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?

Why is my school on social media?

Just last summer, I was having an excited conversation with another principal about social media.  He was not understanding why I post as often as I do.  For this other principal, he did not seen the connection between the time it takes to post and what the social media post do for the schools.  i

I have been a believer of social media to bring parents and community into your school for years.  I also feel it is a great communication tool.  Many parents, grandparents and community members cannot come to school every day, week or month to experience school.  However, parents, grandparents and others want to help students be successful in school.  They want to be involved.  They want to be able to talk to their students about things that have happened in the day.   The key for schools is to figure out how to bring in the parents and community.  The slide above is actually something I made for my school community to show how we communicate about learning at Grant Elementary School.

My goal is to post on social media, five times a day.  Now, it is a goal.  Some days I hit it, some days I exceed it, and other days I don't make it.  However, I can never capture all of the amazing moments that happen in a school day.  So, this is a process that I am continuing to grow and improve on.

I have also tried to play with "going live" on Facebook.  If we have something exciting for us to share, I try to share it with the community (or the world).  At the beginning of November, Mac Barnett (@macbarnett) came to our school and did an Author presentation.  He read some of his books and interacted with our K-5 students.  I decided to "go live" and film him reading his book to 300 students.  It was interesting for me to watch the "thumbs up" and "hearts" floating across the screen as I am filming.  Parents were commenting about the presentation (and the filming) during the Live stream.  After the amazing presentation, a parent posted this on our Facebook page.

This was very meaningful for me to read this.  I made me feel that all of the time and effort I put into showing our educational story on social media was valuable.  It also made me realize how helpful the social media posts are to families and parents.  My time is supporting learning.  My time is helpfuling the comunity see all of the amazing things we do at Grant Elementary!

What a game at a staff meeting turned into...

Principals spend so much time planning and organizing a staff meeting.  I tried to include Professional Development in every meeting.  I also model new tools or remind us of different teaching methods during the staff meeting.

At the September staff meeting, I had the staff take a built in "break" by playing a game.  I made a "get to know your colleague" game on Kahoot.it.  I wish I had recorded the teachers.  They were clapping, cheering, laughing and being competitive.  It was a great brain break for them (and me!) during the meeting.  It also helped the staff develop more as a community, which is a goal for me this year.  After the game, I had a few staff members ask about the game and how I made it.  We did a quick whipped around and answered questions, then we moved on to the next topic. 

The best part happened the next week.  One of my 1st grade teachers told me she had never played Kahoot before the staff meeting and loved it.  The next day, she made a comprehension Kahoot for her 1st graders to play, and they were so excited.  The 1st grade teacher enthusiastically told me about the students jumping and clapping when they got an answer correct.  Moreover, they really loved seeing their name on the TV.  This teacher said that they have done a Kahoot everyday since the staff meeting.

I was thrilled!!!  You hope that staff takes your lead and tries new things.  But, that doesn't always happen.  I asked when she was using a Kahoot again.  She said "Today, at 8:55 with comprehension questions."  So, I went in.  

The teacher read the story from the text twice with the students.  Once the teacher eadr the story aloud and the other time the students read the story to each other.  Then, it was Kahoot time.  The students were so excited.  They watched anxiously as their names appeared on the TV.  Then, the questions began.  They loved seeing if they were right.  They also wanted to see answered first.  The game also has a feature where it tells students if they are on "fire" or not.  The students loved it when the game told them they were "on fire."  At the end, it posts the students' points earned.  The student with the most points did a little dance, but then said, "Look, Emily, it says you were on fire, great job!"

Some of the quotes they students were saying during the game:

"I want to do it again."

"That was so fun.""I want to see my name on tv.""I love it, best game ever."

The teacher reports that "Students want to play Kahoot all day."  They greet the teacher in the morning with "Do we get to play Kahoot today?".  The teacher also has been using it as an incentive for students to complete work that they may not be interested in.  Additionally, the teacher has been using Kahoot to practice Math facts with the students.  The teacher reports seening faster recall of these facts since starting to use Kahoot for practice. 

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.

Plan, Plan and then Plan some more.

Staff meetings... we have all seen these Memes

I remember back to teaching, we all dreaded that Wednesday meeting.  Two hours of being talked to, getting information I could have read in a memo.  Sitting in a chair thinking about all the things we could be doing instead of this.

I also get it, the principal's job is busy.  To organize a staff meeting correctly, you need to plan.  Just like a great teachers plan for amazing lessons.  It is hard work and takes time.

I set a goal for myself this year, to plan awesome (hopefully) staff meetings.  I don't want to waste people times.  I want staff to value the time, learn together, build community and have fun.

I had my first staff meeting last Wednesday.  I spent 3 hours planning for 1 and 1/2 hours.  One thing that works for me is having a presentation to show.  It helps me stay on time and kept us moving.  Here is the one I used at my last staff meeting.

We started the meeting with writing postcards to students.  Each teacher wrote at least 2 students a "great work" postcard.  After the meeting, I spent 30 minutes addressing and stamping all the postcard.

Next was a district presentation.  It was boring, but I could not do anything about it.  So, I followed it up with a game.  I used Popsicle sticks to make groups for my staff.  After grouping the staff and passing out paper, I told them the rules.  "Here are the rules, there is only one.  Figure out the game and you have 5 minutes."  They flipped over the paper and started the YouTube timer video. They were collaborating.  They were using tech to look up things.  They were inferring information based on a picture.  They were laughing and building relationships.

After we played the game, I set the tone with a quote.

Rotations were next.  We had some information to gather and new people for them to meet.  I hit play on the time YouTube video and I was able to move around/listen to conversations.  The video would beep after 5 minutes and the staff would rotate.

Next was some quick announcements by staff for staff.

We end with this amazing Ted Talk by Rita Pierson: Every Kid needs a Champion.  It is a funny and very uplifting video.  

Of course, we needed a new staff picture.  So, we took care of that too.  What a hard working, great looking, fun group of colleagues!!!