Schoolhouse Heroes: Jeff Kubiak

This series spotlights the incredible work being done by amazing educators from all over the world, in a variety of roles. While classroom teachers are on the frontlines, directly impacting our students on a daily basis, educators wear many different hats and are in many different positions. Jeff Kubiak is the most recent to share a bit about his work.

Jeff is an Elementary School Principal for Fairfield Suisun Unified School District in California and just released his first book, One Drop of Kindness. The following are the questions I pose for all of the spotlighted educators, and Jeff's answers to them.

What do you love most about your job?

Watching children learn to navigate social, emotional, academic, and other challenges and opportunities throughout the day. The energy and love they bring is contagious!

 How do you make the greatest impact on students?

 By being real and transparent. I read with them, play with them, talk with them, cry with them and show that we can all be different, but we have similar needs. To get down on a child's level and really listen and establish a bond that is incomparable to anything else.

What do you wish more people knew about education?

 That changes every day, and we need to be more proactive about what each child needs. We serve students, they don't serve us. If we look ahead daily, yearly and beyond, we'll realize that as a whole, we are not preparing them for what they don't know yet. A teacher's job is so difficult and important, it's too bad we don't treat them like professionals.

 What is your favorite learning resource (person, podcast, book, Twitter chat, conference, etc)?

 Twitter is the best, it's on-demand PD. I love podcasts too, as I drive long distances to work. Books are amazing but my time at home dedicated to reading is minimal, which is why I go to Twitter and Podcasts more. #TeachBetter #EdChat #LeadLap #FormativeChat #CelebratED are a few.

 Anything else we should know?

 Be intentional and authentic, but always throw in a side dish of kindness, it'll make our work and world so much better!

 There is so much to dig into with Jeff: elementary education, leadership, mental health, SEL...the list goes on. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn or Twitter. As educators, our goals are all the same - connect with students and provide them all they need to be successful in life.