GAEL UnscriptED

GAEL UnscriptED S2:E1 | Build Networks & Lead with Confidence

• Georgia Association of Educational Leaders • Season 2 • Episode 1

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0:00 | 18:53

Start the new year with a clean slate and a smarter plan for leading your school. We kick off season two by inviting members to share their best campus ideas on the show and by laying out concrete support you can plug in right away. From statewide cohorts to targeted coaching and a literacy series that finally gives writing the airtime it deserves, the focus is practical help that saves hours and moves student learning.

We explain how our February needs assessment guides next year’s professional learning, then dig into two pillars: the Aspiring Principals Academy and the New Principal Institute. Splitting cohorts north and south opened access across the state, while new leaders in years one through four get a durable network plus face time with voices from the Department of Education, PSC, and GOSA. That mix of peer support and agency insight turns policy into practice and makes it easier to navigate certification, accountability, and reporting with confidence.

Leadership coaching takes center stage next. Our one‑day training with three short follow‑ups walks you through a full coaching cycle focused on adult growth, not compliance. You’ll build listening and questioning skills, practice in a safe setting, and leave with tools you can use with APs, teacher leaders, and teams. We also share time management tactics principals can start tomorrow: time blocking for morning presence and classroom visits, reverse time blocking to reveal hidden patterns, and email sprints that stop constant inbox checking. Round it out with our spring literacy webinar series on writing, plus a weekly Capitol update that keeps you ready to advocate on funding and policy.

Ready to lead with more clarity and less chaos? Subscribe for season two, share this episode with a colleague who needs these tools, and leave a quick review so more school leaders can find us.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, happy new year and welcome back, Gale members, to another exciting season of Gail Unscripted. This is season two. We had such a great season one back in the fall. Wonderful guests, and we've already got a great lineup scheduled for you coming up. But there may be some of you that are listening or watching on YouTube, whatever your favorite platform is, and you've got wonderful things going on in your school or at your district, and you would like to share with our Gill members, we would love to have you on our Gill podcast. So please reach out to Ivy Young or Ben Wiggins, and we would be glad to talk to you, set up a meeting, and discuss the possibility of you joining us for a podcast in the future. Well, Cindy, we are here. It is 2026. I remember, do you remember the year 2000 and the whole um all the worry, the computers? What was your position in 99? What were you doing back then?

SPEAKER_01:

I was an assistant principal at the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Were y'all using Osiris or uh what what was the student information?

SPEAKER_01:

AS400.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh. Sounds like Star Wars or something.

SPEAKER_01:

We had that until 2010 or more. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you remember worrying about the uh what's going to happen when the clock rolls over the banks?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. All these rumors are out there about the world coming to an end.

SPEAKER_00:

And we have a live studio audience of Raylan and Ivy, and they have no idea what we're talking about. But here we are. Well, we hope you've had a wonderful holiday season, had a great Christmas, and able to rest and recharge for an exciting spring semester in your role as a leader. So let's jump right into what we're gonna offer this spring semester as far as Gale and some of the things we actually offer, but some they will be signing up for the future year. So where do you want to start off, Cindy?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, um, I think one thing I'd like to share is every year we do a needs assessment in February, immediately following the Wintergale conference. We send out a link and ask for your feedback about what kinds of professional learning programming you'd like for us to provide for you. Um and we've got a good variety of methods of reaching our membership through either virtual training, in-person podcasts, webinars, different things like that that we provide. Um and when we've uh branched out in some of those areas because of the feedback that we've we've heard from you guys. So if you wouldn't mind look being on the lookout for that uh email and that link and giving us your honest feedback on the kind of programming, the topics, how you'd like to participate, we look at that every year uh for the following year to make sure that we're meeting your needs the best. Uh so right now we are in the middle of our uh professional learning that we have uh provided this year for our aspiring principals and for our new principal institute. Um, the aspiring principals program has our Aspiring Principals Academy this year branched out into two cohorts. We have a north and a south cohort because we had such interest all over the state, and it's really hard for some of those people in the very north area of our state to get to the south end and vice versa. And so that has really worked out really well, and I think we will continue doing that. We've only had one cohort this year of our new principals institute, but we had 57 people sign up. So we'll be doing some reviewing and evaluating of that program as well to see do we do need to do um two cohorts of that for next year. But both of those opportunities will be coming available and information will be sent out in March. So if you are a superintendent and you know you have some uh new principals that you're gonna be hiring, anybody in their first through third, even fourth year of the principalship that needs some extra support. Um, and everybody needs extra support in those first few years. Um and so if if you're interested in that, even if you don't know who the new principal is, if you you will have an opportunity to send that information and hold a spot for them.

SPEAKER_00:

We had quite a few do that last year. The superintendents would contact us and say, hey, we're going through the search process right now, but we know we want that new principal in there. That's how we did that. So if you're watching, uh superintendents, district staff, human resources, um talk a little bit, Cindy. You know, you've got a HR background. There may be somebody listening and go, oh, we've got our own in-house leadership development program, which is fantastic, and we strongly encourage all school districts to have that. But if we've got our in-house, why would I want to do the Gale Aspiring Principals or New Principal Institute?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I I'm gonna fall back on some of my experience. When I was in Houston County, we developed our own leadership development uh cohort and training that we provided for aspiring principals, for uh teacher leaders who wanted to become assistant principals. But in addition to them participating in our program, we also signed them up for the Gale Aspiring Principals program because our focus was more about the way we did things in Houston County. We have the Houston County way. And um, we wanted to be able to build our relationships with them so they felt comfortable reaching out. We didn't want them to feel like, oh, I can't reach out, they'll think I don't know what I'm doing or anything. So that was part of our reasoning for wanting to do that. But to be a part of the Gale Um Aspiring Principles or even New Principal Institute, one is getting quality professional learning that is has a statewide focus. We bring in a lot of statewide experts like from the DOE, um PSC, PSC, GOSA, you know, we bring those people in to share uh and and they get to build um relationships with them too, so that they don't see the PSC as this big entity that is out to get educators, you know. It's it's someone they can call on if they have a question too, if they need to. Um but also it's that networking with other people across the state, uh, especially in those rural counties where you may be the only uh elementary principal or middle school principal or high school principal. You meet other people that you can call on and build as a part of that network.

SPEAKER_00:

Um they become your colleagues, they become your cohort uh that you progress throughout your career with. I can look back and see all the people that have um not only are they colleagues, but they've become really, really close friends over the years. And it's someone that you can call, you can lean upon, you can steal ideas. We just had a uh back in December, we had a virtual session for our new principals, uh, and we had a panel of some uh current principals sitting on that just talking about interview techniques. And it was really neat to watch and listen to our new principals as they learned from those experienced principals uh of some of the techniques and methods they had uh going through the application and interview process. And that that's what it's all about is learning from each other, stealing good ideas, not reinventing the wheel. Um there's a huge network of professionals out there that want to help you. So uh we strongly encourage you to get involved with the aspiring and new principle.

SPEAKER_01:

And I will say too, um, our focus is not on uh having a prescriptive systematic uh process for them to follow. Um we always encourage them to go back to their district and find out, you know, what is the process that your HR department has or your superintendent wants. Um, you know, we're not telling them what to do, but we are providing lots of resources and idea exchange opportunities.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great point. So if you're HR professional or superintendent and you're listening to this, do not worry. We always tell uh our participants in this firing and new principals check with your district office about what is wanted, expected, and required. And our little famous saying is get district office in the boat with you. Exactly. Uh so you don't have to worry about uh your people going to our workshops and learning some different way. We we are very, very adamant about making sure that they understand and know that the district leads that process for them back home. That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. We're also in the middle right now of our second cohort of uh leadership coaching participants. We tend to offer our leadership coaching professional learning opportunity in June of each year and then in November, December timeframe. It's a one-day training that's followed up by three virtual sessions that are only an hour apiece. But the initial training is really talking and focused on the difference between what coaching is in comparison to mentoring, because it is different. And this is not instructional coaching, this is leadership coaching. And all of our Gale executive coaches have gone through this training, um, but it prepares any individual that wants to build leadership capacity of anybody in their school or in their district to be able to do that and gives you a framework to be able to utilize and get you uh the opportunity to practice in a safe environment, those listening skills and questioning skills, and we provide lots of resources for you to use. And then what we try to do with those virtual follow-ups is to get you through a whole coaching cycle with the person that you're going to select or be assigned to coach by your district. And so we meet once a month for the next three months after that first session, and we provide a little bit more information for you that would be practical for you to utilize about that time frame in the cycle, and then that with the hopes by that third virtual session that you have completed a cycle, and so you know you've gotten a feel of how a coaching cycle should be, and then you can replicate that in the future with other people. Um, and then you could even, you know, help others learn to be coaches and uh as far as that goes, or you could send them to our training. But we will we will continue that process, and uh we do have a virtual option for that. Carinza Wing has been the co-director for our Gail executive coaching uh program, and uh she does the virtual training, does a fantastic job of keeping it interactive and not boring sit and get on a virtual uh setting. And then Wanda Law has been doing the in-person uh for us. So we offer it in both of those ways uh in June and in uh November. So be on the lookout for those opportunities that will be coming up.

SPEAKER_00:

That would be a huge advantage for a school district. Just imagine if every principal in your school district had that leadership coaching training and were able to have true coaching conversations and a process with their people in their school building and the district office, vice versa, down to the school level. It's a huge advantage. And correct me if I'm wrong, Yale member, that training, all that she just talked about is for how much?

SPEAKER_01:

$125.

SPEAKER_00:

$125 for all of that that you just heard Cindy say. So I would strongly encourage if you're uh a school district, whether you're at the school level or the district level, to consider having your leaders go through the leadership coaching program. It's tremendous.

SPEAKER_01:

And we are getting ready this spring uh to do another spring webinar series. We've done one the past two years with the DOE as our partner, focusing on literacy. And uh so April Aldridge and Amy Denty will be the stars of this show coming up this spring, focused on literacy and getting ready for next year. And I believe that part of what they're gonna focus on, because we've talked so much about reading, is writing. Oh, yeah. Uh, because that's a big part of literacy as well. So uh make sure you tune in to those. We'll send out information about those uh sessions, their time and the links to them. But no worries, if you can't attend, we will record those and make those available. And you know, just like with our fall webinar series that we did with the finance series and then with TJ Very and Joe Jones, all of that is available and recorded for you. And if you want to have access to you, we can make sure you have access to it as long as you're a Gale member. You can go back and watch it and look at the presentations.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just another another thing with your Gale membership of what is available to you as an educational leader. It really is phenomenal what we're able to offer our Gale members for Gale membership. Absolutely. Uh talk a little bit about um Joe and TJ, um, their their fall webinar series. Uh one of the things I really got out of it was speaking to principals about how to protect their time. Yes. Um just give a quick little nugget. So if I'm a principal listening to this, what would what would uh you recommend I go back and listen to that specifically for?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Um one of the things that they talked about was time blocking. And um, that means putting things on your calendar that are important to you, that you want to prioritize. If it is important to you to be out in the school and greeting students and greeting your staff and seeing everybody every morning, then time block that. Put it on your calendar from 7:30 to 8:30 or whatever time works best for you. Let your office staff know I am this is my role during this time. And if an angry parent comes in, if uh, you know, somebody else comes in, just let them know that I'll be available at 8.30. Um, unless maybe it's a superintendent. There might be certain people that you say, if it's a superintendent, call me on the radio or get get in touch with me and I'll get back up here. But other people, just have them wait until I'm finished because that's my job at that time. Um, if it's getting into classrooms and getting observations done, you know, time block that. Put it on your calendar and I'll or if you're sitting in on a planning session with a grade level team, let your secretary know to help protect that time for you so that you can get to those things that you want to prioritize. Then they also talked about reverse time blocking. And I thought this was very interesting. And what that was is if you don't have um, like if you don't have anything blocked out on your schedule uh for several afternoons, and but yet your time gets eaten up with maybe discipline of a particular student or a teacher or whatever happens, go back at the end of the day and put that in to your calendar. And what that helps you do is to see and notice any patterns that might be bubbling up. It might be a certain student that's always coming to the office at that time or a teacher with a problem or whatever it may be. But then you might be able to diagnose the root cause of what's going on and be able to kind of problem solve so that that doesn't always come and eat up your time as an administrator. So I thought that that was a very good suggestion from them, and I would highly recommend going back and taking a look at their presentations. We did not record those uh presentations, so there's not a recording, but there is uh their PowerPoints with their information in there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's really about just taking control of your calendar.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

And allowing your administrative assistant, secretary, to help you take control of your calendar. Yes. Um because if we don't, uh the office will eat us up, the emails will consume us, uh meetings will consume us.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and that was another thing that he talked about with emails. He said schedule time in your a calendar for emails. You know, an hour in the morning, maybe an hour in the afternoon. And when you get in there, go in there and go through those emails and do something with it. Um, take care of it, get it off your plate, do whatever you need to with a delegate, uh, any of those things, but uh don't try to do it on your phone. And I'm very guilty of it, and I thought I need to do this, you know, in my role because I can sit there and say, Oh, yeah, I need to do that. I'm not at my desk. I can't get that done right now, and I will leave it in my inbox. I'm sure many of you do that as well. As long as it's in your inbox, you haven't done anything with it, and you you need to do something with it. But he says, try to get it done, you know, in that hour rather than you know checking it constantly throughout the day, because then you're wasting your time reading an email or looking back at an email three or four times rather than reading it one time and taking care of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Another thing we offer at Gill as part of your membership is the Capitol opinion. It's a weekly email update of everything that's happened at the Capitol during the legislative session. And um uh while I'm there uh in person, Dr. Stokes uh does a fantastic job of watching from home. Uh, and he is watching every committee meeting uh related to education. He's watching the general session. He does an incredible job of putting all of that in a very succinct thing so that all educational leaders can be tracking those bills that are related to education. And you get an email every Friday uh talking about that. And we really encourage you as educational leaders to be speaking to your local House representative and state senator. Uh it's critical that that you are a strong advocate as Gale members for public education, just like we are uh at the Gale staff.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we're looking forward to an exciting season two of Gail Unscripted. We will look forward to seeing you next week. And again, we hope all of you have a happy new year and exciting second semester.

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Ben Wiggins

Host
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Ivy Young

Producer