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

A leadership retreat…an ADVANCE for leaders!

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I recently had an opportunity to take our leadership team away for an overnight retreat. We’ve had retreats in the past, and they’ve been on site and usually right before the beginning of the year. When meeting with our fab friends at Boosterthon, one mentioned how much cooler a leadership ADVANCE was than a leadership retreat. Once he said that I was hooked!

This leadership retreat was going to be different!

First I surveyed a date and gauged interest before I even booked the place. Making sure everyone WANTED to be there was important! Dates ranged in April and May and we settled on an overnight in April. Just one night, so they still had a part of their weekend to themselves.

I also conveyed what our purpose was going to be right up front. We were going to review leadership teams, detail what we thought were home runs from the past year, and also some strikeouts. We were going to discuss the school calendar and add all of our events so that we were all on the same page for #allthethings. It’s amazing how the tone can change when you give teams the opportunity to have input on dates vs just telling them when to be somewhere. They have such valid input on why scheduling something on Tuesday vs a Thursday made more sense. Things I wouldn’t have thought about and don’t necessarily have a hot sports opinion about. Our leadership team consists of our team leaders and our PLC leaders. One set of leaders handle the logistics of things happening and one set handles curriculum conversations. Each is responsible for conveying any info shared with the rest of the team.

What I brought for each teacher:

  • a binder with a paper calendar, with dates already marked (holidays, state testing, etc)
  • erasable pens 
  • post its
  • pencil

Just so you know the schematics….we were able to book a cabin a couple of hours away. We planned on cooking one meal, having a grab and go breakfast, and then we would all go to lunch at a local restaurant. I tried to keep it as simple as possible. We worked on teams and committees on Friday night and tackled the calendar Saturday morning.

The organic conversations were incredible. The time spent around the fire Friday night, listening to everyone’s “where I started” stories were irreplaceable. Their input made a huge difference and I am so thankful for a team that is willing to be IN the trenches with me. It’s taken four years for us to get to this place where we can share freely, openly, and know that we’re in the green zone together.

 

I highly suggest you “advance” at your next opportunity!

 

Cabin-ly &

Birthday book cart and #principalselfies

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What in the world did principals do years ago without the IG and FB groups of the world?

 

All the great ideas are ideas that people share that you can adapt, tweak, and make your own just make my principal world so happy.

 

For example, the great Jessica Gomez on IG shared her birthday book cart. She gifts every student at her campus, (and every teacher too!) a book on their birthday!

To make this work for my Wolves, I waited until we had our Scholastic book fair, and then used a considerable amount of points to let some of my teacher leaders choose books across a variety of levels and interests. (and yes, I even used points to buy the cart!)

I used book bins to sort and arrange on my cart. I have big vinyl plans to decorate the end to reflect what our goal is…for every student to find a book they WANT to read. I bought picture books, I bought comic books, I bought graphic novels. I bought books Pernille Ripp said I HAD to have and I bought #allthebooks Brad Gustafson said I needed.

I am ready.

My plan is to use our campus master list to announce their birthdays on the announcements, have them come down to the office, check their name off the list, and grab a book! Holiday birthdays will be delivered when we get back, and I’ll do summer birthdays before we leave!

I mean, really! Who wouldn’t want to choose a book from all these choices???

I’m going to add a sticker inside each with a birthday message, like so!

Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 - Instant Film Camera (White)

Now how could one “level up” the birthday cart?? What if you added PRINCIPAL SELFIES, for instance? What better way to let a student celebrate their special day with a mini pic of you and them and their birthday book?? This this mini camera was gifted to me,  Fujifilm Instax Mini 70 – Instant Film Camera (White), to instantly print out a mini pic! I saw this idea shared from the #momsasprincipals group, and as a result, I was hooked! This camera is relatively inexpensive and provides an instant keepsake for my Wolves. Win, win, win…

 

 

 

 

 

Combined, hopefully, all our Wolves will feel celebrated on their special day in addition to getting something new to read! Am thankful for a PLN that not only does great things but shares them out so that we can all celebrate those around us!

 

How do you celebrate your students and staff on their special day??

 

 

Selfies &

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 &



 
A simple strategy for extending learning!


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We are fortunate to have learning specialists who support our crew in Wylie ISD. This strategy came through and I thought it was a GREAT way to not only extend learning but to PUSH those high achievers!


Heather Buckley, our advanced academics learning specialist, shared that Chris White taught her about his “Math Masters”.  While the kids are practicing on some mixed practice they get to become a “Math Master” by showing work and strategies. Once you get crowned the math master, you get to walk around to look at each classmate’s work to find the new math master.


I love this because it doesn’t focus on only getting a problem correct or incorrect but the effort that is being put into getting the correct answer. The kids took such pride in being picked as a “Math Master” in his room. Regardless of what you have planned out for this week, this could be an easy thing to implement to motivate your students to show their thinking.


A great way to extend this as a closure to your class period or even a conversation to have while lining up to transition to lunch would be to have a few of the “Math Masters” share some of the strategies they saw being used. Let’s get the kids talking about the work they are doing!


 


I love easy, I love pushing, and I love it when people share! Do you have a strategy like this one that you use? Share with us! The smartest person in the room is the room!


 


 


Masteringly &