#thefirstyear — Page 2

Be a leader. Be open to learning. #thefirstyear

March 4, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

Took advantage of connections today to visit three different schools to see how they are utilizing and maximizing their maker spaces. Completely different, all three of them. Different budgets, different people in charge, different spaces.

I loved it.

I love an idea that is SO broadly fabulous that it can’t fit into a mold. It was great conversations, great connections, and sparked many a thought on how we can fit the maker-ing into my Whitt world.

As I walked the halls of Sigler Elementary, the esteemed campus of one Matt Arend, I once again in life, realized how beneficial being a connected educator can be…one who is open to hearing the fun things others are doing, tweaking the suggestions that others have shared to make them work for you, and how much that makes me grow as a professional.

How very boring our world would be without the awesome of all of us.

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Be open, friends. Be collaborators. Be sharers. Be someone’s spark.

I’ll write more about the excellent conversations I had today soon. After all, sharing IS caring!

Amber

In the moment… #thefirstyear

February 20, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

My last post was about our Fabulous Fridays plans for this month. It was an all-inclusive staff celebration, thinking about them as a whole, and opportunities to celebrate together. It’s important to do things like that, but I also have to balance that with what each individual teacher needs to feel supported or appreciated. Learning each of their 64 styles and just how they need to feel supported is an ongoing goal, and one that can only be found if I take advantage of “moments”. I found out late Friday that one of most my instructionally sound teachers is also a HUGE sports talk radio fan, and that she has listened to the same morning show I have for about 13 years. What a HUGE connection piece that is for each of us!

Listening to hear, not to solve, or take action, but to understand…is easy to say in the big scheme of leadership things, but harder in the moment.

Sometimes your leadership can be strengthened, or weakened, in the moment. Someone in a leadership role must be adept at recognizing which moments are opportunities that allow you to build someone up, to reinforce someone’s strengths, rather than to prove a point. My thought now is that EVERY interaction is someone’s “moment.

One of the lessons this year has brought is how very important those moments are, and how really, it’s the little moments that make up the big picture.

My goal now is that I see each moment, each interaction, as an opportunity. Measuring each word is a skill, one that takes practice, and one that after seven months, I’m fine tuning.

May your moments be taken advantage of this week!
Amber

Make your Fridays in February…fabulous! #thefirstyear

January 25, 2016 by Amber Leave a Comment

What’s that? Am I writing something in ADVANCE?? Or is it that I couldn’t sleep and decided that the 4am hour just might could be a productive one? 🙂 I’ll never tell!

There is a voxer group of my PLN peeps that have genuinely become friends. We voxed pretty much every day for a good two years before we’ve kind of drifted into random/occasional voxes…and me so much more so than them. One of the greatest take away from that group was the idea of “Fabulous Fridays in February”, from the awesome Melinda Miller. Knowing that February can potentially be a dreary long month, she peps it up with fun activities each week…just a lil’something to look forward too. Each year I’ve added, adjusted, adapted to the campus I’m at to help being some of this fabulous along with me! Plus, you know I love a good theme!!

Now, I know I post a lot of “culture” building posts…please know for every one of these I post, there is a PLC meeting, a 504 meeting, or some kind of PD convo that is also taking place. There are walk-throughs, there are coaching comments, and there are deep conversations. All the roles and responsibilities of a school principal are important. I just also happen to feel that a positive school culture is imperative. School culture is the heart of improvement and growth.

School culture is the heart of improvement and growth.

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It is the deliberate decision by the leaders of the campus to create a positive school culture that enables the other areas (effective, intentional instruction for student success for example) to also achieve noteworthy outcomes. Notice, I said leaders, not just the principal.

I think teacher leaders are just as, if not more, important than a principal.

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They have a power amongst their peers that is hard for an administrator to replicate.

Now, that being said, back to the fun stuff. February is a long month. No holidays immediately in sight, the Christmas break has worn off, and typically, the spring testing has started to rear its ugly head. I want my teachers to WANT to be at school.

I want them to look forward to being with our Wolves, and to know that I value what they do for our campus.

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Creative little celebrations don’t take much money, just some foresight to plan ahead. You can recruit PTA moms, involved moms, local churches, local businesses, team leaders, office staff…anyone to help you lighten the load. Something as simple as a thank you note can make a world of difference to a teacher who is tired. I have some special Wednesday incentives as well that I will be handing out for various things, which will be new for me this year that I’ve gotten from a new Plano principal, Mrs. Taylor. I’ve attached those below my fabulous Canva picture below! (If you haven’t started using Canva to rock your world yet, get to it!!)

Are you doing Fab Fridays? Or Marvelous Mondays? Terrific Tuesday? Tweet me your great ideas! Here is my 2014 version, and my 2015 version as well!

Stay fab,

Amber

A book study via Facebook… #InnovatorsMindset #thefirstyear

January 10, 2016 by Amber 4 Comments

We have a collective leadership team on this campus that is undertaking a book study this semester. When looking at the hectic schedule that we already know is in place, we had to get creative in how we would undertake adding an additional to do.

First, I knew that I needed a book that would be timely and relevant to where we are in our journey as a campus. I wanted something that was easy to read, but something that could guide us from where we are to a more collaborative, innovative place. It would also be more beneficial if it impacted our practices from THEIR mindset shift, versus a top-down approach.

Second, there wasn’t a day or an hour that would have worked for multiple teachers on multiple grade levels. I’ve done a Twitter book study before but knew that I wanted deeper conversations.

Third, I’ve had some great conversations with my PLN about how I needed to be able to sustain the energy and focus that I have this first year moving forward. I have to be able to manage adding a book study. I needed a time management piece.

The solution?

The Innovator’s Mindset, by George Couros…as a book study in a closed Facebook group, that I can schedule using PostCron.

Several friends have done book studies on FB, and speak to the ease of conversations, of the simplicity in posting images with questions, and the management piece.

I created question images using Canva and have scheduled them to post using postcron. They’ll post on Mondays, early, so that as teachers read they can come back and reflect on the questions. On Wednesday, I’ll post a video or blog post that goes along with the chapter as well for further thought.

Luckily. George has provided all of these resources for me on his website. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

I’ll keep you posted on how effortless, and yet impactful, this book study truly is!

Mindset ready,

Amber

Purpose & Positivity, part 1 #thefirstyear

December 30, 2015 by Amber 2 Comments

I can’t believe my first semester as principal is over. This being the only post I’ve made in December shows just how fast it has flown by. I think I’ve started 5 different blogs this month and got carried away each time. I’ll just delete those and combine here, 🙂

I need time to both slow down and hurry up. My superintendent says it best, “The years are fast, but the days are long.” I want time to move quicker so that I can get through all the firsts. Everything on our calendar, through each day, is another “first” for me as principal. Each experience sets the new normal. I am defining how things will look moving forward, advertently and inadvertently. I want to get through all these and feel more secure in what my world looks like. At the same time, I want to savor each opportunity. I want to appreciate that I ‘ll never have this “first” experience in this role again. I can’t believe I am already half-way through this year!

Things I’ll continue:

Daily positivity quotes: I started posting a daily reaffirming quote on FB each day several years ago when dealing with a particularly ugly professional situation. I literally post something every day that speaks to MY heart but get so many people that say it speaks to them as well. Though that time thankfully has long past, I still enjoy posting.
Owning my calendar: I use an Erin Condren planner and have gotten into the habit of writing it ALL there. From walk-through plans to my beat’s basketball games, it serves as a guide, as a compass, and an easy way to journal what each season of my world looks like. I’ve written about it before here, and you can get $10 off of your very own here, 🙂
Keeping up: I take this notebook to every single meeting I go too. I tab the tops with the date and meeting title, and it has been SO MUCH EASIER having all of my notes in one place. I know it is contradictory for me to be so “techie”, and still depend on my planner and notebook, 🙂 but it is what it is! You can get $10 off on for you here. (And yes, I could have bought a regular ol’notebook at the store, but this one is so much more sturdy, and taking it with me everywhere, I needed it to be dependable.

Things I won’t continue:

Not owning my calendar. When I hit pause on writing it all down, I inevitably get behind. I even plan in when I am going to plan. I have a poster in my office where my AP and I wrote down ALL the big picture items to focus on this year, and if it isn’t on that poster, then it can’t take up my time. Sometimes saying no is harder than saying yes!
Feeling guilty about all the no’s. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by the awesomeness of some pretty great principals. I have got to stop thinking I can keep up with them all. Every day I see something that makes me go “Oh! I want to…” and I have to come back, look at my big picture poster, and self-monitor myself. I have time to do all the things…it doesn’t have to happen this year, or at the same time!
Hitting compacity. Angela Watson is a pretty great friend of mine, and she asked me a pretty direct question recently. Am I moving at a pace that I am going to maintain each year? I have spent more of my $$$ than my husband can ever know about (gulp.), spent more late nights at school, created “more” than I ever have…and at some point, I need to realize that I have to set parameters on what I am giving. I wrote about checking your scales here, and in 2016 I am going to be a better balance’r. Another smart friend told me think of it this way,

” No matter how fast or new a computer is, it will always hit compacity

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That being said, I will be better about posting this semester, 🙂 Thank you to those who have emailed asking where I’ve been. I am back on the bandwagon, and will write more regularly. I also have some fabulous new “Fab Friday’s in February” I’ll share soon!

Hope you and yours have had a great holiday and a happy new year!

Amber