Episode Details

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—- The Question of the Week is supported by Summer Pops Math Workbooks.

Principals, when students practice math over the summer, math scores go up. What’s your summer math plan this year? A great way to start is by ordering FREE summer workbook samples at Summer Pops Workbooks.com. —-

Before this week’s interview, Jen Schwanke and Will Parker answered a question in a five minute response.

The question is: What are your thoughts on icebreakers at staff meetings?

Listen in for our response and thank you for doing what matters!

Meet Carlos Johnson

Carlos Johnson, also known as Coach Carlos, is a professional speaker, trainer, author, and educator with a proven track record in transforming school culture. He and his team have successfully turned around three public schools and one private Christian academy, using research-driven strategies that boost parental engagement, enrollment, and student retention nationwide.

His core belief is that “a highly engaged school culture is the mother of high performance,” which led him to develop the I.M.A.G.E. Culture Transformation System. This system, offered both online and onsite, trains thousands of parents, students, and educators annually on the psychology of engagement.

In 2015, as Principal of the Male Leadership Academy, he doubled enrollment, raised staff pay, improved school culture, and enhanced student performance. In response to the school-to-prison pipeline crisis, he also created Future Man Success Prep, a leadership and behavior course for boys. Coach Carlos’s passion for transforming institutions is clear in every training and speech he delivers.

He’s also the author of Power Engage: Seven Power Moves for Building Strong Relationships to Increase Engagement with Students and Parents.

Carlos notes that his work is not a labor of love, but a labor of pain. He noticed that there were some things missing in his education journey, and wanted to find a way to fill in those gaps. His book is a blend of personal history, recent research, and practical application inside schools. 

The Domino Effect:

Carlos says that we often ask kids, parents, teachers, and school leaders to move the world, without giving them the tools to do so. He has found that teachers and school leaders want one thing that will make everything else easier or unnecessary. That one thing is what Carlos calls a domino. Dominoes, he explains, use momentum to make big changes; small dominoes can knock over another domino 1.5x its size. Like dominoes, finding small, consistent ways to make change in schools everyday is what will eventually lead to big changes. So, rather than asking kids, parents, teachers, and school leaders to move the world, we should be asking them to find their domino, their daily small change that will lead to a monu