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, proud host of VFE. And today we got one of the stars, one of the education stars, as I like to call it, the A superintendent that has just impact many students, many lives, many families.

Michael Conner: I mean, it is to the point where I see Glenn in some of like these, like Christmas, I can't remember what it was, Glenn, you were dressed head and toe in this Christmas soup with these amazing socks, and Marlon and I had a comment on it. Shout out to Marlon Styles on it, but that's the type of leader.

Michael Conner: Superintendent, we want immersed in our communities. He is internationally renowned. He is domestically renowned, multiple accomplishments, multiple awards from the superintendent level, local [00:01:00] state, name it. Glen Robbins has it in his trophy case, and I am proud to host and have Glen Robbins, who's the proud superintendent of Brigantine Public Schools of Brigantine, New Jersey.

Michael Conner: Right? The accent is there. We were talking about it before about the accent and talking fast. Love it. Glen, I, I'm so glad to have you here and to geek out with you, man, I tell you. I've been following your work for a while. I know you've been a superintendent 2016 during the pandemic. You were doing some really innovative stuff during the pandemic, even to now what you're doing in Brigantine.

Michael Conner: So Glenn, glad to have you on VFE, my friend.

Glenn Robbins: It is a pleasure and an honor to be here, my friend, and I'm humbled by your words. Really, seriously. You know, like you mentioned the suits that you and Marlon and many people watch from afar here and there. I have a suit for every holiday or occasion because we work in a school, man, we have fun, we have time.

Glenn Robbins: We build that culture each and every day. I'm a big Philadelphia Eagles fan. I know we're going into the Super Bowl there. [00:02:00] But I was told I was, there was a lot of disappointed folks. The the NFC championship game after the Eagles won, they were disappointed the next day. And I said, why are you disappointed?

Glenn Robbins: They go. Because you weren't in Eagles costume on top of the roof the next day celebrating for us. I'm like, aha. All right. I need to get that suit next. So, you know, we have so many incredible things with our, our students, what we call scholars each and every day, our staff and our businesses and everything else you can think of, know people always remember.

Glenn Robbins: How you made 'em feel when they walked in about life for two minutes when they're walking in the door. And to see the superintendent making fun of himself wearing a wacky outfit or wherever to make them smile.

Michael Conner: I, I, I, I love it, Glenn, and everything that you're doing, I is beyond textbook, right? You actually get to the core of relationships, and that is why you are beloved.

Michael Conner: Beloved, nationally and internationally. And speaking about your eagles, yes. Good luck because my team, the Buffalo Bills we lost to who you're [00:03:00] playing against and we don't want to see Yeah, we don't want, we, we don't wanna see Kansas City win anymore. I was, and I called Glen in the beginning of the year when you guys acquired Saquon.

Michael Conner: I'm like, it's gonna be a Bills Eagle Super Bowl. Everybody laughed at me. I got one of the teams right. But I was hoping we were gonna be Kansas City. That was the fan in me, Glenn. But I tell you right now, I want my audience, right. You are one of the most strategic and intentional superintendents out there.

Michael Conner: I mean, I literally desegregate your strategy implementation based off of what I'm seeing with your work. Please get to that level, that granular level and that simplistic level so my audience could be able to apply your strategies in half, or emulate, I should say, the safe success as you. But this first question, I've been waiting to ask you this because this is a fun question, right?

Michael Conner: Because many people, they see you on the national keynote stage, you know ed tech, ed tech providers, they want to unpack AI strategies from a systems lens with you and just you [00:04:00] being just a national leader. And how can I forget, right? We're not worthy. You're a top 100 best author. The, the book. We'll get into that.

Michael Conner: But Glenn, what song? And literally, I want to hear this. Okay. What song defines your leadership signature in the AC stage of education?

Glenn Robbins: Yeah, so in the, I thought about that. The ac, the After COVID. I am a major music junkie, but I think the one song AC after C. End or during COVID for me mm-hmm. Was get up by shine down.

Glenn Robbins: And why I picked that on, why it, it's simple. It's talking about like, you're doubting yourself. You, you know, you're, you're feeling down, but you gotta get up and don't tell yourself short and you're bulletproof. If you realize all the things you've accomplished and what you've done, and you keep going.

Glenn Robbins: You don't realize who's watching you and pushing you and. Going forward with you. So I could have picked a bunch of different wacky fun songs. Like Me was like, [00:05:00] alright, so I picked Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. You know, five had Nine Inch Nails. That's great song. But I think Get It Up really exemplifies what we try to do each and every day.

Glenn Robbins: Getting up and making a difference.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. And, and Glenn. I love how you contextualize that as get up, right? Because when we think about the AC stage of education after COVID-19, and literally just looking at multi the, I like to say the multitude of residuals that we had to engage and with the aftermath of the pandemic, and instead of staying down, we had to get up.

Michael Conner: Make sure we're continuing what we need to do and push ourselves. Right. We can't doubt ourselves. I love the aspect that you said we have to become bulletproof, right? Because I think now in the AC stage of education with a variety of different threats and tenets that we have to address as leaders and executive leaders.

Michael Conner: We have to be bulletproof and we have to stay up. Great. So I listen, Johnny Cash would've been, uh, that that's a great [00:06:00] one. A man that is a great one. A but you are Gwen and, and I, I stated this at the outset, and I say this with great admiration. You are a naturally acclaimed superintendent. Many accomplishments, honors, awards, distinctions.

Michael Conner: I, I would love to see what, what that shelf looks like at home, but.

Glenn Robbins: You know what? I'll be perfectly honest what it looks like. It's, they're on multiple shelves collecting dust.

Michael Conner: There you go.

Glenn Robbins: You know what? It's just one thing I put to the side and say, all right, I did that. But hey, this kid's life next day needs a whole nother different investment, needs a whole nother different way of looking at education.

Glenn Robbins: How do we keep moving forward? So I'm thankful and proud for, for all the things, but I'm thankful to have all these great people around me, man. But that's my, I get it. And it's like, all right. Tomorrow is a whole different, tomorrow is a whole nother avenue of education. All new problems. How do we keep moving forward?

Glenn Robbins: So those past victories are wonderful, but we gotta keep going forward. The new game.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. And Glenn, I love how we, with your [00:07:00] leadership signature, you push everybody forward, right? And it's always your team acknowledging their work, what they have done. That got you to where you're at and with the, um, within your learning organization?

Michael Conner: Absolutely. I always, uh, go by what my mother states. You gotta hire smarter than you. And I always try to hire the smartest people because again, it elevates the objective and the priorities of the learning of the learning organization. But Glenn, as a veteran and a mentor to many, right. And as a veteran superintendent, you've been in the role since 2016, how can leaders successfully adapt?

Michael Conner: To the new educational demands that coupled this rapid transformation that we are engaging in within our economy. I love what quote that Justin Trudeau said about a year and a half ago, is that we will never experience change this fast, yet it will never be this slow. So how do we, how do we adapt to these new educational demands?

Michael Conner: [00:08:00] And then also. How do we truly create an education operating model that prepares the antithesis of UNI, Glenn, generation Alpha and generation Beta for the future of the world?

Glenn Robbins: Well, I think about our good friends, Mike Lublfeld and Nick Pollak.

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Glenn Robbins: They talk about the unlearning and they talk about that they're never finished learning, and I think that's a lot of things.

Glenn Robbins: To unpack from those statements. One of my favorite books by Ryan Holiday is Ego's the Enemy. And I think a lot of times leaders get that seat and they think they are the greatest thing in the world and they haven't done anything yet, and or every day's a different battle. So I look at it from that range that.

Glenn Robbins: Once you get there, you need to learn a whole new skillset. So who are you around? Who are you talking to? Who are you connecting to? So I think that's the biggest part, is the connectivity. You know, we, we talked about, you know, the, the team that I have, [00:09:00] but I didn't mention the team that I have nationally, the friends communicating and saying, Hey, I've done this 16 times.

Glenn Robbins: I'm about to do it for a 17 time. How would you do this? You know, how do you, mm-hmm. Then also, you know, when you're mentoring people, ask them the ones that are younger and or in different positions that see a different aspect of what you're looking at. Get their perspective. Like I said, a lot of times you, you don't have the answer and you said it right.

Glenn Robbins: You don't wanna be the smartest person in the room. I tell my team all the time, I didn't hire them to be shadows, you know? Right. I don't, I got my own shadow. I want people to push back and ask those hard questions. Absolutely. So having that connectivity. Around the country, having the learning model in your head that you're always learning, you're never going to finish, you know, I think is something that we need to hold true and dear to our heart.

Glenn Robbins: The mentoring aspect of giving and taking is that you're constantly learning to gather with others regardless of where they are. The one thing that really pushed me through the [00:10:00] whole COVID aspect and, and where we are now, was multiple zooms with people all across the country and internationally. You know, checking in to see what were they doing in Florida, California, and New York, or whatever it may be.

Glenn Robbins: And constantly relying on each other instead of thinking, I am the best. This is how I'm going to do it. And then you see a lot of bad things happen for Jews that have done that. And then also, like I talked about that Bulletproof, we talk about after COVID. I think it was a little more strenuous after COVID because of, why don't you start coming.

Glenn Robbins: Do you have the mask? Do you not have the mask? Do you have the precautions? You know, then you have all these curriculum changes that are pushed on a state or nationally. How are you adapting to that? How are you dealing with other boards? So once again, it's going back to having a sounding board with others saying, I'm struggling and or I'm being successful, but how do I not fall into that pitfall?

Glenn Robbins: So. I think that's the model is you constantly need to lean on others, connect with everybody else, and realize you are the furthest thing from [00:11:00] greatness. You know, you are just a human being trying to learn each and every day.

Michael Conner: I, I love that. Right? We are just an independent cog that make a collaborative stronger.

Michael Conner: I believe in that concept. Glenn, I love that you stated it. Definitely shout out to Dr. Michael Lover. Felt love and love his work out of North Shore in Illinois. Underscoring what he always stated in conversations I have with Michael. That whole unlearning where you have to learn to unlearn, to relearn, and I think those three words are so imperative in the AC stage of education.

Michael Conner: You stated it a whole new skillset for this level of connectivity within education. Besides the compounding, right, the compounding variables that we face with every single day. Now, Glenn, this is a sub-question because I want to expand on this because I completely concur with your notion around having individuals and stakeholders push back on diverse ideas, diverse perspectives.

Michael Conner: Um, to my audience, [00:12:00] that is a great contextualization, Peterson's creatives tension, right? That's how we truly eliminate independent silos. Create these interdependent tenants within the operating model of education. Glenn. Creative tension in the context of, I like to say this divergent team, as opposed to convergent, which is silos, right?

Michael Conner: How do you now create creative tension in the context of having these really ect deep conversations around various perspectives that sometimes could be outliers, but again, it creates that tension among the team to accelerate the objectives. Some people in education view that as a negative. They avoid creative tension.

Michael Conner: Right? But we problem seek to problem solve. What? What does that environment look like, Glen? Because that's an outlier in the education sector, the, the ed tech sector that we know. Yeah. That's every [00:13:00] day, every second, every minute. That's why we give the I the innovations, but education, no. How do you create that glimpse?

Glenn Robbins: I think, you know, it goes back to communication and relationships. I think it has to the overall mindset that you're trying to create with the teams that you're building. So what is the problem you have and how do we handle it? You know, so what if and how might we and yes, and you know, constantly moving forward because we.

Glenn Robbins: To your point, there are a lot of people that will push back and, or there's just too many problems. And I call 'em Chief Yabo officers to CYBO, you know, because everybody took half one, you know, well, we can't do that. Uh, you know, or, but the, you know, we tried this already, you know, so I push back on that and say, all right, let's really try something here and let's get the kids involved.

Glenn Robbins: Let's see what their perspectives are because a lot of times we are just because my Dave, my great friend David, Culverhouse says this all the time. Just because you're working in a learning institution doesn't mean you're actually a learning institution. You know, for the fact, you know, like you, you're just continuing to do [00:14:00] traditional things.

Glenn Robbins: So that's why we push it and say, alright, how do we have it ungraded class period? And how do we allow kids to flourish and do things and projects that we allow them to have the free freedom and creativity. You know, we, you know, do different things in our hallways or communities that, you know, other people will be frowning upon.

Glenn Robbins: You know, a lot of times people are just, they're just so used to traditionalism, they're so used to urban lessons and myths that their parents or teachers told them, and you gotta try to fight back. But I do it through design process, and I'm sure you've heard it many times where you constantly question.

Glenn Robbins: And breaking it down and saying, all right, this, what is our goal? You know, do we want kids to be able to go and say to an interview question one day that, sorry, Mr. Employer, can you tell me, is it A, B, C, or D that this question's gonna be answered in? Or can I speak to you face-to-face and have a true conversation about what I did in the seventh or eighth grade, let alone high school and college?

Glenn Robbins: You know, that really can propel this company forward. [00:15:00] Inquiry. Think inquiry, thinking continuously, going to all the staff, continuously going to the kids. They keep coming up with all these great notions and they start joining your outlier self on the outside. And then before you know it, you're all on the inside looking at it and go, how'd we get here,

Michael Conner: Glenn

Michael Conner: uh, and to my audience, Glenn's answer, right? If you think about every single isolated thread that Glen is talking about. Those are, I like to say borrow practices from the business science world, and if you can see how Glenn potentially invites the most important customers. Glenn, you know, in the BC stage of education before COVID, if we called our families and our students customers.

Michael Conner: Everybody will grow up, be like, are you kidding me? They're not customers. Well, in reality, they are because we're providing the services for them. But Glenn is very intentional about including the voices of his constituency and his customers. He alluded it. Design process. [00:16:00] Unpack to my audience, I want you to unpack the design thinking process because Glen was very intentional in that first step.

Michael Conner: For that first stage of the design thinking process was understanding the needs of the customers, right? And when you understand the needs of the customers, take that ethnographic approach, you'll be able to have that creativity and change of curriculum and pedagogy as Glenn was alluding to it. And another thing.

Michael Conner: Glen highlighted, which I really love, is the power of the network effect, right? National Network effect. State network effect, where developing those new skills. The new, the new leadership signature elements. I like to say it's not one that's independent, but interdependent. Glenn, really, really great contextualization of the business science aspects that you're interfacing and integrating into education.

Michael Conner: Intentionally appreciate that, especially what you're doing, exercising the voices of your students. But I wanna unpack your [00:17:00] most recent book, bestselling book. So my audience, the book is entitled, calm and the Chaos, ancient Stoic Wisdom for Successful School Leadership. Now, Glen, I read your book Yes. And I'm, I'm upset with you, Glenn, because I, I usually, I say this to everybody, whoever it might be, right.

Michael Conner: I'm like, I got your book. I got the one that I, the sloppy copy that I, you know, mark up. But I need the signed copy. So, Glenn, I got the sloppy copy. I need the signed copy. But I, when I was reading your book, the Undergirding. Themes align to some of these persistent kind of drums that we're facing in the AC stage of education, right?

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm. But I want you as the author, what are the major themes from your book, and how can the content and themes impact any leader's repertoire and mindset to be calm and an ecosystem of uncertainty.

Glenn Robbins: I'll certainly do that. So first part of my answer is B. I'll gladly send you a signed copy and I have [00:18:00] another book coming up March 11th, so I'll sign that copy as well and send it your way.

Glenn Robbins: I'm excited about that. Amazing. That one's, that one's I won't back down. How educators can turn rejection in a redirection and it's all about music and educators, all about famous musicians, so you'll love that part. I know you will. You're gonna dive Absolutely. Common chaos is something that Danny Bauer and I, uh, sat down and talked about.

Glenn Robbins: It's, I wanna say back in 2019, and I had the idea in my head being a historian, love history. And my grandfather would always say, it's not the problem you have, it's how you handle it. And I was always curious where he came up with that notion. He grew up in a blue collar world, same as my family. My father was a third generation well driller for water wells, so it was hard manual labor.

Glenn Robbins: He was also dealing with the business aspect, he dealing with customer service aspect, dealing, working with the state. So you're dealing with all these multiple personalities and grandpop would always say, it's not the problem you have, it's how you handle it. Mm-hmm. So in the mix 2019, I was going [00:19:00] as a, a superintendent at that time, I was having some difficulties and I said to myself, I know I'm the furthest person from HA having difficulties.

Glenn Robbins: I know every district, everybody in the world that I talk to is having difficulties. How do we put together something that maybe can put them at ease or calmness and 'cause they're not alone. So from a historical perspective, I reached out to Danny and uh, brought him in for a conference that I was hosting and I thought he'd be a perfect co-author to write this with.

Glenn Robbins: And we said, you know, let's sit down and write this. And then COVID happened and the world happened. We move, he moves and new jobs and all that other fun stuff. And then we finally sit down back in 2022 and said, all right, let's get this bad boy out. And we focused on wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance.

Glenn Robbins: And then obviously trying to get to equanimity, which is extremely difficult. Um, but we used those four words because of the virtues that were laid down by the ancient stoics. And we talked about,

Michael Conner: and Glenn, if I can just interject really fast [00:20:00] for my audience, can you repeat those four words again? Use this as a asynchronous professional learning tool.

Michael Conner: So I just want them to really write those words down

Glenn Robbins: their wisdom. Justice, courage, temperance, and if you can get there, equanimity.

Michael Conner: Mm.

Glenn Robbins: Wow. Deep. So we talked about. All these different things like wisdom. Are you smart enough to have the ideas that are needed? You know, and how do you continue to grow justice from a larger organizational standpoint?

Glenn Robbins: And I know there's always been talk of social justice and changing the systems and so forth, but you can also look at, justice says you're responsible for public money in a public school. So when you put your budget out there, the buck stop with you and how are you personally And the. Organizationally doing the right thing for all children and all staff for the community.

Glenn Robbins: Courage. To some people it's just getting outta bed in the [00:21:00] morning to others it's, I have the a lesson going on, or, you know, there's something going on that in my district that I need to address, whether it might be something that might be confrontational. It's not the easiest conversation you're gonna have.

Glenn Robbins: And then it's temperance, the, the. Part that almost like we're not taking it personally and breaking things. Yeah. We brought down those chapters in that way because what we did was we put in different stories that Danny and I had been through and I think that we were trying to relate to the audience in some way there, but then we also gave case studies to the end.

Glenn Robbins: So I know a lot of books have like extra workbook pages and so forth. We built that in because. At the end, you're gonna have dealing with a coach that might get in trouble. You're gonna have a teacher that argues against their observation. You're gonna have a parent that's irate at one in the morning.

Glenn Robbins: You're gonna have a social media firestorm that's going on and you can't control it. You're gonna have people in the rumor mill saying Your board meeting's gonna be filled, and all [00:22:00] this stuff is going on each and every day. We deal with so many different situations and how do you handle it? When it lands on your lap, and I think that's why we call it calm and the chaos because if you're running around, your head cut off or you're punching back at everything and angry at everything, right under your calm, everybody's watching and you wanna be a reflection for everybody to follow.

Glenn Robbins: So Danny and I shared those stories from personal experiences, change some names and scenarios around a little bit, but we also built this book short. To a point because we have not that much time and our busy lives. Also know that you might not have the best mentor. You might not be in a school system that has these events taking place.

Glenn Robbins: You might be in a cushy little world and good for you. I'm, I'm happy for you. Right. But you're gonna get hit with adversity one day. Yeah. Whether you go up in that role. When you do, are you ready for it? Our goal there was to prepare you with those case studies. So you could do a reflected piece yourself [00:23:00] and or as a team.

Glenn Robbins: Yeah. So if you have a small team leadership team or a big leadership team, you sit down and talk about, alright, how do we handle this situation based on these three questions that were posed to us? How would we, as an organization, how would we as a team address this because we are. All interconnected on this.

Glenn Robbins: And I think people forget that at times, that one person falls off, then a domino starts to fall, and then all the whisper starts and all that. And then it's harder on the, on the, uh, leader. Right? And we tap into, like I said, stoic philosophy that's been around for thousands of years and continues to be repeated in movies and books and songs and everything else.

Glenn Robbins: It's not going away because it is so intentional what we do each and every day.

Michael Conner: Yeah. Yeah, Glenn, great answer. And to my audience now we're starting to depict and unpack the secret sauce for Glenn's success, long-term success as an executive leader, the intentionality around [00:24:00] relationships and culture, right?

Michael Conner: Where relationships and culture, and you can see it through the content and the themes of his book. And this kind of segues into this next question, Glenn, because now. As you've been focusing on relationships, right, have this continuous. Learning organization where now diverse perspectives and creative tension is, is warranted.

Michael Conner: And when you look at the core themes of your book, specifically around wisdom, justice, courage, temperament, leading that as all I like to say, conglomerate of a successful culture. Now I see why there's this acceleration of innovation within your organization. Now I understand why there's that seamless.

Michael Conner: Third person outside. Right. I see the seamless integration with human intelligence and artificial intelligence together. So now that we unpack relationships and culture, the the prerequisite that lead to this next work around [00:25:00] challenging traditional nodes in education for innovation and ai, just focus on innovation right now.

Michael Conner: Okay. We'll get to ai. How do you now address, let's say, these chronic absenteeism quads that we're facing in teacher shortage, teacher shortages in multiple areas, including, you know, cell peas and, and, and nurses and, and behavioral tech where we have this shortage and a variety of different realms within the ecosystem.

Michael Conner: And definitely now we just most recently. Read and learn about the NAP scores and this exacerbation of outcome gaps, right? So how do we innovate, right? We got the prerequisites of our culture and relationship. How do we now innovate a traditional model with this level of urgency to reengage our most important stakeholders and customers?

Glenn Robbins: So. I, I think there is no silver bullet. We know that. I know there's a lot of people out there trying to make some pretty pennies real fast, [00:26:00] claiming that there are certain things that are damaging the culture and damaging test scores. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes. You know, I followed college football and Dabo Sweeney from Clemson would always say, I am.

Glenn Robbins: Judged and based off of 18 to 20 year 1-year-old men or children, you know, I don't know what's coming to me. I know what kind of person I'm recruiting, but I don't know what's gonna happen the night before. And it's the same thing for us, but I think it goes back to this. You mentioned the teaching shortage, you mentioned all these different things.

Glenn Robbins: I think it's our message around it. You know, we know the national media wants to destroy education. They can. They've been doing it my entire career. Yours too, right? Absolutely. Talk about, you know, teachers and how they have the summers off and all these other things. Well, I look at it like this. You are making an investment to your future.

Glenn Robbins: You're making an investment to your number one most prized possession. Your children don't. You want the best of the best to be offered. So in order to get the best of best, you gotta pay your [00:27:00] teachers, you gotta pay your mini administrators. Let's not beat around the bush. You need to understand that these people are putting in way more than a 40 hour work week.

Glenn Robbins: Yes, they are. For how many children in that chair in that classroom. So I look at it like that. Secondly, you know, money is one thing and that does attract people, but culture is everything. And I caught the threshold moment the second they walked through the door, and I talked about this earlier with my crazy suit, the second they walked through that door.

Glenn Robbins: Does the school scream, whoa, this is an awesome place I wanna be, or is it We're here again. And it's the same thing for the classrooms. And that's why we talked about the redesigning and intentionality of talking with the kids of how they want to be structured and, and the same thing for the class, for the teachers.

Glenn Robbins: That threshold moment means everything to me. It's like going to an amusement park. As soon as you get there, you're walking past that line. It says, welcome. You're in a different world. I had a teacher years ago. I'll never forget, [00:28:00] I put up a bunch of different wacky things in the hallways. I had Lego boards, I had surfboards, and I still have a lot in my, my districts now.

Glenn Robbins: But I was doing all this as a principal and I had all these stations out in the hallways that could be learning anywhere at any time. And I've continued that practice everywhere I've gone. But I'll never forget my first time I was at a faculty meeting. I'm unveiling all this after the summertime, and one teacher goes, well, what are the kids too busy outside of the Lego board?

Glenn Robbins: Instead of being in my class? And here's the Jersey guy in me. I said, well, here's the question for you. How bad does your lesson suck that you don't want to be in that class?

Glenn Robbins: So it comes back to that how are we inspiring and making, wanting kids to get to class, making them absolutely. That their lives outside, that they might be, you know, I've worked in some tough schools. We're a Title one school. There are some families that just do not have the advantages as or others. And what these.

Glenn Robbins: Coming in so they [00:29:00] can forget about that and be loved and appreciated and know that they're a kid, they're not a number and they're in a different spacing types of room. Their voice matters that they help vibe, furniture, or redesign things in the school just because I said it's possibility. And there I rewrote the mantra.

Glenn Robbins: So that's that. And then it's what are the programs we're offering? You know, are they truly intentional? Like, like. I know we have to do all the core subjects, and I'm a firm believer in the foundational aspects of the core subjects.

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm.

Glenn Robbins: But how are we taking it further to relate to them? How are we working it into you, YouTubeing?

Glenn Robbins: So everybody wants to be a TikTok influencer and all this other stuff. Yeah. YouTube is still one of the number one or number two, most social media use platforms. So how are we showcasing your kids' work on that? How are we getting to be podcasting here? We are podcasting, right? Right now? Mm-hmm. I have, yes.

Glenn Robbins: Eighth grade girls. They started last year in seventh grade in an ungraded period. Start a Powered Up podcast for about female [00:30:00] leadership and empowerment at seventh grade now, eighth grade,

Michael Conner: seventh grade. Wow.

Glenn Robbins: Yeah. Wow. Ungraded class, period. They're writing questions. They're answer, they're questioning people.

Glenn Robbins: They, they walk up to people and say, we need to interview you. Yeah. Just yesterday they published an awesome podcast with Brianna Scurry. Now, if you're a soccer fan like I am, that's huge. She was the World Cup goalie. If you remember back in 1999. When the girl ripped off the, the jersey after scoring the PK to win the first ever a two time Olympian.

Glenn Robbins: So these girls were on a trip with their dad, but because of the fact we've empowered them the last several years, they walked right up to her not caring about anybody else and said, Hey, we're so and so and so, so we want you to come on our podcast. And it's very hard for a, an adult to say no to a

Michael Conner: or else to even do that, Glenn, right.

Glenn Robbins: So they did that. That's just one aspect of it. You know, we do, uh, we talked about that intentionality about everybody working together and [00:31:00] designing what our, yeah. Learning looks like we teamed up with the, the business, the Chamber of Commerce, and asked businesses after COVID, right after COVID, everybody's starting to open their doors again.

Glenn Robbins: How do we get the connection for kids? And I had traveled all over the world. All over the globe. I had traveled on number trips with different organizations to see schools. And one thing that really related to me was all these massive companies in these massive districts that were doing things for.

Glenn Robbins: 12th grade, and I'm like, well, I'm a pre-K to eight district, and I've always hated the learn the line. Wait till you get to high school. Wait till you get to college. Right? You and I aren't waiting, Michael, we're doing things when we wanna do things and move things forward. We're teaching these kids. So we talked to the businesses and said, oh, I, I don't know how to do this, but let's maybe build something.

Glenn Robbins: And at the president at the time said, let's build a Mr. Rogers project. And I said, all right, I'm working with you. What do we got? She goes, well, a lot of the people are struggling with social media. I said that's perfect. 'cause I have every social media influencer in the world in our history. So the [00:32:00] businesses we had to, you know, really push on them at first to get coming in.

Glenn Robbins: Like, why do I wanna work with eighth graders? And it's a brand new program. The businesses then come in and shark tanked it in front of the kids. The kids were already preselected on who they're gonna work with because some didn't wanna work with an insurance company. Some rather work with a surf shop, you know, and or there's a clothing store or whatever.

Glenn Robbins: It's not mega conglomerates or small town USA entrepreneurial stores, and they're trying to get the word out there. And they're looking for new clients. They're looking new, new clientele. So these kids will work with them on their social media pages for Facebook and Instagram on redesigning that. Then they're working with on Canva to put up a giant sign on the door.

Glenn Robbins: That one, the customer comes there regardless who they are. 'cause especially where we are, we're shore based area. We have a lot of tourism that comes through. They can click on the. They can see this awesome poster that was made. They can click on the QR code and it goes exactly to where the business owner, one of 'em go and they're teaching and they, and they go back and forth.

Glenn Robbins: The kids have to email [00:33:00] them and say, Hey, I'm thinking about this slogan. I'm thinking about this idea. And they have to go back and forth with text messages and emails. Hey, great with the business owner who's helping grade this, and they're going back and forth, and then they come back and then the kids give their pitch to them.

Glenn Robbins: And then from there they take a field trip every marking period to all the various businesses so they can see that, you know, so just because your group worked with insurance doesn't mean you got to work with the surf company group or the other group that's a clothing store or the, the food store. So they go to take to see kids, to see all the different places that they have if they've already gone the research room.

Glenn Robbins: But not everybody went to that one place 'cause it wasn't their assigned project. They see it all, and the, the companies give out swag. They give out food, they do PR pictures on Facebook and Instagram everywhere about the kids that are celebrated. They pick a winner. They built scholarships into this for the kids to go to high school.

Glenn Robbins: They want to go to a certain high school that requires money and things like that. But they built. [00:34:00] Something that now has a 25 business wait list to get into our district, which is phenomenal. We had to redesigned the classes again, like just to get more time for these business owners that wanna come in.

Glenn Robbins: Right. But we gave 'em an opportunity, but now, you know, we took it a step further. The, the local paper just came in and said, Hey, we want kids writing for the local paper. How great is that? I'm sure there's a high school paper and a middle school paper and all that, and we already have YouTube channel, but we have some writers and now they're putting out articles through the editor and their eighth grade ELA teachers to help them push out an article or two or three or who knows where it's gonna go, and become published journalist in eight grade.

Glenn Robbins: So those are just some of the things. And the veterans, we were number one in the state and National Veteran School of the year last year. Yeah, it's like that take a lot of pride in that because here they are, they work with the veteran to take food to the homes. They work and talk about what we can do differently.

Glenn Robbins: They're [00:35:00] constantly learning what the teachers on the veteran moment.

Michael Conner: That's amazing.

Glenn Robbins: It goes back to all that. And then, hey, I didn't even mention AI yet. I didn't mention the cool thing. That's the next question. Next question. That's the next question. That's my point is we're building all these little things intentionally from furniture to organization, to structural, to the overall, not just the school district in itself, but the community in itself, all working together.

Glenn Robbins: Hey, you know what? One thing, we live on an island. This is where we work. We're not from City Atlantic Ocean. The school, I'm sorry, the pool company, the aquatic center down the street comes to us and says, Hey, would you like to offer some free lessons to kids? I'm like, I'm a dad. I want my kids to know how to swim.

Glenn Robbins: Yes. Yeah, yeah. That was the first year. The next year was, Hey Glen, we got a grant. Can we start maybe doing some lessons, indoor safety lessons for, you know, fifth and sixth grade? And I'm like, alright, talk to me. It's like, all right, fifth grade. Begin. [00:36:00] Beginner, right? Sixth grade advanced, you know? Right.

Glenn Robbins: Because some kids are really good swimmers. We've got some dynamic surfers here and so forth. And we built that. And then this past year we started, they came to me again and said, you know what we wanna do National Redcross, national Junior Lifeguard Certification in seventh and eighth grade. These kids can go right into being a lifeguard right away.

Glenn Robbins: So not only do you have the business owners that are hiring them from that standpoint that we wanna work with you at eighth grade, but now you have another platform that you want to go to, lifeguarding aspect, and maybe you save a life one day, or maybe we save a life one day because kids, I. Sadly, some kids are living on an island, don, how to swim, and now they do.

Glenn Robbins: We kept looking into the com, into the community and saying, how else can we serve you? How else can you serve us and make it a true community school district?

Michael Conner: Glenn, I tell you this to my audience, that is a answer that you want to replay back multiple [00:37:00] times. You want to unpack it, segment it because the strategies or what.

Michael Conner: Glen articulated our are systemically aligned to, I like to say Glenn elements and indicators from my 22nd Century systems learner framework and one of the key learner attributes for the 22nd century is empowering the voices of our students. Right. Preparing them for the future of the world and the future of the work and what you did intentionally with this level of vitality.

Michael Conner: We're partnering with businesses is just absolutely remarkable. My only question is, when can I bring Mikey to Brittin Public Schools? Because you are preparing students for the 22nd century and what I love about it, right? The whole thing with the podcast, I'll tell you this, and I say this everywhere that I go, Glenn.

Michael Conner: I was like, when we were. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders. We weren't going up to our superintendents and [00:38:00] demanding a new educational task or a new educational model. Uh, Glenn, I always used to say, when I was a high school senior, I didn't even know who my superintendent was. Now we got, you know, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, grad.

Michael Conner: Coming to your office, knocking and demanding specific changes. Right. Demanding.

Glenn Robbins: You know what? The nice part not, they're not not demanding. Yeah. But they're asking, absolutely. Asking the question like, Hey, how might we do this differently, Mr. Robbins? And to your point, when they see the changes that are made based on what they've done and recommended.

Glenn Robbins: It continues forward. The podcast came from recommendations. An A SL program in our district came from recommendations, you know, changing of the furnitures and the classes and the cafeterias and all that came from kids' recommendations with the, obviously the teachers had voice as well, and they helped guide us our process.

Glenn Robbins: But yeah, that is the intentionality behind it. Everything coming together is one because we kept saying compassion and [00:39:00] empathy and how do we get to the 22nd century? 'cause you, you and I have been doing 21st century talk for too long. You know, like these kids have so much in their hands. The staff has so much in their hands, and how do we continue to delegate that?

Glenn Robbins: So when they go to the high schools, and high schools have been, I've been doing this for years. High schools are calling me like, why are you doing this to us? I'm like, well, am I doing, I'm like, they're like, we have to change programs now. I'm like, well, you should have changed them by now

Michael Conner: because yeah.

Glenn Robbins: This stuff, you know? And I didn't mention eSports and all the other stuff that we've been doing too, but, uh

Michael Conner: Oh, Glenn, no, no, you gotta, you gotta say, you gotta save that for my tech academy Dolly, because we gotta get into that. But Glen, you are right. We were on this island 7, 8, 9 years ago when.

Michael Conner: Experimentation was a curse word in education. Remember that, Glen? You couldn't use the word experimentation. Now, experimentation is warranted. We were talking about the 21st century in the early two thousands, and people are like, whatcha talking about you're crazy, the incubators of [00:40:00] innovators. But Glenn, now I want to touch upon what everybody recognizes you for and including me, right?

Michael Conner: Because I get strategies. And, and different techniques and tactics from you. This whole thing around ai, right? The eco, uh, the ecosystem is finally shifting towards that. Glenn, I'm gonna put this out there. You and I have been talking about ai. For forever, right? Mm-hmm. Now that is catching on, especially with these generative platforms.

Michael Conner: There are multiple questions, right to address within this multi-variant tenant within our model, but I wanna focus on the basic foundations of implementation with ai. Specifically, and you know that I like to say that leadership vertical or that vertical within the organization from leaders, structural leaders, ensuring that there's ethical implementation in the basic foundations of AI with classroom practitioners in their classrooms.

Michael Conner: Now, if I'm an instructional leader, Glenn, both of I, both of you and I, [00:41:00] former principals, former assistant principals, now let's put our principal hat on. Okay. Together. If I'm an instructional leader, or even you when you was a history teacher back in high school, me a fourth grade teacher, what are my top five strategies to guide this shift into the digital age paradigm?

Glenn Robbins: I think number one strategy is being stoic and anything personally, everything comes to you and you're just embracing it. Adaptability. Is my second one because everything you mentioned, that quote earlier, change, change and more change is happening each and every day. And then I go back to my three principles of design thinking, how might we, yes, and, and what if I tell my teachers all the time.

Glenn Robbins: And this is where the really, the rubber hits the road here. If they don't feel supported, trusted and given the autonomy to run in their classrooms, they're never going to implement anything that a district leader is pushing on them. 'cause they'll say, oh, this is the [00:42:00] next new thing. Or This person will be gone in a year or two and or I'm five years, three years from retirement.

Glenn Robbins: You know? But you have to give them that psychological safety. Yeah, that they can try different things and you're going to applaud them if they fail. They're not completely failing. They've only failed one time. Like we said, it's an iteration, and now they're gonna try it again because they're still getting a lesson across.

Glenn Robbins: Maybe it wasn't as great as they hoped it would've been, but now we can do it differently. And then you fall into that whole AI category. How are you modeling it from your principal position or your superintendent position, or your VP position? Are you sharing out resources? Or you hiding behind it and saying, oh, it'll go away.

Glenn Robbins: Don't worry. You know, fan cell phones and uh, no technology and nothing else like that. Because we're not moving to the 22nd century. We're gonna go backwards. Where I was comfortable for all my years when I was a teacher, and this is the way I was always told, instead of what's next for these kids in their life, the world that they're [00:43:00] preparing.

Glenn Robbins: I think you have to showcase it. I think you have to model it. I think you need to bring in professional development and be able to show them how it's being used, not just in education, but in any realm of any organizational structure that we have. And when I say bring in pd, you bring in good people.

Glenn Robbins: Don't just bring in that low hanging route. Bring in people that can really knock staff socks off and answer. Questions, you know, how do you do this with the third grade? How do you do this with an eighth grade? How do you do this as a high school? You know, or I was struggling with this, or I don't know how to truly use this program.

Glenn Robbins: You know, we used a couple different platforms and for the last couple years when I was out really being out since uh, chat. I kept saying the staff, keep trying, keep trying. Be mindful. Don't put the important information in there. You're not supposed to put in there. Let's use common sense there, but continue to try to develop your lessons, your programs and structure and everything else.

Glenn Robbins: And now I have teachers [00:44:00] give you an example, title one based skills teachers, special education teachers who are now putting in, asking for different types of differentiation for different kids that are struggling in certain areas. They take basically saying, this student is struggling with comprehension.

Glenn Robbins: What can we do to make. Better to learn more comprehension. And it spits out so many great ideas and they take it and they continue to develop with that kid. We have kids that come through us from various different languages and we use that by building in and having actual conversation with these kids instead of they're, they're from where, and we don't have any SL teacher that can talk like that, you know?

Glenn Robbins: So we, we look at that from that aspect. AI is so plentiful and we also have to be mindful of our policies. Obviously from a superintendent organizational structure, is this built into the technology plan that we already have, the acceptable use policy? You know, I know a lot of districts wanna go out there and, and make these massive amounts of changes.

Glenn Robbins: Ai, another tool like a software, a [00:45:00] Chromebook, an iPad that you have in a class, and how you using that for all those different areas. So I can keep diving into it, but it goes back to how might we, yes. And what if the adaptability. Everything continues to come at you and being stoic and just taking it in and not being overwhelmed.

Glenn Robbins: One of my favorite quotes is, Winston Churchill, you don't stop and throw a stone at every dog that barks, right? Think about all these things, all these barks that are coming at you. You know, we never get to where you wanna go. You just stop and address that. So those are my strategies on what I try to recommend to people.

Michael Conner: Love it Glenn. Love it Glenn. And I tell you, to my audience, one thing that I love about Glen and Glen, I don't think you even know how you motivate me sometimes with your quotes that you put on social media. So I really just love that. And then the Winston Church of a quote, you are, you are the king of quotes, but I really ask the, your answer is great, but what I really love about this and I can see why.

Michael Conner: Your [00:46:00] district has that elevated level of innovation. There's a focus on psychological safety. Right, and when you have psychological safety within your learning organization or work environment, chances are there's going to be this acceleration of innovation and creativity around a static document, which I'm referencing to is the instructional artifact that we call curriculum.

Michael Conner: Love that aspect that we as leaders have to model the practice, right? Sharing the resources and modeling what that looks like. Professional learning and policy, but always just love it. Stoic and adaptability. And then how might Glenn, I, this is, I can't wait for my audience to replay this multi a multitude of times, right?

Michael Conner: That's differentiated instruction at the adult learning level. But Glenn, last question now. I kind of know what the words are based off of it. Our, our podcast episode today, but [00:47:00] I'm only gonna limit you to three words. It never works Glenn, with any of my guests, so take it as it is. What three words do you want today's audience to leave our episode with regarding creativity, AI, and innovation to be grounded in the instructional demand.

Michael Conner: That reaches generation alpha and generation beta in the AC stage of education.

Glenn Robbins: Let's see if you had these words on the tip of your tongue, embrace, ignore, and the last word is why

Michael Conner: I, I was completely off. I was actually going back and referencing Glen three words from your book, right? Oh, I, and I thought stoic was gonna be one.

Michael Conner: I thought adaptability was gonna, but you fooled me. Already

Glenn Robbins: conquer us in. We're moving. Overall,

Michael Conner: I like, listen, listen. You're giving my audience even more. Please go ahead. Embrace, ignore, and why? Go right ahead. Glenn.

Glenn Robbins: So [00:48:00] obviously you have to embrace everything that's coming towards you, right? That's our job as a learning organization, the true be organization.

Glenn Robbins: You have to continue to embrace all these different things that are coming at your technology challenges in the world, whatever it may be. How do we continue to bring it in and build from there? Ignore. Ignore the critics. Mm-hmm. You got a lot of people that will say, no, we should not be doing this. No, we should not have this technology.

Glenn Robbins: No, we should not be going this route. Ignore the critics. Mm-hmm. You have plenty of them. And no one remembers the critics. They remember the person that rose up. They're like that Get up song earlier in the beginning, you know, you rise up, you get to where you are because you're pushing forward on ideas that's best for all.

Glenn Robbins: I think a lot of times we listen to the critics that only categorize in certain groups, and like I talked about earlier, Michael, this is the fact that there are some people, no matter what they do, will never be able to achieve what that other group's agenda already is and or they'll never be able [00:49:00] to achieve the great things.

Glenn Robbins: Because of the agendas that other people have. And you and I have seen way too many people, amazing leaders who are not in this field anymore, or at least not in a district building anymore, that need to back, you know, based on their, the way they, their styles work and based on their diversity, based on their mindsets.

Glenn Robbins: So many great leaders who are just pushed out for all they're wrong. Reasons, but I loved it because they stayed true to who they were and they ignored the critics and continue to do what is best for all. And that's what we're here to call every single kid and staff member. And my last one, is it sort of like another third quote in a way is you don't take the top level perception that you receive.

Glenn Robbins: Ask why? Yes. You know, when new program comes out, why should we use this, you know, or why can't we use this? Yeah. Answered several times. Like what is, why is this a great program to continue moving forward with this? Why is this an [00:50:00] act a, a organization or a system or something we should be working with?

Glenn Robbins: You gotta ask those deeper level questionings instead of just taking it at face value. Because you and I, there's a lot of people they put on a great mask and they don't have the depth and knowledge in order to help push the forward. And that's what I always say to people. Embrace it. Ignore. And why?

Michael Conner: Glenn. Oh wow. I tell you, that was a motivating answer for me personally. So if it's affecting me, I'm inferring that my audience is having the same. I like to say the sticker shock. Glen, your answer brought goosebumps up my arm, Glenn. It's just been an absolute honor and pleasure to have. On VFE, I tell you, if I could, I would move to Briga team right now, live on an island, have all the great aspects of the Jersey Island where you're at, and then have my son in your district because you are innovating, disrupted, and at the same time creating meaningful [00:51:00] relationships.

Michael Conner: Positive relationships, where culture is definitely leading your strategy implementation. Glen, if I was to or. My audience was wanted to reach out to you, or if I wanted to reach out to you, how would I be able to do that on social media?

Glenn Robbins: Yeah, so socials are easy. It's Glen G Robbins, two Ns, two Bs, two Ns in G uh Glen, two Bs in Robbins, Glen g Robbins.

Glenn Robbins: And then you can also just go to my website, glennrobbins.com. It's really simple that way and I encourage people to reach out. I love working and talking with other people from all over the world or country 'cause it makes us better and you know. Like I said, I'm excited for what's next to talk about ai.

Glenn Robbins: 'cause I didn't even talk about all the great things that we're doing from kindergarten, all eighth grade each and every day. So you're gonna be stoked about those answers, my friend. Oh,

Michael Conner: well, I'll, I'll tell you this, Glenn, and, and, and you're going to be, because I consider you one of the experts that I follow and, and I love dearly.

Michael Conner: You're coming back for part two. We got, we gotta do this for part two. So we're gonna have Glenn [00:52:00] Robbins two ends. Two Bs and then the two s. Glenn, my friend, I tell you, I can speak to you all day. Thank you so much for doing this for me. I truly, truly appreciate it. You have a big fan up in Rochester, New York.

Glenn Robbins: Thank you.

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