Designing a Transformative School Experience for All with Jethro Jones

Today, Maria talks with Jethro Jones, founder of Transformative Principal and author of the book SchoolX. Since he launched his podcast Transformative Principal in 2013, Jethro has been interviewing thought leaders in education and business to learn how to transform schools. After helping other principals, he realized that he could have the impact he always desired if he coached many more principals to transform their own schools. 

Jethro wanted all his students to know that he cared for them as individual human beings, independently of their grades and where they came from. He became a principal to create systemic change in schools with one simple goal in mind: to create schools that children love going to. 

He wrote the book SchoolX describing exactly how school leaders can do that themselves. SchoolX helps principals redesign their schools (even in the midst of the pandemic) to better serve their teachers, students, parents, community, and themselves. 

During our conversation, Jethro shares powerful stories about empowering a 7th-grade student to design her curriculum aligned with her passion and level, guiding unmotivated middle-school boys to discover their interests, using goal-setting to help a student who was getting into fights develop self-control, and many more. 

If you are a parent tired of feeling frustrated with your children, Jethro, who decided to homeschool his own children during the pandemic, offers simple recommendations you can use to guide your children to learn how to set goals, make their own decisions, and trust themselves. 

This is an inspiring conversation with a patient and empathetic educator who is helping schools create a transformative learning experience for all. 

 

Listen to this episode and explore:

Introducing Jethro Jones and what we talk about in this episode (1:04)

Jethro’s childhood memory learning to do woodworking (4:20)

Experiencing a school system not designed for Jethro as an individual student (5:00)

Becoming a teacher and learning to navigate school while creating a change (6:20)

His passion for helping students get a glimpse of their potential (9:10)

How Jethro empowered a 7th-grade student to design her curriculum aligned with her interest and level (9:50)

How Jethro guided middle-school boys to discover their interests and passions (12:55)

Jethro’s perspectives on the non-linear learning of children during the pandemic (15:35)

How teachers can build trust with students by creating agreements with them and being patient (16:55)

What Jethro’s kids learned being homeschooled during the pandemic: how to make their own decisions, plan their own time, and trust themselves (18:40)

How Jethro learned to adapt by watching what was working with his most challenging students plus an inspiring story about learning poetry (22:22)

Jethro’s decision to become a principal to make changes at a systemic level in the school (26:32)

How his Transformative Principal podcast and experience coaching other principals transform their schools led Jethro to found Transformative Principal (28:06)

Jethro’s book SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves (29.35)

Maria’s insights on SchoolX and how Jethro wants principals to use the book to transform their schools (32:55)

The 5 stages of school transformation from traditional teaching to student-driven learning (37:02)

How student-driven learning is fun for both students and teachers (41:10)

Involving parents in every step of the way of transforming the school (43:23)

How schools can design project-based learning to solve specific problems while teaching English, math, science and history (44:28)

The importance of developing empathy for other people in K12 education (48:10)

How Jethro has used goal-