May 31, 2021
Episode 24

When you Call them Low, you Teach Them Low

Featuring: Ken Williams, Author, Speaker, Consultant

Featured Guests

Teacher expectations have a massive impact on student learning, and yet, are often an overlooked factor in most school improvement efforts. In the episode, Ken brings the humor, heart, and hammer to address the limiting beliefs that reside in the culture of schools and how we need to work together to move ALL students to and through the bar.

Show Notes:

  • 6:17In his many different roles Ken is known for bringing the heart, humour, and hammer by living into his passions, using a self-deprecating approach to share his own mistakes, and directly calling out the elephants in the room.
  • Ken is driven to provoke educators to greatness as he believes that everything he dream of for students starts and stops with teachers.
  • 9:15One of the biggest problems in many school cultures is the overreliance on the “what” at the expense of the “why.”
  • 12:15Schools are filled with low-hanging fruit labels that are so deeply engrained; most don’t even recognize their damaging impact.
  • 18:30#StartwiththeCROWN is a reminder to educators that we must define the essential outcomes that ALL students must achieve and then engage in a concerted effort to get them there.
  • 24:10Thermostat leaders set the temperature and make sure everyone gets there, while thermometer leaders take the temperature of who is in front of them then calibrate their expectations accordingly. We need more thermostat leaders.
  • 27:10All change efforts must begin with assessing the current reality, by taking stock of and respecting the history, and then engaging the collective imagination to see past the current reality.
  • 31:15For ideas to stick, we must persevere through “diplementation,” gain momentum with small wins, and build sustainability by focusing on the process over the product.
  • 37:20A principal is the only one that can institute school-wide changes to shift culture, but to increase individual capacity to hold each other accountable they must ensure the interdependence of teams.

Significant Quotes:

“What started out as ways to organize how we service kids have become permanent tattoos and what they do is they calibrate expectations, and that is the killer.”

Ken Williams
13:30

“Buy-in doesn’t happen until you do the work and get better results.”

Ken Williams
38:15

“We think that if we put people together who do the same job and have them meet once a week, that’s a team. That is not a team.” Ken Williams

Ken WIlliams
39:10

Show Resources:

Categories: