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.