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

Holiday season…keep your head above water with these 3 tips! (And a give away!)

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Have you ever felt like things were moving too fast? Like things weren’t getting your full attention? Like you were overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start?

Three “strategies” I’ve employed this year to help me “manage” the workload have made a difference in keeping up with my whirlwind of a world.

The first mental saver has been placed email efficacy. My email in box is my todo list. If I have 30 emails in there, that means there are 30 items that require some kind of action, which will stress me out completely. I’ve doubled the amount of folders I have, because I am now sorting them into clearly named folders, as soon as I read them. It makes it so much easier for me to find things if I’ve filed them appropriately. I’ve added sub folders to help! As an example, within my 4th grade folder, I’ve got a field trip folder & a parent contact folder. No more “missing” or “where I’d put that” searching!  I’ve also started marking items that require a follow up within my inbox. Things I may have sent out but need to make sure we’re taken care of, I change to a different color using the “categories” feature within our email system. At a glance, my inbox is kept current and color coded so I can immediately evaluate what needs to be done.

The second mental saver is the Erin Condren planner to my plate. Rather than try to articulate the greatness that is this planner, just watch this.

While it may seem contradictory to “add” something to help me simplify, this planner has made a huge difference. Our campus calendar can get so crammed, sometimes with activities that don’t involve me, so I needed a place where my responsibilities were clear & detailed. Even the items that did require effort on my part on the campus calendar didn’t have “all” the details I needed. This planner solved that problem. Want one of your very own? This link will get ya $10 bucks off! Merry Christmas to you! You can also sign up for her newsletter right now and get an additional 10% off! #everylittlebit

 

post itsLast but not least, prioritize a to-do list. I keep a stack of the longer lined post it pads on my desk at all times. As I’m asked to do something or have a project in place, I add it to a list I have going. Task completed? Cross it off. Decide there are multiple steps/tasks to a project? Create a new page. One of my mental stressors is that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I have something that needs to be completed. Writing it down, identifying what needs to be done to get it completed, and keeping track of my progress takes the stress level way down. When my list gets ragged, I transfer it over to a fresh new page and seriously, it takes away my feelings of things being unmanageable.

These stick on my desk next to my keyboard but I can always stick them on a notebook/binder if I am heading into a meeting. It keeps it visible, helps me keep it current, and gives me that oh so goo feeling I get when i get to cross it off! 🙂 It’s the simple things people!

 

Education is hard enough these days. Not letting our organization get out of control is an easy way to regroup, refocus, and recommit.

What strategies help you stay focused?

Comment below and enter to win your very own multi pack of post its pads courtesy of Office Depot!

 

Give away giveN,

Amber

 

12 days of giving…kindness! Paying it forward, #taketwo

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Instead of my usual 12 days of giving, this year I’m taking a page from the ever so smart Matt Arend, and focusing on being kind and paying it forward. There are a million different things you can do to brighten someone;s day and if we can help model that for our students, that would be better than any gift under a tree, or gift that fits within my budget. While I still have a couple of candy canes up my sleeve to show my staff how much I think of them, we’re going to share out this calendar in the spirit of the season. I also plan on sharing with my Wolves, and encouraging them to complete as many activities as they can. If they print it out and bring it in with the acts of kindness they’ve completed crossed out, I’ll give them a lil’holiday surprise!

Here’s the blurb I share in my “Get Whitt it” today:

Instead of the 12 days of Christmas this year…let’s have 12 days of kindness! I had a REALLY great conversation with one of you over the break about what kinds of gifts as adults we enjoy giving/getting…and she was laughing about how mine was love of gifts. MT thinks its made up love language…but I swear it’s not! One of my most favorite things is GIFTING people with something that is just perfectly them or comes at just the right moment. That is as much fun as getting something myself.

With our Wylie Magic theme, how fun would it be to come up with different ways to “gift” others with kindness this next three weeks? We are blessed!! Brainstorm with your class some things that you could do that would focus on being kind, and paying it forward. We’ll begin on Dec 1st and I’ll have cards for you to share your ideas in PLC this week, 🙂

Below is a calendar to give you some ideas, but feel free to make it your own! If following a calendar is not your thing, create a kindness chain- it’s a great way to see how much good you’ve done. You can even do both, check it off on the calendar and add a link to your chain. Or choose a chain link to do and record it on the blank calendar.

Do whatever works for you–kindness rocks no matter how you organize it!

1216

 

Link for download!

 

What are you doing with your staff or classroom this year? I would love to hear it! 🙂

 

 

Frosty the Snow Am

 

Differentiation is not difficult…3 easy ways to make it happen!

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I love that my campus is full of educators who recognize the variances in students abilities. How completely overwhelming to look at 22 (or 44! or 66!) students and realize that in order to make instruction happen at their level, you’re going to have to make some instructional magic happen. We’re really focusing on a workshop model classroom, structuring all instruction around small groups. It’s a work in progress but here by week 5, I am already starting to see it happen!

When looking at ways to differentiate, if you’re not able to make a small group rotation happen, there is always the three C’s:  choice, challenge, and change.

Choice: Whether it is a book at their level or a menu level activity, give students the opportunity to make a choice. Our kinder team worked out a BINGO style activity so that student could be directed to activities they NEEDED to complete, but options were fun enough that the others they wanted to complete. They can create items, whether it be digitally or kinesthetically. The level of engagement and ownership escalates with my first grader when she gets to CHOOSE what her activity work looks like. Even something as basic as flash cards vs an app on the iPad, if it was her choice, she’s more likely to stay all in.

Challenge: How can the activity that the class is working on be tweaked to be more challenging for some students? A Makerspace is a prime example of a station that allows students to be challenged. Allowing students to conduct research on a given topic, or being challenged to find a local “expert” for the class to connect with could also raise the bar on an activity. Technology allows for students to create way more creatively than a paper pencil exercise…from an explain everything video to having a twitter poll…students who feel like they are actively involved in the learning process through a classroom challenge will be more engaged and inherently, stay on task!

Change: Research shows that just making a change can allow for differentiation at times in the classroom. From what the student is asked to complete to the manner in which is delivered to them. What if you recorded instructions for a project/product and a group of students was allowed to receive their directions in that manner? What if one group created a game but another group created a quiz over the same content? I saw students today taking pictures of the different states of matter inside the classroom…what if one group of students were allowed to search outside of the room? An easy change that ups the complexity level of the activity… 

Even within a PLC or planning session, it wouldn’t take too much extra time for a team to throw out several easy ways that an activity could be differentiated. How do you make this happen in your classroom or on your campus?

 

DifferentiateN discussing,

Amber

 

 

Take it up a notch…just a notch! Easy lesson upgrades…

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How can you easily take an assignment you’ve already got in your lesson plans and kick it up notch? Here are some easy ideas for those who need a spark to kick it up a notch!

 

  1. Pick three – five students to ask to create a lesson on what you’re learning about, instead of completing your assessment. Let them choose the grading scale, manner of delivery. Allow them then to pick three – five students to share it with, while you’re going over what you had planned to assess with the rest of the class.
  2. Vocabulary Expert: Let students choose vocabulary words from the lesson you’re about to teach that they feel they know so well they could teach them. Match partners and allow them ten minutes to teach what they know. (What better way to start a lesson then with students feeling successful?)
  3. Let Ss create their own assessment. One of our amazing teachers let her students do this as a cumulative activity and she was blown away with how well they did. She then let them exchange their assesments to keep the lesson going. Check out their question formats!
  4. Take the five different activities you were going to do for the week and turn them into centers. Upper grades should be scaffolded this way as well! This is a GREAT way to make sure that differentiation occurs in your classroom. If students are broken up into “centers”, it will be more difficult for each student to know what others are doing. You can work remediation lessons into the students who need it, and allow your higher performing students to work on extension skills/concepts.
  5. Turn whatever activity you’re working on into a classroom jigsaw activity. Give groups of students the different questions to answer separately and then come back together as a group to debrief.
  6. Think flexible learning spaces and environments. How can you mix it up, even just for a class period? Let Ss move around, go into the hall, computer lab, library…an opportunity for your “rock stars” to get a change of (s)pace!
  7. Recognize that lower level types of questions only have one answer, but higher level questions can have several “right” answers. Watch this video and evaluate the power of the “correct” answer.

 

 

 

Lesson upgradeN,

Amber