The Assistant Principal Podcast | What’s Your Story? with Elena Aguilar

What’s Your Story? with Elena Aguilar

July 29, 2025 / 37:57/E264

Power Quote: Behind every action is a belief

Description:

Today we dive into part 2 of my interview with Elena Aguilar. Part 1 was a must listen and we released in back on July 1 (260). A link to that episode and my two previous episodes from 2024 are in the show notes.
In part 1 we talked about listening and I hope you’ve been able to exercise your listening muscle over the past couple weeks, and that you followed Elena’s advice to dig into your own story and beliefs around leadership and teaching.
Today we’ll talk about purpose – both the school’s and the teachers’, and how to support and grow teachers even in such a stressful and chaotic time. I love this episode because it contains a call to dig deeply into ourselves as leaders and give some very practical advice on how to help teachers. And, as with part 1, I include Elena’s closing words of wisdom – a call for us to slow down. It is so critical I wanted you to hear it again.

Show Intro

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Guest Bio:

Elena Aguilar is a writer, leader, teacher, coach and podcaster. She is the author of eight highly acclaimed books including: The Art of Coaching, The Art of Coaching Teams, The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development, and the newly released Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching. She has also been a frequent contributor to Edutopia, ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and EdWeek Teacher.
Elena is the founder and CEO of Bright Morning Consulting, an organization committed tohelping individuals and organizations create the conditions for transformation. She has taught tens of thousands of folks how to have conversations that build a more just and equitable world. Elena can be heard demonstrating these conversations on The Bright Morning Podcast.

Elena was a guest on episodes 204 and 205, June 2024, and in Part 1 of this series, episode 260.

Questions/Topics/Prompts

Context: Stepping into a new school year, new leaders, new schools, new teachers

In 204, you talked about how an admin could be the person that helps teachers stay anchored to their north star…

how we help people grow when they are in the midst of trauma - and is that even possible. This is particularly germane given the chaos and otherization which is so prevalent right now.

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Closing questions:

What part of your own leadership are you still trying to get better at?
If listeners could take just one thing away from today’s podcast, what would it be?
Before we go, is there anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners?
Where can people learn more about you and your work…

Summary/wrap up

Purpose requires knowing.
Intersection between teacher and school purpose (might be harder than it should be)
Can we better understand other people’s stories by knowing our own?
ZPD, meeting them where they are, AND helping them understand why they are where they are (limiting beliefs)
What do you wish your students could do better?
Incremental change and pain points (M=V/E)

Sponsor Spot 5:

Thank you to our sponsors!