Leading yourself and your school through change is one of the most challenging leadership tasks. It takes time (typically anywhere from 3-7 years) and requires an adaptable, flexible skill set. When leading meaningful change, you are guaranteed to meet challenges, resistance and setbacks. But that does not mean you should quit. Far from it. It means you are leading work that is needed and work that is probably overdue.

Our custom workshops are based on the content in The Human Side of Changing Education. They are practical, hands-on, and tailored to meet your school, your team’s, or conference attendees’ needs. Some examples of what we've done in the past:

  • Designed and facilitated workshops for school and district leaders on leading meaningful and sustainable change

  • Designed and facilitated board retreats

  • Partnered with regional and international consortia of school leaders to co-design and co-lead a series of workshops on authentic leadership and the 3 Truths for the Future of Education

We partner with schools, districts, conferences and consortia to design and facilitate workshops that help leaders lead meaningful and sustainable change.

When we ask schools to change, we are asking human beings to change and this requires special tools and a human-centered approach. Change the heart of the system by enabling the hearts and minds of your people. Learn how to make sense of challenging change journeys and accelerate implementation:

  • Discover the core tasks needed when leading yourself and others through change.

  • Understand why resistance is to be expected and how to get through it.

  • Learn how to use the "messy middle" of change, where real transformation happens.

 

CLIENT EXAMPLES

River Valley Charter School

In support of revitalizing the Montessori experience:

  • Designed and facilitated board retreats
  • Designed and facilitated 'learning history' with faculty and staff
  • Designed and facilitated community meeting with RVCS families and RVCS alumni
  • Consulted on process and helped facilitate meetings as teacher-led teams drafted the RVCS Habits of Learning - these habits became a schoolwide curriculum map called The Peace Education Curriculum Map

Our strategic planning process was centered on our academic program and the holistic education we provide our kids (we are a public charter Montessori school). Julie fit beautifully with our intention and helped us to fully embrace the holistic nature of our education program.

Julie was instrumental in helping us clarify our thinking. She was relentless in her focus on what matters - because of our work together, she has tattooed on my forehead, “What does success look like?” - a question that always helps me define what we want and backwards design from there. She helped us define our own questions, identify goals, and draft pathways to reach those goals. It was great and it was frustrating. She didn’t give us the answers. Like any good teacher, she let us struggle and find our own way through it. As a result, we are more invested and we feel more ownership of the work. Julie also facilitated a community meeting with our families. And we convened a panel interview with alumni students and alumni parents. We asked them several questions, one of which was “What is valuable to know and be able to do when you are 20 years old? - and 40 years old?” As a result of Julie’s work, we’re able to focus on what we really want - which is successful, happy, engaged learners. - Andy Willemsen, Director, River Valley Charter School

Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

In support of the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning’s mission to create and innovate in the field of Mind, Brain and Education Science:

  • Founding Faculty Member of the CTTL Science of Teaching and School Leadership Academy
  • Founding CTTL Advisory Board Member
  • Designed and facilitated workshops for school and district leaders on leading meaningful and sustainable change

Julie helped fill in a blind spot at CTTL: how to create and sustain change at the whole school or district level, not just the individual classroom. There are three ways in which Julie's work is compelling to us and to our audience:

  • Her research is both impeccable and accessible - whether that be a public school, private, charter or international.
  • She’s a great collaborator - The essence of our relationship is highly collaborative, which is often not the case with so-called experts. We laugh a lot. I find her emotional intelligence makes the hard work we are trying to do, enjoyable to do.
  • She is also very hopeful. Education is embattled and Julie brings hope to what is possible in the field.

If you are thinking of working with Julie, she will provide both a fresh and a hopeful perspective on school change. It requires work and collective buy-in. For those people who embark on this change, Julie gives them a pathway to grow as individuals and as a community. - Glenn Whitman, Dean of Studies and Director