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

What’s it mean to be new?

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This may be the first actual blog I’ve help[fully written since beginning my new job in mid-October.

 

Here’s a short list of what it looks like to be new, and what to remember.

  1. Be you.
    1. Your passions and your strength are what secured this position for you. Don’t forget that..even when you feel like you are struggling, or like you don’t know what you are doing…you are there for a reason. Let that be your backbone of strength. My new job, this opportunity came about b/c of the passions that I have and b/c I embraced them. Tech? Leadership? I can be both. I can DO both. And here I am. Doing it
  2. Surround yourself with what makes you smile.
    1. Friends. Texts. Snaps. Tweets. When you start over you are going to need people who connect you to what matters and the strength of what you bring to the table.
  3. Recognize, acknowledge, extend.
    1. What do you see? What do you think about? Who can you tell? There are great things happening. Find it. Celebrate it. Find someone to share it with.
  4. Document your journey.
    1. Tweet, blog, journal. Just remember what it feels like to be at the forefront of a new challenge, experience,

 

Hoping to document what I do and how we do go about doing it as I’ve made this epic change,  just b/c  I know there are people out there, going through a change, wondering how to navigate change for educators. Recruiting EVERYONE in your district, on your campus, in your building is critical for establishing not only any positional changes but also how that reflects incredible opportunities…

 

 

Change makeN &

 

 

 

Amber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaders, how do you break over a break?

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We’re closing out the first of a couple of breaks we have this season. How do you turn off all that goes through your leadership brain, when you’re supposed to be “not” thinking about work? I think when you lead the way that we all lead, it’s almost impossible to separate your everyday thoughts from your every day “I’m still a leader and responsible” thoughts, right?

Here are three ways I’ve found to “let it go” when you are able!

Plan activities that you can do while you’re off.

From a massage to a manicure to a latte with a good friend…make sure you have something to look forward to.

YOU are a person outside of your role.

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You need to focus on what you are going to do instead of working. Create a plan for your time away from work. (Principal self-care, perhaps?)The more you can do that reminds you of that, the better leader you will be. It’s been an interesting month for me, leaving one position and remembering that SO much of what I did and how I did it was defined by my “principal” title. Who are you when you’re not that person anymore?

Turn off notifications and RESIST your email.

If your problem is that you’re constantly worried about missing an important email or something important, try going a night without checking your email — and discover that all of the work you need to do is still there in the morning. Then increase the amount of time you leave your email unchecked. Try to get through an entire day of the weekend without checking. Then — gasp! — an entire weekend. You may find that many people manage to answer their own questions if you don’t get back to them right away! The more you check email, the more you have to check it. The harder it is to regulate impulsivity, the more you self-distract and flit from one thing to another. Plus, in 2020, when things happen, they seem to be happening BIG, so you’ll more than likely get a PHONE CALL if someone needs you. I learned, in all my years, my to-do list always rolls over.

Surround yourself with the people that deserve the BEST of you, instead of the rest of you. 

You deserve quality time with the support system that keeps you sane. This may be friends, family, or even coworkers that are like family. Spend your weekends relaxing with them, as they may not be used to getting 100% of your attention. While we’ve had more “home” time than usual, I really think the stress of being an educator in 2020 means we haven’t actually stepped away from thinking, planning, worrying, and thinking some more.  Jobs, titles, coworkers are going to come and go…but building memories with your family can last forever. Take advantage of not knowing what’s going to happen when you get back, by actually not worrying since it will probably be different anyway! 

It’s ok to take a REAL break and it doesn’t make you less of a leader. 

Yes, there is a lot of overlap and intermingling between work and home these days, thanks to technology and our dealing with #allthethings. It’s not always possible to get the separation we need, but the goal isn’t perfection. It’s creating enough space to allow ourselves to feel refreshed and like we are more than what we do. 

 

Here’s hoping that if that didn’t happen this break, you can get a do-over in December, 🙂

 

Rest seeking &

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 &