EdLeader Podcast host Dr. Rob Jackson might just be a closet bibliophile, someone who has a great love of books. Occasionally he enjoys returning to touchstone texts or timeless tomes, those books that shaped him early in his career and life and bringing them forward, spending time again with the words, thoughts, and reflections that moved him then and move him still.

This latest episode is just that, a return to a treasured book. The book, Tuesdays with Morrie, became a runaway bestseller 26 years ago. It was made into a movie and a Broadway play and is said to have changed millions of lives. A successful young man made a series of trips to visit his college professor almost twenty years after graduating. The professor, Morrie Schwartz, was in the final weeks of his life as he was gradually overtaken by ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The book recounts the fourteen Tuesday visits the young man, Mitch Albom, made, their conversations, Morrie's lectures, and his life experiences. In his final days, the professor taught his student, and all of us how to die, and consequently, how to live.

He said, “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

In this episode, Dr. Jackson is beyond honored and excited to welcome another young man and his mentor to the podcast. They read and shared this book with each other and then shared it with Dr. Jackson. In his hands, it felt familiar, it felt timeless.

Regardless of what day of the week it is as you listen to this, pretend it is Tuesday. Let’s join Morrie and Mitch, and these two guests, let’s imagine opening the worn pages of this beloved book and in Morrie’s words, “Let it come in.”

The professor said, “As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on—in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.” As EdLeaders, you will live on in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.

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Military-connected students and families transition on average 6-9 times in a military child's academic career. Schools should thoughtfully consider how to provide every flexibility possible to ensure that military-connected students have a smooth transition when they arrive and that their unique needs are met while they are with us.

Dr. Angie Mullenix is the Director of Innovative Practices and Programs and the State Military Liaison for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. A veteran herself, Dr. Mullenix leads the state's efforts to recognize schools and school districts for their service to military-connected students and families.

In a time where a war is being fought in the Gaza Strip and in the Ukraine, and understanding the cost that is borne by military personnel and their families, taking some time to consider how schools can support military-connected students and families is time well-spent. 

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, "Our military-connected students are resilient and know how to grow and thrive in new school environments. To do so, they need the tools and resources that we, as education leaders, must provide to support them in these new environments."

Join Dr. Mullenix and Dr. Jackson as they discuss how EdLeaders and schools may support these students.

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The Science of Reading is undergirded by theories of how students learn to read and comprehend text. The theory most often cited is Scarborough's Reading Rope as conceived by Dr. Hollis S. Scarborough. Dr. Scarborough believed that the elements of Word Recognition and the elements of Language Comprehension all weave together into the rope of Reading Comprehension. Just like a true rope, the more strands present and the stronger each strand is, the stronger the rope is. It is surmised that if a student is weaker in one strand, the strength of the other strands can still help the student comprehend what she is reading.

In this new podcast series on the Science of Reading - What Every EdLeader Should Know, Dr. Rob Jackson, host of the EdLeader podcast, has one goal, to peel apart the individual strands of reading comprehension and build our shared understanding of what EdLeaders need to know about learning to read.

So metaphorically, we grab Scarborough’s reading rope and separate the strands of Word Recognition and Language Comprehension. Within the Language Comprehension strands, we find the strand that is the topic for today’s episode, Vocabulary.

Building vocabulary knowledge is important to help students be better communicators, help them access more text, and increase their own expressiveness.

Show notes are available at: www.drrobjackson.com
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When students graduate from our schools and school systems, where do they go? We hope that they are enrolled, enlisted, or employed. We hope that we have helped them accomplish their dreams and reach their goals. Today’s guest on the EdLeader podcast is focused on meeting students where they are and taking them as far as they want to go.

Dr. Jeff Cox became the 11th President of the North Carolina Community College System on June 1, 2023. Dr. Cox previously served as president of Wilkes Community College for nine years. Prior to that, he served for nine years as the superintendent of the  Alleghany County Schools system. Today, he brings his experience working with students from Pre-kindergarten to the university level to lead the North Carolina Community College System, the third largest system in the U.S. serving nearly 600,000 community college students each year with 58 colleges providing education to all 100 counties.

With the unique perspective of having served as a Principal and Superintendent and as a Community College President, Dr. Cox shares his expertise and experience to assist EdLeaders in growing students and schools through building relationships, earning trust, and casting a bold vision.

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Leaders tend to dive into the work and forget about themselves. Later, they find themselves feeling drained, frustrated, and tired. You have heard the clarion calls to prioritize your own self-care.  We have also heard that self-care is not selfish. Though important aspects, self-care is more than just exercise and eating well. It is also prioritizing your own growth, continuous learning, building a support network, achieving a work-life balance, and choosing personal joy.

EdLeader host Dr. Rob Jackson welcomes back a close friend, a past guest on this podcast,  and one of the most respected educators in the state of North Carolina, Chatham County Schools Superintendent Dr. Tony Jackson! Dr. Jackson shares strategies to sustain in leadership through prioritizing growth and self-care. Being the best you is not being a great leader while being a terrible spouse, parent, sibling, and friend. 

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In a world that tips towards negativity and defeatism, EdLeaders have the opportunity to brighten life and sew positivity through Bringing Joy into the schoolhouse and into the lives of students and staff every day.  Donna L. Bledsoe, principal of Cedar Ridge Elementary School in Surry County, NC was selected as the 2023 North Carolina State Principal of the Year. She encourages every EdLeader to "Bring the Joy" every day.

Since becoming the leader of the small, rural school in 2016, Ms. Bledsoe has cultivated a community with a clear focus on student success, strong faculty collaboration, and overall school improvement. In her words, the culture of Cedar Ridge Elementary can be summed up in one word: “joy.” 

"Bring the joy" is their school mantra, and it’s reflected in all aspects of the school.

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Stephen M. R. Covey is the author of Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others.  Joining Dr. Jackson for a truly inspirational conversation, Covey believes that even though our world has changed drastically, our leadership style has not.

Most organizations, teams, schools, and families today still operate from a model of “Command and Control,” focusing on hierarchies and compliance from people. But because of the changing nature of the world, the workforce, the work itself, and the choices we have for where and how to work and live, these old rules of leadership no longer apply. Mr. Covey says that, “truly great leaders can create the right conditions to awaken the potential within a person” and that “they curate conditions in which a person can flourish. As a result, they see that person rise beyond every imaginable expectation.”

The 2023-2024 school year has arrived. For EdLeaders, even in the midst of all of the challenges (budgetary and others), creating and curating conditions where students, teachers, staff, and administrators all “rise beyond every imaginable expectation” is imperative. Creating those conditions occurs through authentic relationships building and deepening trust to inspire all those around us to greater heights. 

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Previous episodes in the Science of Reading series have focused on the strands of fluency, background knowledge, sight word recognition, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge, decoding, and language structures. With this episode, we continue deconstructing the reading rope.

Today, Dr. Jackson pulls out the strand of phonological awareness. His guest host for this episode is ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. Although OpenAI does not claim personal authorship or intellectual property rights, a citation has been included in the Show Notes to attribute the content to the AI system that produced it. 

Phonological Awareness refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, that make up spoken words. This fundamental skill is a powerful predictor of reading success in children. Numerous studies have highlighted its significance in language development and literacy acquisition.

Dr. Jackson has been interested in learning more about ChatGPT and wanted to produce the next episode in the Science of Reading series. This episode is a melding of those two intellectual challenges.