Vision — Page 3

Culture & Leadership Connections: Are you #FutureReady?

February 23, 2015 by Amber 1 Comment

Confession: I’m not that great with technology.

I know, I know…”Technically Teamann” and all that jazz. But really, I’m not great with technology.

I can’t code. I couldn’t reroute an access point. I don’t build computers. I don’t develop software. I don’t build apps. Or teach people how to do ANY of those things. I can troubleshoot (via the Google) any technical problems, but I can’t take apart a machine. I can’t write HTML or Flash. I can’t talk shop with the IT department. I’m just not that great with technology.

You know what I am good at?

I am good at making technology work for me.

Click To Tweet

I am able to use tools that are readily available to accomplish my personal and professional goals and to develop relationships. I am good at connecting and seeing how much this benefits all of those around me. If I have a teacher who is struggling, I can connect them with an expert in just the area they need help with. If I have a student with a particular passion, I know how to find amazing resources to help them. If I need my bucket filled, I have made connections, made friends, with like-minded people who lift me up and inspire me from all over the world. I have found a way to share my experiences & my voice with anyone who cares to listen.

If you stop and reflect on our students entering the workplace, becoming grown-ups, and functioning in this world that we live in, we can all agree on a few things. We know being a good test taker is not a sought after characteristic by today’s, and most likely not future, employers. They have to know how to collaborate, how to develop relationships, how to CONNECT with others. They need to know how to be responsible for their digital footprints, how to own the data that is collected from them and about them.

These are the skills our students need, and being future-ready means we as educators have got to figure out a way to add those skills to the already overflowing plate we have in front of us.

One important facet in my role as an administrator is to empower my staff and our students to be the very best versions of themselves, knowing that our future will be about the advantage of the opportunities available. If we are increasingly moving to become a digitally competitive society, we need our students to be able to function, and function well.

Introducing these generations to their digital responsibilities and abilities is crucial!

Click To Tweet

Leveraging technologies to partner with parents to help them understand the importance of what their child can do and the GREAT things that are happening with their students each and every day should be always be on our list of best practices. Today there are too many available options to share and connect with our families and stakeholders to not utilize them!

I’m not that good with technology, but I am passionate about using it to accomplish my goals. We only have so many hours in a day to impact the life of a child, and if by intentionally applying what we have available to model the collaboration, communication, and creation, we can get our students off on the #futureready foot!

Click here to learn more about the 2015 Digital Learning Day. I’ll be in Washington on March 13th at #DLDay with my session, “Who’s the Boss: Take Charge When it Comes To Your Professional Learning”. You can also see a complete list of presenters here.

Charge taking,

Amber

No second chances on a first impression…make your welcome worth it!

August 23, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

This school year marks a new beginning for me in my professional career…the enormity in changing of districts. I spent my first twelve years in the same place, so each back to school season was one of comfort and familiarity. I knew faces, I knew places. I knew language, I knew priorities. I am lucky enough to have landed in a place that handles their newbies with understanding and grace. If you’ve got new team members, or new to your area students, think about integrating some of these pieces into your back to school routine. I wrote about our C&I retreat where our higher-ups went through a timeline of the district curriculum implementation. This was such a huge piece for me. Knowing the history of what had been tried and planned will be so helpful as we move forward. I now know the reason why we are things “this” way or why it isn’t happening “that” way. Your new people need a synopsis of where your campus been in addition to where its going. It will help solidify in what direction they should be moving. Another amazing detail about this district is the pride they take in the local community. I had lunch with the namesake of our campus, Wally Watkins. It was so humbling to sit and talk with a man who has contributed to so much to the area, that I was now working in the school they honored him with. He and his lovely wife Nita cemented my devotion to making them proud of what we do each day. For new teachers to our campus, there was a special breakfast. They were given a goodie bag, a campus tee-shirt & magnet, and an opportunity to meet with key members of our staff. Two of our veteran team members were there to talk them through what it means to be to a Watkins Wrangler. They shared the campus vision and the mission, as well as a glimpse into what it means to work here. One of our teacher leaders who opened the campus shared that before carpet was laid on the floor, the teachers were encouraged to come in and write what they wanted to see achieved on their cement classroom floor, or a scripture. Each room has a message written on the floor. Knowing that every room was so intentional in their student focus just warms my heart! How can you not walk through the halls and feel a connection to student success? They then took the new staff members on a tour of the school, showing them in the in’s and outs. New district members were invited to a luncheon, held on a high school campus where local vendors and businesses shared their services and gave away little goodies as a welcome. From calendars with local sports teams schedules to a Race Trac cup with a free coffee coupon, you saw the faces that made our lil’ community what it is. It gave new meaning to “shop locally”, after seeing the support they provide for the school district. how could you not want to shop local first? They also donated enough “goodies” that EVERY single new hire recieved a door prize. Mine? My word. Finally, the first day of our teacher in service, each teacher was given a tee shirt, a welcome note, and a cookie for each of their students. Our teachers then used Optimap to develop a round trip map and they went and visited each home for their homeroom. My principal and I drove the attendance zone and watched the expressions on those lil’Wranglers faces as they opened the door and met their teachers. The teachers and families absolutely loved it. This is the #WylieWay!

Whatever method you choose, take some time to make your new team members & make sure they know you’re glad they are there. The best way to get someone to buy in to your purpose is to make them feel like they are a part of the campus family. I am so blessed to have experienced such a welcome! Wrangler lasso’d, Amber PS: Feel free to follow our campus throughout the year, you can like the Wally Watkins Elementary School Facebook page or on twitter, @WatkinsElem! (why yes, social media and communication IS encouraged!)

I’m a font snob…or why the details matter!

July 21, 2014 by Amber 3 Comments

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 have been doing, so it is easy to “say”. 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? Details matter.

At Luna, one of the first projects we undertook was transforming the front office and entryway. We were an elementary campus, and when you walked in that door, we wanted you go know what we were all about. Students and student learning. We wanted a bright and welcoming environment. There shouldn’t be any confusion as to whether you were at a school or a doctors office. A bright rug, a colorful kid friendly couch, and a display of what our Lions had created received more compliments from our families than one could have predicted. Why? Details matter.

Flyers that went home were approved by the office, who knew what our expectations were. Engaging, fun, and yes, fun fonts, became the norm. Teachers started paying more attention to the the details. Parent letters that had been going home for years were freshened up, looked at with a new eye. Being intentional to our audience Instead of it being “what we’d always done”, meant events were given new life. Something as simple as asking for a “fun font” meant that bulletin boards and hands outs took on the personalities of our incredible teams. Why? Details matter.

When looking at an iconic product, or person, 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? 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? Details matter.

Yes, I am a font snob. I want the nuances of my personality to be pervasive in my product. 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 my intent. I have been called superficial in my attention to the smallest details in appearances, but I believe our school will take on the feel of what it looks like, ala the broken glass theory.

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

Why? Details matter.

Unapologetically,

Amber

Free and easy ways to connect with your staff & parents!

May 19, 2014 by Amber Leave a Comment

There are a variety of ways that teachers and administrators can communicate with their class, staff, and parents. Effective communication is vital to a schools success. Not just the typical teacher to parents way, but also in the campus to the families way. Good communication can prevent misperceptions and mismatched expectations, encourage parent involvement and foster a team approach to caring for your students. Families should feel welcomed, informed and as involved as possible.

Tim Lauer in Portland uses Instagram to share the good things happening at his school. Want to know what matters to that lead learner? Check out his feed.

Classroom activities, fun projects, assemblies…there are visuals to accompany all of the good things going on at Lewis Elementary.

Melinda Miller creates videos that communicate important calendar events happening. Her campus still sends home a paper calendar but also provides this link to her staff/families. She uses an app called Touchcast, to make this happen. TouchCast creates an interactive presentation that mixes video with web content. The app lets you record a video and overlay elements such as web pages, maps, photos, Twitter streams, polls, quizzes and more. Users watching the video can click on these multimedia elements and interact with them while the video continues to play. You start by recording a video using your iPad’s camera. You can pick from several themes like newscast or review that’ll insert titles and other elements to get you started. TouchCast uses a timeline to lay out the elements of your video and allows you to drag& drop extra content.

Tony Sinanis, known for his Bammy award winning and New York Principal of the Year ways, creates amazing videos with his students each grading period. Want to know what Cantiague students are learning about? Let them tell you. I think my favorite part of this idea is the relationships that are so evident between Mr. Sinanis and his students. As an administraor, it is impressive, but as a parent? I’m all in.

We use Remind101 not just with our students in individual classrooms, but also with our staff. This has been a HUGE tool for me this year, as I don’t have the personal relationships with our staff that I am used to, just being a year in on this campus. It’s always awkward when you get to the phone number/texting/connections aspect of being the lead learner…but no fear! I still have the capabilities to connect with my staff through Remind 101. We created an account and then utilize it to announce a couple of jeans days (ensuring campus wide participation;)) and have taken advantage of its one way mode of getting info to our teachers. From uplifting texts to snow day announcements, this has become our go to way to getting a message out to teachers. I can even choose individual users as well for grade level specific messages, if necessary.

Jay Posick creates a weekly Smore that he shares with his Merton families. I love that I can back to week one of his school year and see what they doing then. He adds pictures and short blurbs to let everyone know where and what is going on. As a parent, I think this would be incredible way to have the “what did you do at school today” conversation. It is free and easy to use. Promote school events, let students design flyers for upcoming curriculum, and you can even monitor the number of views and web analytics. Smores can easily be linked and shared to classroom blogs, school websites, Twitter and Facebook. Plus? a 2014 bonus…Smore ‘pages’ work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets!

Establish THE hashtag, THE phrase, THE saying that defines your campus. From the AHMO of Wylie high school that made it to Letterman, to the #GOCRICKETS that Joe Sanfelippo has permeating all of Fall Creek, Wisconsin, to the biggest and student led hashtag of #leydenpride from Jason Markey’s unifying campus culture, this is an opportunity for you to create an environment that extends past your physical location. Brand your vision for your community. Everyone wants to be a part of a team…this is why the collegiate traditions of A&M and Texas Tech are so popular, people want to feel connected and a part of something bigger than they are. Why should your campus not take advantage of that?

Twitter and Facebook are two popular ways to share information but in this day and age there is no reason not to find a “high tech” way to match your “low tech” efforts and meet the needs of your families. Worried about them getting on board? Showcase your students! Spot light the great things happening on your campus every day. That’s what parents really want after all! Then? You just sneak in the extra that you want to know as well.

BE INTENTIONAL in your attempts to involve the “village” that we all know it takes to have a successful school/home partnership. It’ll be worth that extra step or two to use any of these methods. Need help? Email me and I would be more than happy to walk you through getting started. Or? I can connect you to any of the excellent folks I get to call friends listed above to help ya too!

Communicatingly,

Amber

ASCD 2014 literally rocked my world!

March 20, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

The 2014 ASCD conference , Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, was held in Los Angeles this past weekend. With keynote speakers like Daniel Pink and Sir Ken Robinson, you knew going in that this conference was going to make you think…and it didn’t disappoint. My big take aways from this year:

#5. Educators are persuaders. That is what we do. Teachers persuade children to learn. Administrators persuade staff to engage and teach. We’re “selling” people, moving them from point a to point b. Education is a form of persuasion. If we are the sellers of what we do, believe in, and are passionate about…who is the buyer? Staff, students, and families. We have to embrace the fact that we have a product to sell, and we want their buy in. No longer can we say that we have all the answers and know what’s best without having to prove it. Informational parity is alive and well. Make a statement and you can be instantly fact checked from a phone in the audience. We have to embrace this new reality and use it to our advantage.Persuading/influencing, not making something, takes up 41% of adult workers time. Standardized test prepare for this…right? Gulp.

For more about the “always be selling” theory and educators as persuaders, check out Daniel Pink’s latest book, To Sell is Human.

#4, DNA is not your destiny. Good teaching trumps genes. Eric Jensen was AMAZING. The research he shared during his session was jaw dropping. His session was on how poverty impacts student engagement and learning. “That kid you think sucks? You’d be surprised at whats happening in that kids head.” Some of my tweetable quotes from him:

The stress we experience is our reaction to a perceived loss of control over an adverse situation. KIDS NEED MORE CONTROL! Ss don’t need more discipline when struggling – rather they need more control in their own lives. Help them!
Risk factors in an environment suppress IQ.
My favorite line: If you think a student is just like “his/her mom/dad” you used to teach…ask yourself if it’s because you’re teaching them the same way.
How we feel is whats real. It’s the link to what we think.

#3, The culture makes a difference for the whole child. Top to bottom, this ASCD conference spoke of the whole child. It was SO incredibly refreshing to see how many sessions were centered around loving, teaching, and growing a child. There is more to a great educational environment than high scores. There were even comments directed at administrators to think about the WHOLE teacher. Principal Sharon Jacobs, from the Washington Montessori School of Greensboro in North Carolina, winner of the 2014 Vision in Action award spoke briefly at a keynote, (I could have listened to her ALL day!). She spoke so highly of her team, and how as a leader it was your responsibility to nurture your staff, & that enthusiasm was contagious. When she came on stage she took a selfie of herself with the ASCD audience in the background. Can you imagine learning in an environment like that? My tweetable quotes from her:

Proficiency is just one component of educating children…and not necessarily the most important one.
See children as more than a proficiency number. Take care of basic needs and the proficiency will come, more importantly, Ss GROW!
Vision, not just seeing things what they are, but what they can be…that’s what what vision in action should be!
It can be done, we did it, and you can do it too. #educationalmantra Principal Jacobs

#2, Don’t confuse compliance with engagement. What is engagement? What does actual engagement look like? When you have students raising their hands in class…are they engaged or are they just compliant?Self-efficacy and collective efficacy are critical pieces to increasing student engagement. How do we show support for this in the classroom? Robyn Jackson had the statement that “we lament that we want students to be engaged, but our policies and procedures suggest we don’t really want that.” Raise your hand before speaking. Sit quietly. Work independently. Real engagement encourages non-compliance! My tweetable quotes from the Robyn Jackson and Allison Zmuda session:

Being taught something b/c it’s on a test is not a compelling reason to learn it!
Goal clarity does not equal posting a LO on the board. Takes more than that for Ss to get it and want it…
We tell teachers you need more engagement and we end up with teachers entertaining, not engaging. <—–Isn’t this SO true!?

#1, Be a learner, be a sharer, be connected. Compared to last year, there was a definite hum of “connectedness”. There was a presence of technology and social media all throughout. Not a lot of nouns (Twitter, Vine, etc.) were necessarily mentioned…but the verb of being “connected” permeated throughout. Even the president of ASCD gave a shoutout for getting on Twitter. He challenged the audience, saying if he could do it, then anyone could do it! It’s about relationships, it isn’t about a tool. Whether it’s twitter, facebook, instagram, or even any asynchronous community, get connected. Grow with your peers. Admins, great leaders are part of the group as a learner! Set an example for your staff! Michael Fullan had a great line, “Pedagogy is the driver, let technology be the accelerator.” Connections can stimulate conversations and help relight that fire that makes all your energy and efforts worthwhile. Reflecting on our activities, our classrooms, asking for feedback, is an important piece of what we do…and finding a community is where that begins.

If you think about other professions…what would we think of a doctor who discovered a cure for some disease…but doesn’t share it?

I enjoyed every single minute of this year’s ASCD conference, even during the earthquake that hit Monday morning. Leave it to ASCD to literally rock our world, 🙂 Learning from others, being involved in conversations that inspire me, meeting authors that change the way I do business…what an incredible four days! Next years conference is in Houston, so ya’ll come on down Texas way, 😉 You won’t regret it!

ASCD appreciative,

Amber