Three school leaders. One AP stepping toward the principalship. One principal in year four, rebuilding from the ground up. One veteran closing out a 20-year career and asking how to finish strong.

Different stages. Same underlying question.

Who am I as a leader — and have I made that clear enough to the people I lead?

The Situation

The AP was sharp, curious, hungry. He’d just picked up a summer school principal role, his first crack at the chair. He came with the right instincts: don’t take in too much at once, learn from people who’ve made the mistakes, figure out the potholes before you hit them.

But the deeper question surfacing wasn’t about logistics.

It was about identity.

The principal in year four said it plainly. She’d come into a situation where a beloved predecessor had been the entire system. When the predecessor left, a faction of the staff made it their quiet mission to see the new principal fail. Two years of second-guessing. Two years of leading from doubt.

I’ve been leading from a place of fear.

And then — almost as a confessional — she said the thing that connected all three conversations:

If you don’t define who you are, your staff will define it for you. And it’s never how you want them to.

What They’d Already Tried

The AP was building relationships intentionally. Handwritten notes, $5 Starbucks cards, genuine recognition. Not transactional. Just deposits in accounts he knew he’d eventually need to draw from.

The year-four principal had been planting seeds. She quietly invited a core group to a conference on conscious discipline, never announcing it publicly. Word spread. Eighteen staff members signed up. Nearly a third of her teaching staff, and she hadn’t sent a single email.

Both were doing things right. But neither had fully named their leadership identity. Not out loud. Not on purpose.

The Coaching Conversation

The question that shifted things for the AP:

Read more

The Day I Met Scott Long

Scott Long was a second-year principal at Doherty Elementary in Michigan when he called me.

He wasn’t in crisis. His school wasn’t failing. His staff wasn’t revolting. By every traditional measure, things were fine.

Fine was the problem.

Scott had been listening to the podcast. He’d joined the Mastermind. He was the kind of leader who heard an idea and actually did something with it … which, if you’ve spent any time around school leaders, you know is rarer than it sounds.

He’d heard me teach something called Sticky Core Values, and it had lit him up. Not because his school was broken. Because he could see clearly what was missing.

“I talked to my wife about it,” he told me. “Her company has core values. I asked her to name them.”

She couldn’t.

Not one.

And she wasn’t checked out. She wasn’t disengaged. She was a high-performing professional at a company that cared enough to write the values down, design them into slides, and present them at all-hands meetings.

She still couldn’t name them.

Scott saw his school in that moment. And if he’s being honest, most of his staff probably couldn’t name those either.

That conversation started something that would eventually ripple through his entire building, show up in science classrooms, travel with his staff long after he’d moved on and get retold by a seven-year-old girl holding a marigold.

But we’ll get there.

First, let’s talk about the poster.

The Poster Nobody Reads

Walk into almost any school in America and you’ll find it.

Hanging in the main hallway, usually laminated, sometimes framed. Big enough to read from a distance. Probably designed in Canva by someone with good intentions and a free afternoon.

Integrity. Excellence. Respect. Courage. Innovation.

Or some version of those five words.

Nobody reads it.

Not really.

Not in the way that changes anything. Not in the way that helps a teacher decide how to handle a hard moment in a classroom, or helps a student understand why the adult in front of them is asking them to do something hard, or helps a new staff member understand who this school actually is.

The words just hang there.

And it’s not your fault.

That poster probably existed before you arrived. Those values were chosen by a committee, at a meeting, probably a decade ago, by people who meant well and then moved on. The system handed them to you the same way it handed you the keys and said don’t mess this up.

But here’s what I want you to sit with: those values could hang in any school in America.

Any. Single. School.

And because of that, they’re forgettable.

Courage? Sure. Integrity? Obviously. Respect? Every school in the country has that one. These are what Patrick Lencioni calls “permission to play” values — the minimum standard, the table stakes, the things we just assume about any halfway decent organization.

They’re not wrong. They’re just invisible.

Seth Godin has a concept called the Purple Cow. The idea is simple: when you’re driving through the countryside and you see cows, you don’t notice them. Brown and black spotted cows are everywhere. You’ve seen a thousand of them. Your brain filters them out.

But if you saw a purple cow?

You’d stop the car.

Traditional core values are brown cows. Nobody stops. Nobody looks. Nobody remembers.

Your school deserves a purple cow.

What Sticky Core Values Actually Are

Before I tell you what sticky core values are, let me tell you what they are not.

They are not a rebrand. You don’t fix a forgettable culture by hiring a designer and choosing better fonts.

They are not aspirational. This is the trap most leaders fall into. They write the values they wish their school lived by instead of the ones it already does. Aspirational values are what every school claims. They read like a mission statement that could belong to anyone.

And they are definitely not one word. One word gives you nothing to hold onto. One word is a bumper sticker. One word does not tell me how to handle the parent in my doorway at 7:30am.

Sticky core values are memorable phrases that tell the story of how your school operates at its best.

Five qualities make them work:

• Simple. Easy to say, easy to remember. If you can’t say it to a stressed-out teacher in the middle of a hard week and have it land, it’s not simple enough.

• Meaningful. There’s a story behind it. A real one. Something your community lived, something that happened here, something specific enough that it belongs to you.

• Behavior-driven. It tells people how to act. Not what to believe in the abstract — what to do when things get hard.

• Memorable. It doesn’t sound like every other school. It could not be copy-pasted into a different building and make the same sense.

• Reinforced constantly. It shows up in meetings, in recognition, in hard conversations, in the way you celebrate people. It’s not on a poster. It’s in the room.

That last one is worth slowing down on.

A sticky core value that only lives on the wall is just a better-looking poster. The stickiness doesn’t come from the phrase. It comes from the stories you tell about it, the rituals you build around it, and the consistency with which you bring it back.

But the stickiness starts somewhere specific.

It starts with a story.

The Story Is the Glue

Scott Long is a huge Rocky fan.

Almost to a fault, he’ll tell you.

When he started thinking about what a sticky core value might look like for Doherty Elementary, he kept coming back to one scene from the original Rocky. Mickey — Rocky’s gruff, demanding, deeply loving trainer — gives Rocky a pair of cufflinks that belonged to Rocky Marciano. He puts his arm around him. He pushes him harder than anyone ever has. He tells him he believes in him.

That relationship, between a mentor and someone willing to be pushed, was already alive at Doherty.

Scott had watched it.

In his first year as principal, before he had a name for what he was seeing, he noticed how the staff had each other’s backs. How they supported each other through hard things. How they showed up for each other the way Mickey showed up for Rocky.

So he gave it a name.

Rocky’s Cufflinks.

And then he did something most leaders wouldn’t do.

He brought it to his staff as an example (not as a decree). He put Rocky posters around the building. He asked people to guess what it meant. He created space for curiosity before he ever explained the idea.

And then he said: now you try.

What followed changed his school.

A teacher named Sophia — a musician who moonlighted as a performer doing Motown and classic rock — came up with R-E-S-P-E-C-T, connecting it to Aretha Franklin and to a night the staff had watched her perform and seen something extraordinary come out from under her voice. Everyone in that room had been there. Everyone remembered. The value already existed. She just gave it a name.

A teacher named Leah designed Find Your Marigold — the idea that marigolds grow and thrive no matter what surrounds them, and that the staff at Doherty could be that for each other and for their students. Resilient. Positive. A force.

Another teacher created All Hands In — a ritual and a value at once, with a call-and-response that ended every gathering: Who are we? Who are we? We are … we are … Doherty, go Dolphins.

Scott didn’t create those last three. He’s proud to tell you that.

And that’s the point.

The story is the glue.

Not the phrase itself. The story behind the phrase.

Rocky’s Cufflinks means something because people know the scene, know what Mickey meant to Rocky, and can see it in how their colleagues show up for each other. R-E-S-P-E-C-T means something because they were in that club that night watching Sophia perform and felt something they didn’t have words for yet. Find Your Marigold means something because Leah put her whole self into designing it.

Values that are handed down don’t work because they have no story.

Values that are built together stick because the story belongs to everyone.

Patrick Lencioni says your core values should be ones you’re willing to get in trouble for because you’re living them out that fully.

That’s the test.

But you can only pass that test if you can tell the story of why the value matters in the first place.

A handful of sentences. Something any staff member could tell a new hire in the first week. Something a student could explain to their parents at dinner.

That’s the standard.

How to Build Them Without Doing It Alone

Here’s where most leaders get stuck.

The idea sounds right. The examples land. And then they go back to their building and stare at a blank page wondering where to start.

Here’s the process Scott used, and it’s the one I’ve seen work most consistently.

You go first.

Don’t walk into the room empty-handed. Bring one to the table. Model what you’re asking for. Scott came in with Rocky’s Cufflinks already developed — the story, the meaning, the connection to what he’d observed in his school. He didn’t present it as here are your values. He presented it as here’s what one of these looks like. Now you try.

That’s different.

It gives people a template, not just a task. They can see the shape of the thing before they’re asked to build it.

One important note: hold it loosely. If Rocky’s Cufflinks hadn’t resonated, Scott would have let it go. You’re not presenting a done deal. You’re modeling a process. There’s a difference.

Go collaborative.

Small groups work best. Three to four people. Give them a starting point like your existing norms, your social contract, whatever language your school already uses to describe itself. Ask them to look at where you’re already exceptional. Not where you want to be. Where you already are.

Then ask for the story behind it.

“Where does that show up in our culture? Tell me a moment. Tell me a name. Tell me what it looked like.”

You’ll find the stories are already there. Your job is to excavate them, not invent them.

Let the community vote.

Draft phrases go back to the full staff. They read them, think about them, and choose the ones that hit hardest. This step matters more than most leaders realize. Authorship builds ownership, but so does choice.

When your staff selects the values they’ll live by, they’re not just following a leader’s direction. They’re making a commitment.

Give them legs.

This is where sticky core values come alive or die.

You need rituals. You need artifacts. You need ways to bring the values into the room on a regular basis.

Scott built a plaque where names get added when someone lives out a value. He started weekly check-ins where staff submitted shout-outs (up to 50 a week) naming a colleague and the value they’d lived. He collected them all and delivered them to inboxes every Monday morning. He put fat head logos outside classroom doors when someone was recognized.

He opened meetings with the values and closed with All Hands In.

He made the values the center of how his school celebrated, corrected, and recognized people.

That’s what reinforced constantly actually means. Not a slide in a back-to-school presentation. Not a poster in the hallway. The values showing up everywhere, all the time, until they’re so embedded in how the building operates that they don’t need you to exist.

The Long Game

Year One is exciting.

The values are new. People are fired up. There’s momentum in the building. You see it in how staff talks to each other and how students talk about their school.

Year Three is where most schools go back to the poster.

The energy fades. New staff come in and don’t know the stories. The values start to feel like old news. And slowly, without anyone deciding to let them go, they drift back into the wallpaper.

This is the challenge nobody warns you about.

And so, a reframe.

Your sticky core values are a curriculum. Teach them like one.

That means you don’t teach them once in August and assume people got it. You come back to them. Every year. Every month. Every week if you can.

Brené Brown has a move I love for this: three examples of what this looks like, three non-examples. Get your staff in a room and ask, Give me three times you’ve seen Rocky’s Cufflinks lived out this year. Give me three times we fell short. That conversation does more for culture than any keynote speaker ever will … unless you’re bringing me in :)

It materializes the value. It makes it real, specific, and honest.

You also don’t need a new school theme every August.

I see it every year on social media.

Principals asking each other what their theme is going to be, hunting for something fresh and clever and memorable. That’s the wrong question. Your school theme is your sticky core values. They don’t expire. They don’t need to be retired and replaced. They need to be lived more deeply.

The goal is not novelty. The goal is depth.

Once you have the strategy, your job as a leader is mostly to repeat it until you’re bored. And then keep repeating it, because by the time you’re bored, your community is just starting to really hear it.

Use them in hiring. When you’re bringing someone new into the building, the values aren’t just a slide in the onboarding deck. They’re a conversation. Does this person understand what Rocky’s Cufflinks means here? Can they tell me what it would look like in their classroom?

Use them in hard conversations. When a staff member falls short of the expectation, of the culture, of what the team deserves. The values give you language. This isn’t personal. This is about what we agreed to. This is about Rocky’s Cufflinks, and what we said that means here.

Use them in celebration. Not just big recognition moments. The small ones. The Monday shout-out email. The name on the plaque. The moment you stop someone in the hallway and say that was Find Your Marigold and I saw it and I want you to know I saw it.

Those moments compound. Over time, they become the culture.

What Scott Said Before He Left

A few years after our first conversation, I checked back in with Scott.

He’d been thinking about what would happen if he walked away from Doherty. If he got a different opportunity, moved to a different building, moved up.

He told me he was confident the culture would carry on.

Not because he was indispensable. Because he wasn’t.

The values didn’t live in him anymore. They lived in the building. They lived in the plaque on the wall and the fat heads outside the classroom doors and the Monday morning shout-outs and the way Sam Huge (the teacher who created All Hands In) stopped Scott at the end of a closing staff meeting as he was walking out the door.

They had a ritual: everyone pulls in close, hands in the center, call-and-response. Who are we? Who are we? We are … we are … Doherty, go Dolphins.

Sam wasn’t letting the meeting end without it. “You forgot our All Hands In,” she said. Sam remembered. Sam owned it. Sam would have been bothered if it didn’t happen.

That’s what you’re building toward.

Not a culture that depends on you being present. A culture that has a life of its own because the stories, the phrases, and the rituals belong to everyone.

Scott went on to become an assistant superintendent. The work he started at Doherty kept rippling. His science teachers built a unit around Find Your Marigold. Students grew actual marigolds in class as a living expression of what the school stood for.

One of those students was a second grade student we will call Kate.

Kate was leaving Doherty at the end of second grade, moving on to third grade at a different school. In her science class, they’d been growing marigolds. Every student had their own plant.

She decided to grow one for Scott.

She tended it every day. It grew bigger than any of the others. And on the last day of school, she walked into his office and handed it to him.

“Thanks for helping us all be marigolds,” she said.

She was seven years old.

She understood the value. She believed it. She lived it. She found a way to express it that nobody taught her.

That’s what a sticky core value does when it’s built right. It moves from the leader’s intention into the community’s identity. It moves from a phrase on a poster into a seven-year-old’s hands.

Your Move

Here’s where I want to leave you.

You don’t need perfect conditions to start this.

You don’t need a whole professional development day, a consulting firm, or your superintendent’s permission. You need one story — already happening at your school – that deserves a name.

One thing your school already does at its best that no other school does quite the same way. One moment of excellence that your community would recognize instantly if you held it up and said this. This is who we are.

Find that. Name it. Bring it to your staff and say here’s what one of these looks like. Now you try.

The rest follows.

Play-It-Safe Principals hang the poster and hope people absorb it somehow.

Ruckus Makers build something their community actually remembers, believes in, and lives out long after the leader who started it has moved on.

Your school is already full of purple cows.

Go find them.

Each year I write down some of my Top 3 things. Enjoy the list. I hope you are exposed to some great opportunities and I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Top 3 Musical Artists

1. Kendrick Lamar

2. Bon Iver

3. Bad Bunny

Top 3 TV series:

1. Slow Horses

2. Paradise

3. The Residence

Top 3 YouTube Channels:

1. Conan O’Brien

2. Mike Birbiglia

3. My First Million

Top 3 Comics:

1. Daredevil

2. Something is Killing the Children

3. Batman

Top 3 Non Fiction Books:

1. Storyworthy

2. 48 Laws of Power

3. This is Strategy

Top 3 Business investments:

1. Working with Matt Dicks

2. Speaking on more stages and taking risks

3. Upgraded computer (Macbook Pro M5 + Studio Display)

Top 3 Personal Investments:

1. Started an IRL intro to improv 6-week class

2. Joined a new gym: health is the best yet

3. Working with a therapist

Top 3 Experiences:

1. The Moth

2. Improv

3. Plymouth, MA with Miriam / MSAA Keynote

Your turn, I’d love to hear what made your TOP 3 of 2025 list for you.

Keep Making a Ruckus,

Danny

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

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• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

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You think keeping the peace means avoiding the hard conversation.

Wrong.

Every time you dodge that difficult talk with the teacher who’s undermining you, or that AP who never follows through, or that parent who bulldozes boundaries...

You’re not keeping peace.

You’re compounding problems.

Here’s what actually happens:

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔓 free edition 🔓 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive…

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

I was on a coaching call last week with a school leader who’d just made a huge transition.

Elementary to middle school. New principal. New team. And for the first time in years, they were finally working with people who wanted to lead.

They told me about their assistant principal – a genuinely nice person who’d been at the school for five years. The kind of colleague you actually enjoy working with.

But there was a problem.

Simple tasks that should take minutes were becoming recurring problems. Like sending a school-wide message through their communication system. The AP didn’t know how to do it. After five years.

So this leader did what most of us do ...

They walked the AP through it step-by-step. Showed them every click. Made sure the message went out. Problem solved, right?

Not quite.

Because halfway through explaining this to me, they paused and said something that hit hard:

“I know that you have to do it a few times. I’m not sure what would have made him not come to me again.”

That’s when I knew we’d found the real issue.

The Hidden Cost of Being Helpful

Here’s what nobody tells you about being a supportive leader: Your helpfulness can accidentally create dependency.

Every time you solve a problem for someone, you’re making a trade. You’re trading your time now for... more of your time later.

Because here’s the thing – if they don’t truly own the solution, they’ll be back. And back again. And again.

Meanwhile, you’re wondering why you can’t focus on the strategic work that actually moves your school forward.

You’re not building capacity in your team. You’re building a queue at your door.

The Two-Tool Fix

The solution? It’s embarrassingly simple, but most leaders never implement it.

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔓 free edition 🔓

of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

💡 Premium subscribers get access to custom GPTs, full archives, advanced tools, and Digital Danny — your AI-powered coach. Upgrade here.

Subscribe now

🎯 The Ruckus Report

Quick take:

What if the most disruptive thing you could do as a school leader isn’t another program — but rethinking when school starts? In this candid and funny conversation, Danny Bauer and Mitch Weathers dig into how protecting sleep actually protects learning, how parent boundaries preserve teacher sanity, and why even job postings reveal whether we’re truly Doing School Different or just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Mitch Weathers is a veteran educator, author, and founder of Organized Binder, a system that helps schools build executive functioning and academic success for every student. He’s spent decades teaching and coaching educators on how structure, sleep, and small shifts create massive change. Mitch is known for turning everyday challenges — like communication overload or bell schedules — into opportunities for innovation and calm confidence in the classroom.

🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules

In this episode, Danny and Mitch challenge the old-school thinking that keeps leaders exhausted, students disengaged, and parents emailing at 2 am.

💡 Key Insight #1: The Sleep Revolution Starts at School

• What’s broken: Early start times and late-night device use rob students (and teachers) of rest, and learning suffers.

• The shift: Ruckus Makers reimagine schedules to protect sleep, boost attention, and honor the science of rest.

• Impact: Districts that start high school later see stronger academic outcomes, better moods, and fewer discipline issues.

💡 Key Insight #2: Boundaries Are the New Professional Development

• What’s broken: Teachers feel pressured to respond instantly to parent emails — even the ones that hit inboxes at 2 am.

• The shift: Clear, community-wide communication norms create psychological safety for staff and preserve trust with families.

• Impact: When schools set and model boundaries, teachers stay longer, burnout decreases, and parent relationships improve.

💡 Key Insight #3: Hiring Isn’t HR — It’s Leadership Marketing

• What’s broken: Bland job postings and checkbox hiring processes repel the best talent.

• The shift: Treat every open position like a story about your culture — highlight your vision, values, and what makes your campus unmissable.

• Impact: Schools that “market their mission” attract stronger candidates, reduce vacancies, and build a team aligned with their purpose.

💬 Quotable Ruckus

“If the most disruptive thing you do this year is let your students (and teachers) sleep — you’re already Doing School Different.”

— Mitch Weathers

🧩 Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to turn these insights into action? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Ask your leadership team, “What’s one low-effort way we could protect rest for students and staff?”

• This Month: Draft and publish clear communication norms between teachers and families.

• This Semester: Reevaluate your bell schedule and hiring language. Does it reflect a traditional system — or a Do School Different mindset?

💌 Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript here 🔗 Join us on the Adorable Red Hats show. Write an email to hello@adorableredhats.com with your pitch.

Learn more at adorableredhats.com.

📌 Ruckus Makers Don’t Just Listen — They Act

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a movement of bold, creative leaders reimagining what’s possible.

🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey:

📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter — Tools, mindset shifts, and leadership strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news

🗞 Read Ruckus Maker Media — Exclusive essays, AI prompts, and early book access: ruckusmakers.media

💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network, workshops, and leadership tools: ruckusmakers.club

🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching and peer mentorship for visionary leaders: betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind

🎙 Today’s RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:

ODP Business Solutions®

Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. Visit odpbusiness.com/education and let’s Do School Different.

IXL

Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it empowers them to make better decisions with reliable data and adapts instruction based on student performance. Get started today at ixl.com/leaders.

Play Piper

Kids love gaming and tech — but often disengage from math and science at school. Play Piper changes that with hands-on STEM kits and a coding curriculum. Learn more at playpiper.com.

Twelve Practices LLC © 2025 | If Education Ain’t a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

👋 Welcome to a 🔓 free edition 🔓

of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

💡 Premium subscribers get access to custom GPTs, full archives, advanced tools, and Digital Danny — your AI-powered coach. Upgrade here.

Subscribe now

🎯 The Ruckus Report

Quick take: What if you could deliver six weeks of learning in a single hour? Simon Strong did exactly that — and the results are challenging everything we think we know about teaching, memory, and curriculum.

🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Simon Strong is the founder of Download Learning, a UK-based company partnering with schools and organizations to dramatically accelerate learning by sequencing information to align with how the brain actually works.

🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules

🧠 Key Insight #1: Speed doesn’t kill learning — distraction does.

• What’s broken: Slow, disjointed lessons overloaded with irrelevant detail.

• The shift: Simon’s team scripts, edits, and delivers content at 220 words per minute — nearly double classroom pace — to keep attention and trigger retention.

• Impact: Students retain foundational knowledge more effectively, especially those with ADHD or learning differences.

🧠 Key Insight #2: One hour, one-half term (seriously).

• What’s broken: Teachers covering complex topics in 6-week units with minimal retention.

• The shift: A single high-impact video lesson designed to fire synapses in precise time intervals.

• Impact: One hour of Simon’s approach produced equivalent learning outcomes to an entire half term of traditional instruction. Add teacher support, and outcomes doubled.

🧠 Key Insight #3: Flipping modes ≠ mastery.

• What’s broken: Constantly switching between direct instruction, stories, and activities in class.

• The shift: Presenting one “mode” at a time to avoid cognitive overload.

• Impact: Improved comprehension, less classroom disruption, and deeper long-term understanding.

💬 Quotable Ruckus

“Education doesn’t build character — it reveals it. Our job is to help students discover who they are and become the best version of themselves.”

– Simon Strong

🚀 Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Audit your next lesson for unnecessary mode-switching. Stick with one mode longer.

• This Month: Try introducing a complex topic through a story, not a slide deck.

• This Semester: Partner with a colleague to design a one-hour “burst” lesson using Simon’s three-mode model.

🔗 Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript here.

🔗 Learn more about Simon’s work:

https://downloadlearning.co.uk

• 🌐 Website

• 🔗 LinkedIn

• 📄 Peer-Reviewed Research

📌 Ruckus Makers Don’t Just Listen — They Act

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Do School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey:

• 📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter – Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work (3x a week).

• 🗞 Read Ruckus Makers – Exclusive content on Substack featuring leadership insights, AI prompts, and new books before the bookshelf.

• 💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club – Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, and AI Prompt Library.

• 🧨 Apply to the Mastermind – Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven Ruckus Maker Flywheel™.

• Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

🎙 Today’s RUCKUScast in Partnership With:

ODP Business Solutions®

• Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: odpbusiness.com/education

IXL

• Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it empowers educators with real-time data and adaptive instruction. 🔍 Learn more: ixl.com/leaders

PLAY PIPER

• Play Piper bridges gaming and STEM with hands-on kits that turn curiosity into confidence — and students into makers. 🔍 Learn more: playpiper.com

Twelve Practices LLC © 2025 | If Education Ain’t a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

👋 Welcome to a 🔓 free edition 🔓 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

💡Premium subscribers get access to custom GPTs, full archives, advanced tools, and Digital Danny — your AI-powered coach. Upgrade here.

Subscribe now

The Ruckus Report

Quick take: If you’re facing pushback on your bold school vision, this episode is your playbook for flipping critics into raving fans. Learn how one principal shifted the narrative — and built massive community support in the process.

Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Dr. Christopher Jones is a high school principal, leadership author, and host of the Seeing to Lead podcast. He helps educators shift from surviving to thriving by encouraging reflection, connection, and vision — even in the most resistant environments.

Breaking Down the Old Rules 🔨

Key Insight #1

• What’s broken: Too many leaders are paralyzed by fear of resistance — especially from staff or community stakeholders.

• The shift: Chris started by listening deeply and showing people how they could lead without a title.

• Impact: Staff ownership grew, and culture shifted — not because mandates were handed down, but because people bought in.

Key Insight #2

• What’s broken: Traditional admin mindsets treat critics as threats rather than assets.

• The shift: Chris chose curiosity over combat, asking questions like: “What do you want to see happen?”

• Impact: Open conversations turned former critics into trusted allies who now champion his leadership publicly.

Key Insight #3

• What’s broken: Schools often ignore how powerful public perception is in building momentum.

• The shift: Chris proactively told positive stories and empowered his community to tell them too.

• Impact: The narrative shifted from doubt to celebration — with the superintendent, school board, and staff all on board.

Quotable Ruckus

“Your loudest critics might just be your most loyal supporters — if you give them the chance to lead.”

– Dr. Christopher Jones

Your Do School Different Challenge

• Tomorrow: Ask one critic what success would look like in their eyes. Listen without defense.

• This Month: Invite that person into a decision-making process — not to agree with you, but to shape the future together.

• This Semester: Create a system where feedback becomes fuel, not friction. Turn your toughest room into your greatest asset.

Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript here.

🔗 His Books:

• 📘 SEEing to Lead

• 📗 Isabella and the Storm

• 📕 Isabella’s Unexpected Gift

📌 Ruckus Makers Don’t Just Listen — They Act

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

🧠 Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey

📬 Subscribe to the Free Newsletter – 3x/week leadership mindset shifts and tools that work: ruckusmakers.news

🗞 Read Ruckus Makers – Premium content on Substack with early access to new books, AI prompts, and more: ruckusmakers.media

💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club – Private community, The Automatic School™ tools, and more: ruckusmakers.club

🧨 Apply to the Mastermind – Weekly coaching + The Ruckus Maker Flywheel leadership system: Apply Now

❤️ Today’s show is sponsored by:

For over 30 years, ODP Business Solutions® has helped schools transform from whiteboards to smartboards. Why? Because when you get the right tools, everyone wins. Visit odpbusiness.com/education to revolutionize your school’s learning spaces.

Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, it helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and it adapts instruction based on student performance.

Get started today at ixl.com/leaders

👋 Welcome to a 🔓 free edition 🔓 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

💡Premium subscribers get access to custom GPTs, full archives, advanced tools, and Digital Danny — your AI-powered coach. Upgrade here.

Subscribe now

🧨 The Ruckus Report

Quick take:

What if everything you believed about math education was wrong? In this episode, Ted Dintersmith, bestselling author of Aftermath and What School Could Be, pulls back the curtain on how math has been weaponized — and how school leaders can transform learning by teaching the math that actually matters.

🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Ted Dintersmith is a bestselling author, education advocate, and former venture capitalist who believes traditional math education has failed our students. In Aftermath, he unveils the life-changing, real-world math skills students deserve to learn.

🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules

🎯 Key Insight #1: Real Math Skills Are Ignored in School

• What’s broken: We spend billions teaching rote math no adult uses.

• The shift: Teach students estimation, decision-making, game theory, and data literacy.

• Impact: Students gain tools to make sense of the world — and avoid being replaced by AI.

🎯 Key Insight #2: Standardized Testing Drives Irrelevance

• What’s broken: Tests reward regurgitation over reasoning.

• The shift: Focus on deep thinking and real-life application instead of the “one right answer.”

• Impact: Students build critical thinking and communication skills that machines can’t replicate.

🎯 Key Insight #3: Career-Based Learning Isn’t “Less Than”

• What’s broken: Schools track kids into college or label them “less than” if they pursue trades.

• The shift: Elevate career-based learning, internships, and real-world skills for all students.

• Impact: Confidence, agency, and community impact — plus real jobs post-graduation.

💬 Quotable Ruckus

“The math that really matters in life does not have one right answer.” – Ted Dintersmith

🚀 Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implment these ideas? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Audit your math curriculum. Are you teaching skills students will actually use?

• This Month: Host a screening of Multiple Choice and start a community conversation on real-world learning.

• This Semester: Design or pilot a learning experience rooted in data literacy, estimation, or decision-making.

🔗 Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript here

🔗 Follow Ted: teddintersmith.com

🎬 multiplechoicefilm.com

📌 Ruckus Makers Don’t Just Listen — They Act

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Do School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

🧠 4 Ways to Do School Different

• 📬 Newsletter — Do School Different 3x/week: ruckusmakers.news

• 📖 Substack — Exclusive content, AI prompts, and book sneak peeks: ruckusmakers.media

• 💥 The Club — Network, AI tools, and workshops: ruckusmakers.club

• 🧨 The Mastermind — Coaching and the Ruckus Maker Flywheel: Apply Now

Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

🎙 Today’s RUCKUS cast in Partnership With:

ODP Business Solutions®

• Looking to create the kind of campus experience students never forget? ODP Business Solutions® transforms ordinary spaces into extraordinary learning environments. 🔍 Learn more: odpbusiness.com/education

IXL

• Over 1 million teachers rely on IXL because it is empowering, helps them make better decisions with reliable data, and adapts instruction based on student performance. 🔍 Get started: ixl.com/leaders

PLAY PIPER

• Kids love gaming and computers, but are disengaged from math and science at school. Play Piper changes that with hands-on STEM kits and a coding curriculum. 🔍 Learn more: playpiper.com

Twelve Practices LLC © 2025 | If Education Ain’t a Bit Disruptive, Then What Are Your Students Learning?

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

Chapter 39 —The Launch

There’s a kind of tired only educators know.

Not just body-tired — soul-tired.

The kind that comes from ten months of giving, adjusting, lifting others up, holding the pieces together.

Jordan expected to see that kind of exhaustion as she stepped into the media center for the post–spring break staff meeting. She even built in extra margin — shorter agenda, more celebration, less initiative talk.

But the moment she walked in, she froze.

Laughter.

Actual laughter.

Groups of teachers leaned over tables, animated. Not slumped in chairs, not checking watches. Talking. Smiling. Energized.

“This is … different,” Jordan whispered, almost without meaning to.

Andre caught it. “You feel that too?”

She nodded slowly. “Usually this time of year feels like dragging a piano uphill. This year… it’s like someone opened the windows.”

They started the meeting with student stories. Maria’s advisory team had just hosted a student-led planning day — gathering feedback for what next year’s pods could look like.

They called it: The Launch.

And they wanted to share their pitch.

The team stood confidently at the front — Maria, Jamal, Mia, and three others Jordan had watched come out of their shells this year. One slide showed a vision statement the students had co-written:

“A school where every kid knows their voice matters — and every adult listens like it’s true.”

Applause broke out. Some teachers even stood.

Jordan scanned the room, the faces of people who had once rolled their eyes at change now leaning forward, scribbling notes, inspired.

She hadn’t planned for this. She didn’t organize it. She didn’t approve it.

She just got out of the way.

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

You spent three days in a conference room.

Stakeholder voices. Sticky notes. A facilitator who cost more than your copier budget.

The result? A beautiful vision statement that now lives on your website, your email signature, and that poster by the main office that nobody reads.

But what if your vision statement is a liar?

Not because the words are wrong. But because words without operational clarity don’t create change — they create cynicism.

The Old Way (That Doesn’t Work)

Districts believe that if they can just nail the language, the transformation will follow. So they workshop phrases like “innovative learning community” and “prepare students for an ever-changing world” until everyone agrees.

Then they go back to their campuses and ... nothing changes.

Teachers still teach the same way. Leaders still manage the same crises. Students still experience the same school.

The vision becomes wallpaper. Inspiring, maybe. But invisible.

Why This Happens

Vision without systems is just aspiration.

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

Chapter 37 — The Letter

The cafeteria was loud in that way only a middle school lunchroom could be — trays clattering, sneakers squeaking, laughter ping-ponging between tables.

Jordan sat at a round table near the corner, half-listening to a group of eighth graders debate which hot sauce reigned supreme.

Maria slid into the seat next to her. Her smile was steady. Confident. The opposite of the girl Jordan once worried she’d lose.

“I wrote you something,” Maria said, almost too casually. She handed Jordan a folded sheet of notebook paper. “Don’t read it now. You’ll cry and make it weird.”

Jordan laughed, startled, then nodded. “Noted.”

Maria grinned and turned back to her friends, who immediately roped her into a story involving cafeteria pizza and a TikTok dare.

Jordan tucked the letter into her bag and let the moment linger.

She didn’t open it until later — after the dismissal bell, after the last bus pulled away, after the building quieted like it always did in that strange hour between chaos and night.

She sat in her office, the daylight golden through the blinds, and unfolded the letter.

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

I’m holding a tiny book in my hands. Just 36 pages. You could read it during your lunch break.

The book is called Bumpers by Nic Peterson, and it’s one of the most influential books I’ve ever read.

Here’s the thing — most people assume bigger books mean more value.

• The 500-page leadership tome.

• The comprehensive guide to strategic planning.

• The doctoral dissertation on educational reform.

But this little 36-page book? It completely revolutionized how I make decisions.

The metaphor is simple: Think about bowling with bumpers in the gutters. The ball can’t fall off track. It’s guaranteed to hit at least some pins.

Moral of the story is: One decision today can make thousands of decisions for you in the future.

Nic had this fascinating insight that most people miss …

Everyone tells us to play to our strengths. Go all in on what you’re great at. And that’s true.

But what they don’t tell you …

The fastest way to improve your overall performance isn’t just getting better at your best stuff. It’s eliminating your worst performance every single day.

Think about it like a math equation. If you removed your lowest value every day, your average automatically increases.

This same principle applies to your leadership.

That’s why I created the Ruckus Maker Rules system — a way for school leaders to establish 3-5 guardrails that keep them in their lane of excellence while automatically filtering out the stuff that drags them down.

Imagine having crystal-clear boundaries that:

• Help you say “no” without guilt

• Eliminate decision fatigue

• Keep you focused on what matters most

• Protect your time, energy, and relationships

You could create these rules two ways:

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

From The Ruckus Maker Mastermind this week:

Sarah opened her email on a Tuesday morning and felt her stomach drop.

Subject line: “Open to Transfer or Resignation”

The teacher (a former high school English star with “highly effective” written all over her file) was two months into teaching fifth grade math and having a full-blown panic attack at school.

She’d gone home early.

And now she was done.

Sarah’s principal didn’t blink.

“Let her go. We’ll figure something out.”

But here’s what made this decision brutal:

This wasn’t some lazy teacher phoning it in. This was someone who’d successfully taught 10th and 11th graders for years, led capstone projects, earned glowing evaluations ...

... who was now completely drowning.

Fifth grade math. Different content. Different age. Different universe.

And the math coach?

She’d been pushing hard on curriculum compliance, correcting the teacher’s use of “five and above, give it a shove” instead of teaching place value concepts, watching students bomb checkpoints, and cranking up the pressure.

No relationship. Just expectations.

The teacher sent the email. The principal shrugged. And Sarah had maybe 48 hours to decide:

Do you let struggling adults go when the numbers don’t look good?

Or do you fight for them when your gut says they just need the right support?

Here’s what made this harder:

There was a second fifth grade math teacher — also struggling, also likely leaving mid-year (military transfer).

Union rules meant if either resigned, they couldn’t be hired in neighboring counties for a year.

And the sub pool? Empty.

Sarah sat with it. The pressure to perform was real. The data looked bad. The staffing crisis was looming.

But something didn’t add up.

Most “performance problems” are actually diagnosis problems.

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

CHAPTER 35 – “The Decision”

Jordan knocked on the open door.

Mark looked up, eyebrows raised. “Hey there. Come on in.”

She stepped into his office — calm, steady — and took the chair across from him. The same weird energy from before still hung in the air. He was sipping coffee. Waiting.

She didn’t fumble.

“I’ve thought a lot about your offer,” she began. “And I’m honored. Truly.”

Mark nodded. “It’s well deserved.”

“I know it might not make sense on paper,” she said, pausing. “But I’m staying.”

His face didn’t change. But his silence said enough.

Jordan kept going. “This isn’t fear talking. It’s alignment. We’ve built something at Franklin that’s finally starting to breathe. I’m not done yet.”

She could feel her heart rate spike — but only slightly. It wasn’t like the early days, when she’d say yes just to prove she belonged. When her calendar was packed and her vision buried under everyone else’s urgency.

Back then, she chased meaning by collecting obligations.

Now? She created meaning by protecting her purpose.

Mark shifted in his chair. “You sure?”

“I am.”

She stood. Then paused.

“One more thing,” she added, reaching into her bag and pulling out a crisp manila folder. “I put in a proposal to present at the National Leadership Conference this spring. A talk called Ruckus Makers Do School Different. I’m going to share what we’ve been doing here.”

Mark took the folder, glanced at the title, then back at her.

“And,” Jordan added, “I’ve got an idea for a PD series. Something I can offer informally to other principals — Evan, especially. I think it might help.”

Mark nodded slowly. “So you’re staying … but still reaching.”

Jordan smiled. “Exactly. I’m not shrinking. I’m focusing.”

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

Chapter 33 — The Visit

Andre was fixing a bulletin board that didn’t need fixing.

Jordan leaned against the doorway, watching him adjust a corner for the third time.

“You nervous?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Not really.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe a little,” he admitted. “District folks make me itch. You never know what they’re really looking for.”

Jordan stepped beside him. “They’re not looking for perfect. They’re looking for possible.”

Andre nodded, eyes scanning the hallway. Everything was in place — but not staged. The kids were ready. The staff was ready. He was ready. But still, his stomach flipped.

“Feels like a performance,” he mumbled.

“No,” Jordan said softly. “It’s a window.”

Mark was the first to walk in. Franklin’s former assistant superintendent, now wearing a district badge with more stripes. He smiled when he saw Jordan.

Behind him, two others followed:

Dr. Gomez, Deputy of Instruction: quiet, curious, clipboard in hand.

Ms. Fields, Data and Accountability: tight bun, tighter mouth.

Jordan greeted them calmly.

No slideshow. No agenda packet. No preamble.

Just an open door.

They started in Pod C.

Maria stood at a whiteboard, guiding a discussion on restorative justice in schools. Two classmates debated respectfully while others took notes. Ms. Holloway sat nearby, not interrupting — just listening.

Dr. Gomez leaned toward her. “Is this… typical?”

Ms. Holloway smiled. “Every Tuesday.”

They kept walking.

In Pod A, a student showed off a prototype for a water-filtration system. A Sticky Core Value banner — Name the Gap — hung above their workspace.

“Why that phrase?” Ms. Fields asked.

The student shrugged. “Because we don’t pretend here. If something’s broken, we say it. Then we fix it.”

A third pod group had a student-led help desk. No teacher in sight. Just peers helping peers.

Jordan watched from a distance.

She didn’t need to explain anything.

The school was doing that on its own.

The T-shirts caught their attention next.

Each student and teacher wore one.

On the front: one of the Sticky Core Values.

On the back: Ask me about it.

Dr. Gomez asked a girl about hers — Be the Lead Domino.

She lit up. “It means if I want something to happen, I have to go first. Not wait.”

He looked stunned. “You believe that?”

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

• If your “cutting-edge” new program requires a mandatory 3-hour after-school PD session ...

• If your innovation grant simply paid for a shiny new tool that sits in a closet ...

• If your staff is exhausted from “change” but your student data looks exactly the same ...

You haven’t innovated. You’re stuck in the Status Quo.

Most administrators approach innovation like a software update — they apply a patch to fix a specific bug, but they never question the operating system itself.

• We’ll add coding classes ... but keep the master schedule rigid.

• We’ll implement project-based learning ... but still grade on an isolated A-F curve.

• We’ll talk about empowerment ... but keep all decision-making at the top.

All this does is make the Status Quo feel better about itself.

It’s the system domesticating your bold idea, ensuring it delivers energy without requiring fundamental change in power, time, or trust.

Here’s what’s actually happening while you’re celebrating a superficial win:

Read more

👋 Welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of Ruckus Makers — the newsletter for bold school leaders who Do School Different. Each week we drop fresh content across our signature styles:

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

Twenty days into the school year, and the staff was already “overwhelmed.”

A principal on one of our mastermind calls shared his situation.

The ask? Two hours per month for PLCs. With full autonomy over how they use that time.

His ninth-grade success program? Completely reasonable early intervention work that prevents students from falling through cracks.

But teachers were pushing back hard. One respected teacher told him “everyone’s feeling overwhelmed.”

Here’s what made it interesting.

This principal had just landed at a new school. Smaller than his previous building. Rural. About 600 kids.

The previous principal had been there 15 years. Ran the place like a bulldozer. Zero trust with staff.

(read that again!)

And during COVID? The district gave everything back. No accountability. No structure. Teachers got used to complete autonomy.

Now this principal shows up with systems that should’ve been in place all along.

Meeting twice a month for an hour isn’t a heavy lift.

But when you’ve spent three years with zero expectations, even the basics feel like Mount Everest.

Here’s the thing:

Sometimes the ask isn’t unreasonable. It’s just new.

And there’s a massive difference between the two.

Read more

• The Reframe → Mindset shifts in 90-seconds.

• Dot AI → Supercharged leadership prompts and custom gpts

• MEH → The Onion meets Education. What could go wrong?

• First in Line → Exclusive access to content before the bookshelf.

• The Automatic School → A system that moves you FROM bottleneck TO breakthrough

• The Hot Seat → Coaching calls turned into case studies

• Digital Danny → Your 24-7 AI-powered leadership coach trained on 4M words of content and ten years of coaching experience.

You can learn more about this premium newsletter here.

Subscribe now

If your bold new initiative isn’t showing “results” yet...

If the innovation you launched three months ago still feels like it’s crawling...

If you’re questioning whether this whole “Do School Different” thing is actually working...

You’re measuring the wrong thing.

Most principals track change like a sprint — looking for immediate, visible wins that prove their leadership is “working.”

Test scores. Participation rates. How many teachers adopted the new framework by October.

But real transformation doesn’t happen on your timeline. It happens on a deeper clock.

Read more