The Edison Way: Education as Unique as Our Learners
Posts Tagged "excellence"
The Selfless Hearts Shaping Our Kids
May 05, 2026
Sometimes I wish time travel were real. If it were, I’d go back and visit every teacher I “tormented” (or, more accurately, learned from) as a kid. Back then, I just wanted to survive the class and move on. I had no idea how deeply they would shape me decades later.
Now, as I approach 30 years in education, I find myself longing to thank them—not just for the academic lessons, but for the ones that built my character. Teachers have a unique power. Next to parents, few adults influence a child’s future more profoundly. The best educators pour their hearts into other people’s children every single day, driven by a quiet belief in each student’s potential.
Teaching means facing challenges, setbacks, and sometimes even ridicule with grace and dignity. It requires selflessness, humility, and a passion that goes far beyond a paycheck. Great teachers give pieces of themselves, so their students can become their best.
Over my career, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside many outstanding educators. But the team I’m privileged to lead right now is truly extraordinary. They don’t just show up—they fully embrace Edison’s mission and core values while modeling what it means to be an ideal team player.
Every day, I watch them patiently guide students through difficult moments with calm and compassionate care. They arrive each morning committed to transforming young lives, one interaction at a time. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and it feels especially meaningful. While I deeply appreciate everything they do for Edison’s students, I am equally inspired by them.
To every teacher reading this, thank you. Your work matters more than you know. The seeds you plant today will bear fruit for generations.
Building the Right Team at Edison
March 09, 2026
As a new, young leader, I had an overinflated view of my importance to my team. I believed that if I was out, things wouldn't run as smoothly. Naively, I thought that was how leadership was supposed to look. The leader was the north star and without him the team would lose its way.
It took years of growth for me to realize that if I have the right people and lead them well, they will be just as effective without me as they are with me.
Whether you are a sports coach, leader of an organization, or administrator of a school, one of your most difficult tasks will be to assemble a strong, effective team. This is NOT an easy thing to do for several reasons. Not the least of which is because you are going to ask a group of people to work toward a goal that is bigger than each of them. In other words, they must be willing to put aside self-promotion and focus on what is best for the organization.
Throughout my career in education, I have worked with several teams, many of which I assembled. At the time, I thought they were strong and effective. Unfortunately, that wasn't always true. In fact, many of the teams I assembled had major weaknesses with personnel that I had to address for the sake of the school.
The longer I lead, the more I believe Patrick Lencioni when he says most “firing problems” are actually hiring problems. In my own words, it is because I failed to accurately assess whether the person truly aligns with the school's core values.
As a result, Edison's hiring process has evolved every year since I took the helm in 2018. Today, the process involves several members of the current team, and every step is designed to assess a candidate's alignment with Edison's mission, values, and culture.
In addition, we introduce candidates to the virtues we believe make an ideal Edison team player: humble, hungry, and smart — principles taken from Patrick Lencioni's book “The Ideal Team Player.” Our improved hiring process has allowed us to bring incredible educators who are fully committed to what we are building. Understanding our values, mission, and expectations allows each person to focus their energy on helping each other and helping each child reach his/her potential.
Being a small school — 16 total employees, including me, each member of the team has multiple roles to fill. Which means, when one person is absent, the impact is felt immediately. In these instances, if a team member is misaligned, the strain on the rest of the team can be significant. Times like these test the character and strength of the team.
Recently, the Edison team was tested unlike any other time in my eight years as Head of School, and they demonstrated why they are the best team I have ever had the privilege of working with.
The test came while I was attending the NAIS Thrive 26 conference in Seattle. Two of our teachers were out due to family matters. During the week, two more got sick and ended up being out. That meant about one-third of our team was out during this week. With many of the teams I've worked with during my career, situations like this would have triggered calls for me to close the school.
But NOT this team!
The rest of this team stepped in wherever they were needed. They covered classes, adjusted schedules, and supported each other to make sure our students continued to be served well.
I had confidence that this team could handle any situation that arose in my absence, and they proved it!
One of my goals as Edison's leader is simple: I cannot become so important to Edison that the team cannot overcome challenges without me.
When you build the right team, leading is not about being indispensable. It is about creating a group of people who are strong enough to succeed even when the leader is away.
Proud Moment at Edison
February 25, 2026
More than anything, I see myself as a life coach to the kids enrolled at The Edison School. There is so much they need to know about life before they leave, and as I frequently remind them, “my time with you is limited.”
This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to accompany four of our high school students to an awards luncheon hosted by another non-profit in our area. These are the four oldest students at Edison and have heard more of my life lesson talks than anyone else, so it was a chance to see if they could apply what they were taught.
I was NOT disappointed! They made me very proud!
The students cleaned up well and dressed handsomely for the event. Many of the things we talked about over the years were displayed by each of these young people, but my favorite was the fact that none of them got on their phones during the entire event. They remained engaged in conversation with each other and listened to the presentations attentively because they were not distracted by their phones. The best part of this lesson was that I did not have to remind them about it.
When we take time and are intentional to teach young people life lessons, they will get it. It is not just our words that teach these lessons, but our actions as well. We must be careful to talk about these and set the right example consistently. They are watching, even when we think they are not.
Cultivate an Exponential Impact
February 03, 2026
1992 was the year I began my career in education, and at the time I didn’t think about the long-term impact I might have on my kids. I started as a physical education teacher, so I taught fitness, sports, winning and losing, and having fun. I tried to teach good sportsmanship and character. I wanted them to be good kids who were well-rounded. I talked about doing the right thing and being a good example for others. But I don’t remember thinking about how those kids would one day become teachers, business professionals, leaders, parents, etc.
Over thirty years later as an administrator, I am still preparing kids for life, but now I am intentionally thinking about their future roles and the impact they will have on the world. It seems as I get older, the more focused I am on teaching kids to do the right thing, develop good character, be selfless, and work hard. While I may not be the person directly teaching these things to kids at The Edison School, I am talking about them with my team and reminding them to teach these to our students. All of this can be summed up in our third core value – cultivate an exponential impact.
What we mean by cultivating an exponential impact is that we teach life skills, character development, and we are focused on the whole child. When we do this with excellence, we transform the lives of our kids and their families. We talk to them about their future and remind them that they will one day have an opportunity to lead, teach, and be parents, which means they will be making an impact on other people’s lives. As a team, we cannot transform every child’s life, but we can transform the lives of those who enroll at Edison. In turn, we want them to think about how they can transform the lives of people they encounter after leaving Edison.
We have found that this core value is a result of consistently living out our other two core values, creating meaningful connections and striving for excellence. When you have strong connections with kids and are pushing them to be their best, they will have real-life examples of impact that they can turn to for the rest of their lives.
Striving for Excellence
January 28, 2026
This has been an especially hard week for middle Tennesseans, and the south in general, because of an ice storm that came through last weekend. People have been without power for days. Businesses and schools have been closed. Trees have fallen and caused damage. My guess is a lot of people are experiencing cabin fever since getting out has been tough. What we witnessed during the aftermath of this storm have been people needing to display character traits like flexibility and grit. These are two traits that we at Edison believe help make up our second core value.
Striving for excellence – this does not mean perfection; rather, we believe it means consistent growth and improvement that requires the living out of specific character traits by everyone on our team.
1) Being faithful in the little things – our team is consistent and diligent in unassuming, everyday tasks with our kids.
2) Having the humility to pursue personal growth – members of the Edison team understand the importance of constant personal growth. Personal growth is not just attending classes, or reading journals, it also happens when we talk with each other about situations we are facing. No one on the team thinks they are too good to learn from others and improve.
3) Having grit and persistence – we have a team of people who face challenges daily and push through these for the benefit of our kids, each other, and the entire school.
4) The flexibility to adapt to ever-changing situations – at Edison, no two days are the same. All of our kids learn differently, so our team must adapt. Kids come in each day with something new or different that forces our team to remain flexible in the way we meet the needs of each child.
Striving for excellence is the core value that reminds everyone on Edison’s team that we will not settle for mediocrity, and that we are constantly looking for ways to improve.