Can I tell you a secret? I have a love-hate relationship with the summer on a school campus.

As a school administrator, my days extend quite far into the summer. That’s okay – I knew what I was signing up for. Yet, it’s such a weird experience on a campus. On the one hand, it’s lighter and quiet. There is time to think, plan, and recuperate. On the other hand, it’s eerily quiet and lonely. It’s so strange to go from 100 mph to residential speeds in a few days. Mostly, I greatly miss our staff and students. That being said, I have greatly come to appreciate the time to slow down, think, and plan for the future.

As a part of the planning process for next year, our team is making some big pushes toward increasing the amount and quality of professional development on our campus. We will be making a huge push with amplifying our PLC’s and pushing writing across the curriculum. In addition to this, we will have a variety of staff meetings, optional PD’s, and district PD’s in which our staff can participate. To help organize all of this information, I developed a simple “Professional Development Calendar” with all of the trainings, dates, locations, and links to upcoming PD to keep our staff informed.

Here’s a quick example of what it looks like:

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As you can see, the calendar is broken into four sections:

• Staff Meetings – Monthly staff meeting with a specific sitewide focus. This year, it will be on “Amplifying our PLC’s”
• Academics – PD specifically aimed towards improving our academics. This year, we will be offering writing PD’s, continuing our learning walks, and a Rookie Rap for new teachers.
• Student Well-Being – Any PD for our SEL & PBIS goals to support teachers as they navigate the ever-changing behaviors of our students.
• District PD – Any PD being offered by the district office.

If for some reason one of my amazing teachers is reading this PD, I know that none of this is new information but please note these dates are all simply examples and may not be accurate. Your “legit” version is coming soon!

As with anything, I always want to make sure the “why” is understood when developing, creating, or implementing something new. While this PD calendar has a low impact on staff, the “why” is quite simple but still important. Clear, accurate, and timely communication is always appreciated by school staff. We have a lot of amazing opportunities happening on our campus. It’s important that our staff can easily access these trainings and plan for their year.

Finally, as a leader, the goals for the year must be communicated to your staff. As simple as this calendar might be, it is another way to remind our staff of our sitewide goals for the year. After all, how effective are your professional development and goals if it is unknown by your staff? Simply sharing this calendar is another way to increase the awareness of our goals for the year through visually seeing the professional development that is offered to support it.

How does your school share their important events and/or dates with staff? I would love to hear about it, so share in the comments below!

Once we established our positive behavior expectations, our PBIS team’s next big goal was to create a sitewide behavior intervention flowchart. In this flowchart, the goal was to:

• Clearly define the difference between minor and major behaviors
• Outline a process for minor and major behaviors
• Create consistency across the entire school

We found a TON of great resources online that guided our conversation. We started by looking at a variety of flowcharts to see what would best fit our needs. Once we found the style that we liked the best, we created a template and began adding in our own information. Here is what we created:

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As you can see, the behaviors were added to the center and differentiated by minors and majors. By aligning them side by side, it helped teachers to understand the difference between a minor and major behavior in each category (ex: disruption, defiance, etc.). On each side of the behaviors, there are the interventions that are put into place for students when a minor and/or major behavior occurs. Minor behaviors can escalate to major behaviors if repeated, sustained, and/or the minor interventions have already been implemented.

Here are some best practices we had for implementing this flowchart:

Run it By Leadership

Once this was created, we took it to our leadership team for feedback. This is SO important! Don’t forget to run big decisions like this by your leadership team and staff.

Align with your Referral System

Currently, we use a combination of PBIS Rewards and Infinite Campus for logging behavior incidents on campus. In PBIS Rewards, teachers log any minor and major behaviors. The minor behaviors stay in PBIS Rewards but we move over the major behaviors to Infinite Campus so that future schools can also see these behaviors.

In PBIS Rewards, we aligned the categories (ex: disruption, defiance, etc.) to the system as the “problem behavior”. In addition to this, we aligned all of the interventions (on the far left and right side) to the “redirections” section. By doing this, it created consistency across referrals and further implemented the flowchart.

Train Your Staff

Implementing a sitewide, behavior intervention flowchart was a huge change! It was something that our teachers asked for to create consistency but there was a lot of training that was needed up front. First, we trained teachers on the flowchart and what each step meant. Afterwards, we trained them on PBIS Rewards and how to use the program to log and track the behavior information.

Shift from Discipline to Interventions

One of the biggest shifts for our staff was the difference between “interventions” and “discipline”. The left side (the minors) are interventions. They are strategies that are done in the classroom to intervene and prevent future behaviors. It is an opportunity to reteach and help students grow. The right side (the majors) are considered discipline. Discipline is something that is done by administration (ex: class suspension, referral) in response to repeated, sustained, or severe behavior incidents. There are still interventions that are done by administration (ex: Check In/Out, Behavior PTC’s, BIP’s, etc.) However, we wanted to shift the mindset from “progressive discipline” to “progressive interventions”. It was a big shift and we are still growing in this area.

Currently, we are one quarter in to fully implementing PBIS. It is WAY more than I anticipated and I know that this is going to be a several year journey. If you have any PBIS stories or best practices to share, please do so in the comments below!

As many districts start the year in distance learning, I have developed a distance learning website in Google Sites that can be used to increase communication between the school and parents/students. Basically, it is the one-stop-shop for all of a family’s distance learning needs and support! Communication with our families is going to be essential if distance learning is to be a success. I hope that you find this FREE resource valuable for your school. Let’s dive into it!

Click the image above or click HERE to view the website.

The distance learning website is broken into the following sections:

General Info

In this section, parents and students can find general information on Chromebook repairs, lunch options, and other FAQ’s. It contains a broad overview of the site’s distance learning plan.

Teachers

I absolutely believe that this will be the most utilized and beneficial page for students and parents. In this section, students can find their teachers, the teacher’s contact information, their distance learning plan, and a short, introductory video that introduces the teachers and walks them through their Google Classroom and other digital resources. While students are comfortable with technology, not all of the parent community will be. My hope is that this supports our parents in supporting their students.

Administration

Nothing fancy here – just the administration’s contact information and a short video introducing themselves.

Counseling

Many students will have questions for their counselors during distance learning. Here, students can find their counselor’s information and even submit a counseling request form.

Tech Support

The top tech questions are answered in this section, along with a variety of videos to support students with accessing their student’s grades or using other technology (ex: Google Classroom).

Parent Resources

Many districts have resources for parents during distance learning – link them here!

Here is a quick video on a walkthrough of the website, as well as tips and tricks to copy and modify your own:

Interested in your own copy? Follow the directions below:

1. Go to the Distance Learning Site Template folder in Google Drive.
2. Right-click on the following file –> **(MAKE A COPY) Distance Learning Website Template**.
3. Select “Make a Copy”.
4. Right-click your new copy and select “Move To” and move it to your own folder.

Here’s a short GIF on how to do this:

How does your school plan on increasing communication with families during distance learning? Share below!

I’m going to be honest. This post is literally popped into my brain about 5 minutes ago. It wasn’t pre-planned. It wasn’t carefully lined out. It wasn’t something I have been thinking about for weeks.

Instead, this post is completely spontaneous and unfiltered. So, let’s see how this goes.

Times are a little crazy right now. I think we all know this. COVID-19 is ruling our lives and our minds at the moment. It’s the only thing that everyone is talking about. It’s dictating how we think, shop and interact with other humans. It’s making people paranoid and afraid. People are panicked and living in a state of fear. I’m not saying that it isn’t unwarranted, it’s just simply a fact.

And about five minutes ago, I started thinking…The kids are watching us. 

I’m not just talking about my students or my own children, I am talking about all of our students and all of our children. I’m not just talking about myself or other educators, I am talking about all adults. I’m talking about the entire country – the entire world.

All of the kids are watching us right now. They are watching how we react in these times, whether we are calm or panicked. They are watching how we treat each other, whether it is with kindness or selfishness. They are watching how we behavior on social media, whether it is with obsession or reflection.

The kids are watching everything that is happening right now because it is such a monumental moment in history. It’s a situation that most adults have never experienced. Yet, our students, our kids, are experiencing it during a very formative age. This means that the behaviors and attitudes that we model right now can have a lifetime impact on the kids that are around us.

We have to be the examples to them. We have to show them how to be calm in the storm. We have to show them how to treat others with kindness. We have to show them how to carefully reflect and make wise choices. We have to show them that we are all in this together. We have to teach them to be good humans.

I challenge you, as I have challenged myself, to reflect on what our kids are seeing through their eyes as they live through this situation. Because, quite frankly, they are watching everything we do.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And, please, stay kind to one another.

Years ago, I read a book called How Full Is Your Bucket while I was attending graduate school for my administrative services credential. Although it wasn’t technically an “education” book, it was probably one of my favorite books of my master’s degree program. In this book, the author talked about the “magic ratio” of positive and negative moments that make up a person’s day. Essentially, the ratio is a 5:1 where it takes five positive moments to combat the one negative moment. Five to one…This means that four positive moments are outweighed by one negative moment in the day. It means that only at five positive moments do we break even with the one negative moment.

The magic ratio has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind this week.

I absolutely love my job but, I would be lying if I didn’t say that there were a lot of negative moments in my role as a Vice Principal of discipline. It’s just a simple fact that I don’t always get to see the students at their best moments. Although this is a fact, I have found that I love this role and forming relationships with some of our most struggling students. It’s amazing to see the progress that some of our students are making as we go throughout the year. Yet, it can be easy to fall into the trap of the magic ratio and allowing that 5:1 ratio to dictate the outcome of my day.

I remember thinking this way in the classroom, too. Perhaps it was reviewing the results of an assessment and seeing that 30 of my students performed well, while 5 of my students  struggled. It could have been the times where I reviewed a note from a substitute to find that four class periods were amazing but one class was disrespectful or off-task. The 5:1 ratio still held true in these situations. I couldn’t focus on the positive and all of the amazing things that happened that day. I could only focus on the negatives.

While there is a lot of research to support the idea of the magic ratio for positive and negative emotions, I’ve decided that I want to actively break that ratio into nonexistence. I want to be more mindful of focusing on the positives, rather than negatives – because guess what? There are a lot more positives in the day than negatives and those should carry the most weight.

While I have been thinking about this a lot lately, I was surprised to find that this was apparently on the minds of many people in our district. In fact, our district leadership meeting this week focused on this very idea, specifically on how we can create lasting positive change in our schools and lives. To help us start to develop sustainable and lasting change, our district leadership was taken through a series of videos and activities. These activities were short and simple ways to create more positivity…which has inspired me to create an activity for you to share with your students or staff, too!

Based upon some of my reflections, plus our amazing district leadership meeting, I created a HyperDoc that could be used with either staff or students to inspire positive thinking and change on your campus. Again, I have to reiterate that a majority of these activities were completely stolen from my own district, so major props to them for bringing great PD to us!

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(The easiest way to share this with staff for them to create their own link is by sharing the “copy” link above.)

As I move forward, I am hoping to put more of these “five actions” into, well, action in my own life on a daily basis. I do believe that it help defeat the magic ratio and bring more positivity to myself and those around me. There are so many positive things to focus on in our lives and in our careers – we just have to be more mindful about it!

How do you support your staff or students in creating and developing a positive mindset? Share in the comments below!

This year, I have challenged myself to read more often – both professionally and for pleasure! I’ve really gotten out of the habit of reading over the last couple of years as life has become quite busy. Therefore, my goal for this year is two read a minimum of two books per month and one of these books must have a focus on growing professionally. I’m excited to share these books with you and hope you will find something to read that will help you grow professionally, too!

The Book

For the month of January, I read Tribes by Seth Godin. Here is a shortened version of the summary for the book:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea…Who is going to lead all these tribes? If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Ignore an opportunity to lead and you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”—someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days. Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities for leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, readers…. It’s not easy, but it’s easier than you probably imagine.

The Audience

This book is aimed at people in and/or aspiring to be in a leadership position. It’s not aimed directly at education but it would probably tie into a variety of leadership roles, such as district leadership, site administrators, department chairs and academic coaches.

The Review

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

The first half of Tribes was very strong, however, the second half of the book felt a little repetitive. Tribes is not structured as a typical book. It almost feels as if it is a hundred short blog posts compiled into a book. This makes it a very easy read because it quickens the pace of the book to a new topic every page or two. It keeps readers engaged and leaves very little time for you to become bored on a specific topic. That being said, I also felt like it was a little too disjointed at times. It was often hard to follow the overall message of the book and didn’t give a lot of practical tools on how to put these leadership skills into practice.

That being said, I feel that the overall message of the book could be summed up to this:

It’s not the quantity of the people that you lead, it’s the quality in which you lead them. People follow those that are transparent, passionate and tenacious. They follow those that inspire and encourage them. Ultimately, true leaders create other leaders.

Each excerpt within the book discussed these ideas and shared real-life examples of leaders all over the world. It was interesting to read about some of the most successful companies and how they got to where they are today.

While Tribes felt like it did not have enough practical advice on how to put all these ideas into place, it certainly had enough stories to inspire readers to lead differently and to regularly consider the quality of their leadership.

The Best Quotes

“Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.”

“Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in… Leaders have followers. Managers have employees.”

“Leaders, on the other hand, don’t care very much for organizational structure or the official blessing of whatever factory they work for. They use passion and ideas to lead people, as opposed to using threats and beaucracy to manage them. Leaders must become aware of how the organization works, because this awareness allows them to change it.”

“So a leader can help increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members by: 1.) transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change, 2.) providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications, and 3.) leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.”

“Great leaders are able to reflect the light onto their teams, their tribes. Great leaders don’t want the attention, but they use it. They use it to unite the tribe and to reinforce their sense of purpose.”

The Takeaway

My big takeaway from this book is that leadership isn’t about a title. You can have an important title and not be a leader. A leader is someone who inspires people to follow them, not because of their title, but because they have created an inspiring, passionate and transparent culture. A leader is someone who doesn’t care about the title or the attention. They care about the mission and vision of the organization.

Personally, Tribes inspires me to reflect on the leader that I currently am and the one that I want to be. I want to be a leader that inspires people to do what is best for our students. I want to be a leader that is passionate about what I do and how I can support students and teachers. However, I also want to be a leader that is transparent so that others feel comfortable to talk to me and come to me with their struggles. Finally, Tribes has inspired me to think about how you create a clear vision that others will be interested in following. I think this may be the trickiest part of this book, however, I am fortunate to work in a place where I am able to see this part of the book modeled on a daily basis.

Overall, Tribes is an enjoyable and quick read. You will definitely find the bulk of the inspiring messages at the beginning, while the second half of the book is somewhat repetitive. Although there are part of it that is repetitive, it’s still worth a read.

The Next Book

Currently, I am reading Disruptive Classroom Technologies: A Framework for Innovation in Education by Sonny Magana. Stay tuned for the next book review!

What book did you read this month? Share in the comments below!

I’ve been sitting on this post for three months or so. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to write it or not because I often worry about how things will be read. Will my message be received the way I intend? Will I come off too harsh? Too hypocritical? Too egotistical? Too much of a know-it-all? I’ve gone back and forth on it. But, here we are. The words are on my screen and I’m going to give it a go.

Some of my friends may have noticed that I’ve taken a bit of a social media break in the last few months. It certainly timed up with when I started my new job but that wasn’t really the reason. I’m definitely busier than I used to but, again, that’s not the reason that I’ve stepped back from social media. It’s an entirely different reason.

I became discouraged with Twitter a few months ago. As the new year was getting ready to start, I watched as many teachers shared their ideas. They were excited for the new year. Excited to try new things. Excited to meet their students. Yet, there was an entirely different group of people that existed on Twitter. There was a group of educators that were consistently and harshly ripping into these other educators. Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. I watched as people responded to posts with negativity and judgment. I watched as people wrote about their child’s teacher and/or other educators that they know and how they felt that their ideas were simple and worthless. I watched as this amazing professional ripped into each other because they didn’t think other people’s ideas were good enough.

And it broke my heart.

Education is an incredibly difficult career. Whether you are a teacher, administrator, instructional coach, or classified staff – it’s a tough career. The last thing that we need to do is break each other down.

As these thoughts were going through my mind, I remember seeing a poster that was left in my office when I moved into it. At the bottom of the poster the words, “Dude. Be Nice.” were written on it. It was completely random and entirely fitting that I saw these words at nearly the same time. This poster, and these three words, have inspired my three challenges for you this year. These are three, simple challenges to uplift and strengthen one another – and I hope you take them seriously.

Dude. Be Nice

Our world could use a little more niceness. Scratch that – our world could use a lot more niceness. People are tough on one another and it rarely comes from a place of trying to help each other grow. Don’t get me wrong, some people come off critical but they are really trying to challenge others to grow. Unfortunately, I truly believe that these situations are rare.

As you talk with others, think about the way that your words would sound to you if you were on the receiving end of it. If someone isn’t teaching to the caliber that you feel is appropriate, you can still be nice and help them grow. In fact, it will actually create a better rapport between you and the other educators because they will see you as someone that they can trust. Someone they can come to without fear of judgment and criticism. Someone that they can come to for constructive feedback – but someone that still has their back.

Every time I finish working with students in the discipline office I tell them, “Now, go be a nice human.” They usually get a chuckle out of it but I mean every word. It’s my challenge to you, too. Be a nice human.

Dude. Be Transparent.

Lately, I’ve become increasingly aware of the lack of transparency in education. Everyone wants to appear perfect. They want to look as if they have it all together.

News flash: No one is that perfect and no one has it all together. If anything, a lack of transparency is death to effective collaboration and growth.

A lack of transparency creates a lack of trust. Without trust, people will not be willing to take risks, share openly and grow together. It’s incredibly important that educators understand that we are all in this together. It’s important that they understand that we all make mistakes. It’s important they understand that we all have so much to learn. And yes, it’s important that they all understand that we are not perfect.

My challenge to you is to share transparently, trust one another and grow together.

Dude. Be Encouraging.

Years ago, my husband and I took the “love languages” test and my love language was “words of affirmation”. A few years later, I realized that there was actually a “professional” (or work) version of this book. I didn’t bother reading it because I knew it would come out the same. Words of affirmation have always meant the world to me.

I would imagine that a large number of educators thrive on words of affirmation and encouragement. It doesn’t take much. A simple compliment on an awesome lesson that was observed or even a simple “thank you” for something that was done. Words are more powerful than we think and I truly believe they can be a powerful voice in our schools.

As you go through your week, my challenge to you is to encourage the people that you work with on a daily basis. Give encouragement for those that are finding success – but definitely for those that are struggling, too. It doesn’t have to be much. Just something to let them know that you are in this with them.

If you had to pick your “Dude. Be _________” statement – what would it be? Share in the comments below!

Last week, I started a new position as Vice Principal of a middle school in my district. I’m so excited to begin this journey and feel blessed to be working with some amazing individuals. As I move into this role, I’ve been reflecting on all of the experiences that have led up to this opportunity. I’ve been thinking about the educators, administrators and co-workers that have played an instrumental role in my professional life. I’ve been thinking about the ways in which they have guided me, the conversations they have had with me, and how they challenged me to do more as an educator. Most importantly, I’ve been constantly reflecting on how I can be that leader that impacts other educators.

Yet, as I was contemplating these things, I came to this (somewhat obvious) realization:

It was never one, single moment that has led me here – but a million little things.

As I reflect on this sentence, I realize that it’s not one conversation I have had with other educators, administrators, or mentors. It wasn’t a big, grand moment where I was encouraged to do something that was completely life-changing. It was the small moments. The conversations, the encouragement, and the mentorship over an extended period of time. Yet, in the end, the million little things have certainly led to some life-changing experiences.

It’s the little moment where, as a high school student, I was encouraged to write because my teacher saw talent in my writing. It’s that little moment that led, ultimately, to the creation of this blog.

It’s the little moment where I was encouraged to apply to my current district, during a time in which I was unsure if I truly wanted to be in education after some difficult situations as a young teacher. It’s that little moment that opened so many doors and solidified my passion for education.

It’s the little moment where I was encouraged, as a new teacher, to present at a professional development day in our district. It’s that little moment that pushed me out of my comfort zone and started my journey in presenting and training teachers.

It’s the little moment where a former administrator always led every conversation with “do what’s best for kids”. It’s that little moment that has framed every student learning experience and conversation that I have had within education.

It’s the little moment where an administrator bought a book that introduced to me to the world of Twitter. It’s that little moment which has connected me to the educational world on a global level, which ultimately led to amazing opportunities (Google Trainer, Google Innovator, BoostEDU, etc.)

It’s the little moment of joining summer school and having deep conversations about education with excited, passionate professionals. It’s that little moment that completely redefined how I taught in my classroom.

It’s the million, little conversations between a mentor about next steps, future paths and leadership. It’s that little moment that led me to applying for my current position.

I could write a dozen more “little moments” and how they shaped who I am and the trajectory of my career. There are so many people that I am thankful for and how they have supported me over the years. I’m certainly not perfect and I have had a lot of learning experiences along the way but I appreciate every little moment.

Finally, I want to take those little moments and ask myself this question:

How can I provide little, impactful moments for the educators that I will be working with this year?

As we go into this year, I want to constantly reflect on who I am and how I can be a servant to others. I want to reflect on how I can help grow other educators and leaders around me. I hope I can do that. I hope I can be that person.

Share your “little moments” or the way you inspire others in the comments below!

It’s been nearly 3 years since I Heart EDU was born. In those three years, I have written 180 blog posts and reached hundreds of thousands of educators. While I have been able to share so much with my readers, I’ve also learned from them and spent time reflecting on who I am as an educator. It isn’t always easy to blog – but the reward far outweighs the struggles.

As I mentioned, blogging consistently is a challenge. It isn’t easy and you have to be disciplined and committed. While I consistently blogged every week for the first two years of my blog, I have found myself missing a week here and there due to…well, just the busy-ness of life. Between a new baby and several job changes, I have felt like I have been in “survival mode” when it comes to my blog and sharing on social media. My hope, as I move into this next school year, is to get back to basics and reignite my passion for blogging on a regular basis.

All of this to say – I am excited to announce a new opportunity for others to join in the blogging experience: Blogging Buddies!

While I was at ISTE, several of my friends mentioned the same concerns about their blogs. They were struggling to write on a regular basis. They often struggled with ideas for what to write about. They had a passion and a desire to write but they needed something to help them. Right then, I thought it would be a great opportunity to form “Blogging Buddies”, a group of educators who blog, share ideas and hold each other accountable.

The format for Blogging Buddies will be very informal. I am going to create a Google Hangout for educators to join. Each week, we will have check-ins on our blogs posts, help each other with ideas for blogging, and share our blog posts with each other for feedback and sharing on social media. In addition to this, I will also share tips and tricks for how I have created and maintained my blog throughout the years.

Blogging Buddies is open to anyone – so, if you are interested in joining us, please fill out the Google Form below!

Finally, I am not sold on the “Blogging Buddies” name and would be totally open to suggestions that might have a more “EDU” focus.

I hope that I can get a few educators to join me in this blogging journey. I love collaborating with educators and reading their stories. More importantly, I hope that this can be a group that will help amplify the voices of our educational community.

Do you write a blog? If so, share your blog in the comments so I can check it out!

BACKGROUND

Schools are a busy place. Between sporting events, clubs, electives, field trips and regular classroom activities, our campuses are filled with fun, engaging and important events. Often times, it can be very easy for staff members to not know what is going on in their campus. Don’t worry – I’ve got a solution!

A couple of years ago, I worked at a middle school where the administrator sent out a weekly “Week at a Glance”. This email was my lifeline for the week. Without it, I truly believe I would have forgotten important meetings, activities or events. In addition to this, it also let me know what other events were occurring on our campus so I could drop in and support our students.

FREE RESOURCE

Recently, I’ve been thinking it would be beneficial to create a Slide Deck Template where school leaders could store all of this information. If you are not a school leader, don’t worry – I’ve got some ideas for you, too! Here is what I developed:

Click HERE to view the Slide Deck with Comments!

Click HERE to make your own copy!

Inside this resource, you will find the following sections:

• Monday Motivation – Share a motivational quote, video, podcast, etc. with your staff/students.
• Weekly Shout Out – Give a shout out to someone who has done something great on your campus.
• Professional Development – Share tech tips, resources, articles and/or videos to help staff/students grow.
• Weekly Events – Share the events for the upcoming week to keep everyone organized and informed!

Finally, the greatest part of having this as an editable Google Slide is that you can make edits to it during the week without sending out another email – exciting, right?!

IDEAS

Administrators/Department Teachers

Use this document to share encourage, motivate, teach and share information with your staff. Update it on a weekly and/or monthly basis. Allow teachers to add comments and/or ask questions by using the “commenting” features.

Teachers

Use this document to share encourage, motivate, teach and share information with your students and their parents. Update it on a weekly basis. Adjust the template to better fit the daily/weekly needs of your students.

Instructional Coaches

Use this document to share encourage, motivate, teach and share information with the teachers you are mentoring. Update it on a weekly/monthly basis. Add specific information based on the area that you are coaching and include any professional development opportunities that teachers could attend. Maybe even include a “create an appointment” option in the PD slide.

What tools do you use to share information with your staff and/or students? Share in the comments below!