Connecting to Students

This week, Tara Bishop reminded us about the importance of building connections with our students, especially during this time of high stress.  Strong relationships help students feel safe, provide confidence, encourage risk-taking and provide motivation.  As a trauma informed school, we have been working on building connections/relationships for many years.  We know that humans are hard-wired for connections and our brain aligned studies show us that connections can heal trauma ridden brains.  

Building relationships with our student is not new to us.  In the junior-senior high school building I see connection building daily:  Adam Stowe eating lunch occasionally with students, Abbie Brockman creating fun get-to-know you activities in her classroom, Carol Schwoeppe greeting her students at her door daily, Brennan Malone playing the Chicago Bulls Introduction while announcing each student's name in class, Deann Anson doing daily check-ins with students, Heidi Zellers playing a fun Kahoot game in her class, and the list goes on and on!  

An Edutopia article listed several great ways to make connections with students: 

    * Call all of your students by their names

    * Smile and say hello/engage in small talk often

    * 2x10 strategy - spend two minutes daily for 10 days talking about a student's interests

    * Demonstrate an act of empathy for a student (Do a favor for them)

    * Me Bag - as students to bring in 2-3 items in a bag that represents who they are

John Hattie reminds us that learning is a risky business.  A positive student-teacher relationships helps building trust for making mistakes, helps students feel safe in a very uncertain time, and creates a more engaging classroom.    Thanks to all of you for creating connection joy juice for our students each day!

Important Information: 

Virtual Day:  Monday is our first virtual day.  Our main goal for this day is to help you find time to reach out to your on-line students, meet in your PLC teams for team planning/grading, allow yourself to breathe.   We do have a few learning opportunities for you: 

     9:00 - 9:30 a.m. - Dual Credit teachers who need to complete the Ivy Tech orientation quiz and upload your Ivy Tech syllabus please meet in the high school library during this time.  We can help you get this work completed quickly.   It is important for ALL Dual Credit teachers who teach for Ivy Tech to complete these steps.

  9:30 - 10:00 a.m. - AP Teachers please meet with Dana in this high school library during this time.  She will quickly help you connect to many great on-line resources for our AP classes.  

10:00 - 10:30 a.m. - Anyone who would like more help with Google Classroom or any other technology can meet in the high school library.  Phil will be available during this time to help you with any questions you may have.  If you are new to the Google Suite products, it could be a great time to learn!  

Lunch will be provided!  

 Assistants were given a schedule on Friday.  Please let us know if you have questions.  You can find an electronic copy of the schedule for assistants HERE.

Welcome New Assistants: 

We are pleased to welcome Kareasa Robbins and Stephanie Merry to Perry Central!  Stephanie will be taking Bill Dickerson's place as an assistant (Bill has decided he would like to be a substitute for more flexibility) and Kareasa will be a floating substitute for the corporation.  They will start on Monday!

Important Dates: 

Monday, August 31st - Scope and Sequence due in the 2020-2021 Shared Folder

Friday, September 4th - Mid-Term (first 4 weeks completed)/ Senior Night for Football/Band/Cheerleaders 

Monday, September 7th - Labor Day (No School)

Tuesday, September 8th - Senior Night for Volleyball and Cross Country

Tuesday, September 15 - Lunch and Learn