
The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast | The #1 Downloaded School Leadership Show
by Daniel Bauer Loves School Leadership
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Recent episodes
Why Every Student at This College Must Launch a Business- With Jeff Meade
Jun 24, 2026
Unknown duration
Why Your Edtech Is Failing Students (And What to Do Instead) with Kris Rockwell
Jun 17, 2026
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How to Turn Around a Failing School: Real-Time Coaching That Works
Jun 10, 2026
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10 Lessons from 10 Years of School Leadership Podcasting with Danny Bauer
Jun 3, 2026
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Why Your Open Door Policy Is Destroying Your Leadership with Michelle Sloan
May 27, 2026
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/24/26 | ![]() Why Every Student at This College Must Launch a Business- With Jeff Meade | Jeff Meade spent 20 years building companies. Then a friend asked him one question on a hike near Mount Fuji — what makes you happy? — and he couldn't answer it. That four-hour conversation led him to Paul Quinn College in Dallas, where he now serves as Chief Innovation Officer and runs a program with one non-negotiable rule: every student, regardless of major, must start and operate a real business before they graduate. No simulations. No worksheets. Real ventures, real customers, real failure. Every school says it wants future-ready students. Most are still teaching them how to pass tests. Jeff Meade decided that wasn't good enough — and built a venture-based learning model that turns a graduation requirement into the most practical education a student can get. If you're a school leader wondering whether entrepreneurship education belongs on your campus, this episode answers the question. ✅ What You'll Learn Why employers stopped wanting graduates who can pass tests — and what they're asking for instead How Paul Quinn structured a seed fund and advisor model so student ventures get real resources, not just pitch competitions Why this generation's biggest professional liability is their inability to talk to strangers — and what to do about it What a theoretical entrepreneurship curriculum gets wrong, and how venture-based learning fixes it How K–12 leaders can apply the same principles without a college-sized program 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🎯 Key Insight #1: Entrepreneurship Curriculum That Stays Theoretical Is Useless What's broken: Most school entrepreneurship programs teach students about business through reading, multiple choice questions, and theoretical frameworks — producing students who can define entrepreneurship but have never done it. The shift: Venture-based learning requires students to actually start and operate a business — finding customers, managing limited resources, pricing, pitching, and iterating on failure in real time. Impact: Students graduate having already been an entrepreneur, not just having studied one — and employers notice the difference immediately. 🎯 Key Insight #2: Soft Skills Are the Real Curriculum Gap What's broken: Leaders building entrepreneurship programs focus on funding, advisors, and curriculum structure — the infrastructure — while assuming students already have the interpersonal skills to execute. The shift: This generation has built entire social identities through virtual success and can have 20,000 followers on TikTok without ever sitting across from an adult in a real conversation. Impact: When students are pushed to talk to real people — potential customers, community members, advisors — they build the human connection muscle that no app can replicate, and one student went out to practice cold outreach and came back with an internship. 🎯 Key Insight #3: Failing Fast Has to Be Built Into the Design What's broken: Twelve years of traditional schooling trains students to avoid failure at all costs — honor roll, dean's list, perfect SAT prep — and that fear of failure becomes a ceiling on their entrepreneurial potential. The shift: Jeff flips the frame on day one: the goal is to fail big and fast, then iterate — with a soft landing built in because the stakes are learning, not rent. Impact: Students who learn to process failure as data rather than identity become the exact kind of adaptive, resilient thinkers that employers say they can't find enough of. 💬 JEFF MEAD QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "Students don't just study entrepreneurship, they actually do it." — Jeff Meade "The marketplace was telling us that they wanted a different type of student. So when I show up with this idea that every student starts a business, it's like, oh my God, you were answering sort of the prayers that we had." — Jeff Meade "You want somebody who thinks like this and not somebody who is trying to pass a test. That doesn't do anything for anybody." — Jeff Meade "I want you to fail big and fast. And that's so hard because you just graduated high school, you just took your SATs, you want to be on the dean's list. And then you walk into my class and I'm like, oh, you are going to fail so quick." — Jeff Meade "Students are dream chasers. They have these dreams — sometimes they may be uncomfortable sharing them, but they have these really cool dreams. And so we have the power to help them dream bigger and actualize those dreams." — Jeff Meade "In order for you to take it to another level and actually grow a business, you have to sit across from somebody and share your dream." — Jeff Meade 🤗 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Audit your current entrepreneurship or career-readiness curriculum and identify one unit that is purely theoretical with no real-world interaction built in. This Month: Identify three local business owners or entrepreneurs who would come to your campus for a career-day-style conversation with students — make the ask. This Semester: Design one student-facing project where the deliverable is a real pitch to a real audience — parents, community leaders, local business owners — with a defined problem, a proposed solution, and a student-built case for why they're the right person to solve it. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Schools teach compliance, not how to build anything real 01:09 - Jeff Meade and the Paul Quinn entrepreneur requirement 04:32 - The hike on Mount Fuji that changed Jeff's career 10:21 - How Paul Quinn cut football to fund its future 13:37 - What employers actually want from graduates 17:56 - The seed fund and advisor model supporting student ventures 20:34 - What venture-based learning actually means 24:05 - Why Gen Z struggles to talk to people in real life 32:31 - What Jeff tells K–12 leaders about student entrepreneurship 39:09 - The Babson model Jeff is rebuilding for HBCUs 43:10 - Jeff's three principles for his dream school 🔗 Connect With Jeff Mead Website: jeff-meade.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffmeade 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your SelfMentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your SelfMentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🤝 Today's RuckusCast Partners ODP Business Solutions has spent 30 years helping school districts build environments where students actually want to show up. From flexible learning spaces to tech integration to sustainable solutions, they deliver it all from a single supplier — simplifying ordering and keeping you compliant with cooperative contracts. One school, Belago Academy, worked with ODP to create collaborative spaces so engaging that students forgot to check their phones. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to see what's possible. Frontline Education's 2026 K–12 Lens Report cuts through the noise with insights from over 1,000 school leaders navigating staffing, student support, operations, and technology — all at once, all interconnected. If your district is managing multiple pressures simultaneously (and whose isn't?), this report shows how other leaders are adapting their strategies in real time. 🔍 Get the full picture at FrontlineEducation.com/leaders IXL's universal screener identifies every student who needs intervention in 20 minutes or less — and then its adaptive learning platform automatically adjusts difficulty for each individual student as they work. Over 1 million teachers use IXL because it makes differentiated instruction something you can actually execute, not just aspire to. 🔍 Get started today at IXL.com/leaders META DESCRIPTION: Paul Quinn College requires every student to launch a real business before graduation. Here's what venture-based learning looks like — and what K–12 leaders can steal from it. | — | ||||||
| 6/17/26 | ![]() Why Your Edtech Is Failing Students (And What to Do Instead) with Kris Rockwell | A researcher, Edtech expert, and PhD candidate studying the intersection of AI, learning, and human experience, Kris brings a rare combination of academic rigor and real-world application to the question every principal is quietly asking: is all this technology actually helping? His work with Play Piper puts him at the front lines of how kids interact with screens — and what happens when that interaction goes wrong. Kris has been studying and speaking about screen usage in learning environments since 2013, long before most districts had a policy on the subject. AI policy still doesn't exist in most school districts in 2026. Meta and YouTube just lost a major court case over intentionally building products harmful to kids. And the principals who bought Edtech tools during COVID are still living with implementations they never had time to design properly. Kris returns to the RuckusCast to name the problem clearly: technology in schools is being treated as the experience instead of a tool within the experience — and that distinction is costing students more than anyone wants to admit. 🎯 What You'll Learn Why the Meta and YouTube court ruling matters to every principal making Edtech decisions right now The critical difference between simulation-based learning and actual skill development How COVID forced impossible implementation timelines that are still warping Edtech use today Why most districts still have no AI policy in 2026 — and what to do about it How to think about AI as a co-principal rather than a threat or a shortcut 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧰 Key Insight #1: Edtech Adoption Without Design Produces Screen Dependency, Not Learning What's broken: Schools are purchasing and deploying Edtech based on what's new and available, not on what produces better outcomes — and the result is students staring at screens for the majority of their learning time. The shift: Technology should be a tool within the learning experience, not the experience itself — the screen is one element of the world, not a replacement for it. Impact: When principals reframe adoption decisions around this distinction, they stop chasing shiny tools and start evaluating whether an implementation actually extends beyond what kids are staring at. 🧰 Key Insight #2: COVID-Era Implementation Timelines Broke Edtech Design What's broken: Transitioning a course from in-person to online properly takes months — sometimes a year — but COVID forced schools to make that shift in three to four weeks, and those broken implementations carried through. The shift: Acknowledge that what most schools are running isn't intentional digital learning design — it's emergency triage that never got fixed. Impact: Principals who name this legacy honestly can audit their current edtech stack against what was designed with intention versus what was deployed in crisis mode. 🧠 Key Insight #3: AI Is a Tool for Handling the Curriculum — Not for Replacing the Human Leader What's broken: Principals are either avoiding AI entirely or offloading judgment to it — neither approach produces better schools. The shift: Let AI handle the curriculum structure, the data, the content scaffolding — and use the human leader for exactly what AI cannot do: the relational, social, and emotionally intelligent work of building a school community. Impact: A principal who co-leads with AI this way gets leverage on administrative and instructional tasks while protecting the irreplaceable human elements that retain teachers and engage students. KRIS QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "The idea that Silicon Valley is defining how humans will interact in the future is the most perverse thing that's ever happened in the history of society." — Kris Rockwell "Trinity does not learn how to fly a helicopter. She learns how to simulate a helicopter. She has no idea how to fly a helicopter once she's unplugged from that experience. So in that realm, what we're doing is looking at the simulation and saying, well, this is the future of learning. But it's not." — Kris Rockwell "What's being put into the system directly feeds what is coming out of the system." — Kris Rockwell "Code is becoming philosophy rather than engineering at this point." — Kris Rockwell "If I'm the co principal, I'm focusing on the human elements and how to make these things functional and how to make sure that the critical thinking is there." — Kris Rockwell "Ensure that it is a tool and not the tool. Ensure that those things that the kids have access to extend beyond what they're staring at." — Kris Rockwell 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Audit one Edtech tool currently in use on your campus and ask whether students are staring at it for the majority of the time — if yes, identify one way it could be a gateway to an offline or physical experience instead. This Month: Draft a one-page AI use framework for your campus that answers two questions: what will we use AI to handle, and what will remain exclusively human. This Semester: Identify every Edtech implementation that was adopted during COVID emergency conditions and evaluate each one against the question Kris named: is this designed with intention, or are we still running triage? ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Silicon Valley is defining how kids learn 04:15 - Meta and YouTube court ruling unpacked 07:25 - The "new and shiny" edtech trap 09:13 - Simulation vs. actual learning (the Matrix problem) 13:03 - Why COVID broke edtech implementation 19:17 - How China vs. the West frames AI differently 28:06 - Most districts still have no AI policy in 2026 30:26 - Code is becoming philosophy, not engineering 39:21 - How to co-principal with AI 43:11 - The one thing every Ruckus Maker should remember Connect With Chris 👩🏻💻 Follow Kris Rockwell: Website: www.playpiper.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/krisrockwell Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartWithPiper X: https://x.com/StartWithPiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startwithpiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PlayPiperLLC TikTok: @play.piper 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your SelfMentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your SelfMentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🤝 Today's RuckusCast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a trusted partner for schools for 30 years. They don't just drop off supplies — they'll help you design a STEAM Innovation center, keep multiple buildings stocked and compliant, and streamline ordering across your entire district through a single supplier with cooperative contract access. However you want to advance, they've seen it and solved it. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to learn more The staffing crisis isn't over — it's just shifted. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens Report found that districts with structured, targeted professional learning are nearly twice as likely to report easier hiring than those without. The data is in: professional growth that extends beyond onboarding builds the culture that retains teachers before the year even starts. 🔍 Download the full report at frontlineducation.com/leaders IXL gives school leaders what teachers already love: an adaptive platform that handles differentiated instruction and delivers dashboards that let you drill down to individual student growth in real time. Make data-informed decisions that move the needle on student growth goals. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders META DESCRIPTION: AI policy is missing in most districts. Edtech is failing students. This episode breaks down why — and how principals can lead differently. | — | ||||||
| 6/10/26 | ![]() How to Turn Around a Failing School: Real-Time Coaching That Works | Eight years ago, Chad Weiden walked into one of South Carolina's most underperforming elementary schools — a campus so low-rated that the state took it over, failed to fix it, and handed it back to the district. He just turned it into a good school. The strategy for school turnaround he used wasn't a new curriculum, a fresh initiative, or a culture retreat. It was building beacons of excellence on every team and coaching teachers in real time, in the moment, while students were in the room. Weiden spent nearly three decades building and leading schools across Chicago and South Carolina, including turning around Meeting Street Burns Pre-K through second grade from "unsatisfactory" to "good" on the state report card — in one of the most underserved communities in the state. He's a principal who understands that every child can learn and that the system, not the child, is what needs fixing. Find him on LinkedIn to follow his work. School turnaround is one of the most searched and least understood challenges in school leadership. Most principals know they need to fix culture — what they don't know is which two or three instructional moves actually move the needle. This episode answers that question directly, from a principal who lived it in real time in a school the system had already given up on. 🤩 What You'll Learn Why building one beacon teacher per team matters more than trying to develop everyone at once How to implement real-time instructional coaching — in the moment, mid-lesson — and get teachers to crave it instead of fear it The vulnerability framework you must unpack before jumping into a teacher's classroom Why joy is not performative and what it actually looks like in a high-expectation school How the paradox of high expectations and deep love for students coexist — and why low expectations are never kindness 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧠 Key Insight #1: School Turnaround Starts with One Beacon Per Team, Not Everyone at Once What's broken: Principals in turnaround schools try to develop every teacher simultaneously and end up moving no one. The shift: Identify and build one beacon teacher per grade-level team who sets the standard, holds the expectation, and shows colleagues what great looks like when the principal isn't in the room. Impact: Once a beacon is in place, a second strong teacher develops faster — and within a few years, the entire team performs at a high level because the standard is visible every day. 🧠 Key Insight #2: Real-Time Coaching Builds Better Teachers Faster Than Any Post-Observation Debrief What's broken: Most instructional feedback arrives as an autopsy — a sit-down debrief days after the lesson, long after the muscle memory has hardened. The shift: The principal enters the classroom as a co-teacher, intervenes the moment an instructional error occurs — modeling, adjusting, coaching in real time — the same way elite athletes are corrected mid-rep, not after the game. Impact: Teachers start craving the feedback because they feel the improvement immediately; confidence builds in the room, students re-engage, and the principal's classroom presence shifts from evaluative to transformative. 🧠 Key Insight #3: Joy in School Is Not Performance — It's the Small Moments That Make Learning Stick What's broken: When 53% of students are disengaged, schools respond with programs, pep rallies, or initiatives — and teachers interpret any call for joy as a demand to become entertainers. The shift: Joy lives in small moments — a student nerding out on a text, spotting an algebra pattern in geometry, owning a goal that feels meaningful — not in performative enthusiasm that burns teachers out. Impact: Campuses that build joy into the academic experience — through growth, celebration, and belonging — create environments students don't want to leave and teachers don't want to quit. 🗣️ CHAD WEIDEN QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "I had to build a beacon of a teacher on each team. One beacon of what the bar should be — because when you leave, they're really holding the expectations. They're showing other people what it looks like." — Chad Weiden "Act like the school is your classroom. Every classroom is my classroom, and when I walk in, I'm going to co-teach with you. That's how we built really great teachers really quickly — that system of real-time coaching." — Chad Weiden "There's nothing better when you get feedback that helps you feel more effective or confident. You start to crave it. And once people realize this is going to make your job easier — not tomorrow, right now — they're like, okay, this is weird, but dang, that was helpful." — Chad Weiden "To truly love a child is to hold that child to the highest expectation possible. To not love a child is to lower the expectation. I really lived in black and white — what I've deeply changed my mind about is I embrace the paradox." — Chad Weiden "Joy isn't big joy. Joy is in small moments — nerding out in a text with a kid, seeing them light up over a pattern they've spotted. That's joy. It's not performative. Because performative is exhausting and you can't do it every moment of every day." — Chad Weiden "The system is perfectly designed to get the results that it has." — Chad Weiden "Let kids do the work. Teachers hold the learning, hold the modelling — we're talking too much. Let kids do the work. They're ready." — Chad Weiden 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Walk into one classroom with the explicit intention to co-teach for five minutes — not to observe, but to intervene and model in real time if you see an instructional gap. This Month: Identify the one teacher on each grade-level team who is closest to beacon status and invest your heaviest coaching hours there first, rather than spreading yourself evenly. This Semester: Build a vulnerability framework with your staff — naming real-time coaching as a school norm during onboarding, modelling receiving feedback publicly yourself, and making the four beliefs explicit: it's okay to fail, it's okay to not know everything, it's okay to ask for help, and we are in this together. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - The real lever behind student disengagement 07:18 - Chad's turnaround story in South Carolina 10:22 - The three moves that drove results 11:05 - Building a beacon teacher on every team 12:26 - Real-time coaching defined and how it works 15:18 - How to introduce real-time coaching without fear 21:06 - Why every educator should take an improv class 30:07 - Joy and growth as the engine of school turnaround 39:16 - What Chad changed his mind about in education 42:57 - Danny on firing yourself from your own organization 44:29 - Marquee message: Let kids do the work 👩🏻💻 Connect With Chad Weiden Website: https://berkeleycharter.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-weiden-99a31878/ 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your SelfMentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your SelfMentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com. 🎙️ Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a trusted partner for schools for 30 years — and they're not just a supplier, they're a strategic advantage. They give districts access to negotiated cooperative contracts that maximize every education dollar, and they proved it by helping the Baldwin School District transform an entire campus while staying under budget. From essential supplies to cutting-edge technology to flexible furniture, they're your one-stop shop to do school different. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to get started. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens Report makes the retention argument in hard numbers: districts that manage professional growth with software are nearly twice as likely to report easier hiring — 47% versus 30%. If you're serious about building a campus where great educators want to stay, this report is the data behind the strategy. 🔍 Download the full K12 Lens Report at FrontlineEducation.com/leaders. IXL takes the guesswork out of what teachers do next. Ready-made lesson plans aligned to textbooks and state standards, plus daily student performance insights that let teachers adjust instruction before a gap becomes a problem. It's the kind of instructional support that turns real-time coaching from a principal strategy into a school-wide system. 🔍 Start today at IXL.com/leaders. META DESCRIPTION: School turnaround principal Chad Weiden shares the real-time coaching system and beacon teacher strategy that took a failing school to good-rated in South Carolina. | — | ||||||
| 6/3/26 | ![]() 10 Lessons from 10 Years of School Leadership Podcasting with Danny Bauer | A decade into the Better Leaders Better Schools Ruckuscast, Danny Bauer has coached and interviewed hundreds of school leaders — and the patterns are clear. Dan Watt, elementary principal in British Columbia and Ruckus Maker, flips the microphone and puts Danny in the guest chair. What follows isn't nostalgia. It's the unfiltered architecture of a school leadership development ecosystem that actually works — and what it means for how you lead your campus. The Ruckuscast turns 10 this year. That's 10 years of watching which principals grow and which ones stall, which leadership beliefs hold up and which ones collapse under pressure. This episode is the debrief. 🌟 What You'll Learn Why the same interview questions nearly killed the show — and the pivot that saved it The core leadership belief Danny held 10 years ago that he's since discarded What separates Ruckus Makers from Play-It-Safe Principals at the pattern level Why curiosity in classroom walkthroughs beats judgment every time The two questions every teacher on your campus is silently asking 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧰 Key Insight #1: Repeatable Processes Are Training Wheels, Not Destinations What's broken: Most school leaders build repeatable systems and then defend them — mistaking consistency for quality, and process for progress. The shift: Treat your systems as training wheels — useful at the start, necessary to eventually remove when they stop producing growth and start producing boredom. Impact: When Danny scrapped his standard interview question bank and replaced it with curiosity-driven pre-interviews, the quality of guest conversations — and listener value — jumped immediately. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Busyness Is Not a Badge of Honor for School Leaders What's broken: Principals optimize for activity — more posts, more meetings, more programs — and measure success by how full the calendar looks rather than what outcomes those activities actually produce. The shift: Think deeply about inputs you can control and whether those inputs are actually the right inputs — strategy first, then tactics, and only the tactics that move the right needle. Impact: Danny turned down CEO and sales positions, fired himself from facilitating the Mastermind, and cut social media volume — and the ecosystem got healthier, not smaller. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Judgment in Walkthroughs Evaluates Teachers Into Being Average What's broken: Leaders walk into classrooms, form a verdict in real time, and deliver that verdict to teachers — which trains teachers to play it safe, avoid risk, and teach to the evaluator. The shift: Replace judgment with curiosity — "huh, how did that go?" instead of "that lesson was weak" — and follow it with questions about what the teacher was trying, what they learned, and what they'd change next period. Impact: A teacher who took a risk in third period and got honest, curious feedback can refine the lesson and nail it in sixth period; a teacher who got judged will never take that risk again. 🎙️ DANNY BAUER QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "If you come in there judging it and being like that was the worst lesson I've ever seen, is that teacher ever going to take a risk again? Probably not. Because you're a jerk. And you evaluated them into being average." — Danny Bauer "A Play-It-Safe Principal is just going to wait for the school district or whoever to develop them. Are you the hero of your story? Or are you a victim?" — Danny Bauer "Busyness is not a badge of honour, nor is it something that usually leads to the results that we want." — Danny Bauer "You exist in the system and there's a way that things are done. And so if you want to dream big and be bold in your leadership, then you have to get outside perspectives." — Danny Bauer "Your people really want to know the answer to two questions: Do I belong here? And am I doing a good job? If there's an absence of those answers, there's going to be problems within your culture." — Danny Bauer "What does it matter if I have a viral thread on X or a million comments on Facebook if they're just comments and nobody changes?" — Danny Bauer "Leadership is a human endeavor." — Danny Bauer 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Walk into one classroom today and instead of evaluating, ask one curious question — "what were you trying to accomplish?" — and actually listen to the answer. This Month: Audit your weekly inputs — every meeting, habit, and commitment — and identify the three activities consuming the most time while producing the least change in student or teacher outcomes. This Semester: Build a belonging audit into your end-of-year conversations with staff by asking directly: "Do you feel like you belong here, and do you know how you're doing?" — then act on what you hear. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - 10 years of the Ruckuscast — what's changed 03:05 - Dan Watt takes the host seat 04:16 - Why the same questions killed the show early 06:03 - How guests are selected differently now 09:28 - Episodes that redefined doing school different 12:24 - The leadership belief Danny had to unlearn 14:28 - Why getting outside your district changes everything 19:00 - Patterns in leaders who actually grow 21:23 - Why curiosity beats judgment in classroom walkthroughs 23:17 - The two questions every staff member needs answered 33:46 - Saying no to stay vibrant — what Danny turned down 35:25 - Busyness is not a badge of honor 39:51 - What a tired principal needs to hear right now 41:58 - The invitation to dance and why enrollment beats compliance 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your SelfMentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your SelfMentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com. 🤝 Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a trusted partner for schools for 30 years — and they're not just dropping off supplies. They help school leaders design dynamic learning environments where students are actually excited to show up, from tech integrations that bring lessons to life to flexible furniture that turns any room into a collaboration zone. Everything ships from a single supplier so you can simplify ordering, stay on budget, and access cooperative contracts without the compliance headache. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to learn more. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens Report surfaces exactly what districts are doing differently to keep great teachers from burning out and walking out. The data is specific: districts that automate professional development processes are nearly twice as likely to report easier hiring outcomes than those that don't — and nearly half report measurable improvement. If you're building a campus where people feel supported and proud to stay, 🔍 Download the full report at frontlineducation.com/leaders. IXL doesn't ask teachers to guess what their students know. Its diagnostic automatically identifies every knowledge gap, then builds a personalized growth plan for each individual student — so teachers walk into class informed, not hoping. The adaptive platform adjusts difficulty in real time as students learn, closing gaps without requiring teachers to manually differentiate everything. 🔍 Get started at ixl.com/leaders. META DESCRIPTION: Danny Bauer reflects on 10 years of school leadership podcasting — what he unlearned, what separates growing principals from stalled ones, and why curiosity beats judgment. | — | ||||||
| 5/27/26 | ![]() Why Your Open Door Policy Is Destroying Your Leadership with Michelle Sloan | She helps principals stop surviving their schools and start leading them. Michelle Sloan is an educator, author, and leadership coach who spent seven years building a school from the ground up — which gave her something rare: "firsthand proof that mission-driven leadership isn't a feel-good concept, it's a survival strategy." Her book The Purpose Driven Principal is the framework she wishes she'd had in year one. School leadership burnout is not a willpower problem. It's a systems problem. A principal walks in energized, writes down what matters, and by 6pm hasn't touched a single item on the list. This episode is about diagnosing that drift — and building the structure to stop it from swallowing another year. 📚 What You'll Learn Why your open door policy is actively damaging your relationships (not protecting them). How the four pillars of a purpose-driven school — people, pedagogy, processes, and personal growth — create a filter for every decision. The Assess, Design, Align cycle and how to use it to get back to mission-driven work. Why what's predictable is preventable, and what that actually looks like in practice. The one calendar change that breaks the reactive leadership cycle. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules ✅ Key Insight #1: Principal Burnout Is a Symptom of Missing Purpose Filters What's broken: Principals measure their days by how busy they are, not by whether they're moving toward their mission. The shift: Define the school's mission, vision, and core values first — then use them as a filter for every demand, program, and shiny new thing that shows up. Impact: A principal who knows why their school exists can say no to the college prep program that works down the street but doesn't fit their community — and feel confident doing it. ✅ Key Insight #2: Processes Are a Leadership Superpower, Not an Administrative Chore What's broken: Every knock on the principal's door is treated as an individual problem to solve, so the same problems return every day. The shift: Treat every repeated interruption as a signal that a system is missing — then build the process that makes you unnecessary for that question. Impact: When processes are in place, teachers stop waiting until 5:30 to ask questions only you can answer, and you get to do the work that actually requires you. ✅ Key Insight #3: The Open Door Policy Is a False Virtue What's broken: Principals equate constant accessibility with relational leadership — and end up half-present for everyone, including their families. The shift: Set published hours for availability, protect deep work time with the same seriousness that teacher planning periods are protected, and be 100% present when you are present. Impact: Principals who define when they are available stop the low-grade distraction that makes a 12-hour day feel like zero progress. 🎙️ MICHELLE SLOAN QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "A good principal is in their office solving problems. But a great principal is out in the classrooms preventing them." — Michelle Sloan "What's predictable is preventable." — Michelle Sloan "If you never get out of that cycle, you can never be intentional about fulfilling your purpose in your mission. You're just in that cycle of whatever the day brings." — Michelle Sloan "You shouldn't lose yourself in the process because you stepped into leadership." — Michelle Sloan "There's a difference between perfection and being excellent. Do and just loving your people." — Michelle Sloan "You get out of alignment when you don't know who you are and why you exist." — Michelle Sloan "You were created on purpose and for a purpose. You have unique gifts and talents that only you have and the world needs." — Michelle Sloan 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Block two hours on your calendar this week and mark it as off-campus — then use that time to highlight in yellow every unplanned interruption from yesterday and ask who else could have handled it. This Month: Write or revisit your school's mission statement and use it to evaluate one program, initiative, or meeting you're currently running that might not actually align. This Semester: Publish your availability hours to your staff and hold them — identify one admin or team member who can serve as the first stop for your three most common interruptions. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Why principals burn out — it's not weakness 01:52 - Sponsor break 03:34 - Michelle Sloan joins the show 06:21 - What a school looks like when purpose is gone 09:53 - The four pillars of a purpose-driven school 13:55 - The most neglected pillar and its cost 19:12 - How to diagnose when you've drifted from purpose 21:21 - Two hours, twice a week: the proactive leader's calendar 27:34 - Why open door policies are a leadership trap 30:49 - What principals owe themselves (and their families) 36:19 - The Assess, Design, Align cycle explained 39:42 - The first step back to alignment 41:31 - How to work with Michelle Sloan 🔗 Connect With Michelle Sloan 👩🏻💻 Website: Sloan Leadership Solutions 🔗 Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn 📕 Book: Purpose-Driven Principal Book 🗞️ Purpose-Driven Principal Weekly Newsletter 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your Selfmentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your Selfmentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🎙️ Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has 30 years of experience helping school districts build spaces where learning actually happens. They helped Belago Academy go from ordinary classrooms to collaborative environments so engaging that students forgot to check their phones — through tech integration, flexible furniture, and sustainable design, all from a single supplier that keeps your purchasing compliant and your budget sane. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to see what's possible. Frontline Education's 2026 K–12 Lens Report exists because staffing, student support, operations, and technology aren't separate problems — they're the same pressure showing up in different forms. Built from insights across more than 1,000 school leaders, this report gives you the clearest available picture of how districts are adapting right now. 🔍 Get the full report at FrontlineEducation.com/leaders IXL takes differentiated instruction from aspiration to 20-minute reality. Its universal screener identifies which students need intervention fast, and its adaptive learning platform then adjusts difficulty for each individual student as they work — so one teacher can actually reach every kid in the room. Over a million teachers are already using it. 🔍 Get started at IXL.com/leaders | — | ||||||
| 5/25/26 | ![]() Why Your Drive Home Feels Empty (And How to Fix It Fast) | The principal drive home test: if you can't name one thing that mattered today, you're in reactive mode. Here's the fix. Principal burnout doesn't start in a crisis. It starts in the car at 6pm, when you've done a lot but moved nothing forward — the instructional leadership, the culture work, the long game stuff that actually changes outcomes never got touched. That's not a productivity problem. It's an access problem. This episode introduces selfmentorship — the practice of being your own first coach instead of waiting for permission-based PD, the right mentor, or the right conference to land in your lap. You'll hear how Elaine, an AVID coordinator stepping into a brand new school, used 90 minutes of clear thinking to walk in day one with a real plan instead of firefighting her way through week six. Then you'll hear how to join the next Selfmentorship Sprint on Thursday, May 28 at 7pm Eastern — a live one-hour training plus 90 days of Digital Danny access for $100. Reserve your seat: https://ruckusmakers.news/sprint | — | ||||||
| 5/20/26 | ![]() Why Your PLCs Aren't Solving Problems (And What Does) | A professor at San Diego's High Tech High Graduate School of Education and co-author of PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, Nancy Frey has spent decades studying how teachers actually collaborate — and why most of it doesn't work. Her research-backed PLC+ framework is the difference between a Wednesday morning ritual and a genuine engine of collective efficacy. She teaches full-time at a high school that runs every student through a real-world internship program, so her frameworks aren't theoretical — they're road-tested. Find her work at hightechhigh.org. Professional learning communities were supposed to fix teacher isolation. Instead, most schools turned them into a weekly meeting where teachers explain why students failed. If your PLCs feel like compliance theater, this episode of the Ruckuscast is the reset you need — Nancy Frey breaks down the PLC+ model and the exact questions that shift a team from admiring problems to solving them. 🌟 What You'll Learn Why 85% of PLC conversations focus on student deficits — and the research that proves it. The single wrong question most schools are asking in PLCs (and the right one to replace it). How to organize collaborative teams around common challenges instead of grade level. What "the plus" in PLC+ actually means and why it's the antidote to teacher burnout. How one San Diego high school built a healthcare internship program that sends students into the field every week starting in ninth grade. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧠 Key Insight #1: PLCs Have Become Problem-Admiring Sessions, Not Problem-Solving Ones What's broken: Research shows that 85% of PLC conversations focus on student deficits — language barriers, behaviour, home life, or suspected disabilities — rather than instructional changes. The shift: Name a specific, solvable common challenge your team can actually affect, then spend PLC time designing and evaluating actions toward that challenge. Impact: Teams move from collective helplessness to collective efficacy — and teachers stop feeling like they're carrying student achievement alone. 🧠 Key Insight #2: Organizing PLCs by Grade Level Locks Out the Most Valuable Collaboration What's broken: Grade-level and department groupings leave singleton teachers — art, PE, music — without a collaborative home and trap everyone else with the same colleagues year after year. The shift: Organize teams around a shared common challenge, letting staff self-select based on what's genuinely perplexing them right now, regardless of content area. Impact: Teachers encounter new practices, new contexts, and new colleagues — what Nancy calls a more "vivid" way to experience school as a professional. 🧠 Key Insight #3: The Wrong Question Is Driving Every PLC in America What's broken: Schools open PLCs by asking "how do we raise reading scores?" — a question so broad it guarantees vague answers and no accountability. The shift: Drill down to a problem statement specific enough to act on, like "our multilingual learners struggle to answer questions about details from an audio presentation of an academic topic." Impact: When the problem is scoped correctly, teams can design targeted actions, measure impact, and actually see what's working — instead of chasing a metric nobody controls. 🎙️ NANCY FREY QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "It's not problem solving, it's admiring the problem." — Nancy Frey "85% of the time, one of four approaches was used when data were shared — and none of them were about what to do differently instructionally." — Nancy Frey "The plus is us. There's a collective responsibility and a collective efficacy to what it is that we do." — Nancy Frey "When teams don't understand their collective wherewithal to be able to impact in a positive way, and they're left with going, I don't know what else to do — you can either say it's on me or it's on them. And it honestly is kind of easier to say it's on them." — Nancy Frey "They are your top, your advanced students. They already knew it and they did not benefit from what it was that you taught. Because your pre and your post information looks exactly the same. Those students are also hiding in plain sight." — Nancy Frey "Nothing is lonelier than feeling like you are the only person taking on all of these challenges." — Nancy Frey 🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Pull your next PLC agenda and replace any open-ended "how do we raise scores" question with a specific, scoped challenge statement your team can investigate and act on. This Month: Audit your current PLC structure — identify which teachers have no natural collaborative home and design one cross-content team organized around a shared common challenge. This Semester: Implement the PLC+ "who is benefiting and who is not" question as a standing agenda item for every data conversation, and document what instructional changes result. ⏳ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Teachers wildly underestimate their students 01:55 - Why PLCs became a compliance checkbox 05:04 - What teachers predicted vs. what students actually scored 07:46 - Old PLC models schools are still running 10:06 - Collaboration isn't just Wednesday mornings 11:11 - Why standards debates still waste PLC time 13:39 - Organizing PLCs around common challenges instead of grade level 14:57 - How PLCs drive deficit thinking — the research 20:01 - The wrong question most schools ask 22:53 - What strength-based PLC conversations sound like 24:34 - What the "plus" means in PLC+ 30:20 - Building student internship partnerships with healthcare 33:05 - Advice for Ruckus Makers who want to start internship programs 🔗 Connect With Nancy Frey 👩🏻💻 Website: https://fisherandfrey.com/ https://x.com/NancyFrey https://www.facebook.com/nancy.frey1/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyfreysdsu/ 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your SelfMentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your Selfmentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🎙️ Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a strategic partner for schools for 30 years — from designing STEAM innovation centers to keeping eight campuses stocked from a single supplier with cooperative contract compliance built in. Whether you're upgrading from whiteboards to interactive displays or building out a new learning space from scratch, they handle the full process. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to learn more. Frontline Education's 2026 K–12 Lens Report makes the staffing case for structured professional learning: districts with targeted, individualized PD report easier hiring at nearly twice the rate of those without it. The data shows that summer is when the culture work starts — and this report shows exactly how. 🔍 Download it at frontlineeducation.com/leaders IXL gives classroom teachers an adaptive platform that makes differentiated instruction genuinely manageable — and gives you dashboards that show growth at the individual student level so you're never guessing. Customize your reports to surface the data that actually drives your decisions. 🔍 Get started at ixl.com/leaders META DESCRIPTION: PLCs in most schools spend 85% of time on student deficits. Nancy Frey's PLC+ framework shows principals how to fix that — fast. | — | ||||||
| 5/17/26 | ![]() Why Avoiding Hard Conversations Is Costing Your School with Sage Hobbs | Her career started in Philadelphia public schools in the 90s, full of idealism and a master's in counseling psychology. A decade later, she was coaching executives in global corporations. Now Sage Hobbs coaches school principals and superintendents on the skill that drives everything else — the ability to have conversations that actually matter. She is the author of Naked Communication: Courageously Create the Relationships You Really Want and the host of the Principal Pep Talks podcast. School leadership research points to strategy, curriculum, data, and policy as the levers that move outcomes. Sage Hobbs will tell you those are all downstream of something simpler: the conversations principals are avoiding. If you've ever softened a message that needed to land hard, or left a difficult conversation for "another time" that never came, this episode is the diagnosis. 🤩 What You'll Learn Why certainty is confused with competence — and what that costs you as a leader. How hard conversations drive change in ways checklists and management systems never can. What "lead with curiosity" actually looks like when a parent is angry or a teacher is underperforming. Why schools that prioritize community above all else outperform schools that prioritize programs. The one reframe that makes difficult conversations feel less like conflict and more like leadership. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧰 Key Insight #1: Hard Conversations Are a Leadership Tool, Not a Soft Skill What's broken: Most principals treat difficult conversations as a last resort — something you escalate to HR or delay until the situation forces your hand. The shift: Conversations are the currency your school runs on; every one is an opportunity for connection, and the willingness to have hard ones is what separates management from leadership. Impact: Teachers feel heard, trust builds faster, and change actually sticks — because the real issue got named instead of managed around. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Certainty Is Rewarded, But Curiosity Is What Works What's broken: The system trains leaders to have answers — uncertainty reads as incompetence, so principals perform confidence even when it costs them the truth. The shift: To lead is to risk; staying curious when someone pushes back, asking "I wonder what's actually going on here" instead of defending a position, is the higher-skill move. Impact: Parents who felt dismissed become collaborators, teachers who seemed resistant reveal skill deficits that coaching can actually fix, and the leader stops fighting fires that curiosity would have prevented. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Community Is Not a Program — It Has to Be Built in Conversation What's broken: Schools bolt community on through assemblies, newsletters, and culture initiatives that live in binders and die in staff meetings. The shift: Community is built through listening — and listening builds trust quickly enough that it actually changes how people show up, especially when things get hard. Impact: In a climate where the anger is "right there, like a live wire," as Sage describes it, principals who lead with genuine curiosity create the only real buffer between a school community and its fracture points. 🎙️ SAGE HOBBS QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "Conversations are currency — every conversation is an opportunity for connection, and they're highly effective for building trust and collaboration. And they're free." — Sage Hobbs "To lead is to risk. You can't please everyone. You don't always know the best next steps. You have to be willing to learn and pivot and be wrong — and that runs counter to everything, because you get rewarded for knowing the answers." — Sage Hobbs "Leadership and management are not the same thing, and they're both important. But leadership requires hard conversations, and that's really where change often happens." — Sage Hobbs "Can we lead with curiosity as opposed to assuming that person is incompetent or wrong? I wonder what's going on there. I wonder why they see it that way. I wonder if it's a skill deficit versus an actual incompetency." — Sage Hobbs "If you don't believe that community and connection is central to an organization running well, this book probably isn't for you. I'm not there to build the case for that — I'm here to tell you how to do that part better." — Sage Hobbs "Schools should be community hubs — a real sense of belonging and connection happening there. Make friends, learn cool stuff, and feel cared for." — Sage Hobbs 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Identify one conversation you've been postponing and schedule it for this week with a clear intention: lead with curiosity, not conclusions. This Month: In your next two difficult conversations — with a struggling teacher, an angry parent, or a resistant staff member — open with a genuine question instead of a position, and notice what changes. This Semester: Build one structural habit that treats conversation as a leadership tool: a regular one-on-one format, a listening protocol for parent concerns, or a staff feedback loop that surfaces what's actually being felt on your campus. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Why leaders avoid the hardest conversations 00:55 - What "Naked Communication" means for school leaders 04:00 - Sage's origin story in Philadelphia public schools 07:00 - Why she left education — and came back to it 10:43 - What changed in the book's revised edition 13:29 - Leading through polarization and community anger 22:52 - How to keep conversations focused on kids 25:49 - Every conversation is an opportunity for connection 31:22 - Dream school: community, nature, experiential learning 👩🏻💻 Connect With Sage Hobbs Website: sagebhobbs.com, LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sagebhobbs Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Naked-Communication-Courageously-Create-Relationships/dp/099817131X 🎙️ Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your Selfmentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your Selfmentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been transforming school learning spaces for 30 years — from smart boards to flexible furniture to sustainable solutions that free you from managing five different suppliers. They help you design dynamic environments that make students excited to show up, and their cooperative contracts keep you compliant without the procurement headache. 👉 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to see what's possible. Frontline Education's 2026 K-12 Lens Report is built from insights gathered from over 1,000 school leaders across the country — giving you a clear picture of where staffing pressures are easing, where they aren't, and how districts are making decisions that hold. If you're navigating operations, student support, or personnel decisions this year, this is the context you need. 👉 Get the full report at frontlineeducation.com/leaders IXL's adaptive platform automatically identifies knowledge gaps for every student and hands teachers a personalized growth plan before the bell rings — so no one walks into a classroom guessing what their students know. Over one million teachers use it because it makes differentiated instruction actionable, not aspirational. 👉 Get started at ixl.com/leaders META DESCRIPTION: Hard conversations are the most underused leadership tool principals have. Sage Hobbs explains why curiosity — not certainty — is what builds trust and drives real change. | — | ||||||
| 5/13/26 | ![]() How Arts Programs in Schools Change Student Trajectories | A Chicano educator from Los Angeles has spent nearly 20 years building the infrastructure that schools won't — the kind that catches students before they fall through the cracks. Hector Chaira is the Director of Education Programs at the Latino Film Institute , home to the Youth Cinema Project, a filmmaking mentorship program now operating in 21 California school districts across 61 classrooms. YCP brings professional filmmakers into English classes to guide students from concept to screen over a full school year. The results — in test scores, reclassification rates, graduation, and lives redirected — are impossible to ignore. Find ALIFI at latinofilm.org. Arts integration in schools has been underfunded, undervalued, and cut first for decades. This episode is the case against that pattern — told through data, two schools that are outperforming their affluent neighbors, and a story about a kid living in a motel who just won Best High School Actor. 🧠 What You'll Learn How the Youth Cinema Project uses filmmaking to drive measurable academic gains in English, writing, and student engagement.. Why arts integration consistently outperforms traditional instruction in Title I schools — and two real examples that prove it. What "redefining success" actually looks like inside a classroom — not the bumper sticker version. How high expectations plus creative purpose pulls students away from the wrong path. The three guiding principles Hector would use to build his dream school from scratch. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🎯 Key Insight #1: Student Engagement in Schools Requires Creation, Not Consumption What's broken: Schools treat students as passive recipients of content — sit down, absorb, test, repeat. The shift: When students become creators — directing, writing, acting, producing — they develop ownership over their learning that no worksheet can replicate. Impact: More than 78% of YCP students report feeling confident using their voice in the classroom, and teachers are seeing measurable jumps in writing skills within a single semester. 🎯 Key Insight #2: Arts Integration Drives Academic Outcomes in Title I Schools What's broken: Arts programs get cut first in under-resourced schools precisely where student engagement is most at risk. The shift: Schools that fold the arts into core content — not as an elective, but as the engine — are consistently outperforming even the most well-funded campuses nearby. Impact: One Title I high school in the LA area, where every elective is arts-based and integration into core content is a priority, is outperforming the most affluent school in its community on graduation rates and college entry. 🎯 Key Insight #3: Redefining Success Unlocks Student Potential That Test Scores Miss What's broken: Success is defined by what's measurable — test scores, failure rates, attendance — which leaves purpose, confidence, and trajectory entirely off the ledger. The shift: Anchoring success to where students actually are — their identity, their interests, their community — gives them a reason to show up that compliance-based schooling never will. Impact: A senior at a continuation high school, living in a motel with his family, went from headed toward street life to winning Best High School Actor and asking his mom about college careers in film. 🎙️ HECTOR CHAIRA QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUS-CAST "We firmly believe that students need to be creators and not just consumers." — Hector Chaira "Access is everything. When we can bring quality program and meet them where they are — that reinforce that investment in time, talent, treasure leads to impact." — Hector Chaira "We need to redefine what success looks like. It's not a new conversation, but if we can anchor it where our students are, then they're going to show up." — Hector Chaira "It only takes one person to lead a difference. Had I not walked up to mom, you would not have heard this story." — Hector Chaira "Art isn't extra — it's actually essential. It physically shapes the brain, strengthening learning, memory, and executive function." — Hector Chaira "Take the first step. If your intentions are aligned with the goals and the purpose — take the first step. You're going to find a way." — Hector Chaira "We're stepping into a very traditional system and shaking it up. Anyone can lead a difference." — Hector Chaira 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Email your arts department lead and ask them to walk you through one specific student outcome — academic or otherwise — that happened because of their program this year. This Month: Identify one core content class in your building where arts integration could be piloted next semester and schedule a 30-minute conversation with that teacher about what it would take. This Semester: Build a formal pathway for at least one arts-based program to present student work publicly — film screening, performance, exhibition — so that student creation has an audience and a finish line. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Student finds purpose through filmmaking 03:08 - Hector introduces the Latino Film Institute 07:17 - What access and high expectations actually produce 10:10 - Youth Cinema Project explained 13:19 - Academic results from arts integration 19:35 - Why arts get cut — and why that's wrong 21:44 - Two schools proving arts integration works 26:15 - Identity, culture, and who this work is for 34:10 - Marquee message: take the first step 37:52 - Dream school: three guiding principles 41:50 - One thing every Ruckus Maker should remember 🔗 Connect With Hector Chaira 👩🏻💻 Hector Chaira Website LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/latinofilminstitute/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latinofilminstitute_/ 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your Selfmentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your Selfmentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. 👉 Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🤝 Today's RuckusCast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been equipping schools for 30 years — and their edge isn't just competitive pricing, it's access to negotiated cooperative contracts that maximize every dollar you spend. They helped the Baldwin school district transform their entire campus while staying under budget by combining smart design with smarter purchasing, from essential supplies to cutting-edge tech to flexible furniture. One supplier, simplified ordering, full compliance. 🔍 Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to learn more. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens report found that districts with structured, automated professional growth are nearly twice as likely to report easier hiring compared to those without it. If you're building a campus where great educators want to stay, the data on what actually drives retention is all in one place. 🔍 Download the full report at FrontlineEducation.com/leaders IXL takes the guesswork out of lesson planning — ready-made plans aligned to your textbooks and state standards so teachers spend less time preparing and more time teaching. Principals who want their teachers working smarter, not harder, start here. 🔍 Visit IXL.com/leaders to get started today. META DESCRIPTION: Arts integration in schools is changing student trajectories — here's how one program does it across 21 California districts and what principals can learn from it. | — | ||||||
| 5/10/26 | ![]() Why the Best Teachers Are Different — and What That Costs You — Bonus Episode with Christopher Lochhead | The man who co-created category design — the strategic framework behind companies like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Drift — has a blunt message for principals: your recruiting ads are announcing that nobody wants to work at your school. Christopher Lochhead is co-author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, and Category Pirates, the wildly popular business newsletter read by some of the sharpest operators in tech and venture. His latest book, Creator Capitalist, makes the case that the creator economy isn't a trend — it's the future of every career, including the ones you're trying to build on your campus. Most principals spend their careers trying to fix a reputation problem they don't realize they have. This conversation with Christopher Lochhead lands like a two-by-four: your school's reputation is built entirely by what people say when you're not in the room, and most of the signals you're sending are saying the opposite of what you intend. The connection between category design, teacher recruitment, AI in education, and what it means to do school different turns out to be a single through-line — and it starts with the courage to be different. 🤩 What You'll Learn Why "we need teachers" recruiting ads tell candidates your school is a bad place to work — and what to say instead How category design thinking applies directly to school leader reputation and teacher retention Why AI makes memorization-focused schools obsolete — and what replaces it The difference between being an entertainer in the classroom and creating scaffolding for student legendary How to build the kind of school halo that outlasts every teacher who passes through your doors 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules ✅ Key Insight #1: Your Recruiting Language Is Telling Candidates to Stay Away What's broken: Most schools post "we need teachers" ads with lists of open positions, believing they're being transparent about opportunities. The shift: What gets said in a communication and what doesn't get said are both heard — and the unspoken message of a vacancy list is that nobody wants to work there. Impact: Principals who reframe recruiting around what makes their campus different and what problems they exist to solve go from struggling to fill positions to having more applicants than openings. ✅ Key Insight #2: Reputation Capital Is Everything — Principals Are Building It Whether They Know It or Not What's broken: Educators treat reputation as a soft, unmeasurable byproduct of doing good work rather than as a strategic asset they actively shape. The shift: Reputation is simply what gets said about you when you're not around — and the most effective principals build schools where being hired there carries a career-long halo, the way working at Nvidia does in Silicon Valley. Impact: A school with a strong reputation halo attracts better teachers, retains them longer, and becomes the kind of place parents, students, and staff are proud to talk about. ✅ Key Insight #3: AI Doesn't Threaten Good Teaching — It Exposes Bad Teaching What's broken: Schools are treating AI as a threat to academic integrity while continuing to optimize for test scores and the memorization of existing knowledge. The shift: AI makes existing knowledge close to free, which means the real skill is no longer knowing things — it's learning how to think, create, and build with AI as a tool. Impact: Principals who lead schools where students learn how to learn and create with AI will produce graduates who can find or make a place in the world; those who don't will produce graduates who can't. 🎙️ CHRISTOPHER LOCHHEAD QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUSCAST "The people who make the biggest difference, by definition, are different. Because if you're the same, you fit in. And when you're the same, you don't stand out. And as a result of not standing out, you don't make much of a difference." — Christopher Lochhead "When you put an ad out there that says we need teachers, and here's a list of 200 job openings or whatever it is, what's the unspoken? The unspoken is nobody wants to work here." — Christopher Lochhead "If I'm an educator, I want my school to equal working at Nvidia. Because if somebody qualifies to get into my school, when they go forward in their life and they say, I was a teacher at X, everybody goes, oh, wow, that's a great school. That's a halo." — Christopher Lochhead "AI makes the availability of existing knowledge closer and closer to free every day. And many people in the education business thought they were in the business of imparting knowledge. Well, not so much anymore." — Christopher Lochhead "I want to teach young people to learn from AI and to create and build things on their own with AI. Just like when the pen was invented, we learned to create things with the pen. This is the new pen." — Christopher Lochhead "People don't go to school to see Professor Danny or Teacher Danny perform. They go to school for themselves. So the real question is, what do we need to create for them — for the students to be legendary?" — Christopher Lochhead "You are more legendary than you know. The vast majority of people, including insanely successful people, undervalue the value of their value." — Christopher Lochhead 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Audit your school's current job posting or recruiting language and identify the unspoken message it sends to candidates. This Month: Define in one clear sentence the specific problem your school exists to solve and what makes your campus different — then rewrite your recruiting materials around that answer. This Semester: Build a school halo by systematically collecting and sharing teacher success stories that make the experience of working at your campus feel like a career credential, not just a job. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Different people make the biggest difference 02:42 - What's the real job of the education system 08:02 - The human animal doesn't train its young to succeed 13:32 - Why we're wired to fit in — and what it costs 15:20 - How to be the teacher nobody forgets 18:45 - The unsaid message in your recruiting ads 24:33 - Teaching kids their life is theirs to design 29:53 - School is not a performance — it's a scaffold 31:31 - The unrideable bicycle and unleashing creativity 44:11 - AI makes existing knowledge close to free 47:48 - 1,400 transcripts, 30 minutes, Digital Danny's flywheel 58:52 - One message for every school marquee in the world 🔗 Connect With Christopher Lochhead 👩🏻💻 Website: https://lochhead.com/, [https://www.categorypirates.news/,](https://www.categorypirates.news/) https://categorypirates.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead 📕 Books: Creator Capitalist: Discover Your Superpower, Design Your Dream Career, & Get Paid To Be You, https://categorypirates.com/pages/creator-capitalist The Existing Market Trap: (a Primer) Escaping The 13 Deadly Sins that Destroy Companies, Careers and Portfolios Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️Your Selfmentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your Selfmentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com 🤝 Today's Ruckuscast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a trusted partner for schools for 30 years — and they're not just a vendor, they're a strategic partner in transformation. Want to turn a tired computer lab into a STEAM innovation center? Need to keep eight schools stocked, spotless, and compliant through cooperative contracts? They handle it all from a single supplier so you can stop juggling and start leading. Visit ODPbusiness.com/education to learn more. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens Report is built for exactly the kind of decisions Ruckus Makers face right now — staffing, student support, operations — and it's grounded in insights from over 1,000 school leaders across the country. Know where pressure is building and where smart districts are getting ahead. Get your full report at FrontlineEducation.com/leaders IXL gives classroom teachers an adaptive platform that makes differentiated instruction manageable, while giving school leaders dashboard-level visibility into student progress and growth — customizable down to the individual student. Make data-informed decisions that actually move the needle. Get started at IXL.com/leaders META DESCRIPTION: Category design legend Christopher Lochhead tells principals why their recruiting ads repel teachers — and how AI is making memorization-obsessed schools obsolete. | — | ||||||
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| 5/6/26 | ![]() The Stories That Built a Top 1% Podcast/ Building Better Leaders | Ten years of school leadership podcasting reveals one consistent truth: most principals are doing it alone when they don't have to. In this special anniversary episode, Danny Bauer sits down with co-host Dan Watt to trace the arc from isolated AP to category-defining podcast host — and what he's learned coaching hundreds of school leaders along the way. Dan Watt is a school principal, leadership coach, and Mastermind coach for Better Leaders Better Schools, based in northern British Columbia, Canada. He joined the Ruckus Maker community as a member before stepping into a coaching role, and now co-writes the weekly Ruckus Makers newsletter. He brings a practitioner's lens to every conversation — someone still in the building, still doing the work. Find him through the Ruckus Makers community at ruckusmakers.news. ☑️ What You'll Learn Why Danny started the podcast and what leadership gap drove the decision How the Ruckus Maker Mastermind was built to fill a void no one else in education had addressed The mindset shift that separates thriving principals from burned-out ones What patterns Danny sees repeatedly in the leaders he coaches today Where the Ruckus Maker brand is heading — and why it's bigger than school leadership 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧰 Key Insight #1: Working More Hours Is Not a Leadership Strategy What's broken: Districts treat effort and visibility as the measure of a leader's worth — the longer you're on campus, the more you're seen as committed. The shift: Value created and culture built are the real metrics — not hours logged or sleeves rolled up. Impact: Mastermind member Justin stopped seeing more hours as the solution to feeling overwhelmed, found his North Star, and called it transformative. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Isolation Is a Choice, Not a Condition What's broken: Most school leaders wait for the district to provide mentorship, community, or coaching — and the district almost never delivers. The shift: Choosing yourself means actively seeking a community, a coach, and the tools to grow on a weekly basis — not waiting for permission. Impact: When Danny built the Mastermind in 2016, he introduced peer coaching to an industry that had nothing like it; leaders who join stop leading alone. 🧰 Key Insight #3: You Become What You Think About What's broken: Leaders absorb a deficit mindset — kids are broken post-COVID, resources are disappearing, the system is against them — and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The shift: The Beautiful Constraint mindset asks: given this reality, what needs to be true to accomplish what we want? Impact: Principals who reframe obstacles as constraints to work within — rather than walls to hide behind — lead higher-engagement campuses regardless of what the district hands them. 🗣️ DANNY BAUER QUOTES FROM THE RUCKUS-CAST "The strangest secret is we become what we think about." — Danny Bauer "I no longer see putting in more hours as a solution to this feeling. I very much feel like I'm failing forward with this approach, but I feel like I've found a North Star." — Danny Bauer (quoting Mastermind member Justin) "You can work in isolation and get bumps and bruises and learn from sparring in real life — or you could join a community and hear about everybody else's war wounds and scars, and learn from that without having to go through it yourself." — Danny Bauer "I don't want it to be like a cult of personality. I have an expiration date. And also, I'm only one guy with one perspective, and it's not always the best." — Danny BaueR "Every school leader that wants to grow and meet their potential should join our Mastermind. If you don't want to do that, don't join." — Danny Bauer 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement? Start here: Tomorrow: Identify one place you're measuring your leadership worth in hours instead of value — and write down what the actual result looks like instead. This Month: Audit your professional development diet: if a conference once a year is your only growth structure, find one weekly or monthly touchpoint — a book, a community, a coach — and commit to it. This Semester: Build or join a peer learning structure where you're both giving and receiving feedback on real leadership challenges, not just sitting in a room listening to a presenter. ⌚️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Why Danny started the podcast 10 years ago 04:35 - Danny's early leadership gaps as an AP 08:49 - The public feedback mistake and what it cost 13:38 - Why principals always learn even off the hot seat 20:12 - What were the real stakes 10 years ago 29:54 - How the Mastermind started from a void in education 34:11 - Justin's email: stop measuring worth in hours 40:46 - The Beautiful Constraint mindset for today's climate 48:56 - How Danny lives "you're worth it" daily 55:32 - Where the Ruckus Maker brand is going next 🎧 Listen & Subscribe Listen to Better Leaders Better Schools on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts. If today's episode moved you, leave a review — it helps more Ruckus Makers find the show. 🧔🏻♂️ Your Self-Mentorship Guide Meet Digital Danny — your self-mentorship guide. Always available, never forgets, and evolves with you. Think through your next leadership move at myprincipalcoach.com. 🤝 Today's Ruckus-Cast Partners ODP Business Solutions has been a trusted partner for schools for 30 years — helping districts move from whiteboards to smart boards, static classrooms to collaboration zones, and single-vendor chaos to streamlined cooperative contract ordering. If you're trying to design a learning environment students actually want to show up to, 🔍 visit ODPbusiness.com/education. Frontline Education's 2026 K12 Lens Report found that districts using software to automate professional growth are nearly twice as likely to report easier hiring than those that don't. If staffing and retention are keeping you up at night, 🔍 Download the full report at frontlineeducation.com/leaders — it shows exactly what high performing districts are doing differently. IXL's diagnostic identifies every student's knowledge gaps and delivers a personalized growth plan — so teachers stop guessing and start teaching to what students actually need. Close the gaps, accelerate learning, and 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders. META DESCRIPTION: 10 years of school leadership coaching distilled into one conversation. What Danny Bauer learned building the top 1% podcast for principals who do school different. | — | ||||||
| 5/3/26 | ![]() Why Not Today? The Mindset That Changes Everything in Schools with Jesus Huerta | 🧰 The Ruckus Report Quick take: This episode is a masterclass in what happens when a teacher stops delivering lessons — and starts creating life-changing experiences. 🙋♂️ Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jesus Huerta is an educator and innovation coach who transforms classrooms into launchpads for curiosity, creativity, and future careers. From 3D printing to robotics, his work centers on one mission: give students access, spark possibility, and let them build what's next. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Jesus Huerta challenges traditional education paradigms: 🎯 Key Insight #1: Engagement Comes from Compliance What's broken: "Sit down, listen, and learn" instruction that assumes students will care. The shift: Design experiences students want to engage in through hands-on learning and real-world tools. Impact: Students move from passive to fully alive — creating, building, and owning their learning. 🎯 Key Insight #2: Teach the Same Lesson Every Year What's broken: Repeating "greatest hits" lessons while the world (and kids) evolve rapidly. The shift: Use the engineering design process to constantly iterate, improve, and adapt instruction. Impact: Lessons stay fresh, relevant, and aligned with how students actually experience the world. 🎯 Key Insight #3: Technology is Extra (or Too Hard) What's broken: Fear, overwhelm, or waiting for the "perfect time" to try something new. The shift: Start small, pick one tool, and adopt a "Why not today?" mindset. Impact: Teachers build confidence, students gain exposure, and classrooms transform over time — not overnight. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "If I'm bored teaching the lesson, the kids are definitely bored learning it." – Jesus Huerta 🏋️♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Pick ONE new tool or strategy — even Play-Doh counts — and try it with your students This Month: Redesign one existing lesson using the engineering design process (build → test → improve) This Semester: Create at least one "can't miss" learning experience that students will talk about years later 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Jesus Huerta: Website: https://mrhuertasclass.weebly.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jesus-huerta-750375141 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered. 🎙 The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started. 🤝 Today's RUCKUScast in Partnership with: ODP Business Solutions®: Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: https://odpbusiness.com/education IXL: Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Learn more: https://ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building. 🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders Twelve Practices LLC © 2026 | Create a Campus Experience Worth Showing Up For | — | ||||||
| 4/29/26 | ![]() Reimagining Untapped School Spaces with Anne Seeley | 📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most principals accept their school building as a fixed constraint. Anne Seeley proves it's actually your most under-utilized leadership tool — and you don't need a construction budget to start. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Anne Seeley, a Senior Associate Project Manager, NCARB, LEED, AP, AIA is an accomplished architect with a distinct blend of expertise. For over 20 years, she has focused on educational architecture, creating everything from visionary master plans and engaging student Centers to complex campus renovations. Anne doesn't just design buildings; she creates thoughtful environments that reflect the goals and ideas of the people she works with. Anne's commitment to improving the user experience makes her a leading figure in educational design. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Anne Seeley challenges how school leaders think about physical space: 🧰 Key Insight #1: Space is named, not designed for purpose What's broken: Rooms are labeled — classroom, corridor, cafeteria — and that label locks in every expectation about how the space gets used. The shift: Name the activity, not the room. A "peer-to-peer instruction zone" unlocks possibilities a "hallway" never will. Impact: Ravenscroft School opened a reimagined student center and students claimed full ownership within the first week — filling it from 7am to 7pm daily. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Bus riders get the back door What's broken: Car drop-off gets the front entrance. Students who ride the bus — often from lower-income households — enter through a secondary, less welcoming entry. The shift: Hilltop Needmore Road Elementary redesigned both entries with equal prominence, a canopy, and a shared convergence point so every student arrives feeling welcomed. Impact: Equity gets built into the physical infrastructure of the school day — not just the curriculum. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Underused spaces sit idle most of the day What's broken: A school stage gets used once or twice daily for music and theater, then goes dark. The shift: Design the stage with a folding wall so it opens to the cafeteria for dining, closes for performances, and opens the back side to the corridor as a teaching space and after-care zone. Impact: A single space now serves three distinct functions across the full school day instead of one. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "Rather than giving a name to something — this is a classroom, this is a corridor — what if the space is a space for engagement? – Anne Seeley What if it's a zone for peer-to-peer instruction? When you start naming the activity, it breaks down our association of what the space looks like and starts to give us opportunities to reimagine it." – Anne Seeley 🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Walk your building and identify one underused or unnamed space — a wide corridor, an empty stage, a forgotten corner — and ask: what activity could happen here? This Month: Remove or repurpose a row of unused lockers in one hallway and add a marker board and two chairs to create a visible collaboration moment. This Semester: Convene students and staff to co-design one shared space on your campus — name the activity, not the room, and give students the ability to reserve and own it. 🔗 Connect & Continue 👩🏻💻 Follow Anne Seeley: Website: Littleonline.com | Blog | LinkedIn | Instagram | Vimeo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-seeley 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 🤝 Today's RUCKUScast in Partnership with: ODP Business Solutions®: Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: odpbusiness.com/education IXL: Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it empowers better decisions with reliable data and adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Learn more: ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: Strong school culture doesn't happen by accident — it's built through meaningful support and growth. Frontline Education's 2026 K-12 Lens Report shows how districts are connecting professional development to stronger staffing outcomes. 🔍 Get the full report: frontlineeducation.com/leaders Twelve Practices LLC © 2026 | Create a Campus Experience Worth Showing Up For | — | ||||||
| 4/26/26 | ![]() What Happens When a Principal Drives Their Own Development | Principal leadership development is broken — 3 out of 4 school leaders have no coach, no mentor, no one to think it through with. Principal coaching and self-mentorship are the difference between leaders who wait for answers and leaders who generate their own. Corey, a Chicago principal, logged 910 conversations with Digital Danny over one school year — not for generic advice, but to think through the hardest decisions he faced: a staff situation, a career crossroads, a coaching conversation he needed to get right. He called it "almost like your self mentor." That's the category. That's what this is. This sprint on April 30 gives you one hour to experience the framework, watch a live Digital Danny session, and work through something real you're carrying right now. $100 gets you in — and that includes 30 days of Digital Danny access. Register for the sprint here: https://ruckusmakers.news/sprint ⌚️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - 3 out of 4 principals lead without a mentor 00:46 - Corey's first Digital Danny conversation 01:38 - The basketball coach situation and the shift 02:25 - Corey's career question and interview prep 03:13 - Digital Danny retrains — Corey accelerates 04:14 - What self-mentorship actually means 05:12 - The Self-Mentorship Sprint: April 30 details | — | ||||||
| 4/22/26 | ![]() Tech Intentional Schools: Why More Screens Are Failing Kids with Emily Cherkin | 📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Schools didn't gradually adopt tech — they surrendered to it. This episode is a wake-up call for leaders ready to reclaim learning, relationships, and childhood from screens. 🎓Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Emily Cherkin, M.Ed., The Screentime Consultant, is leading the fight for a Tech-IntentionalTM childhood. Emily works with schools, families, policymakers, and advocacy organizations to ensure the future of education prioritizes skills, safety, and relationships over screens, EdTech, and A.I. Emily is an author, speaker, consultant, and associate professor of public policy at the University of Washington. She is also co-chair of Fairplay's Screens in Schools Action Network and the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against one of the largest EdTech companies in the world. Emily is also the creator of the UnPlug EdTech Toolkit. 🌱 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Emily Cherkin challenges traditional education paradigms: 🧰 Key Insight #1: EdTech = Innovation What's broken: Schools assume more devices = better learning. The shift: Question the role of Tech through a child development lens. Impact: Leaders prioritize cognition, focus, and real engagement over screen time. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Convenience Over Relationships What's broken: Grade portals, emails, and AI replace human conversations. The shift: Bring back friction — phone calls, dialogue, real connection. Impact: Stronger trust with families and deeper student-teacher relationships. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Teach Tech Early and Often What's broken: Giving young kids constant access to devices in the name of "preparation." The shift: Later is better. Less is more. Skills before screens.. Impact: Students build communication, resilience, and critical thinking first. 🗣️ Quotable Ruckus "If Tech is doing the thinking, your students aren't!" – Emily Cherkin 🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Audit one tech tool on your campus — ask: Is it effective, safe, and necessary? This Month: Reintroduce one human-centered practice (phone calls, in-person feedback, discussion-based learning) This Semester: Build a campus-wide "tech intentional" philosophy rooted in relationships and skill development 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Emily Cherkin: 💻 Website: https://thescreentimeconsultant.com 😎 The Unplug EdTech ToolKit https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/resources/unplug-edtech-toolkit 🤝 Emily speaking to UK Parliament: https://firstfish.substack.com/p/testimony-to-uk-parliament?r=250yb9 📕 Book: https://www.amazon.com/Screentime- Solution-Judgment-Free-Becoming- Tech-Intentional/dp/B0CB9JS5KB Instagram: @thescreentimeconsultant LinkedIn: @emily-cherkin Facebook: @thescreentimeconsultant Youtube: @thescreentimeconsultantllc6072 BlueSky: @emilycherkin.bsky.social First Fish Chronicles: Unplug EdTech, Save Democracy http://firstfish.substack.com 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind ✅ Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered. The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started. 🎙️ Today's RUCKUScast in Partnership with: ODP Business Solutions®: Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: https://odpbusiness.com/education IXL: Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Learn more: https://ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building. 🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders Twelve Practices LLC © 2026 | Create a Campus Experience Worth Showing Up For | — | ||||||
| 4/15/26 | ![]() The Leadership Move Most Superintendents Avoid with Dr. Lindsay Whorton | 📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most systems are designed to control people, not empower them.This episode shows what happens when a leader flips that script — and trusts the people closest to students to lead. 🙋♂️ Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Lindsay Whorton is president of The Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit building stronger leaders for public schools. She's the author of A New School Leadership Architecture, a bold blueprint for redesigning leadership roles so educators are supported, developed, and able to help students thrive. ⚒ Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Dr. Lindsay Whorton challenges traditional education paradigms: 🧩 Key Insight #1: Stop Hoarding Power at the Top What's broken: Central office controls decisions, budgets, and strategy. The shift: Push power, money, and responsibility to campuses. Impact: Faster decisions, stronger ownership, and leadership at every level. 🧩 Key Insight #2: Collaboration Isn't a Meeting What's broken: PLCs and meetings that waste time and kill momentum. The shift: Create space for real-time, problem-solving collaboration between educators. Impact: Teachers stop retreating and start growing together. 🧩 Key Insight #3: Scarcity Is a Leadership Trap What's broken: Leaders fixate on what they don't have (budget, staff, time). The shift: Reframe constraints into creative opportunities using available resources. Impact: Innovation increases, victim thinking decreases, and results improve. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "You're not punishing anyone but your students if you stay stuck in scarcity." – Dr. Lindsay Whorton 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask your team: "What decisions are we holding at the top that should live closer to students?" This Month: Redesign one meeting into real collaboration — focused on solving a live student problem This Semester: Pilot a shared leadership model that gives teachers real authority, time, and responsibility 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript ****here 👩🏻💻 Follow Dr. Lindsay Whorton: Website: https://holdsworthcenter.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-whorton-9685aa26/ Holdsworth Center on X: https://x.com/HoldsworthCentr Holdsworth Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoldsworthCenter/ Holdsworth Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holdsworthcenter/ 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If you're waiting for more resources, more clarity, or more permission… you'll be waiting forever. The leaders changing schools right now aren't waiting. They're redistributing power, building leaders, and creating campuses worth showing up for. 🤝 Today's RUCKUScast in Partnership with: ODP Business Solutions®: Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: https://odpbusiness.com/education IXL: Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Learn more: https://ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building. 🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 4/8/26 | ![]() Creating Campus Experiences Students Actually Care About With Tommy Floyd | 🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: You can't force engagement — but you can design for success. Tommy Floyd breaks down how one meaningful win can transform disconnected students into confident, motivated learners. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Tommy Floyd originally became involved in NASP® in 2003, while serving as a high school principal and NASP® coach. Several of the first NASP® state champions were on the Somerset High School team that Tommy coached. He has seen, first-hand, how the program positively impacts students, parents, and teachers. He has seen NASP® promote constructive teacher/student relationships, academic motivation and the promotion of students becoming involved with their school – many for the first time. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Tommy Floyd challenges traditional education paradigms: 😎 Key Insight #1: You Can't Force Engagement What's broken: Schools rely on surveys, incentives, and interventions to "drive" engagement. The shift: Create authentic success experiences first. Impact: Students become intrinsically motivated and eager to participate. 📌 Key Insight #2: The "Invisible Middle" Doesn't Need More Programs What's broken: Schools focus only on high achievers or behaviour problems. The shift: Design opportunities for the disengaged majority to feel capable and connected. Impact: 68% of students report feeling more connected to school. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Motivation Comes After Success (Not Before) What's broken: Expecting students to care before they've experienced competence. The shift: Give students a win → build confidence → unlock effort. Impact: 34% of students say they work harder in class after experiencing success. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "Every child needs success. What are you doing?" – Tommy Floyd 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Identify 5 "invisible middle" students and ask: where can they experience a quick win? This Month: Launch or pilot one new opportunity (club, program, experience) designed for belonging — not performance This Semester: Build a system where every student experiences success in at least one meaningful domain on campus 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Tommy Floyd: Website: https://www.naspschools.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naspschools/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ArcheryintheSchools/videos 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf. ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: Apply Now 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building. 🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 4/1/26 | ![]() Turning Community Engagement into a Strategic Planning Superpower with Drew Howick & Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank | 📕 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most strategic plans fail for one simple reason — leaders try to sell a vision the community didn't help create. Drew Howick and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank reveal how the Future Search process flips that script by putting the whole community in the room to design the future together. 🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Makers Drew Howick is the founder of Howick Associates, a highly regarded consulting firm based in Madison Wis, and is well regarded as a trusted advisor and collaborative partner to hundreds of schools districts, most of which are in Wisconsin. He is the author of the book, The New Compleat Facilitator: A Handbook for Facilitators. Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank is a psychologist and consultant based in Highland Park, NJ. His consulting work focuses on strategic engagement - getting everyone pulling in the same direction. He is particularly passionate about whole-system interventions such as Future Search, to help diverse stakeholders in organizations and communities discover common ground in their vision of their shared future. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Drew Howick and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank challenge traditional education paradigms: 🧰 Key Insight #1: Stop "Selling" Strategic Plans What's broken: District leaders build a strategic plan internally, then try to convince the community to support it. The shift: Bring 60–160 diverse stakeholders together to co-create the vision. Impact: When people help build the future, they defend it, support it, and help implement it. 🎯 Key Insight #2: Replace Hub-and-Spoke Engagement What's broken: Schools collect feedback separately through surveys, focus groups, and stakeholder meetings. The shift: Put parents, teachers, students, business leaders, clergy, nonprofits, and civic leaders in the same room so they talk to each other. Impact: Silos disappear, polarization drops, and the community discovers real common ground. 🧨 Key Insight #3: Make Strategic Planning an Event, Not a Process What's broken: Two years of scattered meetings that lead to a plan nobody owns. The shift: A 12-hour Future Search event across three sessions where stakeholders explore the past, analyze the present, and design the future together. Impact: Stronger trust, better ideas, unexpected partnerships, and a plan the community actually wants to execute. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "Strong schools require strong community partnerships — and those partnerships don't just happen. Someone has to start the conversation." – Drew Howick "When people help create the vision for the future, they don't fight the plan — they help build it." – Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Drew Howick: Website: *www.howickassociates.com,* AASA JSP Comm'ty Engage using Future Search.pdf 👩🏻💻 Follow Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank: website: https://axelbankconsulting.com/ The website of the Future Search Network: https://futuresearch.net/ Amazon page for the book, Future Search: Getting The Whole System in the Room for Vision, Commitment, and Action: https://a.co/d/0dMt4o3p The article can be found on the web here: https://www.aasa.org/resources/resource/community-engagement-using-future-search-a-systematic-evaluation-of-the-wisconsin-experience 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask three stakeholder groups (students, teachers, and parents) one simple question: What are you glad, sad, and mad about in our school system? This Month: Map the full ecosystem of your school community — businesses, nonprofits, faith groups, civic leaders — and identify who's missing from your conversations. This Semester: Host a community vision event that brings diverse voices together to define what success for students actually looks like. 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf.https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://members.ruckusmakers.club/plans/1428145?bundle_token=e8203ab7f9df767a6cf6b98e18a4ff0d&utm_source=manual 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://www.betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind-application 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smart-boards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders Frontline Education: 1,000+ school leaders just weighed in on staffing, absenteeism, AI, and funding shifts. The 2026 K-12 Lens Survey Report gives you a national view of where the pressure is — and where momentum is building. 🔍 Learn more: https://frontlineeducation.com/leaders © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 3/25/26 | ![]() Reimagining the architecture of learning by challenging traditional, standardized education models with Adrian Ireland | 🧰 The Ruckus Report Quick take: This episode flips the script on school culture and student motivation. Adrian Ireland shows why most engagement issues aren't about effort — they're about environment — and what to do instead. 🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Adrian Ireland is an international educator, systems thinker, and author who reimagines the architecture of learning by challenging traditional, standardized education models. With experience leading across Asia and Europe, he champions learner-centered approaches that elevate curiosity, individuality, and creativity. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 😎 Key Insight #1: Schools don't have effort problems — they have architecture problems What's broken: We blame students and teachers for being unmotivated. The shift: Redesign the system so motivation is the natural outcome, not a constant battle. Impact: Transforms passive learners into engaged problem-solvers without more effort. 📌 Key Insight #2: Culture isn't spoken into existence — it's built by design What's broken: Leaders treat culture like a vibe or vision statement. The shift: Treat culture as the emergent result of your systems, structures, and incentives. Impact: A culture of belonging and excellence that sustains itself beyond PD days and posters. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Startup Week proves a different architecture delivers better results What's broken: End-of-year burnout and throwaway lessons. The shift: Reclaim that time with a high-agency, high-authenticity program rooted in design thinking. Impact: Students work harder, retain more, and surprise themselves — even in the last week of school. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "Culture is really system architecture in disguise." – Adrian Ireland 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Audit your current systems. Where are students swimming upstream? This Month: Start planning a low-stakes sandbox where your staff can test new structures. This Semester: Launch a Startup Week-style program to unlock student agency and authentic learning. 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Adrian Ireland: Website: https://designingdifferent.carrd.co/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrian-ireland-413191278 📕 Book: Designing different 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf. ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: Apply Now 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: Play Piper Every student starts with curiosity — Piper keeps it alive. Our hands-on STEM kits turn gaming passion into real engineering skills. 🔍 Spark confidence in your students at playpiper.com/ruckus. ODP Business Solutions® Still scrambling for supplies like it's 1999? ODP streamlines everything from pencils to projectors so you can focus on what matters — making an impact. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to learn more. IXL If you could differentiate instruction in 20 minutes or less, would you do it? Over 1 million teachers use IXL to make data-informed instruction effortless. 🔍 Start today at ixl.com/leaders. © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 3/18/26 | ![]() Start Next School Year with Confidence and Clarity with Danny | 📕 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Danny tells the brutal story of a "worst first day of school ever" moment — when half the students had no schedules — and uses it to make the case for a 90-day entry plan that builds trust fast, reduces stress, and keeps your campus from spiralling into avoidable chaos. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Danny challenges the "vibes-only leadership" approach and lays out why leaders need a real plan — what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how you'll execute — especially in the first 90 days. 🧨 Key Insight #1 — The real "first day" starts months earlier What's broken: Treating the first day of school like a one-day event you can "wing." The shift: Build and execute a time-based entry plan with clear milestones and check-ins. Impact: Fewer fires, fewer surprises, and a campus experience worth showing up for. — starting day one. 📌 Key Insight #2 — Chaos is often a systems failure, not a people problem What's broken: Blaming individuals when a breakdown happens (or silently absorbing it alone). The shift: Own the outcome, stabilize the system, then fix the root cause with a plan you can communicate. Impact: Faster recovery when things go wrong — and fewer repeat disasters. 🎯 Key Insight #3 — Close the "Belief Gap" at 3 levels What's broken: Strategy that sounds good but doesn't create confidence. The shift: Close belief gaps for: You (internal confidence), Your team (shared belief + clarity), Stakeholders (parents/ board/ community buy-in). Impact: More trust, more autonomy, and more momentum — because people believe the plan is real. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "As school leaders, we make a promise to our community — and it's important that you deliver on that promise, especially in the first 90 days." — Danny Bauer. 🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Identify the one predictable breakdown that could derail your next "first day" (schedules, transportation, staffing, supervision, etc.) and write the prevent-it list. This Month: Draft a 90-day entry plan with milestone check-ins (what success looks like by week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). This Semester: Share the plan in a format your team can repeat back — then measure whether belief is rising across you/team/stakeholders. 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👉Apply to The Entry Plan Intensive: https://entryplanintensive.com/ Applications close March 20th at 11:59:59 pm ET. 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey: 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf: https://ruckusmakers.media/ 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club/join 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 3/11/26 | ![]() Build the School You Wish Existed (and Let Students Run the Culture) with Will Campbell | 🧨 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most leaders say they want innovation… then rebuild the same dusty campus experience with newer paint. Will Campbell shows what happens when you press reset, redesign the human experience of school, and trust students to build the culture while teachers get time to grow inside the workday. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Will Campbell is redefining what's possible with modern education. As the Founding Head of Franklin School in Jersey City, named the The Most Innovative School in the World by T4 Education, Will has built a learning ecosystem that fuses timeless educational wisdom with breakthrough innovation. His work challenges the traditional playbook, empowering students and educators to think boldly, act with purpose, and lead with vision. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Will Campbell challenges traditional education paradigms: 🧰 Key Insight #1: Building from scratch isn't freedom, It's leadership under uncertainty What's broken: Leaders wait for the perfect plan, perfect clarity, perfect conditions… and then wonder why nothing changes. The shift: Get comfortable "building the bridge while you're walking on it," with feedback loops, iteration, and a team that can handle a little wobble. Impact: Faster learning, better decisions, and a school design that improves because it's alive — not because it's locked in. 🧠 Key Insight #2: Student voice isn't a survey. It's shared ownership of culture What's broken: Adults control the experience, then blame kids for not buying in. The shift: Trust students to lead earlier — then coach them with guardrails: "Not everything can be a yes, but everything doesn't have to be a no." Impact: Students build real leadership skill through reps, culture becomes self-sustaining, and the building stops depending on one adult to hold it all together. 🧰 Key Insight #3: Partnerships beat "exposure." Bring the real world into the building What's broken: Schools talk internships and career pathways, but keep professionals at arm's length — so students stay stuck in fantasies and assumptions. The shift: Build partnerships that put experts in front of students now (micro-courses, real conversations, real constraints, real options). Impact: Students pivot earlier, choose pathways with eyes open, and develop the confidence that comes from proximity to real work. 🎙️ Quotable Ruckus "Not everything can be a yes, but everything doesn't have to be a no." – Will Campbell 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Pick one decision you're still hoarding "because it's faster." Give it away — with clear guardrails — and let someone lead. This Month: Create one student-led culture move (advisory, house system, rituals, onboarding, peer mentorship). Make it real. Make it visible. This Semester: Build a partnership pipeline: 10 professionals, 10 micro-sessions, 10 career reality checks — inside your building, not just on a poster. 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey: 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf: https://ruckusmakers.media/ 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club/join 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 3/4/26 | ![]() From Panic to Purpose: How Kim Strobel Teaches Happiness in Schools | 🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Kim Strobel's been attacked for teaching differently — and still chose joy. In this episode, she shows school leaders how happiness isn't fluff — it's the foundation. Learn how to fight for your fire, rewire your brain, and lead a school worth showing up for. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Kim Strobel is a former teacher and administrator turned global speaker, author, and happiness coach. After battling a debilitating panic disorder, she transformed her pain into purpose — helping educators reclaim joy, build resilience, and spark cultures of well-being in their schools. She's the author of Teach Happy: Small Steps to Big Joy and speaks on stages around the world, including events for the FBI and thousands of educators each year. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧨 Key Insight #1: You have to play it safe to survive school culture What's broken: Educators who do school different often get bullied or iced out. The shift: Kim modeled courage by refusing to dim her light — and found her people. Impact: Students got more than standards — they got voice, agency, and purpose through passion-driven projects like dog adoption campaigns. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Productivity means grinding, not growing What's broken: School leaders wear burnout as a badge and equate rest with weakness. The shift: Kim reframes happiness as a performance strategy, not a luxury. Impact: When teachers practice happiness habits, productivity rises 31% and engagement 10x. 🚀 Key Insight #3: You can't lead culture — you're not responsible for staff happiness What's broken: Leaders think culture is out of their hands. The shift: Kim teaches that school-wide joy starts with modeling and micro-habits. Impact: Schools that bake happiness into the fabric see better retention, morale, and results. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "If your classroom doesn't have joy, curiosity, or risk, then what exactly are you preparing kids for?" – Kim Strobel 📈 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask yourself and your staff: Are we choosing activities that drain us — or fuel us? This Month: Lead by example — commit to one daily happiness habit (movement, gratitude, meditation, social connection, or kindness) This Semester: Create a culture audit. Identify one system or meeting that could be redesigned for joy, not just compliance 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Kim Strobel: Website: http://www.strobeleducation.com, https://strobeleducation.com/teach-happy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-strobel/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimstrobeljoy/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1798779396858380 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/she-finds-joy/id1487739752 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey: 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf: https://ruckusmakers.media/ 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club/join 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 2/25/26 | ![]() The Hands-On Cure for Screen-Addicted Schools with Kris Rockwell | 📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the cure for disengagement isn't better apps, but real tools in real hands? In this episode, Kris Rockwell challenges the one-way screen model that dominates modern classrooms — and makes a powerful case for hands-on learning that sparks joy, confidence, and curiosity. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Kris Rockwell works at the intersection of venture capital, technology, and non-profit initiatives. After spending over fifteen years in the eLearning field, he went on to lead the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation, supporting initiatives in conservation, entrepreneurship, and addiction recovery. He currently serves as Head of Product Development at Play Piper Inc. an edtech company based in San Francisco, the founder of AoS Ventures, a Pittsburgh-based venture capital group, and the co-founder of Praxis Science, a company that focuses on blockchain applications for decentralized science. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Kris Rockwell challenges traditional education paradigms: 🧠 Key Insight #1: The Tyranny of the One-Way Screen What's broken: One-way screens that keep kids passive and addicted. The shift: From screen consumption to hands-on creation and feedback loops. Impact: Students build confidence and competence through real-world tinkering and tech. 🧰 Key Insight #2: Tools Aren't Enough Without Freedom to Try What's broken: Classrooms full of unused tech due to lack of support or fear. The shift: Providing kids with approachable tools, open-ended projects, and the psychological safety to fail forward. Impact: One student went from bullied and silent to proudly presenting her own 3D-printed dragon — and finding her voice. 🚀 Key Insight #3: Preparing Kids for the Jobs That Don't Exist Yet What's broken: Teaching only for predictable answers and standardized tests. The shift: Making infotech and digital literacy foundational, just like math. Impact: Students learn coding, robotics, and cybersecurity by building their own devices — laying the groundwork for creative, tech-enabled futures. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "Confidence doesn't come from clicking — it comes from building." – Kris Rockwell 🧗♂️ Your Do School Different Challenge 👉 Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask one student what they'd build if they could learn anything. Then listen. This Month: Introduce one hands-on STEM project that doesn't require a final grade. This Semester: Reframe screen time — swap passive clicks for real-world tinkering. 🔗 Connect & Continue 📌 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Kris Rockwell: Website: www.playpiper.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/krisrockwell Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartWithPiper X: https://x.com/StartWithPiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startwithpiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PlayPiperLLC TikTok: @play.piper 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey: 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: https://ruckusmakers.news 🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Premium insights and early book drops: https://ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Private network, AI Prompt Library, and more: https://ruckusmakers.club/join 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Coaching + The Ruckus Maker Flywheel: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 2/18/26 | ![]() Linking Learning to Life: Dr. Annalies Corbin's 5 Power Strategies | 📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the best learning doesn't happen in a classroom? Dr. Annalies Corbin shares 5 proven strategies to design schools that actually connect learning to real life. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Annalies Corbin is the Founder & CEO of the PAST Foundation, a trailblazing organization transforming education for the 21st century. A relentless innovator, Dr. Corbin has been reshaping how we connect learning to life for the past 25 years, bridging the gap between scientific research, real-world problem-solving, and classroom experiences. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Dr. Corbin challenges traditional education paradigms: 🎯 Key Insight #1: Student Agency What's broken: Teacher-centered control that strips students of voice and choice. The shift: Design learning environments that start with student agency. Impact: Students become self-directed, engaged, and deeply invested in their learning journey. 🎯 Key Insight #2: Cultural Relevancy What's broken: Curriculum that doesn't reflect students' identities or lived experiences. The shift: Make learning culturally relevant so students see themselves in the material. Impact: Increased connection, confidence, and comprehension. 🎯 Key Insight #3: Mastery over Time What's broken: Time-based pacing guides and one-size-fits-all assessments. The shift: Competency-based learning that honors student readiness. Impact: Deeper understanding and real application beyond test scores. 🎯 Key Insight #4: Transdisciplinary Learning What's broken: Artificial silos separating math, science, English, and real life. The shift: Learning that blends disciplines around authentic context and problems. Impact: Greater engagement and relevance across all content areas. 🎯 Key Insight #5: Problem-Based Learning What's broken: Projects done "for the grade" rather than solving something real. The shift: Start with real-world problems and design learning around solving them. Impact: Students learn how to think critically and contribute meaningfully to their communities. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "Say Yes! Too many great ideas die before they start because we begin with all the reasons why not." ** — Dr. Annalies Corbin** 📈 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask your students what they want to learn this week — and act on one idea. This Month: Audit your lessons for cultural relevancy. Where are students missing? This Semester: Launch one real-world, problem-based project that connects to your local community. 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Dr. Annalies Corbin: Website: https://www.pastfoundation.org/annalies-corbin pastfoundation.org/hackingschool | pastfoundation.org/learning-unboxed \ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annalies-corbin-4016121 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey: 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news 🗞️ Read Ruckus Maker Media — Premium Substack content, AI prompts, book previews: ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Private network, workshops, The Automatic School toolkit, and more: ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system: Apply Now 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
| 2/11/26 | ![]() The Whiteboard on Every Desk: Anthony Beckett's Vision for Inclusive Learning | 🎙 The Ruckus Report Quick Take: What happens when a high school sophomore builds the tool he wishes his teacher had? You get Markify — a collaborative, accessible classroom platform now used by 20,000+ students. In this episode, Anthony Beckett shares how a missed note sparked a movement and what school leaders can learn from a student-led disruption. 👋 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Anthony Beckett is the founder of Markify, an EdTech startup transforming classrooms into collaborative learning environments. After building the prototype while still in high school, Anthony scaled Markify to 1,500+ schools and continues to grow the company as a college student. He's presented at ISTE, FETC, and speaks nationally about accessibility, student agency, and rethinking how classrooms operate. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules 🧠 Key Insight #1 — Make Classrooms More Accessible What's broken: Teachers lecture. Students copy notes. And if you miss it, you're out of luck. The shift: Markify puts the whiteboard on every student's desk — live, editable, and archived. Impact: All students — even those in the back row or with attention challenges — can review, interact, and participate at their own pace. 🧠 Key Insight #2 — Design for Collaboration Without Chaos What's broken: Classrooms are still built for compliance, not contribution. Group work is rare, and many tools are either clunky or chaotic. The shift: Markify allows controlled collaboration with real-time editing, permissions, and engagement features. Impact: Shy students speak up. Peer feedback flows. Classwide documents become shared artifacts — not worksheets in isolation. 🧠 Key Insight #3 — Fight Fire With Fire (Engagement > Distraction) What's broken: Schools treat phones and tech as threats instead of opportunities. The shift: Build experiences so engaging, students choose learning over scrolling. Impact: One student hid in the janitor's closet to avoid speaking in class — until Markify gave her a voice. Two weeks later, she was leading a group project. 💬 Quotable Ruckus "The real challenge isn't distraction — it's disinterest. If school isn't more engaging than TikTok, we've already lost." — Anthony Beckett 🎯 Your Do School Different Challenge Ready to implement these ideas? Start here: Tomorrow: Ask students how they would redesign one traditional lesson. Try one of their suggestions. This Month: Pilot a collaborative tool like Markify in one unit or course. This Semester: Launch a student-led innovation — let learners solve a real campus problem with tech, process, or design. 🔗 Connect & Continue 🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 👩🏻💻 Follow Anthony Beckett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beckett-anthony Markify LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/markifyapp Markify Twitter/X: https://x.com/markifytool Markify Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markifytool Markify YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@markifyexotek Markify Website: https://markifyapp.com 📌 Ruckus Makers Don't Just Listen — They Act If education ain't a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning? This show isn't about doing school better. It's about Doing School Different — and joining a movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what's possible. 🧠 Here Are Four Ways We Can Help You on Your Do School Different Journey 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news 🗞️ Read Ruckus Maker Media — Premium Substack content, AI prompts, book previews: ruckusmakers.media 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Private network, workshops, The Automatic School toolkit, and more: ruckusmakers.club 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system: Apply Now 🎙 Today's RUCKUS cast in Partnership With: ODP Business Solutions® For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. 🔍 Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school's learning spaces. IXL Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started today at ixl.com/leaders PLAY PIPER This episode is brought to you by Play Piper. At Piper, we believe STEM doesn't have to feel out of reach. Too many kids love gaming but give up on science and engineering because school doesn't spark their interest. That's where Piper comes in - They have hands-on STEM kits designed to turn curiosity into confidence and keep the pipeline of future innovators flowing strong. 🔍 Learn more at playpiper.com/ruckus © 2026 Twelve Practices LLC | If Education Ain't a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning? | — | ||||||
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