EduCoach by Dr. Jo Lein

EduCoach by Dr. Jo Lein I’m Dr. Jo Lein. I know a lot about leadership in messy, imperfect school systems—and I’m still figuring out plenty of other stuff out.

EduCoach is where I share practical, no-fluff tools for leaders who want to actually empower people.

09/07/2026

They say you’re supposed to do an introduction post at least once a week.

I have successfully avoided this advice for approximately 139 days.

But tonight, with a cat on my lap and a true crime documentary rolling in the background, I opened CapCut templates to see what I could drum up.

Everything was going fine until I hit the generic text:

“She’s a content creator.”

S**t.

What the hell am I?

Content creator? Hardly.

My daughter has already roasted me for sticking with this bu****it for a couple of likes.

Influencer? Absolutely not.

“I admire your preseverence…” Sure. 😂

Author? Principal? Coach? Educator? Person yelling into the internet about school leadership while folding laundry?

All technically true.

But none of them quite fit.

So I landed here:

She’s a leader practicing in public.

That feels closer.

I write about what I’m trying.
What works.
What bombs.
What I believed six months ago that I’m no longer so sure about.
And the questions I can’t stop asking about schools, leadership, and changing practice.

Maybe that’s the whole Burn the Script thing anyway.

I’m less interested in finding the right label than staying willing to rewrite it.

So, hi.

I’m Jo.

I practice leadership in public.

09/06/2026

It started with a snarky comment from a parent.

And, annoyingly, they weren’t entirely wrong.

That comment sent me down a rabbit hole about school fights, consequences, family partnership, and one distinction I can’t stop thinking about:

Responsibility is not the same as control.

New on Substack: what happens when “be stricter” meets the actual reality of middle school.

jolein.substack.com

08/31/2026

I got mocked approximately 47 times last week for my high-pitched “GOOD MORNING!”

“Hey, sweetheart…”

“Okay, honey. I hear you…”

Apparently, middle schoolers have notes on my delivery. 😂

And you know what?

I’m choosing the shine ☀️anyway.

I’m going to be warm. I’m going to be enthusiastic. I’m going to act delighted to see kids—even when they roast me for it immediately afterward.

Middle school be damned. ☀️

Follow along here—and join me on Substack—for more real-life school leadership: the messy moments, the things I’m learning, and the scripts I’m trying to burn along the way.
Thanks for being here.

Dolly Parton died this week.It was also Week 2 of middle school, and more kids than I can count told me:“I don’t like to...
08/29/2026

Dolly Parton died this week.

It was also Week 2 of middle school, and more kids than I can count told me:

“I don’t like to read.”

Then I cried at yoga.

Then I sat down in Booth 26 at Panera and tried to figure out what the hell any of that had to do with the fact that I’d just spent 139 straight days dancing to Jolene trying to get Dolly’s attention.

Turns out, quite a lot.

I thought I was trying to get Dolly to look my way.

I ended up learning where to put mine.

New on Substack: I Spent 139 Days Trying to Get Dolly Parton to Follow Me. Here’s What I Learned.

jolein.substack.com

Dolly Parton

08/25/2026

We’re officially into Week 2.

Which means we’ve gathered enough data to begin one of education’s favorite conversations:

“There need to be consequences.”

😂

And sometimes?

YES.

There absolutely do.

Kids need boundaries.

Schools need standards.

Choices have outcomes.

I’m not interested in building schools where adults politely ask children 47 times to please stop throwing pencils.

But here’s the script I want to complicate:

What exactly do we think the consequence is going to teach?

Because consequences can teach:

That behavior has an outcome.

Good.

But they don’t automatically teach:

How to regulate when you’re pi**ed off.

How to enter a classroom appropriately.

How to solve conflict.

How to organize your work.

How to read the damn paragraph.

And here’s where the script starts shaping what we do.

If I believe consequences create behavior change…

…I may keep increasing the consequence when the behavior continues.

Lunch detention.

Parent call.

Referral.

Suspension.

Bigger.

Longer.

Stronger.

Meanwhile, nobody has asked:

Why is this behavior still happening?

Maybe the student needs accountability.

Maybe they need instruction.

Maybe they need practice.

Maybe the environment needs to change.

And very often…

they need more than one of those things at the same time.

That’s the part I think we miss.

A consequence can respond to what happened.

It cannot, by itself, teach what should happen next.

So yes.

Hold the boundary.

Follow through.

Have the consequence.

And then don’t stop there.

Because if the goal is behavior change—not simply behavior payment—

we still have some teaching to do.

Anyway.

Day 139.

Still dancing.

Still holding kids accountable.

Still waiting for Dolly Parton

Still convinced that a consequence answers “What happens because you did this?”

Teaching answers “What are you going to do differently next time?”

We need both.

08/24/2026

Someone is irritated with you.
Disappointed in you.
Short with you.
Clearly feeling some type of way about you.

And suddenly you’re conducting a full internal investigation:

What did I do?
Was I wrong?
Should I fix it?
Should I apologize?
Should I make them feel better?

Maybe.

But also…they’re just mad, bro.

And maybe the work isn’t figuring out how to make them not mad.

Maybe the work is learning how to stay regulated enough to ask:

Is there something here I need to own—or am I trying to carry an emotion that belongs to someone else?

Accountability and emotional absorption are not the same thing.

I wrote about this one after realizing I wasn’t regulated enough to handle someone else’s anger particularly well in the moment.

So naturally, I went home and turned it into a practice rep. 😂

“Why You Mad, Bro?” is on EduCoach Substack (link in the bio)

Come practice with me.

08/23/2026

We made it through Week 1.

Which means somewhere this weekend, an educator said:

“This group is going to be tough.”

😂

Maybe.

Maybe seventh grade really did require approximately 73% more adult energy this week.

Maybe 5th hour is…something.

Maybe the hallway after lunch currently resembles a poorly organized migration.

Patterns matter.

We should notice them.

But here’s where I get nervous:

Patterns are information. They are not identity.

Because once I decide…

This group is wild.

These kids don’t listen.

That class is low.

…my brain gets remarkably good at proving me right.

I notice every disruption.

Every missing assignment.

Every kid who confirms the story.

And I stop noticing the evidence that complicates it.

That’s where the script starts shaping instruction.

If I believe this is just “a tough group”…

…I’ll simplify the work.

Increase control.

Take fewer instructional risks.

Expect the disruption before it happens.

Maybe even teach them differently than the kids I decided were “good.”

And eventually…

kids start responding to the environment our expectations helped create.

That’s the danger.

Noticing a pattern isn’t the problem.

Deciding the pattern is permanent is.

So yes.

Look at the data.

Notice which transitions aren’t working.

Figure out which class needs more structure.

Teach the routine again.

Change the system.

But stay curious about the kids.

It’s been one week.

They don’t know us yet.

We don’t know them yet.

And nobody deserves to have their entire school year predicted by a few days of evidence.

Anyway.

Day 138.

Still dancing.

Still noticing patterns.

Still waiting for Dolly Parton

Still convinced that early patterns should change our strategy—not our expectations of who kids can become.

08/23/2026

“They were so good.”

I know exactly what we mean.

They walked quietly.

Phones were away.

Hoodies were off.

IDs were visible.

Kids got to class.

And after spending a week reinforcing approximately 97,000 procedures…

HELL YES. 😂

Those things matter.

Yesterday I literally made an entire video arguing that standards matter.

I meant it.

But here’s the danger:

A compliant classroom can fool us into thinking it’s a learning classroom.

Quiet is easy to see.

Thinking isn’t.

A kid sitting silently might be deeply engaged.

Or completely lost.

A beautifully managed classroom might have students doing exactly what they’re told…

without doing much thinking at all.

And here’s where the script starts shaping instruction.

If I believe good behavior is evidence of good learning…

…I’ll optimize for what I can see.

Quiet.

Stillness.

Completion.

Compliance.

Instead of what I’m actually there to produce:

Thinking.

That’s why we need the systems.

The routines.

The IDs.

The expectations.

Not because compliance is the destination.

Because predictable systems should free our attention for the work that actually matters.

Reading.

Writing.

Talking.

Questioning.

Struggling.

Trying again.

Order creates the conditions for learning.

It is not the learning.

So yes…

after Week 1, I’m celebrating the hell out of kids learning how we do school here.

But Week 2?

Now I want to know:

What are they thinking about?

Anyway.

Day 137.

Still dancing.

Still holding standards.

Still waiting for Dolly Parton

Still convinced that the goal isn’t a school full of kids who know how to behave.

It’s a school full of kids who know how to learn.

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North Little Rock, AR
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