Podcasts about Richland School District

Richland School District has dismissed a substitute teacher for allegedly making Nazi salutes. A 50-year-old man is in custody after stabbing someone with a hatchet in Seattle. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) made very demeaning remarks about illegal immigrants. // Far-left journalist Michael Wolff has come out of the woodwork with a new book and claims he is being blacklisted. Trump says that many of Biden’s pardons should be voided because he signed them with autopen. Chuck Schumer says he’s rescheduling his book tour due to security concerns. :46 – A new poll shows Donald Trump flying high. Meanwhile, Democrats’ numbers are in the toilet.

Today our guests our Jennifer Klauss, Executive Director of Secondary Teaching & Learning and Derek O'Konek, Executive Director of Elementary Teaching & Learning both in the Richland School District. We talk to Jen & Derek about the CharacterStrong partnership that the Richland School District has as they support students. They highlight the successful implementation strategies observed, the deliberate construction of the program adoption process, and the lessons learned. Jen & Derek detail how they involved parents, teachers, administrators, and school board members in the process. They also describe the success of the coaching system that has been created to assist and support each of their 21 schools. Learn more about how you can bring CharacterStrong to your district or school:  Access FREE Curriculum Samples Attend our next live product preview Visit the CharacterStrong Website

All about the South Carolina DEN STAR  Teacher Design Team .We'll be talking to Niesha Butler who is a team partcipant and an   Instructional Designer at Richland School District #2 in South Carolina .....and also from Discovery Ed, Angela Lance who works with Niesha  and the statewide team to create curriculum and PD.

All about the South Carolina DEN STAR  Teacher Design Team .We'll be talking to Niesha Butler who is a team partcipant and an   Instructional Designer at Richland School District #2 in South Carolina .....and also from Discovery Ed, Angela Lance who works with Niesha  and the statewide team to create curriculum and PD.

On June 27th, 2023, I accepted the offer to serve as Richland School District Two Superintendent. I said yes. I have more than 28,000 reasons to say yes. I said yes to each and every student.  During this moment, we'll discuss my commitment to the well-being of every student in Richland School District Two for improved student success and a brighter future for all.#EducationalLeadershipGuide,Kim"Drop me a text now—I'd love to hear from you!" “When students are led well, they learn well.”Website: http://www.kimdmoore.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimdmooreYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EducationalLeaderThe views shared in the Educational Leadership Moment are solely mine and do not reflect the positions of my employer or any entity within the local, state, or federal government sectors.

In this episode we hear from Cathleen Lacey, @CathleenLacey. Cathy is the Curriculum Resource Teacher at Crayton Middle School in Richland School District 1, Columbia, SC. She is also a @SCASCD Emerging Leader and Microsoft Innovative Expert and Fellow. Cathy has a passion for inclusion and assistive technology and how they can help all students. Host: Susan Aplin, @AplinEDU.

Larry and Marty open the show discussing the incident that involves homecoming.  

Alyssa Gerlack, Pine-Richland Anti-Racist Coalition President, joins Larry and Marty to discuss a racist incident in the Pine-Richland School District. 

Richland School District 2 is now allowing parents to view the library catalog again, the current president is actually costing you money and Senator Josh Hawley (MO) incites violence by saying only women have the capacity for pregnancy. All of that and more on this episode of the fastest growing conservative podcast in South Carolina.Watch every episode on Facebook or listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Encouraging Creativity with Bible Story Skits Feel like you're running out of creativity when it comes to teaching the Bible to the kids in your life? We're here to help! In this episode, Bible2School teacher, Jody Grasser, talks about the power of engaging children's creativity and imagination through skits to help them remember Bible stories. Jody is passionate about God's Word and she has some great examples of skits and props that are sure to bring the Bible to life. She also provides some excellent teaching points to help make the stories relevant and even more engaging for children.  Don't miss this fun episode! And, be sure to check out our most recent [Bible2School At Home Resource](https://www.bible2school.com/bible2school-at-home/) that encourages your kids to find various props around the house to create a Bible skit! Feel free to take pictures or a video and share with us — we would love to see what your kids come up with!   JODY GRASSER is a life-long resident of the Johnstown PA area. She and her husband Steve have been involved in various aspects of children's ministry since the 1980's, at home and oversees! They have 5 adult children and 6 grandchildren, all of whom they enjoy visiting whenever possible. They also are very involved in caring for their elderly parents. Going on long walks with their dog Bo is a favorite activity each day! Jody serves as a large group leader and a small group leader with Bible2School Laurel Highlands, in the Richland School District program.  She absolutely loves seeing the children grasp the truth of God's Word.  Reinforcing how dearly God loves each child and that He will never leave them is a passion of Jody's heart. She so appreciates the loving group of volunteers that she is blessed to serve alongside with.   Resources For You: David & Goliath Adam & Eve The Prodigal Son Bible2School At Home Resource Next Steps: Share this podcast with a friend Subscribe to You CAN Tell the Children Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram Bring Bible2School to your public school

This episode actually goes back to the spring of 2020, when our kids were sent home for virtual learning. It's not an era I'd like to revisit, but I do want to share this one moment. As we head into a new year, I want you to remember that even a small act of kindness can improve the life of a child and that there's something very special about rural communities in that we collectively wrap-around our kids. Today you're meeting teacher, Megan Clerkin, and some of her sweet 1st graders from Doudna Elementary in the Richland School District in Southwest Wisconsin and an amazing grandmother, Deb Stuckey. When the 1st graders were sent home, back in 2020, Grandpa and Grandma Stuckey noticed the kids were having a hard time holding their iPads up for zooms and activities, so they decided to build custom, wooden iPad stands not just for their kids, bur for the whole class. Aspen & Grandpa Building the Stands Both Painting the Stands with Grandma Grandchildren Aspen & Baily with some of their classmates' finished iPad holders This episode is such a great reminder that in our rural communities we watch over each other. We raise all kids as if they were our own. I'm hoping you leave this episode feeling reaffirmed that together we can collectively solve problems and support our kids.

Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He's the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Additionally, he's the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. He's worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 20 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. Hans' blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, AIMS Network, and PBIS Rewards. He's written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He's been a contributor on three educational books: Define Your WHY, Teachers' Reflective Impact Journal and ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education. Hans is a part of the coveted Teach Better Speakers Network. He presents at conferences, schools, and districts all over the country. Topics include: Creating an Award Winning Culture, Amplifying Student Voice, Student-Led Podcasting, Infusing SEL into PBL, and Infusing Servant Leadership through PBIS. Hans believes that education at its highest level is about inspiring others to discover and develop their JOY.

Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He's the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Additionally, he's the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. He's worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. Hans' blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, AIMS Network, and PBIS Rewards. He's written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He's been a contributing writer on four educational books: “Teachers Deserve It,” “ Define Your WHY: Own Your Story So You Can Live and Learn On Purpose,” “A Teacher's Reflective Impact Journal,” and “ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education.”

* SUBSCRIBE TO BEFORE COLLEGE TV GET THE LATEST INTERVIEWS * TEXT HARLAN: 321-345-9070 * INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/HarlanCohen * FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HelpMeHarlan/ * TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/HarlanCohen * WEBSITE: www.HarlanCohen.com * BEFORE COLLEGE TV: HOSTED BY HARLAN COHEN | @HarlanCohen | www.HarlanCohen.com   During his educational career, Dr. Davis has served as a successful school leader in rural, urban and suburban school systems where his schools have been recognized for closing the achievement gap, increasing graduation rates and increasing Advanced Placement participation rates. Prior to being selected as the current superintendent of Richland School District Two, Dr. Davis served as assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent elect in the district. Dr. Davis has been instrumental in establishing many initiatives in the district including the Assistant Principal Academy, the Administrators Development Series, the Training Administrators Program and the Administrators Mentoring Program. He was also responsible for overall supervision for the opening of R2i2.   Twitter: @DrBaronDavis Instagram: drbarondavis   Talking Points: #RichlandSchoolDistrictTwo #collegesearch #firstgenstudent #leadership #superintendent   HARLAN'S BOOKS: https://harlancohen.com/store/ - The Naked Roommate and 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College - The Naked Roommate for Parents Only - Getting Naked: 5 Steps to Finding the Love of Your Life (While Fully Clothed & Totally Sober) - Dad’s Expecting, Too: An Expectant Father’s Guide   HARLAN'S ADVICE: https://harlancohen.com/advice/   ABOUT HARLAN: Harlan is a New York Times bestselling author of 6 books. He is the founder of BeforeCollegeTV. His live events, books, online programs, and workshops will change your life, impact your communities, and get you to places you’ve always wanted to go. Visit himwww.HarlanCohen.com.

This is one of those interviews that ALL educators should listen to. Hans Appel, author of Award Winning Culture, and co-host of the Award Winning Culture Podcast, shares steps that helped transform his school to become an award winning and nationally recognized middle school. Hans is definitely a school counselor at heart. He has worked in the Richland School District for the past 19 years. He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. That's exactly what he shares with us in this episode! Share this with your school staff! Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He’s the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Additionally, he’s the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. Website: http://www.awardwinningculture.com/#/ Award Winning Culture Book Links: at: Amazon OR Barnes & Noble Hans offer keynotes, breakout sessions, half-day, full day and 2 day professional development. Topics include: Creating an Award Winning Culture, Supporting PBIS through Servant Leadership, Infusing SEL into Project Based Learning, Amplifying Student Voice, and Student-Led Podcasting. To bring Hans to your next school, district, or conference event explore his availability at: teachbetter.com/speakersnetwork The Award Winning Culture Academy offers an ever-growing collection of courses to support educators’ quest to create joyful learning experiences for each student. Join Hans for a VIP pass to cutting edge theory and practice delivered in an on-demand style approach to professional development at: awardwinningculture.teachable.com Connect on Twitter/Instagram: @HansNAppel Facebook: Award-Winning-Culture You Tube: Award Winning Culture Email: awardwinningculture@gmail.com

In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Richland School District’s Director of Educational Services, Brandon Bailey.

Tara Jaraysi Kenning: "Teamwork makes the dream work." John C. Maxwell. I'm Tara Jaraysi Kenning, and I'm a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: So to be a go-to guy or a go-to girl, you must push through your fear of failure. Announcer: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward! Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Michelle Whitney. She's the superintendent of the Pasco School District. And fun fact about her, she's sort of a driver. So she said she can do a two-minute meditation a lot faster! Michelle, tell us about that. Michelle Whitney: Well, I just think it's about efficiency. You've got a lot to do. Two-minute meditation, we do it in 30 seconds. We move on to the work. We have things to do. I don't have time for that. Paul Casey: And her staff teases her about how fast she walks. Michelle Whitney: Right. Paul Casey: It's with intention. Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor, Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul. Thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus in two areas of financial plan. The first one is we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. On the other side of our practices, we do investment services. On the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform, and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone's looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone is 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com. Or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms, the easiest one being Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Michelle! I was privileged to meet you seven years ago in Leadership Tri-Cities. You were class- Michelle Whitney: 18. Paul Casey: And another one of the best classes ever, right? Michelle Whitney: That's right. We were actually the best class. Paul Casey: Oh, okay. I see. As opposed to number 11, which really was. Yes, and you had a different job at that time in the school district. You had gone from being a middle school principal into HR. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. Everyone was glad to see me when I was a middle school principal, and that changed drastically when I became director of HR. So it was tough transition. Paul Casey: HR managers, we love you! Thanks for listening. So Michelle, tell us your career highlights that got you to where you are today so our Tri-City influencers can get to know you and why you love what you do. Michelle Whitney: Well, I appreciate that question. I have a huge commitment to public service. My grandparents were both public servants. My grandfather was a police officer and chief of police of Pasco. My great-grandmother was a nurse at Our Lady of Lourdes, so I really come from a foundation in my family of civic service, and in particular, civic service to the community of Pasco. So I always wanted to be a teacher, and it was only right for me to tailor my education to be able to come back to a community that I loved and that my family had served in such amazing roles. And to be important in the lives of the students in Pasco has just been a gift. Michelle Whitney: And I've been extraordinarily blessed to serve in a variety of roles. I was a kindergarten teacher. I taught fourth grade. I was a counselor. I was a technology facilitator, a librarian. Paul Casey: Wow. Michelle Whitney: And it was always really just about offering my unique skills and talents to the organization so that I could be of best use to the organization and the kids of Pasco. Michelle Whitney: And then I really started a leadership journey, which I never intended to end up in a leadership role, but I was invited to the leadership table, if you will, by a mentor of mine. And I just feel a lot of gratitude towards the amazing mentors I've had over my career. I never saw myself that way, and it was by someone else recognizing those leadership talents in me and encouraging me in that direction that I took the risk to do an administrative internship program, became an assistant principal and then principal at the middle school. Then that started the trajectory into the district office with director of HR, which, having been a middle school principal and a counseling background, I was really uniquely prepared to do that job. Paul Casey: Yeah! Michelle Whitney: And I actually really loved that work. People joke with HR managers, but I do believe that in any organization, being able to be at the front line of hiring talent into an organization is just an extraordinary opportunity and gift. So that was amazing, and then I stepped into some other district office jobs. Michelle Whitney: And again, I would love to tell you I had this trajectory. I was going to teach kindergarten and then be the superintendent, but it wasn't really like that. And the opportunity to apply for the superintendency became open, and it really was about me throwing my name into the hat for a leadership position in a district I loved my entire life. And to be awarded that position was one of the greatest moments and has continued to be great moments since I was awarded the position. Michelle Whitney: I'm going into my fifth year. Every single year has had its complications. Every single year, I've been proud to be on the team and honored to do my part. So I have the best job ever, and the best part of my job is the students for sure. So sorry adults, you're second. Kids will always be first. Paul Casey: And I heard you tear up pretty easily when you think about those wonderful students. Michelle Whitney: I do. I do. In our organization, it's not uncommon for me to stand in front of a group of people, and I say, "We are," and the response is, "Pasco." It really for us is an outward commitment to our value of standing in the gap and bridging the divide for the students who need us the most. So when I'm in front of students or I'm in front of staff, it is not uncommon for me to be emotional about it because it isn't just a job for me. It truly me living that outward commitment every day. Michelle Whitney: And even when it's hard, I feel so extraordinarily blessed to be able to be part of what we're doing. And then when it's great and there's a success, those successes are just that much sweeter, and they really do truly move me to tears. Even talking to you about it, I get goosebumps. I live my purpose every day. And they say if you live your purpose, you never work a day in your life, and I truly feel like that I'm lucky in that way. Paul Casey: I think we're done here. That was an amazing- Michelle Whitney: Well, there you go. See? Efficiency. Paul Casey: ... story. Michelle Whitney: I told you. Paul Casey: That was an amazing story. Now I want to cry too. But living your purpose, so huge. Obviously, that's why I do what I do as a coach is to help people do exactly what you are feeling right now, so that's awesome. Paul Casey: Let's go back to that crossroads where you are going to take the jump into leadership or not, and you decided to move that direction. What helped you make that decision, and also what advice would you give someone else who might also be at a crossroads? "Should I take the jump into leadership, or should I just stay as a individual performer that I'm doing really well at?" Michelle Whitney: Right. So I think what helped me make that jump and take that risk was the courage of the support of the mentorship I had. So had it not been for Jean Carlton, who was the person who very first invited me into a leadership role, she really stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me in those early years in making sense of who I would be as a leader. And without that personal connection with her, I'm not sure I would have had the courage to take that first step. So I think that, as a leader now, I find that one of my purposes is to recognize other leaders and invite them in and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them. I don't think you can ever underestimate the power of somebody with that invitation and that offer of support.... I could give you a list of 100 people that have been amazing mentors to me. And I just I think it's that support from trusted mentors that gave me the courage to do it. Michelle Whitney: Really as I reflect back on it now as having had some experience and I hope some wisdom, there's really, all of us, no matter what role you play, you're a leader in your own right. So there's never really a downside to leaning in to the desire to explore that leadership characteristics of yourself. The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to learn some great skills and learn some things about yourself that will make you even better at what you're currently doing. But if you take that little bit of a risk, and maybe it's just a toe dip, it doesn't have to be a full jump at first, you'll likely find that it's a good fit for you. And then that success breeds success, and the more you try it out a little, and it's like you put the sweater on and it fits pretty good so you wear it around a little bit. But I would just encourage people, especially if you're nervous, find a trusted mentor, start slow, start small, but just continue to take those steps, and it's only going to make you better at whatever you choose to do. Michelle Whitney: You may never choose to be the person that is the front of a large organization, but leadership skills, regardless of what you choose to do, will always just make you a better contributor. And that's really what we are as leaders is contributors. So I would encourage anyone to take the risk if you're thinking about it, and again, find a trusted mentor that you can lean on because there are times where it's challenging, and you'll have self-doubts and having that mentor you can go to and be vulnerable about that is very important. Paul Casey: Fantastic answer because leadership is influence wherever you're at, and it will fill up your game no matter what you're doing. And I love how you said mentorship was a courage builder for you, even up to 100 people, which is probably true. It's probably not hyperbole. There's just a ton of people that we would not have taken that extra step had it not been for someone giving us that boost and saying you can do it. Maybe you're further along your journey, and you're like you need to turn around and bring somebody with you and mentor them, even if it's informal and you don't call it mentoring, but you want to help somebody along their journey. Paul Casey: Like you said, in five years, you've had a lot of issues to deal with in your position. You're smiling still! That's good. A lot of hassles, a lot of disappointments, a lot of things that get in the news making some people choose one side of an issue or another. But then there's the rewarding part of the job. We're not going to go into those other places. Here's the rewarding question, What allows you to focus then on those most rewarding things, and what is actually the most rewarding part of your job? Michelle Whitney: Well, I was very serious when I said the most rewarding part of my job is students. And, from the very first day that I started as superintendent and actually even prior during my successor year, I had a transition year, which was gift, I prioritized being in classrooms. There is nothing more magical than the relationship between students and their teachers. So I scheduled on the calendar Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays every morning when we were in person to start in classroom. Michelle Whitney: Most days I would get there. Some days I wouldn't. I got there more than I would if I didn't schedule it in. Some days I could stay a long time. Some days I could only be in one or two classrooms, but I always prioritized that. And it does a lot of different things. Michelle Whitney: One, it keeps me connected to what teaching means now. It's been a while since I've been in a classroom, and teaching is not the same as when I was in a classroom. So I think that's very important to stay in touch with those you're in service to so you can do right by them in your decision-making. Michelle Whitney: But there is nothing that feeds my soul more than students. So in this pandemic environment, I've done the same thing in that I am scheduled to go into Zoom classrooms. And one morning, I was in a kindergarten classroom, and they were doing this good morning routine where they would say good morning to one another. And of course, I'm in tears. There's nothing more sweet than kindergartners saying good morning to each other by name. And it's those moments where you can really connect with why we do our work, the sweetest kindergarten doing the most genuine thing by saying good morning to one another reminds you that those hard moments are worth it, that there's students depending on you, and that there's this kindness in our system. That's what makes the hard moments for me worth it is I stay connected to those things that are closest to students, students, teachers in the classrooms. Michelle Whitney: And I have to tell you, that's what's made this pandemic so challenging is we're thrust into the really hard parts of our job for most of our job, and you have to be a lot more intentional about getting out and participating in those things that the really feel your soul, feed your bucket, whatever those things are that you say. For me, I have never lost sight of what it means to be a teacher. I walk around with a teacher's heart, and I think that's why I cry is it touches that part of me that is so important. And like I said, I stay really closely connected to students, and that for me is the difference in those dark moments. Paul Casey: So cool that you kept your goal of being physically present, even, well, Zoom is not physical, but you still kept that goal alive. You found a way to still be in classrooms, even though it's online in order to do that. That's pretty neat. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. It's incredible. I get to read stories, and the kids bring their puppies and baby sisters to the Zoom. So in so many ways, you get to experience even more of a student's life. So it's been a gift really. And while in-person education is what we're about and who we're about, there really truly have been some silver linings to this environment. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I was an elementary principal so I totally get teacher, vice principal, principal, the journey. And playing with the kids at recess was a bunch of fun. I even sprained my ankle one year playing freeze tag. Michelle Whitney: Mine was flag football. Paul Casey: Was it? Michelle Whitney: So yes. I, yeah. Paul Casey: It's like the scar of courage- Michelle Whitney: Yeah, it's a rite of passage. Yeah, uh-huh (affirmative). Paul Casey: But that is where the joy was for sure. So leaders must keep growing or they become irrelevant. How have you matured as a leader, I'll just say in these five years of being superintendent? Michelle Whitney: Oh, that's a great question. I think the number one way that I've matured as a leader is by listening. I do a lot of listening to the people that I'm in service to. So I meet with parents a lot. I've done lots of different ways of doing that. Of course, pre-pandemic I did community coffee events. I've done Soup with the Superintendent. Since the pandemic, I've done some virtual town hall meetings. You go out and listen, but it's listen with intention. And it's really listening to understand those you're in service to, what they need from you, and reflecting on those decisions that you need to make and the kind of leader you need to be on behalf of those you're in service to. Michelle Whitney: I also do a lot of listening to teachers and staff in a lot of the same ways by being present, and I have the most amazing thing. I have a superintendent student advisory council. So I have 30 high school students that meet with me six times a year, and we tackle really difficult issues together, whether it's planning for a new high school or changing boundaries or overcrowding issues or social, emotional, health issues. Again, it's about being present with them and listening to them and tailoring my leadership and the way that I make decisions and what I prioritize and focus on in a way that they need me to do right by them on their behalf. Michelle Whitney: I would love to tell you it was some professional development training I went to or some class I took, but it really wasn't. It was being present in my system and listening to those that I've made a commitment to represent and learning from them how I can be better and different in order to serve them in the best possible way. Michelle Whitney: High school kids know what they need from us, and know what they need from us around very complex issues. The most diligent group of people that I saw work on a set of boundaries in a couple of facilities plan was that superintendent student advisory council. Michelle Whitney: So I joke that really we should let the students run the place. I just need to buy lunch and give them a ride. They truly do know what they need from us, and we just have to create opportunity for them to participate. And it's in those moments where I feel like I'm my best self and I'm my best leader for them. And I feel like it's a gift. Paul Casey: Learning by listening. Yeah, I was part of a group in Richland School District. I feel like it was called Focus years ago. I don't know if it still exists today. I was part of the faith community then, too, to come in, and it was all the folks that cared about students and could provide auxiliary services. Plus, the principals were in there. Plus, these cream of the crop students were in there, and they blew me out of the water! The maturity of speaking in front of these scary adults, and they're holding their own and saying, "These are the programs that we got growing. These are the thing we needed." I could totally see how that would be an energizing meeting for you. Michelle Whitney: Oh, it's incredible. Paul Casey: Just to further validate the whole listening post, I had a boss who do a listening post, he would call it. He would invite a dozen of the constituent monthly, and he would ask the same set of questions to each one to hear on the ground level of how to serve them in a nonprofit. And then just yesterday, I'm part of the National Speaker Association, and a board member called me from the Northwest Chapter and just said, "I'm a board member, and I'm just trying to get ground-level intel of how we can best serve our constituency." And I was like, "Wow!" He followed up with an email, and we even played with a couple of ideas for the pandemic of how to speak virtually. I'm like, I think it's always a great move when a leader gets down on the ground with the frontline people, who know all the answers, like you said, they how to run the school, and listen to them. Paul Casey: Well, as a superintendent, it must be hard, with a huge to-do list and probably a billion emails coming in, to know how to spend your time, how to triage tasks, how to know what to delegate and what you have to own. How do you sort how to spend your time? Michelle Whitney: Yeah. That's a great question, and I'm going to be really honest with you because if I'm not, the people that know me will call me on that. That probably is my biggest weakness, because I believe so deeply in every single person that I'm in service to, and we have a large organization, almost 20,000 students, which represent 40 to 60,000 parents, 2,200 employees, five board members. And every single one of those interactions is important to me. So the whole delegation and all of that is absolutely a work in progress. Michelle Whitney: For me, I think one of the biggest pieces that I'm blessed with, and this may sound cliché, but it's absolutely critical is to have an executive assistant that you trust. My assistant is absolutely incredible. She knows what I need to work well. She knows what I need as a person to function well. She's my number one fan. I'm fairly certain I'm her favorite person in the universe above and beyond everyone else. And on those hard days, I know for sure that my assistant still likes me. That's just that, not only does she help me organize myself professionally, she makes sure I'm where I'm at with what I need, my calendar is organized and squared away, but she's also that person that's there to bolster and support on the days when days are tough. Michelle Whitney: And I think that executive assistant and, for me, superintendent of management relationship is so important to have a person that you can go, "Oh my gosh. I don't know how to... I'm not going to be able to get all this done," and something that you can delegate and help follow through with those priorities. Michelle Whitney: The other piece is I have a great team. And we're learning about the strengths of the team together over the last five years. We've utilized a book called StrengthsFinder 2.0. And that was really a game changer in terms of knowing and understanding where people fell out around those strength characteristics and really now trying to organize work function up against and those and trying to collapse some of the siloed nature of the way work is typically done in a large organization to be able to align work tasks with people's strengths. Michelle Whitney: So I'm not a great executor. That's not my strength. I'm big vision, relationships, but the details of beginning to end is not my strength, but I know I have a colleague and a teammate that that is her strength. So when I need help with that task, I go to that person. I think knowing the strengths and talents of the people around you is a real efficiency builder, and then having someone like an assistant like I have, Jenny is amazing, that really can help you prioritize, especially for someone like me that everything is equally important all the time. And that's just not viable in the long term. You can do that for a short period of time, but at some point, you need some help in making sure that you're keeping the right things up front all the time. Paul Casey: What do those meetings with Jenny look like? How do you sort, prioritize? What do you discuss? Is it regimented? Is it ad hoc? What does it look like? Michelle Whitney: Yeah. That's a great question. I think with Jenny and I, it's evolved over time. We started out with it being scheduled that if I get to go to a kid thing or meet with Jenny on virtual. Paul Casey: That's going to bump it. Yeah. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. So Jenny was getting bumped all the time. Then it became more ad hoc. Lately, what's been amazing about this virtual environment is she just comes to the meeting, whatever meeting I'm in that I feel like I'm going to need her in, she is in there virtually, and she can listen to the meeting and help me prioritize that way. My thinking post-pandemic, when we're back to a more normal environment, I think that organization works best for us. So those meetings that she can be at with me or helping facilitate or there as a note-taker, I think that, we've landed on that arrangement for us probably works better. Michelle Whitney: But I think the key to all of that is you have to figure it out for yourself. That management system with your assistant is going to be very assistant-and-manager-specific in terms of how your personality works. So the key is finding something that works. I don't think it has to look any single way, but it has to work for both of you. Paul Casey: Sounds good. Well, before we head into our next question on external relationships, a shout-out to our sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul. That's a great question. Really, I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over-information in that sense. Those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic! So Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is 509-591-5301. You can send an email to mario.martinez@nm.com, or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: So it's been very clear, Michelle, that leadership is relationships for you, that you believe that like I do. You've talked about a lot of internal relationships within the school and school system. Now you've got this community around you. So how do you intentionally develop relationships with the City of Pasco and beyond? Michelle Whitney: That's a great question. I feel very lucky. The City of Pasco, the city manager, Dave Zabell in Pasco, we have what's called a Create Group. It's the port, the city, the public utility, the county. I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, but it's the leadership of the infrastructure of Pasco. And we meet monthly, and we keep each other updated on those core functions that would overlap. So for me, I often report out on facilities or potential construction projects. They're also very interested in our educational programming. So we give updates there. That, I think, is an incredible unique opportunity for us to partner as a collective for the good of our community. Michelle Whitney: I'm also a Kiwanian, and we have representation at all of the local groups like the Chamber of Commerce and so on. I think that's very important. Maybe it's not always me that's at those tables, but there's someone from our organization at those tables that can act as a liaison. Michelle Whitney: The other piece, though, for me is, like I mentioned earlier, those community coffees, that I do them monthly. I've done that almost consistently in at least the last four years if not five in some variation, whether it's at the Starbucks, or we did Soup with the Supe at the Booth Building one time. But that really is just an open invitation to anyone who wants to come and sit knee-to-knee, shoulder-to-shoulder with me. And we talk about whatever they want. It's not a pre-canned presentation that I do. They just bring topics and discussion and we talk about, and I answer whatever questions there are. I think those are the relationships, too. Michelle Whitney: So there's the organized groups that you would expect an organizational leadership to be interacting in. Certainly we participate in all of those, but there are people out there who want to build relationship or want to be in a relationship with the school district and don't maybe know how, or maybe don't know what they want to do. That's where those more informal opportunities like a community coffee come in really handy for people who just come and say, "Hey, here's a skill or talent I have. I want to get involved. How could that look?" And then I just am a big connector at that point, and I'm like, "Hey, you need to get in contact with that person." The night Jenny's there, and I say, "Hey, Jenny, will you get them in contact?" Then she takes care of making those connections. But it's that central location at the Starbucks community coffee that they know the superintendent will be there and listen. Michelle Whitney: Then over the last year or so, I've started to invite some of my executive team there, too, so that there's other people other than just me there that I can connect folks to. So that's been a great relationship builder. Then we have phenomenal programs like our PEAK! Partnership Program where I have a staff who go out and talk to organizations in the community that want to partner directly with schools. So we have some real innovative organized efforts like that as well. Michelle Whitney: We don't do the work for educating kids on our own. It's truly a system-wide and a community-wide effort to build that network of support and lift all of our students. And I'm proud to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the community. Paul Casey: Well, Tri-City Influencer listeners, Soup with the Supe, so you could steal that idea if you're a supervisor- Michelle Whitney: There you go! Paul Casey: ... not just a superintendent. Michelle Whitney: That's right! Paul Casey: And post-COVID you can have with you. I love it! So we rarely talk about money on this podcast, but every leader has to know their organization's financials. I know you've got a whole finance department, I would assume, within the district. But what do you have to stay accountable to? What does evaluation of finances look like in your position? Michelle Whitney: Yeah, that's a great question. Education finance and funding has been in a state of flux over the last three or four years…Probably longer than that, but since I've been in the superintendency, it's been in a flux and change post-McCleary. So I've had to stay very in tune with learning all the new legislation and how the laws are impacted because it was a complete shift in the way things were done. One, it was legislative advocacy around the McCleary decision, pre-McCleary decision, and then post-McCleary, it was about learning and understanding those aspects of the change in the way education funding was done. Michelle Whitney: But then it's really about my interfacing with the school board to build some benchmarks and goals and priorities for a philosophy about the way we spend our dollars. So my interface with the school board to ensure that we're building budgets that are in alignment with their philosophy and their goals and to meet our strategic planning priorities. So that's really the level that my leadership and influence is at is making sure that the way that we're budgeting and prioritizing dollars is in alignment with our strategic plan and our board's vision for our district. Michelle Whitney: And then I work very closely with our business office. I typically supervise directly assistant superintendents. My business officer is an executive director, but I directly supervise him because he is in charge of the district finances. And that was personal decision that I made. Not all superintendents or supervisors do it that way, but one, he was new. The funding was new, and I was new. So we all are learning together, and it's again, that spending time together, knee-to-knee, shoulder-to-shoulder learning is the best way, I think, to build team and accountability together, especially around something as important as finances. Michelle Whitney: We also do a fair amount, or I do a fair amount of interfacing with the community around things like bond planning and levy planning. And we do that through community task forces. And I had an assistant superintendent who did an extraordinary job in interfacing with a group called the Community Builders who helped us plan out a district strategic plan around our facilities. And then of course, layered on top of that is bonds and how those cycles will work. So it's really a multi-tiered effort as a superintendent in a school district, and there's a variety of stakeholders who are involved in different ways in education and finance decision-making. I think it's a really fascinating part of the work. It's a very complicated part of the work. Michelle Whitney: Recently, in the last couple of years, we've had to make some adjustments because the McCleary funding that would require us to repurpose dollars and really there were some areas that we were going to need to reduce. And we got teachers very involved, staff, building-level staff very involved in that. I went out and did a budget presentation, actually two presentations at every single building, and then invited people to come to the table to help us build some budget efficiencies. So we're really working hard to broaden the ownership and leadership around educational finance in Pasco. And we just started to get traction around that work pre-COVID, and then of course, COVID hit. So once we get back to something that appears a little more predictable, we'll get back to that. Michelle Whitney: But I felt like that was an extraordinary opportunity to peel back the curtain of finance of any big organization is complicated. I'm really excited about picking that work back up. Paul Casey: You mentioned strategic planning. You also mentioned in your StrengthsFinder. Vision is huge for you, by the way, huge StrengthsFinder fan. It's called CliftonStrengths now, but Tri-City Influencer listeners, please look up StrengthsFinder 2.0 the book or CliftonStrengths. There's a $19.99 version which will give you your top five. You'll be like, "Someone's reading my mail when you look at it." You're like, "Wow! This is what I love." And if you can be doing that 80% of your work day, you're going to love what you do. And talk to your supervisor about that. You can do it as a whole team. Paul Casey: I can facilitate that for you. It would just be a super fun thing to realize, "Wow, you're so good at that. You should be doing more of that!" And, "Wow, you don't do good at that? What's a way that we can move that around on a team?" Paul Casey: So when you think about the next hill to climb as a district, and you think about continuous improvement, what's your process for that? Michelle Whitney: Well, right now our focus really was derailed in the face of and the impacts of COVID. My eye now is on transitioning our students back into some kind of in-person learning that's safe for them over the course of the next few months and then really getting specific and intentional about how we bridge the impact of the disruption to their educational experience. Michelle Whitney: So we had a really nice trajectory of focus starting in my first year with identifying some outrageous outcomes and strategic plans, and we just refreshed and got a brand new strategic plan approved in January before COVID. So those things really are push-pinned on the bulletin board right now as we're getting really hyper-focused on how do we met the needs of our kids during a pandemic in this just extraordinarily complicated environment. Michelle Whitney: We will need to get back to that. Matter of fact, in January, we'll start again with the board re-calibrating our expectations of the strategic plan, and it will then be focusing on what is life after, post-COVID, or as we start to get kids back. It will be about how do we fill those gaps that have been created by a disruption in the traditional education environment. So those processes for me are done in coordination and collaboration with stakeholders that are closest to the work. So we involve our teachers and our students, and there's a lot of listening that happens and serving that happens and focus groups and task force that happen. So I would envision those things starting to occur. Michelle Whitney: Once we get back to something that's a little bit more predictable, right now, people's priority and focus is dealing with the current crisis. And it truly is still a crisis for us. We've been in a crisis mode since March 13th, so it's really difficult to get people to, and really probably inappropriate to try to get people to think about something more long range. It's like you wouldn't be thinking of building your next house while your current house is on fire. So we really just need to honor where we are right now and know that there'll be work to be done when we get back to something that's a little bit more normal. Michelle Whitney: But my process is really around valuing those closest to the work. They know what they need from us, empowering them in the decision-making, and then being really specific and strategic and intentional about a few key priorities, and I think that was mistake I made early on as a leader is taking on too many things. I'm a person that likes to do too many things, but organizations don't. And I don't mean any single person in an organization. Just systems don't. So when you think about a system like a rubber band, if you stretch it too tight, it'll break, and systems are the same way. So that's been a huge learning piece for me as an individual leader, that you really have to be keyed into systems don't work the same way as you do as an individual leader. Michelle Whitney: So part my leadership responsibility is to help narrow people's focus so that we can get really good at a few things versus having our attention spread across a lot of different things. And I'll tell you, we're not quite there yet as an organization, but we certainly have our eye on that. And this strategic plan that we had in place pre-COVID puts us in a nice spot for that. So we'll be able to pick that up post-COVID and move forward. Paul Casey: Great. Yeah, that makes total sense. I like to say too much change too fast kills change, and it kills you! Michelle Whitney: It's true. It's true. Paul Casey: Well, finally, Michelle, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Michelle Whitney: So, new leaders, I would just say, be kind and gentle with yourself. Find a network of people that you can talk to and that you trust, and be vulnerable with them about what you don't know. Maybe don't be vulnerable with everybody about what you don't know, but find a few people that you really, really trust because none of us as leaders know everything. There is such great learning in vulnerability. So that would be a huge piece of advice for new leaders. Michelle Whitney: And like I said, be kind and gentle with yourself. There are things looking back now, I wish I would have done differently in my first couple years, but I learned from that. We make changes, and we move forward from there. Michelle Whitney: Continuing to evolve in your own leadership, while I talked about listening as learning, that's one part of learning. But there really is the piece about extending yourself beyond your current knowledge base and whether it's through a professional organization that you're involved in or a group or a network of people, reaching out and maybe targeting one key professional development that you want to extend, one in a year, and just being really thoughtful and strategic and gentle about that choice. I think that's always a good thing, to pick one thing that you're going to really extend, maybe beyond your own comfort zone and lean into something that maybe scares you a little every year, and making a commitment to doing that. And either doing it as an individual leader or as a leadership team, I think is always also a really a great thing to keep in mind. Michelle Whitney: Because it's easy in the busyness of our lives to forget about extending ourself in some formal professional development, too. So there's the informal listening and learning to be a better person and a better professional, but there's certainly that formalized professional development that also meets a need for us as leaders and influencers. Paul Casey: Well, Michelle, how can our listeners best connect with you? Michelle Whitney: Well, email is always the best way to connect with me. I'm on that thing all the time. Just ask my husband. He'll tell you. But I do take great joy in interfacing and being a support and assistance to fellow leaders. People always say, "Oh, but you're so busy. We don't want to bother you." It is never a bother to sit with someone who needs me to be a good listener. Email's always a great way to get in contact with me, and I'm always happy to help and be of support and assistance. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well! Michelle Whitney: Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Michelle was just talking about getting more leadership proficiencies in your professional development, especially if you're an emerging leader or a young professional. I offer a program called Leader Launcher. Paul Casey: Leader Launcher is a Tri-City program for young professionals and emerging leaders where I do a training two hours every month on a leadership proficiency. You'll turn that into an action plan, be able to bring that back to your workplace and use it right away in your workplace. It'll be professional growth or leadership, and you can go to leader-launcher.com to sign up. For a full-year program, you'll get 24 hours of training that you'll be able to then apply right on the ground there at work. So leader-launcher.com. Paul Casey: Again this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Michelle Whitney from Pasco School District for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you to make a difference in your circle of influence. It's a quote from Zig Ziglar. He said, "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward! Announcer: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show! Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership, and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Announcer: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word Growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Educator, Speaker, Writer, fellow Teach Better Team Podcaster Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He's the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Additionally, he's the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. He's worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. Hans' blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, AIMS Network, and PBIS Rewards. He's written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He's been a contributor on three educational books: Define Your WHY, Teachers' Reflective Impact Journal and ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education. Hans believes that education at its highest level is about inspiring others to discover and develop their JOY. Hans' Story - Educator by Day ACES home, childhood oasis, connected to teachers and adults because of this Developed a student led podcast. Education nerds that start the day with a walk. School Culture blog (AWC), student podcast, Podcast, then the book Loves the idea of educators creating content Award Winning Culture People wanted to know how they were getting results School began winning awards - ASCD Whole Child “What is the magic happening here?” School-wide framework Character, Excellence, Community - “House Rules” Jen is writing the sequel; designed for the classroom SEL & Character Ed … “They are the Plate” Challenge: Story of an assault scenario in school. This was a veteran teacher; these kids were not enemies Hopeful: A renewed focus on the whole child. Inspire others to develop their joy. Live out your why! Pursue joy! It is deeper than happiness. “A pizza on Friday, makes me happy...maybe a beer too.” GUEST CONTACT TWITTER - Hans Appel HOST CONTACT INFORMATION TWITTER Dr. Jeff Prickett Adam DeWitt FACEBOOK Principal Leadership Lab Dr. Jeff Prickett Adam DeWitt

In this episode of The Wired Educator Podcast, I interview Hans Appel.  Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child.  He's the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community.  Additionally, he's the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture.  He's worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened.  He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness.  In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy.  Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category.   In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn.   Hans' blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, AIMS Network, and PBIS Rewards.  He's written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong.  Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence.  He's been a contributor on three educational books:  Define Your WHY,  Teachers' Reflective Impact Journal and ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education.  Hans believes that education at its highest level is about inspiring others to discover and develop their JOY. Mentioned in this podcast:  Want to give your child or a child you know the gift of confidence and tools to tackle worry and anxiety? Order my new book Unthink Before Bed. It is a children's book on mindfulness. It's the perfect gift and bedtime book. I am so proud of it! It is a very fun read. Hans's book: Award Winning Culture: Building Intentionality and Action through Character, Excellence, and Community Hans is the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team Hans's website: awardwinningculture.com Follow Hans on: Twitter: @awculture @HansNAppel Instagram: @AwardWinningCulture Award Winning Culture Blog Award Winning Culture Podcast Sign-up for Kelly's newsletter here. Kelly Croy is an author, speaker, and educator. If you'd like to learn more about Kelly or invite him to your school or conference to speak please send him an email. • Listen to Kelly's other podcast, The Future Focused Podcast, and subscribe to the more than 40 episodes to help you level-up your leadership and design a more dynamic life. • Subscribe to The Wired Educator Podcast with over 182 episodes of interviews and professional development. • Visit Kelly's website at www.KellyCroy.com. • Looking for a dynamic speaker for your school's opening day? • Consider Kelly Croy at www.KellyCroy.com • Order Kelly's books, Along Came a Leader and Unthink Before Bed: A Children's Book on Mindfulness for your personal library. • Follow Kelly Croy on Facebook.  • Follow Kelly Croy on Twitter.  •  Follow Kelly Croy on Instagram  [convertkit form=1190516] [fusebox_full_player social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_linkedin="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ]    

Hans Appel is an educator, speaker and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He's the author or, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence and Community. Additionally, he's the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, co-host of the Award Winning Culture Podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. He’s worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 20 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation. Hans’ blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, AIMS Network, and PBIS Rewards. He’s written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. Snag a copy of Hans’ new book, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community at: Amazon OR Barnes & Noble Connect on with Hans Twitter/Instagram: @HansNAppel Email: awardwinningculture@gmail.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/aneducatorslegacy/support

Tara Jaraysi Kenning: "Teamwork makes the dream work," John C. Maxwell. I'm Tara Jaraysi Kenning, and I'm a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: A good rule of thumb is before you speak, ask yourself, is what I'm about to say true, necessary and kind? TNK Announcer: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-cities Influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching, and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Tony Howard. He is the assistant superintendent of human resources for the Richland School District. I asked him for a fun fact about him. And he said, "Well, during this Corona crisis, the family has decided to watch Survivor reruns." And I said, "You know what? We are too." So I think we're on season 23 going back. And we both said we would never do that in a normal time, but what are we going to do? It'll be our memory for the Corona season is watching survivor reruns. Paul Casey: Well, we're going to dive in with Tony after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsors. Preston House: Hi, my name is Preston House, and I'm the local owner of Papa John's Pizza right here in Tri-cities. Jesus Melendez: I'm Jesus Melendez, vice president and commercial lender with Community First Bank and HFG trust. Preston House: When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old, so when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner. Jesus Melendez: Small business owners often have a lot on their plate: employment retirement plans, payroll bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life, and is motivated by providing people in our community, like Preston, with all the information and support they need all under one roof. Preston House: It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call. No automated prompts, no call waiting. It's just a local business serving another local business. Jesus Melendez: For more information on how Community First bank and HFG trust can help you get back on track. Visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community1st.com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Tony. I was privileged to meet you years ago. Boy, how many years ago would that be? Tony Howard: I think in 2007, '08, '09? Maybe in there somewhere. Paul Casey: That sounds right, yeah. Yes. My kids were in middle school at Enterprise Middle School. And you were one of the administrators there. Since I was an administrator, I thought, I like to bond with my kids' teachers and principals, so I invited you to lunch or coffee, and you said yes. So that was great. We could talk shop together and I've watched as you continued to move up the chain since then in the district office. So thanks for all you do for our school system. Tony Howard: Well, thank you. I'm really glad to be here today. I appreciate the invitation. Paul Casey: Absolutely. So let's let our listeners get to know you a little bit. Take us through a couple of career highlights that led you to what you're doing now, and also throw in there why you love what you do. Tony Howard: Well, thanks again. I'm really proud to be a lifer in K-12 public ed. I started as a classroom teacher in the early 90s. This is my 27th year. Paul Casey: Wow. Tony Howard: Which I don't know where the time goes. The last 13 of it in Richland, this'll be the start of year 14 in Richland. Worked on both sides of the mountains in the state of Washington. I was a teacher and assistant principal, then principal. What really stands out to me is just the people that I've known along the way and the relationships I've made and people that have taken a 23 year old know-it-all under their wing and let me learn my lessons the hard way, but in a structure of support. I really did imprint on some of that and have tried to model that in my own leadership career with folks. Tony Howard: And now, here we are 27 years later in the middle of trying to redefine public ed on the fly in this brave new world. It's just been an exciting time. I've been in HR for 10 years, as a principal for eight prior to that. Just at every stop, I've had just a wonderful opportunity to work with kids and parents and teachers and staff members and community folks, and coffee with people like you, 12, 13 years ago, that paid off today. That's really been the career highlight for me, is being able to pay all that back to the people that have helped me. Paul Casey: Wow. That's fantastic. Let me ask you this. Was there a time ever in that 27 years that you just said, "Maybe I should think about doing something else?" Did you ever have those days? Tony Howard: I think that 99% of all the days are good days. Like in any career, there are days where you go, "Oh, wow." But I've heard this quote once, "A setback is an opportunity for a comeback." Something like that. Paul Casey: I love that. Tony Howard: Something like that. So, no, I am really proud of the work that I've been able to do with kids and parents and families and communities over the last 27 years, and I'm a pretty happy K-12 guy. Paul Casey: So throughout the journey, you probably hit some obstacles to success, even though you didn't consider making the jump out of there. So what's one of the biggest hurdles you overcame in your career? Tony Howard: It took me some time as a young administrator ... this is 2003, four or five ... to learn the concept of I versus we. I learned some hard, painful lessons about I versus we, and the damage that I can cause, and the power that we can cause. Learning from those experiences really helped my career as an administrator take off because I learned through some speed bumps that it's not about me at all. Leadership is, in part, checking your ego at the door and looking for ways to move the collective forward in a way that's positive for the system. Tony Howard: Has nothing to do with Tony being brilliant or not brilliant on a particular topic. And that took some time. I don't have to have all the right answers. I don't have to always have to insert my opinion everywhere. It helps build trust with the people who work with me and for me, both subordinate in my department and within the organization. But at the end of the day, my role is to facilitate the growth for kids in the public school setting. It's not about what I want, necessarily. That was hard. I was young and pretty headstrong and thought I had it all figured out and really didn't. And like I said, in the open, had some very special people take a liking to the potential that I had and worked me through growing up a little bit. Paul Casey: Wow. So if you're willing to be vulnerable, what was the lesson you learned the hard way? With the whole damage of I. By the way, love that Tri-City influencers. If you missed it, he said, "The damage of I and the power of we." That's a keeper. That's a tweetable moment right there. Tony Howard: I think my first year as an assistant principal way back when, on the other side of the mountains, we had a hearing or something going on with the principal. I was the assistant principal and got a call, "Bring over some stuff to the hearing." I brought it over and made a passing offhand comment, and kind of joking to the district secretary when I came in the door, "I'm here to save the principal." It was a total in jest kind of comment. It landed poorly. "I'm here to save," That's not going to work in terms of what leadership is. Tony Howard: While I maybe didn't appreciate it at the time, rightfully so, got my bell rung pretty good about the fact that, first of all, I don't do anything. Second of all, we don't say that to each other. And third of all, it's time for you to grow up and sit in the chair that you need to sit in. I remember, it was done at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon, which was always tactically brilliant when you're trying to deliver lessons of love, you know? Tony Howard: I got to chew on it all weekend and decided he was right and I was going to make some changes. Within 15 months, I got moved from an assistant principal to a principal, and we're off to the races. So that's that tough love, that invest in potential, that I think is important for leaders to see. While I didn't appreciate getting chewed out, it was the greater good and he was right. Paul Casey: Yeah. You mentioned that some people took you under their wing and maybe taught you some of those lessons. Were those some mentors in your life? Were those other educators? Who were those folks in your life along the way that you really respect them speaking into your life? Tony Howard: I think all was the answer to that. This particular example was a supervisor. The superintendent brought me in and let me have it pretty good. But I never once thought ... and I think this is important in leadership ... that he was attacking me the person. He was getting after a bad choice in an effort of growth. Because he could fire me if you wanted to. That's the way it goes. But he chose to invest. Tony Howard: So I've had really good experiences with superintendents and principal, administrative colleagues over the years. The strongest bonds I have are with folks that aren't afraid to question, or aren't afraid to push on me a little bit. I appreciate intelligent discourse. I work in human resources. All we do is manage conflict. Paul Casey: Whoo hoo! Tony Howard: Nobody calls us up and says, "Hey, great job." We're always working on some sort of thing. So I appreciate folks that, with the right intention, ask hard questions and we're looking for the common right answer. I wouldn't be who I am professionally without my wife, as a counterpoint. She's got insight. She's not an administrator K-12 and she doesn't run in the world I run in professionally every day, but there are times where she has insight into who I am. She knows me pretty well, and will bring me up and have me think about a couple of things, which I like. Because like I said, it's not about me being right. It's about what's right for the system. We all get stuck in our thinking once in a while and really need those people to trust, to kind of push you. Paul Casey: That's right. Receiving feedback is difficult for many people, and I think if you do approach like you do with that, let's move ego and put it to the side, because ego usually leads to defensiveness. Somebody said, "Ego is edging greatness out." That's a good little acronym for that. Tony Howard: Yeah. Paul Casey: That way, you can receive it better. So leadership is difficult. Tony, what's your biggest ongoing challenge as a leader? What's really stretching you either in a positive way stretching, but it's uncomfortable? Tony Howard: Well, we'll set COVID aside. Paul Casey: Yes. That's its own bailiwick. Tony Howard: That's a whole other podcast, I think probably, in terms of what the leadership challenges that are. For me, it has been ... and I have this discussion a lot with paying it forward to newer administrators and aspiring leaders ... is the difference between responsibility and authority. I am the assistant superintendent of HR. My job is to assist the superintendent and the school board in moving forward labor and human resources kinds of issues. I have significant responsibility in the org chart to bargain with unions and solve problems and address personnel, and all those things that happen in HR. But I don't supervise anyone. I don't have, necessarily, the authority to walk in and say, "You, principal or you, teacher have to do this." Tony Howard: I supervise my department, but I have all of this systemic responsibility and my authority while it's there. If someone's doing something illegal, I can say, "Knock it off." But much more, it's lead by influence because I don't have the supervisory direct relationship with 2000 employees in the school district. I like that. I liked being able to be a problem solver without the threat of evaluation and over the top of a conversation, or being able to coach because I'm not the one that's going to write your evaluation. Tony Howard: I find that causes different conversations sometimes with folks. But you have lots of responsibility, not a ton of authority when it comes to just, "You shall do this." The leadership art of that is being able to work with people to move an agenda forward without just telling them to do it. Paul Casey: That's right. Inspire them forward. Tony Howard: Exactly. Paul Casey: So, if you had a leadership philosophy that would be put front and center on a bulletin board in your office for all to see, what would some of those messages say? Tony Howard: I do presentations all the time for aspiring teachers. How do you get your first job? How do I interview? I think we'll get to the answer here. And I always talk about, don't throw away the easy points. Don't ... How do I say this? ... give up things that are easy, that you cannot be taught. And the examples I use is, I can't teach you to have a good work ethic. You can't do it. I can't teach you to be nice to each other in the workplace. I can't teach you to like kids, which would seem like a no brainer in our profession, but it happens. Tony Howard: I can teach you curriculum. I can teach you an assessment strategy. If there's some classroom management kinds of issues, there's a billion different strategies for that. But I can't teach you to fundamentally love the game. I think that has always transferred well in terms of a leadership philosophy for me: work hard, be honest, keep an eye on the big picture. I use a balcony example. I think I read it in a book once. Get on the balcony and look out over the organization, because your decisions sometimes impact in ways you don't even understand. Tony Howard: Be open to feedback, and don't be rigid in your thinking. There are times where you have to be. You did this and I have to fire you. Sometimes it's that simple in our discussions, but rarely. Most of our discussions are, if you've got a better way to build a mouse trap, I want you to be open to share it. Whether we can do it or not, the journey is sometimes more important than how you end up in an issue. But I always look for, those are the easy points. If I'm a principal and I'm looking to hire a teacher and the teacher is going to be combative with their team, with their parents, with me, with the office staff? Life is too short. Those are easy points. Remember that we're all in this together. Paul Casey: Yeah. It sounds like you're talking about the inside game, like the stuff within that you can work on, your personal development. Tony Howard: Right. Paul Casey: Which will then bleed over into your professional life. Tony Howard: Sure. Paul Casey: Most influencers I know have a bit of visionary inside them in order to take that next hill. So where do you take time to dream about the future? What does that look like for you? Tony Howard: There are days when that's hard because in the here and now, there's a lot going on in the here and now, even more so now. There's all sorts of things that aren't in any manual in terms of how to approach them from a leadership perspective. My dreams about the future are being able to look back with satisfaction that I was true to myself, and that at the end of the day, my 27 to 40 years of experience with K-12 helped kids. Tony Howard: My HR job is not necessarily a kid directed position. I don't work with parents very often anymore. I don't work with kids almost ever, but I was a principal and a teacher and a lifer in the system. I think that experience matters. If I'm making human resources decisions in the system that aren't front and center towards kids and staff in the school system, then what am I doing? I think that's what I look forward to in the future. I call it with my folks, the human side of human resources. We manage resources pretty well, whether it's a contractor, a stipend, or whatever it is. But there are times when just the volume of human, everyone that contacts us, almost, has got some sort of crisis. Like I said, no one rarely walks into HR and said, "I'm having a great day, everybody." Paul Casey: HR, grumble, grumble. Tony Howard: Yeah, exactly. Right. So, in that customer service, human side of things, we see people at some of their most stressed moments, and we need to make sure we never forget that. Paul Casey: Yeah. The best HR professionals I see are those that keep the human first over the resources. Tony Howard: Right. We have an employee will come in and a spouse is terminally ill, and all they need from us is the love to support them. They don't know, and they're terrified, and they don't need us closing off opportunities to help them. They need us to work with them. While those conversations are emotional, they're very important. If you don't have them, your system doesn't work. Paul Casey: It's right. Well, before we head into our next question on Tony's morning routine, a shout out to our sponsors. Preston House: Hi, my name is Preston House, and I'm the local owner of Papa John's pizza right here in tri-cities. Jesus Melendez: I'm Jesus Melendez, vice president and commercial lender with Community First bank and HFG trust. Preston House: When I moved here in 2009 with my family from Boise, Idaho, I knew I wanted to move from a franchise to a local business owner. I'd been working with Papa John's since I was 16 years old, so when it came time to open my own location here in my own community, I knew I needed some financial guidance from an organization who understood my needs as a small business owner. Jesus Melendez: Small business owners often have a lot on their plate: employment retirement plans, payroll, bills. Our mission is to become your financial partner for life and is motivated by providing people in our community like Preston with all the information and support they need, all under one roof. Jesus Melendez: It's really simple. No matter what I need, all it takes is one phone call. No automated prompts, no call waiting. It's just a local business serving another local business. Preston House: For more information on how Community First Bank and HFG trust can help you get back on track. Visit www.community1st.com. That's www.community1st.com. Paul Casey: So Tony, what's your typical morning routine? Before work, once you arrive at work, any rituals to help you start your day strong? Tony Howard: It's called coffee. Let me start there, I kind of have a tongue in cheek running joke with my assistant that no one can yell at me before the first cup of coffee is drank. Paul Casey: I like that. Tony Howard: It doesn't happen sometimes, but it's been kind of a running joke for years. I get up and get going in the morning. I like to take some time in the morning to review the overnights, what comes in, in the email overnight, if there were late stuff that didn't get finished, put a bow on the day before I go onto the next one. I'm pretty meticulous with things like a phone log, because it's been useful for me over the years to log what I do and when, so I want to make sure that's current, and just kind of the nuts and bolts of administrivia, of being an office guy. Tony Howard: It's a chance for me in the morning to connect with department staff if I need to, or look to see where the hotspots are or the day or what's in the calendar or whatnot. But it all circles around coffee. I'm not much good to anybody without that first cup of coffee. Paul Casey: When you say hotspots of the day, sort of previewing that, what would be some examples of that? Tony Howard: Well, do I have a contentious personnel meeting in the day? Do we have an investigatory issue? Do we have a grievance hearing? Some of those things are multi-day planning, but do I have an employee that's fired up about a particular issue and needs a little face time? Things drop into my calendar that I don't know what the context of them are. Sometimes you're going to meet with X and, well, why? And try to get my head wrapped around that. Tony Howard: It's also a good chance for me to check in with my staff. I have eight folks report directly to me and they do a variety of technical things for me. If you've been in the district HR's office, which we're moving out of happily here in a couple of months, but it's about as big as this room. No, it's a little bigger than that. But it's not a very big space and just making sure we're fine because if the staff's not fed and we're not taking care of our people, then it's hard for them to feel like they're part of the bigger picture, and they don't get to know everything I see. So just making sure we have that connection. Paul Casey: That's good. How do you deal with the everyday grind of your work without burning out, especially in this intense people, intense conflict job that you live and work in? Tony Howard: I have, more so as an HR director than I did as a principal. As a principal, you get knocks on the door… We're talking direct kid line issues. A mom is distraught or a dad is upset about A, B, or C. And those are real time emotional issues. The kids can't sit, and so they happen a lot. In HR, less so. My meetings are sometimes more formal, and I've been able to kind of balance out the two things. And I tried really hard ... like I said, we manage a ton of conflict and there's a ton of drama that comes through, 2000 employees and all their different needs and whatnot ... to keep it separate. My kids, I've always told myself, I'd never gave my writeup to raise my own kids and be a dad and a spouse in order to work. Paul Casey: That's good. Tony Howard: It feels like that sometimes, but that's the nature of the game. But I have always made conscious and tried to leave the work at the door, and I'm not perfect at that. COVID has messed it all up. It's just messed it all up. In fact, I don't know, June-ish, I started just coming into the office during the day. Not because I can't work at home, but I'm less efficient and it's just stuff I don't- Paul Casey: You needed that break. Tony Howard: It's a mental thing for me. Some of the conflict I didn't want in the house where kids are running in and out of the room and doing their thing, or my wife's coming through. We're a house, and all the kids are home, home learning too, so we're all trying to do that. For me, it was more appropriate to have a little bit of separation between those two things. I will use the drive home as the unplugged time, whether that's an audible or a podcast or whatever I've got, or some music. I like to drive and it's a few minutes just to physically purge the day and go home. Paul Casey: Yeah, it's like emotional white space, right? Tony Howard: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. So I can be good to my kids and good to my wife and all those things that are important to me, because they're going to be with me far longer than the career, and it's not fair to them to overbalance. It's hard, though. Paul Casey: Yeah. There's a YouTube video. I'm trying to think what the name of it is, but it's like, we all blasted off of earth on these little spaceships, and COVID hits, and we have to make ... It's called maintain the vessel, I think. So we have to maintain our vessel, which is like our body, and each section of the spaceship, one is for work, one is for sleep, one's for eat, we shouldn't cross over. But it's like when you cross the threshold, that's all you do is work in the work room. So you've had to do that, and a lot of people have had to do that, when they go into the office, is create that separation so work stays work. Tony Howard: Well, there's an exercise to getting up and getting a shower and shaving and getting dressed and putting on your work clothes and going and doing that. Besides, I'm not going to be on camera for a Zoom at eight o'clock, so I'm going to roll out of bed and plop out in the recliner. It just didn't work for me. It just didn't. While I love being home, I want to be home and attentive, not home and, "Get off the internet, because I need to get on." It just didn't work for me. Paul Casey: Well, family is a big deal to you. It's a big deal to most people. I know it's difficult now, like you said, how do you prioritize family time, yet still be a high performer at work? So you mentioned already, trying to leave work at the door, not letting that creep into the family as much as possible. Any other tips you have? Tony Howard: You asked me earlier about it. I never thought about getting out of K-12, and this is one of the reasons why I'm not: because the fit is good. In my job, I flex time as I need to. If I've got a kid with a soccer game, I can go. I've got a cell phone and a laptop, and I will keep up and we'll communicate with that. But it's important. Our kids are in Richland in the Richland school district. I work in the Richland school district. My wife works in the Richland school district. We're invested in that time for them, and they're here and it's something that we can do. Tony Howard: Public is a good fit in that regard, which is another reason why I'm a K-12 lifer. It was very important to us that our kids were involved in the system that we were trying to lead. Otherwise, what's the point of all of it? If it's not good enough for my kids, then that's a moral bar for me. That is a good checks and balance. But there's a benefit to that. I have a ninth grader to be, whose life's ambition is to play Bomber soccer and while it's being delayed a little bit as we try to navigate all of these restrictions going to Bomber soccer games is just fine. Tony Howard: My oldest played at Hanford for a couple of years and that's great. Being able to be part of the system and be involved in those because I'm leading in the system, is rewarding to me. Paul Casey: Incidentally, how much vacation do you take, just to refresh? Tony Howard: Oh, four or five weeks a year. We get five weeks as administrators. I try to choreograph that around kid breaks. I'll take a chunk of time at Christmas and spring break. We just got back from doing some summer stuff. I try to balance that. I don't take all the five weeks some years. It just kind of depends. But the basic breaks like everybody else, I figure if they're in school and my wife's working, I'd probably be working too. Paul Casey: Do you try to stay disconnected during vacation? Like, like be "done" done? I'm asking because I've asked my clients, so do you check email and not respond? Do stay disconnected? Tony Howard: I've done all the different models that I think there are. I try really hard in July. Around the 4th of July, we'd like to do some camping and whatnot, that I unplug completely. Just for that seven to 10 days, don't check a thing. It's a dead time for us anyway. Paul Casey: Sure. Tony Howard: Buildings are closed. Kids are gone. It's relatively quiet as things get in the office. This year, I really wasn't able to do that because there was just too much going on. Well, I'm trying to, from a campground, Zoom into a school board meeting so I can keep an eye on what's going on, thinking this is just surreal trying to navigate all that. But I do try to unplug a little bit at Christmas, the in between Christmas and New Years, I'll try to unplug for three or four days. Tony Howard: The rest of it, I think the world we live in and the role that I have requires some monitoring. I'll keep an eye on things. I'll respond if I need to. Some of it I'll keep and I'll just flag it for when I get back to work. But where I sit in the org chart for the district and the emergent needs, I have to be able to respond to a problem with it comes up. I think it's just a leadership thing. I think I need to do that. And if not, then who? Is kind of the question that I have. Paul Casey: Sure. Tony Howard: That's kind of how I approach that. I try to unplug a little bit. I think it's healthy for me and it's healthy for the family. This year, we weren't able to unplug as much, but there are extenuating circumstances. Paul Casey: Yes. Work and life got mushed together. Tony Howard: They sure did. Paul Casey: Well, influencers aren't know it alls. They are learners. Where do you go, Tony, for the wisest advice? That can be live people here in town or they could be authors and motivators, education professionals. Where do you go? Tony Howard: I go to ... I think we talked about it in the open a little bit ... the people that I trust. It starts there. There has to be some degree of safety in order to be vulnerable to ask that question. I'm lucky in the sense that I spent all 13 plus years in the RSD and have a network of folks that I can reach out to and say, "I am missing something here." Or, "I'm thinking this, and I'm pretty sure there's a bucket there I'm going to step in. Can you tell me what I'm not seeing?" I do some of that with people that I trust. Tony Howard: I do some of the conference. All that whole world is going to change, the onsite stuff and whatnot. I find, it may be a function of just maturing a little bit, my attention span to irrelevant is less than it used to be. If I take a class or read a book or go to a session and it's just not clicking with what I need to do, it's hard for me to keep engaged to that. I find it's 50/50. There's a lot of influencers, as you put out there, that have a lot of good content, but it's just not possible to soak all that in. Tony Howard: I like to do some personal reflection, that driving stuff like we talked about and whatnot. I'll just chew on, all right, what's the larger issue that I'm not seeing? It's a question I ask myself a lot. Where's my blind spot? So whether it's a negotiation or a labor issue or a personnel issue, is where are we not quite right? Tony Howard: Our attorney works next to us, works in the district office. He really pushed on me, when I started 10 years ago in HR and to write better. Because now I'm writing for real issues. And I wasn't used to having him edit a letter and getting back three pages of red: change this and change that, and do this and do that. He was great. He's a terrific asset and a good friend. I tease that the highest praise I've gotten from anybody in the district in the past nine plus years is a letter he sent back to me a couple of years ago that says, "Looks good." That was like, I finally made it, a little bit. But I've got a network and I tend to lean towards the network of people that I know and trust more so than industry standard kinds of things. It's just my comfort level. Paul Casey: Sure, sure. I love that question: what's the issue I'm not seeing here? What's missing? What's the blind spot? These are questions to ask that open up creativity. They're good ones. Tony Howard: Yep. Paul Casey: Well finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Tony Howard: Be a sponge, good or bad. I've had this discussion with leaders before, principals before. You learn some times as much from a bad or a negative classroom experience as a student than you do from the great ones. I've done exercises before: think through your three most powerful teachers that you've ever had. Now let's think through the three most traumatic, poor experiences you've had in a classroom. People can do that. They can remember real quick, the good and the bad. Tony Howard: Then I'll ask them to think through somebody in the middle, and they have a harder time, because good and bad ... or good and negative, I guess, is maybe a fair way to say that, are telling learning opportunities. So be a sponge. Just because someone has a different style or you don't agree with their tactics, you can still learn from them. The other part of this that I would tell young leaders is not to worry about errors of effort. While there are always exceptions and there are errors we just, can't not deal with, for young administrators, you're going to mess up. For young leaders, you're going to make mistakes. I've been doing this a long time, I still mess up. If someone's not mad at me at least once a day, I'm probably not doing my job right. Paul Casey: That's right. Tony Howard: Errors of effort are correctable and coachable. Errors of apathy aren't. If you're just making the same mistake twice because you're just too lazy to change, or unwilling to take feedback in a positive way, that's where I start to get concerned about leadership being a failure for somebody. If you botch it: eat it, fix it. It happens. I've gotten up in front of staffs and said, "Well, that didn't work. Here's what we've tried to do. And now we're going to step back and readjust." And I have found over the years that adults respond to that. Paul Casey: Yeah. They respect you more, right? Tony Howard: I screwed up. Because I've always tried to work from, I'll take the hit if the building messes up. You guys are going to celebrate. It's not the I and we stuff again. But if you're wrong, you're wrong. I've seen leaders really blow up a room just because they're not willing to accept that, whether it may or may not be their fault, it's still them. Paul Casey: Yep. Tony Howard: I didn't make that teacher yell at that kid or throw that book or whatever happened in the classroom, but that's still a teacher under my supervision, and that reflects on all of us, and I'm the leader of the building. So, errors of effort, I can live with those. Errors of apathy or errors of stubbornness, I have less patience. Paul Casey: Wow. So good. So, Tri-Cities influencers, be a sponge and don't worry as much about errors of effort. Really be concerned about errors of apathy. Well Tony, how can our listeners connect with you if they wanted to reach out? Tony Howard: I'm on the district website, and email's up there and all of that. My LinkedIn profile is active. I think that's how you saw me. Paul Casey: I did. We reconnected through that, yes. Tony Howard: We reconnected here just not too long ago. But I'm not hard to find. I'm just at the district website in the HR department. I'm open to email and contact. The art of leadership is a career interest of mine. Paul Casey: Yes, indeed. A passion we share. Tony Howard: Well, I appreciate you inviting me in. Paul Casey: Yes. Thanks for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place, and keep leading well. Tony Howard: Aw, thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. The website is arealme.com. Arealme.com. These are really fun quizzes to take. You've probably seen some on Facebook, like what kind of animal are you? What kind of Disney princess are you? What's your super power? What chemical element are you? If you just want a fun little website of surveys, they'll even create some for you, arealme.com. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest Tony Howard from the Richland school district for being here today on the Tri-city influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them, appreciating that they make this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Sade said, "Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy." Until next time, KGF. Keep growing forward. Announcer: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. Announcer: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Announcer: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control my calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000, and type the word "growing." Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. Hans is the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. In 2020, Hans Co-Created a 2nd Podcast: Award Winning Culture Podcast, to explore the secrets to creating life-changing learning environments rooted in JOY. Hans’ blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, Teach Better, and PBIS Rewards. He’s written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He’s been a contributing writer on three educational books: Define Your WHY, Reflective Impact Journal and ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education. Hans believes that education at its highest level is about helping others discover and develop their JOY. And when we take the time to intentionally craft at award winning culture, we provide our students with the OPPORTUNITY to pursue joy. http://www.awardwinningculture.com (http://www.awardwinningculture.com) Twitter: @HansNAppel Instagram: HansNAppel Resource Mentioned Infinite Game - Simon Sinek (https://simonsinek.com/product/the-infinite-game/) Parents, quick announcement: There is a FREE Executive Function Parent Summit coming THIS Friday, Aug 21 2020. https://executivefunctionsummit.com (https://educationonfire--sethperler.thrivecart.com/tefos2020/) Click the link if your child struggles with things like homework, grades, procrastination, disorganization, time management, motivation, overwhelm or being able focus on the task at hand. 24 experts are diving deep into ways you can support your child: Mike Postma, Sarah Ward, Dr. Marlo Payne Thurman, Peg Dawson, Ross Greene and more. What: TEFOS, The Executive Function Online Summit for parents When: Starts THIS Friday, Aug 21-23 2020 Where: Online. For free registration click here   (https://educationonfire--sethperler.thrivecart.com/tefos2020/) Show Sponsor The National Association for Primary Education speaks for young children and all who live and work with them. This includes parents, teachers, governors and all those interested in primary education. NAPE is a non-political charity and works tirelessly to support teachers in the classroom. https://nape.org.uk/ (https://nape.org.uk/) Support this podcast

In this episode, author and speaker Hans Appel shares insights from his new book, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence and Community, that lays out a school-wide framework to reshape your school culture. Now in his 19th year as a school counselor in the Richland School District in Washington, Appel points to kindness and empathy as the keys to creating more positive whole-child experiences within our schools. Appel also talks about how podcasting has been a game-changer, providing student voice at Enterprise Middle School, with a student-led podcast that is hosted by Wildcat Nation. Twitter: @HansNAppel. Websites: www.awardwinningculture.com. About Dr. Greg Goins As the Founder/Host of the Reimagine Schools Podcast, Dr. Greg Goins has emerged as one of the nation's leading voices on visionary leadership and the path to transforming our schools. He currently serves as the Director of the Educational Leadership Program at Georgetown College (KY) and previously spent 15 years as a school district superintendent in Illinois. Dr. Goins is a passionate keynote speaker and is available to speak at your next education conference or school PD day. To book Dr. Goins, please send inquiries to drgreggoins@gmail.com. Twitter: @DrGregGoins. Website: www.reimagineschools.net. Become A Supporter: You can now help keep the conversation going by supporting the Reimagine Schools Podcast with a small monthly donation to help sustain future episodes. Thanks for your support! anchor.fm/greg-goins/support --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/greg-goins/support

This is a special episode because I get to celebrate the two year anniversary of the Aspire podcast and my guest, Hans Appel, has released his new book, “Award Winning Culture”! This week, I'm joined by Jennifer and Hans Appel as we dive into the subject of social emotional learning, how SEL has set the culture of their campus and how it's positively impacted every aspect of the school. Join us as they share how every school can create an Award Winning Culture!   https://twitter.com/share?text=+-+&via=Joshua__Stamper&related=Joshua__Stamper&url=https://joshstamper.com/?p=2372 (Tweet This)In this Episode, we discuss: Social Emotional Learning Distance Learning Focus Character Strong And Award Winning Culture Follow Jennifer and Hans Appel: Website: http://www.awardwinningculture.com (www.awardwinningculture.com) Twitter: @HansNAppel @jennifermappel @awculture Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awardwinningculture/ (https://www.instagram.com/awardwinningculture/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Award-Winning-Culture-102176471490533/?modal=admin_todo_tour (https://www.facebook.com/Award-Winning-Culture-102176471490533/?modal=admin_todo_tour) About Jennifer and Hans Appel:Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the https://www.rsd.edu (Richland School District) for the past 19 years and at https://enterprise.rsd.edu (Enterprise Middle School) since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the https://youtu.be/-vc7XE4J4Fs (ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington) and the Global “https://youtu.be/Res2QIRntZs (Class Act Award)” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category.   In 2018, Hans launched his own http://www.awardwinningculture.com/blog (blog about School Culture) and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Ahttp://www.awardwinningculture.com/podcast (ward Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation), which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/award-winning-culture-hosted-by-wildcat-nation/id1435716995?mt=2 (iTunes Apple Podcasts), https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/hans-appel/award-winning-culture (Stitcher), https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/podcasts (Google Play), https://open.spotify.com/show/6yxqUlJfC3nYLLeHhX9NH0?si=xHDRovEdQV-mVLx6ZsjjYQ (Spotify), https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-agfnr-6e260d9?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share (PodBean), and http://awardwinningculture.libsyn.com/nathan-ogden (Libsyn).   Hans’ blogs have appeared on https://medium.com/@richard.allen/disrupted-tv-magazine-fab8134c54ae (DisruptED TV magazine), https://www.characterstrong.com (CharacterStrong), https://www.teachbetter.com (Teach Better) Team and https://www.pbisrewards.com (PBIS Rewards). He’s written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence.   He’s been a contributing writer on three upcoming educational books: “ https://www.amazon.com/Define-Your-WHY-Story-Purpose/dp/1970133465/ (Define Your WHY: Own Your Story So You Can Live and Learn On Purpose),” “Reflective Impact Journal,” and “https://www.amazon.com/All-Taking-Education-Kristen-Nan/dp/1970133406/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2YY3EJ878027G&keywords=all+in+kristen+nan&qid=1582385864&s=books&sprefix=All+In+Kriste%2Cstripbooks%2C488&sr=1-1 (ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education).” On May 22, Hans will release his own book, which is called, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Hans is the Director of Culture of the...

Michelle Oates: A promise tomorrow is worth a lot less than trying today. I am Michelle Oates, and I'm a Tri Cities influencer. Paul Casey: The love of comfort is the enemy of greatness. Okay, you can choose one or the other. You can't choose greatness and comfort. You have to choose one or the other. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership and the Tri Cities of Eastern Washington, it's The Tri Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Lance Kenmore. He is owner of the Kenmore Team. And I'm going to let him tell you his fun fact that he even asked his wife and assistant about. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. So that was a great question that you said, something quirky about me. And I don't know if it's all the years of going in different people's houses or what, but I do not like lingering food smells in the office. I mean, if someone goes to Bruchi's or something, or Burger King, leaves some fries in the office, I will take the garbage out myself to get rid of it. And so the office is always laughing at me, and whenever we hire somebody new, they always tell them, "Watch yourself with the food you put in the garbage," and so- Paul Casey: That's your onboarding thing to remember. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. So I'm slightly OCD about that. And there was talk that it might be more than slightly. Paul Casey: Well, thanks. That's one of the best ones yet. Lance Kenmore: Okay, well, good. It smells great in your studio, so I'm not concerned about it. Paul Casey: No distractions. Lance Kenmore: Yes. Paul Casey: We'll dive in after checking with our Tri City Influencer Sponsor. The C12 Group is a national organization focused on spiritual and professional development of Christian CEOs and business owners. Members participate in professionally facilitated monthly meetings, during which 12 experienced Christian CEOs exchange ideas to solve business issues Biblically. Additionally, members receive a 90 minute personal coaching session each month. Information is available from Tom Walther at 715-459-9611 or online at c12easternwa.com. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri Cities. Well, welcome, Lance. I have heard so much about you, and it's great to meet you here today. And glad you could be on the podcast. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. Absolutely. I'm excited to be here. I'm not used to being on this side of the question asking, so hopefully I can stammer through it. Paul Casey: That's right. You've got your own show, right? Lance Kenmore: Yeah. I do a weekly radio show, and we have some guests on occasionally, so it's kind of fun to be nervous again. I'm used to doing this every week, and the last day or two, my wife is like, "You're actually prepared and you seem nervous." So thanks for putting me in an uncomfortable position. Paul Casey: We're stretching you. Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Yes. Well, so our Tri City Influencers can get to know you, take us through your past positions that led up to what you're doing now. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. So before real estate, I mean, I'm a local Tri City guy, so born at Lourdes. I don't even think you can be born there anymore, but I was. And grew up on a farm north of Pasco, and then ended up going up through the school system, Richland School District, and graduated Richland High. And so past positions, I guess growing up, I always ... I was in farming and ag, but I ran a lawn care business in high school, and I just happened to live across the street from the owners of what used to be the Prudential Real Estate franchise here in town, Jeff and Paul Presby. And so growing up, I would mow the lawns of the move outs and the vacant houses, and kind of got to know real estate from that front. And off to college, and to make extra money during college, I was a Nordstrom's shoe salesman. And so I think that's where I started to really learn sales, great organization, lots of training. I love how they handle customers and customer service, so got to know the business through them. Lance Kenmore: And then got back from college, worked on the family farming business for a couple years. And then just knowing that broker and seeing how he built his business through real estate, he just kind of took me under his wing and trained me up in the business. He said ... I can remember the day when I had gotten back from college. I was still mowing lawns on nights and weekends between farming, for some extra money. And he walked out in the parking lot one day and he said, "Didn't you get a college degree?" I said, "Yeah, I did." And he said, "When you finish mowing the lawn, come into that office, and we need to have a talk." And so he was just like, "I'm going to teach you how to sell real estate. I think you're going to be a lot happier." So yeah, I had a really good mentor early. And that's kind of what let me into the real estate path. Paul Casey: So is the Nordstrom's mystique a real deal? Lance Kenmore: You know, it really is, although my wife claims that, that in four years made me extremely high maintenance. And so because I mean, you do get into their culture. And you get deeply embedded in their culture and what they stand for. And it is the same, I mean, you can in the right instances ... The old stories are that you could return anything there, and there's folklore that a guy returned a set of tires. Paul Casey: They don't even sell tires. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. But that's really the case, is that all of their training preached early on, employee autonomy and the ability to let the employees make their own decisions based upon what was right for the company. And so yeah, it's really true. But like I said, we go to a mall or something, and I still shop there to this day. And my wife says I am worse than she is because of that four years. But it was great, it taught me a lot about how we run our customer service. Paul Casey: Wow. That's so cool. So in your work, what are you really good at? What are your talents? What are your strengths? And how do you use those to help those around you be successful? Lance Kenmore: I think the biggest thing is, and being in real estate and negotiating deals for people, is I'm really good at playing devil's advocate. I can look at a situation and see what the other side is thinking. I want to know what they're thinking more than I'm thinking. And so I'm good at looking at those situations and saying, "What are they trying to accomplish? What are they expecting us to do? When should they do it? And how are we going to respond to it?" So I really like to analyze the other side's position and then go to work for my clients to how we can have a mutually acceptable outcome and accomplish our goals, and help them get through. But doing it through the lens of: What's the other side thinking? Paul Casey: That's probably one of the best negotiation principles that a person could have. Right? I could see how that would be great for staff, be great for customer service, even in your own family. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. Absolutely. I try to apply this to my kids. I don't always get it right, but that's one of the things that in fact to the point where sometimes people will be slightly annoyed by it because they'll be like, "I'm trying to figure out what you're thinking. I don't want to tell you what I'm thinking." But yeah, that's a big for me is seeing how we can make the other side and our side come to mutually acceptable terms. And maybe that's just the real estate contract in me. But I like to figure out how we can get a win for both parties. Paul Casey: Yeah, yeah. So on the flip side, what's one of your biggest liabilities? And how do you mitigate that weakness so it doesn't limit your influence? Lance Kenmore: Oh, man. I think that I really like big picture planning, and I know what we want to do. And sometimes I assume that other parties are going to work just like I do. So I'll set something up or put a plan in motion, and then maybe not have a great accountability followup plan, to where I think it's going to be done in two weeks, and so two weeks come, and then I assume it did get done. And I don't double check on that. And so I have to set up systems of accountability because I tend to forget that part. And so a reminder to double check. Who's responsible for double checking? Those details can bite you because once I start, I just assume that it's going to be done. And I know that's not always the case, and then people get busy. And sometimes I'll give them too many tasks, so they couldn't accomplish the first one, and it's really my fault. But having that system of accountability, knowing what the check in is, that's how we've had to fix that liability. Paul Casey: How important is accountability just as a business owner yourself, and just in life, success principle of accountability? Lance Kenmore: So I'm a huge, huge proponent of accountability. I think it is one of the most important parts. And so I still do weekly coaching. I started it in my business, I think we're going on 12 years ago. And I never stopped, and so I have a weekly accountability coaching call. And they expect, my coach expects certain things to be done, and so that, my deadline is Wednesday morning at 8:30. That's my call with my coach. And sometimes Tuesday, the night before, is really, really productive. And it's crazy that after 12 years that I would still find that productive. But it's amazing, just having that call on Wednesday morning, I know that there's certain things that have to be done. So I think it's probably one of the biggest indicators of our success. Paul Casey: As a coach myself, I find out many of my clients getting things done that day before, or that night before, but I say, "It's okay. You got it done." And just having to report here without your tail between your legs going into it is worth it. Lance Kenmore: Yeah, totally. And I coach people also and coach other sales people and coach our team, and even that being the case, that's usually something people are surprised by, that I still have a coach myself. And I'm not just doing it, I believe in that, I believe in that process big time. Paul Casey: Michael Jordan had a coach. LeBron James has a coach. Right? Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. 100%. Paul Casey: All high performers have coaches. Lance Kenmore: Yes, they do. Paul Casey: That's a little plug there. So in your opinion, what's the most difficult part of business leadership, leading teams? And why would you say that? Lance Kenmore: Well, I think the difficult part is being careful, and maybe this is just a personal thing to how I am, but being careful not to take on everyone's problems as your own. I'm great with accepting the fate of the organization and the results that come with that. But I think at times, you can have compassion and understanding, but you can't always solve all the problems or the situations. And I tend to take that really personally, so I think you have to separate and get comfortable with the fact that you've done the best you can, and now the team has to make certain decisions themselves to thrive. And sometimes that's going to work perfectly, and other times it's not. And just really monitoring your own positivity when those failures happen, that they're not always your own. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's sort of the difference between sympathy and empathy. Right? Sympathy, you're taking on the emotions of others. And now you're in the pit with them. Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. Yeah. And you have to be careful not to do that because sometimes, as a good friend once told me, because I was struggling with this concept, and I said to them, we met, I think it was on a Friday. And we met just for a recap on the week. And I said ... He said to me, "How was your week?" And I said, "Well, it was terrible. All I heard about was everyone's problems." And he goes, "Well, congratulations." And I said, "Well, I don't know what that means. Congratulations." He said, "That's how it's supposed to work." He's like, "You should only be dealing with the biggest issues in your company, and that means all the other parts are working correctly." And it was a big mind shift, mindset shift for me because I said, "Okay. So I can deal with the problems, but not take them on myself." And once I made that adjustment, it got a lot better. Paul Casey: Yeah, I think the word compassion means to suffer with. Lance Kenmore: Yes, exactly. Paul Casey: But we all have to stay on our sides of the street. One therapist locally says, "It's the sides of the street principle." This is on your side. You're responsible for it over there. This is my side of the street. I'm only responsible up to this level. When I start crossing over ... I think she said, "When I'm weeding in somebody else's lawn when my house is on fire, that's a problem." Lance Kenmore: That's a problem. Yes, 100%. And I didn't get that early on when I was younger and starting out in that role. And so it took a while to get there. Paul Casey: Good lesson. Well, your people don't know how much you know until they know how much you care, as the old adage goes. So how do you show people, your people, whether that's a team, whether that's your clients, that you value them as people? Lance Kenmore: I think it's just about slowing down and taking time to talk to people. So I personally, I have a hard time doing that. I can be task driven. I do personality testing, and they call it a driver. And so there's tasks that I just want to get done. So for me personally, sometimes I have to come in a couple times a week, one to two hours early, when the phones aren't ringing, no one else is there, and get my tasks out of the way, so that when everyone else gets to the office, I can take some time to just slow down and talk to them. I mean, someone's on our team or in our organization because I saw something great in them, and they do a great job. And I want to know what's going on in their life and what's important to them. That is communication and talking to people. Lance Kenmore: And so a younger version of myself messed that up. I would just blow by, not say hi, limit interaction with coworkers because I was task oriented. And that worked great in the beginning of my career for a while, but it was a horrible concept for running a team. And so I think slowing down and talking to people is just, it seems so simple. I wish there was a better answer or magic pill. But that 10 minute conversation about what happened over the weekend and what their kids are doing just is gold. Those are the type of people I want to be around and hear about. Paul Casey: I love how you've come up with a system because you are a driver, you want to be who you are. So you're coming in early, you're going to take care of that stuff first because it's all about your to do list, getting it done, action oriented. I know what the driver's like. Right? Lance Kenmore: Yes, absolutely. Paul Casey: So then you've got the peace of mind to go out and be fully available without thinking about I got this to do list I still have to do, which people can pick that up from you. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. If you're not in the moment talking and listening, you're going to mess that up. Paul Casey: Just walking through the hallways and leaning on doorframes, as they say. One manager said there's three questions he asks. How are you? And then adds the word really because how are you is just like hello in American. What are you working on? And that's the accountability piece with the leaders. And then: How can I help? Because leaders always need that how can I help mentality. And that's just a great check in. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. Absolutely. And we do this thing. I took it off of a radio station. I think it was Ryan Seacrest, I think, on his show, does this thing called tell me something good, and so where people just call in on the radio and say what was good in their life. So we make sure we start our weekly staff meetings and team meetings with tell me something good. And so you've got 28 people going around telling them something good. And from that one little piece of information, we always pick up something about their life that they thought was good, and then it's amazing the conversations after the meetings that happen about that. So tell me something good is an important thing to be doing. Paul Casey: Love that principle, and 28 people, just to take the time to do that. That's an investment in relationship building on your team. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. I mean, it's a portion of our meeting. But I would argue that it could actually be the most important part of that team meeting every week. Paul Casey: Yes. Well, before we head into our next question of some of Lance's life hacks, let's check in with our sponsors.  If you could trade one day each month for targeted application of Biblical business practices, purposeful accountability, and Godly pure counsel, would you consider it a wise investment? The C12 Group is a national organization focused on spiritual and professional development of Christian CEOs and business owners. Members participate in professionally facilitated monthly meetings, where 12 experienced Christian CEOs exchange ideas to solve business issues Biblically. Information is available from Tom Walther at 715-459-9611 or online at c12easternwa.com.   So, Lance, what are a few of your life hacks that help you be successful on a daily basis? Lance Kenmore: There's a number of books I've read over the years, some that come to mind like Eat That Frog. Paul Casey: Love Eat That Frog. Lance Kenmore: Or The Power of Focus, Jack Canfield. There's some good things, but the strategy that comes out of that, or what it's morphed into for me, is what I call the big three for the day. So you have to start each day with a big three. And the big three is that no matter what gets thrown at you, no matter what happens, these three things are going to get done today. And so for me, that just is a nonnegotiable, that once it goes on that list, if it's late, or emergencies have popped up, before we go home and end the day, I have to double check that big three and make sure. Did I get it done? And once it's a nonnegotiable, it's funny, I find that a lot of times, those things get done in the first ... When you set it up that way, they get done in the first hour of your day. Paul Casey: The rest is gravy then. Lance Kenmore: The rest is gravy then, and you can handle what life throws at you. But without that, you're just reacting. I think having a big three, you're being proactive to what you want to get done. Paul Casey: I totally concur with that. That is the number one time management principle when I teach it. And I love Eat That Frog. And for listeners that don't know what that means, it was a book by Brian Tracy. And if you have to eat a raw frog today, wouldn't it be better to eat that frog early in the morning and get it over with because it's disgusting, than to dread it all day and think about it? Yes, it would be better to get it. So what's the biggest, hairiest task? Your big three, the big rocks for the day, get those banged out. And it's amazing how much it just puts you in this productivity snowball in a good way to getting all these other little things done too. Lance Kenmore: Yeah, you get it knocked out, and yeah, and then you are just rolling right along. That's a big life hack for us. And then recently, I've been into a whole system called habit stacking. And so that is taking your existing habits and routines and finding a way to put a new habit on top of it. So if you're a runner or a hiker and you want to read 30 books this year, well, then you go to Audible. So you're listening to a book while you're running. You're listening to a book while you're hiking. Your significant other and you want to spend more time together, but you also want to work out, so you're working out and spending time, or hiking together. So finding habit stacks that you can put in place is essentially doubling up your time, so that's another one that we use a lot. Paul Casey: Love that one. If you want to start flossing, you're already brushing, just tack it on. Lance Kenmore: Yes. Paul Casey: Tack it on. Lance Kenmore: That's exactly right. Paul Casey: Did you get that from The Power of Habit? Have you read that book? Lance Kenmore: Yeah. Paul Casey: There's some good stuff in that book. Lance Kenmore: Yeah, there's some good stuff. That was the basis for it. That was the first one I had read with a lot about that. And then a newer one recently that is literally called Habit Stacking. Paul Casey: Nice. Well, as a business owner, you have to make important decisions. And what process do you think through before making that important decision? Lance Kenmore: So I'm really fortunate that I work with my wife in our companies and the other businesses that we own, and so I have a sounding board for those ideas. And so we're able to talk to each other about what we think. And how does the decision we're going to make affect others around us? And so that's where we generally start with that. And then her and I, we always laugh because we teach Junior Achievement also. And in Junior Achievement, in the second grade levels, they teach this thing called a decision tree. And it's the old draw a line down the center of your paper, and it's pros on one side and cons on the other. Paul Casey: Second grade. Lance Kenmore: And she and I laugh because we'll make massive real estate decisions based upon the decision tree. And so when you write it out and you start to look at pros and cons, and one side of the paper starts to fill up, it's amazing how it can simplify that decision. So the really important ones is having somebody to poke holes in your theory, play devil's advocate with you. So bouncing that off either a business partner or a mentor is huge, and then taking the time to write out the pros and cons in a decision tree style is a huge help for us. Paul Casey: Yeah. It sounds so basic, but it is so true. And defining the problem even before the decision tree, if you can put it in one sentence, just to make sure we're trying to solve the right problem here, and then you do the pros and cons. And at the end, these are the decisions and why, because you're going to have to defend the why probably to somebody, someone on your team, or even that sounding board person. Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. Paul Casey: You want to be able to defend your results. But I love how you said a mentor, you've got to have a coach, a mentor, a mastermind group, your spouse. Lance Kenmore: Yeah. And that's a big thing is that you mentioned that mastermind group, and that's huge for us. And I'm part of a group that basically acts as a board of directors for our company. It's not as formalized as a national company with a board of directors. But we meet once a month with six other business owners in our local area that are all part of different industries, whether that be the gasoline business, the car business, all the way to insurance, real estate, we're all part of a different industry. And when we have a big decision like that, we present that to the board of directors, that group, and we talk through that. So getting that feedback and a different perspective helps us feel good about being on the right path. Paul Casey: Isolated people do not make the best decisions. Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. Paul Casey: So it's good to have that group. Lance Kenmore: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Well, who influences you, Lance? Who do you surround yourself with, either that's from afar or live, to keep growing yourself? Lance Kenmore: We go to about three times a year, we get out of the Tri Cities. We go to another state in general, and we hit a big educational conference or a learning conference. And sometimes it's business related, real estate. Sometimes it's about health. And sometimes it's even about other business industries that are not necessarily real estate. So sometimes we'll pick an industry that's opposite and maybe technology and somewhere like Austin, whether we go to South by Southwest and see what's going on down there. Or we go to Tony Robbins who is a big coach and influencer. So we pick three a year, get out of town, and just spend some time with people that are trying to get better and learn new concepts. Lance Kenmore: And then we also have a really good group of similar real estate owners and team leads around the country in different markets. And so we like to spend time at each other's offices. So we'll go to somebody else's business, see how they run things, and then they'll come back to Tri Cities for couple days and spend time at our business. So those are the big ones. I mean, I think early on, I read a lot of business books. I'm big into brand building, so Richard Branson with Virgin, the Virgin Airlines brand. And so had read a lot of his books early on, all the way back to real estate influences like Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So in that realm, those were some very big impactful books on us early on. Lance Kenmore: And then locally, I'm super, super fortunate Tri Cities has a ton of talent. So there is a turnaround CEO in town. His name's Chris Britton. He's a great guy. And so he's been a big mentor to our business the last six years, and so we spend a lot of time with him and being coached by him. And since he was a turnaround CEO, he would go into companies, fix them, clean them up. I'm hoping he prevents us from ever getting to that part, so he makes a great mentor. Plus, when there's problems, he knows how to deal with them. Paul Casey: That's cool. Do you take all 28 people to those conferences? Or do you go by yourself? Lance Kenmore: We don't. That's just myself. We do encourage our team members to go, and a lot of times, at least once a year if they can. So a lot of our team members, our paid employees, we'll send to, I think the last one was in South Carolina. Or they'll go to San Diego. They usually don't complain about those nice trips. But we like them to also see what other companies are doing, see what other people in your position are doing. And they always come back with a new idea for us to implement. Paul Casey: Absolutely. When people go together to conferences too, they can play off each other, remember different things, come back with this passion to share with the rest of the team. Lance Kenmore: And I wouldn't have gotten ... I mean, we've gotten to do some cool things. I mean, through that network and going to those conferences is how we ended up getting hooked up with Barbara Corcoran from the Shark Tank. And then she just plugs into a whole other network. So we met a guy in radio that we were doing radio, and so we liked radio. And then we met a guy in TV, and then that guy ends up inviting her to a conference. And then the next thing you know, a bunch of us agents are banding together, and she's starting to film commercials for us. And so yeah, I never thought that we would get to that level even 10 years ago. Paul Casey: Very cool. I've seen those commercials. Lance Kenmore: Well, I'm glad you have. It was ironic because a friend of ours in town, when Karen joined me in the business, in real estate, gave Barbara Corcoran's book to my wife. And that was the first real estate book she ever read. So then 10 years later, to be filming with her was really just kind of unbelievably full circle. But I don't think it would've happened if we wouldn't have read that book. And so I just don't think it would've been the same. Paul Casey: When you've lived your life, Lance, and you think back on your influence, how do you want to be remembered? Lance Kenmore: First and foremost, a father and a husband. I mean, I've got two amazing kids, and we spend a lot of time together. We have great relationships and they are pursuing their passions and following their dreams. And so I definitely want to be remembered as supporting and enabling that. And then as a husband, the same way. I'm super, super fortunate that Karen and I work very well together, so we get to spend an amazing amount of time together building something together, which is not normal. It's my normal, but it really is fantastic because, like we say, we get to spend all day with our best friend, and then build something together. Lance Kenmore: So that's huge for me, and then I always say I want to coach and mentor my team and their families to their best life possible. So the team members and friends that surround us with, I want to have been a part of making their life as best as possible. And then beyond that, we get to community and the communities we live in. And I want to be a positive contributing member to our community, especially Tri Cities. It's given us a ton of ... It's given us an amazing life, and so I want to contribute back to that community. Paul Casey: Love the Tri. Lance Kenmore: Love the Tri. Thank you, Mike Denslow. Paul Casey: Finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Lance Kenmore: I think there's a lot to be said for pioneers, and they are a special breed, I will give it to them. But in general, I think when people are starting out and leaders are starting out, find someone that you love what they're doing, and that's what you want to be like. And sometimes that can be wrapped up in two or three people and sometimes 10. But in general, someone has done what you want to do, and they've done it better than you can. That's my feeling, and so search that person out. Find out what network they're in. Find out what clubs they're in. What contributed to their success? And then do everything you can to put yourself in those positions or as close to that as possible. Lance Kenmore: And I think a lot of times, people find there's a lot of people out there that want to give back and that have had success. And agents will call me all the time, and I've never had a call where I've told somebody, "No, I won't talk to you," or, "No, I won't tell you that." It's a matter of helping someone else get to that level. And once people are at what leaders consider a high level, you know how important it is to have more leaders and new leaders do the same things. So I would just say getting yourself into the environment that you want to, where you've seen the success and that you want to have is absolutely huge. Lance Kenmore: And then just read more. One of the best ways to get close to that access is to read about it. And that's what starts, plants the seed, starts the thought, so read as much as you possibly can. Chemically, I'm not a scientist. I'm sure you've had those guests on the show. Something changes in your brain when you're reading that and changes your mindset. So if you can't be physically in the same room and talking to that person, read about it, and I think it's the next best thing. Paul Casey: Fantastic advice. So Lance, how can our listeners best connect with you? Lance Kenmore: Probably the best way is kenmoreteam.com is our website. There's a contact form there. We get contacts all the time through that, whether it be job inquiries or home inquiries and real estate. But that's a great way to just hit the button, contact us and shoot me a message. And we would be glad to help with any of your questions. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri Cities a great place, and keep leading well. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. It's another podcast. Michael Hyatt has one called Lead to Win. And this podcast is filled with great leadership information. They're all relevant topics, every one I listen to, either for your personal growth and self leadership, or leading a team. Again, Michael Hyatt, Lead to Win Podcast. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest, Lance Kenmore, for being here today on the Tri Cities Influencer Podcast. And we also want to thank our Tri City Influencer sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence, it's Lester Pearson. He says, "Failures are made only by those who fail to dare, not by those who dare to fail." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 3: Paul would also like to help you restore sanity to your crazy schedule and get your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool. Or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: The Tri Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Award-Winning Culture is a student podcast led by teacher Hans Appel. Hear the story behind this exciting student podcast and get inspired to start a student podcast at your school. He shares his starting story, how he keeps it going with an annual podcast retreat, and how he surprises his students with a listener testimonial video. You'll find ideas to inspire your students however they are using their voice to help others. www.coolcatteacher.com/e616  Hans Appel - Bio As submitted Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took the top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. Hans’ blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, and PBIS Rewards. He’s written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He’s been a contributing writer on three upcoming educational books: “ Define Your WHY” “Reflective Impact Journal” and “ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education.” Currently, he’s working on his own book about school culture. Hans is a part of the coveted Teach Better Speakers Network and presents at conferences, schools, and districts all over the country. Topics include: Creating an Award-Winning Culture, Amplifying Student Voice, Student-Led Podcasting, and Infusing Servant Leadership through PBIS. Blog: http://www.awardwinningculture.com/ Twitter: @HansNAppel Instagram: @awardwinningculture

Jeff is the Director of Facilities and Operations for the Richland School District. In this episode, we discuss hiking into Mt. St. Helens and an in-depth discussion about hiring maintenance and facilities personnel. Jeff is an inspiring facility director with a ton of great experience. Jeff also agreed to provide us with the Powerpoint we reviewed, an interview evaluation form, and a template for job description ad's. Click here to download the presentation and forms: https://servtechpodcast.com/2019/12/05/data-driven-hiring/To offer feedback, topic ideas, or to have these materials emailed to you, use j.huntsman@jimmysroofing.comWould love to hear from you, enjoy Episode 5!

Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Additionally, they were selected as a finalist in the 2019 PBIS Film Festival and took top prize in the Community, Parents, and Staff category. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, PodBean, and Libsyn. Hans’ blogs have appeared on DisruptED TV magazine, CharacterStrong, and PBIS Rewards. He’s written social-emotional lessons for CharacterStrong. Furthermore, he has been featured on numerous educational podcasts speaking his brand of school culture into existence. He’s been a contributor on two upcoming educational books: “ Define Your WHY” and “ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education.” Currently, he’s working on his own book about school culture.

Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 19 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He's passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation.

Today on The Neil Haley Network's Total Education Hour, The Total Tutor Neil Haley, School Choice Advocate Ed Temple, and Author and Educator Lee McNulty will discuss the following news. The Pine Richland School District Scare, Charter Schools, and Classroom Management.

Jennifer Klauss is currently the lead principal at Enterprise Middle School, in the Richland School District and has been in education for 18 years.  After graduating from Kennewick High School, she played college basketball at Lewis and Clark College while completing her Bachelor of Science.  Additionally, she obtained a Master’s Degree in education from Washington State University. In this episode, Klauss explains how character and relationships are critical to Whole Child education. Later, Macey joins Desi and Hayes to break down Klauss' grit and committment to Wildcat Nation. **Award Winning Culture is Sponsored by: CharacterStrong   Use the Code AWC and get $200 off the Advisory Curriculum or $100 off the Leadership Curriculum   Follow Award Winning Culture : Twitter Instagram

Good morning, it's Thursday, July 18th. I'm Moneen Daley with your Mid-Columbia news from The Tri-City Herald. It'll be another sunny day in the Tri-Cities, with a high near 84. West winds will be 9 to 14 miles an hour, with gusts as high as 21 miles an hour. Tonight's low will be around 53. The top story today comes from the education beat, where there is a shakeup in the plans for a new superintendent for the Richland School District.

I learned the hard way that my job extended beyond providing support for students. I eventually realized that I'm part of a team. Follow: @jonHarper70bd @froehlichm @bamradionetwork Hans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 18 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. Recently, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and this fall rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation.

Get my 5 Tips To Address Implicit Bias Within Ourselves and Others About Patrice W. Glenn Jones, Ph.D. Patrice W. Glenn Jones is an educational leader to watch. She is currently an assistant professor and online learning specialist and has served for 20 years in predominately, minority-serving institutions: secondary and post-secondary, private and public. With 15 years of online learning experience, she also works on project-based, regional teams to expand online learning programs for multiple companies and institutions, and she serves as a contracted leader for a national assessment company. In addition to her “sense of community” and online learning research interests, Patrice is passionate about addressing factors that contribute to racial, social, and academic inequities, as well as promoting project- and problem-based research learning initiatives among Black American students.  Patrice began her career as a middle school English teacher and radio air personality in Jacksonville, Florida.  After earning a master’s degree in English from the University of North Florida, her career expanded to higher education and included positions as a faculty member, TRIO program coordinator, developmental English chair, program director, and assistant dean. Patrice also holds an educational specialist in information science and learning technology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a PhD in educational leadership from Florida A&M University.  Patrice’s reputation as a passionate, hard-working educator has been substantiated by the impressive body of work she has amassed during the past two years.  With two book chapters and an edited book in progress, Patrice still makes time to volunteer with students at a school in her area. Additionally, Patrice is a compelling speaker whose charisma and relatability has led to her serve as a keynote speaker for the Florida Fund for Minority Teachers, Richland School District, and other organizations. Patrice has recent publications in The Journal of Negro Education, Thought and Action, and NAAAS & Affiliates Monograph and is currently conducting research on teacher bullying, racially-disparate classrooms, and digital literacy among pre-service teachers. Show Highlights  A sense of community among educators in predominately Black schools Black administrator’s sense of community Low sense of community among the teachers Matching teachers and their environment Fostering a better sense of community Connect with Patrice pwglenn@yahoo.com Additional Resources A Sense of Community among Educators at Predominantly African American High Schools Connect with me on Twitter @sheldoneakins www.sheldoneakins.com

In this episode of (http://podcastingwithstudents.com) , Jeff welcomes Hans Appel on the program to discuss how his students are creating the Award-Winning Culture Podcast, a show created completely by his amazing middle school students. Learn how you can bring podcasting into your classroom today by listening to his inspiring story! If you are a new listener to TeacherCast, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our (http://teachercast.net/contact) and let us know how we can help you today! In this episode, we discuss: Award-Winning Culture Podcast-How it came to be Working with student podcasters Setting up a classroom podcast Process Equipment needsBlue Yeti Microphone Rode Microphone Finding the best applications to useSkype ECAMM Call Recorder Garageband Libsyn Getting school buy-in Assessing the success of students and the project Parent’s thoughts and reactions Student thoughts, reactions, and reflections Where do we go from here? Next steps About Hans AppelHans Appel has worked as a counselor in the Richland School District for the past 18 years and at Enterprise Middle School since it opened. He’s passionate about school culture, servant leadership, and kindness. In 2018, EMS was awarded the ASCD Whole Child Award for the State of Washington and the Global “Class Act Award” for creating a culture of excellence through kindness, service, and empathy. In 2019, EMS was chosen as a finalist for the PBIS Film Festival, which showcased their award-winning school culture. Recently, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and this fall rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation, which can be subscribed, listened or reviewed on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, and Libsyn. He can be contacted at hansappel094@gmail.com. Follow Hans on twitter @hansappel094. Follow AWC on twitter at @awculture or Instagram @awardwinningculture. Wildcat Nation at @emswildcats1 and Instagram @emscounseling #WildcatNation #AwardWinningCulture About the Award-Winning Culture PodcastEnterprise Middle School received the 2018 ASCD Whole Child Award in Washington and the 2018 Global “Class Act Award” for its award-winning culture. By creating a culture of kindness, service, and empathy we've taken student leadership to an epic level. We invite you to join in this unique student-led journey where we explore Character, Excellence, and Community with some of the best leadership minds. We'll be sharing interviews with authors, educators, experts, and even other leadership students around the country. Whether you're an educator, student, parent or just passionate about culture and leadership, we invite you into this unique platform focused on raising education to incredible heights. Links of InterestHomepage: http://www.awardwinningculture.com/podcast (http://www.awardwinningculture.com/podcast) Twitter: https://twitter.com/hansappel094 (https://twitter.com/hansappel094) Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/awculture (https://twitter.com/awculture) YouTube: https://youtu.be/-vc7XE4J4Fs (https://youtu.be/-vc7XE4J4Fs) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awardwinningculture/ (https://www.instagram.com/awardwinningculture/) Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/award-winning-culture-hosted-by-wildcat-nation/id1435716995?mt=2 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/award-winning-culture-hosted-by-wildcat-nation/id1435716995?mt=2) Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/podcasts (https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/podcasts) Stitcher Radio: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/hans-appel/award-winning-culture (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/hans-appel/award-winning-culture) Follow our PodcastThe TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network | @TeacherCast (http://www.twitter.com/teachercast)...

Hans Appel has been a Counselor at Enterprise Middle School in the Richland School District in WA for the past 17+ years. Recently, Hans launched his own blog about School Culture and this fall rolled out a student-led leadership podcast called Award Winning Culture: Hosted by Wildcat Nation. Hans is absolutely driven to helping students ...

House of Harley Radio Broadcasting LIVE at the Palmetto State Fatherhood Awards Breakfast and Fundraiser....Tune in NOW!!! Enjoy!!!Our goals for this event are to (1) recognize Amazing Fathers/Fatherhood Champions in South Carolina and to (2) raise scholarship funds to inspire, support, and award to male high school seniors to further their education. All ticket purchases and donations will be tax-deductable.Below are our 2016 Fatherhood Champion Honorees:Coach Frank Martin, Head Basketball Coach, University of South CarolinaMr. Tom Keith, President, Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina Mr. Jamey D. Patterson, High School Guidance Counselor, Richland School District 2 (James Patterson Jr. Courage Awardee)Dr. David H. Swinton, President, Benedict College Mr. Vernon Smith, Football Coach and Father of former USC Football Great, Marcus Lattimore

House of Harley Radio Broadcasting LIVE at the Palmetto State Fatherhood Awards Breakfast and Fundraiser....Tune in NOW!!! Enjoy!!!Our goals for this event are to (1) recognize Amazing Fathers/Fatherhood Champions in South Carolina and to (2) raise scholarship funds to inspire, support, and award to male high school seniors to further their education. All ticket purchases and donations will be tax-deductable.Below are our 2016 Fatherhood Champion Honorees:Coach Frank Martin, Head Basketball Coach, University of South CarolinaMr. Tom Keith, President, Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina Mr. Jamey D. Patterson, High School Guidance Counselor, Richland School District 2 (James Patterson Jr. Courage Awardee)Dr. David H. Swinton, President, Benedict College Mr. Vernon Smith, Football Coach and Father of former USC Football Great, Marcus Lattimore

NHISG Entertainment will have a Special Edition of Regina's World tonight at 8pm. The country are reacting to the confrontation between a FEMALE STUDENT & SRO in Spring Valley High School.  Dr. Hugh Harmon is well respected in the Richland School District and he has agreed to come on our show tonight to discuss this situation. HOST Regina E. Williams continues to bring shows that are important to our community and our city! Parents of students at Spring Valley High School are already reacting to the video. Richland Two Black Parents Association called the video "egregious" and "unacceptable." "Parents are heartbroken as this is just another example of the intolerance that continues to be of issue in Richland School District Two particularly with families and children of color," the statement said. "As we have stated in the past, we stand ready to work in collaboration to address these horrible acts of violence and inequities among our children”. Dr. Hugh Harmon the chairman of the district's Black Parents Association says the members of his group are outraged. "It hurt, because I have a daughter in Richland Two. She's in elementary about to go into middle school. To get a phone call that, that would have happened to my daughter, I don't know how I would have responded," Dr. Harmon said.

Yes....When I talk to people, I hear it all the time "My Vote Doesn't Count", but House of Harley is here to tell you YOUR VOTE DOES COUNT!!!  Join us on House of Harley Talk Radio @9pm 10/29/14 as we interview the honorable Congressman Jim Clyburn, Bakari Sellers (candidate running for Lt. Governor), Tom Thomson (candidate running for SC School Superintendent), and Chandra Clevland-Jenning (candidate running for Richland School District 2 School Board), and many more!!!  HoH is worldwide, but this show is dedicated to you South Carolina, because we need change and vast improvements to our state!!!! This show will be an intimate moment for you all to call and ask questions to the candidates that are running for office. Please feel free to call the show @347-884-9373 @9pm 10/29/14.....YOUR VOTE DOES COUNT!!!!!http://www.blogtalkradio.com/houseofharley Sponsored By: http://www.ladysusieqfashions.comhttp://www.gofundme.com/supporthohTwitter: @hohtalkradio  *if you have trouble listening to the show online call 347-884-9373 to listen to the show on your phone*if you are listening on your smart phone internet and you are experiencing issues...give the show time to load and or refresh your screen

IT in the D, Episode 61...in which we discover more about connected cars and mobility standards with a repeat guest, and catch up with an old friend who's a first timer. Great talks, good times, and even a fifth segment. Because we wanted to, that's why. So let's find out what Elaina Farnsworth of Mobile Comply and Terry Bean had to say... As always, our first segment was, as always, a round up of news stories that caught our eye.  From keycards given to seven people that'll reboot the internet to a school district getting rid of swingsets, from a dude killed over Facebook poking his friend's wife out to the insidious evil that is most flashlight apps...good stuff you need to know. The second segment was all about Elaina Farnsworth from Mobile Comply.  Elaina was on back in Episode 22 talking about the CompTIA Mobility+ certification, and a lot has happened since then so it was time for her to come back and chat some more.  We talked about connected cars, the liability and legal issues around them, and all sorts of other fun.  It's always a good chat with Elaina, and it was great to have her back in.  Check out her company at http://mobilecomply.com/ Segment three moved on to chat with Terry Bean about everything from TEDxDetroit to 313Dlove and things around the city.  We've known Terry for well over a decade, and there are some interesting things brewing behind the scenes (other than beer, for once) that might have us chatting more in the future.  Go ahead and check out what he's got going on at https://www.facebook.com/313DLove The 4th segment doubled back on earlier topics that we wanted to get into a little bit more, and then the 5th segment (yes, there was a fifth segment) wrapped things up for the night. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/171171580" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] Thanks for listening, and tune in next week as we have Mark Larson from Falling Down Beer Company in along with some of his friends doing cool things with beer and more. As always, we can be found: On the web: http://www.ITinTheD.com On Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/  On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/IT-in-D-Read-Meet-91763  On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ITintheD  On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ITintheD  On Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/itinthed/  - Where can we get our hands on one of these nifty keycards that'll reboot the internet? http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/select-seven-to-hold-internet-reboot-keys/5719 - Paying via Facebook Messenger?  Ummm...no thanks... http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/05/pay-with-facebook-messenger/ - Lawyers + lazy parents = kids can't have swings any more. http://www.keprtv.com/Richland-School-District-is-Saying-Goodbye-to-Swings-277833231.html - Pokes kill: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-jailed-after-killing-pal-4376061 - That little flashlight app on your phone is doing more than helping you find your keys: http://benswann.com/exclusive-top-10-flashlight-apps-are-stealing-your-data-even-pics-off-your-phone/ - AT&T gets hacked: http://www.zdnet.com/at-and-t-hit-by-insider-data-breach-unspecified-number-of-accounts-accessed-7000034386/ - You can be served legal papers via Facebook.  That's certainly not going to cause problems... http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/06/notice-sued-judge-allows-summons-served-via-facebook/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social - Why military folks make the best IT candidates: http://news.dice.com/2014/10/06/why-military-personnel-make-ideal-it-pros/ - Microsoft's "RoomAlive" uses kinect to turn your entire room into the video game http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/5/6912979/microsoft-roomalive-research-projector-system - The FCC really doesn't give a damn what you think about Net Neutrality http://www.vox.

The Education Technology Director for the National School Boards Association (NSBA), Dr. Ann Flynn, discussed the NSBA’s 2007 Education Technology Site Visits during this short podcast interview [MP3, 6MB].NSBA has been hosting site visits in districts across the country for nearly twenty years. Education leaders return from the visits with specific, realistic strategies for meeting their own districts’ and schools’ challenges and needs. This year’s districts – in South Carolina, Virginia and Minnesota – showcase innovative programs that integrate technology into the learning process and boost student achievement within diverse settings. They represent three distinctly different districts, but each has met their challenges with unique and comprehensive technology initiatives.Cable in the Classroom is proud to be the national sponsor of the NSBA Education Technology Site Visits again this year!You can find more information on the site visits and additional NSBA educational technology resources at www.nsba.org/tln.Technorati tags: NSBA, Richland School District, Loudoun County Public Schools, Minnetonka Public Schools #276, CIC, Cable in the Classroom, cableintheclassroom, tv, school, education