“How is Elementary School different than Junior high?”

So, I keep getting asked, “How is Elementary School different than Junior high?”  I have spent the last 17 years in Junior High.  The last 9 years as a Junior High Adminstrator.  Junior High students are amazing.  They are full of energy.  They have the struggles of hormones and peer issues.  They want to be adults and they are not ready to be adults yet.  They want to be serious and goofy at the same time.

So, the biggest difference in my mind is Kindergarten students.  No, this is not because they need you to open their go-gurt (which I am now an expert at opening) or because they need me to tie their shoes.  It is the wonder in their eyes every day they arrive at school.  It is how they run into the school every day with excitement, joy, and amazement.  It is the excitement in their eyes when they share with you the new word they can spell or showing you their writing journal.  It is how the Kindergarten students hold your hand and pull you to something they want to show you they have learned.

It really got me thinking, when do students lose this spark?  How do some of those in Junior High and High school students kept it?  What are we doing in education to help students keep this love of learning alive?  When talking to others about this, the idea of difficulty came up.  “As students get older, the curriculum is harder. They don’t want to work hard.” is what I have heard teachers say.  At the #CUEROCKSTAR Admin conference this weekend, I heard Ramsey Musallam said “Difficulty builds mental muscle and ease builds confidence.”  Difficulty also is more rewarding and sparks curiosity.  It drives us to learn, as long as we are guided through the difficulty towards success.  For the past 15 years we have been told what to teach and how to teach it.  With Common Core we have been given the permission to actually let students learn.

According to google, learning is defined as:

1. the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

We get to provide experiences for students to discover knowledge.  We get to watch students learn from each other and work together.  We also get to “teach” them.  If we balance “the experiences” with “the teaching”, will that keep the spark alive?  In Kindergarten, students do much of their learning by “discovering new things.”  They get to learn through “fun” experiences.  The teacher also gets to “teach” them sounds, numbers, counting, how to write letters correctly and so much more.  Why wouldn’t you want to come to school when it is fun and your curiosity is sparked?  

When I took the leap to Elementary, Kindergarten was my fear.  They are little, cry, sneeze, and touch everything. They can get lost.  I knew all 54 names within the first week so I could call for their attention.  I had nightmares about losing a student.  Who knew Kindergartners would be one of my favorite changes, besides the biggest change, about moving to Elementary?? Probably all Kindergarten teachers :)

A successful district PD day

August 15, 2014,  I took 17, 819 steps before my fitbit died.  It was a long day!  Thank god I had my #petk12adminteam there to help me.  The plan was to have the afternoon of workshops at my school.  This turned into all elementary and half of the secondary on site all morning.  Then, all 400 teachers there all afternoon.

The schedule was key.  I worked with the district office to create a schedule for the day.  I learned a lot about how to put out the schedule and the changes I would make next time in the structure of the document.  I tried to take a lead from #gafesummit, but I ran out of time to pull it off.


The morning went well.  Teachers were in the classrooms working on one of the three district goals or the year. The internet seemed ok and there were no real complaints. Lunch came the district organized a BBQ for all the teachers.  This went well and then the Superintendent addressed all teachers in the gym.



The afternoon was full of workshops.  When we hosted #nbcue in the spring, I didn't attend or teach any workshops.  I wanted to be available to solve problems.  This time I decided I wanted to teach.  My sessions on Google Draw went well.  I need to practice to #gafesummitt Marin in October.  However, not being around for tech/facility support was a problem.


I realized I should have had some of my secondary admin folks help out a little more.  I need to remember to ask for help.  I also realized how united the elementary admin are in their efforts.  I feel so honored to be included with the group of admin.

Going 1:1... and not going gray! The Roll out

Our chromebooks arrived really late.  Three days before schools started, to be honest.  There was no way we were going to get the 900 chromebooks unboxed, taken out of the plastic, scanned into google's management system, organized and to the schools without some help.

Help came in the form of our amazing admin team.  Elementary, Junior High, High School, Alt Ed, and District office all came together for 7 hours and unboxed, took out of the plastic, tagged and loaded into the management system 700 chromebooks.  As you can see, we even made 4 years help us!

There was no way we could have done this without the help of Ron Everett, Steve Bolman, Mila Kell,   Deb Richardson, Fran Hansel, Linda Scheele, Bennett Holley, Becky Lofton, Sheila Garvey, Catina Haugen, Amy Fadeji, Emily Kleinholz, Ashley Williams, and Nancy Emanuale.

Then it was time to roll out the chromebooks to the kids.  It took us 2 days to organize 476 chromebooks. The first day was spent organizing the chromebooks into classes (they arrived not sorted).  This took 3 people to complete.  The second day was checking to see who had not attended a chromebook orientation meeting and marking those chromebooks.  Students did not receive their chromebook until they attended. (My last 2 chromebook meetings were packed!) The last step was putting the chromebooks into the cases and putting labels on the cases.  We did all hands on deck for this part.  We had 3 hours and 8 people working on this.  We hit the target.  At 3pm on Friday we were done.  Roll out started Monday at 8:30am.

During the actual roll out, our Assistant Principal, Mr. Holley, addressed the students.  He reminded them of the rules about the chromebook, where you could use them, to charge them, and to be careful.  Then students were taken into a classroom where we passed out the chromebook.  We made sure every student could log into their account and wrote their email address and password on a piece of paper  with also had the chromebook rules on it. They left ready to go!  Four months into the process and the kiddos finally have the chromebooks.

The "we" is the PCS 1:1 team of +ReneeSemik (@ReneeKSemik),  +LoriDeen (@lorideen), +JaneEscobedo (@jescobedo101) and me (Emily Dunnagan).

My summer part 2

So, it is the first Friday of the summer I haven't work.  It is 10am, I am sitting on my sofa, with a cat in my lap, in my PJs, and what am I doing? Working!! I finally have some time to reflect on my #ISTE2014 experience.

One of the workshops I went to was the NASSP digital principals of the year.  They are Daisy Dyer Duerr (@DaisyDyerDuerr). Jason Markey (@JasonMMsrkey) and Derek McCoy (@mccoyderek).  I was so inspired by them.  They all have 1:1 or BYOD schools.  They are where I want to be in 2 years.

I heard this great idea from NASSP digital principal of the year, Jason Markey, called innovation time at #ISTE2014.  I loved it.  It was on the tails of a tweet one of my teachers sent me on June 9, three days after school was out.  She was at the #iesonoma event and tweeted "To admin: when teachers say they don't have time to collaborate, they don't."  This tweet really stuck with me.  At first, I was annoyed, because it was three days after students got out of school and I was in master schedule hell.  I was like "cut me a break".  But, hearing Jason talk about innovation time, brought me back to that tweet.  It showed me how I could support that teacher and all my teachers.

Basically, the nuts and bolts of innovation time is to create an innovation calendar, a Google Calendar that will have appointment slots displaying when either Bennett (my AP) or I are available to substitute for a teacher.  We plan on having 50+ periods available for teachers to choose from throughout the year when we will sub for their class to create a 20% release (1 of their 5 classes) from their teaching assignment for the day to work on an idea they have.  Teachers simply have to reserve the appointment slot on the calendar and then make an appointment to meet with us the day before to discuss their sub plans and share with us the idea they are working on.  

So, in my PJs, on the sofa, with the cat this Friday morning, I am making my presentation and working on the write up.  

My summer part 1

Every year I take at least 4 weeks off to vacation and recharge.  However, for the first time, I don't get this.  My summer is packed with work stuff and I am struggling with my feelings  about it.

I was asked to help my district plan a 1:1 pilot.  Part of this planning process was attending ISTE in Atlanta.  I went to ISTE in 2012 and was overwhelmed.  This time, I knew what to expect and how to navigate it.  I went with a focus, to attend all the 1:1 workshops I could.  It just scared me more.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that what we are doing is changing education.  I walked away with a lot to think about.  Some of the quotes from ISTE that inspired me were:

1. 1:1 does not meet the learners' needs, the learning it can provide does.

2. Technology is not the silver bullet.  It is a tool to enable and support great learning.

3. Collaboration is the new normal. Education is an individual sport in a team base world.

4. Iteration is the new failure.

5. Remember your end goal is to change instruction and develop thinkers!

Now, I have to work with my team to do this really big thing and act like we "got this".  The quotes above are driving my thoughts as we plan PD and the roll out of 1:1 in the 8th grade.  

After attending a bunch if 1:1 workshops, I went to a couple to inspire me (and I needed this!). I got up at 6am to make sure I had a seat for Jamie Casap (@jcasap).  I have heard him speak a few different times and he always motivates me.  I needed to connect 1:1 to my love for education.  He did this.  As I am now working with my colleagues to impliment 1:1, a quote from him runs through my head "disrespect for the impossible."  Because we are educators, it is our superpower, and nothing is impossible!

A life long learner, I am

We never stop learning. One of my goals with the blog is to have time to reflect on my learning and record ways I can use it now and in the future.  There are many ways I have been expanding my learning opportunities this year that have helped me with this.

1. Twitter: I have become more active in curating content off twitter.  Finding a system to save and organize this information was a challenge at first.  It also took a few failures before I found a system that works for me.  Don't be afraid to try a few different curation tools before you find your fits. I suggested my method to a colleague and it did not work with her style.  What she does, did not work for my needs.

2. More twitter: Connections I have made from twitter have be huge in my professional life. They have answered questions, provide information and asked questions that have caused me to rethink or look at a problem differently.  Some even have come to my district/school to visit and help. Thanks to @mistersill, @awesomecoachv, and @frontrowceo.

3. Conversations: talking out issues with trusted colleagues is the answer.  Having a critical friend or two to chat with is powerful.  Thank you @lorideen for being this for me.

@awesomecoachv came to do a site visit right before fall break.  The conversations we had during the visit we powerful and force me (a good thing) to reflect on practices we are using at my site and how to reframe them.  Sometime having the face to face connect allows for those deep conversations that you can't have in 140 characters (even though I have seen a lot of powerful and meaningful tweets).

4. Conferences: Obviously the more traditional method of PD.  There is something about the energy of a conference that makes you excited, renewed and so tired all at same time.  You return from a conference full of ideas and want to implement them.  Then, the energy of the people and the collaboration about it ends and you don't get everything done you had hoped for.

This weekend I attended the #elearns conference.  I walked away with so many ideas to take back to my staff.  I also went to see some speakers I know are great (@CtuckerEnglish) just to hear new things and feed off their energy.  

5. Time:  What was great about this conference was it ended in the early afternoon and we stayed until the next day.  The gift of time to share with colleagues, socialize and have work sessions was great.  We were able to discuss a #PDparty we are having on December 16 and plan it in person. Other members learned how to make a GHO on air and other tricks.  

So, my #pearlofwisdom is blending twitter and conferences is the way to go. It helps keep the energy alive and the ideas following.  It also gives you access to help who were at the conference and may not live near you.  Using technology to move your own learning forward it just one of the many benefits of tech.  How do you blended technology with another resource to improve your learning?

I am going to add to my job description, Head of PR!

As I travel along this roller coaster ride of a job, I realized there is a lot I need to do that I am not "trained" to do.  In April, I had to learn really quick about spinning a message and PR.  Our school was one of the first schools to outlaw "leggings as pants" on campus and it was a media storm.  I spoke to ABC, NBC, the local papers, the TV stations, Time, and many more.  I was in Glamour Paris (which makes me laugh because I feel I have no fashion sense) all about leggings.  What I learned from this very trying experience is that we must create the message about our schools and get it out there.  The press only puts out the negative, we need to work harder (and smarter) to get the positive out to the public.

This year I have been on a "PR train".  We have Facebook, twitter, and instagram accounts for our school. We publish on them almost everyday (and usually more then one time per day) to get our message out. We blog weekly about events on campus and information to help parents navigate Middle School.  We are actively bringing community members, parents, and others onto the campus to show them what an awesome place school is.

Besides the social media sites, the other key item on the "PR train" has been using my iPhone.  It goes everywhere with me.  I can take a photo, post it to instagram and keep going.  I also have used ifttt.com to help with only having to post once.  I have set up recipes to have my instagram auto-post to Facebook and twitter.  Saving me more time. (Thanks @digitalroberto and #fallCUE for the tips)  I know there is so much more my phone could do to help me get the message out, I will be learning and experimenting more.

Today the PR train was on overkill!  @frontrowceo came to visit.  He saw our TV station, how we are using his products, helped out with a few issues, and gave us ideas.  Then a Professor from UOP came to tour classrooms and see what learning looks like in a middle school.  Finally, our city's Mayor came with the Public Access Channel crew and filmed a segment about the Woodshop making 175 Toys for Toys for Tots. I came back to my office after this third visit and told my secretary I was exhausted.  This was more exhausting then working with kids and teachers.

We get to do it all over again tomorrow when Chris Angotti, the director of the Young Writers Program of NaNoWriMo comes to visit our English classrooms as our 390 8th graders work on their novels.  I have let the local paper know this is happening.  Hopefully, they will send a reporter, but my iPhone will be with me to take lots of shoots and post them on social media.

The pearl of wisdom for the post is, get your message out there.  Show the world, one person at a time, how awesome schools are.  Use all the social media that is out there to put your message out, meet others who can help you and learn from others.  I went to a SCOE workshop last week by Matt O'Donnell and he share this Google Drive folder with helpful hints about Facebook and blogging. Remember to ask questions to those doing it already and learn from their mistakes too. Jump in feet first, it will be ok.

PD that works!

I  know that I have written about PD before.  It is a passion of mine.  As a educational leader, my job is to help my staff grow and push/pull them along.

I have a great staff!  They all want to grow, but some struggle on where to start.  Others jump in feet first and start swimming.  They all see the future and are jumping on the train (tugboat or jet plane) towards it.  They want to learn and apply their knowledge to the classroom.  They want their students to succeed.

Last night I helped organize a #brewCUE for @NBCUE.  It was great.  @awesomecoachv was a fabulous moderator.  He had a great venue and the group who attended was awesome.  It was the first time I had used Google Moderator ever.  The forum that Google moderator created (with the help of @awesomecoachv) was great.  The participates typed in questions and they everyone voted on what we would talk about.  What was awesome was the discussion the questions created.  It got me thinking about how I could use Google Moderator with my staff.  I have a new plan for a future staff meeting now, and it involved Google Moderator.

The biggest take-away I had from the evening was, teachers need choice and time.  I  know this, but sometimes we need to be reminded about what teachers need.  PD is not one size fits all.  Also, the size of the group participating in the PD is not important.  I had encouraged all on my teachers to attend this event. Six of my teachers did come.  They are at all levels of proficiency.  The conversations were also at all levels.  So, everyone was able to walk away with something.

What a great night! Great food, drinks, people and conversation! I can't wait for the next one!

The pearl of wisdom, leaders need to model for their staff what they want done in the classroom.  We also need to take advantage of the "teachable moments" that staff has as well.  Even through we have 14,000 things to do, we need to take advantage of the "teachable moments" and make that a priority in that moment.

Every day is something different...

I love my job! I love that I get to hang out with middle school kids and watch them learn/discover new things.  I get to help teachers better to themselves. I get to show people that we appreciate them.  I love how I laugh everyday at least once.  I love that I work with crazy people like me who don't remind dancing around the office at 7am because a kid's cell phone went off and the alarm made me want to dance.  I love how everyday is different. I love how I can have a plan, and it can go sideways and it is still all good.  

Today went a little sideways.  We received a call that a former students committed suicide last night.  Our school has outcome much tragedy including the accidental death of a 7th grade rancid the murder of the student's mother who also was a teacher in our feeder elementary district.  I had the task today of going around the campus and letting this student's 8th grade teachers know before they heard it somewhere else.  She was a 4.0 GPA superstar and the teachers were crushed.  One teacher knew the student well and her own daughter was a friend with the girl.  She needed a break to gather herself together.  I had a free "hour" and I decide I would cover the class.  I walked in to 8th grade SDAIE science.  I was so excited.  I was a middle school science teacher for 5 years before going into admin.  I had a blast.  I was using engagement strategies, checking for understanding, visual cues, asking the students to communicate and collaborate on the assignment.  I was a rock star teacher!  I came back to the office on a kid high! 

After thinking about what happened, I realized, this is why we need to break down the walls at schools. Teachers need to go into each others rooms and learn.  I was a much better teacher that day then I was when I actually was in the classroom everyday.  My years of observing about 100 different teachers and 1000s (hopefully) of classes, made me a better teacher.  I walked from that classroom of SDAIE kiddos to a meeting with a new teacher.  I kept pulling from my experience in the past 60 minutes to try to demonstrate how important it is to breakdown the walls and watch all types of teachers. I was trying to get this new teacher to go and observe other teachers in their department and elsewhere.  In my 7 years of being an administrator, I have seen the good, the bad, the ugly, the fabulous and much more in the classroom. Each other these observations taught me something and made me a better teacher then I was before I watched them.  

The pearl of wisdom for the post, get out there and observe/learn.  This could be watching others, developing your PLN, taking a class, attending a conference or who knows.  Think outside the box! I'm going ask to attend other principals staff meetings to see how they run their meetings and learn from them, the more tricks in my toolbox, the better.

My compass was needed this week...

I have been writing this post since Monday and it has been all over the map.  I have need a compass to make it through this week and to help guide my thinking.  It started on Monday with the "education high" I was on after finishing my class at Sonoma State.  Eight principals from the district are take a seminar class together and it has been great.  Not only have the content inspired me, I have been able to get to know the other principals better. One of the outcomes I have had from this class is organizing inspiring guest speakers and trainers for our district's two upcoming Common Core trainings for secondary.  However, as I was leaving the class on Monday, I was in need of my compass to direct me and refocus me.

My Asst. Sup. texted me that the Common Core planning committee went a different direction on Monday and did not want the guest speakers.  I was crushed at first, I wanted them for myself.  They are fabulous presenters.  Besides my personal feelings, I knew they have a message that the teachers and secondary admin, in my district, needed to hear.  My friend quickly grabbed my compass and came to my defense.  She called the Asst. Sup as we were walking to the car.  I was lost in my own thoughts at this point in time and decided to just drive home to think.  After getting home, my friend called my with an update on her talk with the Asst. Sup. After taking in all this information, I realized that many of the people planning this day don't fully understand the common core.  This just reaffirmed my thoughts that the guest speakers were needed even more so than before.  I needed to grab my compass and help lead the way again.

On Tuesday, I went and found staff members who were attending the Thursday planning meeting and I  lobbied for what I wanted.  I talked to my colleagues who I knew would agree with me and lobbied them. Finally, around 4pm, my compass lead me to my Asst. Sup's office and we had a great talk.  She understood my points and also helped me to see where I needed to reflect on my own practice to continue to improve.  I left her office knowing the speakers are back on and that my compass had not been pointed in the wrong direction, it just took me on a side trip.

To me, the issues wasn't just about getting to see great speakers (and they are great speakers).  It is about the need to educate ourselves and help others to see where they need to grow.  The workshops that were being planned were not going to accomplish this

The best reward for my struggles this week was a text that my friend.  She sent to me the picture to the left.  It is of the brainstorming from the CCSS committee she ran today created while discussing next steps in Common Core implementation.  The picture speaks for itself!  The bottom bullet made me feel validated.  Way to go compass!

The pearl of wisdom for this post: Change is hard.  Common Core is forcing us to change the way we do things.  We can roll with it or be the wall the tries to stop it.  I like to roll...compass continue to guide me.

Take time to smell the roses...

Sometimes we forgot in education to open our doors and let people in.  We get so wrapped up in what we need to get done and shorting our "todo lists" that that the world passes us by.  The Elementary Principals in my district have been the example for me of what a good admin team can look like.  They get together, accomplish big goals and have fun.  Those of us in secondary have not "played nicely" like the Elementary Principals.  This changed tonight.

We have a new admin team at the middle school level in the district.  I am the "veteran"(not old)

principal now.  We hired two new principals this school year and they are fabulous.  They are full of ideas, are funny, and care about making a difference.  They also want to collaborate (thank god!) with other Middle School principals and other schools in the district.  Tonight we met at a local brewery and talked for over 2 hours.  We invited our Assistant Principals to join us and it was great.  So many ideas and thoughts came up.  We also got to know each other better.  We told stories, reflected on kids and policies.  What a great time!

As I reflect on, build on my PLN and take personal PD journey, I need to remember to include face-to-face time with my colleagues.  It is so good just to hear that you are on the right track and that others agree.  It is also great to hear other viewpoints and ideas.  We decided to make this a monthly meetings and one member has sent out google invites for the next 3 months to us.  This was a great remember to "take time to smell the roses."

I want to include a "Pearl of wisdom" every post.  I don't know if anyone is reading this, but at least I can go back and reference it in the future.  This blog is suppose to be for my growth, and if others benefit, that is even better.  Here is my Pearl of Wisdom for the day:  follow Richard Byrnes on Twitter, @rmbyrne.  His posts have great resources to share with staff and are full of short bits of information.

It's almost Friday......

Pearl(s) of wisdom

I hated writing as a child.  I was one of those children who would read everything they could, but I threw tantrums when it came to writing anything.  I remember full-on crying fits with my mother sitting there, waiting for me to get tired, and helping me through it.  To this day, I dislike to write.  The fear of writing and being judge for my grammar, sentence structure, etc (I was a science and math teacher people!) is overwhelming but I can't let it stop me.   So, why is this "hater of writing" doing a blog? I blame Kristen Swanson.

I have been reading her book, Professional Learning in the Digital Age, and it is inspiring. I have been feeling lost about my personal PD and how to get my secondary admin team on board to do anything. Kristen spends the first chapter talking about the cycle of professional learning (User Generated Learning) in today's digital world.  The cycle is (paraphrased by me) gathering information, reflecting, and applying.  I realized after reading Chapter 1, I am really good at gathering information.  I love twitter! I would say I am addicted at times.  I love reading blogs, books and articles (I am sure this is shocking from the girl who just said she loves to read).  But, I was skipping step two, reflection, and moving on to step 3, implementation. I am great at reflecting orally with friends, colleagues, etc.  However, after reading the first part of her book, I realized my reflection needed it to be more formal.   So here is my formal attempt on reflection.  Let's hope I can keep it up.

On page 4, Kristen references a website to help you organize all the resources you find on twitter (and yes, I am past page 4) called pearltrees (www.pearltrees.com) .  This is your #pearlofwidsom for the post.  You have to get a pearltrees.  To the right is a start of my pearltree.  I used to mail myself tweets that I found interesting.  Then my inbox was full of emails from myself of things.  I have a little OCD about my inbox, so then I created a folder for emailed tweets. This site is cleaning up my inbox and folders big time.  There is even a chrome extension to allow you to post to your pearltrees without leaving the blog/page you are on.  It makes my twitter so much more organized.  This OCD girl is happy!

My last taken away from chapter 1 of this book is a quote.  "Learning with technology is more important that learning about technology."  We have to remember that tech is there to help us, not be the reason we don't use it.