The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast | The #1 Downloaded School Leadership Show
The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Danny Bauer, designed for K-12 school leaders who want to challenge the status quo. It features conversations with experts in leadership, learning, and culture, offering practical insights for principals and administrators. The podcast has been running since 2015 and is among the most downloaded shows in its niche, aiming to turn everyday moments into professional development opportunities.
Episodes
How to Delegate Everything in Your Head Without Hiring Anyone with Kati Cahill
Delegating feels impossible when you run a school alone — until you turn what's stuck in your head into a playbook someone else can run. Delegation is the hardest skill for a principal running a school without an assistant principal — every checklist, process, and judgment call lives in one head, and that head is exhausted. Kati Cahill, Head of School at Humanex Academy, a small private school for
Why Getting Answers From AI Is Hurting Your Leadership with Bill Renner
Currently in his eleventh year of school administration and his twenty-fifth in education, Bill Renner has run the full course through the Ruckus Maker system — the Mastermind, one-on-one coaching, and now Digital Danny. A middle school principal transitioning back to his first love, elementary, he's spent this year applying what each stage taught him about slowing down instead of reaching for the
Why Student Behavior Won't Change Until the Adults Do
Student behavior changed when the adults did: 25 discipline calls a day dropped to about one. Here's the adult-first work behind it. School discipline problems don't start with the kids. Sarah spent years answering 20 to 25 walkie calls a day for escalated students. Tokens, red-light-green-light charts, taking away recess — external systems trying to fix an internal issue. Then she started doing t
How to Make Better Decisions Without More Information with David Samuelson and Mary Call Blanusa
Leading the Alliance for Decision Education's work to make decision science part of core curriculum are David Samuelson, the organization's Executive Director, and Mary Call Blanusa, its Director of Public Policy. Samuelson spent his career leading digital transformation at national associations before turning to teaching students and school leaders the skills to navigate uncertainty — the same sk
Fred Holmes on Why He's Never Missed a Wednesday Mastermind
Over two decades in Memphis-area schools will teach you how to spot a leader who's still growing. Fred Holmes — known inside the Ruckus Maker Mastermind as the Velvet Hammer — started as a science teacher in Shelby County Schools, moved through teacher leadership and an assistant principalship, ran his own building as principal in Arkansas, and is now back in Memphis Shelby County Schools as a Pro
Why Principals Won't Delegate (And What It's Costing Them) with Naphtali Hoff
Dr. Naphtali Hoff trains school leaders and teachers to perform at their best without running themselves into the ground. A former educator and school leader himself, Dr. Hoff now coaches and trains school leaders on management, productivity, and delegation across the country. He's the author of three books, and his newest, Becoming the Delegating School Boss, is the one most relevant here — it h
Why Your Anti-Racist PD Isn't Actually Changing Anything with Dr Abby C. Emerson
She studies why anti-racist professional development in schools so often fails to change how teachers actually treat students — and what works instead. Dr Abby C. Emerson is an assistant professor of Childhood Education at Hunter College, CUNY, where her research spans anti-racist and abolitionist teacher education, restorative justice, and the critique of whiteness in educational spaces. She's be
Why the "Conveyor Belt" Career Model Is Failing Kids with Corey Kossack
Building AI tools that replace one-size-fits-all personality tests with real career plans is what got Corey Kossack into K12 education. He's the founder and CEO of Orchard, an AI-powered career counseling platform for schools, and Aspireship, an employee upskilling platform — work born from watching his own father cycle in and out of a job he hated for years. Kossack has spent his career helping p
Experiential Education: Why Your Lesson Plan Is Failing Students
Phil Brown trains educators to build the kind of learning moments a curriculum can't schedule. As an experiential and adventure education trainer at High 5 Adventure Learning Center, he's guided everyone from Iraqi high schoolers working through conflict resolution to NHL players from the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames through experiences designed to stretch — not break — them. He also serves on
The Learning Model That Turned a Dropout Into the Class Speaker with Jenny Curtin
Jenny Curtin partners with schools and districts across New England on behalf of the Barr Foundation, where she helps build and scale Transformative Learning Experiences — rigorous, project-based units developed with partner Springpoint that pull students out of the classroom and into courtrooms, communities, and real business ventures. Her work runs on a philanthropic value most funders don't pra
Why Firing Yourself Might Be Your Best Leadership Move
A principal and coach based in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, this episode's guest flips the usual format and turns the mic on Danny Bauer instead of the other way around. He brings the same coaching lens to the conversation that he uses inside the Better Leaders Better Schools Mastermind, where he works alongside other school leaders on the exact challenges this episode covers. His ques
Why Your Equity Work Isn't Closing the Gap with Zaretta Hammond
Zaretta Hammond has spent her career pushing school leaders past feel-good equity language and into the instructional core, where the real gaps live. Her latest book, Rebuilding Students' Learning Power: Teaching for Instructional Equity and Cognitive Justice, names a pattern she calls cognition redlining — the quiet, well-intentioned way schools underdevelop the thinking capacity of historically
The Real Reason Principals Burn Out (And How to Fix It): Adorable Red Hats with Dan Watt
Running an elementary school in rural British Columbia hasn't stopped this Ruckus Maker from building an indoor worm farm, growing hydroponic lettuce, and taking a self-funded year off to reset — proof that a principal's personality is not a distraction from the job. Dan Watt is a Mastermind Coach inside the Ruckus Maker community and a recurring co-host of the Ruckuscast, known for turning "pay y
3 Easy Ways to Build Your Confidence This Summer Before School Starts
Confidence as a principal isn't something you're born with — it's something you build. I've been asking new Mastermind members and Digital Danny users why they're signing up, and I keep hearing the same thing: they're working on their confidence. Most won't say it out loud. Most think their doubt means they're not cut out for this. That's the pattern I'm noticing. Here are three concrete practices
The CEO Who Gets 91% Teacher Retention Without Tenure with Pablo Villavicencio
Leading a 25-school network to a 96% graduation rate and 91% staff retention — with zero tenure protection — takes more than good policy. It takes a leader who has lived the exact inequity his schools now solve for. Pablo Villavicencio grew up in East LA, where his own neighborhood school graduated less than half its students, and only got a real shot at a quality education because his parents fal
Why Your Tutoring Program Is Quietly Failing Students With Aly Murray
Building a tutoring nonprofit that now serves 25,000 students a year — with a vision to reach millions — required someone who'd lived the exact gap she was trying to close. Aly Murray grew up a low-income student raised by a single immigrant mother, moved through a string of Title 1 schools, and felt firsthand what it's like to navigate homework and college applications without support at home. Sh
Why Reacting to Student Outbursts Destroys Your Classroom with Adam Wolfsdorf
Adam Wolfsdorf chairs the Humanities Department at Bay Ridge Preparatory in Brooklyn and teaches graduate students at NYU and Wesleyan, drawing on 26 years inside the classroom. He's the author of Teaching in the Riptide, where he names the moments educators get pulled under by something more powerful than their plan — and what to do when that happens. Outside the classroom, he spent 25 years perf
Why Your Neurodivergent Students Are Disappearing with Vanessa Castañeda Gill
She spent six years hiding her autism diagnosis from everyone — peers, friends, even herself. Then she built a neuroscience-backed video game that's changing how neurodivergent students understand who they are. Vanessa Castañeda Gill the founder of Social Cipher, an SEL video game platform designed by and for neurodivergent people, developed in partnership with the LEGO Foundation. Her work sits a
Why Every Student at This College Must Launch a Business- With Jeff Meade
Jeff Meade spent 20 years building companies. Then a friend asked him one question on a hike near Mount Fuji — what makes you happy? — and he couldn't answer it. That four-hour conversation led him to Paul Quinn College in Dallas, where he now serves as Chief Innovation Officer and runs a program with one non-negotiable rule: every student, regardless of major, must start and operate a real busine
Why Your Edtech Is Failing Students (And What to Do Instead) with Kris Rockwell
A researcher, Edtech expert, and PhD candidate studying the intersection of AI, learning, and human experience, Kris brings a rare combination of academic rigor and real-world application to the question every principal is quietly asking: is all this technology actually helping? His work with Play Piper puts him at the front lines of how kids interact with screens — and what happens when that inte
How to Turn Around a Failing School: Real-Time Coaching That Works
Eight years ago, Chad Weiden walked into one of South Carolina's most underperforming elementary schools — a campus so low-rated that the state took it over, failed to fix it, and handed it back to the district. He just turned it into a good school. The strategy for school turnaround he used wasn't a new curriculum, a fresh initiative, or a culture retreat. It was building beacons of excellence on
10 Lessons from 10 Years of School Leadership Podcasting with Danny Bauer
A decade into the Better Leaders Better Schools Ruckuscast, Danny Bauer has coached and interviewed hundreds of school leaders — and the patterns are clear. Dan Watt, elementary principal in British Columbia and Ruckus Maker, flips the microphone and puts Danny in the guest chair. What follows isn't nostalgia. It's the unfiltered architecture of a school leadership development ecosystem that actua
Why Your Open Door Policy Is Destroying Your Leadership with Michelle Sloan
She helps principals stop surviving their schools and start leading them. Michelle Sloan is an educator, author, and leadership coach who spent seven years building a school from the ground up — which gave her something rare: "firsthand proof that mission-driven leadership isn't a feel-good concept, it's a survival strategy." Her book The Purpose Driven Principal is the framework she wishes she'd
Why Your Drive Home Feels Empty (And How to Fix It Fast)
The principal drive home test: if you can't name one thing that mattered today, you're in reactive mode. Here's the fix. Principal burnout doesn't start in a crisis. It starts in the car at 6pm, when you've done a lot but moved nothing forward — the instructional leadership, the culture work, the long game stuff that actually changes outcomes never got touched. That's not a productivity problem.
Why Your PLCs Aren't Solving Problems (And What Does)
A professor at San Diego's High Tech High Graduate School of Education and co-author of PLC+: Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, Nancy Frey has spent decades studying how teachers actually collaborate — and why most of it doesn't work. Her research-backed PLC+ framework is the difference between a Wednesday morning ritual and a genuine engine of collective efficacy. She teaches full-ti
Why Avoiding Hard Conversations Is Costing Your School with Sage Hobbs
Her career started in Philadelphia public schools in the 90s, full of idealism and a master's in counseling psychology. A decade later, she was coaching executives in global corporations. Now Sage Hobbs coaches school principals and superintendents on the skill that drives everything else — the ability to have conversations that actually matter. She is the author of Naked Communication: Courageous
How Arts Programs in Schools Change Student Trajectories
A Chicano educator from Los Angeles has spent nearly 20 years building the infrastructure that schools won't — the kind that catches students before they fall through the cracks. Hector Chaira is the Director of Education Programs at the Latino Film Institute , home to the Youth Cinema Project, a filmmaking mentorship program now operating in 21 California school districts across 61 classrooms. YC
Why the Best Teachers Are Different — and What That Costs You — Bonus Episode with Christopher Lochhead
The man who co-created category design — the strategic framework behind companies like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Drift — has a blunt message for principals: your recruiting ads are announcing that nobody wants to work at your school. Christopher Lochhead is co-author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, and Category Pirates, the wildly popular business newsletter read by some of the sharpest operators in te
The Stories That Built a Top 1% Podcast/ Building Better Leaders
Ten years of school leadership podcasting reveals one consistent truth: most principals are doing it alone when they don't have to. In this special anniversary episode, Danny Bauer sits down with co-host Dan Watt to trace the arc from isolated AP to category-defining podcast host — and what he's learned coaching hundreds of school leaders along the way. Dan Watt is a school principal, leadership c
Why Not Today? The Mindset That Changes Everything in Schools with Jesus Huerta
🧰 The Ruckus Report Quick take: This episode is a masterclass in what happens when a teacher stops delivering lessons — and starts creating life-changing experiences. 🙋♂️ Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jesus Huerta is an educator and innovation coach who transforms classrooms into launchpads for curiosity, creativity, and future careers. From 3D printing to robotics, his work centers on one missio
Reimagining Untapped School Spaces with Anne Seeley
📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most principals accept their school building as a fixed constraint. Anne Seeley proves it's actually your most under-utilized leadership tool — and you don't need a construction budget to start. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Anne Seeley, a Senior Associate Project Manager, NCARB, LEED, AP, AIA is an accomplished architect with a distinct blend of expertise. For ov
What Happens When a Principal Drives Their Own Development
Principal leadership development is broken — 3 out of 4 school leaders have no coach, no mentor, no one to think it through with. Principal coaching and self-mentorship are the difference between leaders who wait for answers and leaders who generate their own. Corey, a Chicago principal, logged 910 conversations with Digital Danny over one school year — not for generic advice, but to think throu
Tech Intentional Schools: Why More Screens Are Failing Kids with Emily Cherkin
📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Schools didn't gradually adopt tech — they surrendered to it. This episode is a wake-up call for leaders ready to reclaim learning, relationships, and childhood from screens. 🎓Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Emily Cherkin, M.Ed., The Screentime Consultant, is leading the fight for a Tech-IntentionalTM childhood. Emily works with schools, families, policymakers, and ad
The Leadership Move Most Superintendents Avoid with Dr. Lindsay Whorton
📋 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most systems are designed to control people, not empower them.This episode shows what happens when a leader flips that script — and trusts the people closest to students to lead. 🙋♂️ Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Lindsay Whorton is president of The Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit building stronger leaders for public schools. She's the author of A New School Lead
Creating Campus Experiences Students Actually Care About With Tommy Floyd
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: You can't force engagement — but you can design for success. Tommy Floyd breaks down how one meaningful win can transform disconnected students into confident, motivated learners. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Tommy Floyd originally became involved in NASP® in 2003, while serving as a high school principal and NASP® coach. Several of the first NASP® state champion
Turning Community Engagement into a Strategic Planning Superpower with Drew Howick & Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank
📕 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most strategic plans fail for one simple reason — leaders try to sell a vision the community didn't help create. Drew Howick and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank reveal how the Future Search process flips that script by putting the whole community in the room to design the future together. 🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Makers Drew Howick is the founder of Howick Associates, a highl
Reimagining the architecture of learning by challenging traditional, standardized education models with Adrian Ireland
🧰 The Ruckus Report Quick take: This episode flips the script on school culture and student motivation. Adrian Ireland shows why most engagement issues aren't about effort — they're about environment — and what to do instead. 🫂 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Adrian Ireland is an international educator, systems thinker, and author who reimagines the architecture of learning by challenging traditiona
Start Next School Year with Confidence and Clarity with Danny
📕 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Danny tells the brutal story of a "worst first day of school ever" moment — when half the students had no schedules — and uses it to make the case for a 90-day entry plan that builds trust fast, reduces stress, and keeps your campus from spiralling into avoidable chaos. 🔨 Breaking Down the Old Rules In this episode, Danny challenges the "vibes-only leadership" appro
Build the School You Wish Existed (and Let Students Run the Culture) with Will Campbell
🧨 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most leaders say they want innovation… then rebuild the same dusty campus experience with newer paint. Will Campbell shows what happens when you press reset, redesign the human experience of school, and trust students to build the culture while teachers get time to grow inside the workday. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Will Campbell is redefining what's possible wit
From Panic to Purpose: How Kim Strobel Teaches Happiness in Schools
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Kim Strobel's been attacked for teaching differently — and still chose joy. In this episode, she shows school leaders how happiness isn't fluff — it's the foundation. Learn how to fight for your fire, rewire your brain, and lead a school worth showing up for. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Kim Strobel is a former teacher and administrator turned global speaker, aut
The Hands-On Cure for Screen-Addicted Schools with Kris Rockwell
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the cure for disengagement isn't better apps, but real tools in real hands? In this episode, Kris Rockwell challenges the one-way screen model that dominates modern classrooms — and makes a powerful case for hands-on learning that sparks joy, confidence, and curiosity. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Kris Rockwell works at the intersection of venture capital
Linking Learning to Life: Dr. Annalies Corbin's 5 Power Strategies
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the best learning doesn't happen in a classroom? Dr. Annalies Corbin shares 5 proven strategies to design schools that actually connect learning to real life. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Annalies Corbin is the Founder & CEO of the PAST Foundation, a trailblazing organization transforming education for the 21st century. A relentless innovator, Dr. Cor
The Whiteboard on Every Desk: Anthony Beckett's Vision for Inclusive Learning
🎙 The Ruckus Report Quick Take: What happens when a high school sophomore builds the tool he wishes his teacher had? You get Markify — a collaborative, accessible classroom platform now used by 20,000+ students. In this episode, Anthony Beckett shares how a missed note sparked a movement and what school leaders can learn from a student-led disruption. 👋 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Anthony Becket
Lead Yourself First: The Awakening Every Principal Needs with Joël McLean
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: If you're leading from an empty tank, you're not leading at all. Joël McLean learned the hard way that transformational leadership starts within — and he built a roadmap any school leader can follow. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Joël McLean is a former principal turned certified leadership coach, committed to helping leaders at every level develop skills and conf
Trade Fear for Courage: Ryan Hennessey's Grand Finale to Teachin
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Ryan Hennessey didn't just walk away from teaching — he dropped the mic. In this episode, he reveals how to leave on your own terms, build brave spaces that spark curiosity, and model vulnerability without losing yourself in the process. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Ryan Hennessey is a former award-winning educator turned heart-led entrepreneur who refuses to acc
Compton Is What the Future Looks Like - Leading with Ethics, Vision, and Results with Micah Ali
😎 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Micah Ali dismantles outdated mindsets about urban education and shares how Compton Unified went from a district people had written off to one that's setting the pace for California. Learn what it takes to build trust, flip expectations, and drive equity by doing what's ethical. 🙌 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Micah Ali is the longest-serving President in the histor
Build Trust First, Curriculum Second with Joe LaTorre
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the key to student achievement wasn't curriculum coverage or test prep, but trust? Joe LaTorre's classroom proves that when you lead with relationships, kids show up, lean in, and thrive. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Joe LaTorre is a nationally recognized middle school teacher from Oceanside, NY. Known for building powerful classroom culture and eliminati
From Overcrowded to One-on-One: Reimagining School with Fusion's Micro Model with Lynna Martinez-Khalilian
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: When the system broke her heart, she built a new one. From a classroom with no chairs to a network of 1:1 micro schools, Lynna Martinez-Khalilian is rewriting the rules of what school can be. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Lynna Martinez-Khalilian is a former classroom teacher who experienced the limits of traditional schooling firsthand. Now a pioneer at Fusion Ed
How ABCDE Days Made 6th Graders Love Science Again with Jessica Levine & Mitch Weathers
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Jessica Levine restructured Wednesdays to unlock autonomy, connection, and deep learning in her sixth-grade science class. Joined by Mitch Weathers, this episode explores student voice, the power of routine, and why helping kids feel known is just as critical as teaching content. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Makers Jessica Levine is a sixth-grade science teacher who cr
Tier 1 or Bust: How Great Schools Stay Out of the Referral Spiral
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most schools are drowning in Tier 2 and Tier 3 referrals. Mitch Weathers shows why fixing Tier 1 first is the only way out — and how to actually make it work. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Mitch Weathers is a veteran educator, author, and co-founder of Organized Binder. He's helped thousands of schools rethink their Tier 1 systems and center equity, consistency, a
Every Voice Matters: Reimagining Leadership with Dr. Brandi Kelly
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Dr. Brandi Kelly offers a refreshing reminder that hope isn't fluffy — it's foundational. In this episode, she unpacks how school leaders can reconnect with what matters most: the heartbeat of their schools. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Brandi Kelly is a seasoned educator with 20+ years of experience as a school social worker, principal, and superintendent. S
Discipline Isn't About Fixing Kids — It's About Fixing Us with Charle Peck & Joshua Stamper
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Traditional discipline assumes kids will reflect, reset, and return on their own. Charle Peck and Joshua Stamper expose the myth of self-regulation and offer a proven, trauma-informed framework that transforms behavior systems from reactive to relational. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Makers Charle Peck is a global keynote speaker and co-author of The Language of Behavi
Connection Is the New Curriculum: Building Schools Worth Showing Up For — with Dr. Anne Paonessa
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if connection — not curriculum — was the real driver of academic success? In this episode, Dr. Anne Paonessa reframes student disengagement as feedback, not failure, and reveals how connection fuels attendance, learning, and belonging on every campus. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Anne Paonessa is a former assistant superintendent, national speaker, and a
Reject the Premise Part 4 with Jethro Jones
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: If you think skipping lunch and glorifying stress proves your worth as a school leader, this episode will hit different. Danny and Jethro rip the mask off martyrdom in education and offer a new, healthier way to lead. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jethro Jones is a former principal and host of the Transformative Principal podcast. He's coached school leaders aroun
Raise Thinkers, Embrace Humanity, Teach for Tomorrow with Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most schools are stuck in the past. But Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth is building a future-fluent model that fuses AI, global citizenship, and joy — and it's working. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth is Head of School at Pine Street School, a private International Baccalaureate school in Manhattan. A trilingual leader with global roots
Reclaiming Black Educational Power with Dr. Karida L. Brown
🖊 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What if the most powerful classrooms in American history operated under segregation? Dr. Karida L. Brown reframes our understanding of Black education during Jim Crow and offers a compelling vision for nurturing students through ecosystems of care. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Karida L. Brown is an NAACP Image Award-winning author, professor at Emory Universi
Stop Asking "What Do I Do?" and Start Asking "Who Am I?" — with Dr. Chad Dumas
📣 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most leaders ask the wrong question. They obsess over what to do next instead of who they're becoming. In this episode, Dr. Chad Dumas unpacks how self-awareness, non-verbal cues, and intentional presence shape your entire school culture before a single decision is made. 🎓 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Chad Dumas is an international consultant, author, and award
Ted Dintersmith on Redefining Math and Purpose in School
🧨 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
Why School Start Times, Sleep, and Saying Less Matter More Than Your ACT Score
🎯 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 Di
3 AI Principles Ruckus Makers Use to Future-Proof Their Leadership with Danny Bauer
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most principals fear AI. Ruckus Makers see it as fuel for innovation. In this solo episode, Danny shares 3 foundational AI principles that will redefine school leadership in 2025 — showing you how to trade fear for leverage and ideas for bold action. **You can unlock all 10 AI principles here.** 👋 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Danny Bauer helps Ruckus Makers Do Sch
Simon Strong Provides Half a Semester of Learning in One Hour
🎯 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
How This Principal United Two Enemy High Schools
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: What happens when two rival schools — with decades of "us vs. them" history — are forced to become one? Derek Cantrell didn't just merge Alleghany and Covington into a single high school. He built a "Better Together" culture while weaving in AI tools that are reshaping instruction and leadership. This episode is a blueprint for rethinking school culture in the age o
Student Turns Classroom Idea Into $40,000 Business (Principal Reveals How) with Jeremy Quals
Quick take: What happens when a leader ditches ego, prioritizes relationships, and treats students like real-world innovators? Jeremy Quals proves you can turn around struggling schools and create one of the most exciting entrepreneurial programs in the country. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Dr. Jeremy Qualls is the Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center (EIC) and Colle
From NYC's Toughest Schools to California's Top Charter: A Principal's Journey
The Ruckus Report. Quick take: What if the secret to becoming a more effective school leader was … leaving school? Joe Clausi, known as the Traveling Principal, shares how stepping out of the building helped him step into his purpose. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Joe Clausi, aka The Traveling Principal, is reimagining what it means to lead schools by exploring the world — and himself — one passpo
The Secret to Turning Resistance into Support
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
10 Surprising Lessons I Learned Making a Podcast (With 1 Million+ Downloads)
What started as a frustrating Sunday afternoon mistake in a tiny Chicago apartment turned into a million-download podcast that changed everything. Join 5,000+ Ruckus Makers who want to Do School Different 👉 https://ruckusmakers.news/subscribe Ten years ago, I almost quit before I even started. I lost my first interview recording and nearly gave up on the whole podcasting dream. Instead, I chose my
William Grube on Flipping AI From Threat to Superpower
🎯 The Ruckus Report Quick take: If you're still blocking ChatGPT, you're playing the wrong game. In this episode, William Grube of Groovy Education shows how to turn AI from a perceived threat into a daily teaching advantage — one that saves teachers time, levels up rigor, and makes cheating irrelevant. 🤝 Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker William Grube is the founder of Groovy Education, a consultancy
Leading from the Ground Up
The Ruckus Report Quick take: From pushing a broom to leading the boardroom — Dr. Chris Jackson's journey from custodian to principal at his own alma mater proves that grit, humility, and authentic community connection matter more than pedigree when transforming schools. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Chris Jackson rose from custodian to administrator in his hometown of San Bernardino, fueled by
Red Hat Rebellion
The Ruckus Report Quick take: Two beards, two red hats, one mission to blow up education's broken boundaries. Mitch Weathers reveals why saying "no" to district busywork and "yes" to what actually moves the needle isn't rebellion — it's leadership. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Mitch became a gifted teacher because he was a mediocre student. Mitch rarely felt comfortable in the classroom. In fact,
Building Trust in a System That Breaks It
The Ruckus Report Quick take: The most dangerous myth in school leadership is that problems will eventually stop. Jennifer Schwanke reveals how embracing challenges and shifting from "trustworthy" to "trust willing" transforms toxic school cultures into thriving communities. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jennifer Schwanke, Ed.D., brings nearly three decades of experience to the field of educat
Mentorship and Modernization: Building Schools for the Future
The Ruckus Report Quick take: Student voice isn't just nice to have—it's the missing ingredient in creating schools worth showing up for. Casey Wright proves that when you design with students instead of around them, everything from panini lines to classroom layouts becomes a catalyst for engagement. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Casey Wright has served as an educational leader in Illinois high
How School Leaders Can Reclaim Their Time and Lead on Their Own Terms
Most principals feel like they're doing everything right — but something still feels wrong. That's not a personal failure. It's proof you're playing someone else's game. In this episode, Danny Bauer invites school leaders to stop following broken rules and start authoring their own. Breaking Down the Old Rules 🔨 Key Insight #1 What's broken: School leaders can't name the rules of the game they're
Rob Barnett on Transforming Classroom Chaos into Mastery-Based Learning
The Ruckus Report Quick take: When 21 kids are on your roster but only 3 show up on time, you don't quit — you reinvent how learning works. Rob Barnett's journey from near-burnout to building a model that reaches 100,000+ educators proves that ditching whole-class instruction might be the best thing you can do for student achievement. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Rob Barnett is co-founder of t
Breaking Barriers: Giving Yourself Permission to Lead
The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most school leaders are waiting for someone else's permission to create the change they know their students need. Will Parker destroys that myth and reveals the #1 barrier standing between you and transformational leadership — yourself. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker William D. Parker is the founder of Principal Matters, LLC—an educator, author, speaker, and execut
Reject the Premise Part 3
Jethro Jones on Breaking the Robot Principal Playbook The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most school leaders are trained to lead like emotionless robots. But students aren't spreadsheets and staff don't need a boss with a checklist — they need a human being. Time to reject the premise that logic alone should run our schools. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jethro Jones, 2017 NASSP Digital Principal of
Sam Feeney on Closing the Compliance Gap
The Ruckus Report Quick take: The biggest legal risk most districts face isn't a headline-grabbing lawsuit — it's the hidden gap between the accommodations they promise and the ones students actually receive. Sam Feeney built a tool that collapses this compliance gap to 10 seconds and a single click. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Sam Feeney has been an educator for twenty-five years as an English
Rethinking School Leadership: From Problem-Solver to Capacity-Builder
Mitch Weathers on Breaking the Bottleneck Leadership Trap The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most principals think they're the chief problem solver—but that mindset is actually what's breaking their schools. When you're the go-to for every fire, you're not leading, you're enabling dependence. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Mitch became a gifted teacher because he was a mediocre student. Mitch rarely f
Veronica Holyoke on Breaking the Myth of Solitary Leadership
The Ruckus Report Quick take: The "lone wolf" leader is a toxic myth that's burning out school administrators and failing students. Veronica Holyoke proves that transformational leadership happens in community, not isolation — and one hour a week can change everything. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Veronica Holyoke is a 25-year education veteran and Utah's 2024 Assistant Principal of the Year. A
Punching the Shark: Why Teacher Retention Beats Recruitment Every Time
The Ruckus Report Quick take: Most districts are dumping water into leaky buckets while wondering why they can't fill them. Nate Eklund shows us why we've been solving the wrong problem — and how "punching the shark" creates the workplace conditions that make educators want to stay. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Nate Eklund is the founder and CEO of Vital Network, a national organization focused
Building Culture That Goes Beyond the Wall
The Ruckus Report Quick take: If your school has beautiful values painted on the walls but nobody's living them, you're running a theater, not a school. Jimmy Casas exposes the brutal difference between what we say and what we do. Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker Jimmy Casas has been an educator for over 30 years, serving twenty-two years as a school leader. Under his leadership, his school was nam
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