Industry Challenges

Perry Central Community Schools has always been a place of innovation, caring, learning and fun!  As I prepare for a week full of activities in our junior-senior high school, I am reminded of all of the wonderful things we have going on within our walls; not just this week but everyday.  Perry Central continues to strive to be not just a school that covers standards, but an environment that supports students growth and development while ensuring they have opportunity to gain experiences that help foster a high quality of life.  As Ted Dintersmith points out in his book, "What Schools Could Be", that schools should foster learning environments that provide authentic purpose, agency, essential skills and mindsets and deep knowledge really get at the heart of a well-rounded education.

Perry Central is considered an Early College and Poly-Tech High School.  This innovative approach allows for students to earn valuable dual credit and work-base learning opportunities.   One approach we learned from the Poly-Tech schools in New York this winter, was the idea of Industry Challenges.  Industry Challenges provide students with an authentic problem that a local business or industry is facing and allows the students to work in teams to provide solutions to the challenge.  Students present their solutions to authentic audiences, such as representatives from the company. 

This week, we will have several students sharing about our first Industry Challenge to our School Board this evening.  Several months ago, Agriculture Power, Construction, Engineering and Biomedical students were asked to create a solution to an unsafe set of stairs on the Agriculture side of the Vocational Building.  Ag Power students presented their problem to Construction students, who designed a set of stairs for the shop.  Once Construction students sketched out an idea that could work, they sent their ideas up to the Engineering classes in hopes of seeking a CAD drawing of the stairs.  Engineering students even presented their CAD drawings to local Engineers to gain valuable feedback about ADA codes and details in the prints.  Construction students took the final CAD product and used the information to price out the stairs.  Biomedical students presented health and safety concerns through OSHA to make sure our students are safe during the building process. 

Great project, huh?  Authentic, Agency, Skill Based (designing, building stairs/team work & communication), Deep Knowledge are all apart of a project like this.  Student engagement was high and students utilized math, English and science application to complete the project. No longer were we teaching these skills in silos, but allowing students to work across several curricular areas.  This is what school should be about! 

We will not stop here!  We have been working on collecting Industry Challenges from local companies for more students to participate in.  Perry Central was also a recipient of a Digital Learning Grant from the Office of E-Learning to continue this work and train others on project-based learning.  I look forward to developing this important work with all of you! 

Important Information: 

Suicide Prevention Training:  This Tuesday, April 9th, will be one of the offered dates for Suicide Training.  The training will be in the high school library from 3:05 - 4:00 p.m.  If you cannot make this date, the alternative date is April 30th.  Remember this training is required by state-law so please make arrangements to attend one of the dates.  Thanks to Kelly Cash for leading us! 

Book Club:  What School Could Be Book Club will meet during 2nd WIN on Friday, April 12th.

Commodore Pride:  Thanks to all of the teams working to pull Commodore Pride together for our students on May 10th.  This year, we are going to add activities for our junior high students as well.  The students are VERY excited and providing a lot of insight on what they would like.  Commodore Pride is always a great day of fun and celebration for a successful school year!   

Ron Clark Academy:  Mary Jo Hagedorn and myself visited Eastern Pekin Middle School earlier in the school year with our junior high student council.  This Middle School has had a transformational change by increasing engagement, excitement and rigor by integrating in what they have learned from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, GA.  If you are not familiar with the Ron Clark Academy, you can learn more about it by viewing this 4 minute video clip.   It is worth your time - I promise!  Our students would LOVE us to learn more about the philosophy of the Ron Clark Academy. 

To gain some background, we are going to host a movie opportunity after school one day soon!  The movie is called the Ron Clark Story and is about an hour and a half long.  We would LOVE to watch the movie with anyone who is interested!  Below you will find a link to a Doodle Poll with possible viewing dates and times.  Please let us know if you are interested in joining us by filling out the link.  We may decide to have a summer viewing as well since I know many of you are busy this time of the year! 

Doodle Poll: https://doodle.com/poll/vnp2fz76eq58pquh 

Top Ten Seniors: Captain's Club Top 10 Senior Banquet will be Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at the Patio in Tell City.  This is always a special event for our students, their family and our teachers.  We want to thank the Captain's Club for their on-going support of our students.

 Special Visitors:  On Thursday, April 11th, Mayor Scott Fadness and Entrepreneur John Wechler of Fischers, IN will be at Perry Central to visit Commodore Manufacturing, learn about Industry Challenges (our stair project) and Entrepreneurship. Several students will be involved in this exciting day.  We look forward to sharing the awesome things we have going on here!




Important Dates:

Monday, April 8 - School Board Meeting 7:00 p.m. High School Library/ Varsity Baseball @ Cannelton 4:30 p.m./ Varsity Softball @ Tell City 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 9 -  Suicide Prevention Training 3:10 - 4:00 p.m. High School Library/ Varsity Track @ Home 4:45/  Varsity Golf @ Lucas Oil 4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 10 - Captain's Club Top 10 Banquet  6:00 p.m. Patio

Thursday, April 11 - Visitors to Perry Central  9:00 - 11:00 a.m./ Varsity Baseball @ Crawford County 4:30 p.m./ Varsity Track @ Paoli 4:45

Friday, April 12 - What School Could Be Book Club 2nd WIN/ Varsity Softball @ Jasper 5:00

Saturday, April 13 - Varsity Softball @ Jasper 9:00 a.m./ Varsity Baseball @ H vs. South Central 11:00 a.m./ Varsity Track @ Tell City 9:00 a.m./ Varsity Golf @ Lucas Oil 8:00 a.m.