Description

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 the Year, is a former principal from Fairbanks, Alaska, and the host of Transformative Principal, where he interviews leaders from around the world who are reimagining K-12 education. He's the founder of the Transformative Leadership Summit and author of SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves!

Breaking Down the Old Rules 🔨

In this episode, Jethro Jones challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: Emotions Are Your Leadership Superpower

• What's broken: The robot principal mentality that emotions should be locked out of work
• The shift: Embrace emotional intelligence as the very thing that makes leadership work — connection
• Impact: Leaders build authentic relationships instead of being terminators hunting for data points

Key Insight #2: From Sage on Stage to Compass Among Us

• What's broken: Teachers controlling every learning moment as the "sage on the stage"
• The shift: Become a "compass among us" — pointing to true north while students navigate their own path
• Impact: Students take ownership of learning while teachers focus on what computers can't do: the human connection

Key Insight #3: Discipline Matrices Are BS

• What's broken: One-size-fits-all discipline charts that treat every situation identically
• The shift: Use the smallest possible intervention that changes behavior — sometimes just a look
• Impact: Fewer office referrals, more authentic relationships, and students who actually learn from mistakes

Quotable Ruckus

"If AI can crushed everything else, what's left is our emotions and our spirituality and the metaphysical stuff that makes us different than computers." – Jethro Jones

Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Check in with someone by asking "How are you?" instead of "How did your students do on that assessment?"
• This Month: Replace one discipline matrix consequence with a restorative conversation
• This Semester: Audit your teaching staff — how many are still stuck in "sage on the stage" mode?

Connect & Continue

🎯 Get the full episode transcript: [Link] 🔗 Follow Jethro Jones: LinkedIn | Twitter/X 💪 Join the Ruckus Maker Movement: ruckusmakers.club/join

Do you Subscribe to the Ruckus Maker Newsletter?

Do School Different 3x a Week.

✉ Join for FREE: ruckusmakers.news/subscribe

📌 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 — An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news

🗞️ Read Ruckus Makers — Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom gpts, new books before the bookshelf. ruckusmakers.media

💥 Join The Ruckus Maker Club — Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more: ruckusmakers.club

🧨 Apply to the Mastermind — Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus: 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 RUCKUScast in Partnership with:

IXL Meet your students where they are and take them where they need to go. Join over 1 million teachers who trust IXL to drive data-informed excellence in their classrooms. 🔍 Learn more: ixl.com/leaders

Expressability K12 Your inbox isn't a task manager. Your mind isn't for storing mundane processes. It's time to break free. With Expressability K12, Ruckus Makers can prioritize student success by offloading time-sucking tasks. 🔍 Learn more: expressability.com/ruckus

ODP Business Solutions "Our STEAM program is too complicated" = Code for "We're doing it wrong." Stop letting fear kill innovation. Some leaders are transforming STEAM with a three-part framework that's not what you think. 🔍 Get the playbook: here

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