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Three ways to celebrate your staff in December at three different price points, plus a free download!

November 26, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

I love the holiday season. I love shopping for the perfect gift, at the perfect price, for the perfect “OH!” when they open it. I love celebrating my big Wolves and my small Wolves.

I’ve done big things for my staff and some smaller type of things. Things that are all drawn out, and things that take just a few minutes, or few dollars. Things that mean a lot or simple things that are tokens of appreciation. #ALLTHETHINGS, y’all.

 

 

 

As a principal, who is on a budget, both at school AND at home…I have to be conscious of how/why/what I choose to purchase.

If you’re wondering what to do or how to even get started, oh administrator friend of mine, first join this Facebook Group where, literally, all we are talking about is the holidays and celebrating your staff for the holidays.

 

Then, scroll on down for gifts that anyone can handle, regardless of your budget… some of our favorite things…at three different price points!

 

FREE (or on da’cheap!)

12 Days Of Christmas

Here are several of my variations on the 12 days leading up to Christmas break. You can pack these full of free things like wear jeans, or workout gear, or school colors…and throw in coffee bars, popcorn bars, or other snackie snacks. Easy, peasey.

12 days, 1

12 days, 2

12 days, 3

12 days, 4

(Side note: I’ve also done 12 days of GIVING, where we shared acts of kindness!)

 

Really cheap! (and a free printable!)

Who doesn’t need a good package of chapstick? Just a cute tube with an attached note and you have a PRACTICAL, albeit cheap, gift for all, male or female!  Amazon sells 72 lil’tubes for $29.99. That’s a bargain!

Then attach this cute tag and viola! You can add your signature using any kind of graphics editor, like Canva, picMonkey, or an app like Over, Typorama, or my favorite, Word Swag. (yes that costs $4.99 and yes, it’s worth it!)

 

(download your copy here!)

 

Still cheaper than say, a new car for everyone!

  • Stock the fridge with all their faves! (Starbucks Mocha Lattes were a HUGE hit! Any fun snacks, drinks, pudding cups, etc We filled ours up for less $150!)
  • Flair pens for all! (Buy packs and break them apart and give each teacher 2/3 pens…and wish them a Flair-y Merry Christmas!)
  • Beanie hats for all! You can add vinyl to these with a cricut/silhouette, or purchase in your school colors. We found some and had our logo added at a local embroidery shop for our staff last year and they LOVED them!

 

If your team is anything like mine, they will love any effort you give them. We meet as a PLC grade level team each Wednesday and the Wednesday before we get out for the Christmas break and we just sit and eat holiday snacks and chat. We play Christmas music by the fire. It doesn’t take much, just some free time and no stress…you also can’t go wrong with the gift of TIME.

 

 

How do you show your seasonal spirit? Share in the comments!

 

festively and

Filed Under: #fabulousyearfour, Freebies, Leadership Tagged With: #beintentional, AmberTeamann, freebie

I wish you knew… #leadership

October 21, 2018 by adteaman 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted something on the Instagram about how I had a week where I felt like I was underwater the whole time. You’ve had those weeks, right?

The ones where you are giving all that you’ve got but it doesn’t quite seem like enough? When your days are long and your nights are too? When despite feeling like you’ve done #ALLthethings, your husband isn’t happy, your kids aren’t happy, and you just can’t win?

 

Well, that was that week for me. So I had posted a lil’scripture that spoke to my heart, b/c that is what that space is for me. A place for sharing what speaks to me. I think I’ve shared this before, but quite a while ago, I was in a place and position that was not only toxic emotionally, but also professionally. I couldn’t see past the forest for the trees. Sharing a positive “happy” on FB (which then led to IG) made me feel better. It was a good “footprint” to leave but it also was a reminder that there is always something to be positive about.

Anywho, I had a teacher in the hallway who told me that she felt so much better after seeing my post, b/c it made her feel better about also feeling like she was drowning, and that she didn’t know I ever felt that way. 

Ya’ll. It stopped me dead in my tracks!

Those quotes I post each day speak to my heart, and are so directed at me…it just so happens that someone usually also feels impacted by it, but genuinely…I go back to that Zig Zigler quote that says “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” which is OH so true for me!  It then made me think about other things that I wish people knew taht probably isn’t obvious froma quick social media scroll…

  • I cry when I am stressed, it’s the go to emotion…which is super annoying, but doesn’t mean I am weak. 
  • I worry that it actually does mean I am weak.
  • Imposter syndrome…it’s a real thing.
  • I once had a co-worker rebuff my attempt at asking a question b/c “I get paid to speak, why would I be asking her anything?”
  • I can be a great mom, a great wife, and a great principal…but rarely at the same time. 
  • I worry more than I should about what people think.
  • I make really quick decisions.
  • I hate working alone…and am so thankful to always have really great people around me, balancing out those quick decisions.
  • I get ridiculously nervous in front of my district peers but am completely fine in front of an audience of 1000. 
  • I don’t want to be average, ever. in anything.
  •  I have a 5, 10, and 20 year plan. 
  • I have trust issues. Please see #6.
  • George Couros is like my edtech big brother…and without him…eek. I don’t even want to imagine who I’d call when I need, well, #allthethings.
  • I have people I consider BEST friends…that I see every other year-ish. (When I was named principal, I called my husband…then conference called and Joe and Tony. We’d met IRL once.)
  • I regularly can’t fall asleep at night, worrying about what I haven’t yet accomplished. 

 

All that to say…unless you KNOW someone…you don’t actually know them.

Unless you KNOW someone…you don’t actually KNOW them. You only know what you think.

Click To Tweet

Making assumptions, or heaven forbid, judging someone if you’re not a part of their circle is not only unfair but also usually inaccurate. Most of us are just trying to be the very best we can be, and to do the very best we can.

Give grace friends…the world could use more grace.

 

Reflectingly &

 

 

Filed Under: #3rdyearisthecharm, Principal Tagged With: #beintentional, AmberTeamann

Planning an Open House? Make it a night to remember!

September 3, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

Here’s what we shared with our team this year in planning for our open house.

More exciting…we have coupled our time with families on the same night as a home football and are hosting a “pirate picnic”…a time for us to come together, eat at the stadium, and then go cheer on our feeder pattern high school, those Wylie High School Pirates!! I’m so excited to have all of our Wolves there, to see what they have to look forward too! parents will bring their own food, so our campus just gets to hang out and enjoy some Friday night lights!

 

Filed Under: Engagement, Principal Tagged With: AmberTeamann

Introducing Wen-Zen-day! A day of “zen” for students and staff…

August 17, 2018 by adteaman Leave a Comment

I’ve mentioned the greatness of my principal peer, Dr. Helm, before. She is the elementary principal at George W. Bush Elementary…she and GWB are practically besties! Not only that, she has really great ideas that she frequently shares with me…and you know how I love that! One of them that I am completely stealing is her way of bringing ZEN to her students and staff.

When we met to go over a couple of different things in the summer, one of the ideas she mentioned that she did at her school was “Wen-ZEN-days”. This caught my attention because last year for our staff book study, the overwhelming choice by teachers was “Unshakeable” by Angela Watson. Balance and self-care for our teachers is SO important. They work so hard, they always get stuff ADDED to their plate and very rarely do we give them permission to take things off. As conscious of this as I try to be, I still feel like there are teachers who are doing things that were expected of them many years ago that don’t know how to NOT do them.  “Wen-zen-day” is a day we’ll start this year as an effort to strategically build in a time weekly for reinforcing mindful practices on the campuses for both teachers and students.

She initially shared the concept with teachers in her weekly newsletter, with an easy way they could try as well.

What is Zen

Finding a moment of Zen you are fully present and are experiencing life in a way that the rest of the world- in its insane marathon of haste, chaos, and busyness-typically ignores. Tuned into the actuality of the present moment you are living life. As it happens.

Right now.

Practicing mindfulness is one of the single most powerful things you can do for your wellbeing. Want to give it a try? Visit http://www.happify.com for guided meditations and other mindfulness-building activities designed by experts.

Then she shared a “zen” idea they could practice with students…

Recently in the news we have heard more and more about the benefits of mindfulness and purposeful breathing in the classroom. So I want to share how I incorporated a 30 second breathing activity into my classroom last year, and how it made all the difference for me and my students.

First, when students entered my room, there was a “Do Now” on the board for them to get started on. This allowed them to come in and quietly get to work instead of sitting down and talking to friends and then having to call the room to order. During this time, I greeted them all individually. I was building relationships by checking in on each of them and giving them each a personal greeting. If a student had a bad day yesterday, I could ask if he was doing better today. If a student seemed sad, I would walk over to his desk and crouch at his level and check in to see if anything was going on.

After everyone had finished the “Do Now” activity, we did a really quick breathing exercise. It’s so simple. Ready?

Breathe in for four seconds.

Breathe out for eight seconds.

Repeat three times.

That’s it. Quick, easy and FREE!

To set it up, I told the students that we were going to take 30 seconds every day to breathe. I asked them to sit up tall, like their spine was made of a stack of pennies, and have both feet on the floor. They could close their eyes or look down. I asked them to imagine breathing in like they were smelling a flower, and breathing out like blowing on a bowl of hot soup – carefully so as not to splash soup everywhere!

For the first couple of weeks, I asked them to jot down a few words that described how they were feeling before breathing, and then immediately after breathing. The point of writing it down was to call attention to the way our body and mind shifted when we focused on breathing.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. What about the kids who would use 30 seconds of silence to make inappropriate noises? Good question. Of COURSE this happened. My advice is to not give up. It took several weeks to normalize this in my classroom. Some students WILL struggle with it or use the opportunity to do something silly or crazy. I placed some tape on the floor right outside the doorway of my class, and if any students didn’t participate appropriately, I would simply ask them to breathe out in the hallway the next day. I didn’t make a big deal of it, I just asked that they do their breathing out there to avoid being a distraction to those who were breathing in the class. Eventually, these students would learn to come in the class and focus and participate.

It’s easy to give up at first. It may seem like they’ll never get on board. But they will! Just hang in there. I also modeled breathing by calling attention to times when I needed to take a breath. I would say, “Hey guys, I’m feeling a bit anxious right now. I’m going to take a few breaths in the hallway.” Or if the whole class was dysregulated, I would stop and everyone could do a quick reset by taking a few breaths together.

Here’s the deal. You are the leader of your classroom. You have a choice. You can be frustrated about all of the pressure, mandates, and items that are out of our control… or you can do something about it. Something that is free. Something that just takes 30 seconds!

The benefits have been researched and discussed time and time again, but for my class, I can say that my students were able to sit in their desks and focus, even with the chaos right outside of our non-existent door. They were able to use breathing to help calm them down before a big test or before they had to give a speech. I believe that it gave them a tool that they can call on throughout their lives when they start to feel stressed or overwhelmed. Teachers – I can tell you this. It just takes 30 seconds, it is free, and it will help bring a sense of calm into your classroom!

How great is this??

We’re going to implement this here with our Wolves. My counselor is going to lead the charge each Wen-zen-day on the announcements.  I love the idea of a vertical language, K-4, all dedicated to our well being. The momentous Institute also has some incredible resources!

If you’re looking for buy-in, let your team dress comfortably on those days! The mental health of our people is SO important…important enough to be strategic about the taking care of them!

 

Zen seeking &

 

Filed Under: Staff Development Tagged With: #beintentional, #zen, AmberTeamann

#Principalconfession: Data day stresses me out.

August 10, 2018 by adteaman 4 Comments

I’ve talked a lot about how I think transparency in this role is crucial. There can be so much pressure to be Pinterest perfect, even as a principal. Now that I am entering year 4, I generally feel as if I have a pretty good grip on what I am doing and in what direction we’re all heading.

Nothing will make me doubt that faster than a deep data dive.

This post isn’t about the merits of testing or my personal stance on its purpose in education. I don’t want to debate any of that drama. It’s above my pay grade! THIS IS NOT THAT POST!

This post is about how it makes me feel, physically, when trying to have a conversation, with one of the hardest working staffs I’ve had the privilege of working with. One that is encouraging and supportive, but also accountable, challenging and motivating.

When we met as a district leadership team to review our campus performance data, my roller coaster of a reaction varied on the page I was on. Some pages were great. Some were amazing. Some made me see the potential. Some had gains across the board and some had leveled off.

I should also point out that we did really well, overall. 

But that isn’t what I walked away thinking. I walked away needing a pedicure and some quiet time. My immediate next step was to figure out how to deliver this same info to those hard-working teachers. Even what we did well in was overshadowed by the areas where we could have done better.

My goal, always, via Todd Whitaker, is for them to walk away from our campus meetings more excited to teach tomorrow than they were today. This meeting did not do that. Even my body revolted against me, I could feel the beginnings of a fever blister.

Delivering the reality of what we did, knowing that we can always do better (b/c hello, growth mindset and we can ALWAYS DO BETTER!) is incredibly difficult to do without making people feel like what they did wasn’t good enough. And even if that’s true? That is a sucky thing. 

I think I need to read more sports leadership books…this is what coaches deal with all the time, right? Playing hard, leaving it all on the field…and still not winning every game. That can be the reality in the classroom too.

I have decided that we won’t be doing anymore whole group data days moving forward. We’ll meet separately as a grade level PLC, and have these conversations. Same data will be shared, face time will still happen to everyone. Celebrations will be more meaningful and but I am hoping the “where can we ‘level up” chat will also be easier in smaller safer place.

So there. Principal confession. I hate data days. I love data and what it can to help, guide, and inform…but man, it stresses me out.

Make me feel better and tell me YOUR principal confession!!

 

Confessionally and

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: AmberTeamann

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