Settling In

I'm not sure if anyone I know truly loves moving. It's stressful. Things break. You lose things. You live out of boxes. There is the anxiety of just not feeling settled. That being said, every time I have switched roles/spaces, I have found it somewhat therapeutic. There is definitely something to be said for purging unnecessary items. For digging through and sorting what you truly need.

In my most recent move, I am incredibly thankful for the extra time to settle in. The outgoing principal gifted me with 2 weeks to get in to my new office, unpack, sort, and just be in my new space. It allowed me to go through a period of "nesting" prior to jumping in on July 1. Once my official start date hit, I was able to comfortably work in my office, rather than be anxious about decorating and unpacking.

I'm a believer in making the principal's office a comfortable place to be. There are some very difficult conversations had there (as well as some super fun ones). Maybe it is for my own mental well-being, but I feel more comfortable and safe in a space that reflects that.

So....I walk into this.

It's a gorgeous space with some beautiful, natural light and HUGE pieces of furniture. It even came with a 4 foot tall stuffed giraffe ;) That being said, even when I taught in the classroom, I have never been a "big desk" person. I have always preferred to work at a smaller desk/table, leaving more room in a space for collaboration (example: small desk, but have a larger table nearby to meet with people). In my move, another thing that became painfully obvious is that I have LOTS of books. Like, 6+ boxes full (insert head slap). Professional books, inspirational books, kids books....While this space had lots of furniture, it didn't have enough bookshelves for me. I moved out the behemoth piece in the front left of the picture (cabinets and file drawers), and replaced them with two bookshelves (one tall, one short). Thank you, Target, for having awesome, easy to assemble ones!

I also wanted to turn the small table into a whiteboard table. Kate and I used to do this to many tables in our classroom. When I became a principal, I converted the table in my office, too. You can read about that office makeover HERE. It was a focal point of the space. Kids LOVED to draw on it. I used it when processing with kids or designing behavior plans with them. It kept younger siblings occupied when meeting with families that didn't have childcare. The list goes on. So, moving in here, I got permission to do the same thing.

It's a simple process. You can get the supplies at any hardware store. I got mine at Home Depot for less than $20. We have always used the Rustoleum brand, and have found it to be easy and durable. Steps to follow:

1. Rough up the surface some (I used a 180 grit sandpaper). Clean/dry
2. Coat with a water-based primer. You might need two coats if it is a dark table. Use a dense, foam roller, to prevent "roller lines". Let primer dry overnight.
3. Mix the two cans in the Rustoleum box. It is an epoxy paint, so you have one hour to paint once you mix the two cans. You MUST use a dense, foam roller.
4. I do three coats. I give it about 5 minutes in between.
5. Once you are done, you must wait 3 days for it to "cure" before you write on it. 

If it wears/chips over time, you simply sand it down, and recoat the table. I was in my last office for 3 years, and never had to redo the table. When we were in the classroom, we redid them every 2 years (but we did have 50 kids using them DAILY). It still is way less inexpensive than buying the white board tables that are out there.

After days of unpacking, painting, and decorating, I am so pleased with how my new office turned out. It feels like "home", and I'm excited to welcome kids/families/staff to it.

One of my favorite picture books is Where the Wild Thing Are. My first year teaching (a gazillion years ago), my husband got me the figurines on the shelf. I added the artwork when I moved into my last office.

One of my favorite kid chapter books is Wonder. "Choose Kind" is the most simple, yet effective "rule" I ask EVERYONE to follow (kids and staff). The lower bookshelf is filled with kid books. I often lend them out to students, or smaller siblings pour over the picture books while I meet with their grown ups. The taller shelf is all professional/inspirational texts. The giraffe is just plain awesome and came with the office (giraffes are my favorite animal...how serendipitous is that?)

The "collaboration corner". Multiple white board spaces and a TV screen to project my laptop on to. My new AP and I were already doing a "brain dump" on the board this week!

What do you think? Wanna come hang out and collaborate with me here? You're welcome anytime! I'd love to see your "home away from home" spaces!

Yours in Settling In,

Angela

Personalized Notebook Nerdiness

I will admit...I'm sort of a geek about notebooks and planners. And pens. And stickers. And notepads. And pretty much anything else like that!! (come on, educators...I know I'm not alone:)

So, in leaving my previous district, my amazing PTO gifted me with an Erin Condren gift card! EEEEEK! My paper/planner loving heart did a happy dance. Not to mention the fact that they recently came out with a Wonder Woman collaboration (say, what?! Those that know me well, KNOW that I couldn't resist these goodies!)

Check out these lovelies that I had to own:

Seriously....I now own a Wonder Woman pen bag! All educators know how important the "perfect pen" is, and now I get an awesome bag to tote them around in!

You can find these and more on Erin Condren's site. Seriously....How could I not?? I even got a notebook divider, markers for it, and a fun, faux-leather notebook to write recipes in.

The gem of my finds comes from a new site to me, Plum Paper. Friends, you can create a completely customizable notebook or planner!! It is like Erin Condren on crack! I have always admired Erin Condren's planners, but they never worked for me, as a principal. They are definitely more teacher-driven. Enter Plum Paper!

I used to be a paper calendar gal (raise your hand if you still are??). For many years, in fact--long after the invention of Google. Special thanks to those close to me (ahem...Kate...and my husband), I moved into the digital age. That being said, I still take all my notes by hand. I used to have notebooks for everything. One for meetings. One for behavior. One for my contact log, etc. Last year, I explored making my own custom notebook through Blue Sky. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this year, it didn't seem to be an option again. Plum Paper was recommended through one of the principal Facebook groups that I belong to. It is an educator's dream! When you think "customizable", this is truly customizable! You can change the wording on every page layout! For me, I was able to combine all of my needs into one, beautiful notebook (with a few fun extras!) The largest sections are two, separate "NOTES" sections. I used a DOT GRID for the largest section. This is the one in the front. I will use that for meeting notes. I'm a doodler and a diagram maker. I love dot grids for this purpose. The second notes section, I chose LINED pages, and I will use that for my behavior notes. I typically do narrative writing when meeting with kids. That one is in the back. In addition to the basic note pages, there were all sorts of extra goodies to choose from. Check out the ones I chose below.

The first part has special date pages. Great for those appreciation days and staff birthdays! The back holds a 2-sided pocket to store loose papers. The tabs are colorful and easy to ready.

Other fun pages are the Parent communication, the To-Do section, and the COLORING pages (yes, you can add in mindful coloring!!!) The tab for my communication section reads "My Class"--in hindsight, I'm not sure if I could have changed that or not. I clearly would have wanted it to say "Contact Log", so I will put a piece of label tape over that tab name.

I have already started filling my "to-do" list section with ideas/needs for my new job. I officially start next week, and I can't wait to use this to keep me organized! Building it took time, but it was worth it in time and price (in my humble opinion). Maybe someday I'll switch to digital note taking, but until then, I might as well take notes in style!

If you want to learn more about Plum Paper, here is a video on how to personalize their planners/notebooks. I found it super helpful when starting out.

How do you stay organized? Would love to learn from you!

Yours in Notebook Loving Nerdiness,

Angela

Making the Move

In January, I made the tough decision to find a new "principal home" for the 2020-2021 school year.

There are 1,000 reasons for this decision. Some I can share here, and others...well, those reasons don't need to be publicly displayed. But for me, in my gut, I realized it was time for a change.

For the last year, I have had some pretty low moments. It has not been professionally easy, to say the least. Not that any job ever is. I'm not naive. I absolutely recognize that the "grass isn't always greener." Every where, every place, every system has their own issues to work through.

That being said, this year felt different. I wasn't fulfilled. I wasn't blogging. I wasn't on Twitter. I wasn't pouring over readings/blogs to learn and grow. I questioned my calling. My purpose. Should I even be in education anymore? I even looked up other vocations, such as driving truck.

At the end of the day, a wise mentor once said to me "Sometimes, you need to go to grow." 

So, I began my search. I wasn't expecting to find a perfect fit right away, and I certainly had no idea what would happen to the world a short time later.

But there it was. The stars aligned. Connections were made. There was a lot of reflection, questions, conversations, and prayer. And in February, I made the commitment to move to the New Berlin school district. Starting July 1, I will be the new principal of Ronald Reagan Elementary School.

At the time, there was this overwhelming sense of relief. There was also excitement--dreaming of what could be. Then, the anxiety/dread crept in. Oh gosh...now I need to tell my current staff!! What will that be like? How will it change our last trimester together? What will the parents think? How will my students react?

In late February, I told my staff. I didn't think I would cry, but alas, I was a blubbering mess. Again, when done, a huge weight was off of my shoulders. I had huge plans for our last trimester. I was determined to set us up for success for whomever would take my place. 

Enter March 13th. The day our world "stopped" in Wisconsin. COVID-19 caused our state to shut down for the remainder of the year. We didn't know it would be our last day together. I didn't know that the days before would be the last time I would see some of the students in person. All of my plans for our trimester left together were tossed out the window. We pivoted. We worked diligently to stay afloat. We dug deep, and moved forward.

The trimester ticked away, and it felt like in a flash, we were in June. Official goodbyes were about to be under way, and I was scrambling to try to wrap up year-end items to assist in the transition.

I can't quite explain the feeling of having a foot in "both doors." Navigating this kind of change of closing up one school and entering another. Not to mention the fact that all of this is occurring during a global pandemic. Surreal is the only word that seems to fit.

People often ask me, "Would you still have applied elsewhere had you known the shut down was coming?" That's hard to answer. I try not to live in hindsight too much, only for reflection. I am honestly not sure. In my head, the total unknown that we are all facing might have prevented me from taking the leap. That fear of unknown is real. My own anxiety is real. And we are certainly living in a black hole that we cannot see through yet. In my heart, I'd like to think I would have. 

Goodbyes are always hard. But the hardest for me right now is not getting to say goodbye to the students. I don't deal well with non-closure. I feel like everything about this school year has been left unfinished, including my departure. Not saying goodbye to these kids that I adore keeps me up at night. In the meantime, I'm working with my replacement to *hopefully* be able to host a "Popsicles with the Principals" for later this summer. It could be a true transition point of closure. "Goodbye" to me, and "hello" to my replacement. I think we will all need a "restart" for this upcoming year.

One of the other interesting things about a transition like this is who comes out of the "woodwork" to share things with you. In my role, sad to say that people don't typically show up in your office to tell you that you are doing a good job. It can be quite lonely and hard to tell if what you are doing is making a difference or impact. The amount of kind words that have been shared with me in these last few weeks has been humbling. You always *hope* you are making a difference. For me, one of my priorities has always been relationships with kids and families. That has come out loud and clear with the heartfelt messages I have received.

My amazing PTO also left me with this parting gift. I made the mistake of seeing the email while in a meeting, and opening it on the way to my car in the parking lot. Needless to say, I was a sobbing mess, sitting in my car, watching this beautiful gift.

In addition, they sent me a Dropbox file FULL of additional images/videos that they couldn't fit into this video. I also got a beautiful e-card full of the sweetest messages. My heart overflowed with the appreciations that were shared. It truly speaks to the power of appreciation. I wish I would have known how some felt sooner. I wish I would have heard nice things more along the way. Appreciations truly make a difference. I will forever cherish this gift and these kids.

Blessed. In my reflection, I cannot get over how blessed I have been. It was an honor to lead these kids for the last 3 years. It was an honor to watch many of them grow up before my very eyes. It was a gift to learn alongside this community--the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful moments. At the end of the day, at the end of my time here, I believe that I am a better educator due to my time in Shorewood.

And now, I move on. I move on with the memories, the learning, the relationships, the mentors, and the friends. I am more than I was 3 years ago. I am better. I am ready for new beginnings.

Yours in Learning,

Angela

Scheduling Nightmare

Let's have an honest conversation about building schedules.

Did just reading that give you that feeling in your stomach? That pit of anxiety and stress welling up inside of you. Yes. That word can cause that effect for many people. Me, definitely being one of them.

When I started this job a year ago, I inherited a building schedule. I found the format it was created in impossible to read/follow. I'm such a visual person and *this* made my skin itch.

Yep. That is just the *start* of the multiple tabs showing the schedule in different ways. There was not just a one-page view to see it all at a glance. I had to flip between multiple tabs to try to figure out when people needed to be where. My *visual* brain was in overload, and I simply had a hard time looking at it, nonetheless, using it.

At the time, I was told to run with it, take notes, and plan to make changes for the following year. In hindsight, it was the best advice possible, as it allowed me to see things in action. I could not have *fixed* it or improved upon it last summer, when I hadn't seen a full year in the school. And, in truth, it is not that the schedule, itself, was awful at all. There were many parts of it that worked really well for staff. Reading it was just a beast.

So, towards the end of this year, I went on a mission to tackle this puzzle.

If any of you have ever taken on a building schedule, you can empathize with what a nightmare it actually is. We have 600 kids. I have 100 staff members. I have traveling teachers. I have a special that only falls once, every other week. I have grades 4-6 that have a different amount of specials than K-3 does. I also have multi-age teachers that teach 3/4! It was the worst kind of jigsaw puzzle.

So, I began with collecting feedback from my staff. I sent out a "hopes and dreams" Google Form, asking for their input.

That led to pages and pages of a spreadsheet responses to sift through. Many admitted that they did not have perfect solutions, but many of their requests/needs were understandable. The hard part is that not all could be perfectly honored. 

My main priorities were:

• 3 clean lunch/recess hours (this would be down from 5 different start times last year)
• Common planning time for single age teachers--EVERYDAY
• Common planning time for our multi-age partners to meet with their teaching partner DAILY, and with their age-group counter parts, multiple times per week
• Art at the end of the day for all 5th & 6th grade teachers due to an amazing partnership happening next year with a local art university
• Adding in an extra "guided study" (Intervention block" for our multi-age 1/2 students due to number of students in need

I needed to set the lunch hours first. The rest of the day would be built around that. 

Then, I moved on to a blank, visual slate.

I made a weekly template with my traveling teachers time blocked off. I also took into consideration our early release schedule on Wednesdays, as well as our "crew" time in our building (morning meetings, culture building time). I then printed this on legal-sized paper, so it was nice and big to scribble all over. Keeping my teacher's input and my priorities in mind, I started penciling things in.

I honestly think I went through about 15-20 different iterations of this hot mess. I'd get so far, then realize a mistake that threw everything off, and I'd have to erase a ton or simply start with a fresh sheet. But, being a visual person, it worked well for me. That being said, I quickly needed to upgrade my eraser ;)

I also made a page that showed exactly how many of each special each teacher needed each week. I checked them off, as I scheduled them. This allowed me to double check my work along the way, making sure I had enough for everyone.

I picked the project up and put it down countless times. It was a labor of....well...SOMETHING! ;) Certainly *NOT* a labor of love! Your brain can only handle so much, and then you felt like you were going to pitch the entire thing out the front window. But, eventually, I felt like I had a working iteration. At that point, I began filling in color-coded cells. A color for each grade level or teaching partnership set. 

Once I triple checked my work, I then created individual spreadsheets for each grade level. This allowed me to plug their "non-moveable items" into a week at a glance. This was critical for me, as it let me ensure that they all had large enough blocks of time to teach in. I remember being in the classroom and having weird 15 minute windows here or there, which broke up your day in odd ways. You couldn't really do much with those windows of time, and it impacted many things. I wanted to reduce that as much as possible for the teachers. 

I found many things to *tweak* by laying it out this way. I, then, fine-tuned the final schedule even more. The other benefit of this layout, is now my teachers can simply "plug in" what they are doing the rest of the blocks. I set permissions on each grade level tab so only they (and I) can edit their sheet. It then gives the entire building everyone's weekly schedules at a glance!

The final step, of course, was to share it with the staff. So far, only one minor error that was quickly resolved. Here's to hoping that it is an improvement for next year!

How do you do the building schedule? Have you tried those fancy online subscriptions, or do you complete it "old school" like me? Would love to learn from you!

Yours in Scheduling,

Angela

The Power of Appreciation

It's been a while...beginning of the year has gotten the best of me, and I've neglected my blogging.

We have now survived over a full month here at my amazing school. To be perfectly honest, it has gone so much smoother than I could have ever anticipated. I feel so "at home" here. I get at least 100 hugs a day from littles, and high fives from bigs. I'm loving greeting everyone in the morning before school, and sending them off afterwards.

It has been truly fantastic. But my favorite part (obviously, the kids are right up there...) is MY STAFF! They are so incredibly talented, professional, and eager to learn/try new things! I feel so incredibly lucky.

On a recommendation from my former superintendent, I recently finished the book "O Great One" by David Novak. And what a truly powerful message it sends about the power of recognition and appreciation.

Click Image for Amazon Link

It is told in a narrative form from the perspective of a man trying to turn around a failing company. It was a super fast and fun read. The main character really hones in on uplifting people's spirits and recognizing the efforts they are making. One of the quotes that really resonated with me was "If they don't enjoy working here, if they don't feel appreciated, then how can we expect them to pass those things on to the customers?"

What a perfect connection to education. If staff do not feel appreciated, if they do not feel supported, how can we expect them to make those same connections with kids? It reminded me of that fantastic Rita Pierson Ted Talk "Every Kid Needs a Champion." (see below). In this video, I love the quote, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like." Such truth. But that goes for staff, as well.

Building relationships is incredibly important to me. Relationships with kids, with families, but most importantly, with my staff. I need to truly know them, their histories, their styles, their strengths, if I am going to help them in their own personal growth.

One of the ways I chose to start that in this new position was meeting 1-on-1 all summer long with anyone that wanted to meet with me. I had classroom teachers, special education assistants, custodians, and more! This gave me the chance to learn more about these amazing people in a more relaxed setting, outside of the stress of the school year. It was some of the best time I spent. I learned so much about them personally, but also about this amazing building that I was taking over.

As the year drew closer to beginning, building off of the great book I read, I wanted to give the staff members small tokens of appreciation to begin our year. The start of a year can be so stressful, I wanted to let them know how much I appreciated the long hours and hard work that they were putting in. This was the first thing I came up with:

TEACHER SURVIVAL KIT

I came in on a Sunday and delivered alphabet clipboards and goodie bags to each of their desks, or table, or teacher chair. The clipboards I got in bulk from Positive Promotions. They had a great sale, and I got them for about $1.25 a piece.

Link to Product

Each goodie bag had the following items:

Most of the items I had or was able to find at places like Target or Walmart. I ended up ordering these small compasses from Amazon.

The response was overwhelming. They were so appreciative of such a small gesture on my part. It was like no one had ever thanked them before, or at least, no one had thanked them in a long time. Another quote from O Great One that connected to this moment was "The problem with common sense, is it's not all that common." How could this amazing staff go unappreciated for so long? How could sending a simple "thank you" e-mail come off as "unheard of" prior to me arriving? It made my heart sad to know that they didn't hear this more often.

On the first day of school, I wanted to do something fun, as well! Thanks to Pinterest, I made these:

Again, something so small and so simple, really was received well by my staff. I was happy to bring a smile to their faces on a stressful day.

Now, that we are a month into school, I wanted to bring in a new "appreciation" idea. I know the staff has been feeling stressed and tired from getting their rooms up and running. The "honeymoon" had worn off for some (for me, too), and we needed a little rejuvenation. Thanks to the amazing Facebook Principal Group I belong to, I took a great idea and made it my own.

FILL THE BUCKET CHALLENGE

I found these great little buckets at Target in their front discount area (damn that place...gets me every time ;). I filled them up with a candle, some stickers, some fun sticky notes, some candy, a pen, and a piece of fruit. I made 5 of these buckets...one for each of my new staff members. It felt appropriate to start there. It is so tough to transition to a new school (what??! What's that like? ;). For some, it is their very first year. In each bucket was also a small card and a note:

I hope that they can pass on this little token of appreciation and fill someone else's bucket!

I know these aren't much. We're principals...we're not made of money! :) But, I truly want my staff to know how much I appreciate them. I am so incredibly blessed to get to do this work. However, I can only do this work, because of them!

How do you show appreciation to your staff? I'd love to learn from you!

Yours in "APPRECIATIONS",

~Angela

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