November 30, 2023 • 22 mins
What if creativity was your secret weapon to overcoming the burdens of school leadership? Join us, as we draw upon my two decades of experience to reveal how thinking outside the box can not only help you tackle the challenges of managing a school, but also bring balance to your personal life. We are about to embark on a fascinating exploration of the role of creativity in leadership and problem-solving, and how it can breathe new life into your daily tasks.
School leadership isn't just about managing students; it involves supporting teachers, families, and the community. This can take a toll on your life, leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms. But, there's a way out. We'll share personal anecdotes, the struggles we faced when work consumed our lives, and how we discovered the importance of self-care. We'll delve into the power of creative activities, from photography to playing an instrument, and how they can enhance leadership skills and offer a fresh perspective on the world. Whether you're already a creative spirit or just starting to explore, this journey is going to transform you into a more effective leader. Tune in now, and let's get started.
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Hosted by Uche Njoku, this podcast explores the intersection of education, leadership, and personal growth. Each episode offers insights, inspiration, and real talk about the challenges and opportunities in schools and beyond.
🌟 Thank you for being part of this journey. Together, let’s inspire change and create a brighter future for our students, educators, and communities.
Until next time, stay inspired, keep leading, and always keep learning! 💪👟
#TheSneakerPrincipal #EducationLeadership #InspirationForEducators
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
As many of you know, this is my passion right over
here, at least one of mypassions creating content and,
maybe more so, problem solvingaround my tech.
So this morning I was trying tofigure out how come my iPad
(00:24):
wouldn't turn on.
I did some rearranging ofequipment in here and I realized
that one of my hubs, which isdown here, rather than plug it
into my actual Mac mini, I hadto plug it back into itself.
So I couldn't figure out why Iwasn't getting any power which I
need to power my iPad, which ismy primary display for my notes
(00:49):
.
So today, in this episode ofthe SneakPrincipal Podcast, I
will be presenting my notes notin front of me but off to the
side, so I'm going to look allkinds of crazy looking away from
the camera, but you know,that's what makes this fun.
So let's talk about the powerof creativity as an outlet for
(01:16):
school leaders.
Let's go ahead and start thisepisode.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
When they see me, they know that every day, when
I'm breathing, it's for us to gofarther.
Every time I speak, I want thetruth to come out.
Every time I speak, I want toshiver.
I don't want them to be like.
They know what I'm going to saybecause it's polite.
They know what I'm going to sayand even if I get in trouble,
that ain't what we're supposedto do.
I'm not saying I'm going torule the world or I'm going to
(01:40):
change the world, but Iguarantee that I will spark the
brain that will change the world, and that's our job.
It's to spark somebody elsewatching us.
We might not be the ones, butlet's not be selfish.
And because we're not going tochange the world, let's not talk
about how we should change it.
I don't know how to change it,but I know.
If I keep talking about howdirty it is out here, somebody
going to clean it is the dustthat vá忍s that deck ofAve.
(02:02):
Oh, and now he's been promoted.
His job principle.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
It is some time around 535, 5,5 something.
I actually intended to startthis podcast episode much
earlier.
However, I just couldn't figureout how to turn on my iPad, so,
excuse me those of you who arelistening the intro this is a
(02:36):
video podcast, so you're hearingme speaking as though I'm
speaking to an audience on video, but I just couldn't get my
iPad to work.
And now it's finally working.
It's charging.
It's like completely dead, so Ican't, I won't be able to
utilize it until it's fullycharged up again.
But this episode I want to talkto you on this fine morning
(02:58):
about creative outlets and howit's so necessary for school
leaders and just leaders ingeneral.
If you're an ATAP person likeme, you can become super
obsessed with the work that youdo.
I've been doing this now forman.
I've been.
I've been a school leader for19 years.
(03:20):
I came into public education asDean, my first, my first day,
and people might say, well, deanis not quite a, it's not quite
school leader, but you arebecause you're handling all the
cultural aspects of the schooldiscipline and, depending where
you are, you might be it, youmight be the all out, the be all
(03:41):
say, all be all about whathappens within the school
culture, and I'm not going to bewith the authorization of your
principal, which I always had.
But I went from being a Deanand within four years I was in a
Bishop program and by my fifthyear I was an assistant
principal.
And fast forward to here I amprincipal, third school, and I
(04:05):
must tell you I love everymoment of what I do Like.
I love every moment of it, eventhe days that I'm just like.
Why am I doing this?
Even the fact that I left twice, but I still came back to what
I love.
And this is to put in schoolcommunities.
You know engaging with kids,their families, you know making
(04:28):
an impact in your lives.
But the problem and there is,there is a problem with what we
do in any school years.
Listening to this, I know youunderstand Sometimes not
sometimes, most often you getsuper absorbed and obsessed with
what you're doing.
And what I mean by absorbed andobsessed?
Because you are dealing withI'm sorry, I have to take a
(04:54):
quick pause.
I'm over here looking my lipsand and I have some blisters
over here.
I don't know, it's veryunprofessional, because you're
dealing with with for lives andI'm not going to say children,
I'm not going to say even peoplewith lives.
(05:15):
As a leader, yes, of course yourprimary responsibility of the
school is the children or thestudents in your school.
Then you have the teachers thatyou must support because
they're the first line ofdefense, they're the ones who
are in front of the kids everysingle day.
Then you have the families ofthose, of those of those
students that, depending whereyou are, they might be just as
needy as as the children.
(05:36):
So you're, you are the resourceto the community as well.
So you're supporting theteachers, you're supporting
children, their families, butonly that you might be the voice
of a critical voice within thecommunity as a whole.
So in all these differentplaces, you are more than just a
(05:58):
school leader.
And if you're, if you're reallyabout doing the work really well
, you find yourself pouring somuch of who you are Into your to
, into what you do every day.
And if you're like some of us,who everyone has your phone
number, guess what?
It doesn't ever turn off really, and and a lot of times, a lot
(06:19):
of us, we don't have the heartto say to put boundaries.
So we're like you know somepeople, like.
I know people.
I don't know how they do it.
They're like when I clock out aclock out, the world is shut.
That's me, but my things?
My phone goes off.
You know it's working at nightand it's a student.
I'm picking it up.
How are you?
You know the students family.
I'm picking it up, but why youcall me at 12 o'clock at night,
(06:40):
especially if we've made aconnection, especially seen it
often that child is with you fora number of years.
You get to know them very, verywell, get to know their
families.
If a teacher calls me atmidnight, I'm thinking like, oh
my God, what's going on?
Like it's all these things,whether it's a call or text
message, you're constantly on,but then only that, just the
operations of the school.
I'm not talking about, you know, let's all lights off.
(07:01):
I'm talking about test scoresand curriculum and what are we
doing?
And outcomes in graduation andmy kids gonna be ready for the
next level, whether it's goingfrom elementary school to middle
school, middle school to highschool, high school, the college
, jobs, careers.
I mean, I've been doing it solong that I have former students
of mine who are Colleagues now,who are working in education,
(07:24):
and I'm looking at them like,wow, this, like you know.
So you can't help me completelyto be, to easily be completely
consumed by what we do.
But the dangerous part of thisis you Become so one-sided and
you give one of the things thatmake them meet you who you are,
(07:47):
if that makes any sense, becauseoften I meet, I come across not
at, not me, I know because I'mthese are my colleagues, school
leaders who are so Locked in towhat we do that nothing else
matters.
And that does concern meBecause it leads to burnout,
(08:11):
where all of a sudden, you,you're like your brain, it's
like can't see anything else butwhat you do.
You know.
And, um, I've been there.
I've been there to the pointwhere, where it took over my
health or not even took over myhealth, it became the the
downfall of my health, becausemy eating schedule, my, my sleep
(08:36):
schedule, is all locked intowork, so I would not eat
throughout the whole entire dayand only eat out.
I mean literally, literally Eatin the car going home.
You know, I leave workMcDonald's and I'll literally be
in the car eating two, threecheeseburgers.
I was so starved, I was sostarved of new nutrition and I'm
(08:57):
eating McDonald's or whatever Ican get my hands on, comes all
over my shirt, all my belly,because I won't point time.
Like you guys know, I was like350 pounds and I was just so,
like you know, ravenous becauseI was so hungry.
Throughout the day my braindidn't see anything else other
than work.
There were days where I'd belike man I didn't go to the
(09:19):
bathroom today and Holding itall day and I even to the point
where your brain justautomatically knows that I don't
go to the bathroom.
That's common human things tobe supposed to be doing.
We don't do.
And then we think and we don'trealize how unhealthy that is To
all these things I was doing.
Or then, god, I stopped Earlyon.
(09:43):
I became a chain smoker Becauseit's stress levels, so I would
take my breaks.
Rather than getting to eat oreven getting fluids in my body,
I would step outside thebuilding to go have a cigarette,
and to the point, I realizedthat I was getting through a
pack of cigarettes in a day,which was funny because I was
like I'll go out there for likethat five, ten minutes and over
like two cigarettes real quick.
(10:04):
Or in the morning I'll wake upAnything to just get.
You know, I don't know to levelme off where the case was, and
I was extreme, and I knowthere's people out there who
have their survival vices, thatthey latch onto to be able to
get through the work, and that'sa problem, and we know this is
a problem, you know.
(10:25):
But what do you do to it?
What do you do about it?
What is the alternative?
And I'll be honest with you, itwasn't until like my second
year I noticed something, andevery couple of years I noticed
something.
My second year I had myprincipal.
(10:46):
I was like, listen, we needanother elective art selective
for our kids.
And because of my background infilm and media studies, he
asked me if I would teach a filmclass.
I was like, heck, yeah.
So I taught.
Actually, it was a digitalmedia class we talked about.
I taught broadcasting and basicvideography.
(11:07):
And in that space you know DeanLawrence, because I was the
dean at the time and I went byLawrence, my real name, and I
was like I was in heaven.
I was like whoa, I love this,you know, because I was in a
space that I didn't have tothink, it was so easy and so
(11:27):
free flowing for me.
And then I believe that's thesame year.
That spring, I started coachingtrack and field.
And again something I lovesports, and coaching again
something else that I got intothat it gave me an alternative.
And all of a sudden I'mteaching film.
So my brain had created a, youknow, like in a hard drive
(11:49):
partition where I got to spendtime with my students talking
about and engaging what I loved,and I love seeing their eyes
and their connecting to asubject that I love.
Then track and field and againI was already like pushing 300
pounds at this time.
And here I'm coaching track.
All of a sudden, I couldn't beunhealthy and engage my students
(12:15):
about something that requiredyou to be healthy and but I
didn't make the connection.
So, year after year, I would bedoing something that would, you
know, put me in that spacewhere I would all of a sudden
realize what I was passionateabout.
A couple of years later, Itaught another.
I think I did photography Thenall so I was realizing these
(12:37):
things and I'd be honest withyou, it wasn't until the
pandemic that I realized,whenever I was doing this
digital media, video creation,content creation, photography I
wasn't principle in Joku, Iwasn't Dean Lawrence.
I was in principle in Joku.
I was in assistant principle inJoku.
(12:57):
I was Uche, who loves tech, wholoves video, who loves creating
, who would sit in college forhours watching films and writing
papers and loving every momentof it.
You know, and I was like, whydoes those two things have to be
(13:18):
separate from each other?
Why can't my creative passionsbe infused into my leadership?
And that's and that's the thingthat we often miss.
We all have those things wherewe're passionate about.
It doesn't have to be createdin the creative spaces, Whether
(13:40):
it's sports, whether it'swhatever it is that you're just
like you.
Oh no, maybe you collect coinsand I know bottle caps, but
there was something about itthat Busts on the bot.
Calm to your brain.
That is needed in leadership,because often when you're a
school leader, you're Jugglingso many things.
(14:02):
You know you're engaging.
So come on now, if you'relistening to me right now, and
your principal assistant,principal Dean, a
high-performing teacher leader,and you are engaged with
families and kids.
I mean you, you've been cursedup by kids or you've been
maligned by parents or whateverthe case may be, or maybe even
your Superiors have come, comedown on you.
(14:24):
You know and and, and you knowyour blood pressure goes up,
your everything is happening,your emotions and everything
else.
What is the calm for you?
How do you escape from thosespaces?
And for me it's been this.
(14:45):
But then you might ask yourself,like, how do I, how do I bring
that creative space into what I,into work, and that's.
That's a hard part, but I cantell you, for me it's funny
because my podcast is primate.
I talk about what I do, youknow, because, listen, I'm not,
I won't be a capricret.
I do spend a lot of time,what's my time thinking about
(15:08):
work, but it's not just, it'snot work, it's my job, is work,
is this is who I am.
But, however, by doing thepodcast, by creating videos, by
by, I am, you know, teachinglike I'm about to Go on a
mission to build a Footy,functioning Photography, photo
(15:31):
job, photo journalism club at myschool is gonna be photo
journalism and I'm gonna putcameras in the hands of my
students and they're gonnadocument what's happening in the
school.
You know the events, theday-to-days, interviewing
students and just compiling asmuch content as possible so we
can document our journey, youknow, as a turnaround school.
(15:52):
You know, and again, whatstudents see me off the top most
of the time, walk around schoolto camera my hand.
I go to the classroom, doobservations, I'm taking
pictures of what's happening inthe classrooms, the work the
kids are doing.
You know life in a day of theschool, and so for me, this is
this is important data,Important content, because one
(16:13):
of the things we don't do ascoolies we don't document the
work that we're doing, we don'tdocument the journey.
You know we have, you know,photo ops here and there, but we
don't really document so we canlook back and say, wow, this
world, what happened?
So I'm doing that, you know,both for the, for the benefit of
my school, but I'm also doingit for for, from, also my
(16:33):
creative outlet, and and, andNot only that, now I'm also
better for my students, thosestudents who are gonna be part
of the photo journalism classwe're gonna be documenting as an
extension of this mission, tomake sure that we we record our
history.
But a great thing about this isthere are problems to be solved
(16:54):
in doing this for me, whichallows me to continue to
exercise my problems, myproblem-solving skills like this
morning I Couldn't forgetfigure how to get this out of
the work, and and so.
So right now it's in charge,isn't it's charging, you know?
But I sat here for about halfan hour trying to figure out why
is this not working?
(17:14):
But again, it wasn't a nuisance.
It was like, hmm, slow down,look at how everything's
connected was missing here.
And Often, as school leaders inour school spaces, we're
presenting with problems andwhat we do is we run straight to
the answer, we run right intothe fire.
(17:35):
And doing this, being allowmyself to be creative as well as
the school leaders has allowedme to infuse what I do in my
creative space into what I do asa leader.
I slow down and I ask myselfwhat am I not seeing here?
What is it that I need to do toensure I find the optimal
solution to the problem?
I Check the wires, I check onmy, on my staff.
(17:59):
I Am plug and reconnect.
I meet with them and talk withthem, but by feedback.
You see feedback, you seefeedback.
And I come up with a plan and Ipush, play and say, hey, did
this work?
Give me some time.
And I do the same thing with atschool.
I have a parent who's upset withme or who's irate.
(18:20):
Rather than running me andsaying, hey, let's engage right
now, say, listen, can we set upa time where people sit down and
talk about this?
So I want to make sure you havemy full attention, and rarely
do I get parents who say, no,they're like, okay, I have to go
to work.
Well, I wasn't there.
(18:41):
Listen, I meet them where theyare at Problem solving the
creative ways.
These are things that comes frombeing creative.
Often, complex problems requirecreative solutions, not complex
solutions, and so, whatever itis that you're passionate about,
(19:04):
find a way to make that thing apart of who you are, what you
do.
It would only benefit you.
And if you don't know what yourcreative outlet is, pick one.
I have a friend of mine whopicked up the camera recently
and has gone on a deep dive tounderstand photography, and I
(19:28):
know that it's impacting the waythey see the world.
Just putting that viewfinder toyour eye and looking through
that lens and what you see isvery powerful, because after a
while, you're not just takingpictures of spaces, you're
taking pictures of subjects, andthen you're translating what
(19:50):
you see into a language that theworld, hopefully, would
understand.
What you're trying to conveyLeadership, right, all right,
folks.
So find that thing if you don'talready have one that you can
be compassionate about.
That allows you to be creative,and if you're, like I'm, not a
(20:10):
creative person, learn, learn todraw, learn to play instrument.
Pick up a camera, collect,collect bottle caps, coins but
after a while, you start to seethe world that it's not just
about picking those things up.
It's about understanding whyit's this important.
What is it about this thingthat makes it so unique?
(20:35):
After a while, your brainstarts to move like that and
your leaders should become somuch more outstanding.
All right, folks, it's Uche andJoku.
Hopefully this got you thinkingand hopefully this will also
push you towards improving whoyou are day to day, but also
(20:55):
improving your leadership aswell.
Have an amazing day.
As many of you know, this is my passion right over
here, at least one of mypassions creating content and,
maybe more so, problem solvingaround my tech.
So this morning I was trying tofigure out how come my iPad
(00:24):
wouldn't turn on.
I did some rearranging ofequipment in here and I realized
that one of my hubs, which isdown here, rather than plug it
into my actual Mac mini, I hadto plug it back into itself.
So I couldn't figure out why Iwasn't getting any power which I
need to power my iPad, which ismy primary display for my notes
(00:49):
.
So today, in this episode ofthe SneakPrincipal Podcast, I
will be presenting my notes notin front of me but off to the
side, so I'm going to look allkinds of crazy looking away from
the camera, but you know,that's what makes this fun.
So let's talk about the powerof creativity as an outlet for
(01:16):
school leaders.
Let's go ahead and start thisepisode.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
When they see me, they know that every day, when
I'm breathing, it's for us to gofarther.
Every time I speak, I want thetruth to come out.
Every time I speak, I want toshiver.
I don't want them to be like.
They know what I'm going to saybecause it's polite.
They know what I'm going to sayand even if I get in trouble,
that ain't what we're supposedto do.
I'm not saying I'm going torule the world or I'm going to
(01:40):
change the world, but Iguarantee that I will spark the
brain that will change the world, and that's our job.
It's to spark somebody elsewatching us.
We might not be the ones, butlet's not be selfish.
And because we're not going tochange the world, let's not talk
about how we should change it.
I don't know how to change it,but I know.
If I keep talking about howdirty it is out here, somebody
going to clean it is the dustthat vá忍s that deck ofAve.
(02:02):
Oh, and now he's been promoted.
His job principle.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
It is some time around 535, 5,5 something.
I actually intended to startthis podcast episode much
earlier.
However, I just couldn't figureout how to turn on my iPad, so,
excuse me those of you who arelistening the intro this is a
(02:36):
video podcast, so you're hearingme speaking as though I'm
speaking to an audience on video, but I just couldn't get my
iPad to work.
And now it's finally working.
It's charging.
It's like completely dead, so Ican't, I won't be able to
utilize it until it's fullycharged up again.
But this episode I want to talkto you on this fine morning
(02:58):
about creative outlets and howit's so necessary for school
leaders and just leaders ingeneral.
If you're an ATAP person likeme, you can become super
obsessed with the work that youdo.
I've been doing this now forman.
I've been.
I've been a school leader for19 years.
(03:20):
I came into public education asDean, my first, my first day,
and people might say, well, deanis not quite a, it's not quite
school leader, but you arebecause you're handling all the
cultural aspects of the schooldiscipline and, depending where
you are, you might be it, youmight be the all out, the be all
(03:41):
say, all be all about whathappens within the school
culture, and I'm not going to bewith the authorization of your
principal, which I always had.
But I went from being a Deanand within four years I was in a
Bishop program and by my fifthyear I was an assistant
principal.
And fast forward to here I amprincipal, third school, and I
(04:05):
must tell you I love everymoment of what I do Like.
I love every moment of it, eventhe days that I'm just like.
Why am I doing this?
Even the fact that I left twice, but I still came back to what
I love.
And this is to put in schoolcommunities.
You know engaging with kids,their families, you know making
(04:28):
an impact in your lives.
But the problem and there is,there is a problem with what we
do in any school years.
Listening to this, I know youunderstand Sometimes not
sometimes, most often you getsuper absorbed and obsessed with
what you're doing.
And what I mean by absorbed andobsessed?
Because you are dealing withI'm sorry, I have to take a
(04:54):
quick pause.
I'm over here looking my lipsand and I have some blisters
over here.
I don't know, it's veryunprofessional, because you're
dealing with with for lives andI'm not going to say children,
I'm not going to say even peoplewith lives.
(05:15):
As a leader, yes, of course yourprimary responsibility of the
school is the children or thestudents in your school.
Then you have the teachers thatyou must support because
they're the first line ofdefense, they're the ones who
are in front of the kids everysingle day.
Then you have the families ofthose, of those of those
students that, depending whereyou are, they might be just as
needy as as the children.
(05:36):
So you're, you are the resourceto the community as well.
So you're supporting theteachers, you're supporting
children, their families, butonly that you might be the voice
of a critical voice within thecommunity as a whole.
So in all these differentplaces, you are more than just a
(05:58):
school leader.
And if you're, if you're reallyabout doing the work really well
, you find yourself pouring somuch of who you are Into your to
, into what you do every day.
And if you're like some of us,who everyone has your phone
number, guess what?
It doesn't ever turn off really, and and a lot of times, a lot
(06:19):
of us, we don't have the heartto say to put boundaries.
So we're like you know somepeople, like.
I know people.
I don't know how they do it.
They're like when I clock out aclock out, the world is shut.
That's me, but my things?
My phone goes off.
You know it's working at nightand it's a student.
I'm picking it up.
How are you?
You know the students family.
I'm picking it up, but why youcall me at 12 o'clock at night,
(06:40):
especially if we've made aconnection, especially seen it
often that child is with you fora number of years.
You get to know them very, verywell, get to know their
families.
If a teacher calls me atmidnight, I'm thinking like, oh
my God, what's going on?
Like it's all these things,whether it's a call or text
message, you're constantly on,but then only that, just the
operations of the school.
I'm not talking about, you know, let's all lights off.
(07:01):
I'm talking about test scoresand curriculum and what are we
doing?
And outcomes in graduation andmy kids gonna be ready for the
next level, whether it's goingfrom elementary school to middle
school, middle school to highschool, high school, the college
, jobs, careers.
I mean, I've been doing it solong that I have former students
of mine who are Colleagues now,who are working in education,
(07:24):
and I'm looking at them like,wow, this, like you know.
So you can't help me completelyto be, to easily be completely
consumed by what we do.
But the dangerous part of thisis you Become so one-sided and
you give one of the things thatmake them meet you who you are,
(07:47):
if that makes any sense, becauseoften I meet, I come across not
at, not me, I know because I'mthese are my colleagues, school
leaders who are so Locked in towhat we do that nothing else
matters.
And that does concern meBecause it leads to burnout,
(08:11):
where all of a sudden, you,you're like your brain, it's
like can't see anything else butwhat you do.
You know.
And, um, I've been there.
I've been there to the pointwhere, where it took over my
health or not even took over myhealth, it became the the
downfall of my health, becausemy eating schedule, my, my sleep
(08:36):
schedule, is all locked intowork, so I would not eat
throughout the whole entire dayand only eat out.
I mean literally, literally Eatin the car going home.
You know, I leave workMcDonald's and I'll literally be
in the car eating two, threecheeseburgers.
I was so starved, I was sostarved of new nutrition and I'm
(08:57):
eating McDonald's or whatever Ican get my hands on, comes all
over my shirt, all my belly,because I won't point time.
Like you guys know, I was like350 pounds and I was just so,
like you know, ravenous becauseI was so hungry.
Throughout the day my braindidn't see anything else other
than work.
There were days where I'd belike man I didn't go to the
(09:19):
bathroom today and Holding itall day and I even to the point
where your brain justautomatically knows that I don't
go to the bathroom.
That's common human things tobe supposed to be doing.
We don't do.
And then we think and we don'trealize how unhealthy that is To
all these things I was doing.
Or then, god, I stopped Earlyon.
(09:43):
I became a chain smoker Becauseit's stress levels, so I would
take my breaks.
Rather than getting to eat oreven getting fluids in my body,
I would step outside thebuilding to go have a cigarette,
and to the point, I realizedthat I was getting through a
pack of cigarettes in a day,which was funny because I was
like I'll go out there for likethat five, ten minutes and over
like two cigarettes real quick.
(10:04):
Or in the morning I'll wake upAnything to just get.
You know, I don't know to levelme off where the case was, and
I was extreme, and I knowthere's people out there who
have their survival vices, thatthey latch onto to be able to
get through the work, and that'sa problem, and we know this is
a problem, you know.
(10:25):
But what do you do to it?
What do you do about it?
What is the alternative?
And I'll be honest with you, itwasn't until like my second
year I noticed something, andevery couple of years I noticed
something.
My second year I had myprincipal.
(10:46):
I was like, listen, we needanother elective art selective
for our kids.
And because of my background infilm and media studies, he
asked me if I would teach a filmclass.
I was like, heck, yeah.
So I taught.
Actually, it was a digitalmedia class we talked about.
I taught broadcasting and basicvideography.
(11:07):
And in that space you know DeanLawrence, because I was the
dean at the time and I went byLawrence, my real name, and I
was like I was in heaven.
I was like whoa, I love this,you know, because I was in a
space that I didn't have tothink, it was so easy and so
(11:27):
free flowing for me.
And then I believe that's thesame year.
That spring, I started coachingtrack and field.
And again something I lovesports, and coaching again
something else that I got intothat it gave me an alternative.
And all of a sudden I'mteaching film.
So my brain had created a, youknow, like in a hard drive
(11:49):
partition where I got to spendtime with my students talking
about and engaging what I loved,and I love seeing their eyes
and their connecting to asubject that I love.
Then track and field and againI was already like pushing 300
pounds at this time.
And here I'm coaching track.
All of a sudden, I couldn't beunhealthy and engage my students
(12:15):
about something that requiredyou to be healthy and but I
didn't make the connection.
So, year after year, I would bedoing something that would, you
know, put me in that spacewhere I would all of a sudden
realize what I was passionateabout.
A couple of years later, Itaught another.
I think I did photography Thenall so I was realizing these
(12:37):
things and I'd be honest withyou, it wasn't until the
pandemic that I realized,whenever I was doing this
digital media, video creation,content creation, photography I
wasn't principle in Joku, Iwasn't Dean Lawrence.
I was in principle in Joku.
I was in assistant principle inJoku.
(12:57):
I was Uche, who loves tech, wholoves video, who loves creating
, who would sit in college forhours watching films and writing
papers and loving every momentof it.
You know, and I was like, whydoes those two things have to be
(13:18):
separate from each other?
Why can't my creative passionsbe infused into my leadership?
And that's and that's the thingthat we often miss.
We all have those things wherewe're passionate about.
It doesn't have to be createdin the creative spaces, Whether
(13:40):
it's sports, whether it'swhatever it is that you're just
like you.
Oh no, maybe you collect coinsand I know bottle caps, but
there was something about itthat Busts on the bot.
Calm to your brain.
That is needed in leadership,because often when you're a
school leader, you're Jugglingso many things.
(14:02):
You know you're engaging.
So come on now, if you'relistening to me right now, and
your principal assistant,principal Dean, a
high-performing teacher leader,and you are engaged with
families and kids.
I mean you, you've been cursedup by kids or you've been
maligned by parents or whateverthe case may be, or maybe even
your Superiors have come, comedown on you.
(14:24):
You know and and, and you knowyour blood pressure goes up,
your everything is happening,your emotions and everything
else.
What is the calm for you?
How do you escape from thosespaces?
And for me it's been this.
(14:45):
But then you might ask yourself,like, how do I, how do I bring
that creative space into what I,into work, and that's.
That's a hard part, but I cantell you, for me it's funny
because my podcast is primate.
I talk about what I do, youknow, because, listen, I'm not,
I won't be a capricret.
I do spend a lot of time,what's my time thinking about
(15:08):
work, but it's not just, it'snot work, it's my job, is work,
is this is who I am.
But, however, by doing thepodcast, by creating videos, by
by, I am, you know, teachinglike I'm about to Go on a
mission to build a Footy,functioning Photography, photo
(15:31):
job, photo journalism club at myschool is gonna be photo
journalism and I'm gonna putcameras in the hands of my
students and they're gonnadocument what's happening in the
school.
You know the events, theday-to-days, interviewing
students and just compiling asmuch content as possible so we
can document our journey, youknow, as a turnaround school.
(15:52):
You know, and again, whatstudents see me off the top most
of the time, walk around schoolto camera my hand.
I go to the classroom, doobservations, I'm taking
pictures of what's happening inthe classrooms, the work the
kids are doing.
You know life in a day of theschool, and so for me, this is
this is important data,Important content, because one
(16:13):
of the things we don't do ascoolies we don't document the
work that we're doing, we don'tdocument the journey.
You know we have, you know,photo ops here and there, but we
don't really document so we canlook back and say, wow, this
world, what happened?
So I'm doing that, you know,both for the, for the benefit of
my school, but I'm also doingit for for, from, also my
(16:33):
creative outlet, and and, andNot only that, now I'm also
better for my students, thosestudents who are gonna be part
of the photo journalism classwe're gonna be documenting as an
extension of this mission, tomake sure that we we record our
history.
But a great thing about this isthere are problems to be solved
(16:54):
in doing this for me, whichallows me to continue to
exercise my problems, myproblem-solving skills like this
morning I Couldn't forgetfigure how to get this out of
the work, and and so.
So right now it's in charge,isn't it's charging, you know?
But I sat here for about halfan hour trying to figure out why
is this not working?
(17:14):
But again, it wasn't a nuisance.
It was like, hmm, slow down,look at how everything's
connected was missing here.
And Often, as school leaders inour school spaces, we're
presenting with problems andwhat we do is we run straight to
the answer, we run right intothe fire.
(17:35):
And doing this, being allowmyself to be creative as well as
the school leaders has allowedme to infuse what I do in my
creative space into what I do asa leader.
I slow down and I ask myselfwhat am I not seeing here?
What is it that I need to do toensure I find the optimal
solution to the problem?
I Check the wires, I check onmy, on my staff.
(17:59):
I Am plug and reconnect.
I meet with them and talk withthem, but by feedback.
You see feedback, you seefeedback.
And I come up with a plan and Ipush, play and say, hey, did
this work?
Give me some time.
And I do the same thing with atschool.
I have a parent who's upset withme or who's irate.
(18:20):
Rather than running me andsaying, hey, let's engage right
now, say, listen, can we set upa time where people sit down and
talk about this?
So I want to make sure you havemy full attention, and rarely
do I get parents who say, no,they're like, okay, I have to go
to work.
Well, I wasn't there.
(18:41):
Listen, I meet them where theyare at Problem solving the
creative ways.
These are things that comes frombeing creative.
Often, complex problems requirecreative solutions, not complex
solutions, and so, whatever itis that you're passionate about,
(19:04):
find a way to make that thing apart of who you are, what you
do.
It would only benefit you.
And if you don't know what yourcreative outlet is, pick one.
I have a friend of mine whopicked up the camera recently
and has gone on a deep dive tounderstand photography, and I
(19:28):
know that it's impacting the waythey see the world.
Just putting that viewfinder toyour eye and looking through
that lens and what you see isvery powerful, because after a
while, you're not just takingpictures of spaces, you're
taking pictures of subjects, andthen you're translating what
(19:50):
you see into a language that theworld, hopefully, would
understand.
What you're trying to conveyLeadership, right, all right,
folks.
So find that thing if you don'talready have one that you can
be compassionate about.
That allows you to be creative,and if you're, like I'm, not a
(20:10):
creative person, learn, learn todraw, learn to play instrument.
Pick up a camera, collect,collect bottle caps, coins but
after a while, you start to seethe world that it's not just
about picking those things up.
It's about understanding whyit's this important.
What is it about this thingthat makes it so unique?
(20:35):
After a while, your brainstarts to move like that and
your leaders should become somuch more outstanding.
All right, folks, it's Uche andJoku.
Hopefully this got you thinkingand hopefully this will also
push you towards improving whoyou are day to day, but also
(20:55):
improving your leadership aswell.
Have an amazing day.
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