Warm Demander

One of the things I love to do over break is just take the opportunity to catch up on reading!  This week, I came across an article in the ASCD magazine titled, "Becoming a Warm Demander".  Shane Safir describes a Warm Demander as a teacher/leader that "expects a great deal out of their students, convince them of their own brilliance, and help them to reach their potential in a disciplined and structured environment".  In other words, we hold students to high expectations but surround them with strong academic and social/emotional supports.

Warm Demanding frameworks are rooted in four main guiding principles:
1.  Believe in the Impossible - Jill Little and Diane Plassmeyer exhibited their growth mindsets the past few weeks through the CNA class.  One student was struggling to pass necessary tests for certification requirements.  After encouraging conversations and opportunities to practice and relearn with support, the student passed her final exam with an A!  She is going to now be able to move onto clinicals.  We must believe that all students have the capability to learn!

2.  Build Trust - Trust comes from strong relationships and active listening.  When we tune into the message beneath the words we can better understand our students better allow them to work with us!

3.  Teach Self-Discipline - With trust in place, warm demanders can communicate high expectations: "I respect you, and therefore I am not going to lower my bar for you."  This is what Jill and Diane did for their student in the CNA class!

4.  Embrace Failure - Warm Demanders do not expect students to improve overnight, but do expect students to take risks, make mistakes and reflect on what they learn.

When we believe that all students can learn, build strong trusting relationships, and provide students with supports (remediation, re-test/learning lunch/tutoring/formative assessments) our students will be winners every time!


Important Information:

Faculty Meeting(s) - We will have our March faculty meeting on Tuesday morning, March 26th at 7:20 a.m.  We will be looking at social/emotional data from the Panorama Survey that students took a few months ago.   For the months of April and May, we will NOT have morning meetings.  Last year's legislative session requires teachers to go through many training sessions including suicide prevention, human trafficking, etc.  To help us stay up-to-date on state requirements, we will be hosting two after school sessions on April 9th and April 30th from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.  Please mark your calendars for these important meetings.   More details will follow soon!

End of the Year Dates: Below is a link to the end of the year dates for the 2019 school year.  I will continue to update this list as activities and testing dates are determined.  You can find the link here or in the Teacher Resource Folder in Google.  If you have items to add to the list, please let me know!  Schedule Link

Safety Conference -  Through a partnership with the Perry County Community Foundation, Perry Central will be hosting a Safety Conference for our community on Wednesday, April 17th.  Parents will have several safety sessions to choose from.  We are excited to have the opportunity to share this important information with our community.

Career Fair - On April 2nd, students in grades 11 and 12 will be invited to attend the Career Fair at the Chrisney 4-H Center.  Many companies from the region will be on hand to talk about anything from a summer job to a full-time career with their companies.  Thanks to Maria Sweat for organizing this trip.  We will provide more information soon.  We think students will be gone from approximately 9:15 - 11:30 a.m.


Important Dates:

Tuesday, March 26 - Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m.

Thursday, March 28 - Boys Basketball Banquet  6:00 p.m.

Friday, March 29 - Varsity Baseball @ South Spencer 5:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 30 - Varsity Baseball @ home vs. Orleans  10:00 a.m.