GAEL UnscriptED
GAEL UnscriptED, the podcast that goes beyond the headlines and handbooks to bring you unfiltered insights from Georgia’s top educational leaders, innovators, and changemakers. Hosted by Ben Wiggins, Executive Director of GAEL, this show dives deep into the challenges, opportunities, and unexpected twists that shape education today.
From leadership strategies to policy discussions—and everything in between—GAEL UnscriptED is your go-to source for candid conversations that make an impact. No scripts. No fluff. Just real talk from those leading the way in Georgia’s schools.
GAEL UnscriptED
Beyond the Classroom: Why Leadership Networks Matter
GAEL Unscripted debuts with an inside look at the Summer GAEL Conference, where over 1,400 education leaders gathered to strengthen Georgia's schools through professional learning, networking, and family engagement opportunities. Ben Wiggins is joined by Dusty Smith, GAEL COO, and Ivy Young, GAEL Member & Sponsor Engagement Coordinator, to reflect on the summer conference and celebrate what is to come!
What makes this conference unique? The perfect blend of professional development and family time. While educational leaders engage in packed breakout sessions and meaningful conversations with state policymakers (including the Governor and education committee chairs), their families enjoy specially designed activities. From the 4-H-sponsored Oceans of Fun program for children to evening events like waterpark night, dueling pianos, and spectacular fireworks, the conference creates meaningful connections between educational families across the state.
Behind these enriching experiences stands an impressive network of educational partners. With 129 vendors participating this year, these partnerships make it possible to maintain affordable registration costs despite rising expenses. Vendors consistently praise GAEL members for their genuine engagement, creating relationships that strengthen Georgia's educational ecosystem.
Beyond the annual gathering, GAEL has expanded professional learning opportunities to address critical leadership shortages. The data is clear - districts with higher Gale membership show stronger performance metrics. Through initiatives like the Aspiring Principals Academy, New Principal Institute, and affiliate-led professional development, GAEL is building leadership capacity throughout Georgia.
This podcast represents GAEL's latest innovation in professional learning. Each week, we'll bring you 20-30 minutes of practical wisdom, relevant takeaways, and fun stories. Whether you're a seasoned superintendent or aspiring administrator, these conversations will provide actionable insights to strengthen your leadership. Subscribe today and join us every Monday for a new episode of GAEL Unscripted!
Welcome to Gale Unscripted, where leadership meets learning and real conversations drive real impact. I'm Ben Wiggins, executive Director of Gale. Join us as we go beyond the headlines with Georgia's top education leaders. Let's elevate the conversation. Welcome, gale members, to the first episode of Gail Unscripted. We're so happy to have you today and I've got two guests here with me from our Gail staff. I know almost all of you, I'm sure know, but just in case you're new, you may not. So we're going to start with Ivy and let her introduce herself a little bit and then move over to Dusty.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Yeah, I'm Ivy Young. I'm the member and sponsor engagement coordinator for Gale.
Speaker 3:Dusty Smith, the chief operating officer for Gale so all right.
Speaker 1:Well, we just got back from a fantastic Summer Gale conference. But before we get into that we wanted to just kind of introduce our podcast called Gale Unscripted Ivy. This was kind of your idea to start a podcast. Why don't we tell the audience how we kind of came up with this idea, the reasons that we decided to do a podcast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was a group effort idea. You really wanted to do it too, but we have been playing around with ideas on how to engage our younger memberships, specifically our up-and-coming millennial-aged leaders as well, as give another opportunity to engage with our wider membership base outside of the conferences. And then a little more handy and on-the-go, so podcasts sort of fit the bill for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we thought about it. It would be a great opportunity to get all of our affiliates involved, all the different job titles and roles in education leadership, and be able to get out front and connect with our audience on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2:You're doing it once a week on Monday mornings, outside of a couple of holidays throughout the year, so we are excited to make around 45, 48 podcasts this year and we've already started.
Speaker 1:Yeah we've already got about 20 that are recorded and in the vault and are ready to go. We've been learning this process. Our technical skills have improved tremendously from our first attempt until now.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But we certainly appreciate all of you joining us and we hope to have that out next Monday, august the 4th, and you are watching a Gale Unscripted podcast. Well, let's talk about Summer Gale Dusty. Why don't we start with you? We had well over 1,400 attendees, had lots of vendors. Why don't you give a couple of highlights of what stood out to you from the Summer Gale Conference?
Speaker 3:I think the main highlight, ben, that we had at this summer and it's kind of become a trend that has increased is the engagement of our members and our attendees that stay till the end. We have a phenomenal speaker that closes out every conference, every Gale conference. It's Phil Hartley with Pierre Kirby, kinzinger and Gwen.
Speaker 1:That's impressive. You did that. That's good, that's really good.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean it makes sense, but Phil closes out the conferences for us and in the last few years we've seen staggering numbers increase to stay for those events and I think we had well over 800 people probably in the room Tuesday afternoon when we closed out the conference of the 1,400 that you mentioned.
Speaker 1:It's a great point. I noticed in the professional learning I know Cindy Flesher and I talked about that our membership now is much more engaged in those breakout sessions. We've noticed that over the years and our afternoon sessions are packed and one of the things we got back from our survey the feedback is our members really enjoy the breakout sessions and they've asked for more.
Speaker 3:And I think some of that could go to our members' credit. You know we have sent out a needs survey and tried to figure out things that we can do that they are requesting and need to see, and Cindy's done a great job of filling those needs and making sure people get meat instead of nothing at the conference.
Speaker 1:That's right. I mean, we're two weeks out from the conference. We've already gotten our survey data back. We've already met as a staff and talked about what worked really well, what we would like to improve and, most importantly, what our members would like for us to change or add into the conference. I think that's just a great thing about the Gale staff is just that hunger for wanting to make the summer conference be the absolute best it can be.
Speaker 3:One of the other things at the conference that we had was not only great attendance by our members and the conference attendees, but our vendors were really big and supportive Probably the largest group of vendors we've had that have been around at a conference, and Ivy could probably add a little more to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Why don't you talk a little bit?
Speaker 1:about the vendors and why are vendors important?
Speaker 2:Well, for so many reasons, the biggest one for our membership why vendors are important is their presence helps us keep the cost down, and Dusty could really elaborate more on the finance side of that benefit if you want to.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, it's just simple. With having sponsors and members, we're able to keep the cost the same we have for the past several years, even with staggering increases in food cost, venue cost, speaker cost, hotel cost. Just the cost of putting on a conference now as it was five years ago is nearly double.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm sure our leaders that are watching this podcast they can understand. School nutrition has gone up. The cost of fuel for transportation, every cost related to school districts have gone up, so of course the cost of conferences have and the partners that Ivy's going to kind of talk about and highlight is what has enabled Gale to keep the price of the summer conference without raising those prices for the last several years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. This year we had, I would say, record number of companies in the building. This year we had, I would say, record number of companies in the building 129 registered companies were there. Not all of them exhibited with an actual booth, but the majority did. There were probably 10 that did not, that were just there walking around greeting Bowen Grad being one of those that you see friendly faces in the hallway saying hey to everybody. But we had a lot of new sponsors and new exhibitors the first time to any Gale Expo Hall and conference.
Speaker 2:And I want to highlight one of them gave me a quote this year and some of these you can see on social media. We got several great quotes from our members that attended the conference but also some vendors. But Keita Asbell said the Gale conference was the best conference of the year for us. We were so impressed with the organization of the entire event, the traffic through our booths and the interaction with all of the participants. We will be back again next year. So a little off script for some of the conversations I had with the exhibitors was they bragged tremendously on our members for their intentionality and genuine conversations that they had with the attendees, with the exhibitors I mean and that was a popular comment to me walking around the expo from our vendors, which is great, because I don't think a lot of genuine conversations or intentionality happen at other conferences. I don't know, I don't go so I'm biased, but they were so impressed with our membership, so that's great and a huge compliment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the feedback we get is how engaging our members are and how much they appreciate coming into the halls and booths and meeting with those vendors. And again, that's what keeps our vendors happy, so that they stay involved where we can keep the prices at the same level.
Speaker 3:With those prices staying at the same level. We've also been able to add things to the conference the last few years. We've added due to some sponsorships and some help from outside sources and companies. We added the dueling pianos. There was probably 1,000 people there, a lot of kids.
Speaker 2:A lot of kids.
Speaker 3:A lot of kids. My children enjoyed it. A lot of kids. We added the water park probably five or six years ago. It's been a great hit. I mean probably record numbers this year. I don't know exactly how many, but it was it had to be at least 800 or 900.
Speaker 1:It was a lot Easily. It was a lot, yeah. Why don't you talk about why that's important, or why we feel it's important for our educational leaders to be able to come to a conference at a place like Jekyll Island and be able to spend quality time not only with their colleagues from around the state but with their families? We're very intentional about our after-conference evening activities to include those families and children.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think not to correct you, but I think there's stuff in the conference too.
Speaker 1:That includes the things. Oh well, we'll get to that in a minute. Let's just stick with the after the conference. You are 100% right.
Speaker 3:After the conference there are things that you know we do the water park, we do the dueling pianos and kids are involved in all that. It does a couple of things. I think I saw people that may have worked together as assistant principals in one district or their kids kind of knew each other, that they become, you know, every year is a reunion for those children, even you know. An example would be the Branch and Brown kids. Jason Branch told me his oldest son spent the weekend with the Browns at their place, kind of something that they just only get to do at Jekyll Island. That's right, so it's kind of neat for that.
Speaker 3:But I think that kids coming allows parents to say I can go to this conference, my family can be a part of this conference, we can have family time. We're done every day by 4 o'clock. We got that afternoon. We have an event that night. Usually water park starts at six. Dueling Piano starts after the Low Country Bowl, which is also a family friendly event that they can go have some time with their kids, go to the pool, go to the beach. I know we probably don't need to advertise that that happens, but it does. I mean they go have an all-day sit and get learning and then spend some time with their family and then come back together with the Gale family.
Speaker 1:I think it's important for our children of educational leaders. I mean sometimes being the son or daughter of a middle school principal may not be the highlight of your life and that's a tough role sometimes for the educational leaders' children in that community, when their mom or dad is the leader and sometimes has to make really hard decisions. I think it's important to have that network of friends, both for the educational leaders and the spouses, but also for those children They've got someone that's kind of in the same unique situation as they are. I think that's very important.
Speaker 3:Also for our new people that have just come out of the classroom that are APs. They've given up a significant amount of the time that they would have had with their children during the summer with their children during the summer, and this allows them to have that one comeback together family event. You know, I've experienced that in my own family, my wife transitioning from a teacher to an assistant principal, she spends a lot more time at the school during the summer than she used to. So my kids enjoyed going to Jekyll because they got their mom back for a couple hours.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's a great point. Well, let's talk about, maybe, some of the sponsors that make those things, or partners that make those things, capable of us doing those. Let's talk about the sponsors for the Low Country Bowl, the dueling pianos, the water park and the fireworks.
Speaker 3:So Low Country Bowl goes without remiss, saying that our most long-time loyal sponsor, Corbridge Financial, with Alan Thomas being kind of the grand poobah of that group and event, has been a really it's. I've been working for Gale for 17 years and Alan was here long before me Long before.
Speaker 3:And so was the Low Country Bowl at Summer Gale, I think at one point in time it used to be a private event that they invited people and I think they just said you know what? We want to invite everyone, let's do it at the convention center, let's have it for everyone, and we've been able to keep that and, due to their sponsorship, we invite everyone. Every attendee gets a ticket and we keep the cost relatively low for the attendees spouses and children to come as well. The Dueling Pianos this year we had a few not new sponsors, but we did have. Syntegics came on board and sponsored that this year with us, thanks to Daniel Dooley and Jay Floyd.
Speaker 3:We had American Fidelity was the other main sponsor of that event.
Speaker 1:So just on that Sunday night, the Low Country Bowl, the dueling pianos, we couldn't do that without those partners.
Speaker 2:Well, and one other thing that probably goes a little unnoticed, at least to those of us that walk to the convention center Parish Construction does a golf cart shuttle from the parking lot, and while we've never had to park on the other end and walk down there, I know.
Speaker 1:It's way out there.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is hot, it is far, so they bring several golf carts, they do. And they shuttle people back and forth from the parking lot to the convention center. All through the conference, oh, yeah, yeah, all day long. They've got some of their young guys out there I mean absolutely who are just working for us to get people back and forth to their cars. That's right. And they also sponsor the reception.
Speaker 1:They do.
Speaker 2:So I mean they're a big part of our Sunday too.
Speaker 1:Huge part, huge part. Well, let's talk about the water park and the fireworks on Monday night. That is a huge attraction for our families and children. Talk about the partners that make that possible.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I guess two years now, right? The University of West Georgia has sponsored and presented the Family Fun Night at the Water Park. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to be there, but they show out, they've got tents, they've got fun sunglasses and all sorts of goodies and are absolutely just having a ball with all the kids at the water park.
Speaker 1:And basically give pay to rent out the entire water park. So, everyone else leaves, they close it down for Gale.
Speaker 3:Everyone there could get a hamburger and a hot dog too, that's right Unlimited Eat all you want. And then Paige comes along every year or the last few years, several years, and has done an awesome fireworks show for us. They really did At the conclusion of the night.
Speaker 1:They really did. If you haven't seen the fireworks at Summer Gale, they're on par with Disney. I mean they are not your typical July 4th fireworks. I mean it is a show.
Speaker 3:It's pretty cool to see all the people. I stepped back this year and looked at all the people in the wave pool, I guess watching fireworks.
Speaker 2:And it's always fun to get text messages too, from people on the other side of the island that are having like a social or a dinner with their family and they're like, we really love these fireworks. Thank you, gail, for providing those. So that's not Gail, that's Paige, and we are so, so thankful for them doing that for us too. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's so fun to see those educational leaders that are all dressed up. When you normally see them, they're in their business attire and at the water park they're going down the slide with their five-year-old. It is awesome, and sometimes even a Gale employee will go down the water slide with some of the children of our families. I've seen some Gale staff do that Volunteer to do that.
Speaker 3:Desire to do that.
Speaker 2:That is the highlight of.
Speaker 3:Ivy's year is to go down the water park.
Speaker 2:It is the highlight of my year All right.
Speaker 1:Well, are there any other partners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a couple Coca-Cola and Dusty, I'll let you take it away. You've been working with Don Osborne for a long time.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, we couldn't do the conference. We talk about cost early on. I mean Coke, providing the soft drinks and water at Summer and Winter Gale is an astronomical savings because people don't understand what these convention centers can and do. Charge for soft drinks or a bottle of water. To have those donated to us really, really allows us to keep those costs down. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And then also American Book Company has partnered with us the past several years to do all of our graphics for the conference. So the front of the program, the name badges, which we have upgraded, and you know I've heard nothing but good things about having the schedule in the back so people don't have to worry about keeping up with their program the whole time. The lanyards I'm trying to think what else they go above and beyond their graphics team does to help us.
Speaker 1:Well, they taught us how to do a podcast.
Speaker 2:They did, that is true.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Lorenzo with.
Speaker 2:American Book Company, and thank you, devin, for letting us utilize your media staff, because they have been incredible to work with and have really helped us elevate, I think, the feel of Gale and the look of things.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So one thing I want to say this year that happened two years ago at Summer Gale, but it seemed to be really a hit and that's the Tuesday T-shirts oh yes, sponsored by Varsity Brands. That was amazing, I think the people like the T-shirts I did.
Speaker 2:I like them.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you've been at a conference, you're leaving, it is summertime, it is hot, it's humid, and now they've got to drive home on that Tuesday for the most of them, if they're not staying for Wednesday's PO session. So we thought it would be a great idea to do a T-shirt, and the people really seem to love that. When we had that, speaker.
Speaker 3:We talked about closing out the conference. Yeah, Unbutton his dress. Shirt from the stage and don a Gale Conference T-shirt. It was awesome. That speaks volumes, and thank you, Phil, for doing that. It may have been a challenge that I put forth to him early on. When I handed him a shirt, I said I expect to see it on you on Tuesday and he kind of scoffed a little bit, but to see him actually do that meant something Very powerful, very powerful Also at the conference, throughout the whole conference.
Speaker 3:we would be remiss to include with cost 4-H. Provides breakfast on Monday morning. Yes, and back to those children the oceans of fun. I mean that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Talk about that. Tell our listeners what that is. They've got young children. They're thinking, okay, I heard about the events at night. They're family friendly. But you know, my spouse, if they go with me at this conference, what are the kids going to have to do that day besides hang out at the beach?
Speaker 3:So I think the ages are I'm pretty confident of this is from 8 until 14. And there are activities that I can't even list them all. There's pages of activities that they do for those kids all day long during the conference, from seining to kayaking, to art, to I think they do a baking class or a cooking class.
Speaker 2:They've done cooking classes.
Speaker 3:I mean there's all kinds of things.
Speaker 2:It is a lot, a lot of options.
Speaker 3:4-H is a huge deal with that, and the Jekyll Island 4-H camp and center becomes the hub for Oceans of Fun. So it's really a yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you're a family and you've got children those ages, you can drop those kids off in the morning while your conference is beginning, right there at the convention center, and they basically take them and provide them with an excellent camp experience for those two full days at no cost.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and it's funny seeing them come back. I don't know if you all have walked down to the end of the hallway. When they come back with the kids, they are all so happy but they are all so tired. I overheard one kid this year telling his mom I'm just ready to go to the hotel and get a shower and it's just so much joy on all their faces. I also was told that 4-H ran into a really good problem this year where they actually needed more staff for all the Oceans of Fun. So, moving forward, I think they're going to have more in store.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, and 4-H, they're phenomenal. Like you said, they feed breakfast one morning For the entire conference, including all the vendors.
Speaker 3:I mean it's everyone that's there. I think it's one of our recent hires' favorite restaurants from Brunswick. I think Raylan's a big fan of Grandy's sometimes.
Speaker 1:We hired a new employee that had been an intern with us for a number of years from right there near Jekyll, Brunswick, Georgia. She's a Brunswick Pirate grad. Oh right, yes, she is. And her high school principal was there at the conference and a fellow Brunswick grad sang the national anthem for us Cool.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Also at Summer Gale. We have some special things that we do. We highlight some people. So, ben, you want to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we highlight some people. So, ben, you want to. Yeah, we give out awards. You know each affiliate picks a certain person from their organization to honor the summer conference. And then the hugest honor that the Gale organization gives is the HM Fulbright Award and this year that went to Dr Mark Scott, who's the retiring superintendent of Houston County Schools.
Speaker 1:And Mark has been a longtime Gale member. He's served on the Gale board, he's been a member of at least three affiliates that I know of. But maybe his legendary status when it comes to Gale will be that, you know, during COVID and when everyone was fearful of the economic situation, mark was kind of the one that came up with the idea of a bulk registration membership for a live feed because we weren't able to have summer Gale down on the island that year. And Mark has been a tremendous example and leader of making sure that all of his educational leaders in Houston County are members of Gale and the appropriate affiliate. On average Mark will bring 100 people educational leaders or more to the summer conference.
Speaker 1:He's got his people at every level district and school level involved in professional learning At every level district and school level involved in professional learning, even though they do a tremendous job in Houston County with their leadership development program. He sees the wisdom in engaging his educational leaders, both current and prospective, in being involved in the Gale organization and the affiliates organization and the affiliates, and I think that just speaks volumes to the pipeline that Houston County has for their leadership and why they have so much continuity. So we honored Mark for a lot of different reasons, but that may be the thing that he is most well remembered for. Cindy Flesher introduced him that day and she asked all the people in the audience to stand up if they had ever worked for Mark or with Mark during his career, and it looked like at least 25% of the room stood up, whether they're at Houston County or had been previously at Houston County. But it was pretty incredible to see the impact that he's had.
Speaker 3:That bulk registration idea has also created another avenue for us that we're really pushing for membership for everyone and that's to be a member of your professional organization to learn. We're here to help to assist in many, many ways. If you have an issue with your finances and your bookkeeper needs help, we're going to try to help there. Finances and your bookkeeper needs help, we're going to try to help there. All the other PL opportunities and it goes into something I'm not as familiar with not being an educator, but Ben would that we're currently talking about and that's Gale membership helping people become better principals to do things.
Speaker 1:There's been just a huge vacuum of leadership in the state of Georgia, not just Georgia, all over the United States. But you know the superintendent turnover gets all the attention but it's at district level, whether it's federal programs, human resources, cfos, with finance at the school level, from principals, assistant principals, human resources it's everywhere. And that's why it's so vitally important, we believe, to have our school districts get their educational leaders involved in their professional organization. We just went by the time this airs it will have been a week before this airs, we were at the Senate basically charged Dr Jody Barrett, the PSC, to think of a way to improve both teacher and leader recruitment and retention, and so we'd been looking at a lot of data and at that meeting we shared that. We went and looked at the top 20 districts rated by CCRPI with the GOSA rankings. Of that top 20 districts, the Gale membership is so much higher than some of the other districts. We've got approximately 3,000 members in Gale. We've got approximately 3,000 members in Gale. Based on FTE, if the membership for the entire state was as strong as it is for those top 20 districts, we would have easily 6,000 members.
Speaker 1:You know, be a Mark Scott, be someone that's building that next pipeline of leaders. When I think of Mark, it's not just for Houston County. No, the superintendent right next door in Peach County came from Houston County. No, the superintendent right next door in Peach County came from Houston County, and that's a direct result of both Mark and Dr Robin Hines before him. But just everything that we do to help build our leadership, whether it benefits our own district or district next door, we're all in this together in public K-12. And when it comes to teacher recruitment and retention, we all know that people don't leave jobs, they leave leaders, and so it's vitally important for us to make sure that we're providing meaningful, engaging professional development for those current and aspiring leaders in our state.
Speaker 3:And I think that's something that we have ramped up in the last year, or more than that is the PL opportunities that we provide for those new leaders to those new positions. I mean, I guess they could be an old leader in a new position and still need some help, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, just like in the new principal institute, you know the vast majority of them are in year one but some of them are in year two and year three, and so think of the knowledge that those that are in year two and three are able to share with those principals in year one From maybe some of the mistakes or lessons that they learned in their first year. But that's what Gail's always been about, that professional networking along with the professional development. So, like you say, we've really tried to be intentional about expanding our professional learning opportunities. The Aspiring Principals Academy now has a North Georgia cohort and a South Georgia cohort. We've just started the new Principal Institute. We have over 50 people signed up for that course. We had our first meeting on the Wednesday after Summer.
Speaker 1:Gale, we think that's going to continue to grow. Many of our affiliates are doing a great job with year-long programs of their leaders GCase with new special ed administrators, gaspa with new HR administrators, gasis with new curriculum directors. You know the Superintendent Association had been doing that for years but now and Gale had always had an aspiring principals program. But you can really see Gail and the affiliates really embracing that and building up this next generation of leaders.
Speaker 3:On that same thing, ben. One thing we forgot a special kind of guest, if you wish. It's an organization that we had at the conference and this is the second year we've had them On Wednesday. We have a group of leaders that come for more than just a mandated state mandated meeting. The State Board of Education comes, but now they're coming for the entire conference. They do. That speaks volumes for us to have those people come to see what our membership and our attendees are getting at, and we even had some legislative attendance there. We did. Our membership and our attendees are getting at and we even had some legislative attendance there we did.
Speaker 1:So you got all your state board members there that represent different districts all over the state, so our members are able to engage with them they want to be engaged with. We had both the chair of the Senate Education Committee, billy Hickman, and the chair of the House Education Committee, chris Irwin, at the Gale Summer Conference. Of course, governor Kemp came again and gave a great message and also joined us for a little reception right before the past president's dinner as soon as our Gale board meeting ended. So it's a great opportunity for our GIL members to come and rub elbows and have meaningful conversations with the people that are leading the charge for education, making huge decisions under the gold dome. Right, yeah, incredible.
Speaker 1:We do a webinar with DOE every year. Last year's it was focused on literacy. I'm sure we'll have more of that this year. Cindy Flesher kind of heads up all of our professional learning. Another thing that we offer is the Crucial Conversations training that Cindy does. She is a certified trainer for Crucial Conversations, so if you're a district out there or a RESA that would like for Cindy to come and provide that, get in touch and she would love to do that.
Speaker 3:I think one of the goals of this podcast too and I'm jumping in here, I think I don't know if Ivy may have stole this or not, or I stole it from her is that we are going to have and have some leaders that may have some tips or some ideas or some stories that will help. So the podcast is a way of increased and different professional learning for our people.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's going to be an ease of access, in a way.
Speaker 1:How long are our podcasts usually?
Speaker 2:20 to 30 minutes max is what we're running right now, and we did that purposefully.
Speaker 1:We wanted to keep it short, somewhat brief, but enough time to really give some good nuggets of wisdom. Short, somewhat brief, but enough time to really give some good nuggets of wisdom. I just listened to the one that's going to be our first podcast, again the other day and even as a former high school principal, listening to that, there were three things that I wish I would have known while I was a high school principal, because I would have stolen all three of those ideas Absolutely. And I think that stolen all three of those ideas Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I think that's the purpose of the podcast. You know, and what we really want is for our members, regardless of their job, to watch and or listen to the podcast, especially if it's jobs that they think is unrelated to theirs. You know, you need to understand the human resources, regardless if you're an assistant principal or a principal. They're so critical and you need to know how to have those investigations and just all the things. So we really hope that our members will enjoy hearing from some really good veteran leaders throughout our state that are going to share some tidbits of wisdom and sometimes it's even some lessons that they've learned from some struggles or failures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And before we wrap up, because you know, with the exception of this episode, the rest of them are going to be around that 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:Are you telling me we went over?
Speaker 2:Well, we are already at 32 minutes.
Speaker 1:We're about to wrap up we are Just real quick.
Speaker 2:we are also bolstering our social media right now, so do go and give us a follow there. We're going to be on Twitter, instagram, facebook and soon to be on TikTok. We have a great intern that is a proud graduate of Colquitt County High School.
Speaker 1:Oh, look at that Moultrie.
Speaker 2:Yes, so her name is Grace. She is working on that right now, so follow us there. We're Georgia Association of Educational Leaders on Facebook, on Twitter, instagram and TikTok. We're going to be at GailASSOC. So that's G-A-E-L-A-S-S-O-C. Awesome, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, we thank you for joining us today and I hope you enjoyed this first little taste of our podcast and we'll kick it off. Starting the following week, You'll be getting a weekly episode of Gale Unscripted. Thank you.
