Vulnerability

 

This month we will continue to strengthen our understanding of vulnerability and trust!  Our SIEC team has challenged us to build trust between students and adults/ adults and adults/ and adults and students and find ways to really deepen our understanding of vulnerability and the role it plays in our careers and relationships. 

 Brene reminds us that vulnerability takes courage.  One of her favorite quotes is from Theodore Roosevelt: 

      It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short                                                                     again and again. . .  who at the best knows the end the triumph                                                                  of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least                                                                          fails while daring greatly.   

To all of you: Dare Greatly this week!  

Important Information:

 House Morning Meeting - We are going to cancel our morning House Meeting for teachers this week.  Lauren will send the lesson like she normally does in an email.  We will be meeting soon to discuss our 2nd quarter competition soon!

Christmas Dance - Thanks to Mrs. Hagedorn and the student council for hosting the Christmas Dance.  The dance is this Saturday, December 4th!

Mental Health Coalition County Meeting - This Monday evening, November 29th, the county is hosting a Mental Health Townhall at the Perry County Courthouse to discuss the lagging resources in our community.  The meeting is open to the public from 5-7 p.m.  

Upcoming Dates:  December 8th - Candy Cane Carnival

                              December 22nd - End of the Quarter

                              December 21st - Finals for 2,4,6  (We will not block periods this year.)

                              December 22nd - Finals for 1,3,5,7

                              January 5th - Grades Due

Commodore Crew - The Commodore Crew showed up in full force Wednesday night as the Commodores took on the Marksmen.  We are proud of our kids and the support they give to each other.  Thanks to Ashley and Alyssa for leading them!  Go Commodores!  (Congrats to the basketball teams as well.)

Connect with Others - Thanks to Kelly Cash and the Key Club for raising money for the Isaiah House for Perry/Spencer Counties.  They raised over $100 for such a great cause. 

Create (Authentic) Learning Opportunities - Josh Craney and Michael Jarboe are looking forward to partnering with Habitat for Humanity in the near future.  The goal is to build a house out in the county for someone that could use a good home.  Habitat for Humanity has changed the income guidelines for a home.  It is often difficult for this organization to find someone to build for.  If you are interested let us know!

This group of young ladies are interning at the Perry County Health Department.  They worked on Wednesday at the vaccination clinic even though it was their day off.  They do a great job and we are excited about our partnership with Habitat for Humanity!

  

Vulnerability

At our faculty meeting last week, we brainstormed different ways that we can be vulnerable in the classroom, with the idea of bridging the trust gap between students and teacher and teachers and students.  Here are some of the responses: 

* Play a sport and fail miserably at my age!

* Sharing what is happening in life. 

*Sharing stories about my own problems through the years. 

*Tell students if they do certain things I will cry (not really) and then they get a laugh out of it while still trying to listen to me.  Tell the students you love them. 

* I let them know when things are going on that are hard for me. 

* I write in front of my students. 

* I play various instruments with my students. 

* A student asked for an example of "Is _____ always true?" and I had to admit that they have an inexperienced teacher who cannot come up with a counter example. 

* Admitting when something is not working and we do not have the answer yet, but we are trying. 

* I demonstrate activities from time to time to show my students that even sometimes I don't get it right. 

* A student asked me a question I didn't know.  I said, "I'm not sure, let's look it up!"

* I let my goofy personality come through.  I try new things that sometimes I fail at and admit when I do.

* I show them I am terrible at spelling and using google and ask the kids to help me! 

*I sing in front of my students. 

* Being able to admit when your wrong or when you don't know something. 

*I admit my weaknesses frequently!

What great ideas! I challenge all of you to take these next few weeks of the semester to take one more step to being vulnerable in the classroom! 

I look forward to growing in this area with all of you!   Here is a great article about trust from Brene Brown.  Hope you enjoy it!

Important Information: 

* Grateful - I am so grateful for all of you!  We have two days before Thanksgiving break.  I think we should wear jeans this week to help remind ourselves of the many reasons to give thanks. 

* Thanksgiving Pitch-In - Don't forget about the pitch-in on Tuesday!  Food will be in the elementary commons area. 

* Good Luck to the Boys Varsity Basketball team as they open the season Wednesday night at Tell City!  Go Commodores!  

Check out these entries from PC students to the American Legion Art contest.  Aren't they great!

Accountability Dashboard

The HEA 1549 has left Indiana with the goal of creating an Accountability Dashboard (now called Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed - GPS) as a way to provide a more robust view of student performance, so community members can see that our students are more than their test scores. (Yes, they are finally figuring this out!) 

The Indiana School Principal's Association has been reaching out to schools and allowing for feedback and an opportunity to learn more about this system, so I wanted to share what I know with you.  I think the easiest way to share is by giving you a few bullet points of information below.   I have also attached a power point that will dive into the potential dashboard in more details.  There are still a few things up in the air, but it is the beginning of a better use of data and a positive way to help schools improve.  

Dashboard Quick Facts: 

* The Graduates Prepared to Succeed Dashboard (GPS) will not replace the school letter grade at this time.  We will still receive a letter grade based on the same metrics:  test scores and college and career readiness scores.   (I am hopeful it will replace this in the future in some capacity.)  

* The GPS system is aimed to be learner-centered, future focused and prioritize individual student growth and opportunities. 

* There are 5 basic areas of growth: Academic Mastery, Career & Post-Secondary Readiness Credentials & Experiences, Communication & Collaboration, Work Ethic, Civic, Financial & Digital Literacy.  You can find examples of how each category may be measured in the power point below.  

            Overall, the goal of this data is to help communities understand what is happening in their local schools and provide a more transparent view of not only test scores but all of the work that goes into helping our students be more successful.  I would encourage you to take a look at this power point for more information.  I think they are hoping that this GPS Dashboard may be up for people to see by the end of this school year.  Please let me know if you have any questions/concerns about this or feedback you would like me to share with the School Principals Association. 

PowerPoint Presentation  

Important Information: 

Faculty Meeting - We will have a faculty meeting Tuesday morning at 7:20 a.m. in the high school library.  A light breakfast will be served.  

Field Trip - Dana Harris has arranged some great college visits for all of our students grades 9-10 on Wednesday, November 17th.  She is sending out important information and it is important you take a look at it.  Thanks to all of the teachers who will be attending to help chaperone!  Here are the rosters for the 5 groups: Sellersburg,   Evansville,   VUJC

Assistant Lunch and Learn - Wednesday, November 17th we will have a Lunch and Learn opportunity for our assistants.  Lunch will be provided in the Health Lab.  Many of the students are out of the building on Friday and our junior high houses will be meeting, so we shouldn't need too much help for WIN.  I will send some emails to see if we can get some help covering WINs on this day. Lunch will be at 11:24!

Lunch & Learn Classroom Management - We will have our 2nd session of Lunch and Learn Classroom Management Conversations.  Anyone is encouraged to attend.  Information will be shared and bring your own ideas!  We will start in the Health Lab at 11:45 a.m.  Bring your lunch - desserts will be served! This will be on Tuesday, November 16th!  

Thanksgiving Pitch-In - Joyce Foury is organizing a pitch-in for Monday, November 22nd.  HERE is the sign-up sheet!    

Jr./Sr. High School Happenings: 

 

       Connect with Others - Carrie Guillaume has been working really hard to make positive phone calls to parents.  This has helped her develop good relationships with her students and when things are not going well, she has a good relationship with the parent, too!  Positive phone calls can make a world of difference and foster great relationships!

      

   

Celebrate Success - David Walters and Ray Niehaus have created a fun and sneaky way to increase engagement.  They have created an in-house competition among teams in their classroom.  The winning group gets 2 pizzas, 2nd place - 1 pizza, 3rd place - breadsticks and sauce, last place - cheese and marinara sauce.    The kids think it is funny and are excited about the competition.

   

    Collaborative Teams - Working across the classroom lines, Josh Craney and Nancy Poehlein had their students team up to create a couple entries in the Perry County Habitat for Humanity Fundraiser.  Josh's team printed out these beautiful trees and Nancy's students painted them.  Janet Lautner purchased one at the event and loves it!    What a great cross-curricular project!

Upstream Mindsets

 

This past Wednesday, Tara Bishop and I were asked to attend CELL's  (Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning - the organization that helps us with our Early College Model) 20th Anniversary Celebration in Indianapolis.  To kick off the celebration, we had the opportunity to listen to author Dan Heath.  He and his brother have written four New York Times Bestselling books and now have a new book called "Upstream, The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen".   He reminded us that so often we get stuck in the cycle of response, always putting out fires, dealing with emergencies and we stay downstream trying to save everyone.  While there are going to be times we have to be reactive, if we can take time to step away from the situation, identify our "problem blindness" think about how we can prevent the problem, we will be much more successful in our upstream mindset.  

This mentality made me reflect on our work at PC.  Sometimes it is hard to find the time to reflect and work together as a team, but when we do, we are able to fix problems more efficiently or prevent them from even happening.  I think about teams like MTSS, PLC, PBIS, Accelerated Learning that come together and think about issues, how we can teach students proper behaviors and try to get a head of situations before they even happen.  I also think about being an individual teacher and how you can think about the issues you are having in the classroom and get upstream about how to make learning better for students.  I think our recent Instructional Round opportunity could be a piece of that, taking time to reflect on your own practice and gaining ideas from others.  

As Dan Heath reminds us, so many times we are stuck saving kids who are drowning in the stream.  If we re-set our mindset to upstream thinking, we will realize if we don't let students jump in without a life jacket, maybe we shouldn't have so many to save!   I am so grateful for the reminder of this mindset and how it can change our perception of life.

Important Information: 

CELL Data - After the author's presentation, CELL had a reception for the group to attend.  Many dignitaries were asked to speak at the event, including the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education, Indiana Secretary of Education and the President of University of Indianapolis.  They also asked Tara and I to share how CELL has helped us at Perry Central (we were the only school to present).  We were able to briefly share all of the success from the work of all of you.  Here is some data that we gave them: 

         80% of Class of 2021 eared 15 dual credits or more - many aligned to a college credential

         30% earned the Indiana College Core

         55% of the Class of 2019 attended a Public College

               - 49% met all Early College standards

               - 92% of students didn't need need remediation

               - 62% completed all courses they started

               - 75% persisted on to the second year of college

         9000 - Over the past 5 years students have earned an approximate 9000 dual credits

         1.3 Million - Over the past 5 years student have saved an approximate 1.3 million 

                                       This is something to CELEBRATE!

Veteran's Day - Thursday, November 11th is Veteran's Day.  Joyce Foury has put together a great program.  Students grades 9-12 will be called to the high school gym after attendance 2nd period.  We will have students sit on the bottom part of the bleachers on both sides of the gym.  11th & 12th Grade will sit on the north side and 9th & 10th grade on the south side of the gym.  Our friend, Levi Hilgenhold will be delivering the message to the students, along with performances from the band and other students.  

    After the presentation (end of 2nd period), we will make an announcement and ask that all students step in the hall.  We will have Levi and the other veterans from the community to do a walk-through so we can honor and celebrate them.     Please be watching your email closer to time for more details.  We are looking forward to a great event!

RECN Meeting - On Tuesday, you will notice some extra guests in the building.  Perry Central is a mentor school to three other schools in our region (Bedford, Paoli and Southridge) for our Early College program.  We will be hosting visitors from these school Tuesday from 8:00 - 1:30 in the high school library.  If you teach in the library, I will help you make a plan for the day.  Thanks to Dana, Vanessa and Ty for serving on our RECN Leadership team!

Classroom Management Session - I apologize for needing to reschedule our second classroom management session.  I have had some people ask, so I wanted to reschedule it.  This week is tough for me, so in order to help you for planning, we will go with Tuesday, November 16th  at 11:45 - 12:24.  Just bring your lunch and I will have deserts!  It is a Lunch and Learn session!  

** I haven't forgotten this!!!  I will have this together this week!  - Assistants, I will be reaching out to you this week about a learning opportunity.  I would like to continue our professional development series with you.  In the coming days, I will provide some opportunities to read some articles about Trauma Informed practices and classroom management techniques.  My goal is for us to be able to eat lunch together and discuss the articles and find time to talk about your roles.  You play a very important part in our day!  Please be watching for an email!

Important Dates: 

Thursday, November 11 - Veteran's Day Program (see above)       

Tuesday, November 16 - Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m. 

Wednesday, November 17 - 9th and 10th Grade students all going on a college visit (Dana will be sharing details closer to this day.)

Thanks to Nancy and her art students for creating their window decorations for Ohio Valley Gas in Tell City.  They did an outstanding job!  It was a great authentic project!

       

Congrats to Michael Jarboe, Josh Craney and their students for putting together an outstanding presentation for Thermwood.  They are excited about furthering their partnership with us!