PD has come and gone. We are now in our first three weeks. I wanted to reflect on our PD week however, just to remind us all how very important it when we have the chance to pull together all of our staff. While most had dropped in and out throughout the summer this was the first BIG welcome back. Knowing that I want this to be the best first year in the history of the world, I had high expectations for everything I wanted to fit into this one week. While there were several district related events, I’m going to share what we did to make sure there was a feeling of celebration and welcome.
- I contacted several of our partner churches and local businesses to see how they could support our staff this week. Everyone likes food, right?? Nestle Tollhouse donated the largest cookie cake I’d ever seen, Walmart gave us a cake, and we had three churches donate breakfast! Wow! That’s a lot of love & support.
- One of our goals was coming together as a family to truly fulfil the mission statement the campus developed last year. The first word is “together”…so we focused on a lot of togetherness! A hashtag crowdsourced by all. a new staff shirt, and an awesome staff picture that we are going to get hung up for the hallway when everyone walks in.
We want the same to be seen in our halls. #wearewhitt
- Knowing that we were setting on an ipad initiative journey this year, who else would I welcome onto my campus to talk tech than the Matt Gomez? He inspired, he mitiviated, he included lots of pictures of Troy Aikman. I’m calling that a win!
- Time. Differentiation. Support. We made it a point for us to have conversations, to get to know one another, for them to share with me what they loved about our school, what they thought we could be more progressive on, and something they wanted me to know about them. We used this 3-2-1 and it has been so valuable as I am getting to know them all.
Our last activity of the week was a candlepass. Yes, completely sorority girl of me, but it served a purpose. In ADPI, we have a tradition that is very fun for anyone that is engaged. Everyone in our sorority comes together. We sing a song as we pass a candle around the circle. Everyone anxiously waits to see who the candle stops on and the individual who is engaged blows out the candle and then tells everyone the story of their engagement. This candlepass obviously was not about that…but instead was about coming together and sharing in something important. As the candles were passed out, I asked everyone to think about the opportunity that we had coming together this year. This would be the only time our students got to experience this year, this 2015-2016, in their classrooms. We have this year to make an impact in their lives, at this point. I asked them to think about the words of the song I was going to play as it applied to our campus, to these students, and that I hoped that this would be the very best year…in the history of the world. I hit play, we completed the candle pass, and just like that, we ended my very first week of PD as a principal. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYXItns2ik
I hope all of your starts have been amazing! I really will figure out this blogging balance as the year goes on, 🙂
proud principal,
Amber
WOW! I wish I had these ideas before my year began. If it really is your first year as a principal I can’t wait to follow your journey. It’s my fifth year as a principal and can’t wait to learn from you. Thanks for sharing!
Happy first year Amber. What did you have the teachers fill in on your 3-2-1? I usually do three things I want to remember, two things I want to tell someone else about, and one thing you plan to do in the next month. I like the hand drawn look of the page.
Ann! So sorry for the delay!!
We did, 3 things you love about what, 2 things you’d love to see us move forward on, and one thing they wanted me to know about them… 🙂