Thanksgiving

Monday Moment:

Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite times of the year.  Getting together with family, watching the big football game and planning our Black Friday shopping strategy is always exciting.  The conversations at the dinner table include a little bit of politics, education topics,  farming anecdotes, and of course the yearly joke that when my mom was in college, she asked if Thanksgiving would be on a Thursday again.

Most of all, this time of the year reminds me of how lucky I am to work at Perry Central.  Perry Central is more than just a place to work, it is a place I call home.  I am amazed each and every day about how much all of our faculty and staff care about kids and will go the extra mile to make sure our students have what they need.  Our Perry Central family makes me proud and I am so grateful that I get to work with each and every one of you.

What are you grateful for?  Share in the attitude of gratitude and feel free to comment at the end of this blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Looking forward to your posts.

Promising Practices:

This past week, Tara has been working hard to write a grant that would help us embed our Work Ethic Certification deeper into our school culture.  Through the grant process, she had to share some data that speaks to the changing student body at Perry Central.  This data, along with the challenge of teaching the millennial generation reminds me of the importance of quality classroom instruction that meets the needs of our students - and these needs are changing rapidly.  This is one of the most challenging times in education as we have to understand the executive function of student brains, make sure we are providing interactive lessons that keep the short attention span of students focused, and building relationships with each and every student!   Shew!!  I am sure glad that all of you are up to that challenge!!

Below you will find interesting data for you to look at and a chart that shows millennial needs in the classroom:

Data: 
* 35.4% of the students at Perry Central Jr-Sr High School qualify for free or reduced lunch.
* Free/reduced lunch rates have climbed in the last 15 years from 21 to 37.4% corporation-wide.
*15.5% of the county’s children live in poverty, which is higher than the Indiana average.
*Perry County was ranked 71st in per capita personal income in 2014 at $33,752, nearly $6,000 lower than the state average.
*The monthly average of persons issued Food Stamps in Perry County has risen from 662 in 2000 to 1,752 in 2015.

Chart:


Important Dates:  
- November 21st - Varsity Girls Basketball @ Cannelton

- November 22nd -   Mid-term reports go home!

- November 23rd - First day of Thanksgiving Break/ Boys Varsity Basketball @ home against Tell City

Enjoy your short week!