Episode 99 | Finding Joy in the Journey with George Philhower

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Dr. Brandi Kelly: What if the key to tackling burnout, inspiring your team and setting students up for lifelong success wasn't another complicated strategy, but something simple and powerful? Joy. Welcome to the Lead with Hope podcast where we explore the power of habits, optimism, purpose and excellence in leadership and in life. Today we're talking to a superintendent

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Dr. Brandi Kelly: who has made this concept of joy actionable in the educational setting. We're joined by George Philhauer, a superintendent to transforming school culture by focusing on Eastern Hancock's four promises, joy, connection, growth and success. We're gonna dive into an incredible initiative that he started called Joy Jam. It's a conference recognized for inspiring educators with a focus on fun.

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Dr. Brandi Kelly: So get ready to discover how leading with joy is the ultimate strategy for hope fueled excellence. George, the listeners who you are,

Mid Roll Version A: Because when we share our stories with clarity and hope, real change happens.

George: Sure, thank you so much for having me. So I'm George Philhauer. I'm the superintendent at Eastern Hancock Schools, which is just east of Indianapolis. Brandi, if you've ever driven from Indianapolis to Ohio on Interstate 70, you can literally see our school right from the interstate, but we're rural enough that you can't get there from that same interstate. So I think lots of people are probably familiar with those kinds of places. We're 1200 kids. We are the last rural school that you get to on that I-70 corridor coming to Indianapolis before you get to the big suburban schools. So I grew up in East Central Indiana. I did my undergrad in Milwaukee for four years at Cardinal Stretch University, which is a small NAIA school. I went there because every kid when they're 17 in Indiana thinks that they should play basketball in college. And that was a wonderful experience for me. But outside of that, I've been in Indiana my whole life. I started my career as a special education teacher and then it ended up in an administrative role. And next thing you know, you blink your eyes and you're a superintendent. And this is my seventh year, finishing up my seventh year of being a superintendent. Five of those have been at Eastern Hancock and it's been a wonderful experience.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: George, I didn't know that you started out as a special education teacher.

George: did. ⁓ I started a self-contained ⁓ classroom for kids that, know, behavior ⁓ a challenge for that was ⁓ kind my area of interest. And then I ⁓ worked a residential children's home for a bit as well and was a special education teacher I actually worked at that same residential children's home. It's called the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children's Home. It's no longer in operation right now, but it was a state-run facility. worked there through my undergrad as well through the summers and kind of where I fell in love with. I kind of always knew that I wanted to be a teacher, but it's kind of where I fell in love with the idea.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: I started out as a school social worker and I remember for school social workers, we have to do an internship, a year long internship. And I remember my first experience in a special education, self-contained behavior classroom. I walked into that classroom and there were two boys that I'll never forget. there was one day early on where one of those boys had had a complete meltdown and he was throwing chairs ⁓ and was yelling and cursing and screaming. And I think about that story and that and I just to wonder where he's at today, you know, and you think about that, George, look at all of the students that you have impacted through your career going from special education teacher to superintendent and now your focus is kind of pivoted. It's pivoted not that the focus isn't on the students, but right now as a superintendent, you have a lot of influence in helping the adults to show up for those same kinds of kids in their roles,

George: Yep, yep, that's exactly right. And we think if you just the news, and like, ⁓ just let gravity of the work that we're doing pull us wherever it's going pull us, like we're not to to a place where people enjoy doing what they're doing. ⁓ So if going to get to a place of joy, it's gotta be something that we are very intentional about.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Absolutely. And you know, here in Illinois, the pipeline is shrinking. There's not as many people going into education the teachers, there's less going into administration. So that means there's less going into the superintendency. Can you to us a little bit about your current reality with that?

George: Yeah, yeah, it's similar. We were fortunate Eastern Hancock to be a place that right now we get applicants. But it's I think it's a nationwide challenge. ⁓ We've a couple of challenges. One is kind of what we're here to talk about, bringing joy back to the profession. ⁓ And I as part of that, it's a profession needs some re-professionalization. If that makes sense, think upon a time we combined ⁓ and childcare into the same job. you and that may, I think that makes it really challenging to think like, what's the profession? Like what's the part of the job that requires the professional? And ⁓ too we causing learning and recognizing learning. And see it really when you're in circumstances where it's really hard. when you're with somebody who's having a challenge, getting to learn something, and then you see the expert come in and do that. But I we ⁓ have an to figure out ⁓ what it look like to just put some professionalism back that profession ⁓ and really acknowledge the that is required for teaching.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Because teaching is not an easy job. I think it's getting harder all the time. ⁓ pandemic, ⁓ society, our reality has changed drastically. And I love a quote by Winston Churchill, never let good crisis go to waste. And so we have an opportunity now to take what has happened in our world. and to create something purposeful or something good out of that crisis. And it's kind of what you've done with Joy Jam. So talk to us a little bit about what sparked this idea in your mind and how Joy Jam came to be a reality.

George: Sure. So I'll start, I'll rewind just a little bit prior to that even. When I interviewed for the job at Eastern Hancock five years ago, I knew that ⁓ board was very interested in having someone who would come in and lead the work of developing a strategic plan. So was, we hit the ground running, starting to think about like, what should that look like at Eastern Hancock? ⁓ And ⁓ landed ⁓ four, four things that we initially called principles we decided a year later to call them promises ⁓ because, you know, if something's a priority or a principle, like I might prioritize it, but sometimes I don't prioritize all the things that I should. But if I promise you something, then it's my job to deliver on that promise. And four things are joy, connection, growth, and success. ⁓ And talk about those things in order. And we that it's not order because one's necessarily more important than the other. they're kind of gateways to the next one. like for one ⁓ is promise that we're going to be really intentional about making school the kind of place that ⁓ kids teachers both would look forward to coming to. And too we think we talk ⁓ about school of like we talk about like to talk to kids about eating their vegetables that like, you know, it's going to be pretty miserable.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Mm-hmm.

George: You might not like it at first, but eventually you'll appreciate it and trust this. It's good for you. And I don't think that's good enough. know, education is too important to leave to that. And like I said earlier, ⁓ the of what's happening necessarily pulling us towards joy. So if we're going to get there, it's got to be something that we're really intentional about. And we think joy and ⁓ like layers of I heard a podcast this morning where ⁓ Brene Brown was talking about joy being the highest level of like ⁓ your being willing to accept joy is one of the most vulnerable things you can do. And that goes hand in hand with what we talk about, like the layers of joy. know, ⁓ Dan Heath wrote a book called The Power of Moments. And so we really like we embrace that we try to figure out how do we ⁓ how do embed meaningful moments, magical moments into learning experience for kids. Sometimes, you know, we have an ice cream machine and sometimes that's ice cream on a Friday, silly and whimsical. But times it's something more meaningful. ⁓ We we've got kids that don't get to celebrate their birthdays like they should. So we do it everybody's birthday day, where every kid walks in and we're like kind of over the top silly about it. We pretend like it's twelve hundred of their birthdays. They each a small birthday present and a birthday cake. And also we that joy Joy has an impact on learning as well. emotion, semen is learning. So how kids feel about what they're learning is as important, if not more important, as the stuff that they're learning. And too often kids get home and they talk to their parents and parents ask them, what did you learn at school today? And they say either, I don't remember or I don't know or nothing. And I think they're not lying. I think that like, They literally just don't remember. And it's kind of like me and you, if you take the same trip to work every day, like in your car, how many times have you got home and you don't remember getting there? it's because your brain has an agreement with the rest of you that says, hey, I'll put this on autopilot. You think about lesson plans or whatever else, like your to-do list for tomorrow, and get us home safely. Too often our kids are going throughout the school day on autopilot because it's 180 days of the same exact routine. However, you're driving home and a deer jumps out in front of you or something crazy happens, you're going to remember that. ⁓ we try to think about how do we make a deer jump out in front of kids while they're learning as many times as possible. ⁓ an example is in fifth grade, kids are learning about Paul Revere. ⁓ instead of just learning about him in the textbook, we... find a high school kid who has a horse, we dress her up to look like Paul Revere and she runs past the classroom screaming the British are coming. So that's an anchoring experience that those kids will remember. We also think about joy as an invitation. So our best hope is that the kids will like us enough to take a step closer. And if they take a step closer, they'll find the more meaningful pieces of joy. And we think that those live in those other three promises. So promise number two is connection. So connection, just the idea that we want our kids to feel known by name, strength, interest, future hopes and dreams and needs. the most important word in that sentence is feel, because, you know, I can know a lot of things about you, but if you don't feel known, then who cares? And also think that that's a lever for learning as well. The more I know about you, the better I can teach you. And ⁓ If you feel known, you're willing to be a little more vulnerable and there's vulnerability required in learning because for me to learn something new, I first have to be willing to admit that I don't already know the thing. like that connection piece for us is really important. And third for us, we call growth and it's just the idea that we want our kids to learn new things every day that they will remember. And that really simple unless you've ever tried to teach anything. ⁓ And like know that our kids are spending lots of time at school traditionally.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Right.

George: learning about stuff they already know. so we want them learning new things every day. And then that last part is that they will remember. And that's just because like we've all taken a test at two o'clock that we couldn't pass at three 30. And we want to make sure that we're giving kids learning experiences that are real and that they remember. ⁓ And promise number four, we call ⁓ And it's a reminder that academic proficiency is really, really important. And ⁓ that's our job. our jobs to make sure we've got our kids prepared so that they're excited about and ready for the Monday after graduation. Wherever they're going next, we want to make sure that that is a smooth step for them. And, you know, that looks at the high school level a lot like blurring the lines between what they're currently doing and what they might do next. And, yeah, you know, lots of work-based learning experiences and those kind of things. ⁓ So that to say, ⁓ you that promise number one is joy. And we believe that joy is so important that we decided that we should have a conference around it and we do a summer conference. A lot of our teachers at Easter Hancock come, but it's open to everybody. So we have people from all over the country that come to joy jam. The cost is pretty reasonable because it's free and ⁓ we charge anybody to come. We think joy should be free and ⁓ you know primary audience is teachers, but we have lots of. principals and superintendents that come. Actually this year we've got a superintendent roundtable that's happening as kind of a conference within the conference we're super excited about. But Joy Jam we bring incredible speakers in, give teachers lots of time for collaboration ⁓ and talking people who teach the same things. But also what Joy Jam a little special is ⁓ it's called Joy so we're gonna have some joy there. when you register, you tell us what your favorite candy and snacks are, and we're going to make sure that we have those things at the conference for you. We're the middle of nowhere, kind of, so we'll have a Starbucks-like coffee shop you can go get some free coffee every morning. We'll have ⁓ kinds of things that are free. Some things we've done the past, you know, we've had a puppy room because people like puppies. That them joy. We've had a petting zoo. Last year we partnered with the Cincinnati Circus. circus performers were walking around teaching people how to juggle and make balloon art. it's an incredible conference and something we look forward to all year.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Yeah, and I love the fact that you have taken your strategic plan and you have extended that to impact the adult so that they can take that joy back to the classrooms. we started out talking a little bit about the fact that you were a special ed teacher. You started in a self-contained behavior classroom. I think sometimes when we face adversity and when we see the hardest moments in life, ⁓ it helps us to appreciate the joy just a little bit more. It helps us to understand that we need joy in this journey to help us to fuel the hope and the purpose that ⁓ us ⁓ the incredibly work that we're doing. ⁓ so ⁓ love the that you have blended your strategic plan and you have extended it to provide this conference for educators across the nation.

George: Yeah, so try to make it bigger and better every year, but when you've partnered with the circus, that gets to be a little challenging. But the every year has been incredible. And also it's fun for our people. ⁓ got an incredible building and

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Right.

George: You know, we're pretty proud of the work we do. So it's a great opportunity for us every summer to show off all the incredible stuff happening at Eastern Hancock too.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: I think this is a conference that you the attendees to take something away ⁓ and for it not to just be a one day event. So talk to me a little bit about testimonials, the feedback that you've received about this conference and how it has affected the leadership, the lives of the people that have attended.

George: Yeah, so get we do a post conference survey every year and ⁓ results are always always really good. And feels like there's there's kind of two two things that joy jam probably does for people. One is it fills the cup. You know, educators ready to go to school in Indiana. We go back to school early August, late July, sometimes even. So mid July is when joy is and Um, the timing is, you know, you've had enough time to kind of take a breath after one school year's ended. And, um, I don't know how most people are, but, know, by the time fourth of July starts, like we get fourth of July over, I'm in like, I'm ready to go. Um, so it just, it fills the cup and kind of gives you some inspiration. I think, um, part as part of that, it also, um, you know, people that show up to a conference called joy jam. Aren't like, aren't the people who sit in the back row and.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Right, right.

George: about whatever the speaker says. ⁓ there's some connection that happens there. ⁓ kind of get to feel like, I'm not the only one that think that this job that we're doing should be fun. So know that there's been connections made at Joy Jam that span beyond the conference which I think is incredibly ⁓ beneficial. But also, like in addition to that, we provide some great substance. And we try to make sure that it's not just fun because that superficial joy. wears off and I think people stop showing up for that. if there's substance behind it, I think that's what people continue to come back for.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: like you said, after July 4th hits, it's time to go. It's go time. ⁓ And so that I love the timing of this. Mid-July is good opportunity to start filling those cups and allow the people to get in that mindset because everything starts in our mind. So get in that mindset that, this year is going to be a joyful year. It's going to be a year where, that's the intention. that you're setting by coming to JoyJan. So that's amazing, George. Now, when you think about setbacks and failures, we've all had them. And like I said before, sometimes they this purpose and this passion that we have in education. But when you think about your setbacks or your ⁓ is there something that you could share with us, with the audience today to... Shed some light on how you've used that as fuel rather than allowing it to diminish your hope and your joy.

George: Yeah, think a couple things. is like I my job ⁓ as the of an organization is to make everybody feel safe ⁓ to not perfect the time. Because if we feel we've got to be right all the time, it kind of comes back to that promise of growth that we were talking about. You know, if the research says that kids on average are spending 60 % of their time at school learning about stuff that they already know, which means that kids are waking up, getting ready to go to school, thinking about how they can show that they already know a bunch of stuff more than they're thinking about how they can learn new stuff. And so we've created this atmosphere where it's not, ⁓ it doesn't feel safe to that you don't already know and ⁓ learning growing requires ⁓ mistakes. And I think the same is true in the classroom. ⁓ you know, with our staff, one thing that we've did five years ago was we changed our teacher evaluation model. because if I walk into a classroom, the teacher is going to be doing the version ⁓ of kid who's showing up to prove that they already know the thing. Right? Like if I'm sitting in the classroom, like they're doing the easy lesson that, especially if it's announced and it's just, it's a performance and it's ⁓ not to the teacher.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Right.

George: And it's certainly not one where like they can be vulnerable enough to like to talk about what they'd really need to to get better at. So at Eastern Hancock, nobody ever, ever, ever gets a point after somebody visits their classroom. Like that never, ever happens. Our teacher evaluation model is, is built on the idea that they're going to sit down with their administrator every fall, talk about the areas that they're truly going to work to get better at. And then they're going to create a plan. And all of our classroom observations are learning walks. Like they're literally just us going into classroom to learn about not just who needs help in what areas, also who are shining stars. And try to go to those teachers' more than any others. Because the thing the kindergarten teacher needs is me to give them advice. ⁓ The kindergarten that needs help needs me to know who's strong in this so that I can put those two people together.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Absolutely.

George: ⁓ so I think those, like that, that those failures and mistakes are, are, are like part of our job is to create the conditions, from the top that makes it feel safe for teachers to, to be comfortable taking risks ⁓ and things that ⁓ maybe them a little bit uncomfortable. ⁓ for me personally, ⁓ as I think about, you know, why I do the work that I do, you know, school was hard for me growing up. you know, did it, I didn't, I was probably the kid that like the science of reading missed. ⁓ I in that generation maybe. We probably some dyslexia, like undiagnosed. ⁓ Still even ⁓ if we're in a room tomorrow ⁓ and we're turns reading, going around the circle, you know, I've got a doctorate, but I'm probably going to find a way to be in the bathroom when it's my turn to read. And so like, know, from a young age, learning especially literacy was a challenge for me. It was such challenge that I got to do sixth grade twice. And to do that, kind of, I was enough that I kind of could see behind the curtain a little bit, like, the right answers are the ones that are old. And like, ⁓ I doing this last year. I bet tomorrow we're going to do, and it kind of gave me, and you know, when you're 12, you don't think about. all of this, but like in hindsight, it kind of gave me like the, ⁓ like it gave me the information I need to, to understand that like there's this silly game we're playing and we're calling it school a little bit. And it like, as I went through my college experience and my professional experience probably has ⁓ fueled my, energy to. start to help to hopefully rethink how we do it so that every kid wakes up excited to go to school truly believes that they're going to a school that is designed just for them.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: we're perfectly positioned to help the person that we once were. And so as that sixth grade student who was repeating the grade, that tells me what your fuel is to help ⁓ students have a different But is there an adversity that you can point to or maybe an experience, a failure, whatever you want to call it, that fuels your passion for the teacher, for the administrator? to bring joy into their job.

George: Yeah, I think that probably comes from just more the idea that, know, I think joy is contagious. And if we want that for kids, like it's impossible to ⁓ somebody who does not like their job to create that kind of environment for kids. Like it's just, ⁓ can't happen. And, know, as you to teachers, like there are lots of things to complain about. But really, I it's the best job in the world is educating kids. But if the dominating conversation is the one about how, there are so hard things about the job that would take up all the airspace if we let it. So we've got to spend time also thinking about all the incredible of it as well.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: 100 % and I think today in our schools, in our society, and maybe it's the influence of social media, I'm not sure where it comes from, but there is so much negativity. know, people going to Facebook or to different social media channels and just airing their complaints. Joy. is absolutely contagious and there's no better time than now to start infusing our schools with more joy. So when you think about the that's happening in your is there a strategy that you might be able to give our listeners on how do you share that contagious ingredient of joy? with your community.

George: Well, attend Joy Gem would help you get started maybe. ⁓

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Yes, yes.

George: Yeah, I don't know. I think one thing that I think about myself is just like how I view the world. you know, I heard and probably it's newer to me than it is everybody else, but I heard a speaker talk about the idea that if you she had us look around the room and look for all the things that were orange around the room, right? And then she had to shut her eyes. and then tell us what were the things that you saw that were blue. And the thing is like we didn't remember the blue stuff because we were looking for orange stuff. And I think the same is true for joy and good. Like we're spending all of our time thinking about the things that ⁓ are wrong are bad and should be better, then we should like that's all we're going to see. Dan Heath has a video where he talks about his book, The Power of Moments. And he talks about that our jobs not to just send out a survey, find all the problems and fix them, that the best we can do with that is, he talks about like, he uses the word whelm, like, you and he shows a picture of a smiley face with just a flat, like it's not smiling, it's not frowning. That if that's your strategy, that's the best you could do. But our job better than that. I don't want people showing up to school just whelmed. So it's got to be something that you do on purpose. As you're thinking about ⁓ how do make people smile and how do create those meaningful moments, ⁓ I think it some and a bit of discipline.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. And talked about earlier the fact that sometimes we go through life on autopilot. I about that in my work and whenever I share about hope fueled leadership. And for me, one of the superpowers is self-reflection, self-awareness, getting to know who you are, what makes you tick, your blind spots, your motivations, your desires. I mean, for leaders, ⁓ If you're on autopilot, one of the red flags is when's the last time you really thought about who you are. And you really thought about what you want, In your career, in your life, in your leadership. We've got to make that intentional decision to shift out of autopilot. And then we have to direct our energy and focus and act. They it the reticular activating system in our brain. And what we focus on is what we grow. Our brains are wired for safety. And so oftentimes when we fill in the blank, we are trying to protect ourselves against something. But if we have that intentional focus and we're looking for more joy and we're cultivating more joy in our lives, we're going to find it. In my book, Lead with Hope, I share that I do the one word by John Gordon every year. My word this year is love. And it goes right in line with your four promises, joy and connection. ⁓ when we are leading from our heart and we are truly loving the people that we lead, it's easier to find that joy and that connection, So we've got to shift out of autopilot. We've got to focus on what we want to grow in our lives. And the ⁓ thing that I'll say to those listening today is attend Joy Jam, to begin to shift out of autopilot ⁓ and to find a that is going to bring you joy. So if somebody wants to learn more about Joy Jam or maybe they just want to sign up, they've just decided listening to this podcast, they want more joy, they want more connection, they want to grow and succeed. How would they sign up, George?

George: Yeah, so they can find us pretty easy online. We're pretty Googleable. they just Google Joy Jam 2026, they We should pop right up with is that first link. If there's not too many Georges around ⁓ and certainly not very many George Phil Howers, ⁓ so can they can find me pretty easy and I'm happy to point them in the right direction.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: it's gonna be a great conference this year ⁓ I look forward to attending myself. So ⁓ the last question that I like to ask my guests, it's an important one to me because ⁓ do think that we live in a world where there's a lot of people that are stretched thin, they're overwhelmed, they're burnt out, they're having a hard time finding hope. So for you, what's giving you hope in the world right now?

George: think when I talk to kids, it gives me lots of hope. My favorite meeting that I have every month is a student advisory council meeting. It's a group of high school kids that just, we've convinced to tell us the truth about their high school experience and how we can make it better. And when I talk to those kids, I hear the brilliance and plans they have for their future. And gives me lots of hope for ⁓ not right now, but for the future. drives me crazy when I hear people talk about kids these days. And ⁓ just think kids these days are dealing with things that I could not even imagine when I was growing up. And I think that they are incredible and it certainly gives me hope.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Yeah, our kids have so much resilience and I 100 % agree with you. when I was a principal. would, if I was having a bad day, I'd go to the lunchroom and I'd just hang out in the lunchroom. I mean, it was one of the noisiest, most energy-filled spaces in our but it helped me ⁓ to refocus and it helped me remember what was truly important. And it's the kids having the conversations with them. And I love that that's what's bringing you hope in the world right now. So George, is there any last words that you want to share with the listeners before we wrap up today?

George: Yeah, I'd love to love to see you all at Joy Jam. know, it's mid It's a great time to be in East Central Indiana. And again, if anybody has any questions, it's it's a pretty easy person to find.

Dr. Brandi Kelly: Awesome, and I'll put the links in the show notes. So reach out, sign up for Joy Jam, and George, thank you today for this conversation. It has really helped us to remember what is important And so again, thank you, and I hope we can stay connected.

George: Yep, too.