Administrators named him the Washington State Superintendent of the Year.

Peter DeWitt (Ed.D) is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective. He was a K-5 teacher for 11 years and a principal for 8 years. For the last 10 years, he has been facilitating professional learning nationally, and internationally, based on the content of many of his best-selling educational books.

Show Highlights

• The importance of having an inner fire to do great things for others.

• Strategies for lowering suspension rates and conducting classroom walkthroughs.

• The 6 parts of the Instructional Leadership Reflective document.

1. free reflection document during the show

• The value of listening and understanding from the student perspective

• Examples of Success Criteria, implementation and reflecting on student engagement.

• How to get school boards to engage in the conversation about the need for coaching at all levels of leadership.

• Redefining collaborative communities and collective.

"One of the things that I have learned is you always care about the people in the room, whether you're a teacher or a principal or you're facilitating workshops. One of the things that I've learned over the past three years of working with Mike is I'm much more intentional in what I do with that carrying."

-Peter DeWitt

"Instructional Leadership Academy, where people are coming together to talk collectively, the word collective means something different to us. Danny and I think that's the key is it's this integrated approach. And if I could describe it, not only are we talking about work, but I'm making you better, and you're making me better with each and every conversation that we have together. And we're building this network with each other and support."

-Mike Nelson

• Instructional Leadership Collective

• Linkedin-Peter-DeWitt

• Linkedin-Michael-Nelson

• Twitter-Michael Nelson

• Instagram

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