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We Whitt you a Merry Christmas…12 days for 2018!

December 5, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

I am all rhymed out

but wanted to share

what we’re doing this year

if you have a care!

Share and cleverly steal

as we all always do

make JOY your priority

so special when from you!

 

Ho ho hoN &

Filed Under: Freebies, Leadership Tagged With: #beintentional, AmberTeamann

Three ways to celebrate your staff in December at three different price points, plus a free download!

November 26, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

I love the holiday season. I love shopping for the perfect gift, at the perfect price, for the perfect “OH!” when they open it. I love celebrating my big Wolves and my small Wolves.

I’ve done big things for my staff and some smaller type of things. Things that are all drawn out, and things that take just a few minutes, or few dollars. Things that mean a lot or simple things that are tokens of appreciation. #ALLTHETHINGS, y’all.

 

 

 

As a principal, who is on a budget, both at school AND at home…I have to be conscious of how/why/what I choose to purchase.

If you’re wondering what to do or how to even get started, oh administrator friend of mine, first join this Facebook Group where, literally, all we are talking about is the holidays and celebrating your staff for the holidays.

 

Then, scroll on down for gifts that anyone can handle, regardless of your budget… some of our favorite things…at three different price points!

 

FREE (or on da’cheap!)

12 Days Of Christmas

Here are several of my variations on the 12 days leading up to Christmas break. You can pack these full of free things like wear jeans, or workout gear, or school colors…and throw in coffee bars, popcorn bars, or other snackie snacks. Easy, peasey.

12 days, 1

12 days, 2

12 days, 3

12 days, 4

(Side note: I’ve also done 12 days of GIVING, where we shared acts of kindness!)

 

Really cheap! (and a free printable!)

Who doesn’t need a good package of chapstick? Just a cute tube with an attached note and you have a PRACTICAL, albeit cheap, gift for all, male or female!  Amazon sells 72 lil’tubes for $29.99. That’s a bargain!

Then attach this cute tag and viola! You can add your signature using any kind of graphics editor, like Canva, picMonkey, or an app like Over, Typorama, or my favorite, Word Swag. (yes that costs $4.99 and yes, it’s worth it!)

 

(download your copy here!)

 

Still cheaper than say, a new car for everyone!

  • Stock the fridge with all their faves! (Starbucks Mocha Lattes were a HUGE hit! Any fun snacks, drinks, pudding cups, etc We filled ours up for less $150!)
  • Flair pens for all! (Buy packs and break them apart and give each teacher 2/3 pens…and wish them a Flair-y Merry Christmas!)
  • Beanie hats for all! You can add vinyl to these with a cricut/silhouette, or purchase in your school colors. We found some and had our logo added at a local embroidery shop for our staff last year and they LOVED them!

 

If your team is anything like mine, they will love any effort you give them. We meet as a PLC grade level team each Wednesday and the Wednesday before we get out for the Christmas break and we just sit and eat holiday snacks and chat. We play Christmas music by the fire. It doesn’t take much, just some free time and no stress…you also can’t go wrong with the gift of TIME.

 

 

How do you show your seasonal spirit? Share in the comments!

 

festively and

Filed Under: #fabulousyearfour, Freebies, Leadership Tagged With: #beintentional, AmberTeamann, freebie

Seasonally supportive..leadership through the ebbs and flows with the Enneagram

November 10, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

Melinda Miller and I joke about how October and February are the armpits of the school year. By October the newness of the year has worn off, the honeymoon is over and the hard work of growing students stretches out in front of you.

As an administrator, one of the challenges is for you to mentally maintain not only the joy of your staff but also the joy of yourself. It’s easy to forget that old adage of putting your own air mask on first before you try to help others, but its crucial during these critical months that you do think about your own well-being. Knowing what fills your bucket is a great first step.

I’ve become really interested in the Enneagram and how that applies to me, my marriage, and my staff. Determining our personality “type” through the Enneagram can help you see through the different lens from which we experience the world. Our personality is an effective way to express ourselves, but challenges arise when our points of view become rigid and we get stuck in automatic habits.(Unpack that thought…it’s a good one!) By discovering these unconscious patterns, we can lead more fully, more comprehensively, and hopefully, encourage our people to understand the actions and reactions of those who operate around us. (You can take a free enneagram test here!)

There are nine basic types of personalities. Here are, according to the Enneagram Institute are those 9 types. You can click on each type to read more.

1 THE REFORMER

The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic


2 THE HELPER

The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive


3 THE ACHIEVER

The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious


4 THE INDIVIDUALIST

The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental


5 THE INVESTIGATOR

The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated


6 THE LOYALIST

The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious


7 THE ENTHUSIAST

The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered


8 THE CHALLENGER

The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational


9 THE PEACEMAKER

The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

 

At the beginning of our school year, our team leaders and PLC leaders all took the test, and it’s been interesting to see those types manifest through the course of the year. I abide by the theory of “If I can predict it, I can prevent it.” and being able to understand on a different level has been very helpful.

Especially in this season, as a 2, I can take on too much and can tend to “feel” too deeply when my attempts to please all, aren’t successful. At least, through the Enneagram, I recognize that as a handicap on MY end, versus those around me.

 

Lead on, my friends through the holiday season…keep your eyes up, your chins up, and your weight down!

 

Joyfully &

Filed Under: Leadership, Principal Tagged With: #Enneagram

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

July 20, 2018 by adteaman 7 Comments

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.

Click To Tweet

 

Encouragingly &

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: #admin, #beintentional, AmberTeamann

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

July 11, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

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.

Click To Tweet

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.

Click To Tweet

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 &

 

 

Filed Under: #3rdyearisthecharm, Leadership Tagged With: #admin, AmberTeamann

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