An AMAZING Race

Not going to lie...surviving my first week back with my staff as a brand new principal has been exhausting. When people I follow talk about "principal tired", they certainly weren't kidding! It's a thing. Go ahead...Google it! :)

I feel like the week before and this week were "crunch time" for us, as leaders, and then that stress switches to the staff. Either way, we all have a million things on our plates, and we were feeling the pressure.

Part of any "traditional" back to school teacher week involves some sort of "Nuts and Bolts" back to school meeting. Coming so recently from the classroom, I remember how much I despised "sit and get" types of meetings. With this in mind, I was determined to make this meeting fun and engaging for my new staff.

Enter...THE AMAZING RACE! Kate and I did something similar when we were in the classroom for another similarly boring unit (Regions of the United States...click to go to our classroom blog about it). So, I took that concept and tweaked it to meet a staff meeting need!

What to Cover

I needed to cover a number of less-than-exciting topics. Can you relate?:

• How to enter an absence
• How to use the in-house Google Calendar
• How to enter a discipline referral
• Updates on playground supervision (some changes were made)
• A new coordinator in our district wanted some time with the staff
• One of my amazing secretaries wanted some time with the staff to cover
• Field trip forms
• Tardies
• Copy Toner
• Purchase Orders, etc.
• How to schedule maintenance needs
• How to schedule rooms/locations

So, I reached out to a few people and had them make some screen cast videos of a few of these topics. My secretary and I made the rest. We used QuickTime for this. We, then, uploaded the videos to YouTube and turned them into QR codes (using http://www.qr-code-generator.com/).

I then got to work making clues!

The Clues:

Based on the things I needed to share with staff, I managed to lump them into 6 different "rotations." Each rotation needed: A Road Block activity, a Detour Activity, and a clue for the next location. I also numbered the corners of each clue and clue envelope. This helped me keep track of which clues were part of which "stop."

At each destination, I also had a list of directions for each team to follow:

Challenges:

We just started a school Twitter page (and other social media accounts) with my arrival, so what better time to have staff practice using it?! They had to video/photograph/post all sorts of crazy activities. Silly things I had my staff do:

• Crab walk down the hall
• Wheelbarrow race
• Hula Hoop through the cafeteria
• Jump rope 10 times each
• Playground selfie
• Photos with their favorite books in the library
• Cram into the health room bathroom and take a selfie
• Sing a song together (I learned there is a school song! I must learn it now!)
• Change the copy toner and photograph proof
• Hold up a sign that read "I solemnly swear to send my master schedule to Pam by September 8" (Pam is my administrative assistant)
• Count biographies of George Washington in the library
• Fill out their emergency contact cards
• Complete important events in our school's almost 100 year old timeline.

I was specific in the locations that I chose my staff to go to. I also strategically split up my staff (all new people were separated, and I also made sure that teams were split up). This allowed people to visit important places in the building, while also getting to know those they don't work with regularly on a daily basis.

The Logistics:

I'm not going to lie...this took a while to put together. Cutting apart all the clues and envelope covers took quite a bit of time, as did gluing the envelope covers on. Each envelope was labeled with team number and location. 6 teams x 6 location x 3 clues each = A LOT of envelopes! At each stop, I had piles of clues for each specific team. The first team back won "$100,000" in the form of 100 Grand candy bars. All other teams got pieces of Dove chocolate (We're ALL winners :)

One team in my office watching a video about entering discipline referrals.

A Few Highlights:

There were so many to choose from! Definitely check out our school Twitter Page to see more fun! @shorewoodLB

@shorewoodlb Mike is so crabby! pic.twitter.com/V7ko2VudQD

— Jessica Hau (@JessicaLHau) August 30, 2017

Blurry, but such a great, laughter-filled memory! #winners

FUN!:

Needless to say, my hallways were filled with laughter, screeching, and cheering. New friends got a tour of the building and met more staff. Other staff reconnected with teammates they don't get to work with often. I had so much fun running around my building, following the fun! And our Twitter feed is hysterical! I love that our families can see our team building efforts and smiles on our teachers' faces! One of my veteran teachers pulled me aside afterwards and said "In my 20+ years here, this was the BEST back to school meeting I've ever been to!" <sigh> I call that a success. #HeartOfficiallyWarmed

Can't wait to see what this year brings with this truly exceptional staff! Here is to 2017-2018

~Angela

Got SMORE?

How do you communicate with staff and families? Have you heard of SMORE? If not, I highly recommend that you check it out!

Link to SMORE website

Last year, in my elementary classroom, I sent weekly newsletters to my family using Adobe Spark. This was a fantastic tool, and our families loved it! This summer, I was introduced to SMORE, and I am completely in love with it!

I plan on sending a "peek at the week" email to my staff every Sunday. My hope with this is to limit the amount of e-mails they receive from me (or HAVE to read from me ;) For my school families, I will be sending their newsletter bi-weekly (twice a month) via Infinite Campus.

So, why do I love it so much? Let me count the ways:

1.  The Versatility: You can change backgrounds, fonts, and more! (Super important to this elementary teaching alum! All you primary peeps out there totally get this obsession). You an embed videos, images, galleries, links, and more!

2. The Analytics:

This screenshot was taken about an hour after I sent my parent newsletter. I can see that 223 people had already viewed it (wow...in only 60 minutes!). Not only that, but I can see they viewed it from 38 different locations (cities, states, and even countries! One view was from France!) I can also see how much time they spent (I think the 10+ minute friends must have left the tab open on their computer :). I can even see which links they clicked on the most. During forms and fees this last week, I got SO many compliments from the families I met. They LOVED the newsletter and format. They were especially thankful for the "Intro" video I made about myself for them to get to know me better. Today, this flyer has almost 500 views. That is some serious traffic!

3. The Price: For educators, it is only $79/year! #suchadeal

4. The Ease of Use: Everything is "Click and Add" with great visuals! Their background library is great, plus you can even add your own background image, if you'd prefer! You can even duplicate flyers, which allows you to have a consistent format, just tweaking the parts you need to.

5. The Inspiration: SMORE has an amazing tool called the "Educator's Hive." This lets you see flyers that others have made. You can get inspired and even duplicate their format and tweak them to make your own!

I have been so thrilled with this amazing tool! Check out my most recent staff flyer below:

How do you communicate with staff and families? I'd love to learn with you!

Yours in Communication,

~Angela

An Office Makeover

Where to even begin? Having an office for the first time is weird enough on its own, not to mention one that is pretty bland. I want my space to be warm and inviting. I want it to be a place for great conversation and comfort. I want my office to have some life!

Probably like many of you, THIS is what I walked in to:

The desk is GIANT and was angled in the middle of the room. There is a large, blue BEAST table. Empty shelves. And who could miss the one, random, baby blue wall?? When I walked in, it certainly didn't scream "Wow! Let's hang out here!"

My first order of business was getting rid of the baby blue wall. Coincidentally, we had painters in the building painting some other rooms that had been remodeled. A can of paint later, and we now had THIS:

(Don't mind the PILES of things EVERYWHERE!) I am in love with this new color! It is "Peacock Plume" by Sherwin Williams. The opposite walls were done in a soft cream called "Apple Peel." Already the room was starting to feel different.

Next came the furniture. I don't know about you, but I have A LOT of books! I also still wanted to be surrounded by kid books. Reading with children is one of my favorite things in the entire world, and I wanted that to be apparent when people walked in to this room. The one bookshelf that was in there just wasn't going to cut it :) So, off to Target I went! I found 3 beauties! I think I also earned some bonus points from my new custodial crew, because I moved them in and put them together without their help :) My amazing secretary jumped in, and she even learned how to use a power drill!

I also wanted my "golden rule" visible for everyone. This took me to Michael's for some amazing letters and metallic spray paint.

I found out that my furniture options for the office were pretty limited. There were no other tables for in there other than the "blue beast." It definitely didn't match the new colors, so I took the top off, took it home, and got to work. I decided that I wanted to turn it into a white board table. Kate and I had done this to many tables in our classroom, and they were awesome for kiddos! I envisioned littles that might be having a rough day, hanging out with me and doodling on it. The process is fairly simple. The paint is under $20 at Home Depot, and you can usually get about 3 tables out of the can. I only had one to paint this time, so unfortunately, some of the paint was wasted.

Click to see product at Home Depot

I sanded off the blue, chipped paint, washed it/let it dry, then primed it with a white primer. You definitely need to use a foam roller. It makes the coats really smooth. Once that was dry, I did 3 coats of the rust-oleum. You need to let it "cure" for 3 days before writing on it. The results...MAGIC! I love it! I do recommend keeping a "magic eraser" on hand, as when some shadowing appears, it takes it right off!

Finally, I put it all together. Here are the end results:

I'm hoping to fill the blank space with kid art during the year!

One of my favorite books from my childhood.

My favorite chapter book!

It really does feel like "home" now. My favorite part has been seeing my staff members' faces when they have been coming in for meet and greets. Their eyes are as wide as saucers, and their words are usually something like "It feels so different in here! It is so cozy!" Yes, that is exactly what I was going for.

Have you done an office/room makeover recently? Any "must have's" or "must do's" to share? Would love to learn from you!

Yours in decorating,

~Angela

Pirate Fun!

My brain has been on OVERDRIVE these last few weeks, as I try to wrap my head around the new job. One thing that is crazy important to me is building positive relationships with everyone in my building.

As I've been brainstorming ideas for how to do that--reading a ton of books--reading a ton of blogs--connecting with other principals on FB and Twitter--I really want this next year to be FUN and engaging! Since a big word in my new building is "crew" (based on a critical phrase in EL Education: We are crew, not passengers), I am going with the nautical/pirate theme this year.

First crew members: KIDS! I have 630+ of them, and I can't wait to meet them. To help me get to know them better, I want to see every one of my students on their birthdays. So, my "pirate designing" began!

My hope is they will either come see me that day, or for my littlest learners, I will hunt them down on their special day to give them a card. This gives me face time with each kid in my building. With so many of them, it will take me a little while to know all of their names. Every little bit helps! 

In addition to the birthday card, I wanted to give them a little something else. Enter Stephanie McConnell. She is an awesome Principal/Speaker/Designer that always has wonderful ideas on her blog Principal Principles. She made some AWESOME scratch-off tickets for her staff and for kids. I decided to borrow this idea and make my own pirate-themed ones!

I came up with rewards for them like: a pencil (pirate-themed, of course), lunch with me, picking out of my "treasure chest" (filled with dollar store goodies), and more! The stickers were super affordable on Amazon (they come in silver, gold, and rainbow!!) 

My next crew members: STAFF! I loved the scratch-off idea so much, I'm going to use them with the staff, too. I'm struggling with a few ideas for them, but so far I've come up with: $5 gift cards (to coffee shops/delis in the school vicinity), no recess duty (I'd take their duty for them on a mutually decided day), 30 minutes of prep (again, on a mutually decided day to ensure I'm available), and.....? What else? Do any of you have other great ideas to add to that list? I'm not sure the staff would want a prize out of my treasure chest or lunch with me ;) I'm hoping to use them as birthday "rewards" and as special "thank you's" for going above and beyond. I am joining an incredibly hard-working staff, and I want to make sure they know how much I appreciate all the extra effort they put in.

Another summer "created" item was a generic "observation" notepad. 

(Our staff logo will go under the P3 symbol) These are "on order" from Office Max and will about 4.25" x 5.5" in size. My staff is not accustomed to their principal being in their classrooms often. There is not a "formal" walk-through process/tool. The staff did make it clear that they definitely WANT an instructional leader, and they WANT me to see them in action--that being said, it can still feel a little uncomfortable at first. Many times, teachers fear/feel that if their principal is in their room, it MUST be evaluative. I want to take that stigma away. This notepad allows me to write something positive I saw every time I'm there. Similarly to the kid birthday cards, it gives me face-time with each staff member, and will hopefully support building those critical positive relationships.

What things are you working on this summer? Any fun staff/student reward ideas to share? I'd love to learn with you!

Feeling Inspired,

Angela

Summer Reading List

I don't know about you, but my summer reading list is ridiculously long! Some I WANT to read, and some I HAVE to read! But no matter what...I'm reading...A LOT! :) Good thing it is one of my favorite things to do.

The stack above represents my first round of "professional reads." While it is by no means extensive, it is where I'm starting! I am determined to also make time to read for fun here and there.

Here is a formal list of the titles above and associated links (if interested):

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Speed of Trust--I love me ANYTHING by Stephen Covey! These have been on my "to read list" for a long time...the time is NOW!
• The Power of Positive Leadership--This was given to me as a going away gift from a former colleague. She took the time to mark passages and quotes she felt were valuable in my new principal adventure. It was seriously one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received as an educator! My old school did a book study on one of Jon Gordon's books this last school year (The Energy Bus), and it was amazing! He has a number of books I'd love to work through. Always with a theme of positivity! We all could use more of that in our lives!
• Leaders of their Own Learning and Management in the Active Classroom--my new school is an EL school (formally Expeditionary Learning). These books are MUST READS to wrap my head around this amazing work. They will really help me support my staff on their implementation journeys. I'm also heading to the EL Leadership Induction Conference in Washington, DC in a few weeks (EEK!)
• O Great One!--Recommended to me by my old superintendent. He said it was one of the best reads he had had in a while. That automatically put it at the top of my list!
• Switch and Most Likely to Succeed--both recommended to me by my new superintendent. So, yep, gotta read those this summer, too! I had heard about Switch during my grad program a number of years ago, but hadn't had the chance to read it. Excited for both of these.
• Love Works--I learned about this book from Jay Posick (A MUST FOLLOW on Twitter!) He was in a mutual session at the Elmbrook EdCamp this spring. Another one about the importance of relationships and positive work culture.
• Innovators Mindset--What can I say about George?? I have followed his blog for years, and it continues to be one of my all-time favorites. He is someone that everyone should follow. He, too, is super active on Twitter! His perspective and clear communication style really speak to me. Another book that I have had for quite some time, but just diving in to. I'm about halfway through this one right now, and I must say, I recommend it to every educator and leader out there that hopes to "do school" differently.

And finally, the book that I most recently finished...

(Click for link)

Seriously, friends...THIS. BOOK! I loved it from cover to cover. It was such a fun, invigorating read. Every chapter of my copy is loaded with notes, highlights, hearts, and stars. Shelley and Beth did such a great job taking Shelley's husband's work (Dave Burgess: Teach Like a Pirate and P is for Pirate) and expanding it to the leadership realm. So many great stories, examples, video links, and reflective questions. Plus, they are SUPER active on Twitter (fan-girling over here...) and host wonderful Twitter chats (#LeadLAP). 

My mind has been swimming "pirate things" since I read it. In EL Education, each class hosts a daily "crew meeting", so I am totally going to go with the Nautical/Pirate theme this year! I'm also hoping to do a building book club (optional) surrounding Teach Like a Pirate.

So, what is on your reading lists this summer? Anything to add to my "pile"? Would love any suggestions!

Voraciously Reading,

Angela

Welcome to the Show

Welcome to the "Show", the "Big Leagues", the "Office", or as many have told me since I made the decision to leave the classroom--the "Dark Side!" 

After 16 years of teaching, I begin my journey as an elementary principal in this beautiful building next week. I will walk through these doors and hope to make a difference in the lives of many. I will build relationships with staff, students, and families. I will learn. I will make mistakes. I will grow. And my ultimate hope is to support teachers and students in creating and implementing authentic learning experiences.

Right now...I'm feeling excited, thankful, sad, a little overwhelmed, and scared. I think we are often afraid of the "unknown." Afraid of "failure." Afraid of letting those we care about down. It certainly is an odd feeling going from the "top of your game" to "newbie." We don't ever really know what we don't know. And I couldn't be more grateful to this amazing district for believing in me. Much of this job will be new to me. Truth be told, not all of it excites me. I don't think anyones goes into this career saying "Gee, I can't wait to deal with angry parents!" or "Wow, managing a building budget is super exciting!"

That being said, there are parts of this job that make me giddy inside. I cannot wait to greet kids in the morning. I cannot wait to visit classrooms each and every day, watching the lightbulbs go on, and learning alongside them. I cannot wait to work through authentic learning experiences with amazing staff members--challenging them--pushing them--supporting them on their own learning journeys. I cannot wait to meet parents and hear about the gift that is their child. I cannot wait for school concerts and picnics and recess and lunch and all of the other interactions when I can hear laughter, see smiles, and experience learning memories together. The support I have already received from my new administration has warmed my heart. The kind notes I have already read from my new staff have filled my soul.

But, I know I will make mistakes. It is inevitable. These mistakes will shape me, guide me, and move me forward on my own learning journey. I welcome that personal growth.

So, let the game begin. Welcome to the "Show." Nothing left to do, but to do it! Thanks for following along on this adventure with me.

Ready to Learn,

~Angela