You Don’t Have to Lead Alone with Dr. Vince CasconeBuilding Ownership Around Your School’s Mission What makes a great Catholic school? After 19 years as a principal and seven years as a superintendent, Dr. Vince Cascone believes it starts with strong leadership—but strong leaders don’t do everything alone.  In this episode, Vince shares how principals can stay focused on mission amid the daily noise, build trust through relationships, involve teachers, parents, and students in meaningful ways, and create a sense of shared ownership throughout the school community. From enrollment and retention to leadership teams and student voice, the conversation explores how bringing the right people to the table can help principals carry the load while keeping everyone moving in the same direction.  If you need help with how to center your community on the same page, please schedule a time to talk with us today. https://bit.ly/Build-IT-Better-Together To receive a copy of the Catholic School Excellence Toolkit - A Reflective Workbook for Visionary Catholic School Leaders,  click here. It is the companion to the podcast: In Search of Catholic School Excellence. Dr. Vince Cascone spent 19 years as a Catholic school principal and 7 years as a superintendent.He’s been where you are. He understands the weight of leading a school community — and he’s seen firsthand what becomes possible when principals have the right support.His school earned a U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon award. He’s been recognized as both the NAESP National Distinguished Principal and the NCEA Distinguished Principal of the Year. He also teaches a Master's-level School Leadership course at Benedictine College."I built Seton Educational Services because no principal should have to do this alone."https://setoned.org/vcascone@setoned.org The In Search of Catholic School Excellence Podcast is brought to you by I Love My Tech Team. When technology doesn’t work, Catholic school leaders lose time, trust, and momentum. We partner with schools to restore reliable systems, empower teachers, and create the foundation for innovative learning centered on students. Lead Your School Into What’s Possible with I Love My Tech Team. Restoring What’s Broken. Advancing What’s Possible.Find out more at https://ilovemytechteam.com dailyjoltofjoy.com

Kate Meyer and Nicole Davis, AKA Two Maine Teachers and authors the EduProtocol Field Guide: AI Literacy Edition, discuss AI, AI in schools, AI for teachers, and AI for literacy for students.

What does it take to advance Universal Design for Learning while ensuring research leads to meaningful change in classrooms? In this episode, Bryan Dean sits down with Sean Smith, recipient of the 2026 David Rose UDL Research Award, to reflect on more than two decades of leadership, innovation, and impact in the UDL field.   Sean shares key moments from his professional journey, discusses how projects like WRITE, WritingClassroom.org, and VOISS connect research to classroom practice, and explores the opportunities and challenges AI presents for learners with disabilities and learner variability. He also looks ahead to the future of UDL, offers advice for emerging leaders, and reflects on what receiving the David Rose UDL Research Award means to him.   Whether you're an educator, researcher, instructional designer, or accessibility advocate, this conversation offers valuable insights into the future of inclusive teaching and learning. Transcript Resources:VOISS | VOISS Advisor-  VOISS is a virtual reality social learning platform that helps students build and apply social skills through 140 interactive scenarios spanning 10 social skill domains, with built-in supports for educators and families. AI Score | Life Span Institute AI SCORE is an AI-powered writing assessment tool that instantly evaluates student writing for content, organization, and style, providing personalized feedback to support stronger written expression.  Writing Classroom | Writing stRategies for Instructional Technology in Education WRITE is a research-based educational technology initiative that helps educators support struggling writers by translating evidence-based writing interventions into practical classroom tools and strategies. 

Not everything that feels urgent actually is. In this episode, I share a simple red, yellow, and green framework to help you decide what truly needs your immediate attention, what can be scheduled for later, and what proactive work you need to protect. You’ll learn how to stop letting other people’s urgency control your day so you can spend more time on the work that actually moves your school forward. Get the mini-course From Reactive to Proactive Leadership

In this episode, Dr. Erin Bailey hosts Christine Hjorth (author of the Aligned Decodables and CEO of Aligned Educational Resources), Cherish Mims (Epic's Manager of Education Relations), and Letitia Truslow (leads Epic School Plus) to discuss Epic's expansion of 250+ decodable books on its platform. The conversation covers what makes decodable texts effective for early readers, how they're aligned to 23+ different curricula scope-and-sequences, common misconceptions (that they're only for struggling readers or inherently boring), and how Epic's digital library complements print literacy initiatives like RIF's. The guests share the serendipitous origin story of the partnership, creative techniques for making decodables engaging (surprise illustrations, vocabulary building, nonfiction topics), and how the collection supports differentiation, family engagement, and English language learners. About the guests: Christine Hjorth is the author of the ALIGNED Decodables and CEO of Aligned Educational Resources.  An expert on decodables, she has written a set of 260 decodable titles and aligned them to the scope and sequences of 22 different ELA curriculums. She has sold over 550,000 books over the last 3 years, which are in use around the country and are now found on EPIC! She is certified in Early Childhood, Elementary, and Gifted Education, with over 25 years of experience in the field, including many years as a first-grade teacher. She recently presented about the use of decodables at the International Society for Technology in Education conference and will be presenting again at the National Convention of Teachers of English in the fall.  Cherish Mims serves as the Manager of Educator Relations at Epic, where she builds relationships with educators and develops professional learning, webinars, campaigns, and community initiatives that connect teachers with engaging digital reading resources. She brings ten years of classroom experience and passion for literacy together to help educators make meaningful use of technology to support students and inspire a love of reading. Letitia Truslow leads the Epic School Plus and Customer Experience teams at Epic, supporting school district administrators, educators, parents and students.  In this role, she works closely with school communities to ensure they get the most out of Epic's platform, translating feedback from the field into meaningful improvements to the product and support experience.With a background in customer success and education technology, Letitia is passionate about building strong, lasting relationships between Epic and the districts it serves. She believes that great customer experience starts with genuinely listening to the people who use the product every day—whether that's a superintendent managing a rollout, a teacher navigating a new tool, or a parent trying to support their child's learning and literacy journey at home. Epic! Decodable Texts: New Decodable Books on Epic All of the amazing decodables discussed on this podcast, and found on EPIC, are available as physical copies at Decodables.com.