Kindness

This week, the theme at the home basketball game was "Kindness".  Students in the Friends of Rachel Club participated in several "kind" activities during the week, such as writing notes to classmates and teachers, saying nice things in the hallway, an posting kind words for everyone to see.  I was lucky enough to be the recipient of some of these random acts of kindness, and I will say they did made my day!

Perry Central is so fortunate to have great students and staff who go above and beyond to help others.  I am lucky to see and hear about random acts of kindness daily in our school as we have students who believe in helping their fellow classmates.  Just before our snow break, two students stopped in the office to tell me they were concerned about their friend that she needed help with some things at home.  Around Christmas break, a senior girl took her own precious time to send letters to businesses to get gas cards donated to a fellow senior who's family was in need.  Friday night after the basketball game at a school event, I watched students of all ages, peer groups and backgrounds play basketball and fun games in the gym together.  All of them made sure they were including everyone in their fun.  These are only a few samples of the experiences I get to witness daily at Perry Central.  

I feel fortunate to have these daily reminders from our students and staff about the importance of building relationships and finding ways to show others how much they care.  It is my daily goal that every student and adult I come in contact with knows that I am a listening and caring voice. I believe we all have a heart and a longing to be loved and cared for.  

I just want to thank our students and staff for always being kind, positive and understanding to everyone; making Perry Central a special place to be!

School Notes: 

Pep Session - We will have a Pep Session on Tuesday.  A Pep Session schedule was included in the email.  Good Luck to the Lady Commodores in first round of sectional play!  Commodores play North Posey at 5:30 p.m. at Forest Park.  

ISTEP Trial Test - All students in grades 7,8 and 10 must participate in an ISTEP Trial test on February 7th at the beginning of 4th period.  If you have students in these grades, we will be issuing you test tickets closer to time.  This should only take 10-15 minutes in theory!  Please just mark you calendars and more information will come out soon.  20 school days until ISTEP!  

Vocational WIN Presentations - Thank you for helping 8th grade students with their WIN assignments.  We will do this for 10th Grade this week!  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Please refer back to the guidance sheet we used last week!  If you have questions, please let me know!

SAT/ACT Test Prep- Please encourage students to take advantage of the SAT/ACT Test Prep Sessions that will be available to them for FREE starting this week.  Sessions are in the mornings 7:05 - 7:55 a.m.  On Tuesdays, students can practice English with Ms. Petty in her room and on Wednesdays, students can practice math with Mr. Linne!

Snow Make-Up - We will now be coming to school on February 19th to make up our school days, along with the first four days of Spring Break (first week.)

Job Fair:  Seniors and some juniors will be attending the Perry County Job Fair on Thursday, February 1st.  A list of students will be shared soon!  Students will be gone from school from 10:00 - 12:00.  

Indiana Youth Survey -   The week of February 5th opens a survey that all students in grades 7-12 need to take.  The information we get from this survey is very important.  Students in grades 7-10 will take the survey in their science classes, 11th grade in US History and 12th grade in English.  More information will be coming. 

Important Dates: 

Tuesday, January 30 -   Girls Varsity Basketball Sectional @ Forest Park 5:30 p.m./ Pep Session

Thursday, February 1 - Perry County Job Fair  10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Understanding the Brain

Laurie Desautels is an Assistant Professor at Ball State University and has done a lot of research on the brain and trauma informed care.  Through a grant, we are going to be lucky enough to work with Laurie as we continue to make Perry Central a Trauma Informed School. This week, she posted this letter to the Education Committee on Facebook.  I know this seems like a long, but it is so GOOD!  You can replace her stories about kids with your own!  The last line she writes just really gets at the heart of why we must understand our students.  Thank you for reading!  

I cannot attend the Education Committee hearing on the bill addressing adversity and trauma in our Indiana schools on Wednesday afternoon , but I have written a letter that will be shared at this hearing!

Please share and pass along as it is time for a change in our educational system!

Dear Education Committee:
Thank you for the opportunity to share this research, the experiences and the core need of all educators who sit beside our students in our state’s schools and districts.
In Indiana, one third to one fourth of our students are carrying in significant adversity/ trauma. These students are living in a survival brain state and their neuro-anatomy is in a state of dysregulation, which drives their behaviors and neurobiologically hijacks their ability to learn.
We have continued to address and purport that we are sitting within a national educational crisis where our math, science and reading scores continue to fall, and yet, this crisis is rooted in childhood adversity and trauma with poverty contributing to these statistics. We believe it is time to pause and ask critical questions: What happened to these children and youth? What are we doing? We are misunderstanding that to develop and strengthen cognition, we must begin at the students’ level of brain development.
Trauma Sensitive Schools must also address the emotional well-being of our educators who are sitting beside our students carrying in pain based behaviors. Education is an organic process and the anxiety and adversity many of our state educators are facing and feeling as they sit beside students who are holding much adversity and trauma is critical to the shift in education policy. This bill must focus on the radical emotional and social well-being of our children, youth, educators and all those who interface with Indiana children and youth.
A traumatized brain can be tired, hungry, worried, rejected, or detached, and these states are often accompanied by feelings of isolation, shame, worry, angst, and fear. Shame and fear in children can look violent and aggressive. The neurobiological changes caused by negative experiences trigger a fear response in the brain. When we feel distress, our brains and bodies are flooded with emotional messages that trigger the question, “Am I safe?” We react physiologically with an agitated limbic system that increases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration as the levels of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline increase in our bodies. Chronic activation of the fear response can damage those parts of the brain responsible for cognition and learning.
When the brain has experienced significant adversity, it becomes fundamentally reorganized. Past experiences can live on in the body and may be experienced as flashbacks, memories, or repetitive thoughts about the painful event. Adversity and trauma live in the nervous system and don’t go away just because the trauma is over!
Many children and adolescents come to school with a deep mistrust of adults because they’ve never formed healthy attachments. These young people have brains that are in a constant state of alarm. Attachment is the carrier of all development.
These children we see every day!
T. is eight years old although his lexicon is that of a street wise 19 year old! He is angry all the time. He is volatile, aggressive, and defiant beyond words. He feels deeply and is known to protect his younger sister at all costs. A few years ago, T. watched his mother murder his father. His mother is incarcerated and his father is dead. He lives with his grandmother and last week he walked into Room 9 telling his teacher that gunshots went through the screen of his window just missing everyone in the living room. They are looking to move. T is on ADD medication, blood pressure medication and medication for depression. He is eight years old! Some mornings he walks into the classroom and just flops on the carpet and sleeps.
Quinn is seven years old. He cannot sit still for more than 15 seconds. He is constantly hungry, trying to find crumbs on the classroom floor to eat. He will drink water out of anyone’s bottle and was bathed at school last year because he was so dirty arriving to school each morning. This is when they found welts all over his little body. He flinches when an adult comes near him. He cries most of the time, with an empty far away stare that I have rarely seen from another. His eyes and mind are not present during the school day as there is a state of disconnect that I am having trouble defining. When the classroom song comes on in the afternoon reminding students it is time to clean up and get ready to go home, Quinn panics and the hardest. When he is walked to the bus, he waves at his teacher until he can no longer, then presses his face against the window pane of the bus and waves a little more! To see Quinn in class is confusing because he can start several fights each day with a look, a punch, mean words, or an act of aggression. He is not a soulless “bad” child; he is a child bathing in trauma.
There are more stories to share. There are millions of stories that sound like the ones I just shared. We are living in a time of a national and state drug / opioid epidemic, significant national and state poverty and 15 million youth who have been identified with an emotional and mental disability. Twenty-five percent of these youth are receiving some assistance for these emotional disorders. The rest are left to somehow cope on their own.
Children and adolescents who carry in trauma and adversity are presenting with “pain based behaviors” in their classrooms. These behaviors are misunderstood and often times dismissed as intentional acts of disobedience and defiance. When we use zero tolerance and punitive measures to correct these pain based behaviors we are elevating the child’s stress response and creating increased fear, aggression or dissociative behaviors where the child or adolescents shuts down! This can become a negative cycle and we are missing the mark. I see this every day across Indiana and our nation. These students are starving for regulation and relationship.
The attachment and neuroscience research is solid supporting the practices of attachment, attunement and regulation that must be in place and active before learning and cognition can occur! Educational neuroscience is that framework / discipline for the exploration of brain development, dampening down the stress response and implementing strategies that engage and build brain architecture from the bottom up. It is in our schools where regulation and relationships can develop because educators spend time with students’ each day. But unless we are mentored and trained in the brain science of adversity and trauma we will continue to cycle in negative patterns escalating conflict and aggression while elevating survival responses within brain architecture.

Troubled kids are distinguished by their regrettable ability to elicit from others exactly the opposite of what they really need.
( L. Tobin )

Respectfully,
Lori Desautels, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of Education
Butler University

School News: 


ISTEP Trial Test - All students in grades 7,8 and 10 must participate in an ISTEP Trial test on February 7th at the beginning of 4th period.  If you have students in these grades, we will be issuing you test tickets closer to time.  This should only take 10-15 minutes in theory!  Please just mark you calendars and more information will come out soon.  25 school days until ISTEP!  

Vocational WIN Presentations - We are going to move our Vocational WIN presentations to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week so everyone will have time to communicate this with students.  We will answer questions in our faculty meeting on Tuesday.

SAT/ACT Test Prep- Please encourage students to take advantage of the SAT/ACT Test Prep Sessions that will be available to them for FREE starting this week.  Sessions are in the mornings 7:05 - 7:55 a.m.  On Tuesdays, students can practice English with Ms. Petty in her room and on Wednesdays, students can practice math with Mr. Linne!

Snow Make-Up - We will now be coming to school on February 19th to make up our school days, along with the first four days of Spring Break (first week.)

Congratulations! - Congrats to our Commodore Manufacturing team and teachers.  Perry Central wrote a grant to the Indiana Chamber for the School Counseling-Business Partnership Award and we won!  We will be recognized along with Jasper Engines in a meeting in Indy on February 7th.  Steven Parr will also be recognized and win a $1000 scholarship because of his success in the program.  Keep up the great work!

Important Dates: 

Monday, January 22 - Math WIN Meeting - First WIN/ Counselor Scheduling Meeting 12:30/ Boys Varsity Basketball @ Southridge 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, January 23 - Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m./ Girls Varsity Basketball @ Rock Creek 5:30

Thursday, January 25 - AR Meetings All Day/ English Team Meeting 7:30 a.m. High School Library/ Girls Varsity Basketball @ Tell City 6:00 p.m.

Friday, January 26 - Girls and Boys Varsity Basketball @ Home vs. Crawford County  (Senior Night for Girls Basketball)

Saturday, January 27 - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Lanesville  5:30 p.m.

Thursday, February 1 - Perry County Job Fair - A few juniors and seniors

Invitation to Learn

Living with a junior high student, I am reminded of the stresses that we all encountered during that stage of our lives.  Not only are kids trying to managing their ever changing bodies, but they have a lot of pressures to do well in the classroom and try to fit in with their peers!  I can remember back to these not-so-fun times of getting made fun of occassionally and worrying A LOT about appearances!  This was also a time when "boy/girl parties" were starting and everyone was always worried about being invited,as an invitation meant that you were accepted as a part of that group! 

Invitations are not only important in our own social groups, but they are important in learning as well.  This week, I have been reading a book called, "Better than Carrots and Sticks" and how to promote positive classroom management strategies in our classrooms.  There was a page that stuck out to me about the importance of  an "invitation to learn".  We know that being invited in our social world makes us feel important and welcome; so I can only imaging the feeling of being "invited" to learn in the classroom!  Here are a few thing the book encouraged us to do to help ensure success of ALL students:

• Trust - Students must trust that the environment will remain safe and consistent. Adults and students are good to their word. 
• Respect - Respect is mutual and unconditional. Respect is a fundamental belief in the dignity of every person regardless of their age or role.  When you show respect, it in turn is shown to you.
• Optimism - This belief is the core of why we all go to work everyday!  We believe students can learn and communicating that belief will result in their progress. 
• Intentional - Being intentional in our instruction is key to turning optimism into results.  We teach, we intervene, we reteach, we assess progress, and then we teach again because we know that sound practice can achieve results!  

Creating this culture of invitations in our classrooms is an important aspect as we are working to strengthen self-esteem, help students know that learning is a journey, and develop a relationship with all students!  Thanks for always inviting our students in!  

 
Important School Notes: 

ISTEP - only 28 days until ISTEP!!  We will have math and English ISTEP meetings during lunch/WIN!  Dates will be shared very soon!

Perry County Job Fair - Just a reminder that all seniors and juniors who are on track for the Work Ethic certification will be invited (encouraged) to attend the Perry County Job Fair on Thursday, January. 18 from 10:30-11:30 a.m.   More specific details will come as soon as we can get back to school and get them.   

Faculty Meeting - January 23, 2018  7:20 a.m.   A light breakfast will be served!  We will have several items to cover, so please be there on time!

Snow Make-Up Day:  We will be coming to school on February 19th to make up our snow day on Friday.  Please plan accordingly!  

Important Dates: 

Monday, January 15 - Girls Varsity Basketball @ Tell City 6:00 p.m.\ School Board Meeting 6:15 in High School Library

Thursday, January 18 - Perry County Job Fair  10:30 - 11:30 a.m. 

Friday, January 19 - Boys Varsity @ Home vs. Orleans.  Homecoming 

Saturday, January 20 - Girls Varsity Basketball @ Home vs. NE Dubois 10:30 a.m. / Boys Varsity vs. Mitchell @ Home 5:30 

We Must Believe!

Sitting on the couch this evening, trying to figure out what to write for our Monday Moment, I looked up at the TV long enough to watch highlights of un-ranked Ohio State beating Number 1 Michigan State in basketball on the Big Ten Network.  Ohio State had one of those nights when everything they threw up went in and the more the shots fell, the harder they played!  All of the players had smiles on their faces and the fun they were having while they played helped them excel past a team that they shouldn't have even had a chance to beat.  It was obvious they never got the memo that they shouldn't win!!  

Watching this game reminded me of a book I am reading for my own professional development called "Collective Efficacy."  Research has shown over and over again that when school staff (everyone who works with our students, including me) share in a belief that we can help all students learn, that it outranks every other factor regarding student achievement including socioeconomic status, prior achievement, home environment and parental involvement.  Teacher efficacy (the collective belief that we can make a difference) is a more significant predictor of student achievement than any other factor in education today.  That is a pretty amazing statistic and one that we all need to be aware of!  

Our students come to us from many different backgrounds and experiences; many of them un-ranking in their own achievement just like Ohio State.  It is my goal to help all of us find ways to work together to help all of our students find success and create their own "upsets" in achievement.  Just like Ohio State, we cannot give up on students or give signals that make students believe the can't achieve- we must continue to work hard, find different strategies and believe that all students can be winners!!

School News: 

• Perry Central Jr./Sr. High School will be welcoming guest from Bloomfield High School on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.  Bloomfield is visiting to learn more about our Early College High School program, Career Pathways, Flexible Scheduling and 1:1 Technology!  We look forward to welcoming them into the building!
• Assistant Meeting - We will have assistant meetings during lunch on Tuesday, January 11th.  Assistants, please bring your lunch to the high school teacher's lounge during your lunch time for a short update of information!  Desserts will be provided! 
• Semester Grades:  Due to a change in our Virtual Day date, we are moving grades back to being due on January 9th at 11:59 p.m.  Report Cards will come out on January 12th.  As we are at the end of a semester, it is very, very important to double check grades in the high school.  If you have any incomplete grades for students please make a plan to update them as soon as possible.
• Count Down to ISTEP: The first round of the ISTEP window will open February 26th!  Only 35 days away!  Students in grades 7,8 and 10 will be taking English and Math exams. 
• Virtual Day has been moved to January 16th. Students will stay home and do their assignments and teachers will come to school for professional development.  Please plan accordingly.  A professional development agenda will be posted soon! Virtual Day Planning Tips:

-  It is important to assign meaningful work to students; work that you would assign if they were here.  Virtual Days need to be continuation of the learning day!

- Go over the virtual day assignment the day before while at school.  If students do not have Internet at home please remind them how to download their materials so they can work from home.

- Make Virtual Day assignments due at least one to two days after we are back to school to ensure students can get their questions answered. 

• Job Fair:  On January 18th, we will be taking all of our seniors to the Perry County Job Fair at the Shergen's Center.  Times will be posted soon!

Important Dates: 

Tuesday, January 9 - Varsity Boys Basketball @ Home Vs. Cannelton  6:00 p.m./ Grades due at 11:59 p.m.

Wednesday, January 10 - Bloomfield High School Visit  9:30 a.m.

Thursday, January 11 - Girls Varsity Basketball @ Home vs. Heritage Hills 6:00 p.m.

Friday, January 12  - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Southridge  5:30 p.m.

Monday, January 15 - No School!

Tuesday, January 16 - Virtual Day for Students/Professional Development for Teachers

That is Why You Play the Game!

On the way to church on Sunday, Jace was sharing that this was the first time since 1948 all division one basketball teams had lost at least one game before January! Our family enjoys the game of basketball and we have watched many of our favorite teams over this Winter Break.  Jace's fun fact reminded me of a dad-ism, "That's why you play the game!" he would say every time the unfavored team would win. He loved the game and was good at coaching us too.  "90% of the game is in your head" he would say as we would shoot free throws and round-the-world shots over and over, talking about the importance of repetitiveness, flipping your wrist and watching the ball go over the rim in our minds!  He knew how to get us to believe we could win!  

As I reflect, these same principles can be applied to our classrooms!  Dad was wise in his ability to make his players believe they could do it!  He knew that one's ability was limited by their own beliefs.  This is not only true in the game of basketball but also in math, science, English, etc.  As educators, we are not just teachers, it is our job to be cheerleaders, motivators and believers in all of our student's abilities.  If we do not believe our students can learn, who will?


As we embark on a new year, it is my challenge to you to remember that whether you are shooting a free throw or helping a struggling student that 90% of the game is all in your head!  As teachers, it is our job to help students learn.  For some of our students, the strategy is easy and for others, we must must come up with a full-court game plan; but regardless, it is our job to help them win their own games in life!  That is why we play the game!     

Happy New Year!!

School Information:

* Semester Grades:  Due to a change in our Virtual Day date, we are moving grades back to being due on January 9th at 11:59 p.m.  Report Cards will come out on January 12th.  As we are at the end of a semester, it is very, very important to double check grades in the high school.  If you have any incomplete grades for students please make a plan to update them as soon as possible.

* Early College Activity: Juniors and Seniors will be invited to the high school library on Friday, January 5th to hear from recent graduates about their experiences in college.  Juniors will attend 2nd period and Seniors during 3rd period.  More information will be forthcoming.  Thank you!

* Count Down to ISTEP: The first round of the ISTEP window will open February 26th!  Only 38 days away!  Students in grades 7,8 and 10 will be taking English and Math exams. 

* Virtual Day has been moved to January 16th. Students will stay home and do their assignments and teachers will come to school for professional development.  Please plan accordingly.  A professional development agenda will be posted soon!
   
* Virtual Day Planning Tips:

* It is important to assign meaningful work to students; work that you would assign if they were             here.  Virtual Days need to be continuation of the learning day!
* Go over the virtual day assignment the day before while at school.  If students do not have                  Internet at home but will need Internet to do the assignment, please remind them how to                      download their materials so they can work from home.
* Make Virtual Day assignments due at least one to two days after we are back to school to                    ensure students can get their questions answered. 


* Job Fair:  On January 18th, we will be taking all of our seniors to the Perry County Job Fair at the Shergen's Center.  Times will be posted soon!

* WIN - Last semester we started to have some issues with juniors and seniors during WIN time.  We are reworking the WIN assignments for students in these grades.  The assignments are as follows:

Juniors Last name A – L will report to the Commons Area with June Laymon

Juniors Last Name K-Z will report to Mrs. Lutgring’s Classroom with Christa Garrett

Seniors – all of them – will report to the library with Mrs. Backer

What we have been finding is that many seniors are getting permission to sit in teacher's classrooms during this time.  We are okay if they want to do this, but it is required for those teachers to mark those students on the WIN document so we can find them and it is also important that if you have seniors (or other students) in your classroom they are not unsupervised.  

Important Dates: 

Wednesday, January 3rd - Return to School for 2nd Semester

Thursday, January 4th - Varsity Girls Basketball @ Paoli 5:30 p.m.

Friday, January 5th - Varsity Boys Basketball @ Home vs. West Washington 5:30 p.m.  (Early College Theme!)