#cpchat — Page 18

A power point Christmas? No thank you…an alternative!

December 11, 2013 by Amber 2 Comments

I am in charge of our campus Christmnas card each year. I consider it my badge of honor (albeit, a badge made up in my head) that I’ve not done the same style of card in 4 years. (It’s the little things.)

When I started thinking about something for this year, I remembered a tool that I had heard of from my favorite lil’ol podcast, Techlandia.

Jon, Curt, & Allison had talked about VideoScribe HD a few weeks ago and it was the perfect solution! The app was less than $5, even when I paid a little bit more to get the branding removed when it was rendered.

The result? A unique greeting that looks like it took me forever…but didn’t.

Clever, eh? Also appreciate @ipadsammy being at my beck and literal, call! 🙂 This is an easy tool that turns any presentation into something fancy…and we all know power point is very 1997. (**quote from Grey’s Anatomy**)

If you don’t listen to Techlandia, I highly suggest you do so, it genuinely provides me so many resources that benefit me, my campus, and ultimately, our students.

Jingle bellN,

Amber

Voxer: an Edcamp on my phone

November 24, 2013 by Amber 2 Comments

What do you get when you combine a free walkie talkie app, a New Yorker, some Wisconsins, a Missouri-an, and a Texan?

Day after day after day of professional advice, personal support, and a LOT of smiles.

Jessica Johnson introduced me to Voxer while planning our Indiana Leadership presentation. I have to admit, I didn’t quite get the point…why couldn’t we text? or email? or tweet?

Did I really need another techie tool?

Thank goodness she was persistent! Daily now I am in conversation with Jessica Johnson (principalj), Curt Rees (@curtrees) Tom Whitford,(@twhitford), Leah Whitford (@leah_whit), Jay Posick (@posickj ) Joe Sanfelippo (@Joesanfelippofc) Tony Sinansis (@TonySinanis) and Melinda Miller (@mmiller757).

From the crazy events that happen throughout our days to the how would you handle this moments, we have a group to add ideas,thoughts, and advice. Tony mentioned today that these convo’s have become mini edcamps on our phone and I completely agree. We throw out random questions or thoughts and get feedback from in a safe, non-judgmental, different perspective environment.

What have I gained from random, when we have time, less than a minute each (Curt’s rule) messages? Well, considering that this is a group of rock stars…a lot. All principals and a superintendent….I’m literally hanging with the cool kids!

“That’s me!” An activity in whole group settings where you ask questions and the participants all say, “Hey, that’s me!) A great way to show that we all have more in common than we think…
How to handle staff situations gone awry
Instructional writing programs, a debate on a package versus organic teaching/learning
Inspirational videos on demand
How to get out, take a break, reflect on difficult situations
Ways to support our teachers and provide communication tools to help them connect with parents
Social media management, handling multiple accounts for a campus and a personal one
That the FC crickets are THE team! (And I have the tee shirt to prove it!)
That seasoned, experienced administrators struggle, that we all have bad days, but that we do all LOVE our jobs!

I am SO thankful that I have this group daily to hear from, learn from, and laugh with. Considering that I’ve only “met” Jessica, it sure is ironic that I talk more with these “online” peers than I do some of my closest friends.

Thank you, Voxer fam, you are such a great addition to my PLN world!

beep beep,

Amber

Short on Time? an ASCD arias

November 2, 2013 by Amber 1 Comment

While preparing for my upcoming edWeb.net webinar, (which is free and open for registration!) “Become a PD Pro! Best Practices for Administrators” I decided to tackle a couple of books in my ever growing stack of “must reads” I came across William Sterrett’s “Short on Time” and thought it seemed applicable. These new publications are GENIUS. (Now, I’ve only read this one, but I am hooked!) Why?

These Arias are billed as “providing concise answers to challenging questions that you need solved today”. I read it during one setting, just 40 pages, but it was chock full of information and the research to back up what it was offering. It wasn’t overrun with references and heavy facts, but VERY practical. It also referenced Lyn Hilt and Dwight Carter. There are some powerful tips from those two heavy hitters.

The book discussed time management, tackling your calendar, staff meetings, and communication. Each hot topic was explained, evaluated and then provided a couple of excellent “management” tips. My favorite? When Mr. Sterritt discusses teacher growth he quotes Maya Angelou, ” I’ve learned that you can’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands, you need to be able to throw something back.”. We we have to be willing to catch (identify areas where we need to grow) and throw (share our strengths) with colleagues. As an administrator, I have to model this as well as build time for my teachers to be able to DO it.

I like this kinda book reading!

always short on time,

Amber

How busy are you? #SAVMP

October 27, 2013 by Amber Leave a Comment

I wrote about managing time over on the School Admin Virtual Mentoring Program blog this week and it really resonated with something a couple of assistant principals’ and I recently discussed.

We’re all working late and we’re all working hard. I think that’s just educators as a whole in this trying time of national pressure and low morale. How much of this pressure do we put on our self? & is it even effective?

I’ll never forget a teacher I worked with a number of years ago. He stayed late every day. He came in early every day. He held his own extra sessions of Saturday school. I remember watching his students take their lunch trays down to his room each day and working through recess and thinking wow, this guy is SERIOUS.

When his test scores came back that year, imagine all of our surprise when only 1/4 of his class had met standard. How was that even possible??

Easy. Activity does not equal achievement.

If you’re constantly working and never seem to get caught up, or stay afloat, or feel like you’re drowning…maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate what you’re doing. Spinning your wheels isn’t going to get you ahead. It’s actually only going to frustrate you even further.

If you don’t get your priorities in order, someone else will do it for you. If you fall behind in your lessons because of let’s say, an assembly, or some random computer based testing…don’t stress yourself out cramming everything in. Figure out what the TEKS of the lessons are and focus on those! Get the big picture across and don’t stress over whether you were to take grades on every suggested activity. At the end of the day, or er, grading period, that’s what matters. what the students were able to learn.

Think about all that you say you “have” to do…and before you stress out to the point of regretting your chosen path of impacting children each and every day…change those words to what you “choose” to do. You are the owner of your time.

Choose to have achievement, not just activity.

Choosingly,
Amber

How using Dropbox changed my life!

October 14, 2013 by Amber 2 Comments

I know that sounds a lil’extreme, but seriously, it did.

Dropbox is a storing/sharing place in the cloud that allows you to keep up with all of your files,where ever you are, even across platforms. I love this blurb I came across:

“This program acts as a “magic pocket” which is always with you and contains whatever you place in it. Put a file into your Dropbox and it’s on all of your computers and mobile devices.”

Who doesn’t want a magic pocket? The genius of this for me is that I use a number of different devices for a number of different things. I take pictures on my phone, I take notes on my iPad, I do appraisals on my Mac, and then will write a blog post on my home PC that needs ALL of those things. Having a place that I can easily access ALL of my “stuff” is crucial for the efficacy of what I do throughout the day.

How to get started/going?

Step one: Go to Dropbox and set up an account. I just use the free one because with as many times as I downloaded it, I got a couple free GB just for multiple downloads. Next, download and install the Dropbox app. Put files and folders that you need to access from various locations and devices into your new Dropbox folder. Then repeat these steps on your other Mac, PCs, and iOS devices. (Again for me, that was two ipads, a phone, two PC’s, and my macbook.
The account that you create automatically includes a Dropbox folder and it shares files with any other devices that have Dropbox and are connected to your account. (PS: you don’t HAVE to download it, but it does make life easier. Anytime I’m working with a file I know I’m going to need later, I just toggle and save in my “Dropbox” folder so I can get to it later.
Now, anytime, you go to SAVE something, you have the ability to add it to your Dropbox. Easy peasy, I tell ya!
Many of us store the files and folders for active projects on the desktop. Put them in Dropbox instead. On your phone and take a pic? Click the + sign on your app and choose what pics you want to add to your Dropbox. It will then be available from any of your devices. Working online? Fabulous! The “files” tab on the website will bring you to your Dropbox folder. This folder is exactly the same as the folder on your devices; any files that you’ve placed into your folder on your computers are accessible through this part of the web site.
Want to share files? BIG Files that you couldn’t send via email without crashing the world wide web? Presentations for parents? Set up separate folders in Dropbox’s Public folder for different people, and then send the separate URLs to each. Or set up a different shared folder for each project, and then distribute that URL to all project participants.
Want to share amazing classroom pictures, but not make them “public public”? Copy photos to Dropbox, and share the URL with family and friends. (I’m going to use this for our family involvement activity next month!)
Feeling adventuresome? 62 things you can do with Dropbox suggests this: Go to the Send to Dropbox Website (sendtodropbox.com), click on Connect To Dropbox, and provide your Dropbox credentials. You can now email files to Dropbox. That makes all sorts of scenarios possible. For example, create a document in Google Docs and then opt to share it. In the Share drop-down menu, select Email As Attachment and provide your Send to Dropbox email address; the Google Doc will appear in Dropbox’s Attachments folder.” (WHOA BABY!)

It’s a very intuitive tool to use and following through some of the getting started tasks easily explains it as well as earns you more “free” space, 🙂 Nothing to lose there!