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!

The Principal's new clothes

This year I am trying to be in the classrooms more.  I am not just sitting in the classrooms watching, but being a part of the classroom.  In my #leadwild chat group, one of the members, Kathy Melton, (@kathyamelton)  talked about how she reads the book "The Principal's new clothes" to her students and then she had them draw "new clothes" on a picture of her.

So, this year my colleagues and I are trying something new.  We are reading books to our students about the monthly character trait.  The book we picked for the students was not really appropriate for the Kindergarten students.  So, I needed a book... and then I remembered Kathy's conversation.

I got the book that Kathy recommended.  It is so old that I took me looking for it online for a while before I found it.

I prepped for this reading like I did when I was a teacher.  I read the book, created the worksheet (Left), re-read the book, prepped questions to ask while reading, and then was ready.  I sent all my teachers a link to a google calendar sign up to me to come in and read.


My 1st grade teacher agreed to let me come in first.  The students came to the carpet and I began reading the story. The kids were interacting with the story.  They were predicting, noticing detail, reflecting, and seeing the moral of the story. We had a great time.



After the story, they got to color me a new outfit. That was so fun for them!

Apparently, I need more rainbow in my wardrobe based on the drawings.

After teaching all morning and running an assembly in the afternoon, I realized I was out of "teaching" shape.  

This is helping with my new goal from George Couros (@gcouros), get into every classroom, every day.

Spread kindness like confetti!!!

Glitter and confetti can drive me nuts.  It sticks to you, you find it everywhere and in the weirdest places. When I am around glitter, I always seem to find it on my face, in my shoes, on the steering wheel of my car.  It is crazy how it gets everywhere!

However, I love how shiny, sparkly and fun it is.  I love how kids' faces light up when they see confetti or glitter.   I have a colleague, @Mrsfadeji (Amy Fadeji) is the glitter/confetti queen.  When I see things that have glitter or confetti on them, I always think of her.  Amy's personality can be described by the word, Glitter!!  I wish I had a little more of this in me.

While scanning Pinterest the other night, I came across this picture.

My first thought was to share this with Amy.  Then, I got to thinking that it would be a great poster for my school's office.  I was so excited.

The next day I was directing traffic in front of the school.  A Mom with her 1st grader and Kindergartner pulled up.  I could tell that this Mom did not feel well and it had been a hard morning.  I opened the door and helped get the kids out of the car so she would not have to.  Her Kindergartner  was crying, he wanted to stay with mom.  I held his hand and we walked into the school,  waving goodbye.  As mom drove away, I saw tears coming down her cheek.

Of course, as soon as mom left, the kindergartner was fine.  So, I took a quick video of him reading and sent it to mom.  Here is the text stream. 

Unbeknownst to me, this mom had posted something on Facebook about the morning.  When a parent showed it to me, I started to tear up.  I am so grateful that parents share their students with us every day and that I get the opportunity to learn and grow from of these students.

A few days later, we had a PTA meet and greet.  One of the PTA Mom's came up to me and said she had seen me with the little kindergartner a few days ago.  PTA Mom said that she was watching me patiently walk with the crying student and my words were so sweet.  I was touched by her words.  The PTA mom went on to say that she thought it was so kind of me to send the Mom a video of her son.  I questioned how she knew that.  The PTA Mom said that the Kindergarten Mom posted on Facebook that I had sent her a video.  How sweet is that?

I guess kindness really is like confetti and glitter.  It lands up in the weirdest places, where you are not expecting to find it.  I also have some glitter in me, I just need to work on making it a little more shiny and bright!

#NASSP15 day 2 reflection

Day 2 was equally as fabulous as day 1.  I started my day with Todd Whitaker talking about What Great Principals Do.  My favorite take aways of his presentation were:

• Treat every student with respect and dignity every day, all the time, 10 out of 10 days. Great principals.
• Great principals know they have to teach the teachers.
• Great principals know that people are the problem and the solution.  Programs will not fix this.
• Great principals don’t let things happen randomly.
• Great principals know to teach all the teachers at once so “They know that THEY ALL KNOW”. This way they hold each other accountable.
• Great principals know that they are responsible for the culture in the school.

Such powerful thoughts about what are role really is as a site principal.

Then, I attended a workshop about online PD. The ideas I got were amazing. Creating teacher written online PD for teachers to participate in an a cohort using sophia.org or google classroom. I am inspired to spend some time working with my district to create this.

There was a makerspace workshop. I saw the potential of what the library could be. I can't wait for my library to be a place for students to collaborative, creative, critical think, and communicate. It is a place for students to tinker, play, relax, think and invest.

The final presentation was by Jason Markey (@JasonMMarkey) and Jimmy Casas (@casas_jimmy) about Leading Change in School. The big take away was this quote “You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”-by Maslow. We need to be gentle disruptors to the system. We do this by:

• Be Courageous
• Embrace Failure
• Model Expectations

I also appreciated Jimmy's quote "You can’t let anyone take away our excellence.

You also get it back every morning." No one got into education to just be "good", everyone wants to be "great". As leaders, we need to help everyone get to their great.

Jason also talked about this concept for staff. Concept: Start, STOP, share: Tell me something you are going to start this year, stop this year, and share with your PLN. With everything we are adding to teacher's plate, the need to take items off their plate. This is a good reminder for them.

We need to remember that the only barrier to our own learning is our own willingness to learn. This is what we, as site principal, need to remember

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.