Todd Nesloney was a classroom teacher for seven years before taking the leap straight from classroom teacher to campus principal at John C. Webb Elementary in Navasota, Texas. Todd took over a struggling campus and brought in a brand new staff. He used his creative ideas to transform the campus and has been recognized with many awards even by the White House.

Todd has written several books including “Kids Deserve It” with Adam Welcome, Stories from Webb, and now Sparks in the Dark with Travis Crowder. We did this podcast a few months ago so we put together this excerpt from the conversation and added some new resources and links to share with you.
 
About you and your family
I was born and live in Texas my whole life. I taught for seven years and now in my fifth year as campus principal. I love teaching and working with the underserved families and kids.  I have found a passion in reading and writing over the last couple years which led to the creation of Kids Deserve It, Stories from Webb, and now Sparks in the Dark with my best friend, Travis Crowder. He is a secondary teacher in North Carolina and we just published our book about reading and writing instruction.  I love what I do which means getting to work with kids and adults and, yes, I do a little traveling and speaking too. I do balance my life though and make sure I spend time with my wife, Lisette, in the evenings, read a book, watch a movie, or sit and talk with my family. 
Lisette and I celebrated our 6th anniversary last April. We have two dogs named Paris and Jet. We live in Brenham, Texas that is the home of Blue Bell ice cream. We are the only city that has every flavor ice cream but I love their vanilla. I work in Navasota school district that is 30 minutes up the road right outside of Houston. I’ve lived in Brenham for over 24 years and have never regretted working in education.
 
What it was like for you as a student
Growing up, I always loved working with kids. For 13 years, I worked every summer for a week at a children’s summer camp with my church. I hold the record for going the most amount of years to be a helper there. When I was in high school in my junior year, my school signed up to be a pilot school for a class called “Ready, Set, Teach.”  I took this class to see if being a teacher is what I really wanted to do.

There were 12 of us in the class. In my senior year I was ready for “Ready, Set, Teach 2” with only one other student. It was pretty much an internship where several days a week instead of going to class, I was assigned to a teacher at the local elementary school. I was more like a student teacher getting experience in the classroom, and that’s when I knew that teaching is what I wanted to do.
 
Beginning as a Teacher
After I finished high school, I was hired by Brenham ISD as an instructional aide in their Grow Your Own program. At that time,  if I worked in a public school for so many hours a week for four years while I was going to Texas A&M University to become a teacher, the state of Texas paid for my college. Because of that work, I was able to bypass student teaching. There were no openings at Brenham when I graduated. I was offered two jobs at Waller SD (30 minutes away) and took the 4th-grade position and worked there for 7 years. Now I work in Navasota which is also 30 minutes away. I actually like the commute so I can enjoy the ride while listening to stuff.
 
Classroom Champion Teacher

The Classroom Champion program is one of my favorite programs. It was started by an Olympic Gold Medalist, Steve Messler, who was on the men’s bobsled team with his sister to leave more of an impact on kids than a one time visit to a school.