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!