Principal — Page 15

Meet the Teacher…more than a fly by! #thefirstyear

September 8, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

Meet the teacher is also a crazy hectic afternoon. You’ve beon in PD all week, your classroom is frantically ready, and you’re about to welcome in all of your new students.

*shivers*

This is typically your FIRST FIRST with these new babies! Especially in elementary school, this is such a big deal! We really wanted to make sure everyone felt welcomed, invited, and were excited to start off their year with us. Adding in a “few” new things can make a world of difference. Several of these ideas were shared by Matt Arend and Todd Nesolony, and given a lil’Teamann twist. I am so thankful for experienced, PLN friend who are supportive and sharing!

We had a photo booth right when families walked in the door, with a staff member to take pictures so they could get in. Our art teacher is amazing. She freshened up some props, added grade level sticks, and decorated a frame our fabulous 3rd grade teacher had previously used. End result? Family fun while creating a memory. My lil’bit is starting kinder and this picture may have actually make me cry.

Parents were asked to leave a “wolf wish” for their student for this year. We had post its and pens that coordinated with the wolf, so even when the notes were up, you still saw our Wolf. (again, awesome art teacher!!) These wishes? So inspiring.

Our end result was a fun night and hopefully, a start that made these Wolves ready for Monday!

Side note?

This office staff? Makes my heart so happy. Their willingness to jump in, tolistent to me, to get to know me…has just made this new school year SO much better. We have these crazy text streams that go on and on and on..and are full of hystercal gifs. I hope that you all have a staff like this to work with!

proud principal,
Amber

Making PD perfect… #thefirstyear

September 5, 2015 by Amber 3 Comments

PD has come and gone. We are now in our first three weeks. I wanted to reflect on our PD week however, just to remind us all how very important it when we have the chance to pull together all of our staff. While most had dropped in and out throughout the summer this was the first BIG welcome back. Knowing that I want this to be the best first year in the history of the world, I had high expectations for everything I wanted to fit into this one week. While there were several district related events, I’m going to share what we did to make sure there was a feeling of celebration and welcome.

I contacted several of our partner churches and local businesses to see how they could support our staff this week. Everyone likes food, right?? Nestle Tollhouse donated the largest cookie cake I’d ever seen, Walmart gave us a cake, and we had three churches donate breakfast! Wow! That’s a lot of love & support.
One of our goals was coming together as a family to truly fulfil the mission statement the campus developed last year. The first word is “together”…so we focused on a lot of togetherness! A hashtag crowdsourced by all. a new staff shirt, and an awesome staff picture that we are going to get hung up for the hallway when everyone walks in.

What do you have hanging in your home? Celebrations..accomplishments…and pics of your family.

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We want the same to be seen in our halls. #wearewhitt
Knowing that we were setting on an ipad initiative journey this year, who else would I welcome onto my campus to talk tech than the Matt Gomez? He inspired, he mitiviated, he included lots of pictures of Troy Aikman. I’m calling that a win!
Time. Differentiation. Support. We made it a point for us to have conversations, to get to know one another, for them to share with me what they loved about our school, what they thought we could be more progressive on, and something they wanted me to know about them. We used this 3-2-1 and it has been so valuable as I am getting to know them all.

Note: Proof Matt Gomez’s presentation next time

Our last activity of the week was a candlepass. Yes, completely sorority girl of me, but it served a purpose. In ADPI, we have a tradition that is very fun for anyone that is engaged. Everyone in our sorority comes together. We sing a song as we pass a candle around the circle. Everyone anxiously waits to see who the candle stops on and the individual who is engaged blows out the candle and then tells everyone the story of their engagement. This candlepass obviously was not about that…but instead was about coming together and sharing in something important. As the candles were passed out, I asked everyone to think about the opportunity that we had coming together this year. This would be the only time our students got to experience this year, this 2015-2016, in their classrooms. We have this year to make an impact in their lives, at this point. I asked them to think about the words of the song I was going to play as it applied to our campus, to these students, and that I hoped that this would be the very best year…in the history of the world. I hit play, we completed the candle pass, and just like that, we ended my very first week of PD as a principal. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYXItns2ik

I hope all of your starts have been amazing! I really will figure out this blogging balance as the year goes on, 🙂

proud principal,

Amber

What leadership lessons are you taking away?

July 25, 2015 by Amber 2 Comments

credit: Brian Tracy

I have worked under some amazing principals. In my five years as an AP, I worked under three very different, very lauded administrators, in three completely different environments. Looking back now, I am SO thankful for how different they all were, because I know I am even more prepared than your average bear, er, I mean, principal.

I’m a big note taker…so I have kept a list of the traits I felt made them so successful and hope to emulate this year. My top traits to focus on in year 1?

servant leader- the boss who puts everyone else’s’ needs before their own, who is willing to do what it takes to make others feel successful
big pictureR- one who sees the vision, who knows what they want the educational experience to be for their students
willing- willing to dance, willing to be Batman, willing to let teachers try
teacher friendly- someone who cares how decisions and changes affect teachers, not in the sense that they don’t make changes or tough decisions, but in that they care
tradition minded- recognizes what it looks like to build a legacy and maintains traditions that matter to students, parents, & staff
fun- from funny announcements, to jokes and stories in staff meetings, to running jokes with teachers from years ago
confident- able to step in and handle all different situations, with purpose, with heart, with decisiveness

They were more than just my boss, they were people who inspired me, who taught me, and who modeled what being a leader looks like.

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I hope to be that person too!

starting a new list,

Amber

Leadership lessons from “The Karate Kid”…

July 19, 2015 by Amber Leave a Comment

Did you know that it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience? How does that apply to your upcoming school year? More than you think!

Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner

Our 2015-2016 has already kicked off with a bang!!

We received an email last week inviting all of our administrators and central office staff to celebrate our 2014-2015 school year with an afternoon at the movies. We were going to see “The Karate Kid” in anticipation of it being our theme for convocation, and had free snacks and drinks. It was an incredible welcome back and provided a huge leadership lesson!

Not only did we feel appreciated and celebrated, but there were several moments in the movie that I could directly apply to my new principal-ness…it’s like they picked it just for me! (Confession: I’d never before seen the movie!)

When Daniel-son was hesitant to start cutting on the bonsai tree, he was cognizant of his own lack of experience. He was hesitant to just jump in and start. Mr. Miyagi walked him through a visualization, and again told him to start. Daniel’s question of how Mr. Miyagi know if his visualization of the tree was right? (which has most certainly occurred to me as I take on this new role!)…if it comes from inside you, it is always the right one. As a new principal, I need to have faith in my vision. I do know what to do, I know what our campus goals and mission speak too. Creating our blue print for the year will be much easier if I just have faith in what our system, and that I know what I am doing.

Balance. As I watched Daniel trying to balance on the boat, I knew exactly how he felt. Life, work, marriage, mommying…it is all a balance. I did an interview with the @thenerdyteacher, and that was a question sent in by a listener. How do you balance it all? My answer was honest…I don’t know that I know how to yet! Mr. Miyagi said that balance isn’t just about karate, it’s also about life. Everyone works better when there is balance. Do you have a plan for how to maintain (or achieve) balance for your 2015-2016 school year? For myself, I am building quiet time in. I am blocking out windows of reflection, of appreciation. I am committing to NOT answering email at night on my phone. (gulp.) I am going to come home, take my phone upstairs, and LEAVE it, until my girls are asleep. I challenge you to BE INTENTIONAL in finding your balance.

This movie as a whole just relates to educators. I hope that you have a Mr. Miyagi in your life. Someone to offer you pearls of wisdom that challenge you and keep you grounded.

As an educator, I hope you also recognize that you are someone’s Mr. Miyagi.

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Whether it is a room full of 6 year olds, 16 year olds, or a staff of all ages…you have the opportunity to be the voice of wisdom. Take advantage.

This movie also challenged me to really think about how I began my year with the most awesome Wylie ISD staff. I want them to have a POSITIVE beginning, as I did, so that they are as fired up and excited to get the year going as I am.

Karate chopN,

Amber

The three foot rule…

July 1, 2015 by Amber 2 Comments

This isn’t post about proximity…unless you mean proximity to things that stress you out!

I read a great book this week from the perspective of a navy SEAL. He detailed several missions (some heavily redacted) and went through what key lessons he learned from each one. There were general suggestions about being a team player, what that meant to a SEAL, and some that were were specific.“No Hero: The Evolution of a Navy Seal” was written by a SEAL, and it makes for easy reading.

Mark Owen (pen name for Matt Bissonette) who is just worth googling himself, had a fear of heights but went to great lengths to overcome it. He was aware that his weakness, any weakness, could compromise a mission at any given moment. One of his early training exercises was to climb a giant rock wall, whose” shadow of this wall seemed to stretch on for miles.”. While climbing, he decided to do it in his own way. They were told to place their cams, the tools jammed into crevices that would catch them if they fell, every ten feet, but Mark placed them every 5 thinking that if he were to fall he would only fall those few feet.

Having used entirely too many camming devices he ran out and was essentially, stuck, not quite half way there. He then made the mistake of looking at something other than the rock face in front of him, and realized how high up he was. Starting to panic, his struggle was obvious. Luckily his guide had noticed what he had been doing and he scampered over all the extra cams he’d collected from below him. He then offered him a brilliant piece of advice.

“Stay in your three feet. Don’t look up, don’t look down. Stay right there in the three feet that you can control.”

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He completed the rest of the climb easily, by only thinking about each three feet in front of him as he finished.

You can’t do anything about what is behind you. You can’t worry about what is ahead of you. The best thing you can do is worry about where you are RIGHT now. It is liberating once you let go of things you can’t control. This advice seems to work for just about every situation.

Transitioning this summer from AP to Principal, I completely feel the panic of the wall ahead of me. Am I going to know what to do every day? What about tricky situations? How do I be the very best first year principal in the history of the world?!?

But that advice…”Stay in your three feet world.” is so powerful. I need to focus on the now, on preparing, on learning all that I can about my new campus, on getting situated…and then when the future gets here…I’ll handle it in the same “three feet world” style.

Wall climbing,

Amber