Where's Your Thinking Place #savmp

Each month I read a different book to our classes at John Swett Elementary, it's a great way for me to connect with our students. This month I'm reading 'On A Beam of Light' by Jennifer Berne, which is about Albert Einstein and takes us through his childhood to adult life as an inventor. There are some great simple messages in the book and one page in particular really has me thinking and also discussing with our kids. 

Jennifer writes about Albert having a 'thinking place' somewhere he would go to let his mind wander to access the creativity in his brain. Years ago I discovered where my 'thinking place' was and always return when I need inspiration or to clear my head for a reset.

We've had some great turn-n-talk discussions in class with our students about their 'thinking place' and they may not know where that place is just yet. They may not be able to find that place, it may need to find them and that can take time and discovery.

This is a great conversation with kids, to help them access the genius they have inside. The conversation is also SUPER important to have with adults. 

- Where is your 'thinking place?' 

- How do you find inspiration to innovate?

- Do you have a 'place' or someone to converse with that pushing your thinking?

It's very early in the morning and I'm off to my 'thinking place' - going for a run in the dark to clear my brain and access some inspiration! 

Make ALL Kids Feel Special #savmp #teamkid

Showing videos at our staff gatherings each month has always been a practice of mine, and something I know our staff enjoys. The vast majority of the videos really have nothing to do with education, but there of course is always a hidden message.

I read the NY Times daily and there was an awesome video in their food section a few weeks back that I knew I had to share! Watch the video below, enjoy and think about how you make the students in your school feel special, it's SUPER IMPORTANT!

Of course I always try to make our staff feel special too, It's-It for everyone at our staff gathering yesterday, my teachers were Tweeting about it of course!

Donors Choose, Chevron and Fuel Your Schools! #savmp #teamkid

Donors Choose by itself is an amazing organization! Pair up Donors Choose + Chevron + Fuel Your Schools and it's an EDU-AMAZING organization, let me explain.

Donors Choose and Chevron hook up for their Fuel Your Schools campaign during the month of October. It's really simple, Chevron funds Donors Choose grants for teachers based on the zip code where gas is purchased. So of course we promote the three Chevron stations in our town with the community and the results this year have been outstanding.

$11,000+ in grants from Chevron, thank you so much from the John Swett Elementary staff! #teamkid 

Schools Are A Business #savmp

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and throughout my administrative career have heard different viewpoints of course. On the surface schools are not a business, I agree. However, I feel school leaders should run their campuses with a business savvy mind and thought process.

Schools are in the business of kids!

- Kids are the bottom line
- Kids are our profit
- Kids are our stock quote
- Classrooms are the pulse of your school
- Parent involvement is your customer satisfaction survey
- Behavior referrals are the gauge for student engagement in classrooms

How can/why leaders have this mindset?

- Businesses (especially start-ups) tend to have open conversations/discussions that can change their path on a weekly basis. Schools should adapt this type of thinking, change is constant and being slow to change makes it that much harder to do so.
- Utilize Donors Choose as a way to crowdsource funding for classrooms. Don't just write a grant and let it sit, share share share through social media to garner community funding support! At John Swett Elementary we've had almost $70,000 in grants funded in just over two years, thanks to Twitter for helping with our outreach!
- Reach out to the companies you use to run your school. We've built great relationships with Remind, Voxer, Google and Donors Choose. Talking with employees from outside of the education space opens my mind to different ideas and how to run our school. Educators can learn a ton from non-educators, adapt those practices for your school.

- How do you run your school like a business, would love to hear ideas!

It's all about the kids, they are our business!

Cameo Appearance #savmp

The video below from Brad Gustafson @GustafsonBrad is an amazing example of collaboration! Excited to make two cameo appearances with @MissHullJSE and @MrsRocheJSE thanks for having us on Brad!

Donors Choose + Chevron = Amazing Support for Teachers! #savmp #teamkid

Donors Choose by itself is amazing!

Promoting Donors Choose with your Remind class is even better!

Tweeting all your teacher grants really gets the word out and helps to fund your grants in ways that were not previously available. 

Donors Choose in October is the ABSOLUTE best, thanks to Chevron and their Fuel Your Schools promotion. 

Principals and teachers.....you MUST promote, you MUST advertise, you MUST Tweet, you must Remind, you MUST market all of this if you want big support.

Screenshot taken this morning from our JSE Donors Choose page, this is in just over two years!

Got Tweeted by Chevron yesterday, that was fun! 

Last Tuesday night at our PTA meeting I Tweeted out a grant that was super close to being funded. About thirty minutes later, boom.....fully funded, THANK YOU Twitter!

Running the Mile #savmp

Raise your hand if you enjoyed running the mile in PE as a kid......I'm sure not too many hands went up. For years I've seen kids slog through the mile run, there's always a handful that enjoy running, but most do not.

This really got me thinking about how I can support those students who don't enjoy running, or for that matter don't really run well. We do a really great job of supporting students in the classroom with learning, how can we support them with running?

Last year I started running with our classes in PE, hoping to motivate some and to really push some others. I also decided to strap on a GoPro camera and record the whole thing. That time of the year has come again, I have my running shoes on today and am hoping to inspire/push/motivate our kids to life-long fitness!