Developing Teacher Leaders with Kyle Palmer

About this episode

Jethro Jones interviews Kyle Palmer about developing teacher leaders and fostering a culture of trust and innovation in schools.

In this episode of the Transformative Leadership Summit, Jethro sits down with Kyle Palmer, principal of Lewis and Clark Elementary, to explore how school leaders can develop teacher leaders and build a culture of trust and innovation. Kyle shares the story of how his school evolved from a single maker space initiative—sparked by library teacher Angela Rosheim's genius hour instruction—into a school-wide culture of student-centered learning, STEM integration through Project Lead The Way (PLTW), and maker spaces throughout the building. Central to the conversation is Kyle's philosophy of tight/loose leadership: being firm on learning outcomes and collaborative team expectations while giving teachers genuine autonomy in how they get there. He discusses the power of highly functioning PLCs, the importance of developing leaders (not just followers—a concept drawn from John Maxwell), and why trust, listening, and consistent feedback are the keys to empowering staff. Kyle leaves principals with a simple but powerful action step: go ask your best teachers what they think. We’re proud to be sponsored by IXL . IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts…

People in this episode

Host: Jethro Jones

Guest: Kyle Palmer

Topics covered

• teacher leadership
• school culture
• trust
• innovation
• student-centered learning
• STEM integration

Keywords

• teacher leaders
• school leadership
• collaborative teams
• PLCs
• feedback
• autonomy
• STEM
• Project Lead The Way

Sponsors

IXL

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Johns Hopkins University

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