The anniversary....

One year ago on October 9, 2017, the entire attendance area of my school was burned by the Tubbs Fire. Over 200 students and staff lost everything. 

And I choose this school to be the principal of this year.  

When I was hired in April 2018, I asked my superintendent, "Do we have kids for next year?"  He laughed and said "We are over full.  We thought we would have some declining enrollment, so we took some outside of district kids, but they all came back."

I knew the first anniversary of the fire was going to be a difficult day, week and month.  I knew I needed to change the day for students.  I knew I needed to make it fun.  I knew that this would define the beginning of my principal-ship.  I knew that I would be exhausted at the end of the anniversary day.  

Planning started 6 weeks before the event. It began with a donation, 450 backpacks and schools supplies from the San Francisco Jr. Giants that I found.  The donation was made in the right after the fires and was forgotten about.  This sparked an idea.  But, I needed to include my stakeholders.   I met with individual teachers and got ideas of what the staff needed from that day.  I also had teachers talk with their kids and ask 'What would you want to do at school on the anniversary day."  We gathered a lots of ideas and information.  In hindsight, I should have surveyed parents as well.  They may have thought of something different/easier.

The day had many different activities.  They were:

• Students will plant flowers to take home.
• Students will write cards to Hurricane Florence affected schools to pass on their kindness.
• Community poster:  Each student will paint their hand and make a handprint on a poster that says “#Rieblisoars.”
• Cut out a feather and write their name on it.  Each grade level will have a different color feather.  We will make a school set of wings to hang inside the MPR that states “Together We Soar”
• We invited Heroes (Police, fire, nurses, doctors, PG&E) to come and read the book “After the fall” to students while they enjoy a healthy treat.
• Kindness Wreath was made in each classroom
• Book Reading
• Primary: Read Wemberly Worried and make Guatemalan worry dolls
• Upper: Read A terrible thing Happened and did a writing activity
• Counselors on hand
• Therapy dogs on campus

All of these activities were done with their buddies. So, cross age support was also provided.

The day went great.  Students loved it, teachers loved it, First responders loved it and parents were able to participate.  

birthday books!

So, I have been trying to write this post for a while.  I stole the birthday book idea from Lead with Literacy, by Mandy Ellis. Mandy is someone I want to post new ideas on Twitter for me to "borrow".  When I saw her talking about her book, I was so excited, I rushed to get it. 

Starting at my thrid school as principal this year, I wanted to try this.  I went to target and got a cheap book shelf and some decorations.  I spent about 30 minutes setting it up and decorating it. I also ordered 300 books during the Scholastic 50 books for $50 sale.  I used Principal funds for the book purchase.

Then, it was trying to figure out how to get kids in.  On their birthday, once a month for the whole month, once a week for the week, etc.  The beginning of the new year got away from me and then I realized it was August 31.  I went around and gathered 40 plus students to give them a book. It was magical.  Books were spread out all over my floor.  There was reading, thinking, sharing, talking, and laughing happening.  It was priceless.

This month, I am going to try passing out the books a different way.  I am putting birthday bookmarks in the teacher boxes the night before the birthday. Then, the teacher knows to send the student down when they have a moment to get their book.  We will see how this works.

Each student went home with a book of their choosing.  There was a little boy, A, is 3rd grade. He really wanted this scary book.  I tried to talk him out of it because I was concerned that the content was too old for him.

About a week later it was Back to school night.  A's mom came up to me and told me who she was.  She shared that A has never wanted to read until I gave him a book.  The book is scary for him, so they read in the morning before school.  He loves it.  She also told me she hadn't read to/with him since 1st grade and it was something she enjoyed.

That conversation filled my heart!  I was floating in the stars the rest of the night.  Even on those days where is feels like all I did was put out fires, the book shelf is in my office reminding me of A's story and how many others need that love of books to be unlocked for them.

Training day!

I am all about leading a school through Culture and Craft (Thanks @jkloczko for that line).  I try to make all meetings a mix of community building activities and reinforcing great teaching.  Today was the first day back for all staff, and we had to do active shooter training.  I was like..."NO!!!!"  It is my first all staff meeting at this school.  My school has been through so much.  The attendance area was completely burned the October 2017 tubbs fire.  Only the school survived.  However, the school was displaced for 3 months while repairs were made. Over 200 students lost their home and over a dozen staff did as well.  I also know that is not the way I want to introduce myself to the staff.  But, I was told...do it!

So, I had to do it Emily's way.  I had the spotify going when people walked in.  I had the room set up in collaborative tables with toys and supplies on them.  The lunch buffet table was already set up, so they knew that was coming.  Then I started with my google slides I set up.  The first slide was a great ice breaker.  It was the picture on the left with the ladies on the roller coaster.  I told the staff this is how I work, I always choose to live in the front row, even if I don't know what is coming. 

Then I gave prizes to the first row folks!

Next was the 5 word activity.  I stole this from Lead Like a Pirate. It was an interview question the book suggested.  I totally used it while interviewing for new teachers this year.  What insight it gave me on their classroom culture and thought process.  I decided to use it with the whole staff to start them thinking on what they wanted kids to think about them.  Of course, I showed off my 5 words first.  They were able to work collaboratively in their choice of table groups to think of words and be creative.  The room was buzzing and the conversations about kids and culture were flowing.

Then it was time for Active Shooter training.  Such a heavy topic.  I used the slides in the show linked above to move through the run, hide, fight protocol.  I also had some videos to show staff what it would look like.  You will find slides in there as well with Scenarios.  I posted these around the room and had random groups made with Flippity. The groups spent 5 minutes at each scenario discussing what they would do.  They had the opportunity to work in collaborative mixed groups of classified and certificated folks.  After the activity, we went over the scenarios again and shared any ah-has that the small groups had. 

I had the staff do a "fist to five" for how things were going so far.  I had mostly 3-4s.  I feel like that was a win!

I needed to have a fun activity at the end.  Active shooter is a heavy topic, and I needed energize, excited staff for the first day of school.  I had set up an amazing race around the school.  I used Flippity again to make 6 teams.  I had stations set up already around the school with tasks for them to do.  They had a blast.  The feedback has been amazing.  They feel excited for the new year!  They want students to come.  They had fun together.  It was great.

Today, the next day, I am still hearing about the positive energy, fun and how they loved everyone being there. 

Welcome fun continues!

 As part of our welcome staff meeting, all staff went around the school and wrote welcome messages in chalk for the students and parents.  It was so fun to see all the staff members collaborating and working together.  They were so creative too.

I love how it turned out!

Welcome to students

Being a new to the school, as the Principal, is hard.  Lots of new names and faces to learn.  Lots of new information to take in.  It has been super fun, but overwhelming at times.  I needed it to slow down.  I needed to focus on relationships and culture.  I needed to start with heart.

So, I stole!  Yes, my best ideas come from others.  I want to be @mandyellis when I grow up.  She has so many great ideas.  I stole "Popsicles with the Principal."  I hosted a play date at the school from 3-3:45pm for students and parents.  They arrived and got to meet some great kids, siblings and their parents.  It was neat to start putting names and faces together.  I was impressed that I had over 60 students come.  I just wish I had remembered to take pictures!

I also decided that a hand written note to all new students would be great.  I would be able to welcome them and their families.  I would be able to start building positive relationships with the families.  I also was able to start learning names of students too.  Over 80 cards later, I may have taken on more than I needed to.  But, I had a goal and did it.  They were mailed yesterday, 1 week before school starts.  I wanted to make sure they arrived in time.  I had them made on vistarprint and used our logo.  However, I stole a future post card from Amber Teamann (@8Amber8) and modified it.  Here is a link to my modified version that I will print on vistaprint soon.   I have also rewritten a message for next year so that in July I won't have to think as hard.

Lovin' this roller coaster ride...

Welcome gifts

Starting at a new school this year is overwhelming and exciting.  You get to change things because the staff doesn't know you any other way.  This year, my secretary is also new to the school as well.  I was not going to be there.  I wanted to make sure she felt welcomed and that we were excited to have her join the team.

I felt her a little gift bag with some goodies in it.  I went to target and got: water bottle is school colors, fun post its, pens, chocolate and more.

I love the note my new secretary texted me after getting this.


A little bit of kindness goes a long way!

Telling your school's story- a TV in the office?

I have read in so many books about the importance of telling your school's story.  Some of my inspirations for this are @Joe_Sanfelippo and @GustafsonBrad.  First, their books are must reads.  Second, their passion for education and learning is so clear by what they do daily.  How do I know this?  Their twitter feeds, both personal and professional.

I recall being at a Fall CUE in Napa four or five years ago and hearing all of the positive things @PrincipalDurham  said about his use of social media.  I figured I needed to give it a try.  I found that is was super successful with engaging the parent community at Kenilworth Junior High while I was principal there.  However, I realized I was not reaching the students.  I needed to use the app/social media they were on too.  I add instagram to my Facebook/twitter accounts and found success.

Now, I want to show off all of this story telling at the school.  I want parents, community members, family and students to see the learning happening as they walk into the office.  I had a big screen TV installed in the office and I hook a chromebook up to the TV.  I tried multiple #hashtag displays/social walls.  I tried Tweetbeam, the images were too small.  I tried social wall, but the features I wanted cost money.  I wanted a free, large picture display that I could control the dates of the posts being displayed.  #Hashslider.com (@Hashslider ) has been awesome.  You can change the date of posts displayed.  This is super helpful when trying to promote different events.  It shows videos!  I love this.  I can make a quick video and have the students "show" what they are learning. It also displays comments.  Therefore, people see what others are writing and that we read the comments and replay back.

I know that there are other powerful social walls out there.  What you do you love and why?