Episode 192: The Making of Culture First Classrooms

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 00:01

All right, everybody. Welcome into episode 192 of the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Today on the show, it's me. I am flying solo this week and on the show this week, I want to talk to you about my new book that I'm co authoring with Katie Kinder that will be coming out in March. The book is titled Culture First Classrooms, Leadership, Relationships and Practices that Transform Schools. Now,

What I wanna talk about is not just what's in the book. I wanna give you a little peek behind the curtain as to what that writing process looks like, especially when you're co-authoring with somebody because it is very different than writing a book on your own. I wanna share with you a little bit about how Katie and I came to identifying the contributors with 21 different educators who are contributing to this book and.

the process that we went through to identify them. I want to share a little bit about that and maybe talk just a little bit about some of our contributors. My hope is that we'll get to have some of those contributors here on the show over the next couple of weeks, you know, and even after the book comes out, I'd love to have some of them on to, you know, maybe talk a little bit about their piece. But then I also want to, in this episode, talk about just the journey. What goes into

from idea to book release. What does that whole process look like? Again, an opportunity to kind of peek behind the scenes, learn what it is that a writer goes through, but also what a publisher goes through, because in this case, I'm both. I'm not only the author, I'm also the publisher. So really interesting stuff, think. We're gonna find out. People ask me all the time questions about, know, hey, you know,

I've got an idea for a book. I'd love to write a book or I'd love to do what you do. Well, let me today Give you a little peek behind the scenes. That's what I want to do with this episode folks I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I guess we're gonna find out But we're gonna do the whole thing right after this

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 02:13

All right, welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Again, today I'm talking about the book and I, man, I am so excited to see this book come out. It is going to be out in mid-March. Again, the book is titled Culture First Classrooms, Leadership, Relationships and Practices that Transform Schools. And where I wanna begin is by talking a little bit about the writing process. Again, this is a question that I've had a lot of people ask me.

Since my very first book was released, Road to Awesome and Power Lead changed the game. A lot of people ask, know, man, how does that come about? How do you come up with the idea for a book? know, like what inspires you to write a book? And I'll tell you this, first and foremost, when I wrote my very first book, I had finished my dissertation and completed my doctorate degree about six,

to nine months prior to when I started writing my first book. And the interesting thing was when I completed my dissertation, I thought, man, I will never write something ever again. I'm done. I'm done. It absolutely wore me out. But it didn't take long. And I started thinking, you know, I want to share more I want to I want to be able to to get some of this stuff that's in my brain out and potentially help people. But I had this misnomer.

And I think this is again, you know, for the, you know, the opportunity to maybe get some behind the scenes right here. I think one of the biggest misnomers in writing a book as an educator is a lot of people think they have to have some magic formula or they have to be able to genuinely solve a problem in its entirety. Like

here's the canned response or here's the you must do this in order you know for this to be a successful book and that is so far from the truth but I fell into that same trap as a writer when I first started writing wrote to awesome I thought I had to have this perfect formula for school leadership I mean that's what I wanted to write about I had gone through the struggles

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 04:34

I think this is something else too when you're writing a book. Think about what are the things that you know, that you've lived, that you can bring forward that can actually help solve problems, not be the only answer, but to potentially help solve problems. And for me, because I had struggled as a school leader and then ultimately, it mostly got it figured out. I'm not going to say I was perfect because I know I was not.

And I probably had a couple staff members who told me I was not perfect, but I had a whole lot who I know were pretty pleased with with me and my leadership role. But because I had had gone through that journey, I felt like that was a place I needed to go. And I felt like I had to have this perfect formula for school leadership. And the reality is, that's not what people are looking for. What people are looking for in a book. And this is

This is the publisher coming out here a little bit here. So that's the hat that I'm wearing is my publisher hat. Mostly what people are looking for in a book. Yes, they want something that will help them solve a problem, but they also want somebody they can relate with. They want to know that you've been there, that you have walked that walk, that you have done that work. And the only way you can convey that in a way that lead, that will make your reader.

lean in is to tell your stories. got some great advice. Good friend of mine, Dr. Phil Campbell, PC. When I was starting to write Road to Awesome, I was struggling, I was struggling, was struggling. And he just finally said to me, he's like, dude, just write your stories. Just write your stories, because your stories will take you to the points you are trying to make. Recently on the show, I had Greg Bennett, who is the author of the book, Build a Better Now.

If you haven't checked that one out, I'll link it in the show notes. Greg Bennett is phenomenal. But one of the things that Greg said is never make a point without telling a story and never tell a story without making a point. I loved how he said that. And so as I think about the writing process and what inspired this book, it comes, it comes back to that. Like what is, what is the thing that right now is

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 06:58

on my heart is on my mind and it's on my shoulders that I want to be able to support and I started teaching.

course at Fort Hay State University in Kansas. Thank you, Dr. Chris Yocum. And as I was doing this course, so it's an advanced classroom management course, as I start teaching this course, and it's primarily for students who are second, second career educators, got a, you know, bachelor's degree in something and now they're coming back to get a master's in education so they can become teachers. And I ask every one of them.

when when the course starts, I think I'm on my fourth or fifth semester with them now. I ask every every one of my new students, tell me what classroom management means to you. And invariably, I hear things like or read things like, well, classroom management means how I respond when kids misbehave, or how I get kids to behave in the classroom or, you know, what are the consequences for like, like on and on.

But folks, that's not how I approach classroom management. And as it happens, I came across the perfect person to co author this book with me because she has the same philosophy. And that's Katie Kinder. I had Katie here on the show a while back, Katie and I have known each other now for I don't know, a year and a half, maybe two years. And after we recorded the episode that she did here on the podcast, we said, Hey, we should write a book together.

And we started talking and we started talking, we started talking and it was, you know what, let's, let's do something on classroom management. And the more we talked, the more it was, look, it's not about classroom management. Instead, it's about classroom culture. And that was really kind of the inspiration for this book was I want new teachers. want current teachers. You know, I want future teachers to

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 09:02

come into the process to lean into a school year thinking about how they build culture in their classroom. I want administrators thinking how they build culture in their school. want district level administrators, school board members thinking how do we build culture in our schools and in our district? Because management

Management is much more about compliance, where culture is about creating spaces where people feel seen and heard and valued and trusted. And you've heard me say that here on the show before, but that's what really drove me to want to do this book. And again, Katie and I see eye to eye on this. We are all about building that culture first.

So to me, that's what really inspired this book. And it's been an incredible process. Working with Katie has been just fantastic. If you've ever co-authored a book with someone, I will tell you it is not the easiest thing to do because you might say, hey, we're gonna divvy up the work this way. But in both of our cases, we're...

very busy in the professional development and speaking space. And so we didn't always have time together. So we actually had a lull in the book where it probably sat dormant for, I'm going to say three months. We had identified our contributors and I'll talk about them here in a couple of minutes, but both Katie and I were so busy and traveling so much. And if I were home, she was on the road and vice versa.

that again in the fall of, of: 2024

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think is kind of a fun thing to share with with all of you has been maybe the most rewarding piece through this journey. Writing this book with Katie has been I found that I needed to push myself even harder as a writer. In this particular case, I mean, I'm always writing for an audience. But I felt like

Now I'm also writing with Katie right there, you know, reading what I'm writing. And of course I'm reading what she is writing and it just had this different feel. And I think it pushes co-authors to really go to the next level with their writing. Quick side story on that. We just had Charlie Peck and Josh Stamper here on the podcast and they talked about their new book that just came out a couple.

maybe about a week ago, fantastic book, The Language of Behavior. And I would tell you, having read Josh's book, read Charlie's book, this book, I think it's better than both of their books because I'm certain if you ask Charlie and Josh, that they pushed each other to be better writers. And I know that that's true with Katie pushing me as a writer and me feeling accountable to her.

So honestly, there's some stories in this book I never thought I would share. Honestly, there were a couple of stories that came about that I hadn't even thought about, but because of the work we did together, it was just fantastic. it really, I think it has created a pretty interesting project. So I'll be really curious to hear what everybody thinks when the book finally comes out, when you have your opportunity to kind of check it out. So.

The next thing I want to talk about is just identifying, getting those different voices into the book. Certainly Katie and I combined to have a lot of experience in the classroom. Of course she was a teacher, instructional coach. Of I was a teacher, AP principal, superintendent. So we have a lot of varied experience, but we didn't want to just have our voice be a part of this book. And

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 13:47

because we're both in so many classrooms around the country all the time. We felt like, let's, let's start identifying things we see in classrooms that we think really fit in with what we're doing in this book. And let's talk with those individual teachers and see if they're willing to contribute. Now, a lot of people have done books where they have asked for outside contributors to jump in.

And I think those are really pretty cool books. Some of them just simply put out a post and say, hey, I'm looking for, you know, contributing authors. Some might, you know, do direct reach out. For us, we didn't, we didn't just want to just reach out to just anybody. We wanted to make sure that they were people who we had worked directly with. We knew who they were, what they were truly all about. And we had seen them in action, either myself or Katie.

has been in their classroom or in their building or worked alongside them. And I think that's one of the unique things about these contributors. That part was actually quite simple. We did have a few contributors who said that they would write and unfortunately never, never turned in the stuff that they said they were gonna turn into us. And that's okay. We know that people get busy. We know that sometimes people are just like,

you know what, I just don't think that's for me and that's totally, totally fine. But the 21 who did come forward with us and really quick, I'm going to tell you who they are. Right? Just, just because I really, I want to make sure that I say each and every one of their names because man, what they contributed is so cool. So David James, middle school teacher in North Carolina, Joy Osborne, who is an assistant principal pre-K two.

Chelsea Blackburn, who's a fifth grade teacher. Jessica Labarty, who's an eighth grade English language arts teacher. Sarah Mobley, a middle school PE teacher. Tim Collier, an academic design coordinator. Tim Collier, who's a superintendent, or rather, I'm sorry, Scott Webb, who's a superintendent. Patrick Terry, a middle school history teacher. Dr. Chris Culver, a Gen Z specialist, an educator, a professional development provider.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 16:09

Stacey Nation who focuses very heavily on trauma informed. Tim Perdue who's an assistant principal and career tech tech head trainer. Kristin Lindholm who's a sixth grade language arts teacher. Charles Williams assistant principal and the man we know as the velvet voice in education professional development provider and speaker. Bradley Skinner who I hired.

as an English teacher. He's a theater director now in Southwest Wyoming. Brilliant educator, Jay Gross, who taught as many years as anybody on this list, probably 35 years in the classroom in Michigan. Lori Boudreaux, who is an English teacher here in the Omaha area. I work with her school and I've been in a room a handful of times and just was like, man, I want Lori to contribute.

Trisha Phelps, who's a high school leadership educator in Ohio. Lindsay Titus, who's a behavior specialist. Andrea Bittner, an EL champion. Brian Martin, an elementary school teacher. Jackie Mewen, who's a middle school teacher. Baird Swedman, who is an online teacher. We wanted to make sure we got that voice in there to somebody who strictly teaches online.

Great connection I have with Dr. Eric Nichols, who is his superintendent overseeing that online school. And Eric connected us with Baird, Tiffany Doris, a rock star educator. And then finally, Tanya Follum, who is a special education educator in Wyoming and also a teacher that I was blessed to work alongside as a building principal. that's the whole list of everybody who's in this book.

And just simply identifying them was one thing. The other piece was, like I said earlier, we had to have seen them in action. We had to know who they were and we wanted to make sure they were the right fit for this book. And I think that's what has allowed us to bring their stories to the table. And in the book, I'll be honest with you, some people wrote a fairly short passage. Some people wrote what would almost be the equivalent of a chapter, but we didn't.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 18:29

tell them you had to go minimum here or too long here. Rather, give us your thoughts on the development of culture in your classroom, or in your school. What is it that makes a difference? And because we had 21 different people, we got a lot of different perspectives, and we're able to pull pieces together that I think make for a wonderful formula in this book of leaning into building the culture of your classroom. So

Man, I'll tell you what, just wonderful. I'm going to share with you just a couple quick insights from some of the writers that we have here in the book. First and foremost, and I think this was one of my favorites, Jackie Mullen tells a story about using a word in the classroom that's essentially, hey, let's bring it all together. And the word is toothpaste.

I'm not going to steal the story. want you to I want you to read the book. I want you to read what Jackie wrote. But man, I'll tell you what it it's one of those things you can just see middle school kids reacting to a word like toothpaste in the classroom. Right. And then I'll share this one to Bradley Skinner talks in his piece. And again, I don't want to give too much of it away. But he talks about how he doesn't want to manage his students. He wants to inspire his students, he wants to make a difference in the life of his students and

knowing Bradley the way I do and for as long as I have that's exactly what he does and so I just think it's fantastic the way everybody was able to capture who they really are through their own words and it's some really exciting stuff so okay so man I could just tell you the whole book pretty much at this point in time but what I really want to do is just kind of wrap with this thought.

And that's maybe sharing just the process of idea going all the way to book release. Certainly there are different milestones along the way. First and foremost was just simply Katie and I coming up with a here's what our topic really is. Then it was identifying those different contributors.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 20:48

once we started to put it all together and it started really flowing, I will tell you it was, it was kind of a roller coaster. because I felt like, I felt like at times like, man, we are never going to finish this book. I opened chapter one with a story about when I very first started to drive and actually the very first car accident that I got in, I was driving, I wrecked my truck.

And just sitting and thinking that story through and how it connected to essentially how we just give teachers the keys sometimes and don't make sure they understand some of the really basic pieces like building culture in the classroom.

I was sitting at James Madison University in Virginia, waiting to do a speaking thing, sitting in a booth and cranked out all of chapter one, because you find these different times where you just get inspired and the work just starts flowing and flowing and flowing. so I guess that's a bit of a squirrel chase there, but an interesting opportunity, right, to...

you know, you get a little bit of time and all of a sudden here comes this story and here comes this thought and here comes this process. And so, so yeah, we go, we go from this, this point in time where, where all the ideas are flowing and then the writing really starts to happen to the point where, okay, now we think we're done. Now we think it's, finished writing. We've collected all 21 samples and we have written the pieces we wanted to write in each of those chapters. We've written, each of us has a lead in chapter. Each of us has a lead out chapter.

And now it's okay, we need a title for this book. And man, we went through a whole bunch of different iterations. At one point in time, it was it was I think we just called it on the document like the three C's books, you know, which was I don't even remember what the three C's were, it was culture and something other. And we ended up coming around to this.

Dr. Darrin Peppard (: 23:05

this particular title, which is Culture First Classrooms. Leadership relationships and practices that transform schools, but Culture First Classrooms. That's what we want. That's what we want to see. That's what Katie and I both want to push. So we landed on Culture First Classrooms. That was a lot of fun to actually say, my gosh, we have a title. And that was one that actually happened over a text message.

You know, not everything happens in person. Not everything happens over zoom. Not everything happens to a bunch of fanfare. It was a text message. well probably about 15 text messages, that went back and forth. but ultimately, yeah, we landed on that title and then cover design at Katie just went to work and I give her all the credit in the world. Katie just went to work on Canva and invited me to be a bit of a collaborator. I'm much more, maybe the, marketing.

type of person, leaned in heavily to a book that I have decided is basically a marketing Bible, launched by Jeff Walker, and we had identified five possible covers. And so, you know, instead of us deciding the cover, we pushed it out to you. I pushed it out to my email list, we put it on social media, and we got a ton of feedback.

and some ideas and some, hey, what do you think about this? Or hey, could you make this little change there? And ultimately we landed on the cover that we have. And man, I'm so excited. I cannot wait to have that book in my hand. It's going to be exciting. That book is going to be out in March and cannot wait. We'll continue to make sure that everybody knows what's going on as we continue forward.

We just have so many different marketing ideas right now. All 21 contributors have a canva template that they can put their picture in there and maybe share a quote or something like that about them being a contributing author to this book. But ultimately, I guess this is what I'm meandering around to saying. I'm kind of ambling in this episode, so I apologize for that, folks. But ultimately, this is what I want to say about this.

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I'm very proud of, I'm very excited for, and I'm really humbled by this book.

I didn't think I'd say this, but I think this book might be better than than wrote awesome. I think this book might be better than untold teaching truths. We'll let Katie make that decision because that was her book. But I think the two of us together have really put something together that's really special. think it's something that if you're a school leader that this is this is the kind of thing you want to put in front of your staff. I think when you put culture first,

when you say we are going to focus on the culture of our organization first, when you say teachers, want you to focus on the culture in your classroom first, you are putting the top priority on the thing that I genuinely believe makes the biggest difference in the outcomes in your school. Because when we're not building culture, our culture goes in the other direction.

I work with schools and districts all the time and I see it if they're not investing in their culture.

That's when things go awry. I can tell countless stories, share about individuals I've worked with and worked for that either really leaned into culture or didn't lean into culture. The outcomes are usually the same. If you put the time and effort into your culture and teachers, this is 100 % true for you in the classroom. If you put in the time to build the culture in your classroom that you want to see.

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the results can be absolutely amazing. But if you don't, you're never going to get what you want to get out of those students. So I can't wait for this book to be in everybody's hands. can't wait for the opportunity to just talk more about this book and about why culture is so, so important for leaders, for teachers, bus drivers, custodians.

secretary, cafeteria, where anybody, anybody associated with school parents, culture is what matters. So with that, I'm going to wrap up this episode because I feel like I'm just rolling and rambling right now. I will tell you that the book will be out in March. Pay close attention. If you're not on our email list, go to road to awesome.net and get on our email list.

because you will see all kinds of information coming your way. You're gonna see all kinds of pre-order promotions coming your way and opportunities to get the book early. Man, cannot wait for this thing. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. This is something way different than any episode that I have done, but I just kind of felt like it would be a fun opportunity to let you peek behind the curtain.

actually maybe get behind my eyelids and see what's going on in my brain and actually right now see that my brain is going in 100 different directions. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate and hopefully you've stuck with me all the way here to the end of this episode. This has been a lot of fun for me and I hope you've enjoyed it as well. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. No pep talk this week. The pep talk is simply this. Get out and have a road to awesome week.