De Facto Leaders

There’s a lot of talk about risk factors in education; but not as much focus on protective factors. 

That’s why I invited Dr. Mike Gaskell to episode 118 of De Facto Leaders to talk about the work he’s done helping students and staff build resilience in a way that’s feasible for busy educators. 

Dr. Michael Gaskell is an author, speaker and school principal in East Brunswick, NJ., following experience as a special educator and assistant principal in Paramus, NJ. He models the pursuit of lifelong learning as he serves to mentor new principals through the New Jersey Leaders to Leaders program. An NJPSA Stars recipient, he has been published in over 4 dozen articles in education journals and blogs, including ASCD Smartbrief, Tech & Learning, Education Post, eSchoolNews, NASSP, Edtech, currently writes a monthly column in ASCD Smartbrief, and has made the most-read section of ASCD Smartbrief numerous times. Mike presents at national conferences, including the Learning and the Brain conference, November 2021; FETC January 2022, and FETC, again in January 2023. He has been on numerous podcasts including Larry Ferlazzo’s Education Week Classroom Q&A. Mike has published three books: Radical Principals, Leading Schools Through Trauma and Microstrategy Magic. Dr. Gaskell works relentlessly to support instructional excellence and student success, for his school community, and most importantly, for the wellness and equity of all children. 

In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including:

✅De-escalation strategies school staff can use for handling emails and social media posts; including Jay Baer’s “reply only twice” strategy.

✅Three protective factors that increase post-traumatic growth.

✅How to “stack” 1-minute interventions to improve resilience, behavior, and performance. 

✅Simple but powerful ways to improve attention and engagement; including the “coffeehouse effect” and greeting students at the door. 

You can connect with Dr. Michael Gaskell on LinkedIn here, on Twitter here, and on Instagram here. His books include Radical Principals, Leading Schools through Trauma,  and MicroStrategy Magic: Confronting Classroom Challenges While Saving Time and Energy.

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program for related service providers who want to take a leadership role in implementing executive functioning support. You can learn more about the program here. 

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