Along For a Ride #savmp

Connecting with families is one of the most important aspects of my day. Getting to know the student, meeting parents, having conversations and developing those relationships are what makes John Swett Elementary the school we are! 

We have a new SDC class this year and the majority of our students take the bus to school. Our students are awesome and I really enjoy my time with them throughout the day, twice a week we have 'Story Time w/Mr. Welcome' which is something I definitely look forward to! 

There have been a few occasions when I've been able to meet families and interact, but not seeing their parents each day at drop-off and pick-up has really been on my mind. So for me the only obvious way to strengthen our relationship was to ride the bus in the morning and help get all our students to school! 

I started chatting with Bonnie our bus driver about riding along one morning and I can tell she was pretty surprised at my request. She needed to get permission from her boss and would 'get back to me' with what he said! The very next day she found me on campus and said it was a go, let her know when I wanted to ride and that she left the bus depot at 530am to start the morning run. 

This past Wednesday was the day, I had that jittery excitement along with uncertainty at something I'd never before done. Bonnie was meticulous in getting the bus ready at the depot, all the safety checks and making sure we were ready for the kids. 

Our first pick-up was 600am and our students for the morning were from Elementary, Middle and High School, we'd have the full range! Something that struck me right away and that continued throughout our entire morning......Bonnie 100% cares about these kids. You can hear it in her voice, see it in her actions and notice it with everything she does, we're so lucky to have her on our team!

The highlight of my ride was of course seeing all our Roadrunners in the morning at their homes. They were all SUPER surprised to see me and their parents equally as so. Being able to start the day with them and build a closer connection to their families was exciting in many ways. Thank you of course to Bonnie for all she does, #teamkid!

530am, meeting at the bus depot ready to leave for the morning run!

Bonnie at the helm, she 100% cares about the kids!

Better Together - If We're Connected! #savmp

My post today is inspired from Ben Gilpin's (@benjamingilpin) 'Together We're Better' post from his blog on August 6th!

Being 'connected' undoubtedly looks different depending on who you are, your position in education, how long you've been 'connected' and how much time/energy you put into that connectedness. I honestly can't image not being a connected Principal! What do non-connected educators do?

There have been SO many instances when I've learned from my Twitter PLN, asked them questions, 

looked for guidance or suggestions, or just simply shared stories with other Principals doing the same work I am.

About two months ago I started playing around with Voxer and have really enjoyed the amazing conversations and ideas that have come to fruition with this free and simple to use app. Our group started small, a few Assistant Principals and Principals from the Bay Area. The original plan was a book group (Leadership Lessons of the Navy Seals) with a non-educational title, and we have yet to actually talk about the book, hopefully someday we will!

Of course one of the best parts of being connected is connecting with educators who live farther away. Knowing how schools operate and how Principals conduct business outside of our face to face PLN is so valuable. The current chatter has been around Back to School Night and what's done at our different sites, and all I can think about is how much I want ours to CHANGE! 

All of the connected educators out there have a duty, get those Principals around you that aren't connected onto the bus. The bus will be more fun, engaging, exciting, better for kids and better for you if we're all connected! 

Some of the farther away educators who we Voxer with, thank you for all the knowledge and connectedness, we're Better Together!

- Michele Corbat

- Tim Lauer

- Curt Rees

- Jennifer Dinielli 

Let's Voxer, connect with me!

Where's Your Creative Space #savmp

I'm three weeks in to my eleventh year in public education and my fifth as a school administrator. It wouldn't be totally accurate to say that I became a teacher/administrator by chance. My father was a public school teacher for 35+ years which had a huge influence on my current career path. I've also almost left public education many times over the years, thinking I wanted to pursue a different challenge. 

Those thoughts have come to a head very recently in an excellent book I just finished. Biz Stone who is one of the co-founders of Twitter wrote a great memoir of sorts, following his path from being in debt with no job, working for Google, Odeo, and then helping to create Twitter! 

I really enjoy being an Elementary School Principal, being around kids all day is really awesome! I really enjoy working with teachers to push their academic program, implement new innovative lessons and ideas that are relevant to our students in 2014. I really enjoy getting to know our parent community, while working together on Team Kid to create an awesome learning space for their children. 

But, I'm jealous. Biz and people who work in tech companies or startups are given amazing creative space to 'hack' away at new ideas, break current systems to improve them and then make them better, work/talk/strategize with other really smart and creative people to become even more creative. I was honestly reading Biz's book and creative ideas around education are developing in my head and I wasn't even around another Principal. 

How can educators find a creative space in their immediate lives? (not via Twitter, Voxer, etc) How can we then implement those ideas given the parameters we have? My school has 520 students, with 400+ mobile devices for students, with another 50+ student computers. Yet, we still receive thousands of pounds worth of text/workbooks each year. We still have Back To School Night and Open House even though my ENTIRE staff is on Twitter and shares their classroom on a daily basis. This is not a Jerry McGuire type rant, just wishing we could change education. #faster #better #rightaway 

Just because we've always done something, does NOT mean we need to continue doing it that way.

Thank you for the inspirational creativity Biz, check out his book, it's WELL worth the read!

Why Twitter is So Powerful! #teamkid #raisethebar

What Are You Doing In Your Office? #leadershipday14

I can remember thinking after my first six months of teaching (12 years ago) that my Principal had only come into my class one time that year so far. And that I'd only seen him at recess a few times and come to think of it, he was nine times out of ten always in his office when I would walk by. 

"What are you doing in your office" is what I always thought? Why aren't you in classrooms getting to know kids? Why aren't you at recess playing kickball and connecting with your school? Why aren't you talking with teachers about curriculum and projects to inspire them?

In all fairness, that was twelve years ago and he was a veteran Principal who'd been on the job for many many years. I always told myself if I was ever a Principal, I would do it different, much different. 

Being a digital leader means we have to be mobile leaders so we can be visible and move our schools forward. For the past four years I've been really working on having the capacity/ability to NOT be in my office at all from 8:15am-2:35pm each day. It all starts with the iPhone.......

- Google Calendar needs to be synched, your Office Manager has to have control as well to make appointments and schedule.

- We use audioBoo.fm a ton for recording messages throughout the day, download the app so you don't have to be tethered to your office. You can embed a player on your website so all podcasts automatically show up to be played and there's also a Tweet button to share with your community. @jseroadrunners

- Evernote has saved me SO many times and your account can be linked to all your devices. I actually do recommend the upgraded account for Admins, has a few key features and it's a cheap yearly payment.

- Remind has changed my life with communication! Being able to send text messages from my phone 

to my entire parent community is absolutely amazing and of course allows me to be mobile throughout the day. I love scheduling a message ahead of time and not having to worry about hitting send later on when the day gets busy.

- Twitter Twitter Twitter! My entire staff @jseroadrunners is on Twitter and it's hands-down changed the atmosphere of our school. Teachers/parents know what's going on in classrooms, they share differently, collaborate differently, it's #eduamazing!

- Was just 'hanging' out on Hangouts with @kfostertweet yesterday and her entire staff, but we were in different counties. Being able to connect fact to face with people from your phone throughout the day has saved so many meeting times and gives us the opportunity to learn from colleagues we didn't even know existed a few years ago.

- Google Drive allows me to access ALL my files, at anytime, from my iPhone. If I'm playing kickball with some 3rd graders and our Assistant Superintendent calls/texts with a question about something, I can look up the document from my phone, no need to visit the office! I can't tell you how many times I've told students to share their work with my through Google Drive. Then, I'll see their parents on campus and pull up their writing on my phone to brag about them, of course parents love this! 

- Voxer is fairly new to me and we've just started a book club with some fellow admins that has already been tons of fun! Texting is great, but hearing someones voice on the other end is really cool, especially to listen for their inflection and energy about leadership.

So, Principals.....what are you doing in your office? You should be connecting with kids, seeing first hand what teachers are doing and what they need to move forward, taking care of discipline right when it happens on the yard, being visible, answering emails from your phone, Tweeting all the goodness you see throughout the day, modeling for your teachers what is possible and of course having fun! 

Have a great #leadership14 day and a great school year! 

Setting the Tone #savmp

When I was hired as Principal of @jseroadrunners my first thought was to my childhood, Roger Craig and the SF Giants at Candlestick Park! We were huge SF Giants fans growing up and would go to 20+ games a year, my dad was a 2nd grade teacher so we had the entire summer to play! I can vividly remember Roger Craig and all the 'slogans' he had throughout his tenure as manager. His most memorable was 'Humm Baby' which carried the team to a NL Western Division title in 1987. Roger would say 'Humm Baby' in interviews all the time, it use to give me chills as a little kid. 

The Giants put 'Humm Baby' on t-shirts, hats, cups, license plate frames and even the rain tarp cover! Roger Craig and the SF Giants were Setting the Tone for the players, front office and of course the fans. 'Humm Baby' could be heard/seen throughout the stadium, it was an amazing motivator for anyone connected to the team! 

I'll be starting my fifth year as a Site Administrator (third as Principal, spent two as an AP) and we've had a 'slogan' that has Set the Tone for John Swett Elementary the last two years.

I wanted something we could put on banners, t-shirts, a hashtag and most importantly something that drove each decision we made about kids. If our educational decision didn't jive with our motto/slogan, it probably wasn't pro student and we needed to have more conversation.

Our first motto/slogan started with a video I showed staff the day before school three years ago. 'Finding Greatness' would be our motto for the 12/13 school year. We also decided that 'Team Kid' would ALWAYS be our motto/slogan at John Swett Elementary.

Last year we watched this video and our motto became 'Make It Happen on Team Kid.' (Whatever It Takes was a close second)

I can't tell you how many thousands of times I've heard staff, parents and kids say 'Make It Happen' or 'Team Kid' throughout the school day. Our Superintendent repeats them as well, now that is success!

The past two years we've decided on the slogan as a staff. I've already thrown out some ideas for the 14/15 school year and the new motto/slogan has seemed to fit, #rasiethebar. We're also at an amazing place as a school/staff which is driving Raise the Bar as well. In 14/15 we'll be Raise the Bar on Team Kid for John Swett Elementary, I can't wait!

Also, I'm not comparing being a Principal to a Drill Instructor in the Marine Corps, but this is a good article about setting the tone at MCRD!

5 Ways I Use Remind at John Swett!

Note - This blog was also posted on the Remind blog as well, thanks for reading!

Since I’ve started using Remind as a Principal, nearly my entire staff and colleagues in our district have as well. That alone shows the power of free mobile messaging with your class and school community.

As a principal, I’d like to share five ways all school administrators can and should be using Remind:

1. Keep staff up-to-date

Instead of having an emergency phone tree with my staff, we set up a Remind class just for them. Now I can reach them all in an instant for emergency notifications, or just to tell them how awesome they are. Try it out Administrators, it’s so much easier than a phone tree!

2. Inspire ideas for parent support

I’ve been loving the Attach feature in Remind. This summer, especially, I’ve been sending messages to my parent community with a picture attached that reminds all our students to READ over the summer break. I’ve had such amazing feedback from parents! There are some great visuals on Twitter and Pinterest showing how much a child can benefit from just reading twenty minutes a day. Find one of those and attach to your message, parents will be blown away and kids will pick up a book for sure!

Photo credit: For The Teachers

3. Keep parents up-to-date on school events

Parents who didn’t initially sign-up to receive my messages flooded the office after two weeks of my Remind messages. ” How do we sign-up to receive the ‘text’ messages from Mr. Welcome? We’ve heard how useful they are and I always have my phone with me!”

4. Unify the school and district community

Since I’ve started using Remind as a Principal, nearly my entire staff and colleagues in our district have as well. That alone shows the power of free mobile messaging with your class and school community. I also sent a Remind message that contained a Google Survey about our Remind messages. Feedback is so important, and we’re always looking for ways to adjust what we communicate about, parents want to be informed!

5. Quick, easy, and free

The obvious reasons: Remind is free – Remind is super easy – Remind connects your community – Remind keeps your community informed – Remind from your phone – Remind from your browser – Remind from your tablet – Remind today to be sent out later this week – Remind can embed on your website/blog – Remind can Tweet – #enoughsaid

Bonus: The New App

I’m really looking forward to implementing the new App that Remind just released. Parents will really enjoy being able to create an account to organize all the messages they receive. With multiple students at John Swett plus our Middle School using Remind now, that adds up to a lot of messages, and organizing will be key!

Late last year when the Attach feature was released, we started to dabble into what types of photos or documents we could add to our outgoing messages. Remind has upped their game and now provides a ‘read’ receipt for each message with an Attach, now that’s handy! No more excuses, we’ll know who read their messages and who didn’t, I like it!

Your school community wants to stay informed and Remind is my communication tool of choice, try using Remind today!