Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Principal JL is an educational leader who explores various topics facing educational leaders today! The Mission of this podcast is to inform and inspire other Educational Leaders on how to be their best for their Schools by honing their skills and talents so they may impact their teachers, staff members, students, parents/guardians, and community members positively for their School District! Come with a Growth Mindset as we journey through Educational Leadership!
Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Episode 32: Emotional Schools: Leroy Slanzi's Leadership Journey on Building Student Resilience Through Emotional Intelligence!
Imagine walking into a school where a principal tells a fart joke, and within seconds, students take deep breaths and self-regulate back to attention. Sound impossible? For Leroy Slanzi, this is everyday reality in schools that have embraced his emotional intelligence framework.
With over 25 years of experience across elementary, middle, and high school leadership, Slanzi brings a unique perspective to the educational leadership conversation. Having begun his career as a special education teacher, he quickly discovered that managing the emotional responses of adults was often more challenging than working with students. This insight became the foundation for his approach to school leadership and eventually led to his book, "Emotional Schools."
Slanzi argues that dramatic shifts in childhood experiences over the past 15 years—reduced free play, increased screen time, helicopter parenting—have created a generation of students struggling to manage stress and persevere through challenges. "We're seeing more kids with anxiety disorders, mood disorders, behavior disorders," he explains, noting this trend began well before the pandemic and continues to accelerate worldwide.
Rather than lamenting these changes, Slanzi developed a framework that teaches students the science behind their emotions. Even kindergarteners learn how deep breathing activates the prefrontal cortex, allowing for better decision-making. Using consistent language and visual cues throughout the school, this approach becomes embedded in daily interactions rather than existing as a separate program.
The results speak for themselves. Schools implementing Slanzi's framework report dramatic improvements in student behavior, attendance rates, and academic performance. Teachers spend less time managing disruptions and more time teaching. Perhaps most impressively, students begin to self-regulate independently, taking deep breaths when frustrated or overwhelmed instead of melting down or acting out.
Whether you're dealing with elementary students who think you "walk around with a cape on" or high schoolers contemplating their futures, Slanzi's approach offers practical strategies for building emotional resilience alongside academic skills. Ready to transform your school culture through emotional intelligence? Visit EmotionalSchools.com to learn how you can bring these evidence-based practices to your community.
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Today I'm excited to have Leroy Slanzi on the show. He is a seasoned educator with over 25 years of experience in the field. He is currently a practicing educational leader and has done it all from being a principal at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. Leroy is also the author of the influential book Emotional Schools, which dives deep into the essential role emotional intelligence and mental health play in our education system. Beyond the page, leroy is a dynamic facilitator of professional development, a trusted voice of numerous podcasts and a sought-after speaker whose guidance helps parents, teachers and school leaders navigate the chaos life throws our way. I'm excited to share with you his educational leadership journey. Now let's get to the conversation with Leroy Slanzi. Welcome back, everybody for another episode of the Educational Leadership Podcast. Today. I am so excited to bring in Leroy Slanzi. Leroy, welcome to the show.
Leroy Slanzi:Jeff, thanks for having me. Man, I'm looking forward to this conversation. Awesome, leroy, I'd like to start off everybody with the same question what inspired you to become an educator? I'm a Gen Xer, I'm almost 50 years old and, you know, our parents kicked us out, told us to come home when, you know, the street lights went off, and so I was always that guy who was making sure we were having fun. So I coordinated everything.
Leroy Slanzi:So, I think, starting early, I just loved being a kid and being, you know, coordinating kids. And then, eventually, as I grew older, you know, I started playing sports and then I became a lifeguarding and swimming instructor at 16 years old and I just loved it. So I started teaching early, when I started teaching swimming and then, you know, I ended up going into college, into teaching school, and, um, you know, the rest was history. I coach. I coached for 25 years as well as being a teacher, so, and a principal. So it's just always been one of those things that it's been natural for me just to be that kind of a person. I'm just engaged and wanting to constantly have something going on for people, right, so that was just a natural fit.
Principal JL:Awesome. Now, leroy, what did you decide to go into teaching, what area did you become a teacher in? And let's talk about some of your coaching. Let's talk about what did you coach and how did that all transpire within your educational career Because I love American history.
Leroy Slanzi:You guys are interesting down there at the same place Pre-Trump stuff. I just loved learning about Franklin Roosevelt and all the stuff that was going on down there. I was just fascinated by it. It also helped that I had a fantastic American history professor in college. He was from the States man. He could tell stories. I just couldn't get enough of him.
Leroy Slanzi:I actually went to school to be a social studies teacher. That's what I was hoping to do Social studies, grade five, six and, ironically, my first job I ended up in a foundation skills class. So back 25 years ago they used to stream kids here in British Columbia, canada, and so I was in a class for kids. If they had learning disabilities, behavior problems, whatnot, they were put in one class, and so that's what I did. I taught for three years doing that and then I just found a real nation, a real passion for working with kids with disabilities. So I became, I did my master's in special ed and I ended up being a special ed teacher for three years and then somehow flipped into being a vice principal very early in my career. But yeah, so that's kind of my story there. I was a teacher for six years and then was an admin quick.
Principal JL:There you go. All right, leroy. So let's talk about being a classroom teacher, special education teacher. I always feel like those people are just special people. They have to have patience and you know you're dealing with some really tough kids, that you know. They just need that extra guidance. They need things you know. You know structure and there's a lot of different ways you can go into that. Where are some things that you learn as a special education teacher? What are some things that, as your time, that stands out for you?
Leroy Slanzi:I think one of the things that I had to learn early on being a special education teacher is not so much the students. I found that the kids were quite easy. They're quite entertaining, they're very passionate kids. They wanted to learn and again, their progressions were a lot smaller than kids who were not neurotypical. But what I had to learn most as a special ed teacher is how to manage the adults.
Leroy Slanzi:Um, I I find that when special ed kids and and it's, I know, it's the same everywhere when special ed kids are in a, in a classroom, if you're in an inclusive school, that puts a lot of pressure on teachers because then they have to differentiate their instruction they have to work with. In canada we call them ieps, individualized education plans. I know there's all kinds of names for them, but essentially it's a plan for a kid with special needs, and so you know I'd have to deal with a lot of frustrations. You know a lot of of teachers struggling with keeping up with, with managing that, and then, if it was a kid who had a designation, that came with certain behaviors and whatnot. So I, I think, in terms of being the leader I am now, I really learned that structure and understanding emotional intelligence, which ties into my book and some of the stuff I do with, because I do a lot of work with other schools other than my own. I do a lot of workshops and stuff around emotional intelligence.
Leroy Slanzi:I had to learn how to manage, um, that emotional intelligence piece and that social intelligence piece with the adults, with the kids.
Leroy Slanzi:And then I had to learn structure, because, as a special ed teacher, the easier I could make it for teachers, the better it was for my special ed kids. And and I think that was probably the biggest thing I had to learn is that I I couldn't in thinking that all teachers were going to be like me, this gigantic hearts, going to work the extra two to three hours to make sure that I was prepared for my kids, because I started my career in a foundational skills class with no, not as a special ed teacher in a high school too. So you can imagine, you have special ed kids in there and a calculus 11 class or you know, you know a kid who's neurodivergent and they, you know, and they're on the spectrum there and they're, they're, can do pre-cal, but their behavior may not be what the teacher wants in there, right? So that was the biggest learning thing is I that really kind of slapped me in the face that I better get a firm grip on emotional intelligence to make sure that this, this is best for my kids.
Principal JL:So, during your teaching time, what is the one thing you love the most about teaching?
Leroy Slanzi:Uh it, the kids still is. Um, I, I just love interacting with kids. So a good example. So I've been in several elementary schools, and every elementary school I've been in I don't have a principal's office, I work out of a classroom. So that way I'm part of the. You know, I'm a cog in the wheel, and so I support my teachers and my kids by being in a space that's open, the doors are open all the time and I do that because I have to be around kids. And same thing with coaching. Here in Canada we don't get stipends for coaching, we actually volunteer our time, and so I coached basketball for almost 25 years and I coached swim club for some time too. And I did that because I just enjoy being around kids. I enjoy the growth, I love watching them learn, I love how they you know, when you get them going they develop that grit and perseverance and passion, all that sort of stuff.
Principal JL:Yeah, and I know you kind of touched on it a little bit about understanding emotional intelligence and how that shaped you as a teacher to help you into the role, into leadership. Are there anything else that shaped you during your teaching time to take that next step and what was that? And then, how did that inspire you to become a principal assistant principal in this case? To start off with, how did that all wrapped up together?
Leroy Slanzi:there. Well, I think, like a lot of people that go into admin, sometimes we have great administrators when we're teachers and sometimes we have shitty ones. And I think, and I, and I think you know, I, I was lucky cause I had both. I had some good administrators, but I also had some, um, some not so good ones. And I I felt early on in my career which is is I don't know how normal it is, but early on I felt that if I could get into a leadership position, I would run a school differently.
Leroy Slanzi:I would do it differently, not only for my kids, but for my teachers, because I love teachers. I think teachers are our greatest asset, our greatest resource. Teachers, you know to to be, um, what they can be, um, through emotional intelligence. Your, your culture will thrive and your, you know, your numeracy and literacy rates will, will go up. Your attendance will decrease, uh, it decrease in the sense that you won't have as many kids absent and and that's been the truth so, um, I think part of it was that is that I wanted to. I wanted to affect change on a bigger, on a more macro level than just on the classroom.
Principal JL:Yeah, that's really interesting. You talk about how you know you have some principles that you watched right and how you go hey, you know what I really like, how, what that guy does, or hey, I really like what she did or didn't do, and you kind of take notes. I was kind of the same way as a teacher, where I was watching my leaders going. I like that. I didn't quite like that. Maybe I'll do something different than that, and so it sounds like you kind of did the same thing as I did is when, as a teacher, you kind of watched your leaders and it kind of helped you develop maybe your leadership style or how you would like to go about doing that.
Principal JL:So let's talk about your assistant principalship. You know what got you into it. Was there a moment where it was a tap on the shoulder that someone says it's time? Did you know it was time? Did it just kind of sneak up on you? Did it happen organically? There's so many different ways that you know how did you step into that leadership role as an assistant principal.
Leroy Slanzi:Yeah, interesting. So I was a department head in the high school in student services which, so you're the department head of counselors, special ed teachers, you know anyone who supports students, work experience teachers, that sort of thing. And I was in a really toxic school at the time and so I actually put in a request to transfer schools just to go to a school where I wasn't, because I can't, I couldn't affect change on the toxicity. So I thought I'm not one of those people that I'm going to sit around and bitch about something. If I can't make a change, I'm not going to just complain and complain and spin whales, I'm going to move, right. And I think that's that's my, my advice to teachers and principals. If you can't, if you're in a district or if you're in a school and it's just not changing and you can't, don't wallow in that, just get out and go somewhere else, right. And so I actually went to go somewhere else and the superintendent kind of said to me go, say he goes, I'd like to meet with you, because I heard you're going to move because there's a smaller district. And I said yeah, I said I I'm gonna go, I would like to be special ed teacher of the school and on that level in the seniority list he goes.
Leroy Slanzi:Well, if you don't mind, can you apply for the vice principal position out at a different school? He goes you're doing some good work. I understand your. You're doing some good work. I understand your department. You're doing some stuff around. I was using the AVID program. It's an American program, so we're using the AVID program and I was leading that and I said vice principal. I said I've been teaching, I've only been at this for six years. He goes. I think you got what it takes and so I applied and the rest was history. I became a vice principal or assistant principal in the States and yeah, and it's been 19, 20 years. I've been an admin since then your vice principalship.
Principal JL:What are some things you learned, what are some things that you've gained from that that helped you become a better leader, and what advice could you give somebody in that role that is looking to get into that assistant principal role down the road? So again.
Leroy Slanzi:You know I'm going to keep you're going to hear me throughout this podcast. Going back to emotional intelligence, I, I, I. There's one story I had. So I became a vice principal and things were going great. I made sure like I I'd be. I sat in on school-based team meetings. I was the head of the special ed department. I wanted to make sure I stuck to things that I was really good at. I dove into athletics because I was coaching, you know, but I wasn't really familiar with, you know, dealing with behavior and having to suspend kids and the first kid I ever suspended in my life.
Leroy Slanzi:I phoned home and I said to the mom I'm like hey, listen, your daughter's doing this, that and the other. They crossed the line, it's time for them to go home. And mom said to me Nope, I'm a pardon. She said my daughter's not suspended, she'll be at school tomorrow. And I was like what I was in my head? I'm like you don't get to say that. And I said I'm sorry. I said I'm suspending your daughter, they can't be on school property there. And it blew up and I raised my voice, she raised her voice and it just went sideways and afterwards I was done.
Leroy Slanzi:I kind of hung up the phone, not knowing if this kid was going to show up the next day. And I went to the principal next door and he said to me he said, leroy, have you ever eaten crow? And I said no, I've never eaten crow. I've eaten a lot of things. I've eaten rattlesnake, I mean, and he goes well, if you put a little salt on it it tastes pretty good. And I said, well, what do you mean? He goes well, you handled that parent all wrong. He goes. When you talk to a parent, the first thing you should be asking them is for help. And I said, oh, he goes. So when you're phoning to suspend a kid, you need to say, hey, this is the situation that's going on. We're kind of hitting a line. I need some help from you. Can you tell me what you're doing, how you're? And he's preaching to me about emotional intelligence.
Leroy Slanzi:And I went into this having my emotions rise and fall with this parent. She clearly flipped her lid and I wasn't being empathetic and you know I wasn't being mindful and I wasn't. It just went sideways. And so I learned early on as a vice principal. And again I go back to being a department head and then being a vice principal.
Leroy Slanzi:It comes down to teachers and you have to be emotionally intelligent if you're going to develop a strong culture in your school, because if you're not, your school environment is going to become toxic and your parental environment is going to become toxic. So that first suspension I know the kid's first name, last name, I know mom's first name, I know I will never forget that, and that was 20, 20 years ago and I have never and since then I've suspended I don't know 500, middle schools, elementary schools, middle schools. You're guaranteed to suspend some of those clowns and to this day that's the one suspension. That's the one parent who refused the suspension. It never happened again after that and that is something that's resonated with me. And when I have vice principals I teach that I front load anyone new coming into being assistant principals about emotional intelligence. And now every school I go into we have an emotional intelligence structure, that we have an emotional schools framework that we use. That's embedded into what we do. So our culture is thriving within in that capacity, right?
Principal JL:So yeah, that's a really great story to learn, I think, as assistant principals. Like I have never been assistant principal for some reason, I went from teacher right into the building, so, but I was a small town, small rural school principal where I still dealt with all the suspensions. I dealt with everything. You know I had hats today, all the suspensions, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. So I know I've been through that.
Principal JL:I've learned lessons like that, to where, how you approach, how do you talk, how do you get the parent to help you with their child, because you're always trying to say, hey, you know your kid better than I do. So how can we work together to make this so this situation doesn't A become worse but B we can move forward without having a repeat of this behavior or the situation that you're working through with that. So that was a really great story that you shared there, leroy. Thank you for sharing that. So let's talk about you know you went from assistant principal to to principal, to building leader. What was it, um, that inspired you to go from that role into that role, um, was it a? There's, there's a story that goes behind it. Did it kind of happen naturally?
Leroy Slanzi:or, um, know what, what, what, what perspired for you to go from the assistant principal or vice principal into principalship, um, but I uh, by the end of the three years that I was an assistant principal, it was, it was time for me to now to do, you know, to implement a system and develop a culture that I thought was going to. You know, I got hired for both of them, so I had to turn one down and I ended up, uh, middle school principal for my first gig, and that was tough. Middle schools are tough. I was a teacher at middle school for three years, so I already knew, um, but then I became a principal of a middle school.
Leroy Slanzi:So, um, uh, it was, it was something that was necessary and it was just time, cause you get to a point when you're, when you're, an assistant principal, it's like you want it to be your own baby, right, you want to, you want to nurture something and grow it, and then you know and you learn a lot in those I, because I was only there for three years before I I moved to an elementary school for six, um, um, but it was uh, you know, it's a beautiful, beautiful three years yeah, let's talk about that a little bit.
Principal JL:Let's talk about you know, do you have a story that you could share about being a middle school principal, cause we all know there there's gotta be something there, um, but also talk about going from middle school, cause you also talked about being a high school principal. Talk about, like, what it's like to be a middle school principal, what it's like to be an elementary principal, and then what is it like to be a high school principal, because they're all three just different animals and you just have that unique experience and I love people to just understand the difference between those three different, those different areas as a principal, yeah, if somebody came to me cause I'm 51 now and I've been doing this for 25 years If somebody came to me and said, hey, can you be a principal of this middle school?
Leroy Slanzi:I'd say no, I think. I think all middle schools should be labeled as Bart Simpson academies. Um, you know, girls are are overly dramatic, more so than they are in high school, cause there's it's all, emotional, it's all. Oh, you talked about a culture of emotional intelligence and this is my. I wished I would have known then what I know now about developing an emotional schools framework where I could have implemented the right framework with the right common language and the right competencies. Um, but I tell you, it was like I was living in an episode of bart simpson.
Leroy Slanzi:Every day there'd be kids flicking lights on and off, garbage cans would sometimes get lit and lit on fire. Vaseline on door handles, condoms in the spots they shouldn't be in. I'd go into the gym and kids are jumping off the mezzanine onto mats. There's, you know, there's. It's just energy and and and nothing serious, like nothing. I mean, when a garbage can got lit in fire, it was kind of serious, but there was never anything really serious, it was just all of this like juvenile boy behavior. The girls it was more dealing with drama and, and you know, girls can be mean to each other oh man, they beat each other up, but the boys it's just constant, you know it, just constant. And, uh, it wore me down just because I would.
Leroy Slanzi:The hardest part was that I would find a lot of it hilarious, like I'd get to do something. I'd have to discipline them, because I believe in consequences as well as teaching self-regulation and emotional intelligence, and and I would go back into my office and I would just laugh. I'm like, oh my god, that was the most funny thing in the world. Like I just find the stuff that did the humorous, even though they'd sometimes get suspended and and it just it was just like this, right? So, yeah, that was, it was tough being in a, in a middle school, it is tough. I give a lot of credit to middle school teachers man, they, wow, wow they. School teachers, man, they, they, wow, wow. They're dealing with kids at the, at an interesting. And I've raised two kids too, right, my son is now 18 and in college, my daughter's 16 in high school. But man, oh man, I it's, it's, that's just that age 11 to 13. There it's like holy moly.
Principal JL:Oh yeah. So what was it like to be a principal at the elementary level?
Leroy Slanzi:Uh, you know, it's funny cause people ask me you know where my favorite level is? Because I've been in a couple of high schools and a couple of elementary schools and you know what I really? Because I coached and I coached high school. At the high school level, I did coach elementary stuff too, but what I really liked about high schools is that kids, when they're in grade 11 and 12, are really mature and they're starting to think about life and you know they, you know they worry about their mental health and they worry about what's going to happen with their future and they worry about what their career is going to be. Um, you know, and it's kind of cool that way, that's, it's just a more mature kind of sort of a peaceful environment.
Leroy Slanzi:I find, with the odd except when their behavior is bad, it's bad and it and it and it could be dangerous at times, right. And then I look at elementary and in an elementary school kids think you're super mad, they think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread, right, and that's who doesn't love. You know, when I talk emotional intelligence, it's all centered around your ego. It's how your ego is either overactive and under, uh, underactive, and when you're in an elementary school. You can't leave it every day. You leave thinking you're the best principal in the entire planet, right, because I think the kids think you walk around with a cape on. So you know, I, I, I think I'm more partial to elementary, because I do. You know, when kids smile and adore you, like my own children when they're little I can't get a hug out of my daughter right now, and she used to worship me, right. So there's that. But I also, you know the high school has got some really, really cool parts to it too.
Principal JL:Yeah, you kind of hit on a couple of things there. You kind of helped me reflect back on my time at Southern Valley, which is a small rural school. It's actually a one-site area, it's K-12. So we had an elementary side connected to the elementary gym, which was connected to the high school gym, which is connected to the secondary side. So I was the 7-12 principal, so I had to deal with middle school age kids all the way up through high school kids in that building. We had about 175 students total on my side.
Principal JL:But if I was having a rough go, I just walk over to the elementary side and those kids would just like Mr Linden, we, you know, we love you, we're going to. They just come up and they give me hugs and like it was the best thing ever because like I can always go over to the elementary side and those kids would just love you, they'll give you hugs, they'll give you high fives. It kind of just made you go. You know what. This is why I do what I do and I love that part. Now you still get some of that with the upper level guys, but they just, you know, they kind of, they kind of don't um, they're too cool for that at times, right, um, yeah.
Principal JL:And now, being at the high school level, you know that is my niche. I really enjoy the high school age kids. Um, I, I feel like the people that do elementary are special, just like the special education teachers. You know, it takes a special type of person to work with those kids. I don't have the patience for it, but I can deal with middle school kids, but I do prefer high school kids because those middle school kids, man, it's just. Sometimes you're just like, oh, they're not thinking straight. They're just like what are you doing? You know, and I think the best part about being a 7-12 principal is I had two years to straighten them out before they got in the high school, so that was the best part about it. Them out before they got into high school, so that was the best part about it.
Principal JL:But now, being a high school principal, I have to bring in the eighth graders as ninth graders and it takes us about nine weeks to get them where we need to go, because we have to go. This is no longer middle school and this is our expectation let's get you guys where you need to go and it takes a little bit of time. It's a little rough at the beginning but by the time we get about, you know, six to nine weeks into the school year, it all smooths itself out. So they start figuring it out and things like that. There are different, you know, they're just different beasts and I really enjoy you sharing your experiences with that. So let's talk about your book. What inspired or what was the moment um that inspires you to write the book? Emotional schools?
Leroy Slanzi:uh, you know, I I think it's because kids changed and and it started. A lot of people want to blame covid as the, as the thing that changed kids, but I think it started about you, you know, 10, 15 years ago. Kids are playing less. There's less free play where they're out in the neighborhood, you know, throwing the ball around or riding their bikes or climbing trees. Technology come into play, which caused a lot of that. Parents are fearful.
Leroy Slanzi:I think there's a lot of parents have shifted in terms of how they parent. We see more gentle parenting, we see more helicopter parenting and I think, for teachers, our role started to shift from one of we're a teacher to now co-parents, to see kids who were, who are, who are becoming less able to deal with stress because of all these environmental factors in life. Right, and a lot of it is is due to technology. A lot of it's due to both parents having to work and a lot of it is, you know, a fear that your kid is going to get kidnapped. A lot of it's because it costs money to play sports. Um, you know, and, but it was the perfect storm. And I think, as you've seen over the years, that kids are shifting. We're seeing more kids with anxiety disorders, more kids with mood disorders, with behavior disorders, on top of special needs designations States, australia, europe, because I have a lot of connections all over the world and we're seeing it worldwide. The World Health Organization has a lot of data out on kids who have mental health issues, and so it's something that's exponentially growing and I know you can attest to it, jeff.
Leroy Slanzi:Our kids' behavior and their ability to cope is diminishing, which led me to writing my book and developing an emotional schools framework that revolves around emotional intelligence, so we can teach kids how to cope, because now we have kids who can barely get through a difficult math question without, you know, losing it or quitting. And whereas back in the day, in the olden days, you know, kids actually did homework at home, you know, and now, god forbid, you send homework home with kids because parents aren't going to help them with it, and and nor are the kids going to do it, because they're just not. And so you know we're just dealing with a different generation of parents and a different generation of kids, and and so it led me to write a book on what the state of education is like in the United States, and my. My focus was more United States and Canada and North America. So educational systems are quite similar, although Australia is quite similar to. I've done a lot of work down there too, and and I just wanted to kind of portray what's happening in schools and then and then teach educators, principals, teachers, superintendents about how important it is to understand the science of emotions, understand ego, understand how that emotional intelligence, social and social intelligence piece has to be incorporated and embedded into reading, writing and arithmetic, because if we don't, our schools are just going to keep spiraling with behavior issues. Teachers, teachers are going to keep burning out, teachers aren't going to want to do the job, and you know. And kids are going to get less and less productive as we continue. And so that's what the book is.
Leroy Slanzi:It's basically a guide for schools and it's a first. Like I said, it talks about history and why we're at where we're at, and then it provides the science of it and then provides a nice solid plan for schools to embed into their systems. And the nice part about it is you know, I do a lot of professional development workshops, I go to a lot of schools and I work with them to embed this emotional schools framework into their schools and the biggest frustration for teachers is having to do professional development that's going to be meaningless or that's just added on to their day and it's just extra work. And what I do is about it's something that you come in, it's a one-day workshop, and then teachers like if you can see behind me the colored posters and the competencies, those revolve around emotional intelligence, and you just you work with schools within their systems, with their structures, with their programming, their reading, writing, math, english programs, their sports programs, and you and I teach them how to embed this in there so it becomes culturally enabled, right, and so that's what the book is about.
Leroy Slanzi:That's the work I do on the side of being a principal, because it's so crucial in this day and age, because kids can just not handle stress and a lot of it again.
Leroy Slanzi:I think free play, that kids going outside and not wiping out on their bike, or having to organize a game of tag, like I used to when I was five years old, or a game of street hockey outside, and kids don't do that anymore.
Leroy Slanzi:They're not out there getting into arguments with their buddies or having to communicate how we're going to play a game, and so they're losing those critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, the ability to communicate naturally those natural things that were developed as kids.
Leroy Slanzi:For us aren't there anymore, and you can't blame parents and you can't blame society, because it's just where we've shifted with technology, right, and so that's why we had to write, because we're in a different era and you can't, and what's frustrating is is sitting here after all these years and watching schools sit in the same, you know, spinning their wheel the same way. Let's keep doing it this way reading, writing, arithmetic, assessment, standardized tests. This is how you do it with behavior, or it's either. Schools either go really too soft with behavior or they're too hard with behavior, and it's a and it should be a combination of old and new together, right and so, and so that's what I wrote in the book and that's what I do when I work with with schools all over the places. I teach schools how to how to do it. It's fantastic.
Principal JL:So you kind of hit on a lot of things there, Leroy.
Principal JL:And you know and so I, I hear you, um, you know I'm I'm 46 years old, I'll be 47 here in July. So I get, I was one of those kids. I was out playing, we were running the neighborhood, we were doing all those things is now it's like, oh my gosh, we don't want our kids to run around and do what we did, but we're missing that. And I know I read a book recently called the Anxious Generation. I don't know if you're aware of that book, but it has talked about bit and how they went from free play childhood into a handheld device or a device electronic childhood, where they're getting all their interactions through a phone or a computer, where you know that is actually affecting our students ability in school because that's where they have that with them at all times.
Principal JL:And I know for us we've really we kind of want to have high expectations.
Principal JL:We want to be able to understand.
Principal JL:You know we want to teach you how to utilize technology correctly, when's a proper time to use it. We want you to be educated. So we have worked, you know, the last couple, two or three years since I've been here as a principal at my school, here at Hastings High, to try to help kids understand yeah, this is a tool, this is something you can use, but there's times where you need to not use it. So you can be educated and learn the things you do, but we also need to teach them social interactions. We need to teach them what's the best time and place for those things, because if they're not learning that, they're going to get out of school and they're going to go to a job and get fired because they haven't learned the skills they need to learn when it comes on how to do that. And so do you have like a story with schools that you worked with that implemented some of your emotional support, competencies and framework into it, and how did it change their, their overall culture and school climate?
Leroy Slanzi:Well, I'm going to tell you a little story that just happened today. So today we had a group. They're actually from utah. They've been traveling through canada, they're traditional dancers and they and they came to our school and I invited another elementary school from down the road and you know there's about 400 people in there, and so the dancers were there and afterwards, you know, at an indigenous school, having a gathering and providing food is very important to the culture of indigenous people. And so I you know the people were barbecues, we just did burgers and hot dogs and they're barbecuing outside and I get on the mic and I'm always about joking, right, and I get up there.
Leroy Slanzi:I'm like you guys smell that, and they're like, yeah, it smells delicious. I'm like, really, because I just farted and I and I, so I make a joke and all the kids, but I mean you tell a fart joke, you're the funniest guy in the world, right? So all the kids start laughing and then I wait, and so part of being emotionally intelligent is that you can take some deep breaths, you can self-soothe and bring yourself back. So my school, my kids, are on one side and this school is on the other side, so I wait, my kids are used to it Because I have Monday morning assemblies where, where we talk about behavior, we teach self-regulation, we talk about emotions, we teach breathing. It's embedded into what we do. And so my kids, within 15 seconds they're ready, they're listening to Leroy now and this other school they can't bring it together. So I had to get on the mic and say okay, listen, take some deep breaths, come back to me and I need to be quiet now. So I had to use words to get them to self-regulate With my kids. I didn't. So afterwards the principal who's a good buddy of mine and he's going to hear this he goes, leroy, he goes. I love fart jokes, I'm like me too and he says you can't tell a fart joke and expect kids to regulate afterwards. And I said, yes, I can bed. Self-regulation, you can do almost anything with your kids because they will learn how to take those deep breaths and calm their mind so their prefrontal cortex can work and I've been. It was proof was in the pudding and I said, yes, I can. I said you just need to do the work with your school and you need to do some of these things. And we kind of left it at that and he has his own philosophy and doing things and he's a good buddy of mine. So you know, I just kind of let him be.
Leroy Slanzi:But when I do and go and I, when I do go and work with other schools and I've worked with a lot of schools and I, first of what I do is I go in and I teach the background. Why are we here? Like what got us here? No free play where they develop, because free play is crucial to developing those characteristics around learning, which is, you know, you know communication, collaboration, critical, creative thinking, personal social awareness, all those things Right. And so you know, one of the, when I go into schools, I teach them all that and I then I teach them about the science behind it and understanding emotion. So when they do see a kid get emotional, they know right away that if they teach the kids about the science, the brain science and I teach five-year-olds about how the brain works with your emotions and we teach them, if you take deep breaths and you soothe, it allows your prefrontal cortex to work, and so I teach schools to teach that. And then we use the common language that's here in these colored posters plus the competency posters, and so it's always front and center and you would be amazed what happens in people's schools.
Leroy Slanzi:All of a sudden, these kids in kindergarten or grade one, who are learning how to blend vowel sounds or having to, you know when they're learning how to read or if they're learning how to use a pen, how they can persevere and they have more rigor and they have more ability to cope because they're aware of themselves, they're aware of how they're feeling, and so it becomes this drastic change in schools where all of a sudden it's easier for teachers to teach because kids can self-soothe and so when they're feeling frustrated or angry or sad or mad, where you know, sometimes they flip a desk or crawl under a table, a lot of that stuff starts to dissipate. Right, I only see in my school behavior from kindergarten and grade one kids cause they're just learning it, and so a lot of schools I work with high schools too I we work this stuff right through high schools, middle schools, and when you teach this stuff, man, it makes a drastic change because all of a sudden kids, you know, and there's an attendance crisis right around the world in australia they have, they call them ghost children, where they're since covid, they're just not attending and a lot of it's this anxiety stuff, right, that you were talking about from that book. And when you have kids who can cope with stress, they start coming back to school and all of a sudden, your attendance rates are better. And when your attendance rates are better, guess what? A monkey can get kids to learn how to read and write and do math, because they're there every day, right, and so I I think that's the biggest piece that I've noticed when I work with schools is that even schools that are doing great, you can make them excellent and you can make teaching excellent.
Leroy Slanzi:And the other piece of that is you see staff. You see, when I work with a school, you see that toxicity between staff members decrease because they're also aware. It's like okay, I need to be aware of how I'm feeling in this situation, what I'm bringing to the table. I need to be socially aware, so I need to understand what's going on with my colleagues, if they're having a bad day, how I should treat them, or if I'm having a bad day, how I should act. And then I need to adjust my communication, my verbal and nonverbal communication, so that I'm interacting better with my kids, my staff members, and it just shifts everything.
Leroy Slanzi:And and it's amazing because it's not like a lot of these programs that you do, whether you use tribes or mind up or some of these other ones you know you do it and then you got to get a subscription and then you got to follow all these. You know these booklets and it's. You know it's paper and pen and kids sit down with this program that I do science and then it's embedded into everything because your kids, during the day, they're going to give you 20, 30 different behaviors in an hour and every time there's a behavior you get to use the common language, you get to talk about breathing, you get to talk about the science promotion, and it's really quick and you'll be amazed after a few months, all of a sudden you see kids who are just you'll look over and you can see them taking deep breaths and it's like they're calming themselves before they punch their buddy in the face next door, right? So it's, yeah, it's having a, it's having a massive impact and and you know it's it's, you know, as it grows, it's getting more and more exciting to watch, because I feel like I'm changing the education system, because and and this doesn't mean there's no consequences.
Leroy Slanzi:I still suspend kids, right, I still could give kids detention, because you don't throw the baby out with the bath water. It's about combining the two and eventually the punishment stuff disappears because your kids start behaving better and and it's because people, when they hear oh, self-regulation and emotions, they think it's all flowers, rainbows and unicorns. But really it's just the science and teaching them to be emotionally intelligent. But to get them to be, you sometimes need to kick them in the ass. Still, eventually the ass kicking goes away and the suspensions decrease and the detention decrease and right in lines decreases, picking up garbage decreases because they're getting more emotionally intelligent.
Leroy Slanzi:And you find I see schools after six months, seven months, eight months, it's. It's almost like I, like I never in. In. When I was in at, when I was at a high school, before this elementary school, I rarely had behavior issues with kids in grade 9, 10, 11, and 12, more so 10, 11, and 12, because they were just emotionally intelligent and they could do the right thing right. And so that's the. You know. Imagine being in a world where people were emotionally intelligent. How productive and efficient and prosperous we'd all be. It'd be amazing. It's the same thing in schools, right.
Principal JL:Yeah, you bet. I mean you touch on a lot of really great things there and there's going to be people that are going to want to get in contact with you about the work that you're doing. And Leroy is still a principal. Leroy is still a principal. He's still doing the work, but he's also got you know his emotional school framework that he does as well. So if people, leroy, wanted to get in touch with you and learn more about your work, how could they do that?
Leroy Slanzi:Go to EmotionalSchoolscom. Awesome, that simple. Go to EmotionalSchoolscom that simple, all my emails there. There's all the my emails there. There's a lot of information on there.
Leroy Slanzi:All these posters that are behind me here, those are, those are that swag that every, every teacher, every school that does the workshop. So they have these to put up in their classrooms. They have the language right there. They don't have to buy any. I even give them a free copy of my book, emotional schools. So it's all there. They don't have to go buy subscriptions and all this sort of stuff and it's there.
Leroy Slanzi:And then everybody just has to tow the company line together, believe in emotional intelligence, and then you just shift. You don't have to bring me back, unless you want a refresher and want me to come back, and then I'm available for phone calls, to work emails and I will work within. Like I email teachers from all over the place all the time. It's like, hey, this is what's going on, what am I missing? It's like, oh, here and it's free, right, so it's a, it's a one-time thing.
Leroy Slanzi:And then I teach them how I teach schools, how to embed it elementary, middle and high school because I've done it all and and then they go and then it's up to. The trick is, though, is everybody has to be on board, and the principal has to be on board. If the principal doesn't believe in it, don't waste my fricking time, because, as you and I both know, we're the leaders of the ship, and if we're steering, we better be buying in. You know, and, and and I think that's the biggest thing, and most principals, I think their heart's in the right spot.
Principal JL:Most schools I go to, the principles are in there and you bet, and what we'll do is we'll put that link in the show notes so people can click on and find you real easy, so they can get in touch with you to learn more about the work that you do do. And so, leroy, this has been a great episode. It just seems like this time is just going quickly and it's kind of escaping us right now, like this time is just going quickly and it's kind of escaping us right now. Is there any advice that you would like to give to aspiring principals out there, some that you may have learned that, hey, this would be something that would be good for you to know. It helped me, and you know what. What would that be?
Leroy Slanzi:You know, what I would, I would say would say is be someone who observes, watch, watch, what's going on with interactions between staff, what your principals do, good and bad, like we talked about and then learn how to respond instead of react and by that I mean don't react emotionally, take a step back, take some deep breaths and then respond tactfully, with proper communication, and you're going to know how to respond tactfully because you've been observing and and be a student of the game. It's like if, when I watch sports, if I, because I was a basketball coach, you know when I go and watch, I, I, I don't watch just for entertainment, I'm a student of the game, like I'm, I'm I'm trying to figure out why that guy's open in the corner for threes all the time, like or you know, or why is the post dominating, or you know what I mean. And I think that's the one thing. If you're aspiring to be a leader, be a student of the game. Just know how every pillar of your school works and it's littered.
Leroy Slanzi:If an elementary school literacy, numeracy, social, emotional, well-being, right, which is behavior, um, and special ed. If you're in a high school, there's tons of different departments. Know how every cog in the wheel works and observe and learn, and don't be dismissive of the math department because they think they're smarter than everyone else, right? Or the science department, because science and math guys, they think they're smarter than everybody, right? Whereas us social studies teachers are the real geniuses. Yeah, just call a spade a spade, right? So I mean, and that's just it. Be a student of the game, like, be a student of the game if you're going to go into leadership. Truly understand it.
Principal JL:Hey, leroy, this has been a great conversation. I really enjoy having you on the podcast today. I learned probably a lot here just by sitting back and listening to all the things you're doing and your experiences as a leader, and I know there's a lot of people out there that this message is going to resonate, and so, leroy, I appreciate the time that you took today to come on the show. Thank you for coming on the show today.
Leroy Slanzi:Jeff, it was fun man I could talk. We could talk for the next six hours about this stuff. I love pedagogy.
Principal JL:Wow, what an insightful conversation with Leroy Slancy. His passion for emotional intelligence, mental health and building responsive school communities truly shines through. Whether you're a parent, educator or school leader, leroy's message reminds us that emotional wellness isn't a side note. It's the foundation of everything we do. If today's episode sparked reflection or gave you new tools to bring back to your school or team, be sure to check out his book Emotional Schools and follow his work. There's a link in the show notes for you to connect. Thanks for listening and until next time, be 1% better.
