What if preparing students for the future means changing not only the tools in the classroom, but the way education thinks about leadership, learning, and change?

Dr Jeanene Stettner-Dutt joins Dr Michael Conner for a timely conversation about leading schools through uncertainty without losing sight of the people at their centre. With experience spanning the classroom, principalship, curriculum leadership, and the superintendency, Jeanene brings a practitioner’s perspective to the pressures facing education, from the rise of AI to the changing expectations of Generation Alpha.

This is a conversation for leaders who know that simply keeping an organisation functioning is no longer enough. Jeanene challenges educators to think more intentionally, design learning that feels relevant, and create cultures capable of adapting before change becomes a crisis.

If you are asking how schools can embrace progress responsibly while continuing to put students first, this episode offers a grounded and hopeful place to begin.

Michael Conner: The company's out in Utah, does some really, really good things. And then also, we know Dr. Jeanene Dutt was a former superintendent, former assistant superintendent, principal, teacher, everything that you can think of, and it's that great interface between bringing that practitioner lens into this business education world and impacting it, uh, from a global standpoint.

Michael Conner: But from New Jersey, hard-hitting New Jersey. Listen, everything I love about New Jersey. First of all, I'm a big UConn guy from Connecticut, and we already know where the coach is from, Dan Hurley from New Jersey. You know, a lot of the great play basketball players, a lot of people that I love out there, Dr.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I am fantastic, but I gotta tell you, I actually live in Pennsylvania right now.

Michael Conner: Do you? Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Time out. Thi- this is a sidebar.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I know. Hold on. A lot of people don't realize this, that I was born and raised in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Michael Conner: Mm-hmm.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Spent my entire professional career in New Jersey, but I have lived in Pennsylvania since my 20s.

Michael Conner: I have not... I did not-

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I know.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: People do not know that because I spend a majority of my professional life, everything that I do is in New Jersey. I li- hold- I'll li- I'll take it even further. So where Phillipsburg, New Jersey is, the, the city directly across the river in Pennsylvania is called Easton. That's where I've been living.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We are, we are athletic rivals for, for over 100 and something years. And so my alma mater is across the river, but I live here in eastern Pennsylvania. All of my work is New Jersey.

Michael Conner: Unbelievable. That is-

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Oh, yeah, my... But I am still, I am still, when people ask me where I'm from, I say I'm from New Jersey.

Michael Conner: I, I, I love it.

Michael Conner: I love it. And, and to- Uh-huh ... and to my audience, this, I thought I knew everything about Dr. Dutt. Did not know that. And then also, too, another fact for my audience, Dr. Dutt, Dr. Dutt is a former college athlete as well. So when we talk about, you know, sports and everything, just love talking with Dr. Dutt. But I didn't know that.

Michael Conner: Unbelievable. Yeah,

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And then I moved over back to Pennsylvania with some friends. Like, we lived in a house, and then met my husband, and I never went back over the state line. But my entire career has been New Jersey.

Michael Conner: You learn something new every day. Uh-huh. So, and, uh, as I learn something new today just now, I want my audience to learn everything new about you with this episode, whether it be from Be Your Best to your LLC, which is Lead by Design, including the work as president for NJAEL.

Michael Conner: Just a variety, right? The diversity and the divergency of the expertise that you exhibit within the ecosystem. But for those that do not know you, Dr. Dutt, what song describes your leadership signature in the ecosystem?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: This is gonna sound so incredibly strange, but it is a song called Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: It is probably not your typical song that would, I go- I guess, designate leadership. Like, I had some other, you know, songs in mind that motivate me and especially with the work that I do in, like, women in leadership. Like, if that was a question from a women in leadership group, it would probably be Katy Perry's That Girl Is On Fire, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Um, I, I don't necessarily believe you're born a leader. I mean, I think some people are, but I think for others it's an evolution. And, you know, part of the work that I have always done in all of my leadership roles, all, like all the things that you just mentioned, Um and Bob, are about supporting people and their professional journeys as well as their personal journeys.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So that song, every time I hear it just, it just makes me happy. Yeah.

Michael Conner: Yeah. Dr. Dutt, what I love about that humble and kind resonating sentiment that you highlighted was how leadership is an evolution and supporting people within that. I see you do that all the time. I mean, this even goes to your work as an assistant professor at Seton Hill University where we actually sat on a dissertation committee together and had a, our candidate reach her goals to achieve the doctorate, where, as you stated, supporting people in their journey in growing the nexus of leaders, specifically I always state in this AC stage of education, humble and kind, right?

Michael Conner: Dutt, where that you, you see this, and I'm glad that you brought this up specifically, and we're gonna talk about your leadership focus specifically when it comes to women in leadership as well. But yesterday highlighted, right, this startling metric, and I know that you're gonna continue to provide the mentorship to grow women in leadership where women represent 76% of the education ecosystem, but only 27% are superintendents.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yes.

Michael Conner: We're gonna have- Yes ... to balance that out. As you stated, leadership is a evolution where mentors are supporting people in their journey. But yeah, go ahead if you wanted to.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: No, I just, the, I, I've, I've done a lot of work.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: It's been a while though since I've looked at statistics like that for women in

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: leadership. But

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: a few years ago, New Jersey was, I think, about 37% or close to f- maybe 42% of women that were being named as superintendents. But to take that data even further, they're mostly elementary or middle school districts.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Like, that's a goal for my work in women in leadership is we're, we're all leaders, right? We're all leaders. So, but I think we've made some gains for the next generation of women coming up, for sure.

Michael Conner: Yeah. Yeah, and the work that you're doing, Dr. Dutt, for women in leadership is just absolutely phenomenal.

Michael Conner: I even know about your work with that, so continue and deepen in that work. But I wanna talk exclusively about the work that you're doing. It's kind of like... And I want take this question apart to create two parallels. One, your company, which is Lead by Design, and then two, your executive director role in Be Your Best.

Michael Conner: So one, I wanna, uh, well, and this is kind of like an interface of this question, but answering it two distinct parallels, right? So when we talk about you being the executive director for Be Your Best and you with your company, Lead by Design, which focuses on developing leaders, organizational teams, all of those principles there.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yeah. So this is interesting question and, and story to it. So when I was still working as a superintendent and I discovered the principles of becoming your best by reading a book, and I started living those principles, it made an incredible impact in my personal and professional life.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And, and we might circle back to this, Dr. Conner, but, like, I ended up being trained by this company on the 12 principles, brought it back to my district, only worked with it within my district, just the leadership team, and then I had staff training, and then I had more staff asking to be trained, and then I developed a simple form of a, of a curriculum that I wrote that I've now finished.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And, uh, so my primary focus and probably 98% of the work I do per week is under Becoming Your Best. Lead by Design was founded on the principles of Becoming Your Best. And so when they asked me to join their team officially and formally, I'm really focusing on doing all of my professional work with Becoming Your Best.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: But interestingly, there are, there are things that I'm asked to do, like the one-to-one mentoring and just helping people, that doesn't quite fit the buckets of work that I do with Becoming Your Best, and that's where Lead by Design kicks in. But if you really look closely at what I'm doing, they're, they're, they're kind of merged.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And like what impact are we looking for? So part of our collective vision for Becoming Your Best is to touch a billion lives, all of us. At s- in some capacity, all of the work that we do, we want to touch and impact a billion lives. Lead by Design is no different. Lead by Design is more of a, of a personal coaching and mentoring LLC versus, you know, the, the group kind of presentations that I do and the keynotes and the principle that I teach with becoming your best.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: How do you treat your employees, right? They're your, your, they're your biggest assets, right? What kind of, what kind of legacy do you wanna leave in your life? Not just your work life, but in your personal life, in your, you know, life with your friends and family. So we really do focus on balance is so important in order to be better productive.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: In order to do this work, because this work resonates with my core values, and it changed my life to the point where I'm like, "I need to bring this out to schools. I need to change other lives." And that is why I'm sitting here talking to you today really about, you know, no longer working in the public sector, but doing work that's gonna eventually impact a billion lives, and some of those lives are students.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And that is always our focus as, as educators, is what's best for kids.

Michael Conner: This is outside of that. What would be an experience me and my team would actually go through you underscoring the BYB principles? Because this is... I always, I, and, and, and this is just kind of level setting exactly what you're stating. You have to have a healthy you in order to be able to lead effectively, and you always said, and you said it, there's that balance between balance and productivity, right?

Michael Conner: And we would want to enhance and accelerate the productivity of our teams. But this approach is an outlier to some of the systemic approaches that we have, where it's focused on systems, change management, instruction and everything. What would, what would an experience if I was sitting back at the seat with my team, what would be our collective experiences with you?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So in a majority of the schools that I've been in across the country now, the first day or at least four hours of training is strictly about the individual. It has nothing to do with its team vision, the school vision, the mission. It is your vision, your legacy. So I would say, Dr. Conner, I would work, w- walk you through the process of, "Dr.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: The most important role you have in life, this stumps everybody. They, they talk about being a mother or a father or whatever. The most important role is actually you, yourself. You need to take care of yourself and be, and be balanced in order to be a better father, to be a, a better son, a great friend, a great leader.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We take it even further with a system that we have that no other leadership company has. We have our very own planner, which is either a digital planner or a pencil and paper planner, that brings together all of the vision work that we teach you and all of the goal work that we teach you. So it's very personal, and it really makes you focus on what are your real core values, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: about

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: you as a person in your life. And so when I write my vision, when I wrote that, it was like w- how do I want people to really know me or remember me? And I'll tell you a story.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: As a superintendent, my vision was written on a sticky note that I stuck right by my phone and right under my, my monitor. 'Cause as you know from experience, you have to have difficult conversations, either face-to-face or phone calls with either parents or staff members, whatever. And when I knew it was going to be difficult and I was starting to get out of my realm, like of who I want to be as a leader, and I would, I would literally focus on my vision statement before I made that phone call or before I called that person in to re- recalibrate and rebalance myself to say, "Remember, this is who you are.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Moving forward, I work with teams together. So now we would take the processes from your personal visions, your personal yearly goals, and your, your, your purposeful planning called pre-week planning for the week, and now we say, "Okay, as a team," maybe it's district office, maybe it's all the superv- who, who, whatever team I'm working with, "who are we as a team?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Like, they can be infused, but it's a very powerful thing to do as a team because you start talking with one another and recognizing strengths and people who have challenges and how can we, like, help compensate for that. And it's also a great tool to use if we're not really Living up to what we said our value was, what our vision was, that we can remind one another, say, "Hey, we said that we were collective and collaborative.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And it's, it's, it's a process and it's a skill set, where a lot of times you hear leader- leadership training is someone talking at you, w- a lot of what I'm doing right now, actually. But you leave with the tools that you can then continue the work. Y- you know what I'm saying? So, like, and then the follow-up and, and the thing.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So that, that's what a, a typical and most popular training that I do from leadership teams all the way down is the do what matters most.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. Creating that level of coherence, right, within the organization.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yes. Yes.

Michael Conner: So-

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yes ...

Michael Conner: such an essential strategy. And to my audience out there, the reason why I asked Dr.

Michael Conner: It doesn't matter, right? We wanna be able to create the level of organizational coherence around those core values that Dr. Dutt was talking about. Great work that you're doing nationally, Dr. Dutt, and, and I, I, I, I know that your work at Be Your Best will continue to spread and scale as well. But I wanna focus this question around Generation Alpha, right, and the attributes as a cohort.

Michael Conner: But, you know- This insight or meta insight with Generation Alpha really calls for deep learning. I want you to go back to your instructional expertise because what I'm seeing now is that, you know, Generation Alpha, because they are the antithesis to any human generations of mankind, they're, they move from engagement and don't have the strategic compliance, ritual compliance that sometimes we would do in school.

Michael Conner: But in this AC stage of education, where now the focus is around the future of the world and future of the work, I want you to unpack deep learning from a leadership and classroom instructional lens. Put your practitioner hat back on as a superintendent.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We don't have enough time for this question, quite frankly.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So, you know, a couple, a couple of things come to mind. We have, with this generation, there's so much access, maybe almost too much access, right, to information at their fingertips, right? They've, they've grown up with this. But, you know, and I wanna talk, I wanna talk a little bit, and this may be a little disjointed, but years ago

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And I had, you know, multi, multi schools and grades that I was working with. And was- we're already trying to make the jump for that generation of learners and how curriculum should be changing from ritual facts and learning of dates and times and generals. Um, I won't even get into the social studies standards in New Jersey 'cause I, I, I just feel like there needs to be a major change there as well, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: But why do they, why do they need to memorize the dates and the rivers and the geography? I was pushing way back then as a new curriculum person who loved experimentation in curriculum and more hands-on learning and so forth to say we should be asking them questions like, what would have happened if the Civil War never happened?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: 'Cause I can tell you right now, I was not that student who engaged in anything like that. Like, I was more of a student, even back in the '90s when I was in high school, where if it was a conversation or I was able to pick my topic, and I had a wonderful social studies teacher who, who allowed me to do that, I thrived back then

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: in that kind of banter, in that kind of, I don't know what the word I'm looking for, like debate

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And this is before the internet, so think about that. So when we talk about, you know, deep learning now for the, the generation of students that's coming in, they really just don't need us to be a source of facts anymore. Like, they can access that anywhere, right? But I think if we're, if we give them the ability to take a concept and maybe apply it to something that they've never seen before, or they wanna solve a problem, or they wanna do experimentation, we should be pushing that in our classrooms so that they can feel connected, and they can connect it to their own world, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: As an admin from the leadership side I think that means if we're gonna make this transition that we have to make with this generation, or we're gonna continually fall behind, I think we have to shift our focus to maybe rewarding those teachers or maybe rewarding those classrooms where students truly are, I don't know, wrestling with real problems or maybe depth, not breadth.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I think we need to think about how do, how do we, how do we reward that, and how do we highlight that when we find classrooms of kids and teachers that are doing that?

Michael Conner: And Dr. Dutt, we use, uh, Voices for Excellence as asynchronous professional learning tool for leaders, founders at tech companies, learning organizations, anyone within education.

Michael Conner: Um, well-stated Dr. Dutt, well-stated with this. I mean, the, I, I was, Dr. Dutt, I was very good at rote memorization. I was very good at regurgitating information, yet it helped me get to where I am at today, but I always challenge myself and say, "Was there any deep learning that occurred?" And it didn't happen, only the stuff that I was interested in, and that was-

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Michael Conner: very, very, very minimal. I'm like, "Okay, let me do this. Let me get the A. Let me go, you know, just..." Yeah, it, it tr- it-

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: You know what I'm saying? Like, we need to look at what we are, how we are preparing today's teachers to enter into a classroom like this, and

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: to have the, the confidence and the ability

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: to take the curriculum that could be 20 years old in some places and say, "How do I make this viable for the kids that are gonna sit in those seats in front of me for this next year?"

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So I think there's a lot of pieces that need to, to, to be connected systematically, like you're saying.

Michael Conner: But Dr. Dutt, I wanna get on your presidency as the, the, the president of NJAEL. I absolutely love that group, and to my audience, the NJAEL, the New Jersey Association of Educational Leaders, just a phenomenal group, great leadership structure. Dr. Lazaro, who's the new executive director, past executive director, Dr.

Michael Conner: Timothy Frederick, that is also assistant professor at Seton Hall University, and then the esteemed president, Dr. Jeannine Dutt. But Dr. Dutt, as the president of NJEE- NJAEL, all these acronyms, right, what is the nexus of the organization as it continues to expand throughout the state of New Jersey and beyond?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Lazara coming and so forth. Really our, our main mission is to continue to expand throughout the state of New Jersey because there are still so many people who don't know who we are. I was with a group yesterday for this other thing that I do. I'm on, I'm on a board for a foundation called ActLife. So we had a planning meeting yesterday, and there was a New Jersey educator there saying, "I've never heard of NJAEL."

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I, I don't know any other organizations that do that either. So our focus areas really for this year besides for that growth is we have new committees, which we've not really had before. So we have, we have a membership committee. We have a professional development committee where we, we posted out on LinkedIn for anyone interested in a leadership position with us.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So NJAEL, it would be on the different topics of leadership, and then the more integrated tech and AI and everything else that's always a focus of the Thursday event remain that way. We're thinking that that, that might expand. And we're, we're als- also looking to do some more vendor highlights. We're looking to increase our membership, too, to include underrepresented groups as well, such as business administrators, athletic directors.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And we're, we're, we're big on networking. You know, I, I mean, our events, I have met

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: countless people, including you, I believe, through NJAEL or, you know, w- through Dr. Fredericks.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Because everything we wanna do is make a network of people who are struggling or who have questions or just don't know how to handle something in that organization, but always, always, always keeping kids at the center, which is why our main event at the gala, we bring kids to the gala and give them a scholarship, you know?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Then there's another association that's principals and assistant principals. Then there's, you know, associations for school business administrators. We are the association that brings all parties to the table because people's perspectives on challenges are different depending on the role you're in. So we like to bring everybody to the table, and we're, we're member-- We're also member-led, so what the members are asking for is generally what we, we do as, as an organization.

Michael Conner: So please, if you are in New Jersey, please reach out to Dr. Dutt, Dr. Fredricks, or Dr. Lazar- Lazaros so you can get involved with this phenomenal group. It is like one... It's, uh, Dr. Dutt, I see everything you're doing in NJAEL as just this kind of like this upward trajectory that has momentum going. I mean, just this past summer, phenomenal summer conference on the shore.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: How do we provide more support for our leaders in New Jersey? And, you know, one of our One, one of our missions is to give back to students. We're also looking to do a fundraising event this year that would benefit a charity. And so we've been kicking that around for about two years, and I, I'm thinking now's the time to do that.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: The gala has been very strong, and I, I've already got emails about, how can I support the gala this year? So I think our next step would be some level of charity that we can give back to a community.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I would say that Functioning is, like I said, they're doing, they're doing well. You know, they're hitting their deadlines. They have all their curriculum posted on their website. Their communication is, is okay, right? But I think that a truly kind of healthy organization is one that's not stagnant. It's one that's proactive instead of reactive, and it changes and evolves with the times and force- I, I guess kind of like foresees the future.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I was a principal. We knew we wanted to shift more into some digital learning, right? And instead of pencil and paper, but team was, teachers were still using some Scantron things, and I, I was losing my mind over this 'cause I was, I didn't come from a school that was still doing that, so I had a lot of work in front of me where I went.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We had hiccups, but we were one of the only schools in the area, maybe in a lot of areas, that were up and running the, the first day that we could be on Monday morning. Because we, we had a phenomenal technology department, a phenomenal superintendent, uh, that was Dr. Belotti, Sara Belotti, and then me as the principal, where we were like, "We, we have got to start doing things now."

Michael Conner: Shout out to Dr. Sara Belotti. We, um, we were, she was a part of our, our committee.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Co- committee, yeah.

Michael Conner: Yep, she was a part of our committee. Met Dr. Belotti when we were on the committee for a candidate who's now a doctor. Shout out to Dr. Priscilla Ortiz. Happy. You know, I was kind of like just happy as a, a, a committee chair that I got my one over, so shout out to her.

Michael Conner: You're, you're absolutely right, and I can see why, you know, with... Ooh, that was a dangerous team, you and Dr. Belotti together. Oh. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, wee.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We were, we were, we were a dynamic duo. We, that could be a whole other podcast because we're, we were, we were the first female superintendent and principal at the school district we were at, and we had very, like similar but different leadership styles.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So that goes back

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: to that, that mentorship piece.

Michael Conner: Yeah, Dr. Belotti, that's like the, the, the only analogy I can have for that, that's like when UConn had Sue Bird and Di- Diana Taurasi- Yeah.

Michael Conner: on the court together. That's not fair.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Yeah. When we- It's not fair.

Michael Conner: But when we think about it, right, I loved how you contextualize what a healthy organization look like. It's proactive, and it adapts with times, and there's that readiness kind of point that's there. I think that's one of the core issues or problems of practice that we see around systems modernization today, is that we haven't had the actual model adapt with the times.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: which we need, we might need those other things too, right?

Michael Conner: Yeah, yeah.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Like we, when we have to adopt a policy, when we have to have this report done or wh- we still need those check boxes, but that's not shifting the organization forward into the future. You've, you've, you've... And this really comes down to mostly curriculum and instruction, quite, quite frankly, for, for our kids, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We can't be doing what we did even five years ago right now. It's, it's... We're wondering why our kids are disengaged.

Michael Conner: You're right.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Because we can't be giving the same project out that, that we gave out eight years ago, nine years ago. It does not resonate. So we have to adapt to the kids' faces that are in front of us, not a project 'cause we loved it when we designed it.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And that's, that's tough, right? That's hard to, to, to tell teachers they can't do that anymore, so.

Michael Conner: Yep. I still see it today.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I, I agree. Listen, before, before growth leadership and, and organizational management became, like, really my focus and my passion probably about 10,

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: 10, 12 years ago,

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Let's, let's try it." You know? So that, that gave me, that gave me joy. But yes, it's, that's, that's also another podcast topic.

Michael Conner: I mean, we got about four or five with that, but yes, it w- a healthy environment will make those shifts. But I want you now to put on your practitioner hat, your NJAEL presidency hat, you being a part of Be Your Best, you know, the, as the executive director, all the, all the, all the things, centenary professor.

Michael Conner: So I, I remember I was, had my notebook out and I just stopped when I heard that. And I, I became... I was focused during that keynote, but I became even more focused because I was like Well, this is in our, our students' lives every single day. 86% of them are using some form of AI outside of school, two plus hours.

Michael Conner: By the time our students are eight, they would have three hou- roughly three hours plus of screen time on a daily basis, and artificial intelligence has become naturalized in their world where we're actually seeing core attributes of Generation Alpha and Beta, who are the quantum thinkum- quantum thinkers who are gonna engage in ASI and AGI beyond what we are today.

Michael Conner: Only 8% has deemed that they've received high quality artif- AI training in their district or schools. But do you believe these potential bans on disruptive technologies and AI become a threat with the needed preparation of Generation Alpha and Generation Beta regarding, as you stated before, readiness for the future, i.e.

Michael Conner: future of the world and future of the work?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: We're also getting a little bit of... I think

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: people

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: are

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: getting

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: a little confused between

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: the use of AI as an instructional tool or preparing students with AI, because that is indeed the world that they're going to work in, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: With screen time, that's not academic screen time. I mean, I don't know if you're coming across this at all. I do believe that there is too much screen time with our youngsters, and I just mean social media, text messaging, not enough engagement in face-to-face conversations. I, I mean, statistics have shown that, you know, teenagers' mental health is on the decline because of the four plus hours they spend on social media.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I'm scr- I'm scrolling. I'm... People laugh 'cause I do play video games, by the way. I bought myself a PS5 for my birthday last year. Yeah, yeah. I, I do non-academic screen time for fun as a reward. So I think we're, we're looking at what is happening with our youth and what is happening with their decision-making, equating that to use of, I could be completely wrong, Dr.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So if you're gonna say, "Oh yeah, we use AI in the classroom because my kids use Grammarly," that's not what we're talking about, right? I still believe we should be teaching basic spelling and grammar and, you know, thing, things like that. I, because I just think that that's important as, as a linguist, like a language, right?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I think the, I think the, they were trying to ban it completely from like sixth grade and under. I think it was something like that, if I remember correctly Right? Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I, I have so many thoughts, you know, and opinions on things too, and I think, you know, there's a huge disservice to also students not being able to use AI that are not going to college.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: So I, I don't, I don't, I think we're not, I think we're not ready to fully implement it, but I think we're not ready to ban it either. I think we have a lot of work to do, you know, in that, in that middle ground.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. And, uh, Dr. Dutt, you alluded to a lot of, a lot of facts, right? That it's evidence-based.

Michael Conner: Dutt And I'm gonna try to limit you to three words. All right? And normally a lot of people break rules with this, so take it as it is. But Dr. Dutt, what three words do you want our audience to leave today with regarding preparation and readiness for the future of education?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Vision Intentionality

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Student-centered

Michael Conner: Well, you're gonna be a rule follower.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Usually I have a- I, I, you, you, you set me up. I mean, I could explain it, but you, you said I can't do that. I'm a rule follower. Actually, I've never been a rule follower in my entire life.

Michael Conner: I, I know that, Dr. Dutt. Go right ahead. Vision, intentionality, and student-centered, please expand.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I think a clear vision is what lets us, as leaders and teachers, make consistent decisions in, I guess I would say, like, sometimes difficult and un- unpredictable environments. So I think having that, having that vision for education, having that vision for leadership is, is where everything starts. I'm choosing intentionality because it's, to me, again, it's the opposite of being, like, reactive, you know?

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Or I would even say, like, combative. So, like, instead of, like, scrambling to

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: we have an absolute intentional plan that we're agreeing on, that we're gonna roll it out as an initiative instead of just saying, "We're gonna do this new math program or this new English program, and there's an AI component."

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Like, no, no, no. What-- why are we doing this, all right? Not, like, to check those boxes, I guess, like you and I were talking about earlier. Intentionality, I think, is imperative. And we cannot forget the kids. So student-centered. If we ask leaders why

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: they went into

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: teaching, right? Anyone. If you do not answer with, "I love kids," or, "I wanna help kids.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: And I do still think so many people are stuck in protecting the adults' comfort, right? And just continuing to do what they like or what makes them comfortable, 'cause adults don't like change and don't like coming out of their comfort zone. But we have gotta get out of our comfort zone, and we have to involve the student voice in moving forward.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Email me. That's, that's number one, and it's, uh, Jeaneane, you w- I can spell it out for you. Um, or I can send it to you. Um, [email protected]. So J-E-A-N-E-N-E @becomingyourbest.com. I'm also, in my business, I am on social media. So on LinkedIn you can just find me at Jeanene Dutt, EdD, and Becoming Your Best Education Division on Facebook, and BYB Education on Insta, and BYB Education on...

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: What's my other platform? X. X. Yeah. But email, I mean, email is, you know, you can ask me a lot of questions and things on that if you wanted to ca- catch me there.

Michael Conner: Dutt, impact and influence. Thank you, my good friend, for coming on Voices for Excellence.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: Thank you.

Michael Conner: It was so fun to have you.

Jeanene Stettner-Dutt: I appreciate it. It was great.

Michael Conner: Absolutely. And on that note, onward and upward, everybody. Have a great evening.