Leadership — Page 23

Campus level…gamification!

November 14, 2013 by Amber 1 Comment

Gamification is all the rage within edu circles. It has tremendous potential in the education space. How can we use it to deliver truly meaningful experiences to students? The inforgraphic at the bottom can provide background, some how’s and some why’s educators might want to think about gameifying.

At it’s core, gamification is simply adding the element of applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging. It doesn’t mean to play games on the computer, which believe it or not, may be how it’s interpreted.

So how could an administrator turn this into an opportunity for the staff? Take the greatness of Luna Elementary and their can food drive. They’ve turned it into a CAN-dy Land competition between all the classes. Every ten cans the class brings, the players get to move a “space”. The markers? Those lovely classroom picture negatives that you get after school pictures. Along the candy path there are “prizes” that can be earned, maybe even some pitfalls!

Another idea?

What if you turned your staff development into a GAME? Bucket lists and punch lists are found on Pinterest for every holiday and season. Create one for your staff (or class!) expectations! Incorporate what is relevant to your course and vision and make it more interesting than a bullet pointed list! Here’s an example I came up with. Was thinking that once it was completed they could be treated to a cup of hot chocolate with a peppermint stir stick. Something small but something that shows I appreciate their effort…

These resources and couple of more will also be shared in my upcoming Leadership 3.0 webinar. This program is a professional learning community that will help school principals use Web 2.0 tools to be an innovative leader, help teachers grow professionally, improve student learning, and improve communications with all stakeholders. My session is called “Become a PD pro! Best Practices for Administrators”.What

What can you do in your building or classroom to increase engagement through gamification?

Game on,

Amber

Parents & your vision…

November 11, 2013 by Amber Leave a Comment

One of the challenges, regardless of your population, is figuring out a way to get all of your families involved at school. We sometimes have the mentality that the parents that we NEED to see are the ones we have a hard time reaching, but as Matt Gomez recently posted, we may need to step back and see what else we can do to make connections. I’ve seen three different ways that campuses have successfully built relationships within all types of families.

Recognizing cultures- Campuses that are able to celebrate the diversity of their building show their students and families that they value their history and past. Dr. Brown, our keynote speaker this year had a through provoking point about schools and their wheelbarrows. If some one looks at your wheelbarrow (all the people that you interact/work/develop ) and they don’t see anything that looks like “them”, they are going to have a hard time connecting with you. What kind of programs do you offer at your school/classroom? Is there diversity present? We had a multicultural night that our music teacher headed up that was incredible! Different families sponsored tables and provided background information about their culture. Some even handed out different food samples that represented their heritage. There were egg rolls, jerky, ravioli, and even apple pie! This free night really showed our families that we cared about the history and perspective they brought to our campus.

Meeting them where they are- Many of our parents have more than one child, and some are working more than one job. One of the great things about technology is that it can allow for no traditional communication to take place. Tools like twitter and remind101 allow teachers to send information through text messages for parents. These timely reminders can help keep parents informed and involved, regardless of whether or not they’ve had time to go through the weekly stack of papers that have come home. I chose to have different students record videos with our weekly goals and upcoming plans. I was strategic in who I chose to film some weeks, knowing that even there wasn’t a computer at home, if certain voices were present, parents would find a way to watch.

Open door policy- Having a friendly, accommodating office staff is crucial. These faces are the flagship of your campus. The way parents, grand parents, and visitors are greeted will set the tone for their expectations while there. Smiles, helpful tones, and a “anything for you” attitude reassures them that we care about their most precious asset that they are leaving with us each day. As a mother, I would not feel comfortable leaving my girls at a place where I felt rebuffed, ignored, or chastised. I want to feel welcome and know that is how my girls would feel too. From start to finish, while they are in that front office, we should do our best to represent what our school stands for. It was a vey big deal for me for our front office to look like we worked in an elementary school…not a doctor’s office. Cold, clinical, sterile? No thank you! We added bright colors, encouraging messages, and most importantly, student work! The brag wall solicited many a compliment from our visitors. It also included frames that stated what each grade level would be learning about throughout the year. Parents walked out knowing that we were all about our students & learning.

November is parent engagement month. What are you doing to bring in your families?

Family friendly,
Amber

Short on Time? an ASCD arias

November 2, 2013 by Amber 1 Comment

While preparing for my upcoming edWeb.net webinar, (which is free and open for registration!) “Become a PD Pro! Best Practices for Administrators” I decided to tackle a couple of books in my ever growing stack of “must reads” I came across William Sterrett’s “Short on Time” and thought it seemed applicable. These new publications are GENIUS. (Now, I’ve only read this one, but I am hooked!) Why?

These Arias are billed as “providing concise answers to challenging questions that you need solved today”. I read it during one setting, just 40 pages, but it was chock full of information and the research to back up what it was offering. It wasn’t overrun with references and heavy facts, but VERY practical. It also referenced Lyn Hilt and Dwight Carter. There are some powerful tips from those two heavy hitters.

The book discussed time management, tackling your calendar, staff meetings, and communication. Each hot topic was explained, evaluated and then provided a couple of excellent “management” tips. My favorite? When Mr. Sterritt discusses teacher growth he quotes Maya Angelou, ” I’ve learned that you can’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands, you need to be able to throw something back.”. We we have to be willing to catch (identify areas where we need to grow) and throw (share our strengths) with colleagues. As an administrator, I have to model this as well as build time for my teachers to be able to DO it.

I like this kinda book reading!

always short on time,

Amber

Feeling defeated or tired already?

October 10, 2013 by Amber Leave a Comment

I was listening to a webinar last week discussing the benefit of effective teachers in the classroom and was blown away by what was being shared. The average effect of one teacher on a single student is modest. All else the same, a student with one excellent teacher for one year between fourth and eighth grade would gain about $4,600 in lifetime income. The student with the excellent teacher would also be 0.5 percent more likely to attend college.

That’s not too shocking, right?

What about this? Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000. Multiply that by a career’s worth of classrooms.

Students with top teachers are less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, more likely to enroll in college, and more likely to earn more money as adults, the study found.

How can you ever doubt the importance of what you do, every single day?

The webinar really solidified for me that teachers are the most important part of a child’s education. Not a program, a strategy, or a test. Great teachers make a great difference; poor teachers hurt a child’s life chances. LIFE chances.

You. Matter.

Remindingly,
Amber

Parents not on Twitter? No problem!

October 9, 2013 by Amber 3 Comments

One of the first things I hear from educators as a reason why they shouldn’t jump into the social media stream is because they don’t have families/staff on Twitter.

Social media can be very dividing. Justin Tarte and I were just discussing how there is still such a mentality of “block it & lock” it…as if we were to stick our heads in the sand, *maybe* these crazy tools will go away. I don’t think that is going to happen but I can tell you my rationale’s for moving forward with twitter as a communication tool between the home and our campus.

I LOVE that when I get onto twitter, facebook or instagram, I get updates on my daughter’s school. It is SO much easier for me to read an update on Facebook than it is for me to get home after a 12 hour day, get her purple folder out, get through her graded work, and find any announcements her campus has sent home.

Now, the flip side of that is that my anti technology hubs? ONLY gets info that is in that purple folder. He doesn’t visit the website and *gasp* has no online presence.

I’m not suggesting that schools stop sending paper items home, I’m merely pointing out the opportunity we have to reach even more parents.

When we send home information at the beginning of the year, we send home something asking if parents want to get school information through text messages. (Regular rates apply.) It walks them through sending a text, “Follow Watson_Wildcats” to 40404. Once they have done that, every tweet we send, that parent gets as a text. It doesn’t require a twitter account. You don’t have to have the “scary social media” talk.

98% of all text messages are opened, and 90% are opened within the first three minutes.

The point isn’t getting on Twitter, or blocking social media, or adding to your plate. The point is connecting with as many parents as you can in order to do what is best for our students.

Connectingly,

Amber