Episode Details

This second interview with Bob Sonju is really great. You will enjoy every minute of it! We talk about the following:

• How to deal with cynical stakeholders.
• Why people need to be ready to change to make things better.
• How to make a good school even better.
• Why you wake up with panic attacks in the middle of the night as a transformative principal.
• The best time to change education was 20 years ago, the second best time to change education is today!
• The excuses we make to not make changes.
• There is no such thing as an optimal time to make changes, but we need to have a sense of urgency.
• The state of Utah lost 19% of students (that didn’t graduate with a diploma). That is 1 in 5 kids! Unacceptable!
• If you don’t find a better way… You fall back to how you did it before. We need to focus on using research-based best practices to help our students.
• The importance of the Professional Learning Communities and Response to Intervention.
• We don’t need to find new things, we just need to get good at PLCs and RTI.
• There is no quick fix for schools.
• We need to remove the things that
• A super quick overview of PLCs and RTI in case you aren’t familiar with them. Based mostly on the work of DuFour and Eaker in Learning by Doing
• What a principal can do to be a transformative principal today: Identify the research that drives your day-to-day work and recognize the sense of urgency we have to ensure that learning is not optional.
• What he has in his office or a story: Simplify and focus. Story about teacher telling him that he is right in pushing forward.
• How to get ahold of him (He is not on the Twitter, but he is willing to help you by giving his email address. Bob [dot] sonju at wash.k12.ut.us)

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Sponsor: Sanebox

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL, and Renaissance Learning:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schoo