Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight
for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm Devin Bintosi, your host.
We are here at NCMLE, the NorthCarolina Mid-Level Educators
Conference in Charlotte, northCarolina, and we are joined here
by Mr Charles Williams.
Charles joins us from ChicagoPublic Schools and he is a
motivational speaker here with.
(00:27):
Is it CW Productions?
Cw Consulting?
Cw Consulting.
Welcome, charles.
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I appreciate the
opportunity to connect.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
No problem, we're
very excited to have you here.
I'd like to know from you,charles, what brings you to
NCMLE.
To know from you, charles, whatbrings you to.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
NCMLE.
So David, david, david Jamesbrings me here.
I was a featured speaker lastyear.
David reached out, asked me tobe here and it was a phenomenal
experience.
And so when he reached outagain to say, hey, we want you
back, I said, absolutely, thisis my spring break back in
Chicago.
So the idea that I was like,yeah, I'll spend my spring break
, or at least part of it, inCharlotte at a conference, I
(01:05):
think speaks volumes to thevalue of this conference.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
But just to be able
to be in the space oh, that's
wonderful and so I understandyou were presenting here.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I am.
I had a session this morning, atwo hour session, ok, you know,
and then I was on a panel lastnight Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So tell us about the
things that you're discussing
with the community here at NCMLE.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah.
So David asked me to do anequity workshop, and so this is
typically something that is done, at least a full-day workshop.
It is based on a framework thatI helped to build back in
Chicago for the Chicago PublicSchools, and so it was a
two-hour workshop here to bemore of an introduction, but
looking at these four differentdomains to figure out how do we
(01:50):
move from just talking aboutdoing the work to actually doing
it.
So many times you have peoplewho are saying, hey, I know this
work is important, I want to doit, but I don't know where to
begin.
I don't know where to start,and so providing a framework
allows people to actually begindiving in and really being
active.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh, okay, so tell us
a bit about.
I understand that you're aprincipal.
Is that correct?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So I'm an assistant
principal now.
I sat in the principal seat forabout eight, nine years.
I dropped back to be anassistant principal so I can do
this sort of work.
It's really, really hard to runa school and be gone all the
time.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh yeah, I imagine
that would be a problem right.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, a little bit of
a challenge, a little bit of a
challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
So tell us some of
the things that go on in your
school that you have made partof, what you discuss with other
educators as you go around theUnited States.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, I think there
are so many different things.
I think that's one of thethings that we were talking
about earlier.
You know is this idea that I'mspeaking from a space of
practicality, right, when I'mpresenting at a conference, you
know, a day, day or two laterI'm back in the building.
So I'm not just talking aboutit from an idea, a space of
theory, or this is what I usedto do 10, 15, 20 years ago.
This is the work that I'mcurrently doing, and so, when we
talk about, like, the exampleof leaning into the concept of
(03:06):
essentialism and recognizingwhat it means to be a leader and
being okay with pushing thingsaway, that's the work that I'm
actually doing.
When we talk about providingopportunities for students,
right, and I talk aboutexperiential learning, providing
those experiences for studentsthose are things that we're
actually doing.
And so at our school, michelleClark, on the very far west side
(03:27):
of Chicago, we're in the Austinneighborhood.
It is a neighborhood that isyour textbook urban space, right
, there's a lot of issuesplaguing the neighborhood, but a
lot of opportunities as well,and so we're trying to figure
out how do we make sure that ourstudents have access to the
same, you know, opportunities,resources, tools, experiences
(03:48):
that schools from all across thedistrict have, and so it's
challenging work, but we'reseeing the wonderful, the
wonderful outcomes of doing thatwork.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Wow, that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Tell us a bit about,
uh, you understand, you also
have some materials, some booksthat you wrote yeah, so, um, I I
fortunately I've been acontributing author to a number
of things, in fact, uh, thispast weekend.
Uh, there was a book that cameout Friday and then a book that
came out Monday and then a bookthat came out Monday, and I have
contributing chapters in bothof those.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Oh, wow.
And then of course there's—You're prolific, yeah, I'm just
a little busy a little busy, Iguess so.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And then there's this
book.
It's about three years old atthis point, but this was my
first publication called Insidethe Principal's Office, and it
was called that I call that.
I think sometimes people getthrown off by the title.
They're like, oh, it's forprincipals, like no, it's for
school leaders.
And in fact it's designed in away for not to be full of.
You know, it's not adissertation.
(04:43):
It's real experiences followedup with some reflection
questions focusing on differentdomains, like how do we embrace
celebrations, how do we embracethe concept of being the lead
learner in our school, right?
And so at the end of everychapter or week because you can
read it week by week, you knowthere's some reflection pieces
that you can dive deeper into.
So great for a brand new leadertrying to figure out how do I
(05:04):
navigate the space, or even forthat veteran leader who's gotten
so caught up in their routinesand maybe have forgotten what
they're doing and why they'redoing it.
So it's a great text, a littlebiased because I wrote it, but
it's a great, great text.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Can you share an
experience from the classroom or
from your school setting whereyou felt like the light bulb
moment happened, whether it wasfor faculty or it was for
student population?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
At American Book
Company in Woodstock, georgia,
we are committed to yourstudents' success.
As you can see behind me, wehave our workbooks and we have
online testing and e-books thatgo on fancy iPads over here, for
instance.
They're all designed to helpyour students succeed and have
higher test scores on theirhigh-stakes assessments.
Give us a call 888-264-5877, orfind us on the web, abck12.com
(05:53):
and you can receive a free trialor a free preview book of your
choice.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, so you know,
one of the stories that I share
and I think it's in this book iswe had this policy where we
weren't supposed to have food inthe hallways Right, mostly
because you know if you're ateacher or anybody, we weren't
running through the hallway witha hot cup of coffee.
Right, bad things happen.
But you know, I would do mymorning rounds and every morning
one of my last stops was thecafeteria, because my cafeteria
(06:22):
staff always had a cup of coffeeand a pastry for me.
Oh, nice.
Because you got to take care ofyour cafeteria staff.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So I remember I was
on my way to a meeting, I was
rushing back, and so, of course,now I'm picking at my food as
I'm moving through the hallwaysand one of the students sees me
in the hallway and says hey, mrWilliams, like what are you
doing?
You're not supposed to havefood in the hallway.
And I remember there was ateacher there who was like hey,
you don't speak to him that way.
And I said no, no, no, you knowthe student's right.
We have an expectation as aschool.
(06:49):
It's not a student expectation,it is an expectation for the
school, and I am no different.
In fact, I should be leaninginto that space and modeling
what it is that we're expecting,and so I thank the student for
reminding me of our school-wideexpectations and policies.
And it was just this kind of ahamoment, right as we talk about
student voice and empowerment,like, yeah, you also have a
(07:11):
voice in this space, and so itwasn't just something that we
were talking about, we wereactually living.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oh, that is awesome.
What a great experience so foryour book how people find out
about your book.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah.
So I mean, people can access meall sorts of ways.
I used to joke with studentswhen Google was becoming a thing
.
You know.
They were like we're going toGoogle you.
I was like, yeah, okay, goahead.
Like you never find me.
Uh, now that's a little bitdifferent.
Now, if you Google me, you'llfind me.
Uh, but you can find me on thewebsite.
Uh, cw consulting servicecom.
Uh, you can find me all acrosssocial media at underscore CW
(07:44):
consulting, and so you'll beable to access this text as well
as all the other materials thatI have to offer.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh, that is fantastic
.
Can you tell us a little bitabout I understand?
You had a recent experiencethat was like uh, really, uh, uh
prescient, uh, I guess you hada moment uh, up in the air.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, yeah, it was.
Uh, it was a moment so aboutthree years ago, when I first
joined the district.
And talk about an initiationmoment.
So our school has a JROTCprogram and so we have a very
close relationship with theUnited States Army and so they
said, hey, listen, we've gotthis great opportunity to go
skydiving.
Now that has been somethingthat has been on my bucket list
(08:20):
and I was like sure, why not?
Bucket list?
And I was like sure why not?
And so, yeah, we went, we wentskydiving.
I joked, you know, my daughterwas with me, my youngest
daughter, and it was like shewas going to be the last person
to ever see me alive on thisearth.
But it was just this incredible, incredible experience, you
know we.
So the door opened to theairplane, right, you kind of
(08:41):
squat down because it's a tinyplane and you do this like kind
of little duck crab, walk to theedge and you have to count down
backwards three, two, one, andat one you jump and for those
first few I'm sure it's likefive seconds, but it felt like
five minutes You're falling as afree fall, right, and you know
you're waiting for the parachuteto catch is a free fall right,
(09:05):
and you know you're, you'rewaiting for the parachute to
catch.
And I think the beautiful thingwas, once that parachute caught
, I was able to pause and kindof look around and I remember
the guy attached to my backbecause you know they're,
they're with you, I wasn't bymyself and he said listen, you
have two choices.
We could either just go downnow that we're up here, or we
could take the scenic route.
You know, we could kind of movearound a little bit, let you
see.
And it was like, well, we'realready here, let's see, right,
(09:25):
and I think it's one of thesepowerful moments like even that
can be a testament to the workthat we do, like you got to take
the leap.
That is an experience that Inever would have ever had.
You know, I had to push backagainst every fiber of my being
to do this thing right, and Ithink sometimes we find
ourselves in very uncomfortablesituations that we do have to
(09:45):
push back against.
And you know, literally in mycase, take that leap right.
And so now I have an experiencethat I would never have had
anywhere else.
I could have done the indoorflying thing, I could have done
a simulator and nothing wouldhave compared.
So I think that that you knowfor me anyway right, and I tell
other people, like, even ifyou're not jumping out of an
(10:06):
airplane, when you find yourselfin that place where you don't
know whether or not to take theproverbial leap, like do it
right because you I mean, inmost cases you're probably not
going to crash to the ground anddie a horrible death, but like
you're going to have anexperience that you probably
would never have had otherwise.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That is wow, that is
quite the thing and very awesome
that you were able to have anexperience that you probably
would never have had otherwise.
That is wow, that is quite thething and very awesome that you
were able to do that and checkanother thing off the bucket
list there.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't know if I would ever doit again.
I checked it off, I'm good,good.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Is there anything
else you'd like to share with
the NCMLE community?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, I think that,
just if you ever have an
opportunity to be at thisconference, it's an incredible
experience, the amounts ofeducators who come on out you
know you've got the featuredspeakers from all over the
country who come out and justconnect with one another but
also to provide and just thedynamic space.
I go to a lot of conferences, alot, and this is probably one
(10:59):
of my favorites to be at, so I'mhoping that I'll be here again
next year.
I just think that this is agreat opportunity.
If you're looking to learn, tolead and to grow with
like-minded educators, this is aplace to be.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Awesome.
Once again, thank you, charlesWilliams.
Charles Williams with CWConsulting, thank you so much
for joining us today.
I appreciate you having me.