133: Matt Bardin | Don't Ignore The Elephant In The Room, Address The Big Issues Head-On | How To Get Students Excited About Reading | Create An Experience For Your Students | The Link Between Reading Comprehension And Success In School

Dr. Tim Elmore is the President of Growing Leaders, a nonprofit leadership training and development organization that equips students to be leaders in their classrooms, communities, and ultimately their careers. Tim helps guide helps the parents, educators, mentors, coaches and employers that lead this generation. Tim has also authored more than 30 books including: Habitudes®: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes Artificial Maturity: Helping Kids Meet the Challenge of Becoming Authentic Adults Generation iY: Secrets to Connecting With Today’s Teens & Young Adults in the Digital Age as well as his latest book, Marching Off The Map, which will help educators understand Generation Z and how to teach and lead them. To learn more about Tim, his team, and the people he impacts, please visit https://growingleaders.com/   Connect with Tim Elmore: Twitter – @TimElmore https://twitter.com/TimElmore Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/drtimelmore/   About Educators Lead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Kris Murray is a business coach and marketing consultant exclusively for the early childhood industry. As President and Founder of Child Care Marketing Solutions, her mission is to make a difference in the lives of one million children, by helping more than 5,000 clients create and lead businesses that provide early learning excellence for families and employees. Kris is the author of two top-rated books, The Ultimate Child Care Marketing Guide and The 77 Best Strategies to Grow Your Early Childhood Program, and is the host of the world’s largest conference on early learning business success, the Child Care Success Summit (in its 6th year). To learn more about Kris, her team, and the clients she impacts, please visit http://www.childcare-marketing.com. Connect with Kris Murray on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kris_murray Check out Kris Murray's podcast, Child Care Rockstar Radio: http://www.childcare-marketing.com/podcast/   About Educators Lead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Chris Trieste has over 20 years of experience in K-12 education as a teacher, school administrator, athletic director, and coordinator of physical education.  Over the past 10 years, Chris has coached many different sports from elementary through high school. He has extensive experience in tennis, serving as the head men’s tennis coach at Mount Saint Mary College where he was named Coach of the Year twice and led that team to its first conference championship in program history. Chris currently lives in Hudson Valley, NY with his wife and 3 kids and serves as the district coordinator of physical education and health at White Plains City School District. Chris is also the author of his latest and only book, 14 Great Coaches: Learn Their Lessons, Improve Your Coaching, Have a Lasting Impact     Connect with Chris Trieste on Twitter: @CTrieste2 http://www.christrieste.com/   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Matt Bardin taught high school and middle school in the New York City public schools in the early 1990s and was a founding director of Teach For America. He founded Veritas Tutors (now Zinc Educational Services) in 2001. He was a co-founder in 2008 of High Five Labs, a company that produced a few popular apps, and he founded Zinc Learning Labs to make the key element of an elite education - advanced literacy - widely available. Connect with Matt Bardin on Twitter: @MattBardin   Educators Lead Listener BONUS: To join a free pilot to help beta test "Close Reading Games" by Zinc Learning Labs, email [email protected]   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Connie Hamilton has served as an elementary teacher, middle school ELA teacher, instructional coach, and principal at both the elementary and middle school levels. She now serves as the K-12 curriculum director in Saranac Community Schools and provides professional development nationally that focuses on questioning, best instructional practices, literacy, assessment, and leadership. Connie is the co-author of Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom, Volume 8 from the Hack Learning series of innovative thinking around education. Connie’s Book on Amazon: Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom, Volume 8  Connect with Connie on Twitter: @conniehamilton   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Naphtali Hoff has served in education as a teacher, associate principal, head of school, and is currently the president and executive coach of Impactful Coaching and Consulting, a company. Naphtali is also the author of Becoming the New Boss, a newly released book that builds on his leadership experiences and lessons and seeks to empower new leaders to hit the ground running. Naphtali has earned two master’s degrees in both education and educational leadership as well as a doctorate in human and organizational psychology.   Find Naphtali's book, Becoming the New Boss, on Amazon by clicking HERE YouTube video discussed in this episode about how values help new leaders hit the ground running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2qK2A-hIJw     About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Dr. Jeffrey Zoul is a lifelong teacher, learner, and leader, currently serving as Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning with Deerfield Public Schools District 109 in Deerfield, Illinois. Prior to working in this capacity, Jeff served as a district administrator in Rock Island, Illinois, and a school improvement specialist with Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), the nation’s largest and oldest non-profit school improvement network. Jeff also served as a principal with Forsyth County Schools in Cumming, Georgia, and with North Shore School District 112 in Highland Park, Illinois. Before serving as an administrator, Dr. Zoul was a classroom teacher for 18 years in the State of Georgia, teaching elementary school, middle school, and high school English. Jeff has also served as an adjunct professor at North Georgia College and State University, teaching graduate level courses in research and assessment. Jeff’s Books on Amazon: Building School Culture One Week at a Time Improving Your School One Week at a Time: Building the Foundation for Professional Teaching and Learning Start. Right. Now.: Teach and Lead for Excellence What Connected Educators Do Differently  4 CORE Factors for School Success Study Guide to accompany What Great Principals Do Differently: 15 Things That Matter Most Leading Professional Learning: Tools to Connect and Empower Teachers Cornerstones of Strong Schools: Practices for Purposeful Leadership Eduleaders can follow Dr. Zoul on Twitter: @jeff_zoul and via his blog at jeffzoul.blogspot.com. In addition to his passion for all things relating to teaching and learning, Zoul is an avid long distance runner and has completed several marathons.   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Toni Cameron has worked as a mathematics educator and writer for the past twenty years and is currently the Director of Professional Development at Metamorphosis Teaching Learning Communities. In this capacity, she is responsible for coaching consultants and for developing all the elementary professional development offered by MTLC. Her recent publication, Agents of Change, How Content Coaching Transforms Teaching, co-authored with Lucy West, who I had the honor to interview back in episode 122, is used nationally as a tool to mentor coaches and other leaders. Toni is also working on a book on early childhood routines that will be published in 2017. Toni has served as Co-Director with Cathy Fosnot of Mathematics in the City (MitC), a national center for professional development at City College of the City University New York.  As co-principal investigator of an NSF-funded project, she co-authored the fifteen facilitator-guides that were part of the Young Mathematicians at Work CD-ROMs. She and her colleagues cultivated an extraordinary capacity to develop student learning in the teachers they coached. In addition, she co-authored two units (“Games” and “Muffles’ Truffles”) in the curriculum, Contexts for Learning published by Heinemann. Ms. Cameron designed Collaborative Communities of Practice, a groundbreaking professional development model for New York City’s Department of Education. This model served as the foundation for the mathematics collaborative coaching community implemented by Toni in over 100 schools in collaboration with Carol Teague in Region 8 of New York. Toni continues to refine this practice in her Principal and Coaching Learning Communities at Metamorphosis.  Together at Metamorphosis Teaching Learning Communities, Toni and Lucy and their team use content coaching as a vehicle to transform education in the US and abroad. Toni's passion is improving teaching so that all students can have access to the best education possible.   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Tom Hierck has been an educator since 1983 in a career that has spanned all grade levels and roles in public education. His experiences as a teacher, administrator, district leader, department of education project leader, and executive director have provided a unique context for his education philosophy. Tom is a compelling presenter and author, infusing his message of hope with strategies culled from the real world. He understands that educators face unprecedented challenges and knows which strategies will best serve learning communities. Tom has presented to schools and districts across North America with a message of celebration for educators seeking to make a difference in the lives of students. His dynamic presentations explore the importance of positive learning environments and the role of assessment to improve student learning. His belief that “every student is a success story waiting to be told” has led him to work with teachers and administrators to create positive school cultures and build effective relationships that facilitate learning for all students.   Connect with Tom on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thierck   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com

Dr. Megan Slocum has worked as a teacher, principal, Superintendent, and is currently the Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for the Springdale School District in Northwest Arkansas. She also helps maintain the Springdale Public Schools YouTube channel.   Megan is passionate about serving students and parents to help all learners achieve their potential each day. She was awarded the Arkansas Rural Education Superintendent of the Year in 2013 and has served as Assistant Commissioner of Education for the Arkansas Department of Education. In her spare time, Megan also serves on the Northwest Arkansas Board for the March of Dimes, City of Springdale Leadership Team, and the Health Advisory Council. Resources discussed in this episode: Springdale Public Schools website: www.sdale.org  Instruction Curriculum: https://sites.google.com/a/sdale.org/sps/divisions/curriculum-and-instruction/curriculum SpringdaleTV: https://www.youtube.com/user/SpringdaleSchoolsTV   Connect with Megan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meganmslocum   About EducatorsLead: Educators Lead is a podcast created to help launch educators into the next level of leadership. This show is for you if you are interested in educational leadership as an assistant principal, principal, superintendent, teacher or someone who hopes to be a school leader one day. Educators Lead offers inspiration and practical advice to help you lead more effectively. Jay Willis interviews school leaders three days a week to discuss why and when these educators made the decision to move into school leadership, challenges along the journey, and stories that made it all worthwhile. Educators Lead is a great resource for any educator looking to make a greater impact. Educate. Inspire. Lead. http://www.educatorslead.com