Alone With Our Principals

The Ferrari 250GT California. It is His Love, it is His Passion: Bringing Your Passion to the Classroom

Eric and Chris talk with two elementary school teachers who bring their outside interests into their classrooms to engage with students in fun and creative ways.  Preschool teacher Mary Sue Cox teaches yoga to her students, and 4th grade teacher Ellie Garcia sings and plays guitar and generally "rocks out" with kids!

You Can Never Go Too Far: Creating Engaging Activities for Staff and Students

On this guest-free episode, Eric, Carrie, and Chris discuss fun activities they've developed to help build a positive school culture.  

You See Us as You Want to See Us -- In the Simplest Terms and Most Convenient Definitions: Facts and Misconceptions about Special Education

Eric and Chris talk with Special Education Director Matt Fedders and Coordinator Teri McCollum about a variety of special ed. topics.  In the "Extra Credit" segment, we discuss the merits and pitfalls of Mother's Circus Animal Cookies and Oreos.

Just When You Think You’ve Found Your Way, Life Will Throw You Onto a New Path: Managing Change

Eric and Chris are joined by elementary principal Renee Singer and elementary assistant principal Christie Cuevas to discuss ways to manage change -- especially as we adjust to teaching during a pandemic.  

Teach From a Catapult: The Best of the Extra Credit Segments

Every week, we ask our guests an "extra credit" question -- something like "Which muppet would make the best kindergarten teacher?" or "What's the biggest animal you think you could beat up?"  It's always a lot of fun, so we put together a collection of some of our best moments from these conversations.

With Your Bad Knee, Ed, You Shouldn't Throw Anybody: Supporting Educational Administrators

All administrators know that our secretary can make or break us.  On this episode, Eric and Chris talk with Lori Mente and Brenda Hawk, the executive secretaries for Hesperia Unified School District's Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent.  

We're All Pretty Bizarre, Some of Us are Just Better at Hiding It: Hiring Practices and Interviewing

Eric and Chris sit down with Hesperia USD Assistant Superintendent Robert McCollum and Hesperia Jr. High Principal Faysel Bell to talk about the importance of hiring the right people to build a positive culture.  Also, which characters from The Wizard of Oz would make the best school employees?

Rebroadcast/Why Are You Being So Nice to Me?: Positivity and Building Relationships

In this re-run of Episode 4, we discuss positivity and relationships with Hesperia High School Principal Mike Everett.  

Rebroadcast/They Think He's a Righteous Dude: Social Media and Branding

Alone With Our Principals is on Christmas Break, but we hope you enjoy this rebroadcast of Episode 2, where we discussed social media and branding with elementary principal Theresa Kallenberger.

If I Was Bleeding Out My Eyes, You Guys Would Make Me Go to School: Our Weird Stories

Eric, Chris, and Carrie share some of their oddest experiences as teachers and administrators.  Other topics on this episode include "skitching," the "everybody gets a trophy" debate, and we determine how many chickens it would take to kill an elephant.