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

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












#Principalconfession: Data day stresses me out.


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I’ve talked a lot about how I think transparency in this role is crucial. There can be so much pressure to be Pinterest perfect, even as a principal. Now that I am entering year 4, I generally feel as if I have a pretty good grip on what I am doing and in what direction we’re all heading.


Nothing will make me doubt that faster than a deep data dive.


This post isn’t about the merits of testing or my personal stance on its purpose in education. I don’t want to debate any of that drama. It’s above my pay grade! THIS IS NOT THAT POST!


This post is about how it makes me feel, physically, when trying to have a conversation, with one of the hardest working staffs I’ve had the privilege of working with. One that is encouraging and supportive, but also accountable, challenging and motivating.


When we met as a district leadership team to review our campus performance data, my roller coaster of a reaction varied on the page I was on. Some pages were great. Some were amazing. Some made me see the potential. Some had gains across the board and some had leveled off.


I should also point out that we did really well, overall. 


But that isn’t what I walked away thinking. I walked away needing a pedicure and some quiet time. My immediate next step was to figure out how to deliver this same info to those hard-working teachers. Even what we did well in was overshadowed by the areas where we could have done better.


My goal, always, via Todd Whitaker, is for them to walk away from our campus meetings more excited to teach tomorrow than they were today. This meeting did not do that. Even my body revolted against me, I could feel the beginnings of a fever blister.


Delivering the reality of what we did, knowing that we can always do better (b/c hello, growth mindset and we can ALWAYS DO BETTER!) is incredibly difficult to do without making people feel like what they did wasn’t good enough. And even if that’s true? That is a sucky thing. 


I think I need to read more sports leadership books…this is what coaches deal with all the time, right? Playing hard, leaving it all on the field…and still not winning every game. That can be the reality in the classroom too.


I have decided that we won’t be doing anymore whole group data days moving forward. We’ll meet separately as a grade level PLC, and have these conversations. Same data will be shared, face time will still happen to everyone. Celebrations will be more meaningful and but I am hoping the “where can we ‘level up” chat will also be easier in smaller safer place.


So there. Principal confession. I hate data days. I love data and what it can to help, guide, and inform…but man, it stresses me out.


Make me feel better and tell me YOUR principal confession!!


 


Confessionally and