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

5 things a principal can do this summer for 17-18 …also, principal checklists! #leadership

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Summer has either already begun for you, or is JUST around the corner. I am sure there are many things a principal can do in the summer, but use your time intentionally to get yourself ready! June is my “close it up month” that I spend wrapping a big red bow around our 16-17 school year, so that in July, after my extremely welcomed week off, I can move forward with all of my 17-18 plans.  I’m also a big fan of checklists…there’s just something that makes me feel that much more accomplished when I can scratch something off of a list. 🙂

There are a few things though that need to happen first. As a leader, it’s important that you determine what you NEED to do, in order to decide WHAT to do. At this point in my principal-ing, I have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen. I know what is going to be stressful at the beginning, I know what I am going to need to get ahead of…and June is my month to get all my plans in place. Working a month ahead this past year was easily the best thing I changed from year one to year two.

  1. Data: From state testing to student independent DRA levels, I can crunch the majority of the data I need to make instructional decisions in the fall. When looking at class placements I want to use DATA to determine which teachers were the most successful with certain student groups and be intentional with student placements. I know, for example, that one of my first grade teachers, showed a 100% increase on her ESL students this year. Each student made at least one years level of growth from August to May in TELPAS. Makes placing certain student pods easier when I have data to support it!
  2. Schedule what you can NOW. I’ve already ordered my life planner for next year.  Some events you just know are going to take place each year and can get on the calendar. I use my Erin Condren from LAST year to help map out events and days for this upcoming 17-18 year. Things that took place in a certain month, but that I am unsure of an exact date for, I write out to the side. This planner has daily pages in addition to monthly “at a glance” pages. However you choose to stay organized, this is the time to get your skeleton in place for the next school year.
  3. I still use this trusty notebook to take notes in throughout the year at all the meetings I attend. It’s really handy to have them all in one place and I can refer back to it during a meeting very easily. I just don’t use/refer back to an electronic system, trust me, I’ve tried. I take advantage of summer down time to flip back through all those notes to reflect. My goal is to be able to plan better for the next time, or just to refresh my memory in general of where we were last August, September, etc. I also use the EC version because of its bulleted lists out to the side. I find those to be really helpful in a meeting to help me discern between notes and things I better get done.
  4. Get a head start on your social media! Our district calendar is set. I know the dates we’ll hold our PLC meetings, I know when report cards are going out. All of the items I can auto schedule now, I do. This allows me a sense of calmness to recognize that my BIG items will be shared automatically, but I can still push out timely content when I’m out and about in classrooms in the fall.
  5. Take. a. vacation. Unconnect. (yes, I made that word up.)  Intentionally disconnect. I’ve taken to un-following the social media accounts that stress me out or make me doubt myself. (No guilt!) Give yourself a refresh. Your campus and staff will be all the better for it. Take the time to remember your “why”. One of our staff development activities in August will be to share our individual “why” and have them hanging in the hallway. I’m really excited about it! (our template!)

Five easy things…but what about the rest of the summer? I’ve been working on checklists for my assistant principal and I to work on. If you work in Canva, let me know and I’ll share an editable copy with you to adjust as you’d like. What would you add?

 

I hope you have a fabulous last few days, or weeks!

 

SummerN,

Amber

Easy treats for teachers!

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What do you get when you have teacher appreciation and the week before your standardized test all rolled into one?

Easy  treats for teacher ideas that don’t stress out the principal!

  • I am not the testing coordinator but I still like to add a lil’something to the testing buckets. This year I just bought Reese’s Cups and Almond Joys. Add these little tags I made, and viola! Because I also know a couple of my testing peeps are doing Camp Gladiator with me, I also bought those packets of mixed nuts to throw in with the chocolate. All about balance, right?

 

  • Happy notes! Words of affirmation are about 85% of my staff’s love language, so these happy notes make it easy to fill out a thank you, or a shout out quickly. These also make me think about recognizing different “things”  from each of them. To ensure that I am getting something to every single one, I also use this checklist. I definitely don’t want to miss anyone! This holds me accountable throughout the course of the year to touch every single teacher.

 

Have a fabulously positive week, friends!

 

Amber

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

 

 

Why should reading and writing be authentic? #taketwo

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At some point, as the adult in the room, we have to recognize that as long as students are reading and writing for a fabricated purpose, there is only so much energy and time that they will commit to the assignment. Churning out students who hate a subject but can perform in a standardized way isn’t doing anyone any good. While there definitely isn’t a chapter in your teacher’s manual that asks, “Why should reading and writing be authentic?”, it’s something that should be in the back of your mind while planning.  Even in the context of a classroom they can (and should!) be presented and taught as authentically as possible. When we present students with an authentic purpose, and have cultivated a reason for them to read or write that extends beyond an assignment or a classroom, then we will start to see their voice and passion come alive.  It may be an off the cuff assignment or look a little different from what the teacher down the hall is doing, but that is ok too.

As a fourth grade teacher, I had the pleasure of preparing our students for our state writing assessment each year. Have you ever tried to convince a 4th grade boy that writing is FUN? It was always a challenge! Realizing that the goal was to get them to find something they enjoyed writing about, or something that offered them a reprieve from a grammar worksheet became my mission. One year (pre Mrs. Teamann, of course…) we wrote letters to Troy Aikman, ℅ Valley Ranch and the Dallas Cowboys. The topic was “Why Troy Aikman should marry Miss Gattis”. Persuasive essay, check! Letter, check! We pored over and over those essays, edits and clarifications were flying through the room. No one wanted to let a typo get to Troy! (least of all Miss Gattis!)

Any subject that we teach has the opportunity to make an impact.

We work with students, children, who haven’t yet discovered that they have the power to change the world.

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Motivating students to be critical readers, to read for enjoyment and knowledge, is a gift that we can give them. Reluctant reader? I genuinely believe we just haven’t found the right thing for them to read yet. Everyone has a passion, we just need to find the right book. It’s up to us, as the adults, to help model what it looks like to be a lifelong learner…a lifelong reader. My elementary colleagues, it just gets harder as they get older…it’s up to us to make elementary school not only FUN but also never losing sight of what it means to have academic integrity. Do we make that a priority? Are we giving enough time in their day to read for pleasure? Are read alouds still happening? One of my 4th grade teachers still does a read loud and she is amongst the top in the district for growing students. She wouldn’t give yup that time for anything…and the books she chooses are MEANT to hook kids into reading, it is very intentional. 

We live in an incredible world, where students have the opportunity now to connect with anyone, and I mean anyone. I have teachers who tweet authors, or celebrities, and colleges, all while modeling to their students what it looks like to communicate in a digital way. Students can blog and share their reflections with an authentic audience. George Couros has shared this image with me before.

 

There are too many opportunities for our students to read and write, and connect globally, to not take advantage of their greatness!
I run into former students all the time…and I can’t tell you how many of them remember those letters we wrote. I bet you they couldn’t tell you one single prompt from an assessment from elementary school…but they all want to know if I ever heard back from Troy!

 

 

PS: I didn’t. Which may actually be a good, non-stalkery ending to that story! 🙂

 

Always a fan,

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