Bethany Hill serves as Lead Learner, Chief Energy Officer, and Chief Storyteller at Central Elementary in Cabot, Arkansas. She has been in education for 19 years in the roles of kindergarten, first, second, and third-grade classroom teacher, curriculum coach, assistant principal, and principal. Bethany is one of the originators of #EduAR and founder of #JoyfulLeaders.

I have been following Bethany on Twitter for some time and am constantly inspired by her especially as Chief Energy Officer. I also really wanted to talk about what it means to be joyful. Below are excerpts from the podcast:
 
You and your family
I live right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas about 30 minutes from the capital in a community of Cabot. I went away for college and came back to live here. All of my family lives here. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 24 years. We have two boys. Tyler went to the University of Arkansas as a secondary education planning on teaching math at the middle or high school level and coach. Garrett just finished 9th grade at the Cabot Freshman Academy in the same district I serve as a principal.

 
Your background in education
When I was a little girl, I grew up with the best parents ever. We did not have a lot of money, grew our own food, and my mother made our clothes. That was my world, but I never wanted for anything because I was very loved and cared for. From the time I was very little, I just wanted to teach. I pretended to teach my stuffed animals, created a teacher name for myself, and it was always what I did. No one in my family went to college so that was a big dream for me and I did in spite of not having the financial backing for it. We found ways to make it happen. I’m the first one to graduate from college in my family and then to go on and get a masters. I’m very proud that my son will be the second one to graduate from college from my side of the family.

Transitioning to Principal of Central Elementary
We have about 500 kids in pre-K to 4th grade. We have quite a few young children, around 100 of the kids four-year-olds. We have 70 certified and classified staff and we’re in Cabot School district with about 12,000 which for Arkansas which is quite big. When I first became principal there, we were around 400 kids but we’ve had a growth in our community in the last couple of years. I added a new Pre-K classroom a couple of years ago and last year an additional Kindergarten classroom, so we’re full now with no extra room.

Amanda Picard • Assistant Principal, Bethany Hill • Principal
 
An Energy Bus Model Campus
I was assistant principal at a different school down the street and had to step into a new role with a new staff. I didn’t know what to expect and either did the staff. We spent a whole year building relationships. We started with the Energy Bus by Jon Gordon that the whole staff read even though it was really not about education and was for adults. The book has 10 rules that are guiding principles on how to live a joyful life. The story is around a parable of a man named George who was negative with the glass half empty, had a lot of negative things happen to him, and was in a negative place in his life. He meets someone called Joy who shows him a different perspective. Over time, he begins to learn that it really is how he sees the world not what’s happening to him. It’s a very empowering book and wanted to start with it because I didn’t know where everyone was professionally speaking.
The book was a starting point for forming a bond, growing the same vision, and caring about ourselves as educators before we take care of kids. That first year was really great to get to know everyon...