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

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

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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

 

Lunch & Learn: a parent engagement opportunity!

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Never under estimate a team of creative teachers who want to show off their creative students.  Our kinder team hosted a lunch and learn for their parents last week.  With November being a month of family engagement, this just tied right in!  After 30 minutes in classrooms, parents also got to enjoy lunch wit their child. Despite having packed classrooms and 22 five year olds, I was so impressed with the calm & collected manner in which our teachers worked the room, making sure each and every child had someone to share with.

They sent home invites asking parents to come in for thirty minutes before their lunch time. As they walked in, their student greeted them with an iPad and they went and found somewhere to sit. Sharing a set of headphones, the student showed the parent how to get to the iBooks page. On that page, they were greeted by this, over a dozen student created iBooks showing off the culmination of their animal unit.

Photo Nov 08, 9 49 06 AM

 

After a field trip to the petting zoo, our kinder kiddos came back and created these iBooks. They took pictures and videos of their chosen animals in small groups. They came back and were asked different facts and fun questions by their teacher. It was all then compiled into a presentation that they were so proud to share. The beaming smiles on ALL of the faces reminded me that yes, school can be FUN, and accomplish its curricular goals. Students worked together, had tasks to complete, and had to learn facts about their chosen animal. Sounds like a typical kindergarten activity…but what made this different? The opportunity for their voice to be heard by their family. The opportunity to make an artifact that showcased their pictures and their videos in a format that excited them. Moms, dads, and even grandparents, got to share the excitement of pigs, sheep, and cows through a 5 year olds eyes.

A principal colleague recently asked if school should be fun. This day full of smiles and a much more authentic version of “what I learned on my field trip” reassures me that yes, yes it should.

 

engagement proud,

Amber

 

ps: That lunch and learn concept? Imagine the possibilities. PD. Any grade level can do it with parents. A google hangout with other administrators. A principal’s roundtable on any number of topics. Everyone likes food and a 30 minute commitment isn’t too much to ask…

How using Dropbox changed my life!

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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?

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. dropbox1
  4. Now, anytime, you go to SAVE something, you have the ability to add it to your Dropbox. Easy peasy, I tell ya!
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!)
  8. 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!

More Dropbox links to help ya out:

Dropbox for Teachers

Using Dropbox

Everybody loves a good LiveBinder, 😉

 

File saveN,

AmDrop

 

Feeling defeated or tired already?

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I was listening to a webinar last week discussing the benefit of effective teachers in the classroom and was blown away by what was being shared. The average effect of one teacher on a single student is modest. All else the same, a student with one excellent teacher for one year between fourth and eighth grade would gain about $4,600 in lifetime income. The student with the excellent teacher would also be 0.5 percent more likely to attend college.

That’s not too shocking, right?

What about this? Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000. Multiply that by a career’s worth of classrooms.

Students with top teachers are less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, more likely to enroll in college, and more likely to earn more money as adults, the study found.

How can you ever doubt the importance of what you do, every single day?

The webinar really solidified for me that teachers are the most important part of a child’s education. Not a program, a strategy, or a test. Great teachers make a great difference; poor teachers hurt a child’s life chances. LIFE chances.

You. Matter.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHdHUzRnms

Remindingly,
Amber

Early bird gets the…reading skills!

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At the beginning of the year there is always a need for scaffolding basics, especially for younger students or students who may need a reminder of what reading is all about.

Teach your Monster to Read is a free game to practice the first steps of reading. It is built on the principles of synthetic phonics.

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Teach Your Monster to Read is intended to be used by teachers and parents/guardians as a reading-related teaching tool for children between 3 and 8.

Teachers and parents may register on the site, and as a result become “Users”. Users may set up individual accounts for their Students, which allow the Students to access, and the User to track students’ performance. Accounts may only be established by Users, and not by Students themselves; Students must have Users’ permission to use the Game Service.

On the How It Works Page, you can find links to how the game has been conceived and used in schools.

Bright, fun, free, & fabulous! All good things!

Monsterishly,

Amberstein