Your Morning Boost

• 📱 The "Six-Seven" Challenge: Why Digital Literacy is Now a Core Student Safety Issue

  Your students are fluent in viral internet slang (like the cryptic "six-seven"), but are they literate in digital safety? The "six-seven" phenomenon—a playful reference to a social media scamming tactic—is a stark reminder of how quickly and often digital misinformation and security threats infiltrate our schools. In this timely episode of Your Morning Boost, we conclude our dive into the Fitting Five newsletter with a call to action: digital literacy must be treated as a core competency and a fundamental safety issue. Key Takeaways: Learn three systemic steps leaders must take to protect students in this hostile digital ecosystem: Introduce a "Scam Whisperer" Curriculum: Integrate mandatory, short units across all subjects to teach critical thinking skills needed to identify phishing, deepfakes, and misinformation. Model Responsible Digital Citizenship: Teachers and leaders must actively discuss, verify sources, and model healthy digital boundaries to give students a visible roadmap. Engage parents with a Digital Wellness Compact: Host family workshops and secure a shared commitment to discussing online safety and modeling good habits at home. ➡️ CTA: It's time to prepare students for a complex digital life. Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your digital safety and curriculum teams! Find out more about what we do: AWB Education - awbeducation.org Grundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.com Got a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at [email protected]

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• 🎯 Leader Self-Assessment: It's Time for Your Midterm Grade (3 Ways to Course Correct Now)

  As the first quarter ends, we're focused on student grades—but what grade would you give your leadership? Waiting until the end of the year to assess your effectiveness means missing a crucial chance to pivot. In this sharp episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into Dan P. Butler’s piece from the Fitting Five newsletter: "It's Time for Midterm Grades, but Not the Kind You're Thinking of." This challenge is not about judgment; it's about shifting from vague feelings of busyness to objective, fast, and focused course correction. Key Takeaways: Learn three objective methods to measure what truly matters: your behavior, your time, and your connections: Implement the Stop-Start-Continue Feedback Loop: Use a brief, anonymous survey with trusted staff to gather crystal-clear, actionable data on your leadership behaviors. Conduct a Candid Time Audit: Track your time for two weeks to see if your daily actions align with your instructional priorities (e.g., are you spending 70% on email and only 10% on walkthroughs?). Check your Relational Capital: Identify the 10 most critical people for your school's success (custodian, union rep, veteran teacher) and proactively invest in any relationship that scores low. ➡️ CTA: Commit to this objective self-assessment now to ensure you finish the year strong. Subscribe, listen, and share this episode! Find out more about what we do: AWB Education - awbeducation.org Grundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.com Got a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at [email protected]

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• 🏈 Offense is the Best Defense: 3 Ways Leaders Must Shift from Reactive to Strategic Leadership

  Are you spending all your time reacting to crises, answering emails, and managing external mandates? When leaders only play defense, they surrender the agenda to external forces—the media, the district, or community frustration. In this vital episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into a powerful piece from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (via the Fitting Five newsletter) that challenges us to flip the script. Offensive leadership means you define the vision, set the pace, and prioritize the work that truly moves students forward. Key Takeaways: Learn the three high-leverage challenges that help you reclaim your time and initiative: Commit to Proactive Strategic Planning by blocking non-negotiable "thinking time" to define your yearly agenda. Build an Early Warning System (KPIs)—tracking weekly referral trends and monthly staff morale to catch small dips before they become full-blown crises. Focus on Process, Not Just Outcomes by documenting and auditing core operational systems (onboarding, enrollment) to defend your core work against instability. ➡️ CTA: It's time to control the narrative of your school's success. Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your leadership team! Find out more about what we do: AWB Education - awbeducation.org Grundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.com Got a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at [email protected]

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• 🧠 Digital Drain: How Social Media is Rewiring Student Brains (and 3 Ways Leaders Can Fight Back)

  Student attention spans are shrinking, and the science is clear: constant, fast-paced social media use is fundamentally impacting young people's ability to sustain the deep focus required for complex reading and long-term memory. This isn't just a distraction—it's a neurological shift. In this essential episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive into the latest research from Ed Week (via the Fitting Five newsletter) on how social media erodes cognitive endurance. School leaders cannot ban these tools, but they must become explicit trainers of the deep attention skill that the digital world depletes. Key Takeaways: Learn three systemic strategies to counter the "fragmentation effect": Implement mandatory deep work blocks (20-30 minutes) requiring single-task, uninterrupted focus. Teach sustained attention as a metacognitive muscle through explicit reflection prompts. Design assessments that prioritize analytical summarization over simple fact recall to train working memory. ➡️ CTA: Ready to create analog skills and environments within your digital-heavy school? Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your instructional team! Find out more about what we do: AWB Education - awbeducation.org Grundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.com Got a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at [email protected]

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• 🚨 The Silent Crisis: How Teacher Turnover Fuels Student Discipline Problems

  The link is undeniable: when great teachers leave, student discipline issues rise. In this vital episode of Your Morning Boost, we dive deep into the findings of the K-12 Dive article, "Teacher Turnover Contributes to Suspensions and Referrals Study Finds." We explore how the loss of relational capital (key student-teacher relationships) and procedural consistency (uniform rules) destabilizes school culture and leads to a spike in office referrals, especially for students with trauma. Key Takeaways: Learn three actionable, non-budgetary strategies to interrupt this cycle: establish a uniform tier one behavioral strategy (e.g., Be respectful, responsible, ready), mandate protected time for proactive relational check-ins, and develop high-leverage peer mentorship focused on behavioral support for new staff. Don't let staffing instability sabotage your school's climate. ➡️ CTA: Ready to build a resilient school culture? Subscribe, listen, and share this episode with your leadership team! Find out more about what we do: AWB Education - awbeducation.org Grundmeyer Leader Services - grundmeyerleadersearch.com Got a mailbag question?  Reach out to us at [email protected]

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