Ever wonder how one of Ohio’s most respected school leaders transitioned from a young student with a cursive writing block to a nationally recognized educator? Push play as we welcome Dwight Carter, a trailblazer in education, to our episode. With his two-decade long career in education, Dwight walks us through his early years as a student, his journey of overcoming challenges, and his rise to leadership – all while illuminating the importance of a holistic support system in schools for today's students.
Hold onto your headphones as Dwight unfolds the story of his journey - from being an unwitting leadership figure in his athletic days to becoming the principal of Central Ohio’s largest high school. Not to miss, his honest take on faith and how it played a role in his journey. We also dive into the crucial issue of student mental health, with Dwight stressing on the relevance of stable support systems in schools. You'll also hear about the influence of technology, social media and the need for cultivating a positive school culture.
Finally, we manage to sneak a peek into Dwight’s recently launched book, "Be Great: Five Principles to Improve School Culture from the Inside Out," where he imparts his mantra of striving to be greater than the day before. As we wrap up our chat, Dwight leaves us with his profound insights on the significance of continuous growth and building a legacy - a conversation that will inspire you to reach for greatness and leave a lasting impact on those around you. This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and the power of positivity.
Ever wonder how one of Ohio’s most respected school leaders transitioned from a young student with a cursive writing block to a nationally recognized educator? Push play as we welcome Dwight Carter, a trailblazer in education, to our episode. With his two-decade long career in education, Dwight walks us through his early years as a student, his journey of overcoming challenges, and his rise to leadership – all while illuminating the importance of a holistic support system in schools for today's students.
Hold onto your headphones as Dwight unfolds the story of his journey - from being an unwitting leadership figure in his athletic days to becoming the principal of Central Ohio’s largest high school. Not to miss, his honest take on faith and how it played a role in his journey. We also dive into the crucial issue of student mental health, with Dwight stressing on the relevance of stable support systems in schools. You'll also hear about the influence of technology, social media and the need for cultivating a positive school culture.
Finally, we manage to sneak a peek into Dwight’s recently launched book, "Be Great: Five Principles to Improve School Culture from the Inside Out," where he imparts his mantra of striving to be greater than the day before. As we wrap up our chat, Dwight leaves us with his profound insights on the significance of continuous growth and building a legacy - a conversation that will inspire you to reach for greatness and leave a lasting impact on those around you. This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and the power of positivity.
By the grace of God, I'm then named the principal of Lincoln High School, which was at the time the largest high school in central Ohio. Never in my wildest, dreams have.
Speaker 3:I ever seen that happening. This is a Coach Tim Brown would be a baller podcast, and I'm excited today to have as a special guest a Dwight Carter. A Dwight is a nationally recognized school leader, speaker, presenter and author from Columbus, ohio, right here in the great city of Columbus, go Bucks and all that kind of good stuff. But today we want to talk about Dwight's over 20 years in education and being a school administrator and leader in that field. And so, dwight, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Appreciate that. Mr Brown, glad to be here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know you've had a great career in education. When did you know you wanted to pursue education? When did that hit you?
Speaker 1:This is a great question. I would say it was early, early middle school, late elementary school, around fifth grade, maybe seventh grade. It's when it was really baked in. What I noticed is that people would peers, would constantly come to me to ask for help, or something like that. The teachers looked towards me to help other students, yeah, and I just thought it was just being nice. I wasn't anticipating this is what I should be doing or call to do, or expected to do, just being nice. But then when I entered high school, I had an introduction to business class and I said I want to be a businessman. Did not enjoy that class at all.
Speaker 1:So I figured I was going back to what I thought was going to happen, like I said, between fifth, sixth, seventh grade, and decided on that I was going to be a teacher. I just had to decide what I was going to teach, but I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
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Speaker 3:I was doing some research and I read a story about you and your third grade teacher. Yeah, that third grade teacher experience. You were trying to get to Cages Island. Yeah, ms Seneke. Yeah, you want to talk about that experience.
Speaker 1:Ms Seneke was a blessing. She was a teacher of all the kids in my neighborhood, mainly on 22nd Avenue. So I grew up on 22nd Avenue in the Linden area. We had legends like Reggie Rankin, doc Ward, monty Raglan. We grew up watching and admiring them. Ms Seneke was also their teacher. We saw how actively involved she was with the families and everybody. So I was able to get her as my third grade teacher.
Speaker 1:And then one day we were doing math just basic computation, and she saw me using my hands. She said you know, you don't have to do that. And we had these time tests and she created a contest for the class. She said the top three scores by the end of the year I'll take you to Kings Island. I was like what?
Speaker 1:And then back in the day that was like the premier place to go and so I worked hard. She did a lot of tutoring and whatnot and she also pushed me to excel in reading because going backwards when I was in the first and second grade I was pulled out for reading instruction and math support. Didn't know what was going on at the time, but I just needed that additional help. But by the time I got the third grade Ms Seneke excelled me forward. So I was reading sixth, seventh, eighth grade books in the third grade. But I was still a little bit struggling with math and so that additional help, then that incentive worked out and by the end of the year I was like number three in the class.
Speaker 1:So, I got a trip to Kings Island.
Speaker 3:How was that King Island experience? Oh man, it was everything. It was beyond, it was beyond.
Speaker 1:So when we were there, she had it was me and two other, it was two other students, two females, and she challenged us, and this was when the beast first came out.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:So, she's like we got to ride the beast, everybody was like getting that thing and she got upset. She's like I spent all my time. It's like all right, so I'll try it.
Speaker 1:And then you know, I got on it and just she bought us a beast t-shirt so we conquered the beast. So yeah, that was a great experience. But she taught me how to think ahead, about finding what each student needs and then planning the seed and then helping them, helping them reach that. So she was very much into individualized instruction. She was all about praise and encouragement. So praise publicly correct, privately, and that's what I learned from her and she was a all I mean my mom loved her. She just she was all in on the whole child and then. So, miss Seneke, that was my first experience with a teacher like that. The second experience was Miss Moses, my sixth grade teacher. Now. Miss Moses was a beast and she was a beast yeah, she did not play.
Speaker 1:She had high expectations but she supported everybody getting there and she had this look, man, so if you knew if you were crossing the line, she just cut you, just look, and then she would go in on you, just like she was your mom. And so I had mad respect for Miss Moses. And then she Again, she was another one that, like, saw potential and pushed me further. So she was giving me high school level books to read. Again, she differentiated her instruction, so it's like a three or four or five of us that she worked with individually because she saw we need a little bit more. But she also saw some areas we needed, maybe by more meaning, more challenging work in other areas we needed more support. And again that there was no like particular language for that, like it is now, it was just that's just what she did, yeah, so I learned a lot from her and we still keep in touch Just through Facebook. Cannot find Mr Necky, I've tried to be looking for her, but I can't find her.
Speaker 1:But, Miss Moses, we know she might still keep in touch.
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Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I sit back in the day being over lending you a great athlete. In college. You play football and you ran track at Wittenberg. Can you talk about that experience and how that helped you in school leadership?
Speaker 1:What's funny is I never looked at myself as a leader. I truly didn't. The first time I think it came to came to mind was Mr West, my PE teacher in at Lenmore in the year, you know, had these, these awards and stuff like that. So I was just sitting there in the library just talking during his his, his, his, his, and he said, uh, sportsmanship award goes to Dwight Carter. And I was just like what, what? Just shocked, Right. Uh, so then I got me thinking.
Speaker 1:Then I was constantly elected for leadership positions, you know, student council president or vice president, um, team captains, like, again, things that I didn't pursue. And so when I got to high school, um, I was lucky enough to play varsity as a freshman. We had a smaller team but still we had a freshman and JV team, but I, again, I was lucky enough to play varsity. So I hung out with some of the older guys so watching them, um, and how they interact with other people, Um, and then, like I said, just through student leadership positions was constantly tapped to do to do those things, not pursuing it, but it's just, I guess, by behavior, people just assumed that I was ready for that position. Um, and then through, um college. I never thought I would be um a college athlete because by the time I got to my senior year I thought I mean, nobody was knocking on the door of the you know, hey, we want to bring you to our campus until again that happened.
Speaker 1:So we had a um, um assistant football coach from Wittenberg University named Tim Nolan. He came out, he was a charmer coach no, and you know the nerdy glasses and the button up student. He was just talking about Wittenberg University. I never heard of it and I and I immediately said, look, I'm not going to liberal arts college because it's too expensive. My sister was at my skin at the time so I knew how much of a leap that was for us financially. So I just like, nope, not even going to consider that route. And he's like, hold on, let's wait, just wait a minute. He said, how about we set up for a visit?
Speaker 1:So my mom and I went up there and we fell in love with the campus because the way they treated everybody there, like we walking up and down the campus and everybody was just saying, hey, how are you doing? Hello, and we're looking at you like, do you know them Right? That was just the culture of the school and so from there decided to go there and immediately I connected with all the coaches my football coaches were. They were tough, but you know we connected with each individual coach. So I was my head coach, was my position coach, so he and I didn't get along that first year at all.
Speaker 1:Then I had a position coach, coach Fincham. He was he and I didn't get along. The common denominator was me. So I walked in with this huge chip on my shoulder. It was a 95 90% white liberal arts Culture that I never experienced. So I'm coming from Linden majority black inner city. It was a culture shock and I didn't know, I wasn't mature enough to respond to that. So I was just very angry, very upset.
Speaker 1:Plus, I was reading more books and just becoming more exposed to things and just seeing things from a broader perspective, and that led to Learning about myself, connecting with coaches and then humbling myself to listen to them and say, hey, here's, you have a lot of potential but you got to get rid of your attitude. And then coach Finchelman, I, we connected, as he was my her look, my position or my hurler coach. So he and I connected through. That had a lot of success.
Speaker 1:My freshman year in track I mean a lot of success broke a couple records, was all conference and that Gave me more confidence to be a better football player, started lifting and working out and things like that, and all that led to being elected captain three, three out of four years for track and then Captain my senior year in football. Never expected that whatsoever again. Four years before I don't think I was even playing college football. Four years later I'm elected team captain again, not pursuing anything. It's just more so. I think it was just through modeling, yes, and how I, how'd I treat it? My teammates?
Speaker 3:It's something how you know God definitely has a plane. Yeah, he has a plan for her life. Yeah, we just trying to figure out why this happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know yeah it's going on here, but it's all in God's, god's hand and God's plan. You know, I know you're a strong man of faith. He talked about your faith journey. Let me read just one scripture that I was doing some research on you. That's one of your favorite songs, 91 One. He was in secret place of the most high she'll bottom, the shadow of the Almighty. You know why is that so special to you?
Speaker 1:It's protection. It's protection as guardianship is comfort, and this assurance because, again, especially in today's rapidly changing world, things are changing so quickly that it's hard to see, it's hard to have a strong foundation. So, relying on that scripture, I found that one back in. Actually, I got that from a student, gave that to me. She looked up the white and that was a scripture that came with it. Why? Because the white means concentrated leader, mm-hmm. And then that's the scripture that that's a part of it. So with that one, I showed over, adopted that one, started living my life according to that, and so what that truly means to me is if I lean and trust on him, then everything's gonna be okay. I may not be able to see it, but that's where the faith comes in. Right, but everything eventually will be, will be okay.
Speaker 3:It's good, that's good. You know you've been blessed to be a principal, senior type. Top high school is essential high. I've had a Lincoln, new Albany. How did those opportunities come about?
Speaker 1:man, I have no idea. It's God again. I truly though I so funny story. I never, ever had a thought in my mind about being an administrator, never. So my. I think it was my fifth or sixth grade or sixth year in teaching a guy named John Howard. He was a retired high school principal at Lincoln High School principal, and things were different back in the 90s. So he would just he's walking in neighborhood and we were in an outside building from the main campus. So I was teaching freshman at Lincoln High School. He would just pop in my classroom, hang out in the back and then Classes over. He's like hey you ever thought about administration?
Speaker 1:No, never, I'm never going.
Speaker 1:Quote-unquote never, they walk out the door. Month or two later he comes back in, sits in the back. So, man, you know my young man, you have a lot of you know, you have a great report. The kids. Have you thought about administration? Never, john, I'm not doing it. Stop asking. Then, sherry, down lap.
Speaker 1:My principal tapped me to be a leader of a group called the critical friends group, which is a professional learning community for educators, and we just talked about, we examined our work, we observed one another, we did Like article studies and book studies and we just grew professionally without administrative oversight. We just like what do we need professionally and how can we support each other? Well, she tapped me out of all the educators in the building to be to be the leader of that group. So as I was going through training, I was also leading the group, and it wasn't till that training that I thought, hmm, maybe I could do administration, maybe I could be an administrator.
Speaker 1:And then two years later I was enrolled in the Ashley University, get my master's in administration. And so I got hired at Lincoln High School, where I was a teacher, to be an assistant principal, did that for three years. Then I got hired as a middle school. Principal in Gahanah Middle School East Did that, did that for three years and then, by the grace of God, I'm then named the principal of Lincoln High School, which was at the time the largest high school in Central Ohio.
Speaker 1:Never my wildest dreams that I ever see that happening, but it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know, fast-forward now. You're currently director of student support services for the East Eastland Fairfield Career and technical school district. You know, as we think about young people today, why support services so important to them. First off, and then secondly, as reflect on those two decades, what are some of your unique needs of today's students?
Speaker 1:Yes, the student services are important. It's more like a wraparound service. So I, in my position, my department, overseas three main buckets of schools. We oversee climate and culture, health and wellness and intervention services. So the climate and culture it's all about that sense of belonging, feeling that trust, that psychological safety. Essentially, that's all about the adult behavior. What types of behaviors do? Are the adults modeling so that students can feel safe, ready to learn? Climate and culture, health and wellness, is all about the physical, mental and emotional health, which I'm gonna stop there. That's one of the greatest needs now we see in school is more students are coming with mental health concerns and issues than than ever before For a number of reasons.
Speaker 1:We're still dealing with post pandemic, the isolation. There's a lot of fear, missing out through social media, so there's a bunch of comparison and comparison all an ankle leaves the unhappiness because if you always think you don't, you don't have as much as other people. This generation is the first generation that has grown up with technology, from birth to now. So they're inundated with images and in messages and and and a Lot of content which is easy to compare to. So they're bringing that to the schoolhouse and Having a lot of mental health issues with their. That's just leaving to anxiety, depression, suicide, ideation, like like never before, and so I think those things were Very harsh realities.
Speaker 1:So as a school and student support systems, we have to think about what systems that we have in place to support the academic, social, emotional and the Developmental needs of all of our students, and so that's what we're looking at now, plus we're also looking at it's no longer college or bust, now it's Multiple pathways and that's now the adults in the lives of the kids accepted there's more than one pathway to success. That means how our schools going to support those multiple pathways. So at our school, at our district, we say we get in our getting kids ready for their one of four E's entrepreneurship, enrollment, like future education, enlistment in armed forces or employment. So it's not there, only is there next E, and so we provide supports to, or set up supports to help the students identify that E and then help how we help them get there.
Speaker 3:It's good you know you think about. This is a podcast about legacy. We think about that word. What does that word?
Speaker 1:mean, that's a great question. Last night, where I was at my my uncle's funeral and his son talked about legacy in his legacy and and what that actually looks like. So I'll wrap it up in the definition of like your life has more impact beyond your existence. But I can't determine my legacy now because I think that's for other people to just to decide. I can say what I want, but if my behavior doesn't line up with what I say, then I don't know if my legacy will exist. But I would say, based on feedback that I get from previous students over the last 29 years, I would say I have a pretty strong legacy. But again, it's really defined by what other people's experience and what they remember. Because one thing I learned from a great friend of mine is that we can't choose what people decide to remember and so we can have an interaction that we forgot all about, but for them it was a world changer, either positively or negatively. But that's also part of legacy, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think about those different and just. This is our first time meeting, but knowing you and just hearing about you, you've always left. Wherever you go and left, you always left something to be built on. What are those pillars that you leave at the school, when you leave a school, what are those pillars?
Speaker 1:I would say it's my acronym, great. So be great is like the sign-off that I have for all emails and just pretty much my sign-off. But it's more than just the word. There's a five principles that I've really tried to live my life by. By no means am I perfect at these pillars and no means do I do them every day. So be grateful, so have a legacy of gratitude. Be relational, which is establish strong relationships where, once you have that strong relationship, strong bond, pretty much anything's possible. To be enthusiastic, that's the E, and that just means are you living your purpose and do you know what that is? And then be authentic, are you bringing your true self and are you creating conditions for other people to be them true selves? And then the last is T, which is to be teachable. So I try to live my life by those five principles and then hopefully, I've left that legacy where I've been. But more importantly, I'm going to make sure I leave that legacy at home with my daughter.
Speaker 3:Speaking of that, that gets us right into our next, about your book Particularly. I know you co-authored several books and this new book is last. Book is Be Great Five Principles to Improve School Culture from inside out. What was the vision behind that book?
Speaker 1:Like I said, those five pillars, but it was more so about how. How is each individual person taking responsibility for the culture they want to have in the school building? Sometimes we look to the leader to define the culture. One person can't define the culture. It takes the consistent behavior of all the adults in the building and so it's an inside out approach. How we show up and how we show up every single day, what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about the people that we're serving, and then the conditions you want to create. That's all self driven, completely self driven. So that's why it's from an inside out. So my whole approach was don't look to other people to determine what the culture is. You, as an adult in the school building, you can determine what that culture is and then, if it's aligned with the core values of the school and the district, and a lot of magic can happen.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you have a mantra. That's how can I be greater than I was yesterday? How can I be greater For our audience? Can you kind of talk a little bit about that, how you can be greater?
Speaker 1:than I was yesterday. Well, the whole notion goes back to what impact do you want to make each day and can you bring your best every day? It doesn't mean you're bringing the best, but are you bringing your best? Today, for example, you could have you could, you could be going through in a very difficult time. So there's a lot of factors and circumstances there that you're not being the best, but for that day you're giving your very single best. And so, and that means basically, is this are you able to make one percent improvement today than you did yesterday? Because we're either improving or we're not. My wife reminds me that all the time. So we're they're making progress or we're not. And so it's the same same notion of what can I do today to be better than I was yesterday? And so for me, I had to learn how to reduce my to-do list.
Speaker 1:Okay, because when I was, when I first became a principal, I would have a to-do list of 10 or 12 items and I would leave deflated every single day because I never got to those items.
Speaker 1:Then I you know actually, tony, tony sty, the basketball coach he and I had a conversation. She said do I reduce your list? Say, what are the two or three most important things you need to do today and focus on those things. So when I started doing that, if I got those, if when I got those two or three things done, I felt like I was better that day than I was yesterday and I was able to leave room for the the happenstance that goes. That goes with just being the principal, because you cannot you cannot control all the variables and you don't know was walking through that door Right, you can have an agenda, but that can go out the window in one quick second. So once I learned to do that, started to enjoy the job a lot more and I started enjoying life a lot more because I felt like I was Meeting, hitting those big rocks and the little things just they became, they just weren't that important.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's powerful. Cut down that list. Yes, that's good, that's a good word. Yeah, you know. Lastly, as we come around the corner, can you give a word to current school leadership? The importance of building the legacy, just for everywhere they they go, leaving the legacy of building that you leave a word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as a leader, people are talking about you, with or without your knowledge. Mm-hmm, that's just a part of leadership, it's good. The question is, or the question if to ask yourself is Do I worry about what people say, do I care about what people say? And my pastor, my former pastor, I say, he, you care about people, what people say, but you can't worry about it because some of that stuff you can't control. So, as a as a as a young leader, I'll say, school administrator, focus on building the positive relationships, focus on being clear in it and how you communicate, and then focus on providing, with others, a clear direction and path that you want to go, and I think the sky's the limit.
Speaker 3:Well, the way this has been a great conversation. I want to leave this. I want you to share with the audience. You know how they can contact you. A lot of speaking and Also how they can purchase the book be great. Let's start with the second part.
Speaker 1:First, if you go to Amazon and just search be great, five principles you can, the book will pop right up. We'll appreciate a purchase. And then you can contact me through a number of ways. You can reach me on LinkedIn and Dwight Carter. You can reach me on Twitter or X excuse me, x at Dwight underscore Carter. You can email me at mr Dwight Carter at gmailcom.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's great. Well, Dwight, I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for being inspiration and a blessing so many Students and administrators and your work is not done. I appreciate that you said earlier how you're still building that legacy. That's why I wanted to get you on here now, so people would Can be encouraged it can be encouraged about the great things that you've done and just continue building that. So to our audience, this has been a inspirational Conversation. I hope that you enjoyed it and I look forward to having more conversations on be a ball of podcast. Thank you all for listening to be a ball of podcast.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with family and friends. Be a ball of podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a ball of. This podcast was created by coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Tehran how and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.