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

Q10: As the leader, what are you MOST proud of at your school? #askanadmin

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One of the challenges in being an administrator is never allowing yourself to forget the passion you had for your building when you first got there. Do you remember how excited you were when finally, after wanting and feeling like you were ready, you were named administrator? It’s an incredible feeling. It’s easy in the hustle bustle of what we do to forget how incredibly important every decision you make is, and that you’ve made some good ones! What then, are you MOST proud of? What do you think about when you think of your impact on your campus?

This question stems from again, valuing perspectives of two principals I admire, for totally opposite reasons. Different parts of the country, different focuses within their world…plus that whole male female thing. Ha!

Matt Arend is from Plano, Texas, and has been there 6 years. Melinda Miller is from Springfield, Missouri and has served as principal for 15 years. Both are great at telling their schools stories, and I don’t think get to brag on THEIR contribution enough. Here’s hoping this question allows that to come through!

 

Matt: 

Entering my seventh year as the principal of #SiglerNation there are many things that come to mind when you ask “What’s the thing you are MOST proud of as an administrator?”. Honestly, there are so many! As leaders we spend a lot of time talking about how we measure the success of our students and not defining their success based on the outcome of a single test and I believe that to be true when it comes to the work our teachers do as well. Our teachers are not defined solely on the scores their children produce. There is more to the story than that. Rather than celebrate the scores at the end of the year, I suggest we celebrate the effort our students and staff pour into learning. Yes, that’s right! Our teachers are learners too!

 

When you ask, “What I am most proud of?”,  I think of the colossal effort our teachers put forth to ensure their students have what they need to learn and be successful. In fact, while I write this, I am reminded of the effort our teachers pour into their learning not only during the school year, but all year round. Who ever thinks teachers have summers off has another thing coming! Our teachers are writing curriculum, attending conferences, presenting at conferences, participating in online book studies, Twitter chats and hosting week long camps at school to expose students to learning outside of the “regular” school year. Teachers jump at the opportunity to teach summer school not just to make money, but rather to understand they will get to work alongside other teachers whom they typically do not get to work with, network and try new ideas before students return in August. I appreciate our teachers for meeting the challenges they face head on, not backing down and overcoming the obstacles to do what is in the best interest of our students. Yes, even during their summer!

 

I am so proud of our students and the gains they showcase socially, emotionally and academically. I am so proud of our parents who support their children the best ways they know how and work in tandem with our teachers to model the importance of teamwork and education. I am so proud of so many things, but I am MOST proud of the teachers who choose to make the commitment to grow themselves and grow #SiglerNation.

 

Melinda:

There are so many things I am proud of at Willard East Elementary! How can I possibly narrow it down to just ONE? I can’t. Here’s my list:

Families: Our school is blessed with very generous, awesome families. Every school leader needs support from the community and families. This support, or lack of support, can make or break a school. We are so fortunate to have families who are willing to help their kids at home and at school.

Students: Our students are excited to come to school! They are eager to be filled up by our amazing teachers. This year we are excited to bring Stephen Covey’s Leader in Me program to our school.

Staff: There are not enough words to celebrate the Willard East staff! Putting kids first comes naturally. Everyone is willing to try new things and take risks for student learning.

This will be my 15th year as the principal of Willard East Elementary. We are a family. It takes time. We spend more time with each other than we do with our own families. We spend more time with our students than they do with their own parents during the school year. We are a TEAM!

I am proud to be the principal of Willard East Elementary!

 

 

 

These two are rockstars. I’d encourage you to follow @SiglerStars on Twitter, and Melinda has an excellent YouTube channel worth checking out! I learn from them both regularly, and think you could too!

 

 

What are YOU most proud of???

 

Sharingly,

Amber

 

Missed my other posts in this series?

Q1: What is your go to strategy for team building?

Q2: What is something you do EVERY year, without fail?

Q3: What is something you wished you knew as a first year administrator?

Q4: What has gotten easier through the years? Harder?

Q5: Where do I even start to build a culture of innovation?

Q6: How do I become the instructional leader?

Q7: How does the leader model RISK TAKING?

Q8: What are you reading to GROW as a leader?

Q9: How do you know who to hire?

When awards go wrong…

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One of the benefits to our downtime in the summer is that we actually HAVE downtime. I have the opportunity to dive deeper into data, start plans for next year, and spend some time deep cleaning/organizing my office. This week, I also had a reminder that even when I think I’ve covered my bases, I can still miss the obvious. Like the unintended impact of awards, or what we’ve been calling them…student celebrations.

So when I had a parent email me about needing to meet…I’m not going to lie, I may have sighed. I wasn’t in parent mode, I was in organize bunny mode!

Ya’ll. I genuinely think this was another sign from Jesus that I needed to fill my summer principal bucket. I had emailed this mother her daughter’s test results earlier in the week and they were REALLY good, so I wasn’t sure exactly what this meeting was going to be about. This sweet momma spent about an hour with me, going over her daughter’s previous year…making sure I recognized the significance of her standardized testing success. She was in RTI, they had worried about a learning disability, she had tutoring every.single.week. She told me about how her daughter suffered with low self-esteem, because of how hard her year was. She told me how she hated awards days and tried to miss school when we had our “student celebrations”. How on the last day, when we had final celebrations, her sweet daughter wouldn’t even make eye contact with her as she lined up for class. She didn’t receive an award the entire year.

I literally teared up. How could I have failed this sweet girl? How could I have missed that happening?

Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT an everyone gets a cookie kinda girl. I frequently told my students that there was only one Superbowl MVP, and that even Troy didn’t get it every year. But…this isn’t the NFL. This is elementary school. There wasn’t one way that she could be celebrated all year long? There wasn’t one opportunity to for her to have been recognized in front of her peers?

I find that hard to believe, but this year, it was apparently true.

This wasn’t even the point of this mom’s visit. No, she actually came in to tell me about how one of her daughter’s teachers had lifted her up, academically and emotionally through the year, in particularly during the testing season. She had taken her for ice cream the weekend before the big tests, and was taking her to lunch this next week to celebrate her success. She wanted to make sure I knew how much that meant to her and her family. Moving forward for the next year, she asked that her daughter be placed with someone who could meet those needs again, just in case she struggled.

Luckily,  I have a staff full of amazing teachers and could reassure her.

I knew her visit wasn’t with the intent to make me feel bad or feel guilty. But it was a heartfelt reminder that even on days where we think we’re “celebrating”, there are kids who struggle and feel left out. They notice what is going on. They are well aware of their academic inadequacies. 

We can do better. We WILL do better. 

I don’t know what the solution is, but never again do I want to look a momma in the eye and realize how I allowed something that was meant to “celebrate”,  hurt her and her student.

Chris Wejr is my go to guru on this topic and he has written a plethora  of really thought-provoking posts, should you want another perspective.

  1. Rethinking Awards Ceremonies | The Wejr Board

 

Celebration deliberating,

Amber

 

 

PS: I absolutely asked the mom if I could share this story here, 🙂 just in case you were wondering.

Looking for advice or its been given? You can go your own way!

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Advice.

ədˈvīs/
noun
  1. guidance or recommendations concerning prudent future action, typically given by someone regarded as knowledgeable or authoritative.

Everyone has advice to offer. Sometimes it’s solicited, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it is helpful, sometimes it’s not. I always get questions in the spring asking how to handle certain questions or how to prepare for interviews they have coming up. This is year 15 for me, and I have definitely had my fair share of advice offered up. I wanted to share some of the absolute worst advice I’ve ever been given, in hopes that you, as you move forward, can discern between what you should, and maybe what you shouldn’t, listen to.

**This all is ACTUAL advice I have been given. Now, for the most part I fully understand this was all shared with the intent of HELPING ME, and I don’t at all (cough, cough) question the motives.**

  • Quit with the twitter business. It’s not going to do anything for you.
    • Multiple LIFE CHANGING relationships, true friendships cross the nation, professional experiences and keynote opportunities later, I disagree.
  • Have you thought about wearing turtlenecks? People shouldn’t notice your outfit.
    • I’m not even dignifying this one. (I still have the notebook in which I wrote all the “gems” this one was shared with. I’m impressed with my calmness in writing it all. Sigh.)
  • Don’t mention the Troy Aikman stuff anymore, it makes it hard for people to take you seriously.
  • Those cutesy sign offs? Your staff won’t respect you.
    • When I started blogging in 2005 I used the same lil’sign offs that I do now. While I don’t use them a ton in my professional correspondence, using them here just feels right. They’re…part of the me-ness that I always want to come through. If I lose respect because of an email or blog sign off, I’m thinking I didn’t actually have it to begin with.
  • Technology or leadership, you have to pick.
    • Negative ghost rider. I don’t write code. I don’t build computers. I leverage the tools available to maximize what I do. In ALL facets of my life…my leadership role is no different. I can also talk about guided reading. It’s not a zero sum game… you can know about BOTH!
  • Poems? No one has time to read your poems. Your staff won’t respect you.
    • Teaching is hard. Days are LONG. If I can write a silly poem letting teachers have a jeans day or announcing the teacher of the month, and it’ll make them smile, I’ll take it. Admittedly, it won’t be everyone’s cup of professional tea, but it is what it is. I am what I am.
  • Talk less, smile more. Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.
    • BONUS HAMILTON QUOTE!!! I’ve never been actually GIVEN this advice but it’s from a Hamilton song (skip to 1:02), and doesn’t it SOUND like some people you’ve worked for? It does for me. I never want people to have to wonder what I believe in, or stand for when it comes to doing what we do. It’s one of the reasons I value this blog so much. I can chronicle my career (post 2005) and see the evolution of who I am as an educator. Yes, I’ve changed my mind on things…but mostly, I’ve used this platform to extrapolate why I’ve changed or shifted in my thoughts. You don’t have to wonder who I am, or what I stand for…it’s all here.

Now, I am fully biased in my sharing that none of this was given recently, or from anyone I currently work with. (Not surprising, huh?) In fact, when I first met with my current superintendent and mentioned how stressed I was in trying to separate my “Technically, Teamann” self from the principal role, he literally laughed and said, “It’s who you are, Amber. Embrace and OWN IT.”

Do you know how empowering that statement is? You’re never going to get away from WHO YOU ARE. Todd Whitaker talks about a superstar being a superstar no matter where they are employed in his “What Great Teachers do Differently”. It’s true…your gifts, talents, and passions are going to come to light no matter what role you are playing. I once volunteered in an animal shelter and got reassigned to the front office entering data reports and answering the phone because my “perkiness was wasted on the pekingese!”

Stop trying to hide what makes you you…and know that there is a place, a GENUINE PLACE that will take you, take your quirks, take your strengths and embrace them. Never feel like you have to change who you are in order to get a position. And if you did, and got that position? How utterly exhausting having to pretend to be something you’re not. It’s not worth it, friends.

 

Good luck this hiring season. I hope that your world is full of people who give REALLY GOOD advice…but if not, come back & share what you’ve been told here!

 

advice giveN,

Amber

 

 

It’s spring…how can you support teachers when they’re tired?

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This is the time of year I struggle more than any other. Spring in Texas is just hard. The weather is wonky. It’s testing season. My teachers are exhausted. My students are spring fever-ing. Spring break is past, and there’s much to do before we can call it summer.

I can’t fix all the things.

I can buy more chocolate, but I can’t add hours to the day. I can bring in food, but I can’t take away testing stress. I can give you a break from a particular friend, but I can’t guarantee excellent behavior. I can smile and give high fives, but at this point that may actually be more annoying than helpful. Recognizing that everyone is tired is hard for me to handle. I am thankful we have a 4 day weekend coming up because I just want my people to be able to take a break. To refresh and renew. To pause and to reflect. Their commitment level is so intense, I recognize how exhausting that is…and I can’t take that away. But it’s in my very nature to WANT to!

What I can do is be supportive, be visible in my support. Keep buying that chocolate. Keep voicing my appreciation and encouraging them to finish.  I can show kindness…if that’s in the form of a pizza or a protein cookie, I can (and should!) know my  people well enough to be able to offer it up. I can be by their side, in the trenches, in whatever that looks like for them. The call to support and mentor my teachers is always important, but even more so when they are tired. I can maintain the calm, lessening the noise from outside that impacts their crucial final weeks. Provide opportunities to vent or to cry or to pause…and make sure they know that it is OK. It’s OK for passionate, committed people to be tired. That doesn’t make you any less awesome. It makes you human. It makes you an educator in the spring.

 

I would love to hear what you do, in particularly, for individual teachers, to support your team/campus this time of year!

 

CheerleadN,

Amber

All about changes? Remember this… #IMMOOC & an @ASCD giveaway

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It’s easy to have great ideas, or energy, or a big grand vision. The hard part is remembering  that it is your experiences that led you to a place where those ideas, or big changes you want to make, is your reality. Making changes is not inherently bad, unless it’s at the expense of damaging relationships or sacrificing the integrity of your campus/classroom. All of what you’ve seen or read, or been exposed to is what helped shape who you are today. From things that you remember or feel from when you were in school, from coworkers or administrators that taught you what you didn’t want to be, to the role and mindset you’re currently in…there are a variety of influences that helped create the educator you are, right now.

But that’s not where everyone else is.

You have to be careful in your passion and zeal to make an impact that you don’t leave your people behind. This is one of the reason they say significant change takes such a long time, there has to be a level of trust in place before people can take risks. I met an amazing educator at #EMPOWER17 who took a risk in opening up to a mentor, one who also happened to be his evaluative supervisor. At the end of the year, when his sharing and risk taking led to some evaluative push back, he choose to take a demotion and move to another district. That trust had been shattered and he knew he wouldn’t be able to ever feel safe taking those risks again. That district lost out on someone who wanted and was willing to be innovative and take risks.

I also think that it’s hard to drill holes in the boat, if you’re busy paddling. If you’re the only person moving your ship forward, for whatever reason, means there’s going to be plenty of time & room for people to be drilling. Keeping your team involved and feeling that they have a voice or say in what is happening will help keep them invested and feel as if they are a part of the change, instead of change being done to them.

 

What do you do to ensure your whole ship is helping you paddle? I have a copy of “Bold Moves for Schools” to give to some fabulous reader who comments below. I would love to hear how YOU are keeping your ship afloat!

 

Captain Amber