National Early College Week

 

I smiled this morning when I saw this lone iris blooming.  Spring is always my favorite time of the year; the flowers give me so much hope as we start to emerge out of the cold dark winter. 

This week is National Early College High School week.  Just like this flower, Early College programs are giving our students hope for their futures.  Early College provides students the opportunity to earn dual credits, gain valuable skills that will help them transition from high school to college more successfully and saves our students a lot of time and money.  

60% of career opportunities in Indiana will require education beyond high school by 2023.  The Early College program helps ensure all students will have the opportunity for credentials beyond a high school diploma so they can meet the needs of the workforce, which will provide them the quality of life they deserve.  The State of Indiana has been helping us do this by changing graduation requirements and adding Graduation Pathways and Next Level Program (Career Pathways) which promote skills beyond a high school diploma.  

Perry Central is proud to be recognized as an Early College High School since 2017.   This year's senior class alone will graduate 38% of students with the Indiana College Core, which is their first year of college for free (a very high percentage of students).  On average, 20% of students leave with an industry certification and 80% leave with at least 15 or more dual credits aligned to a career pathway.   We also know that less than 10% of students who earn the Academic Honors Diploma require zero remediation in college as well.  Our data is outstanding.  

Our Early College program could not be possible without all of you.  All of the blood, sweat and tears you put into each day, helping students overcome obstacles is making a difference.  Just like this little purple flower, you are giving each of our students hope for their future.  Thank you for your commitment.  

Early College Week Celebration Items:  (Thanks to Dana and Laura for organizing!)

     * All Week - Wear Jeans

Monday - Celebrate seniors earning Indiana College Core.  Seniors will also be making videos for underclassmen about what it takes to be successful in the Early College Program. 

Tuesday - Celebrate Teachers!!  Please wear your green Early College T-Shirt.  We will have a staff (assistant) picture taken at 8:45 on the front stairs and a faculty picture taken on the front stairs at 11:25 a.m.    We will also serve Subway for lunch to everyone on this day. 

Wednesday - Highlight our Internship Program

Thursday - Early College Mentor Lunch Meeting with students

Friday - Celebrate Ivy Tech with Desserts in the high school office 

Hope you have a fantastic Early College Week!

Important Information: 

ILEARN - This week! You can find the schedule HERE.  Please make sure all students know where to go.  ILEARN packets will be in the high school office for pick up on Tuesday morning. Teachers who are proctoring the tests, received a detailed email Sunday evening.  Please let us know what questions you have!  

Grading Practices - Last month, Dana and Ty shared our grading practices at the SIEC to several school administration.  Crawford County Schools were so excited about our grading practices, they are working to implement them in their school setting.  They asked Ty and Dana to come back and present to all of their staff on May 3rd.  Thanks to Dana and Ty for their leadership.  

Professional Development (Teacher Only):  We are working on our Professional Development Plan for this summer.  Below is a doodle poll link that will help me schedule a one day training for each of our teams.  All teams, except for the English Team, should please fill our the form.  (English, I will send you a separate email, as we already have dates set-up with Carrie Rosebrock for your team.) 

Doodle Poll:  https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/elYXlPVa

School Visit:  A small team is leaving on Monday, April 25th at 10:00 to visit White River Valley school corporation.  They are a rural school, like Perry Central, who is pushing the envelop by adding more enterprise programs like Commodore Manufacturing to several of their Career Pathways.  Our team of Michael Jarboe, Carrie Guillaume, Dana Harris, Ray Niehaus, Jody French and Tara Bishop are going to visit for a couple of hours to learn how we can continue to grow these innovative pathway opportunities!  

Self-Awareness - This week, I am going to present to 8th grade students and teach them about self and social awareness.  (Panorama data suggests that students are weak in these two areas.)  Preparing for this presentation was good for me, because it reminded me of the importance of brain states in our decision making daily.  The states include:  executive state (upstairs brain), emotional state and survival state (downstairs brain). 

 I realized this past week, that I spent a lot of time living in my emotional part of my brain (sorry to those I was in contact with!)  Sometimes stress gets to all of us.  To try to overcome this, I worked hard this weekend to take time for myself.  I tried to take extra walks, enjoy watching Jace play golf, spending time with my mom and taking many deep breaths.  Recognizing our own brain state is so important - being conscious of where we are making decisions from and then having the discipline to make changes so we can stay in our upstairs brain (where we make the best decisions) is vital.   This is a busy time of the year - don't forget to take time for you!  

Congratulations to Mrs. Poehlein and her art students for a fantastic art show last week!  The Holidays never looked so good!  

   

Week of April 18

 

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend.  We had a great Easter gathering at the Etienne (my maiden name for those who don't know) plantation.  It is always good to be with family and friends.  

We are getting close to the end of April.  Only 5 full weeks left of school, but they are sure to be eventful!

As the weather gets warmer (hopefully),  the sun begins to shine, and we get closer to the end of the school year, our students also bring a little more energy.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that we work hard to make sure our students are in their assigned locations and we are all working together for strong supervision.  It is important to never leave a class of students unattended, be in the halls during passing periods, and always make sure you have meaningful work for students to engage in these last few days of school.  All of this will help ensure the safety of everyone.

Thanks for all you do for our students!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Important Information: 

Faculty Meeting - We will have a faculty meeting on Tuesday, February 19 at 7:25 a.m. in the high school library.  It is important that everyone is there, unless you drive a bus!

Student Mock Interviews - Thanks to Mike and Dana, all of our juniors will be going through an interview this week on either April 20 or 21st with a business partner.  This is a great opportunity for students to learn interviewing skills.  Some will also be interviewing for internship positions and the Work Ethic Certification.  There are a few seniors that will be interviewing for a job as well!  Also, a shoutout to Jennifer Ball and Alyssa Howe for helping students practice their resume writing and interview skills!

Calling all Teacher Leaders - Next school year, it is our goal to develop more structure for our PLC process.  We will be looking for someone in each PLC group to step up into a leadership role.  Some of the requirements of the PLC Leader would be:  attend a training in Jasper in June, create agenda's for each week's team meeting, meet with me twice a month to discuss goals for your team, and be willing to lead your group to collaboration and success.  There will be a stipend for this position.  We are looking for leaders in: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Special Education, CTE, and Fine Arts/PE  

        We will use an application process to determine who our leaders will be.  If you are interested in taking on a leadership role, please fill out this quick google form by Friday, April 22nd.    

Surprise and Delight (cookout):  This Friday is our cookout for students in grades 9-12. This will happen within the lunch/WIN hour. Details will be shared at our faculty meeting on Tuesday and then through email.  Assistants, we will be asking you to help with supervision in the cafeteria for junior high and in other places as well.  Crossing our fingers for a beautiful day!

Why to Students Disengage?

 This week in San Diego, I had the honor of listing to education guru and author, Dr. Douglas Fischer.  (You may recognize him as the Fisher in the Fisher and Frey books that we read all of the time.)  He is an education researcher and author of many books.  He also still teaches one section of English 9 in the San Diego school systems. 

His presentation was on SEL and the importance of it in our school systems.  He shared many great things (and I am sure will be in a book we will need to purchase, soon.  Lol!)  that I will try to share with you in the next few weeks.

One of the articles he mentioned was about student engagement.  The research he shared talks about student disengagement and the  9 identified  challenges for students and what we as teachers can do to help our students with these struggles.  

To the left, you will see a chart that lines everything up in an easy to read way.  I would encourage you to read the article as well - it is short and sweet and you will find the link below! (You can read the chart easier in the article as well.)  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Article is HERE.

Important Information: 

House Leader Meeting - Monday, April 11th - First WIN- Lauren said it would be quick.  We appreciate and are excited about the great things to come for House thanks to all of you! Rock, Paper, Scissor activity this week!!!

RECN Meeting - This week, Dana, Laura and I will be traveling to Indy on Tuesday for another RECN network meeting.  This meeting is for the Early College Grant that we have.  We will share with you what we learn!

Container Home Raffle - Just a reminder that we are in the last days to purchase tickets for the container home our construction class is building!  You can buy one ticket for $20 or 6 for $100!!!  Raffle will be the 15th!

Faculty Meeting - Our next faculty meeting will be Tuesday, April 19th at 7:25 a.m.  

Student Interviews - Dana and Mike are gathering up business partners for our annual interview program.  All juniors will have a 15 minute interview with a business partner on either Wednesday, April 20 or Thursday, April 21st.  This interview will serve many purposes including: work ethic certification requirements, internship opportunities for next year, jobs for students going straight to work and just good experience!  Thanks for Jennifer Ball and Alyssa Howe for helping pull together lessons about how to interview and Dana for helping students with resumes!  A schedule will be shared soon. 

Surprise and Delight - We will have a cookout for students on Friday, April 22nd during their assigned lunch periods.  In the past, this has happened during Commodore Pride day, but we are spreading the wealth a bit.  Be on the look out for a lunch-time whiffle ball tourney and some other fun activities during lunch!  

Celebration: 

Congratulations to Josh Craney, Blake Tucker and Jolene Lagrange for making it to the state level for the construction Skills USA Contest.  They not only received a high ranking at the district level that led them to the state, but they also received a scholarship from Vincennes University!  GREAT JOB!

Congratulations to Andrea and our high school band for earning a Gold Rating at their contest Friday night.   They didn't think they sounded very good - but they are wrong.  They were AMAZING!!  The band banquet is May 5th if you would like to catch their wonderful sounds!

Standing In The Gap

 

In our jobs, we have so many things happening throughout the day.   It can be mind boggling!  When these situations occur, we have the choice to consider how we will think/react to each one.  We can lean to the negative side OR we can choose to be positive.  In the moment before we decide, we are standing in the gap; the opportunity to decide if you are going to lean into the negative or the positive.

     Positivity is the world's most underutilized, natural occurring resource available to fuel success and forward progress.  Too often our brains get caught up on all that is broken, forgetting about all that's working. .  . Leverage positivity and optimism to simultaneously activate the people around you and ignite positive change.    - Michelle Gielan

So this week, when the work piles up, students forget to turn in their homework, the same student forgets their pencil everyday, your car won't start, etc. . . .  when your in the gap deciding if you will focus on the positive or the negative I hope you can lean into the positive.   

Professional Day Agenda:  Here is the agenda for today!  I hope all of you have a great day.  

RECN Survey:  We had 16 people take the RECN survey!  Yeah!  If you haven't had a chance, please do so by the end of the day on Monday.  If we have a high percentage of teachers take it, we will get $400 to spend on you!  Here is the link: https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0qbzVEZ6744zdY2?=t1&sc=1886

Junior High House Brainstorming Meeting:  Anyone interested in brainstorming improvements to the Junior High House system for this school year is invited to meet at 11:45 in the Health Science room with Lauren on Tuesday, April 5th.   A lot of great ideas floating around out there! Bring them to the table