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!)