my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

When you get what you want, but it isn’t what you need…

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I came across a picture on time hop today of a lil’giftie I handed out on my first day in a new job, many years ago. It was an out of the classroom job, and genuinely where I thought I wanted to be, professionally. I was so excited about joining a new team, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. 

I’ll never forget the utter defeat I felt when several of the more seasoned professionals in said new department brought the cans back down to my cubicle, announcing they “didn’t have time for “cutesie” things like this”. The derision in their tone was PALPABLE.

It took a year and a half of those kinds of moments, those kinds of defeats before I would make a move that put me back into a setting where I could breathe. Where I could be myself. Where I could feel successful.

 

As we gear up for a new school year, if you find yourself in a place where you aren’t happy or feel like you can’t breathe… take heart. There is a place for you, where you can feel purposeful, and like it’s where you’re meant to be. Mine came mid-year. I kept my head up and treated every day like it was a job interview. I honed my skills and narrowed my professional intentions. I connected with George Couros, who changed my life and introduced me to a connected world that gave me all kinds of opportunities, relationships, and friends. When an opportunity came up, I was ready.

 

Don’t start the year sad or discouraged about where you are. 

Start the year with the intention to be REALLY good where you are so you can be GREAT when you get to where you want to be.

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Encouragingly &

#NAESP18 Teamann takeaways, ideas I’m using THIS year!

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I can’t recommend educational conferences highly enough, for all levels of leadership, for all levels of learners.

Now I say that with the following caveats…I think learning is fun. I think FUN learning is important. I think everyone can grow and be better. I enjoy being challenged and pushed out of my status quo complacency. 

If I’m the smartest person in the room, then I’m in the wrong room.

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Luckily, there were so many opportunities for this to occur at the #NAESP18 conference this week. While there’s only so much I can cram into my brain but here are the FIVE fun & easy takeaways that I am going to make happen THIS year.

  1. Welcome to Whitt, kinder bags! Hand out bags stocked with information, a book, playing cards, crayons, a card game, and “tool sheets” to new kinder families…You can read what Jessica Cabeen, former kinder principal extraordinaire puts in her bags here. What are things that your kinder kids could benefit from? I’m going to add #thewylieway info, welcome postcards with a video from me, and PTA info.
  2. Host your own maker space! I really enjoyed Joe Mazza presentation on Maker Dads. MakerDads is about supporting fathers everywhere to step up and create real-life, low-cost learning experiences for their kids from day one of their parenting careers. An added dimension is connecting fellow #Makerdads around the country with the use of technology, social media and facilitating a ParentCamp. My favorite line was that dads don’t come unless they are DIRECTLY invited. Inviting families doesn’t equal saying DAD’s, come on out! I want to add a “tech autopsy” to our maker space, space where students (in a supervised manner!) can take apart old technologies. Follow Maker Dads here!
  3. Start “Kid Principal” videos! Interview a student from each class, one grade level at a time. I can see them asking ME questions, or me asking them things like, “What do you think I do all day?” or “What’s the most fun thing at Whitt?” these will be shared out once a month! Just another gem of greatness from Jessica Cabeen! For more of what she did to earn her title of  Nationally Distinguished principal, you can purchase her book, Hacking PK- 3 Learning here!
  4. Set big goals? Who holds you accountable? Sean Covey talked about the practice of setting “WIG’s”. That stands for wildly important goals…not to be confused with a “PIG”, which is a “pretty important goal”. He encouraged students to set goals, which we’ve all heard of, but an added twist, he suggested asking students to detail HOW they are going to get to their goals. For example, instead of just saying I want to run a marathon (Clarification: this is an example, I have zero desire to run a marathon…or actually to run, period. :)) he tells you to break it down. List three things you can to do help get yourself to that goal, like run three times a week, drink more water, and eat two healthy meals a day.  That adds specificity to the goal, rather than it being broad and undetermined. He also suggests that you have an accountability partner you meet with to go over your progress in your goals. I love the idea of this with students AND teachers, and hope to incorporate it into our Wed-zen-days we’re starting this year.
  5. Competitively encouraging the #wearewhitt pride! Joe SanFelippo offered a tee-shirt to the first five people who found him at a school district event and could recite the district mission statement. He mentioned doing it at all events, like open house or muffins with moms. I LOVE the idea of a fun giveaway that I can share in crazy fun ways. This one was easy and involved both big and little Wolves…and that just makes my heart so happy. Never miss an opportunity to say or share something great about your school! This idea and others can be found in him and Tony Sinanis’s book, Hacking Leadership.

 

As always, my absolute favorite part was the people who I got to connect with. At one point, I looked up to realize that at the table with me included teh accolades of three Nationally Distinguished Principals, published authors, and a prolific podcaster, in additional to a tattooed skateboarding principal who is redefining what we do as administrators. It’s impossible not to want to be better.

I am so thankful for those in our spaces who share, who share openly, and share with the knowledge that when we do, we make us all stronger.

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Whether it be from a hashtag, a chance meeting or an impromptu hallway smackdown…the relationships that can be developed, are not only real, they are inspiring.

 

 

#NAESP proud &

 

 

Hiring an assistant principal? Reading suggestions for new leaders! #cpchat **UPDATED with book links

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My amazing assistant principal was named principal of another school here in our district this past week. (!!!) We are SO excited for her, but that means I’ve got an incredible opportunity to bring on a new partner in crime. A new leader is bright…shiny…full of energy, ideas, and motivated to do their best.

A new leader means I also now have the INCREDIBLE RESPONSIBILITY of having a new partner in crime!

I remember the exact moment I realized as the new principal that the growing, molding, and motivating of my assistant principal (and actually, my whole office staff!) was my responsibility. While she herself, obviously, played a large role in her own development, it was me who would help guide and direct her as the leader of the campus. It was a weight I’d never contemplated so seriously before..but one I won’t take for granted.

You manage things; you lead people. —Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

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My new AP is fresh from the classroom, and I know she is excited and bringing incredible strengths to the table. When we meet for the first time, I have this tool that another principal in our district shared (Thanks, Dr. Helm!!) to go over.

 

 

Here’s a PDF version!

What could I add? Any experienced admin have any suggestions?

I have several books to hand her as well.

I’ve also already got an order placed for several books that I feel are vital to the well-rounded, multi faceted leadership approach that we embody here at our campus. These are books that I either read and reread regularly or feel have led to the kind of leader I want to be, the perspective I want to share with my teachers. I can’t wait to share copies with her!

 

Leverage Leadership

Innovators Mindset

What Great Principals Do Differently

The Principled Principal

Start. Right. Now.

Unshakeable

The Happiness Advantage

 

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch

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Team buildN &

 

Leadership team…how do you grow your teacher leaders? Three easy things to try!

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One of my greatest focuses as a leader is to empower other leaders. From growing independence to fostering a culture of YES…I want our to have ownership of our school is run, to truly understand WHY we do what we do, and to genuinely think about what is best for our Wolves. That comes from LOTS and LOTS of conversations. It comes from giving situational autonomy to decision-making, and sometimes…hard questions when we reflect.

We have a separate leadership meeting before school starts each year. I have team leaders, who are typically handling things like field trip planning, important dates, team schematics, etc. We also have PLC leaders…these are my academic leaders who plan our PLCs and take the lead on data conversations during our formal PLC meetings each week. This meeting is where we come together as a leadership team. It is casual, but also a time where we establish our campus focus, drill down to our team focus, and even touch on each leader’s “leader” focus. Here are three things that we are going to do this year to help build our teacher leaders!

 

  1. We’re going to create educational “TMYK” documents. These ” The More You Know” documents will be a tremendous resource for our new teachers.  We take a concept, term or literacy initiative and create a short click sheet/how-to for our team. Writing this forces us to do more research and understand it enough to explain it well to our teams.
  2. Monday “Gaming Growth” sessions! I’m going to divide up all the weeks of the school year and have a leader share leadership strategies, TED talks, blog posts, tweets…anything that they feel would be of benefit to their team or our campus., It can even be an inspirational blurb! Because it’s not just me or our assistant principal, but our teachers of varying grades and experiences, too, we hope these shares are more engaging and impactful than if only led by “the” boss.
  3. Personal Coaching– Hall-of-fame basketball coach Phil Jackson used to give his players books to read that were appropriate to them and their personality. He famously gave Kobe Bryant, “The Art of War.” You can do the same with your leaders. When you come across great content via book, blog, podcast, etc. relating to instructional strategies and leadership, send it their way and add it to your leadership agenda.

 

Here’s the agenda we’ll be using in August…to be finalized and determined closer to the date!

Leadership growN &

 

The importance of planning as a leader… & tips to do it well! #erincondren

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Confession:

My husband doesn’t buy me flowers. He buys me stationary supplies.

As techy as I try to be, I can’t not have a paper/pencil planner. I have tried a variety of digital tools (google calendar, todoist, evernote). I have tried to quit cold turkey and only use my Outlook calendar so I can use my phone.

It never sticks.

Consider this. 

You are 42% more likely to achieve your goals by writing them down.

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Forbes reports a pretty incredible +study about goal-setting carried out in the Harvard MBA Program. Harvard’s graduate students were asked if they have set clear, written goals for their futures, as well as if they have made specific plans to transform their fantasies into realities. The result of the study was only 3% of the students had written goals and plans to accomplish them, 13% had goals in their minds but haven’t written them anywhere, and 84% had no goals at all.

Where would you fall?

So then after 10 years, the same group of students were interviewed again and the conclusion of the study will blow your mind as an educator. The 13 percent of the class who had goals, but did not write them down, earned twice the amount of the 84 percent who had no goals. The 3 percent who had written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of the class combined. People who don’t write down their goals tend to fail easier than the ones who have plans. Oh my lizard!

 

I use my planner for more than just tracking my days. I reference and compare the previous year to my current year, regularly. I add a lined sticky post it each month, where I record thoughts and notes about the events that had occurred each month. For example, we had a “chalk the walk” event last year. We invited our Wolves to join us for an hour the day before school started to write positive, encouraging messages on the sidewalks to welcome our staff and students back the next day. While I had remembered plenty of chalk, it would have been really nice to have water on that hot August afternoon. Now…while I would like to think I would have naturally remembered that this year, I wrote down LAST year to remind myself we should provide water. When I was filling out events in the current calendar, that note on last years August page served as a great reminder for me to make sure it was on this years to do list. Simplistic? possible. Effective? Definitely.

Goals are recorded on my monthly pages. They carry over until they are done. I am determined to be in that percentage that ACHIEVES their

 personal/professional goals. 

This year I cheated on my favorite paper planner. I have an entire shelf dedicated to my Erin Condren planners. They’re not cheap. It’d be much simpler just to run down to the Target and grab one. So I thought….why not? How different could a planer be?  Shoot, this year I went to Michael’s and bought one that I could “construct” myself. It was half the price even!

It lasted two weeks.

I couldn’t handle it and had to order another Life Planner from Erin Condren. <<head smack>>

What’s the difference?

  • Quality thinker paper, tighter coils, firmer cover that doesn’t get scratched/faded
  • Large monthly spreads with a place to record “to do’s” or reminders
  • POSITIVE happy quotes spread throughout- I’m a firm believer in think happy, be happy. These bright encouraging quotes make me look forward to opening my planner each day.
  • Hourly day spread- With two girls and a fireman to keep up with, I need as many details to keep me straight as possible
  • Seach #erincondren on Instagram for fun ideas for planning. My partner in principal crime, Melinda Miller, loves starting her week with an incredible layout! I’m going to start posting my weekly spread as well to share a glimpse of what my #fabulousyearfour looks like!

 

If you’re a NEW customer (or have a NEW email address!) you can use this link to get $10 off!!

 

Stationarily excited &