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

Favorite fonts & where to find them…

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It’s no secret that I love a good font. When I taught technology classes back in the day I always started with the caveat that secondary people loved my classes for their content, but my elementary people loved me for my fonts and clip art. #both

One of the hardest things about doing any presentation for me is choosing how I will deliver the message to the audience. I typically present on content that supports what I believe and actively do, so it is easy to “say” and deliver. What isn’t easy is choosing the accompanying visuals. I spend a ridiculous amount of time choosing just the right pictures, layout, and yes, font. Why? I think those details matter.

When looking at an iconic product you typically see the whole package. How market pervasive would Apple be if they didn’t spend just as much time on their logo and marketing as they did on their product? Watching “The Last Dance” and I was blown away at how carefully even a documentary stayed on point as far as the MJ message. Movie sets are meticulous in their staging & arranging. Musicians know that lyrics matter as much as the musical arrangement. Authors spend days on finding the right words to describe a crucial scene, to help recreate their story in your mind. Why? Those details matter.

It seems so simplistic I know…but it’s the small things that help paint the big picture.

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Anywho. Back to fonts! I’ve been asked to share where I find my fonts and how I go about creating images that we share as a campus. These are a few of my favorite font designers that are well known and sell their bundles on TPT. A couple of these I have chosen to buy the bundle, which means you get all the fonts that were released AND any that they release in the future.

Bundles!

My fave fonties:

APL Fonts bundle 

All the volumes are also listed below the bundle info if you just want to get a couple of volumes! (I like Volume 4 in particular, b/c I use those on crafty crafts as well, and those lend themselves well to my Silhouette.)

Babbling Abby

 

Individual volumes are listed out below her package info. She has some really good cursive ones, to mix and match with a bolder blocky font.

 

Amy Grosbeck Fonts

This is probably my most used collection if I had to pick just one. “I can’t”, “I can’t even”, “Fat Pants”, “I woke up like this”…are all in heavy rotation around here!

Looking for free and fabulous fonts?

Kimberly Geswein

 

 

It would be easy to start with these two and see how proficient you can get on mixing and matching before you start buying collections. Once you start, it’s hard to stop!

I’m a fan of using PowerPoint to create the images we share and use on campus, but my principal BFF, Melinda Miller has a great post on the apps she uses. Most of my tricks come from the greatness of Jessica Travis and her bloggy blog,  Creating Images and Fun with Fonts.

Yes, I am a font snob. I want you to get “me” so that you understand what I am passionate about. In the same way, I wouldn’t dress in a suit and wear tennis shoes…I won’t allow “details” to derail our overall intent. Instead, I want them to support it!

This also explains why you won’t ever see me without lipstick, 🙂

Why? Details matter.

Happy Fonting!

 

Strategies to avoid #PrincipalPanic in the pandemic…it’s a thing.

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One little month away from the blog and literally everything has changed. What are you doing as a principal right now to help your people stay calm in this pandemic, while also taking care of you? I’m about ready for our structured, regularly stressful, typical work world to return. (Remember when STAAR test stress was the worst stress? Ugh. I miss those days!)

I’ve seen much on the Facebook or the twitters about what we “should” be doing or what “actually” matters right now. I’m just trying to not kick my children and husband out of the house, 🙂

That being said…I have seen some really good ideas come across and wanted to share some of what we’re doing with you…it’s definitely helping me stay sane and feel productive. There’s nothing worse than an unproductive enneagram 3!

 

Things I am doing for Amber:

  • waking up and working out, just an hour and a half later than usual
  • watching things I don’t usually have time to watch b/c I go to bed at 9pm like a 7th grader
  • walking the dog twice (TWICE!) a day
  • having a “schedule”…even if it’s a made-up in my head schedule that nobody knows about but me
  • eating snacks

 

Things I am doing for staff:

Taking care of my people is LITERALLY one of my favorite parts of my job, so not being able to get to them has been hard.

  • phone calls. ACTUAL voice calls to check in and say hi. I ask how they ARE, not what they’ve been doing. 
  • Sunday night motivation texts to teams, just an image or a gif
  • Keeping emails brief, supportive, and appreciative
  • Letting go of unreasonable expectations, just being REAL PROUD of a pivot none of us saw coming
  • Respecting that some are parenting, wife-ing/husband-ing, and teaching…all at the same time
  • weekly staff meetings, to see all the faces via google meet–trying to make these short, sweet, and involve something FUN!
  • I’m going to mail, as soon as the OCD fireman allows me to, one of these out to everyone

 

Things I am doing for lil’Wolves and families:

We are lucky enough to have an engaged community via social media, so I am able to utilize Facebook and know we’re getting exposure. Because I’ve read so much about the different ways Facebook links the algorithms of views and their feed, I know that the more engagement a post has, the more it is going to show up in people’s feeds. That means every time we post something, and we get a comment, the page comments back. This has raised the average view of what we’ve been sharing post-pandemic by 150%. Enlisting some of our professional staff who may not be as busy with our online learning has been a win-win for this strategy. 🙂

  • Coach Kyle, our PE coach, jumping in twice a week with fun workouts for Wolves
  • Read aloud each day at 9 am by a surprise guest reader (Alpha Phonics, ESL, Art…all our people want a turn doing this! Even our lunch lady signed up!)
  • Friday we go live with jokes on Facebook with our assistant principal and myself
  • Our music teacher plays the flute, sings, or has her son play the piano as she announces all the day’s birthdays
  • teachers are making posters/signs for us to share in a video, set to some sappy song I haven’t chosen yet 🙂

Anything that we do live, you could also just record and send links out!

 

What are you doing to avoid #PrincipalPanic right now?

I hope that you are modeling what it looks like to be calm in an absolute season of knowing nothing.

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It’s ok not to know. And if I could convey peace and assuredness to my people right now, then I can turn everything else off, and hopefully, communicate what is most important…which is that we’re going to be ok.

 

Thinking of you &

Technically, yours Amber Teamann

Planning template freebie! #leadership

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My mind is going 90 mph these days and in trying to keep up with what I want to do NOW versus what I want to remember to do for back to school & fall…I needed a very specific checklist.

So I made one!

If you’re like me and straddling your day to day NOW but also having thoughts of what is just around the corner, here ya go!



ChecklistN &




 

 
Things you need in your leadership life right now!


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Ah, the glorious calmness of June and July! This is where, hopefully, as leaders, we can pause, reflect, rest and rejuvenate!


Here are a few things you can add to your plate for the next couple of months…one to read, one to plan, and one to HELP.


    

  1. If you haven’t read Abby Wambach’s new book, “WolfPack“, stop what you’re doing and order it immediately. It’s a quick read but full of leadership gems…like this one

    

    

    I’ve never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.
    

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     Doesn’t that resonate with you as a leader? If not because someone else assisted you, then maybe because our goal should be all about assisting others. I have 7 staff members leaving this year, but they are ALL promoting in some capacity. That’s the only reason I want people leaving! If an assist from me is what it takes for people to see/recognize their potential, I am in!
    2. 



2. How do you take notes? I am a hand written note kinda gal and I use this Coiled Notebook notebook from Erin Condren to keep EVERYTHING in one place. There’s even a todo list on the side of these pages, which helps tremendously in my district meetings! If you haven’t ordered from Erin Condren before, here is a link to $10 off your first purchase! Whether it be a leadership meeting, a team meeting or a curriculum meeting, this keeps them all in one place and I just use a sticker divider to keep my areas separated. If I only have to keep up with one place to find notes, it makes logical sense that I am less likely to lose or forgot what was decided from one place to another.


3. Start your postcard planning NOW! I design a postcard in ppt and have it ready to go as soon as we start back! No matter the changes I have coming up, I know I’ll want to send postcards to Wolves. I send at least one card to each of our students each year, but more if I can! Here’s what we used last year.


4. I’m a nerd and I love Flair pens. This Candy Pop Pack makes me think of sunshine and summertime and how sad can I be while working and taking notes when I have fun colored Flair Pens?? ( i just saying that to myself over and over.)


5. Easiest post its to use while summer working? Bright colored lined post its! These are easy to add to my notebook above but also on my monitor, my top desk drawer, where ever I need to add a list to help me focus. I love a good list…


 


What do YOU do in these early summer months? Are you off? Working? What should I be adding to my Wolf world??


 


All summer workN &



 
Fab Fridays in February, 2019


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My principal bestie (and future co-author) Melinda Miller always shares that October and February are the two worst months of the school year, in fact…she calls them the armpits of the year! (which is both gross and awkwardly appropriate!)





I’ve done these Fab Fridays with her for a NUMBER of years and while the activities vary from year to year (including a great new addition from Melissa K this year!) the message is always the same.





We see you.





We appreciate you.





We want you to feel supported, loved and encouraged. 





Now you can do these things ALL the time of course, but there’s something about alliteration that just makes my heart happy!





Here is this years version…










I’ve had some inquiries about how we fund these…and the answer varies as much as the activity. For the soups, I have parents signed up to bring soups and fixings, the fruit & nacho bar we’ll use our discretionary money for, and the book reading will be FREE…minus some fun new book titles I need. 🙂





Here are other years of ideas, and if you’re an admin you can always join our appreciation and morale group on facebook!














Have any fab ideas to add? Share!





Staff loveN and