Technically Yours Teamann — Page 54 — my version of transparent, collaborative leadership…with a Teamann twist

the PLN and the principal

July 24, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

I can not imagine doing what I do without my PLN. I know I’ve discussed the power of a PLN here and here, but in continuing my summer series blogging with some of my favorite people on the planet, I agreed to add my assistant principal perspective to it.

This job doesn’t come with a manual. Your tasks are as varied as the weather. Your task list will also depend on your campus and the strengths of your campus administrator. Leadership of a campus takes a balance between the principal an and assistant principal. If there is a symbiotic relationship, your campus will run all the better for it, which I’ve also talked about before.

How then do principals around the country make an impact on what I do? My superintendent today sent out a district leadership diagram that details what our district feels are the necessary components of a strong leadership team. I completely agree with these roles needed to balance a team. You don’t have to have one of each of these, but between the campus leaders, all of these roles should be played.

Global Vision	A team member who sees the “big picture” and is adept in matters related to scheduling, college readiness,professional development needs and innovation
Consistency	A team member who demonstrates consistency in all matters, such as discipline,policies and procedures, etc.
Administrative Tasks	A team member whose strength lies in the managerial tasks, such as textbooks, facilities, lockers, custodians, etc
Instructional Leadership	A team member whose strength is in curriculum, instruction and assessment with support of Special Populations
Relationships	A team member whose strength is in building relationships with students, parents, staff and community

My PLN guarantees that no matter what situation I find myself in, I am going to have support. If I need inspiration? They are there. If I have a question? I know who to turn too. If they aren’t able to answer, they recommend someone else who can. When planning a digital leadership session recently, I asked via Twitter and Facebook what essential tools an admin needed to know to be considered “digitally fluent”, I had over 150 responses. There is POWER in these relationships.

It’s almost impossible to explain to someone that there are people that I talk to everysingleday that I’ve never met. Or that I’m rooming with, literally, a “virtual” stranger. Or that I need my passport to attend the wedding of a dear, dear friend that I met via Twitter. Or that I’ve spent all summer flying around, speaking about things I am passionate about, based on the recommendations of people who have never met me, in real life.

I can’t convince you to do it, I can only show you example after example of how my PLN has changed my life. Pick a medium. Pick a community, synchronous or asynchronous. Jump in.

For more posts on this topic, you can also read posts from:

Tony Sinanis

(will update as posted!)

completely sold,

Amber

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

Patience, the possible Principal eater…

July 12, 2014 by Amber 3 Comments

Patience is one of those skills that no one tells you is a critical component when you’re preparing for an administration position. It’s under valued and over expected. It’s a skill that has to be developed, nurtured, and like SO many other things…it has to be intentional.

Patience…

…when you think everyone understood what you said, but find out some didn’t.

…when you figure out people can’t read your intentions, just your actions.

…when that student is sent to you again.

…when you wish so & so would have handled that differently.

…when you wish YOU had handled that differently.

…when you see things moving slower than you think they should be going.

…when you realize that you can’t MAKE people change, but only inspire them to want too.

Patience is a virtue, but it can also be the difference between being respected and being ignored. Impatient leaders lose the ability to bring people on board. Patience makes you pause, makes you reflect, makes you not so quick to jump. Change requires patience. Communication requires patience. Collaboration requires patience. Patience allows others to share, others to feel heard, and you to think.

Practice more patience. I know it is a skill that is evolving in me as a mom, as a wife, and most definitely as an assistant principal. Can one ever be too patient? Let me practice more this year and I’ll let you know!

Zen-ly,

Amber

The topic for this post was inspired by a group of fellow PLN principals that I connect with daily. You can find each of their posts on Patience below:

Twitter me this…why use Twitter for school communication?

July 6, 2014 by Amber 50 Comments

Twitter me this…

Why would an administrator want to take on the headache of using social media with their parents and community? What if I asked if you, as an administrator, would like to have more communication with your parents, keep them updated and alerted to any and all important school news, while only taking up a fraction of your time?

Twitter provides just such an opportunity. Our parents today are busy. It’s not always like it used to be with a mom waiting at home with a snack to go through a weekly folder and help with homework. Today’s mom and dad’s may be working more than one job. They may be working late into the evening. They may have more than one student to come home and help. Even the most traditional of families can become buried underneath the responsibilities of soccer, dance, and Girl Scouts. Recognizing the different dynamics of what our students are going home to can help guide how we communicate with them all. Providing the same information in as many mediums as possible can only help ensure that we are reaching as many parents as we can.

How do I envision Twitter as an asset? It allows your tech savvy parents who are involved with social media a way to get current and timely information. Sending reminders about picture day, school closures, make-up days…things that parents are concerned about can be short and sweet.

In a world where anything can happen, and information travels SO fast, Twitter allows for timely communication. Emergencies happen and while not life pressing, to a parent, having a concern immediately taken care of can be gratifying. We had a situation one year where there was a fire in the kitchen. No students were ever in danger, but to the neighborhood surrounding us, seeing the campus swarmed with fire trucks and district personnel can be unnerving. An “all call” went out to parents that afternoon, but we had several concerned calls in the interim. Twitter would have calmed & clarified the situation immediately.

Every week a stack of reminders are sent home. Tests, pictures, events, policies, etc…we send them home in bulk at certain times of the year. A tweet is only 140 characters. Short and sweet. “ Free dress tomorrow.” “Don’t forget to return your library books.” “ 2^nd grade field trip, bring your lunch!” All the things a teacher wishes she could call and remind each parent of the day before. May not be worth another sheet a paper, but a tweet? Absolutely.

Not all of our parents are on Twitter. Recognizing that there would be a learning curve is ok. SOME of our parents are in that space. SOME might be inclined to look into it knowing that it was offered. SOME might take advantage of the “Fast Follow” option that Twitter provides, which sends texts of tweets. In fact, sending a text was originally the only way users could tweet. This is why tweets are 140 characters — they need to fit into a text message. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets as texts on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time.

If you don’t have a Twitter account (and don’t want one!) you can still find out what is happening through these text messages. (Standard messaging rates apply.)

To get started text: “Follow @username” to 40404 and you will start receiving tweets from that user on your device. You can turn off receiving updates by sending “STOP @username” to 40404.

They won’t need a Twitter account or to sign up for anything. This will require some training, but it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t text these days. Providing training would be worth the results each year. We started every meeting with a simple “Hey everyone! Pull out your cellphone! Let’s make sure you are getting hot off the press info from us!”

Twitter is not the silver bullet that will allow seamless communication between school and home. What it will do is provide another opportunity for educators to reach out to the parents and attempt to bridge the disconnect between school life and home life. If it also opens a door to discussing social media, cyber behavior, or having an online presence? Even better.

Tweetingly,

Amber

#ISTE2014 or I survived the subway!

July 5, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

(I just love alternate titles! I can’t ever make up my mind so having two is just perfect!)

I had not planned on attending ISTE this year. Changing school districts , several prior booked obligations, and just an overall weary feeling did not lend itself well to travel. However, the thought of missing out on connecting with some of my favorite minds and faces was even less appealing, so off I went!

My ISTE highlights:

Connecting with my friends. I don’t even have another word for them…they aren’t just people I “know from the internet”. Some I talk to everysingleday. Most are who I consult when I have a professional question. Several make me think, challenge my beliefs, and ensure I sound articulate when discussing hot educational topics. Some I met f2f for the first time this trip, including my room mate! 🙂 Melinda was just as delightful in person as she was on voxer! Getting the chance to be in the same space with the people whose tweets I read and blogs I follow just makes me happy. Surrounding yourself with people who have the same passion as you is calming. It just balances me out to move forward.

Listening. As vociferous as I am, I didn’t talk a lot this trip. (Angela Watson, you don’t count.) I don’t mean listening to sessions either. Confession: sessions at ISTE weren’t why I went. I’m a sharp enough cookie that if there is a tool or an idea that I want to learn more about, I can seek it out to more depth than I could have in sitting in a session. Also, changing districts means I am unsure of what my new role will entail. I’m going to need time to see what I can bring to the table, so I wasn’t on the prowl for something new and fabulous to take back with me. Lunching around a conversation about teacher leaders and challenging administrators how to mold and empower campus leadership without adding to teachers plates? That was better than any session I could have sought out.

Opportunity. As soon as I decided I was going to go to Atlanta, I checked the baseball schedule. My cousin plays for the Braves and I haven’t had an opportunity to see him play. What started as a “Hey George, let’s go see Evan play” turned into the best night I’ve had in a long time. Me and 34 of my closest friends, 🙂 ended up at Turner Field, on a perfect summer night to watch the game.

I can turn any sporting cliche into a metaphor for education, and this was no different. Baseball is nothing new to me, but through the experiences of my friends this game was completely different. We rode the subway to get there. As in…a train that WENT UNDER THE GROUND. That’s just not normal, ya’ll! Despite the fact that you may have been in education for “x” amount of years, every once in while get out of your comfort zone! Do something that challenges you! (Shaking hands aside, I think I handled it quite well. I only almost fell once! And I did lose my clinique lipstick…but I didn’t die! I win!) I didn’t even know there WAS a subway in Atlanta, but again, trusting those smarter than I, we went and had a grand ol’time.

Bonus: Getting to see Evan after the game even though he didn’t play was awesome!

I can’t imagine attending a conference and not having these connections. Jon Gordon has a quote that says “One person in pursuit of excellence enhances the performance and energy of everyone around them.” To me, that was all the focus on students, learning, and connections at ISTE this year and I am glad I went.

Above ground rideN,

Amber