Inspiring Educators

 

My mom brought me this plate this weekend (pictured at the left).  My first grade teacher, Mrs. Betty Holland, cleaned her closet and found it so she sent it to me.  The plate has signatures from all of the students in her first grade class that year, including mine.  It made me smile and think of the great times I had in school. 

Mrs. Holland in particular brought back good memories.  I  remember laying on a kindermat in my kindergarten class (Mrs. Kramer) and gazing across the hall hoping that I would get to have Mrs. Holland as a teacher.  That was before block walls separated classrooms.  I still can see her always smiling face and gentle approach to students.  She had a way of pulling people in.  

I think it is interesting that a 41 year old remembers things back from the first grade!  As educators, I don't think we realize the impact we have on our students, even with the little things we do.  While standards and academic rigor are important, the way we impact students the most is by how we make them feel and them knowing that we are here to push them to be the very best person they can be because we care so much about them.    

I was so fortunate to have so many positive role models as teachers while a student at Perry Central; teachers like Mr. Bob Linne (I can still sing the quadratic equation and hear "ball fake, bounce pass" in my sleep from basketball practices), Mr. Dave Reese, Mrs. Wagner, Mrs. Genet, Mrs. Schwoeppe, and the list goes on and on of people who taught me the love of learning, how to work hard, and even inspired me to get into the field of education.  

Please do not underestimate the influence you have on the lives of each student you teach.  You will be remembered for a lifetime.

What teachers do you remember and why?

Important Information for This Week:

* Lily Grant Survey - All students in grades 9-12 will need to take the Lily Survey.  You will see the link below.  We will ask that you give the survey during 2nd period on Tuesday, March 30th.  We will send a reminder email and let you know the best way for students to access it on Tuesday morning. This survey is a very important part of our Lily Grant that helps fund our counselors and other programming for students!

Survey Link

* Seniors -   It is that time of the year where we need to start communicating about seniors that you are worried about not making it to graduation.  The pandemic has made this year enough tougher.  Please let Phil or I know if you have a struggling senior so we can try to get some supports in place!

* Junior High SEL Curriculum Meeting - Junior high teachers that teach SEL will have a meeting Tuesday, March 30th at 7:10 in the high school library to go over next month's SEL lessons.  See you there!

* PLC Team Meetings:    This week, we will have PLC Team Meetings.  This week's meetings will be for math, English, science and social studies teams. We will plan to use the teacher's lounge to meet in so we can spread out easier.   Please see the schedule below: 

            Wednesday, March 31:  8:00 - 11:30 - English/   12:00 - 3:00 Math 

            Thursday, April 1st:  8:00 - 11:30 - Social Studies/  12:00 - 3:00  Science

* Pick Perry Day:   The Perry County Learning Partnership Committee applied for a grant to help promote students (adults and youth) to file for their FAFSA (Free Application for Financial Student Aid) and to learn about Next Level Jobs Programming (opportunities to earn technical certificates in high need fields for free).  We were excited to earn the grant.    Part of the grant is to build up excitement about Pick Perry Day being at our local Ivy Tech in Tell City this Friday, April 2nd.   Ivy Tech will have activities going on throughout the day.  

The grant also allowed us to bring back a familiar face to help our students file their FAFSA.  On Thursday, April 1st, Lou Ann Backer will be in the house to help our students for a few hours!  We are grateful for the opportunity to have her come back and help and that she is willing to serve.  

Also, the grant allowed us to do some videos to promote the day.  Below is a link.  The FAFSA video has our students in it from Perry Central.  Enjoy!

     

 

** FAFSA PSA - The FAFSA is an important tool for all students to file if they plan to further their education.  It provides several thousands of dollars to students who qualify and makes their education affordable AND even if students do not qualify for a lot of grants, it helps colleges see what families could benefit from their dollars.  The deadline to file the FAFSA is April 15th.   Encourage all of your seniors to apply!

Virtual Day - We will have a virtual day on April 7th.  We do plan to have a faculty meeting that day with breakfast beginning at 7:30.  The meeting may last an hour.  After that, we would like for you to have most of the day to work.   We will send a more detailed schedule out later. 

Lean into the Positive

 

Leaning into the Positive is one of things my mentor, Rhonda Roos, has been reminding me of these past few months.  Several research experiments have been conducted with children and adults around this idea. One experiment involved four-year-old children who were asked to put blocks together. One group was asked to think about something  happy before they began. That group of children significantly outperformed the other group (Achor,2011). 

Another research experiment was conducted where adults were shown a series of pictures

and were asked to remember as much about the pictures as they could. Before being shown the

pictures, some of the adults were asked to think about one positive thought or circumstance for a

few minutes. The others were asked to think about a negative thought or situation for several

minutes. Both groups were shown the pictures. The group primed with negative thoughts

couldn’t recall substantial parts of the backgrounds. But the group primed with positive thoughts

before viewing the pictures were able to see and recall much more (Achor, 2011.)

These research experiments provide evidence that happy thoughts actually give our

brains a chemical edge because these positive thoughts flood our brains with dopamine and

serotonin. They make us feel good and enable our brains to think at higher levels. These

chemicals also help us organize new information, retain, it, and retrieve it more quickly when

needed. We are able to be more creative, more innovative, more solution-focused, and more

results-driven.

 We have been through some difficult, stressful times.  It is easy to focus on our struggles but it is powerful to think about what we have learned and how we have grown.  Our students are excited to be back to school, we have learned so many great new tech tools, we get to have a career that allows us to solve problems and think critically, and we get to work with young children and have a positive influence on their lives, and it is another day the sun has decided to come up!   There are SO many things we can be grateful for.  

As you prepare to come back to school, I encourage you to think about 3-5 positives that you are looking forward to.  It will change your day! 

 

I look forward to seeing all of you on Monday!   

Important Information: 

New 9 weeks:  The third quarter has proven to be a tough one.  January we were hybrid, we got in one full week of in-person, then we were blessed with 8 snow days and FINALLY we were able to have two weeks before the end of the 9 weeks.  Late work, virtual assignments, missing tests, student bad learning habits are making our cups extra full.   

To help us get 4th quarter off on a good start, here are some strategies we encourage you to use: 

      * Grades will be due Wednesday, March 24th at 11:59.  Any students with outstanding work should receive a zero in standards based or 50% in a regular grade book so all students and teachers can start the 4th quarter in good standing. I would not let late work spill over past Wednesday.   We will then be able to use our systems for the 4th quarter of Learning Lunch and 8th period to try to maintain assignments.  We are down to a handful of on-line students in each grade level and we continue to get more back.  This will help as well!

      * PBIS Lessons - We know our students need a reminder of appropriate behavior and a reset.  We will use Tuesday, March 23rd during 2nd period to teach a PBIS lessons.  You will get a copy of the lessons in your email.  It is VERY important that we all teach the lesson and then be consistent about handling the situation when we see it in our classrooms.  

      * Attendance Court - The Perry County Court System has finally opened up attendance court.  Please know we have a list of students already scheduled.  This has also helped us get more students back to school in-person.  As of the end of last week, we only had 66 students who are virtual spread out across all grade levels.  We have been missing this level of leverage for accountability and we are excited to be able to utilize it.  

     * Surprise and Delight -  We are planning a surprise and delight for students in grades 9-12 during lunch/WIN on Wednesday, March 24th.  (We picked this day because it is supposed to be sunny and 70!)  We will have games out on the track for students to play - like corn hole, etc.  We would like teachers to bring their students outside during WIN and encourage you to play games with them.  When it is time for their groups to eat lunch, they will report to the cafeteria for lunch.  

Assistant Schedules:  Assistants, thank you to all of you who checked this document over break.  If you haven't had a chance to look at it, please do so by the end of the day on Monday and report any changes/updates to Jody.  We are trying to get our schedules back in order after so many switches and changes the last few months.  Thank you!  You can find the document HERE.  

PLC Team Meetings:   We will be planning PLC team meetings for core content subject areas next week.  Please see the schedule below.  We are working to provide half day subs for this work.   Agenda items for the meetings include:  ILEARN updates/resources, Updating Power Standards on Data Wall (we will be using this data to determine summer school list), data discussions and more.  

March 31st:  8:00 - 11:25  English Team/  12:00 - 3:00   Math Team

April 1st - 8:00 - 11:25  Social Studies Team/  12:00 - 3:00  Science Team

Dates: 

March 26th: Junior High Ron Clark -  (We will be sending you activities to do.  This will be for 3rd period on Friday.)  

March 24th:  High School Surprise and Delight (see above)

April 7th:  Virtual Day

 

Sacrifices

The word "sacrifice" was brought to my attention this weekend and as I reflected on the word, it made me think of all of you. Webster defines the term sacrifice as the act of giving up something that you want, especially in order to get something or help someone else.

Education is not only a profession, but a sacrifice. Many of you put in extra hours into providing feedback, extra energy into relationships, and extra love into developing engaging lesson plans. You do all of this because of your desire to help someone else; your students and their families. The work that you do is a service to our community.

The strength our community shows is rooted in your classrooms. With all of the sacrifices you make, taking time to re-energize and be with your family is important. As we are on the doorstep of spring break, I hope all of you will enjoy your break and time with your family. Thanks for making sacrifices for our students!

Important Information:

Sources of Strength - Perry Central is excited to provide training to our teachers and students through Sources of Strength.  SOS is a positive based suicide prevention program that is peer based.  Attached you will find the students who have been chosen to participate in the training/program along with teachers, who have already had their first round of training.   We plan to train all of these students on Wednesday, March 10th from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. in the high school gym.  Please excuse these students for this important program.  Teachers involved in the program will have coverage so they can train with the students.  If you have questions/concerns please let us know.  Please find the student list HERE.

Surprise and Delight - Thanks to the Surprise and Delight team and Lauren Blake for coming up with the Shamrock Scavenger Hunt this week!  Lauren has agreed to hide the Shamrocks in the school.  Students who find them will receive a coupon for a drink and chips in the high school office.    Also, Ron Clark teams will meet this week on Friday!    It is great to get back into the swing of activities for our students!

COVID Update - Perry County is in Blue at this time, which is allowing us some relief.  While things are looking up, it isn’t a time to let our guard down.  We have had positive cases that required quarantines this week.  Please remember it is VERY important to stay 3 feet apart with masks on.  If you are closer than that without masks you will be quarantined if someone is sick.  Faculty/Staff - please remember to be mindful of lunch times or other times during the school day that you could be together.  We need to make sure you are three feet apart with masks as well.  It is difficult to find coverage for large amounts of adults.  Seating charts (that we can access) in the classroom and masks are necessary at all times unless students can be sitting and 6 feet apart.  

Important Dates:   As we get into the Spring Semester, I wanted to remind you of some important dates - 

• March 9th - National Honor Society Induction - High School Gym

• April 7th -  Last Virtual Day - We will have breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and have an Early College Presentation

• April 16th - Homecoming @ Baseball Field

• May 1st - Perry Central will host an in-person prom and after-prom as long as the community spread stays light.  

• May 15th - Scholarship Banquet - Parents only/Meal provided

• May 12th - High School Awards Program/ Awards program for students in grades 9-12 in the high school gym

• May 30th - Graduation