All Teachers Were Once Students

Recently our district held our annual back to school leadership convocation. It is always motivational and uplifting. We love seeing all of our leader-friends, the supportive adminstration, and hear a "State of the District" address from our superintendent. This year our guest speaker was author Flip Flippen. I have had the pleasure of hearing Flip before and have had several conversations based on his bookThe Flip Side with my administrative team. In passing, Flip mentioned that his office contains pictures of all his employees as children to help them remember that they were once kids themselves and to use that feeling as a framework for decisions and words. I loved that idea and asked our teachers to send me photos of themselves in the grade they will be teaching. We are posting them outside the classroom doors so that every child will see their teacher as a kindergartner, third grader, etc. Our theme this year is Peace, Love, & Lions, so I placed them on this cute paper. Love this idea of helping teachers remember that they were little once, too!

iPad Introductions

Today we discussed the logistics of bringing iPads into the classroom: teacher accountability, student expectations, etc... Prior to blowing their minds with an awesome repertoire of apps (haha!), I felt that I needed to do a little assessment of their knowledge, comfort, and desire levels. I created these posters to have the teachers reflect where they would fall on a knowledge continuum and on a comfort/desire quadrant framework. I am going to use these posters to tailor our professional development to their learning levels so that we make the most of our time.

More Alphabet Soup

One of the activities I am going to do with my staff is have them brainstorm what we are "all about". I won an award this spring and spent a great deal of time reflecting on the strengths of our campus, staff, students, culture... (Watch more about that here: HEB video ). My plan is to organize all of the great comments that they will share into these four categories: Advocating for children; Being a team player; Creating instructional success; Demonstrating leadership skills. Every activity, tradition, and belief that I can think of can fall into one of those categories. We are going to recognize them as the cornerstones of our campus beliefs.

Then, each month, one staff member will be recognized at our staff seminar (my fancy word for the faculty meeting... because it is an instructional seminar, not just "sit-and-get"). They will get to house a special trophy and have their picture taken/displayed all month. We will also present them with a pin and certificate so that they will have a tangible reward to keep. (This is an awesome site for free certificates: certificatestreet). At the next monthly staff seminar, they will pass the trophy on to a staff member that has demonstrated that same quality. The only caveat, however, is that the new recipient may not be on their team. This way we will continue to build strong relationships across grade levels and departments.

Thanks to that awesome principal Kelly Gerletti for sharing the staff recognition idea with me! I loved it, stole it, and am tweaking it to make it work for us (which means it must go into the alphabet soup!) It is a perfect addition to this "recipe" for a great year!

Here are some samples of what I think the staff may share (although they will certainly expand the list, I have no doubt!)

4 awards
A and B
C and D