Michael Conner: [00:00:00] Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to another episode of Voices for Excellence. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Conner, CEO, and founder of the Agile Evolutionary Group, and of course, the proud host of VFE. We are knee deep in celebrating black history, black History Month, and of course, the educators that exemplify black excellence and today's guests really do not need an introduction to herself.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: What?

Michael Conner: Yeah, I mean, she has accomplished everything. Keynote, international, domestic speaker. It seems like every conference I go to, Dr. Edoho-Eket. You are the keynote speaker. I'm like, damn, Rachel, I won't be like you. And then not only is she a national keynote speaker, a multiple, multiple bestselling author, and then also the [00:01:00] president of the Maryland Associations of Elementary School Principals.

Michael Conner: She's a recognized leader, recognized voice. I mean, kind of like, you know, like Kobe, LeBron, you know the names we got. We got that for at the site-based level. We are so happy to have her. Unpack her intellectual property, unpack her strategies as a leader, as a site-based leader. But moreover, just really just breaking, breaking glass everywhere she goes.

Michael Conner: And it is awesome to have an honor to have Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket out of Maryland. Like I said, one of the leading voices in education we have, when we talk about leaders. Now, doctor, I gotta do this. When we talk about leaders across the country and sp specifically when we talk about principles. There's two names that come up and you already know the two names.

Michael Conner: You just did a, a webinar with him last night. Principal Kafele and Dr. Edoho-Eket. Those are the two kind of like,

Rachel Edoho-Eket: thank you. I love Principal Kafale. Yeah, he's amazing.

Michael Conner: Principal Kafale. I mean, it [00:02:00] is just unbelievable. But we love to have you. I mean, we're, we're happy to have you here, Dr. Edoho-Eket, welcome to Voices for Excellence.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Thank you so much. I don't even know what to say about that introduction, but. I am just blessed to continue to serve students and our families, and just meeting so many wonderful people along the way has been the most joyful part of this whole journey. So I am very thankful to be here. Dr. Conner, thank you for thinking of me.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I.

Michael Conner: Absolutely no. Thank you for being on Voices for Excellence and highlighting your work. So we're just gonna get right into it because I'm sure they don't want to hear me talk, they want to hear you. But as I stated at the outset, a national and state leader in education, a renowned site-based instructional leader, and a two-time bestselling author, what song describes our current state of the education ecosystem and leadership needed to navigate this novel paradigm We're living in.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: This is a tricky question and I reached out to you about this question and I really thought about a good song 'cause there are many choices. I'm [00:03:00] gonna go in a different direction. I love in India, ire, I've been listening to her since I was in high school and she had a song on one of her earlier albums called There's Hope, and I really liked that song because.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Despite some of the challenges that we're having, I just had an opportunity to convene with 200 other principals in Washington DC on Capitol Hill. And when I heard the stories of the principals who are working all across the country, what they are managing, the hope that is present. And in speaking with our lawmakers, I'm actually feeling pretty good.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Does that mean everything is perfect? No, but it does mean that people are mobilizing and people are advocating on behalf of our students, staff, and families. And so for that, I think that there's a lot of hope in what we're doing and in the future.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Dr. Edoho-Eket, when you say that word, hope, right.

Michael Conner: And. It. It is a word that I believe right now in education that carries [00:04:00] a significant weight, right hope in the context of our students hope in the context of this intentional transformation to be in alignment with generation, alpha, generation, beta, moreover. Hope that we need to be able to, I like to say overcome the polarization, the politicizing of education, and there is hope.

Michael Conner: And you know, Dr. Edoho-Eket, if you're saying that there's hope that engaging with national policy makers, law, lawmakers, leg, uh, legislators, yes. Specifically when we think about this, turn into what I call the 22nd century and just to talk about a little bit of your books, right? Two time bestselling author, one of your books, the Principal's Journey, navigating the Path to School Leadership and Relational Intelligence, the Key to Exceptional School.

Michael Conner: There we go. Highlight that the, the, the key to exceptional school leadership. Now the rooted themes in each of these texts are leadership, but first, [00:05:00] Dr. Edoho-Eket. What are those themes in a high level abstraction context? And if I'm a site-based leader, I wish that your books were available when I were a principal.

Michael Conner: Thank you. If I was a site-based leader, how will these texts. My influence on families and students.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yeah, so I love this question. First of all, the Principal's journey was the first book that I ever wrote, and it's a self-published book. And so I'm just grateful for the response on that book because when I wrote that book, I was thinking about the journey.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: To becoming a school-based leader. I'm someone who came out of a kindergarten classroom, so my entire career was spent in early childhood. I taught first, second, and kindergarten, and so the pathway to the principalship to me looked very different. Coming from early childhood, you don't have very many principals, sitting principals with certifications in early childhood, and so.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I wanted to think of my book in a mentor way. So if someone didn't have guidance of a great [00:06:00] mentor or someone who was showing them the steps to do it, I want my book to fulfill that. So that's really why I wrote the first book. And the book has everything to think about in terms of what is the job of a school leader and do we want to do that?

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So I tell people, if you get past chapter one, then that says you are ready to continue on that journey. But I think about. You know, what are the things, what are the experiences that leaders need to be successful? And one of those is taking risks. Another one is living in service to other people. And that's a high level theme that I can lift up in both of our books.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Leadership is service. I'm a servant leader and I really try to think about what do people need and how to be solutions oriented because there are lots of issues that are gonna come up when you're working with people. There's lots of dynamics, there's lots of different personalities, and there are many needs and things that need to be accomplished.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And so when I was a classroom teacher. I always was of that mindset, how can I add value to the work that we're [00:07:00] doing? And principals are the same way. Assistant principals are the same. So I think across the Principal's Journey book, you'll hear me talk about service. You'll hear me talk about taking risks.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: You'll hear, hear me talking about being a lifelong learner. And those same things have really carried over into my second book, which is relational intelligence. The, you know, key factor to exceptional school leadership. I wrote this, co-wrote it along with Dr. Brad Johnson, who's another very significant name in our field.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And we thought about what is happening in education right now? What do our teachers need? You know, a lot of times as leaders, we focus on our students, but we really need to be focusing on our teachers and staff, because if our teachers and staff are in a positive place, then our students will be in a positive place.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And where we focused our attention was around teacher and staff retention. Right now there's a lot of funding needs that are happening. We have programs getting cut, we have people getting cut, and so it's a challenging time. And so our book really focuses on what are the behaviors that are necessary for school [00:08:00] leaders to keep teachers in our building, not just to recruit teachers, but to retain them.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: What are some of the behaviors that we can do? So we really focus on building trust, connections, and communication. Those are the three high level spaces that we focus on because. If at school leaders, we can establish trust with our teachers and staff. If they know we will support their work. If they know that we are going to make the conditions for them easier because this is a hard time in education, then they're more likely to stay.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I like to refer to it as a buyer's market and a seller's market right now. Our teachers have a lot of choice. They have a lot of choices in where they want to be, and so as school leaders, it is really incumbent upon us to make the learning environment as positive as possible for the adults so that in turn we can have a positive learning environment for our students.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Dr. Edoho-Eket. We use Voices for Excellence as an asynchronous professional learning tool [00:09:00] that can be differentiated for self-directed learning, hetero GoGy, and to my audience the answer that Dr. Edoho-Eket providing the the meta themes from each of our book. Please go back, unpack. Each of those strategies, themes from each of the book that she outlined, because those are Dr.

Michael Conner: Edoho-Eket specific strategies that leaders can integrate. Now obviously we want them to buy both of the books. We want them to be able to dig deep into the content, albeit what you have provided, I, I'll able start, started thinking about, while not to focus on just recruitment, but retention, paying attention to the specific organizational site base.

Michael Conner: Behaviors to retain your teachers. And I think that right now we have to recalibrate this word that you suggested trust, right? Because there has to be this level of embedded trust. Within, whether it be your schools, whether it be [00:10:00] the learning organization, leadership, trust, leadership does matter when we think about that.

Michael Conner: And then also too, I really loved how you unpacked, you know, what's the job of a school leader, service taking risk, servant leadership, and. Dr. Edoho-Eket. I wanna unpack that. Obviously, it's gonna be kind of like a segue into another suggestion that you highlighted, which is being solutions oriented. But before we become solutions oriented, we have to be servant leaders.

Michael Conner: Dr. Edoho-Eket. In your definition, what is servant leadership?

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yeah, servant leadership is really a focus on the people. You know when you have a title of a principal or you know, a superintendent, a big title, sometimes there is a focus on the person and on our positions, but servant leadership to me is about everybody else.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So when I talk about how can I add value into a space, that's what I mean. When I first became an assistant principal, I remember meeting the new [00:11:00] staff for the first time, and the first thing that I said to them was very humbly that I am here to help you. I am here to make your job better or easier. I'm here to help you to grow in the same way that you are here to help me to grow and to learn.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And I'm really glad I took that approach because I've seen leaders sometimes come in, sometimes one of the mistakes that we can make is trying to be perfect or trying to come in as if we know all of the answers or as if we are Teflon and nothing can get to us. But that's really not the way to build trust and to be a servant leader.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: It really is about saying to someone, I'm here to support you. And not only saying that, but following through on the levels of support and following through if someone needs something. So, you know, sometimes it requires us to stay a little longer and have that conversation with someone who really needs us in that moment.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Sometimes we're not even talking as leaders. Sometimes we're just. [00:12:00] In the space listening. So these are some of the behaviors that I talk about when I think about being a servant leader. It truly is about making the space better for somebody else. That's something that I'm continuing to work on and to think about how can we add value in a, in a very specific way, because each one of us has something special to offer, and I like to share that with people.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Each one of us has a special gift, and so if we can expand upon that gift and service to other people, then we are doing our jobs during our time that we have to serve.

Michael Conner: And Dr. Edoho-Eket I appreciate that. Right, that answer because reflecting on my own individual leadership trajectory, and this is why I asked you the sub-question to expand on it, is, you know, when I took the superintendent position, I was 36.

Michael Conner: And yeah, and Dr. Edoho-Eket one of the, I think the mistakes not a [00:13:00] mistake, a growth, right. A growth mechanism for me was I came in with this solutions oriented system, science application on redesigning the system. But what I failed to, I, I, internally, yes. You know, I was thinking it, but the. Demonstrator articulation wasn't there at this high level of vitality and servant leadership.

Michael Conner: Right? Well, I took the system science approach first and then the servant leadership second. But obviously, reflection, growth, engaging in amazing educators like you have in a myriad of co conversations. Reflecting back on it, I would've created the prerequisite for the plank of servant leadership. Where the acceleration of the system, science around the organization, around our schools would've accelerated.

Michael Conner: And I think readers, we have to be intentional, as you [00:14:00] stated, and be cognizant about how are we serving the people. To be able to be solutions oriented. So the acceleration, the direct output would be from our students or the direct impact would be for our students and families. Thank you so much, Dr. Edoho-Eket for clearing that, because you know, we go in and we look at it, we that analysis, synthesize the information, and then be able to apply the research and science around modernization and transformation.

Michael Conner: But. I always say culture, you know, culture. Each strategy, exactly what you stated. Servant leader being solutions oriented. Thank you for that.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yeah, it makes a big difference. And my co-author, Dr. Brad Johnson talks a lot about people before programs. So like you said, it's important to have those programs and to be thinking about how we can use them, but we cannot move in education without the trust of people.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: We cannot do it. So people have to come first. [00:15:00] Then once we get that investment and that level of influence, then we'll be able to move those programs forward. And that may have been something you experienced. I'm not sure, but it sounds like it.

Michael Conner: Yeah. You know what, Dr. Edoho-Eket. I'm gonna do a Barack Obama.

Michael Conner: That's a mic drop. Let's end it. Let's just end it. People before programs to my audience, but Dr. Edoho-Eket. We're seeing this and I, and I, you know, your FETC keynote was amazing, right? It was amazing. The group shout out to you, Dr. Mullin, that was Barbara Mullin. That was a part of that as well. It was, was

Rachel Edoho-Eket: amazing.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yeah.

Michael Conner: Amazing. Amazing. Another one that exemplifies black excellence here in upstate New York. But because of this rapid evolution of AI in the education model, I created this dual framework that's called the 22nd Century education Model. The theory of action with it underpins the shift from 21st century systems to what I'm calling this 22nd century AI centric learning ecosystems.

Michael Conner: But Dr. Edoho-Eket you, you've been really involved with this AI [00:16:00] transformation implementation now navigating the shifts. As a district or a school-based leader for AI can be ous. I'm glad that now we're starting to metabolize this conversation universally within the ecosystem, but Dr. Edoho-Eket, what ways should central level and school-based leaders shift leadership practices to support AI in a classroom one and two, how do we truly create meaningful.

Michael Conner: Purposeful and relevant professional learning that interfaces with the standard curriculum, AI, and curriculum interface together.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yeah. This is a great complex question, so I'm gonna try to share a couple of insights of things knowing that we're still learning this process, right? Every day is something new, and the way that the technology is moving, it's forcing us to move.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Move quickly as well. Well, one of the first things that I know our district is doing and that other districts have done is instead of making AI [00:17:00] policies, they're actually making AI recommendations. And I think that that's a first start because when you are doing a policy, it's. Set. It's kind of set in stone and it takes a long process to get a policy in place.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: You have to have work groups, you have to have your board of education on board. You have to have the superintendents that you have to have a lot of pieces there. But when you're doing recommendations, when an office is providing recommendations, those are malleable, they're flexible. Those can be updated with without the process that a policy update would need.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And so one of the things that our district did that I think makes a lot of sense is to have recommendations in place for ai. And not only. AI itself, but also recommendations for our staff members and recommendations for our students. So right now, our school district gives the use of Gemini to all staff members, all teachers.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And as of January of 2026, all high schoolers. And so we know that that took some time to get that in place because we had to have a [00:18:00] series of trainings for our staff on Gemini, on the ethical use of AI on the practices that are best for ai. And it is the same thing that. Our students are having to learn.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So for example, I'm an elementary school principal, so one of the things that we have talked about and that has been happening in our classes over the last year or two are lessons on ai. We know our students are accessing AI all the time, particularly at home. And so what schools have had to do is to think about how can we bring any ethical piece of ai.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And thinking about digital citizenship. So one of the things that our district is doing in K through five is starting those conversations around digital citizenship, but also bringing in ai. And so what does that look like? It looks like a student being evaluative. They're seeing different websites, they're trying to figure out and use strategies, which makes something a credible website versus something that is not [00:19:00] credible.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: If I reshare something using ai, who must I give credit to? If I am resharing something that, you know, ethically could hurt someone, should I share those things? So those are the conversations that we're having on the elementary level so that when students are getting into middle and high school, they are having that as a foundation.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: 'cause what we don't wanna do is put AI in front of students without restrictions and say, have fun. That doesn't make sense either. But what we do wanna do is have that strong foundation and help to set that for students so that as they are learning more of the capabilities, they're doing it responsibly.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And in terms of lessons and things of that nature. You know, one of my favorite lessons, I walked into a fourth grade classroom in our technology room and they were using AI to create. New symbols that represented themselves, and I love this for so many different reasons. First of all, each of our children is so very unique [00:20:00] and has so many special talents and things about them, and so each one of the outputs were totally different.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: But what was really cool was the students were learning about how they can, you know, tell AI something and what the output looks like, and then how they can inform ai again by giving it additional prompts. Here's an example. You know, if you tell AI to put a family, a picture of a family into a care, a picture form, you're going to generally see a standard family, which might be a man, a female, and two children.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: A dog, right? It may not be a diverse family, but that's typically what the output is. And what our students began to learn was they could give AI and another prompt to say, I want the family to look like this, or I, my family looks this way, so I would like this added in. Do it again. And then AI is giving them a different response.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So what is nice about that is the students are [00:21:00] learning that it's not just the output, right? I talk a lot about children being producers and consumers right now. We have a lot of consuming that is happening as students are watching YouTube as students are, you know, playing Roblox. There's some consuming that's happening, but we want.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Students to be producers. And so what students have learned through that activity is that they can influence ai. They can continue to influence those outputs until they are satisfied with what the product is. And so I think that's a simple example of a way that we can help support students, and not only learning the ethical use of ai, but becoming producers in that space.

Michael Conner: To my audience, please go back, reference the response that Dr. Edoho-Eket just provided with that. Shout out to fourth grade, Dr. Edoho-Eket. Yes. I am a former fourth grade teacher. Love it. Ett. I had a mean guided reading [00:22:00] facilitation.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I believe it.

Michael Conner: But you're, you're so right about. Moving towards this recommendation versus standardizing policy, and as you were stating that, Dr.

Michael Conner: Edoho-Eket I kept on going back to how we have to now start being globally ready. Right? Global competitiveness as we see in this 22nd century demand because we, and, and to my audience, the GCC. Countries, China, India have already institute quote unquote national policy where AI instruction very abstract. So there's this kind of innovative, iterative type of implementation, but AI instruction four to six hours a week starting at kindergarten.

Michael Conner: So when we think about these countries that are instituting these policies, that there needs to be four to six hours of AI instruction starting in kindergarten. These [00:23:00] recommendations that Dr. Edoho-Eket was suggesting is right on that line. So we can be globally ready. I, or I love the fact that you talked about this.

Michael Conner: K, I'm sorry. K. K through five. Focus on digital citizenship. Students are learning specific skills, capabilities around prompt engineering. I hope that our ed tech companies, our software engineers, are able to create the models and test and train the models so that now they can become more culturally relevant so our students don't have to intentionally prompt representation within the outputs of the actual ai, but.

Michael Conner: You are so right about that. These guidelines, these recommendations that are being suggested ensures that our systems become adaptive and iterative specifically around context. Context does matter. Great response with that. Now, Dr. Edoho-Eket this is kind of like a segue from that question where I highlighted at the [00:24:00] outset, you are the president of the Maryland Association of Elementary School Principals, and you've had many discussions.

Michael Conner: Many discussions around this polarity using the word polarity with intentionality, polarity of AI and the human di human dimensions of teaching and learning.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Yes.

Michael Conner: Now I'm inferring that there's collective dialogue regarding the identification of AI tools, and you just suggested it just in the answer before, ethical utilization.

Michael Conner: Now as principal and president, this dual interface context, how are you addressing these inquiries? Across the state, across the country, and what next steps should be taken for successful. AI integration within the school learning organization, or as you suggested, what your district is doing creating AI recommendations.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So I'm gonna give two different responses to that question. I wanna first talk about some of the questions that maybe our [00:25:00] families, our community members. Or either even teachers have brought up regarding ai. So one of them, the most important one that I'm hearing is around the privacy and security of students.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: You know, that information, what are we putting into AI and how are we ensuring that our students are protected? And so one example that I wanna want you to think about in the audience is, a couple months ago I was sitting in a training in my district around AI for, for school leaders. And I brought up the situation where.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: There were teachers who were putting, I saw this in a different country. Teachers were putting the children's faces into ai, and they were asking their students what did they want to be when they grew up? And they were using AI to show what the student would look like as an adult in their profession of choice.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Now, on the surface, this looked incredible. It went viral. In fact, it was like, wow, look at this great idea. As soon as I saw it, my [00:26:00] little hair stood up a little bit because I said, number one, did the teacher have permission to put those children's faces into chat, GPT or whatever was used? I dunno, the mechanism, but secondly, what happens when those pictures are now in the stratosphere of the internet and what could happen to them?

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So we really lifted up the importance of not following trends. Thinking ethically, do we have permission to do something? And just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do something. Now, it also speaks to the point that this was well intentioned. I love the idea of having children seeing themselves in a new role as they are growing up in a very quick and instant way.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: But we have to balance that with the ethical considerations of student privacy. So that's a part of the training in our district is around teachers and staff looking at not doing certain things because privacy is number one. [00:27:00] So that's one piece of the question. The other piece I wanna talk to is how school leaders can use AI to benefit our schools.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So I am definitely a proponent of AI in terms of the workload issues. So we ha, we know teachers and school leaders are burning out, and that is because a variety of factors, but. Mostly programming and positional cuts that are making us do additional parts of our job functions that were never a part of our job previously.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And so what I am encouraging school leaders and teachers to do is to utilize AI as a tool. Now, I wanna be clear. AI cannot replace a person, a person to person interaction. Specifically for us, that's what makes us human and that's what makes us special. But what AI can do is give us time for that interaction because AI can help us do some of those menial database tasks that take a long time.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And I'm gonna give a quick example. In [00:28:00] these winter months, I wanted to do something for the community, and so I wanted to have some sweet treats for the holidays. Now, normally I would have spent at least an hour to think through what food was needed, how much it's gonna cost me, what's a way to organize this, you know, sweet treat, celebration, all these things.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: What I did instead was I went into Gemini and I said, I wanna organize something for our staff. My assistant principal and I are brainstorming some ideas. How can we have our community? Volunteer to bring in different items. What will we need? How many gluten-free products would we need? We have a staff of over a hundred people.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: What's the quantity needed? Can you write me a community letter? All this was done in five minutes. It spit out exactly the quantities that was needed. It gave us recommendations for a signup genius. It gave us the community letter of how things should be grouped together and organized so that allergens are not mixing with other allergens.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: It gave us everything in five minutes, [00:29:00] and so we were able to quickly put out that community email, which had written by ai, modified by me, and sent out very cl, clearly translated into Spanish, you know, those sort of things that. That we used to take a long time to do really gave me 45 minutes back of that hour time.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: So then I was able to get into the classrooms and see our students and see our staff and teachers, and that's what we wanna do. We want to be on the ground and able to do those things. And so AI gives us another tool to make that happen, but AI cannot replace human to human interactions, but it can support them.

Michael Conner: You are so right Dr. Edo. And just last week, doc, I was in this Zoom call. It was researchers around ai, various experts. And I really love how you are stressing privacy and security of students because the overall discussion themes [00:30:00] from that conversation and I was just right, and then just learning is that they're very afraid trajectory that AI has gone in because of the development, the constant development and capabilities of it.

Michael Conner: I had, I heard this and I actually had to do a double take when I heard this, is that the AI's becoming so sophisticated that now AI can start replacing software engineers.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Wow. Yeah.

Michael Conner: Immediately I started thinking, okay, now we ha, AI has the capabilities to correct itself because again, software engineers have to go through those multiple inter iterations.

Michael Conner: AI can actually now train and test itself to get to that degree of accuracy within the model. Wow. I mean, that's, that's scary when we think about it. I mean, agen AI on itself is, is is scary because. It goes back to your, I like to say variant that you were [00:31:00] talking about is that AI would never replace that human.

Michael Conner: And now if we're seeing these capabilities of AI reaching levels of not just baseline or rudimentary coding, but now can actually do the functions of a software engineer. I think that this is going to be Dr. Edoho-Eket, and that was one of the major discussion themes that we have, is how do we create that equilibrium between human intelligence and artificial intelligence intentionally without you losing the human touch to that.

Michael Conner: You're absolutely right. Administrative and teacher workload, using it as a tool, but going back that balance of ethical utility, so. Dr. Edoho-Eket. When we think about generation alpha, generation baba, generation, beta, those are your babies that are in your school right now, right? Who will retire from the workforce?

Michael Conner: Dr. Edoho-Eket. I'm sorry, I get scared when I hear this. They are gonna retire from the workforce [00:32:00] 2080 and beyond. Hoo. All right? Yeah, that's, that's, that's a scary number. But what are the biggest mindset shifts? Leaders and teachers need to make to truly now start preparing generation alpha and beta for 2080 and beyond.

Michael Conner: And what I'm calling right now, we're entering this HC 2035 ready stage.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I think it goes back to what I said earlier around the producers versus the consumers, and I think we really need to update our educational models so that we have more opportunities for students to become producers. You know, for years we talked about, uh, Jean Pi and do we and Dewey and all these, you know, wonderful people, you know, philosophers on education.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Um, but. When we think about now what is required, we have students that are coming in with lots of different needs. We have students that are, that are coming in with some of the technology skills. They know how to work [00:33:00] an iPad. They know how to do some of these things. But there are some basic skills that the students need in terms of reading and writing.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I don't think those are ever going to go anywhere. And so I think what is going to happen is as schools, we need to be adaptable. You know, right now our model still looks like it looked like 50 years ago, but our students are not the same as they were 50 years ago. They're not the same. I will argue as 20 years ago, I started my career 21 years ago, and I've seen a shift in our students, and so.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: There is a level of responsiveness that our students need. A high level, in fact, but I also believe we have to start giving students more opportunities to produce, more opportunities to do outputs in a way that are specific to them. Right. You know, we have traditional testing and assessments and.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Different ways for students to show what they know, but I think AI can help us with giving additional options [00:34:00] for students. You know, if someone wants to create something by a model, for instance, or if a student is musically inclined and they wanna produce something that they've known in a different way, then I think we should have space and time that allows that.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: But time is the issue. You know, it's easier to give a flat assessment to students, a standardized one, so that every everyone is judged upon the same. It saves time, but it may not always be the best way to determine what a student knows and is able to do. So I think there's going to be a reckoning that is coming where we need to continue to adjust and make some shifts in our field if we're going to continue to meet the needs of our students.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: The vast needs, I should say.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Dr. Eket. I loved how you touched upon assessments, right? Because I think, one, I've been basically shouting that we need to be able to redesign and reinvent our assessment model, because when we think about [00:35:00] standardized assessments and benchmark assessments, students are only using 15%, 15% of those schools.

Michael Conner: I'm sorry, of those skills demonstrated on a standardized assessment in a real world context. So a challenge is. The whole logic and why of standardized assessments, but that's a different conversation. You are absolutely right about this, Dr. Eket. The students have changed. The needs have changed. When we think about it to my audience, generation Z are 12th graders.

Michael Conner: Today they're going to be matriculating out of the PK through 12 continuum at the conclusion of the 26, 25, 26 academic year in June. So when we think about 26, 27, the PK through 12 continuum is going to have. All of generation alpha students. And then in less than three years, we're gonna be welcoming generation beta into the PK 12 continuum.

Michael Conner: So when we talk [00:36:00] about these needs that are shifting, we have to be more now intentional with how we're educating, transforming the model, all of the dimensions, variables within the operating model to be in alignment to the generational needs of generation alpha in generation beta. One of the things.

Michael Conner: Producers, and I can tell you right now with the intention span researcher stating the attention span, a generation and a generation alpha, generation beta are three to five seconds. Now we have to ensure that they're truly engaged in the learning where they're producers in lieu of consumers. Now. Dr.

Michael Conner: Edoho-Eket, you have been deemed a national expert when it comes to culture. You talked about it, you made me reflect people before programs, but creating environments where stakeholders and students feel empowered. Voices are active in framing the collective discussion. One thing I want to ask you, Dr. Edoho-Eket I'm going back to my principal days now, even back to when I was a [00:37:00] fourth grade teacher.

Michael Conner: If I'm a leader or a teacher, how do I create psychological safety? Because that's kind of like the overarching theme that you created. How do I create psychological safety within culture to improve learning environments? And then second, what approaches can I take as a leader or a teacher to cultivate?

Michael Conner: A culture of exactly what you stated. Risk taking, collaboration, and now innovation and alignment to generation, alpha and beta.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I love this question and I have a couple of thoughts. I think first of all, relationships are critical to everything that we do. I think about my favorite teachers growing up. I felt like they knew me very well.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I felt like I was special to them. I felt like they knew my big brother, so therefore they knew they cared about me, and so. I think number one is the care and concern that a teacher and a staff has on a student that really helps that student have that sense of belonging, that psychological safety that you talked [00:38:00] about.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: The thought that I matter to my teacher, that if I share something with my teacher, he or she's gonna respond in a way, or they're gonna respond in a way that is respectful to me and that demonstrates care. So number one, relationships. I'm someone, I'm greeting our students every day as they're coming into the building.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I do traffic duty. I give my hugs, I wave. I'm welcoming families, and I'm saying hello to our staff members. Those are sort of basic things that we can do, but I think in the classroom it requires even more. So yes, we have some surface level foundational things that we should be doing as the adults in a school building to make it welcoming for children.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Additionally, I like to talk about warm demanders. That's something you may have heard before, but a warm demander is someone who has very high expectations for students, but it's done in a way where the student does not feel threatened. And you know, when I was a kindergarten teacher, I used to ask my students, what's their perception of me?

Rachel Edoho-Eket: 'cause I like to ask students that question, [00:39:00] what do you think about me? And I remember them saying, you know, I wasn't Dr. Edoho-Eket at the time. They say, Mrs. Edoho-Eket you're nice, but you're also strict. I think that that was actually a very good way to describe me as a teacher. I was very nice and I am still a nice person, but I do have high expectations for our students, and I did communicate them to children as young as five years old.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: It is my expectation that when you come in, you are a learner in this classroom. That you are going to give your best. And if I see that you're not giving your best, I'm not going to allow you to just stop. I am going to give you that firm warm demand to help you bridge the gap to get you to the skills that you need to get to.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: And again, that's the relationship piece. So I remember working with students who may have been lacking confidence at, you know, five and six years old, or were very maybe shy or timid, and you know, by the end of the year, just seeing them [00:40:00] step into a place of confidence and seeing them learn how to read and do their math work and, and really getting into the learning.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: That's something that I love to see. In all students. And so when I see that, when I see that transformation from a student. Who started the year a certain way, and they have that excellent teacher that really gets to them, and then I see them going confidently into the summer and into their next grade level.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I know that that teacher and the staff have put in the work to really pour into the that particular student. So those are just some strategies that I think are really important and for students to know that their voice matters. You know, sometimes people will say, I'm going to give students a voice.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Students already have a voice. We just need to uplift and amplify the voice. They already have very many opinions about what's going on in school. If you don't believe me, go ask a student. They will tell you what their opinions are, and so [00:41:00] we don't need to give students a voice. They have a voice. We want to amplify the voice that the students already have and use that information to improve our schools.

Michael Conner: Well stated, well stated, Dr. Edoho-Eket. Uh, I tell you, relationships matter, right? And it is so essential. I, I just love the fact that you say students feel like they belong in this whole I matter and the warm demander, right? It is. When you started to elaborate on that, Dr. Edoho-Eket, I just kept referencing back to the research study, Martin Berman's work, pedagogy of Poverty.

Michael Conner: We, you know, I love you, right? I mean, he talks about, you know, how we defy some of these pedagogical approaches that are poverty, poverty driven, right? And we're not just talking about from a socioeconomic context, instruction, classrooms, dimensions, interactions. And what you highlighted right is, [00:42:00] you know, I love you.

Michael Conner: I'm going to care for you. I'm gonna know everything about you, but I'm gonna hold you to a higher standard of excellence so that you achieve it. As opposed to sometimes what we see in schools is low expectations, lowering the standards because they feel sorry for the student. We don't, we, our students don't need the we.

Michael Conner: They know that they need to be. They need to know that they're loved. But there's still gonna be a standard of excellence that they're going to achieve. And I call that not the pedagogy of poverty that Martin Haberman highlighted, but you know, this later study that talks about the pedagogy of prosperity, which now is everything that you highlighted, but Dr.

Michael Conner: Edoho-Eket this is the last question. I don't know if I can limit you to three words. I'm going to try, I'm going to attempt. But I can say this for my audience and selfishly for my audience, please don't listen to me. But what three words do you want our [00:43:00] audience to leave today's podcast with regarding a phrase from your book?

Michael Conner: Everything we Do matters Now in this AC stage of education.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: I'm gonna leave three words. One is hope. We talked about hope, just. Understanding that even though there are challenging times, there are great people doing great things like yourself, and we can continue to scale out the great work. So that's number one is hope.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Number two is service. Service to other people is the most important thing that we can give. I believe as human beings, the the most important thing that we can do is make life better for somebody else. And we are all educators, and that's something that we do every single day. We have the privilege of doing that, so.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Service is my second word, and my last word is love. You have to love this work. You have to love the students. You have to love the staff that you're serving. You have to love your community members [00:44:00] and your family members. That love is really just shown and demonstrated. In many different ways. It could be a check-in, it could be a hug, it could be, you know, you sitting there silently as someone just cries and shares out what they need.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: But that love is essential to this work and it, it really holds everything together. It's that glue that holds the work together. So I just want to encourage you to live in that world of hope and service and love. And I think if we all can do that in the world of education, we are just fine.

Michael Conner: Well stated Dr.

Michael Conner: Eket Hope Service. Love and that is absolutely exemplified in your leadership strand and signature. Thank you, Dr. Edoho-Eket for coming on Voices for Excellence during our Black excellence series, celebrating Black History Month. For any of my audience that want to be able to follow up on your in depth responses, [00:45:00] strategies that you highlighted and even expand on what resonated with me.

Michael Conner: People over programs, how would they be able to get in touch with you?

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Sure. First of all, thank you, Dr. Conner, for this amazing opportunity. I really appreciate your outreach and just letting me share with your amazing audience. But the best way to reach me is by rachel wickett.com that has all of my socials, lots of different articles that I've written, many different leadership videos.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: My books are there, my speaking engagements and ways to get in contact with me are all there. So that's kind of the hub. But if you're on social media, you can find me at Rachel Edoho-Eket across all socials. That is LinkedIn, where I'm very active, also active on Instagram and Twitter. So I'm really excited to get in contact with you and again, thank you for the amazing work that you all are doing every single day.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: It makes a difference in the life of so many children.

Michael Conner: Absolutely Dr. Eket and with my, within my fraternity, alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Oh, nice.

Michael Conner: We say, yep. [00:46:00] We always say onward and outward. So Dr. Edoho-Eket the work that you do onward and upward, and thank you for making a change within the ecosystem and really getting us to thank as educational leaders.

Rachel Edoho-Eket: Thank you.

Michael Conner: And on that note, onward and upward. Everybody have a great evening.