Episode 84: Happy New Year #PrincipalPLN

Happy New Year from the PrincipalPLN!

Photo created with PhotoFunia app

We're back!! Well, at least Theresa and Jessica are. Spike has been abducted by aliens, so he's not available to podcast today. Of course, we jest. We miss you, Spike!)

 Find out why we haven't podcasted in so long and hear about some major life changes.

We discuss if it's possible to use Snapchat in schools and how? Theresa asked this question on Facebook and shares the responses in this google doc. 

Other apps we shared include:

Photofunia iPhone app

Houseparty (video group chat) iPhone app

Irunurun.com - app for goals/habits iPhone app

“Here are the best iPhone apps for 2016” - Business Insider

In the spirit of the new year we discuss New Year's Resolutions and the goal strategy in the book The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than You Do in 12 Months and other apps to help you with goal setting in Michael Hyatt's blog post: 7 Apps to Help You Achieve Your Goals and Build New Habits.

Here's Theresa's New Year's Resolution:


We also share the new podcasts we are listening to:

Ask Me Another

This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt

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Episode 83: Support for New Administrators

In this episode we discuss a couple of great resources for New Administrators: #NewAdminChat and #SAVMP.

We were joined by Emily Clare and Jeff Pricket to hear all about their new endeavor to support new administrators: #NewAdminChat which will be the first Tuesday of each month, kicking off for the first time on Tuesday, September 6th at 8:00pm CST.  We encourage you all to join in to support new administrators and to also help promote this for any new administrators that you may know. 

Another great resource for new and experienced administrators is the School Administrator Virtual Mentor Program, known as #SAVMP http://savmp.edublogs.org.  This program was started originally by George Couros, taken over by Amber Teamann for a year and organized by our very own Theresa for years 3 and 4!  Mentors and Mentees are matched up based on the information that is entered into the application, which you can find HERE.  Mentors and Mentees can plan to connect on Voxer and Twitter, as well as blog throughout the year on topics given out for the #SAVMP group.  This year, Theresa is adding a gamification component for members to earn badges! #SAVMP is a great program that both veterans and new administrators have enjoyed learning from. 

Whether you are a new administrator or a veteran, we encourage you to not only get involved with both of these supports to grow as a mentor, learn along side colleagues, and challenge you to share these resources with others to get connected as well. 

We also have a giveaway...the book I'm In The Principal's Seat, Now What? If you are a new administrator or know someone who is and would love this gift, please tweet us, using #principalpln to tell us why you want this book or who you know would. 

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Episode 82: Random Thoughts in the August "Crunch Time"

In this podcast, Spike and Jessica talk candidly and randomly, with no podcast plan!  Listen to hear their conversation of everything in their heads at this point in time... about what's on their to-do lists to get ready for the school year, what they're listening to, etc.

We're all down to crunch time to the start of the new school year! Are you feeling like this?

As has been previously shared in our podcast notes (a year ago), here is an example of Jessica's summer to-do list, which Spike refers to as her "playbook."

We may not have gone on any exciting vacations this summer, but our book did! Check out where Kathi Kersznowski took our book this summer:

We also chatted about what other podcasts we've been listening to:

Where There’s Smoke

Radiolab

Note to Self

UnearthED by Brad Gustafson and Ben Gilpin
MyBad

Jessica raved about EduCLIMBER, an amazing data warehouse that is one place to track every source of student data (tests, attendance, behavior) keep track of interventions to monitor progress and even have a student app to track behaviors in a Check In-Check Out system each day. Here's a great quick overview of what it looks like.

Spike talked about his recent experience of seeing Ken Williams speak at a local conference. Ken recently published Starting a Movement: Building a Culture From The Inside Out in Professional Learning Communities. Spike said he was able to use parts of this book right away as he worked with his staff on Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals.


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Episode 81: What is BreakoutEdu? with Guest Ann Smart

In this episode, we are joined by Ann Smart, an Ed Tech Consultant from Jackson ISD in Michigan to have her answer our question: What is BreakoutEdu? Listen to find out how you can use this for team building/collaboration in a staff meeting/PD to model taking risks and then let your teachers brainstorm how they could use this in their classrooms. There are many ways teachers are already using BreakoutEdu in their classes to make learning tons of fun!

If you are excited to get going with BreakoutEdu then here are some links to help you get started:

http://www.breakoutedu.com/

How to Get Started

Follow BreakoutEdu on Twitter

Check the hashtag #breakoutedu

Join the Facebook Group to network with others for ideas

Lock App

Pinterest Page of BreakoutEdu ideas

Here are some videos to help you learn more about BreakoutEdu:

Watch students reviewing geometry with BreakoutEdu fun
James Sanders introducing/facilitating BreakoutEdu with staff

Here are some pictures from Theresa's first experience with BreakoutEdu at #EdcampLdrMI:

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Episode 80: Leveling Up Your School Facebook Page with guest Melissa Emler

In this episode we chat with Melissa Emler, a former principal and now Director of Innovations, about using Facebook as your tool to communicate with your parents and community. While we thought we were great at using Facebook to communicate with our parents/community, Melissa blew our minds with awesome ideas and better ways to tell our story and engage our families!

Listen to learn how Melissa used social media interns to help manage her school Facebook page, which also helped her high school students learn digital citizenship and great communication skills.

Did you know that Faceook's algorithm has changed,  so unless you're posting something every day, your community is likely not seeing your school posts showing up in their feed! Melissa teaches us how to change this and how to inform your families of this change.  She talks about the use of Facebook analytics, how to make posting easier with a content calendar and then blew our minds about utilizing Facebook live.

Melissa hosts the podcast, On the Vendor Floor, and has a few episodes that you can listen to about managing your school Facebook page. You follow her on Twitter: @MelissaEmler

Some other great links to learn from:

Melissa's podcast series on Facebook for School Leaders

5 Mistakes You Are Already Making On Your School's Facebook Page

Social Media Intern Objectives and Expectations

Presentation Slides from one of Melissa's Conference Sessions

  Edited to add Jessica's screencast made to show her school community how to change their settings:


Here's a screenshot of Jessica's 2nd post on her school Facebook page with just a quick description for parents:

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Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

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Episode 80: Leveling Up Your School Facebook Page with guest Melissa Emler

In this episode we chat with Melissa Emler, a former principal and now Director of Innovations, about using Facebook as your tool to communicate with your parents and community. While we thought we were great at using Facebook to communicate with our parents/community, Melissa blew our minds with awesome ideas and better ways to tell our story and engage our families!

Listen to learn how Melissa used social media interns to help manage her school Facebook page, which also helped her high school students learn digital citizenship and great communication skills.

Did you know that Faceook's algorithm has changed,  so unless you're posting something every day, your community is likely not seeing your school posts showing up in their feed! Melissa teaches us how to change this and how to inform your families of this change.  She talks about the use of Facebook analytics, how to make posting easier with a content calendar and then blew our minds about utilizing Facebook live.

Melissa hosts the podcast, On the Vendor Floor, and has a few episodes that you can listen to about managing your school Facebook page. You follow her on Twitter: @MelissaEmler

Some other great links to learn from:

Melissa's podcast series on Facebook for School Leaders

5 Mistakes You Are Already Making On Your School's Facebook Page

Social Media Intern Objectives and Expectations

Presentation Slides from one of Melissa's Conference Sessions

                             



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Purchase "Breaking Out of Isolation" today!

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Episode 79: Live Podcasting from #NAESP16

Brad Gustafson and Theresa Stager joined forces during a live podcasting session at NAESP. The demo took place in the Innovation Lab, and offered participants a quick glimpse of how to create a podcast, set-up a green-screen, etc. Principals were asked to share their "one" take-away from the conference during the unscripted podcast. 

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Episode 78: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time? With Dr. Tony Sinanis

When was the last time you did something new 

for the first time?

In this episode we chat with Dr. Tony Sinanis about moving into his new role as an Assistant Superintendent.  We ask how he decided to move on from the principal position that he loved, what he's looking forward to, and what he's nervous about.  Tony recently published the book Hacking Leadership, along with Dr. Joe Sanfelippo.  They have also put together a great resource for leaders to share ideas at http://www.hacklead.org/.

Another great book mentioned during this chat for moving in to new positions is The First 90 Days, which was a resource that Spike used in his transition this year.

And for a funny share, we had to talk about Melinda Miller's morning alarms as she prepared to go back to work:

What does your morning alarm say?





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Episode 77: EdCamp Leader

While catching up on what we've been up to Theresa talked about the upcoming NAESP convention and we had to mention that Jessica Cabeen (Principal that was featured in this episode) will be receiving the NAESP award for Digital Leader of Early Learning. You can see all of the great things her school is doing to integrate technology in her Kindergarten center in this video.

 Jessica and Theresa talk about the upcoming EdCamp Leader (#edcampldr).  EdCamp is a great way to learn about what you want, following the rule  of 2 feet (if you don't like the session, then walk out and go to another). EdCamp is such a great way to connect with others, expand your PLN and just have conversations about what you want to learn more about for your own professional learning.  Check out the EdCamp Leader site to find out where your closest #edcampldr is.


Last year Theresa and Jessica finally got to meet in person for the first time. Yes, after podcasting for two years and writing a book together (along with Spike), they never met in person until this...

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Episode 76: Principal Voice

Source: ledgerwood.wordpress.com

In this week's episode, Spike and Theresa talk about their recent article for Corwin Connect titled, "6 Ways for Principals to Use Their Voice."

As the discussion ensues, Spike and Theresa talk about the collaborative writing piece that is so crucial to today's connected world. Spike, Theresa and Jessica have written countless blog posts, articles and even a book without ever sitting down together in the same room. Sometimes it goes well and other times it takes several revisions. In addition to collaborative writing, they discuss the importance of transparency, branding, and being the lead story teller for the school.

Please be sure to support our friends Tony Sinanis and Joe Sanfelippo's new book Hacking Leadership as well as their popular book Power of Branding.

Look for upcoming shows as we explore what Principals do in the summer.

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