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

Summer ways to make your leadership life easier! #leadership

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Summer. Longer, sunnier days. Doesn’t mean my to-do list is any shorter but it definitely has a different feel to it, doesn’t it? These are the times I try to “do” a couple of things that make my leadership life somewhat easier.

Not exactly rocket science, but helps bookshelf the end of the previous year while getting me excited about what lies ahead.

 

  1. Sorry gentleman, this one is just for the ladies. Keeping it low-key:  I stop wearing eyeliner. I can’t afford R&F eye lash boot…but this lash booster version on Amazon makes me feel better about just wearing mascara each day in the summer. I apply it in the morning and it has made a real differnce! It’s amazing how much quicker my morning routine can go if I just remove that one step.
  2. I use a spiral notebook to take ALL of my notes in for each meeting I attend. I like being able to date the top and flip back and forth. Yes, I know, you can get a 1.99 notebook from the Walmart but that doesn’t inspire me to take notes OR keep me motivated to keep up with all the time. Easily replaceable. Flimsy. The paper tears easily. Bleech. I need mine to last ALL year. I order an Erin Condren one from Amazon so that if I get REAL tired head, I can also order another cover, & viola! an instant facelift. It’s the little things, y’all.
  3. What can you schedule in your world? I am now “running” our Crandall ISD technology Twitter account. I have scheduled ONE helpful instructional tweet to send out each day through the end of July. If I keep building upon that, I’m creating a steady presence while also taking it off my regular to-do list. I’ve also created a google form where teachers can submit their ideas/suggestions OR questions that we can tweet out starting next year.
  4. Calendar mapping. Sometimes it hards for the people in our world to have a macro view of what we are thinking, usually all at the same time. Micro conversations are easier for people to have if they have a glimpse of what the direction is you’re heading in…whether that’s in campus or in a central office position. That part sure hasn’t changed for me. I added this big ol’calendar to my whiteboard..and have already started mapping out big projects or reminders of “we should start thinking about this” or” last year at this time was when we”…it definitely gives me a strong skeleton to flesh out as we work through the summer.
  5. Read, read, read. While I’m a prolific reader, I make considerable gains here in the summer. My newest favorite read that I think you should get? Think Again, by Adam Grant. It’s SO good!

 

There ya go. Just a little snapshot into ways I am trying to create calm amongst the chaos. I hope the start of your summer has begun and you feel some of that tension already slipping away.

 

beach dreaming &

5 reasons you should join #TCEA…TODAY! (you don’t want to miss reason #5!!)

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I love techieness. I love learning. I love organizations that focus on TEACHERS and SUPPORT. TCEA, my friends, does BOTH!

 

I’ve been a TCEA fan from way back in my teacher days, and they just keep expanding and adding more resources to their memberships to make it worth your while. My first TCEA conference I attended b/c as my principal put it at the time, “you deserve to surround yourself with like-minded people because of all you do for our campus.” what kinda intro was that?? It was destined that I would always be a fan!

Especially with what we have experienced this past year, you can’t stress enough the importance of having a community to be connected to, and @TCEA is a great one! It is so very important it is to have a variety of voices, in a variety of roles sharing perspectives and experiences.

We need our “edtech” voices in all educational spaces.

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Conferences are offered regularly, support is at a variety of levels, and this week, there’s a bonus reason to join!

5 reasons you should join TCEA right this minute:

  1. Educational, Easy to Access Webinars – Learn how to use Google Calendar to optimize your time, discover YouTube features and content that can enhance your classroom, or stay in the know about the latest trends like esports, STEM activities, and how to discuss digital citizenship with your students. They also have a PD library of all recordings going back three years! TCEA’s incredibly knowledgeable professional development staff hosts 35 Lunch and Learn webinars each year, so you can sharpen your skills and fill your toolbox with fresh ideas right on your lunch break.
  2. Access to Experts and Peers on the TCEA Online Community – Wish you had a veteran colleague on hand to answer your tech questions? Or are you looking to share your own discoveries about how to enhance the classroom experience? The TCEA Online Community has over 30,000 of your peers ready to listen and help!
  3. Professional Development – From the TCEA Annual Convention & Exposition to the Lunch and Learn Webinars, we empower educators by providing professional development opportunities tailored to their specific needs and learning styles. This year the conference was virtual and my goodness did they set the standard for what learning could like! No waiting, on-demand, and nationally renowned speakers! All from my couch!
  4. Online Resources – Learn about the latest iOS and Android apps, evaluate recent discoveries on their TechNotes Blog, or explore fresh ideas for educators on their TCEA eBook Library.
  5. And last but not least, for teacher’s appreciation week, IT’S FREE TO JOIN! How can you pass up FREE?? Even if you just join b/c it’s free, the resources that will float your way, the connections you make, and the opportunities above will more than prove that TCEA is a worthwhile membership you need as an educator!

Go here to join!

 

TCEA fanN,

Amber

Where do you earn your validation as a leader?

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Every leadership role has its own unique way of measuring what it meant to be a “success”.  As a principal, one of my biggest struggles was always feeling like success was a moving target.

If I made the teachers happy, was I still challenging and empowering them to grow?

When the students were happy, did that mean the teachers were in a good place?

If test scores were high…were they high enough?

If you’re hitting a leadership bullseye, make sure you are not hitting it on the wrong target.

Making a difference for those you truly serve doesn’t always come with a “yes”, sometimes it is a “yes, and” or a “yes, but”. That macro view of your campus, district, or position speaks to your position. You HAVE to see things differently as a leader and sometimes that means you have to dig deeper into the difference between success and mastery.

Sarah Lewis, author “Rise” says,  

Mastery requires endurance. Mastery, a word we don’t use often, is not the equivalent of what we might consider its cognate — perfectionism — an inhuman aim motivated by a concern with how others view us. Mastery is also not the same as success — an event-based victory based on a peak point, a punctuated moment in time. Mastery is not merely a commitment to a goal, but to a curved-line, constant pursuit.”

I can relate to this personally — this is the urge that drives me on to find new ways to explain things, to understand things, and identify new relationships and concepts. There is no endpoint. There is always someone who comes along to challenge us, nudge us, and let us know that there is always more to know, more to consider. This TED talk makes it OK to feel that there’s so much we don’t know, as long as we keep seeking and exploring. The difference Adam Grant might say is between knowledge and wisdom.

May this Friday find you seeking the next mountain top, friends!

 

Challenging and

You probably already how to do this, right? Forcing a copy in a google doc!

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A number of times this week I’ve noticed a shared google doc template becoming a copy of the last person who used its response…which means someone somewhere has lost their original doc. When you’re sharing a Google Document with someone else, it’s usually because you’d like their feedback or their help with editing the presentation, document, or spreadsheet. But sometimes, you really just want your recipient to make a copy of the original document. Maybe you’re sending a worksheet to a class of 20 students and you want them all to complete and return their own copy of the original worksheet. Or maybe you’re sending a template roster document to several group leaders and you want them each to copy and complete their own copies of the agenda with their notes.

Either way, it’s easier than you think!

  1. First, open your template document (the one you want to distribute), click on the Share button.
  2.  You need to make sure that your recipients can view this document. You can grant them higher permissions (commenting or editing privileges), but in most cases “Viewer” is what you want.
  3. While viewing your template document, select the document’s URL and press Ctrl + C to copy it.
  4. Now, you want to get this link to your recipients via email, you want to make an important change to this long string of gobbly-gook. Paste that copied URL, delete the word “edit” that appears at the end, and replace it with the word “copy”.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yNpP9wbxiMTtmE4taVxXjzX36Vh03HUo/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1yNpP9wbxiMTtmE4taVxXjzX36Vh03HUo/copy

5. If your person clicks “Make a copy”, a new copy of the document will appear in their Google Drive. This new copy will be private to them. You won’t have access to it, and neither will editors or collaborators on the original template. (perfect, right??)

 

Extra fun facts for you:

  • This trick only works with Google documents (docs, sheets, slides, drawings, etc). It won’t work for PDFs, JPEGs, Microsoft Office documents, or other non-Google formatted files.
  • While this URL-editing technique will give your recipients the option to make a copy of the original document, it doesn’t prevent them from viewing (and if they have permission, editing) the original document.
  • If you change the final word of the document URL to “preview” (instead of “edit”, “view”, or “copy”), you can force the recipient to view the document in ‘preview mode’, which gives them a look at the document without any of the editing tools visible. Might be hand when sharing for collecting feedback later!

 

March ideas for your staff and a message for you, leader!

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I can’t even mentally process that it’s almost MARCH…it feels like we just tried to do March and it all derailed, right?

Heavens to betsy.

I wanted to share a couple of quick ideas to show your staff that it is fact, March…of 2021, actually! and they are still hanging in there and rocking it! Annnnnnd….so are YOU! It’s hard to realize, introspectively, that I can’t compare my energy, my productivity, my progress the way that I always have…because it’s not like it’s always been. I don’t even mean that just b/c I’m in a new role or b/c I’m in a whole new place.

I mean my inertia, my trajectory, my goal setting…feels pale in comparison to my typical enneagram 3 energy. My Gallup activator-ness is less active. Some days even my woo feels less woo-y.

Guess what?

That’s ok, y’all.

It’s ok to authentically have a different pace, perspective, or plan b/c of all that this year has entailed.

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You deserve to be your true self and to feel however you are feeling. Allow your staff the grace to have space to be their true self.  We can’t preach self-care but not change adjust any of our practices and expectations. There’s shouldn’t be anyone who feels behind, after all, there’s only teaching during a pandemic and for us Texas folks, the Snowpocalypse of 2021.

 

March madness!

Kindness and gratitude!

Use these shamrocks to write a note of affirmation and/or gratitude to a fellow staff member. They already have glue dots for you to hang up, easy peasy! You could also play “hidden shamrocks” for prizes!

 

March doesn’t “succ” with people like you around!

These come in a group pack for you to be able to give to leadership, grade levels, or your whole staff!

 

This past year couldn’t have hap-pen-ed without you! 

Who doesn’t love a good excuse to give out FLAIR PENS?? less than $1 per pen, 🙂

 

 

I hope this email finds you warm, well, and leading through the fire, my friends!

 

fire fightN &