Empathy 101

There is nothing better than a rival football game.  This Friday, we all were sitting on the edge of our seats watching our beloved Commodores take on the Marksmen.  This game is always a battle both on and off of the field.  Jumping up and down, cheering for our team (and surely making a fool of myself) I realized many times throughout the night that I was not just watching a football game but learning from a team about how to show empathy, kindness and sportsmanship even during a heated battle.  Many times throughout the night our team modeled this for our community in many ways, including helping a Tell City team member rub out a cramped leg, offering water to the opponent and a providing a helping hand up after a hard tackle.  Even when the calls didn't go their way, our Commodores always put themselves back on the line, never complaining but always working hard. 

The Making Caring Common Project by Harvard University is a program that focuses on empathy.  In their article, they remind us that empathy is a key part in being a responsible and helping community member.  When students have empathy they are more likely to display classroom engagement, high academic achievement, better communication and more positive relationships. 

At Perry Central, we have been working hard at developing opportunities through Social Emotional Learning in hopes of developing the whole child.  Teaching empathy is part of this reach.   In the article that I mentioned above, one way they suggest that we do this is by encouraging students to expand their circle of concern.  This week while in Brennan Malone's classroom, I noticed that his students had a commitment for the week which included accepting someone new.  Modeling and encouraging students, just like this simple gesture, is a great way to increase empathetic aptitude.

I would encourage you to read the entire Harvard Article that is linked HERE.  It offers great suggestions and easy strategies for helping our students with this important skill.  I would also encourage you to come out and watch our Commodore football team.  Even though we were a few points shy on Friday Night, they were winners of the most important battle - showing kindness and empathy to others.  I wouldn't trade that win for any other touchdown! 

Sail On, Commodores!  Keep up the great work!

"The find line between success and adversity can be changed by a grin or a little eye twinkle."                                                                                                                                           - Parker's Promise  


Important Information: 


Club Rush Hour - Just a reminder that students will be encouraged to participate in Rush Hour this Friday during WIN.  Many clubs will have booths and activities set up in the gym in hopes of getting new club members!  We will release students by intercom to participate during both WIN groups.  Club participation for students is a great way for students to gain much needed professional skills and if they become active members could help them satisfy Box 2 of the Graduation Pathway Requirements.    Thank you to all of the clubs for participating in this important event - and for Ms. Hagedorn and Student Council for organizing!

Student Success Center Training - Shelly and I are working on a Student Success Center (New ISS) training for students.  We will have a schedule out by tomorrow morning.  We are looking at Tuesday and Thursday this week to run students through a 10-15 minute presentation.  We will be utilizing Science 7, Science 8, Chemistry, Biology, ICP, US History and English 12 classes.  Please see the tentative schedule below.  I know this is very short notice, so please know if you need flexibility for your class, we can make adjustments to meet your classroom needs - all you have to do is ask!  We will send you a final schedule early tomorrow - I just wanted to share this with you for planning purposes. 

Tuesday: 

8:05-8:20 - Walsh 8th grade

8:20 - 8:35 - US History Stowe

8:35 - 8:48 - ICP Taylor

8:55 - 9:10 - Walsh 7th grade

9:10 - 9:25 - Ball English 12

9:25 - 9:36   Johnson Chemistry

9:45 - 10:00  Walsh 7th grade

10:00 - 10:15  Taylor Biology

12:30 - 12:45  Walsh 7th grade

12:45 - 1:00 - Taylor Biology

1:00 - 1:15  Ball English 12

1:25 - 1:40  Walsh 8th Grade

1:40 - 1:55  Taylor Biology

1:55 - 2:10  Seniors from AP Language

2:15 -2:30  Guillaume 8th grade

2:30 - 2:45  Taylor ICP

2:45 - 3:00  Seniors from AP Language

Thursday: 

9:30 - 9:45   Life Skills Students???   

10:00 - 10:15  Chemistry Johnson

10:15 - 10:30 - AP US History

10:35 - 10:50  Walsh 7th Grade

10:50 - 11:05  Johnson Chemistry

11:05 - 11:20  AP US History

Virtual Day - Please remember to send home Virtual work with all of your classes by the end of the day on Friday.  This work will be for Tuesday, September 3rd.  The following are great guidelines to utilize when planning:
* Remember to plan for 30 - 35 minutes of work for each class period
* Work will be due for students 2 days after the assigned day (So Thursday, September 5th)
* Some students do not have Internet.  If you can make a plan for this up front, it is helpful (provide hand-outs or opportunities to download work so it can be worked on off-line)
* Posting work to Google Classroom, Canvas or other tools is helpful for students to manage their work

RTI Meeting - Please send names for RTI to Jody by Monday so we will have names for our meeting!  Our team will be meeting Tuesday morning at 7:20 a.m. in the high school library.

Event Link - This week is a busy week for athletics!  We encourage you to look on Event Link for a schedule! 

Important Dates:

Monday, August 26th - 11:45 - 12:30   Math ILearn Meeting/  3:10 - 4:00  English ILearn Meeting in Hailei Gehlhausen's room

Tuesday, August 27th - 7:20 a.m. RTI Meeting High School Library/ Commodore Table 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, August 28th -  7:25 a.m. Social Studies Team Meeting

Thursday, August 29th - English Team Meeting 11:45/ Commodore Manufacturing Visits 9:00 a.m.

Friday, August 30th - Club Rush Hours during WIN

Things You Learn from a 7th Grader

Not only is moving to junior high a pretty big transition for students, but it is also tough on adults too!  This year, we have around 115 new 7th grade students that we are all trying to learn. Junior High was always my favorite grade to teach; each day was a new day with them and they were still hungry for learning.  As we work to build relationships, some of our beginning days can be rocky (at least for me) - especially when you do not know all of their names, yet! 

This week, as I had the opportunity to get to know a few of our 7th grade students a little better, I quickly re-learned a few things: 

1.  Executive Functioning Skills (or the lack of them):  Watching students try to organize their backpacks (which we can now see how unorganized they are with the clear backpack), figure out what items they need for each class and manage to get there on-time was a bit of a struggle for a few students!  We remember that research shows us that females do not fully develop these skills until they are 20-22 and males are closer to 25 (some research is showing that a male brain doesn't fully stop developing until the age of 40!)    Our students are going to need modeling for how to stay organized, manage their time, prioritizing work and even staying focused for long periods of time.  Here are a few tips for helping our students: 

     * Do not give big assignments with one deadline that is several days away - instead, break up long assignments into chunks and do many checks to help make sure students are on track.

     * Give students time to get organized at the end of the period - help them write on their calendars due dates or put papers in folders, etc. 

     * Model for them how to prioritize and give them feedback

     * Be patient!

2.  Relationships Matter:  My second encounter was with a young man that was trying to keep this football equipment with him all day long.  Obviously, it was not in a clear backpack and needed to be kept in the office.   I approached this young man with a light request of please taking his bag to my office or the teacher's lounge.  He was not excited about this request and our conversation went south very quickly!  Instead of arguing with him, I asked him to go to my office (I knew this would give both of us time to get back in our executive brain state!)  After a longer than expected conversation in my office (and some encouragement from Mr. James) we were able to get him to comply.  Mr. James was familiar with the student from the elementary and told me that the student is from a high poverty home and when you try to "take things away" from him he gets upset fast!  (Ruby Payne 101!!)  Mr. James' information was really helpful.  It was a good reminder for me about the importance of working hard to develop relationships and learning to understand our students.  I think my goal for this year is to make it to a junior high football game soon and work hard to tell him hi everyday in hopes to learn more about him.  I hope by building a relationship with him that I can build trust and the next time we have an encounter it goes much better!  It is just one more way we can keep our students feeling safe!    

I am sure I will be "schooled" many more times this week as I work with more students!  Please feel free to share your stories too, so I can learn quicker!  :-)  

Important Information: 

Classroom Visits - Phil and I have been working to visit your classrooms!  We have enjoyed all of our stops so far - so many great things happening!!  Just a few reminders of items we will be looking for: 

  1.  Learning Objective:  Last year we worked hard to learn how to write and post a learning objective for each period/subject for the day.  Remember a good objective will do the following: 

      - Explain what the student will learn that day in the classroom 

      - Be written in student-friendly language

      - Will clarify how the learning will be demonstrated or measured

Examples:I can write an effective introductory paragraph for an argument.  

                 I can compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis and represent my work in a Venn Diagram.

                 I can solve/complete problems using ratios.

 2.  Classroom Expectations:  I have heard many great conversations about the classroom expectations that were developed on the 2nd day of school.  Posting those expectations as a visual in the classroom is important!  If you would like us to make your class list(s) as posters, please let us know and we are happy to do this for you!  Looking forward to seeing your lists!  

Faculty Meeting - Reminder of our Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, August 20th at 7:20 a.m. in the high school library.  

Swivl - Through a grant, we were able to purchase several Swivl Robots to be utilized in the classroom.  Basically, this tech tool is specifically developed to help you video tape your class lesson.  An ipad sits on a swivl base that allows the video camera to follow the teacher around the room - it even has speakers that can be set to pick up student conversations as well.  It is a great tool to use to help you tape and post a lesson for students that may miss class or to video tape yourself for continuous improvement.  My son, Justin, has figured out how to use the tool.  He is available to help you set it up anytime!  Here is a quick video to show you how it works!  (Don't mind my messy house!)   Video LINK

Professional Development:  Just a reminder that September 3rd will be a Virtual Day for students and a Professional Development day for teachers.  We are working on a full schedule of training that will include school safety protocols, RISE/SLO support, Ready Math Training for junior high math teachers and more.  If you need help coming up with work for students, please let us know and we will be happy to help you!  We will continue to send more details out in the next couple of weeks. 

INView - The IDOE is launching a new website that would allow the public to see different data points for each public school in Indiana.  Not only will families and community members be able to look up information about our academic achievement, attendance rate, school environment (which includes discipline data) and eventually financial information, but they have made it very easy for individuals to compare several schools.  The data is very interesting.  We are most disappointed in our attendance data and have questions about our discipline data and how it is pulled from Skyward.  Just like always, data is just a way for us to reflect on our school and always strive for improvement.  If you would like to view this new tool, you can find it HERE. 

Classroom Coverage:  As you are aware, if you have a day where you need to leave one or two periods early the contract allows for you to take off without taking a sick/personal day in an emergency.  If you utilize this option, I am asking that you please do not ask assistants to cover.  The assistants have very important roles and when you pull an assistant, you are pulling a resource from a student.  Please find a willing, fellow teacher that has a prep period during that time.   Thank you!

Important Dates: 

Monday, August 19 - IReady Meeting for 7th & 8th grade ELA/MA Teachers 11:45 Jason Barnett's Room

  

Tuesday, August 20th - Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m.

Wednesday, August 21st - AP Teacher Meeting 7:20 a.m. High School Library

Tuesday, August 27th - RTI Meeting 7:20 a.m. 

Athletic Dates can be found on Event Link!

Good luck to all our athletic teams as they will participate in season openers this week!  Go Commodores!!  

    

Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

Professional Development is always an important part of being a "professional", in my opinion.  No matter how seasoned or strong one is about anything, keeping the attitude of "continuous improvement" is always important.  AND, if you are like me, when you are not seasoned or strong. . . professional development is a necessity!  :-)

Last year, I started participating in the Indiana Principal Leadership Institute (IPLI) as a member of Cohort 6.  It has been WONDERFUL professional development opportunity and I feel I have grown a lot as an instructional leader.  One of the areas I have been learning about is Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum.  Robert Marzano, in his book, "Highly Reliable Schools", talks about the importance of this work. No matter what classroom a student is in, having the opportunity to learn the same content is imperative.  Not only is guaranteed content important, but ensuring it is viable by making sure we have time to teach what is important.  Just because a typical school year is 180 days, doesn't mean that you really have 180 days of teaching!  

Both Marzano and Mike Schmoker (in his book "Focus") lead us to this important work.  This work is not new to Perry Central Jr./Sr. High School as we have been talking about Guaranteed and Viable curriculum and PLC work for years!  At our Back To School Retreat, we took some time to refocus this work by starting to look at our Power Standards (standards that students must know to be successful) by categorizing what we teach to ensure our curriculum is viable by developing a strong scope and sequence.    

I look forward to working with all of you this week on what you think are your next steps as a team to continue this work in our PLC teams.  In the business of learning, we know that this work is necessary and I am grateful that all of you are willing to dive in and ensure our students have every opportunity to learn.  

Important Information: 

Standards-Based Reporting Topics:  Thank you to everyone who sent me their updated version of their reporting topics for the first quarter.  I think I was able to get all of the necessary updates completed.  If you haven't had a chance to look at your first quarter and ensure your grade book is set up correctly, please do so quickly.

Junior High Commodore Pride Meeting:  We will have a Junior High Commodore Pride meeting Tuesday, August 13th at 7:30 a.m. in the high school library to hand out activities for you to do with your teams for the month of August.  Our plan is to get information to you for the short-term during this meeting and eventually get you a nice calendar of events for every month.  Our kick-off day was great.  I look forward to our next venture!  Also, you can find a link to the team lists HERE.  We will discuss locations for team meetings and the best way to communicate that with students on Tuesday.

WIN Gym Time - Phil has been working hard to develop a schedule for each 7-9 WIN group to visit the High School Gym one day a week.  You can find a copy of the schedule HERE.  We will start using the gym this week!  It is a great way for our students to take a much needed brain break!

Please remember these important protocols to ensure the success of this activity: 
   * In your WIN groups take ATTENDANCE FIRST!
   * Make sure all students know where to go - maybe post the schedule
   * Communicate with Mrs. Hilgenhold or Mr. Schwartz and make sure they have WIN coverage - please see document for who should help supervise the gym with them.  

PLC Meetings:  In your team folders, I have started quick agendas for our first week of PLC meetings.  I plan to stop by everyone's meetings this week and check in.  Looking forward to a great time of collaboration! 

Important Dates: 

Event Link - Remember you can log-in to Event Link off of the PC Website to view all athletic events this week.  

Faculty Meeting - August 20th  7:20 a.m.  High School Library

Welcome 2019-2020 School Year

This summer Perry Central had the unique opportunity to hire 30 students to work in Commodore Manufacturing.  Students worked 6 weeks producing product for Jasper Engines and Waupaca Foundry.  Through this experience they learned how to work together to develop a safe and productive work environment.  It was amazing to see many different types of students, with different personalities and aspirations, come together as a family and work hard to find success.  Dakota Sommer gave me chills as he approached the time clock for the last time (on the last day), saying, "I don't know whether to be excited that we get to have some time off or sad!"  His statement was evidence of the respect each student had for each other; he enjoyed his time with the Commodore Manufacturing family and hated to see it go! 

With the leadership of Josh Craney, our students have not only learned advanced manufacturing skills, such as welding or using the CNC plasma cutter, but they more importantly they have learned life skills that will transfer with them throughout their lives.  Here are a few things I have learned from our students:

* Develop Relationships First! Treat each person with dignity and respect as everyone has a purpose on our team (students and adults).  We are a family!
* Safety is important!  Make safety a priority as we move throughout the school year with consistent and caring protocols that ensure student success.
* Help each other be accountable!  When CM students were not being safe, they called each other out on it - to the point of retraining.  Helping all of us be accountable for ensuring a safe and rigorous learning environment will only make us stronger!
*Never Stop Learning New Skills!   Always be willing to learn something new!
* Work Hard but Take Care of Yourself!  CM students made sure they were working hard but had breaks throughout their day.  Taking care of yourself mentally and physically is important!
* Have Fun!  Surprise and Delight. . . show others how you enjoy teaching and learning.

As we embark on the 2019-2020 school year, I think these are great reminders to take with us.  I hope all of you have a great first week of school!

Important Information: 

Accountability Panel - I have had the unique opportunity to sit on a 15 member panel to help determine the new accountability model for the state of Indiana!  It is a very big task as we try to determine what skills/outcomes we can measure accurately for a fair and rigorous system that will ensure our state and students are successful in the future!   I will be asking you for your input by August 8th.  We are basically looking at outcomes or skills that would define what we think a successful high school student looks like.  Some of the items thrown around at the meeting were:  Students are able to work as a team, communication, reading comprehension, math skills, etc.  What do we want our students to know and be able to do?  How would we define that?

Be thinking about your answers and send me your thoughts!

Scheduling Notes:  Just to help you help students on Tuesday, here are a few notes that may be helpful:
   * Criminal Justice classes will be held in Hilarie Hahus's old classroom 7th period.
   * Renate Warner will be joining our teaching team this first semester as our dual credit speech teacher.  She will meet with students 4th period in Hilarie Hahus's room as well.  She will only come three days a week - the days she is not here, students will report to Flex.
   * Ruth Ory will be teaching Driver's Education for us during periods 5,6,7.  Her classes are one semester courses and can be found in Mr. Linne's classroom.
   * Brandi Hess will be teaching Graphic Design for us again this school year.  She will meet with students on Fridays in a face-to-face manner, but will be available via email and other outlets throughout the school year.  We are excited to bring her level of skills to our students!
 

Surprise and Delight:  We are excited to bring Luke Hilgenhold to Perry Central on the first day of school during 7th period for a short concert/celebration of the first day of school!  It will be a great treat for students in grades 9-12.  We will also be holding our "choosing" ceremony for students in grades 7 & 8.  Should be a great first day at Perry Central!

College Connection Coach:  We would like to welcome Carly Lynch to Perry Central as our new College Connection Coach.  She is the wife to Tell City's Basketball Coach, Matt Lynch.  She has already had her first visit and we look forward to working with her this school year!

Dual Credit Chemistry:  Congratulations to Vanessa Johnson for completing her 18 hours of Master Level Chemistry classes!  She is now able to offer Dual Credit Chemistry II.  We are excited about expanding our options for students.   Mary Jo Hagedorn was also approved for Spanish III and IV as well.  Students could earn up to 12 college credits in Spanish if they choose.  Thank you for your commitment to our students!

Also, Jill Little received her certificate as she just finished her Bachelor Degree in nursing.  She also is qualified to be one of the few people in our region that can train Qualified Medical Assistants.  We plan to further strengthen our partnership with Trilogy.



Important Dates:  Reminder that all athletic events can be found at Event Link.  You can find a link to this by going to the school website and hovering over the Sports button at the top of the page and then click on the link.  It is a great place to find all of the athletic events all in one place!

First Faculty Meeting - Tuesday, August 20th  7:20 a.m./ High School Library