Deeper Learning

 

Last week, members of our teaching team visited High Tech High in San Diego.  We determined this was a place we wanted to visit because of our work with New York's Poly-Tech Schools.  As we learned about where they gained their inspiration, we found out they learn the most from HTH and we wanted to learn as well, with the goal for how we can better learn how to design Project Based Learning experiences for our students and not be overwhelmed!  

In PBL fashion, we started the training with this essential question: "How do we design experiences that increase student engagement and deeper learning?"  We knew we were in the right place!  We went through a 3 day Deisgn Camp that gave us protocols and methods for creating good projects that also included academic rigor.  We also visited some of the schools in the area.  They were not big schools and were not fancy at all - but the learning was exhibited everywhere and students really did genuinely like going to school there and felt they were learning.  

 Below were some of my take aways, and I hope you reach out to your fellow teachers that attended to learn theirs: 

     * Not EVERYTHING is taught through the PBL model, but most students are working on one or two projects over several weeks at a time.  We should start small and just keep learning!  

     * We need to create systems where teachers & students can work together and develop projects (either an individual class project or across curriculum projects) so they can provide feedback to each other and create the BEST ideas!  

    * Importance of community partners and authentic experiences - especially when students can give back to their community. 

    * Several protocols that we can use to develop projects and project ideas!!!  The teachers that attended the training do not feel nearly as overwhelmed by the process anymore!!  (Can't wait to share this with you!)

    * Importance of exhibiting our projects in the classrooms and school hallways to tell our stories to each other and our community. 

    * The New York Poly-Tech system is best because it is geared towards careers (we are too) - some of the HTH students had great experiences but still didn't have any clue about what they wanted to do after high school. 

    * Student/Teacher Relationships and Trauma Informed/Conscious Discipline approaches are still KEY and taught in this process.  (The students I interviewed mentioned these things and how it made them like school better.)

    * This work is exciting and POSSIBLE!  

I think pretty soon, Leopold, Indiana will be a wold class place to learn about PBL and Poly-Tech practices that increase student learning - because all of you are going to be the rock stars to get us there!  

STEM Grant - If you remember, we have a grant that will pay each teacher a $400 stipend to complete a PBL or Workplace Challenge in their classrooms and our goal is to complete a PBL this semester of some kind.  I would love to host some half-day learning opportunities and/or Lunch and Learns around PBL design using some of the protocols that we learned in San Diego.  The training would include some  models of projects for you to look at, time to brainstorm with your peers, how to incorporate the community, etc.   In order to plan for the training (I would like to do this sometime in February), I really would like to know who is interested in learning!  Please respond to this google form (it is two questions) by Wednesday so I can start planning.  My goal is to help you have a positive and fun PBL experience AND help you earn some cash!!  

Pep Session - We will have a pep session this Friday afternoon for the Girls Basketball Sectional.  The girls play the first game in the sectional Friday night. We will release band students and cheerleaders by intercom.  Hope some of you learned the flashmob dance - it is going to be awesome! Below is the schedule for that day:        

Pep Session Schedule
12:28-1:08 5th Period
1:12-1:52 6th Period
1:56-2:29 7th Period
2:30-3:00 Pep Session

Tutoring - Tutoring in the after school program is in full swing and students are starting to stay.  Our goal is to have students who didn't earn a 3 or higher on a specific skill to stay 2-3 times to be remediated on the skill and then retest.  Our goal is to help them not just shoot for a good grade, but really understand that learning each skill is important and possible.  If you have questions about after school tutoring, please let us know!

Also, just a reminder that Kacey Dyer is available during first WIN everyday for high school tutoring.  She is able to help studetns with upper level subjects.  You can find her in the Learn and Leave room or Learning Lunch.  Please encourage students to utilize her! 

Purdue vs. IU Challenge -  This Saturday is the BIG game between Purdue and IU basketball.  Both teams are playing well and it will no doubt be a battle!!!  To have a little fun, each PLC team can turn in what they think the score will be at the end of the game and who will win the game by the end of the day on Friday.  Winning PLC team will get lunch on the office!! Boiler Up!!!  

    Assistants - you can play too!  Find 3-4 assistants that will be on a team together and turn in one score per the four people on your team!  

Smekens Super Satursday Event- Our English Teachers, along with the elementary will be participating in this Saturday Professional Development opportunity - centered around writing.  It is a virtual learning platform that allows teachers time to learn about research based strategies.  Thanks to our teachers for their dedication!

Math Training - Laurie Ferry will be in the building on Thursday to observe our math teachers and give them feedback as they move to conceptual learning.  Laurie has been helping the math team all year.  We are grateful for the math team and all of the learning they have done this year!!!  

Junior High Houses - Some fun times happening during Junior-High Houses!  They have been playing team building games, learning about teamwork and communication and have gained a sense of belonging in their houses.  Commodore Cash is big time currency!!  Thanks to Lauren and the rest of the junior high teachers and assistants for making this possible!  

Legislative Update

Legislative Update:

It is that time of the year again, when the state of Indiana is hot and heavy in the legislative process.  This is a budget year, and the last budget that our current Govenor will be a part of, so as he works to move his priorities through, things can get interesting. 

I am on the legislative committee for the Indiana Association of School Principals and we get updates once a week.  I thought I would share a few bills they are following closely.  The IASP always reminds us that the legislative process is a marathon, not a sprint.  A lot can happen in the next four months!  It is improtant not to get excited, but get involved.  

HB 1001 - Budget Bill (Will determine 2 year budget.  Not a lot of information there yet.)

HB 1002 - Education & Workforce Matters (Priority Bill for House) - would require the following:               * New High School Graduation Requirements - promotes more flexibility and the opportunity for students to participate in workbased learning, apprenticeships, and internships.                                               * Creates Career Scholarship Accounts - this money would NOT come from tuition support and would be there to allow students participating in approved programs to use it for transportation, apprenticeship opportunities with companies, etc.  (Not a lot of direction with this - but they are trying to help students without resources have the same opportunities as others do)                                                         * Requires a Career Fair to happen during the school day                                                                           * Requires all 11th and 12th grade students to meet with a career intermediary (someone to share with them career opportunities) for 30 minutes each year

SB 35 - Financial Literacy - would require all high school students take some type of finaincial literacy course  (SB 68 even mentions this replacing Algebra II class on the CORE 40)

SB 305 - Education Saving Accounts - this is the most concerning bill.  Two years ago, they created the Special Education Savings Account.  Special Education students that withdrew from school could use tax payer money (our ADM) to purchase special education services and materials.  Currently 143 families are doing this across the state.    SB 305 would open this up for all students to use.  They are saying that the money used for this is a seperate line item than school budget (so they are saying it won't hurt schools) - but we all know if students are not enrolling in our public schools, it is money that our schools will not get.  The fiscal part of this bill is unclear as well.  It is expected to have a lot of changes in the committee.  

There are also 6 bills around Social Justice Issues, a bill in each house that would eliminate textbook fees for families, a bill that would require students to complete the FAFSA to graduate, and Senate Bill 1 addresses Mental Health issues across the state of Indiana.

I will share more information as I get it!

Important Information: 

Panorama Surveys - Thanks to our English teachers for being willing to provide students time to take the Panorama survey data.  We utilize this data to determine small group counseling sessions to help students gain skills and make sure we are not missing students that need help.  It is a very important part of our MTSS system.  We will continue to encourage our students to take it seriously!

Faculty Meeting - Tuesday, January 24th  7:25 a.m.  Breakfast items will be available!

Changemaker Challenge:  This Tuesday, Dylan Lynch and Adam Goffinet are competing in U of E's Changemaker Challenge.  They will have a practice round Monday night late and then Tuesday compete.  The team that wins, earns full-tuition scholarships to U of E.  They are taking the STEM Van idea and presenting it that day.  

Thermwood Visit:  Dylan Lynch, Max Briggeman, Nolan Weyer and Carson Guillaume  (with the help of Michael Jarboe) will be traveling to Thermwood on Wednesday to present Workplace Challenge samples to Thermwood's Leadership team.  Their hope is to create challeges for us to use here at PC.  They see the value in students doing this type of work.  Thanks to this team for helping us show off the great work happening at PC!

Out of Building:  Tuesday - Friday, a small team consisting of Jane Goffinet, Payton Malone, Brennan Malone, Seth Gehlhausen and Jody will be traveling to San Diego to visit High Tech High, a charter school built on the idea of Project Based Learning.  This trip is funded out of our STEM Grant, along with RECN and a couple of other funds.  We hope to bring back more PBL ideas and find ways to integrate this research based approach into our curriculum.  We will share what we learn!

Congratulations - Congrats to the band for earning 2nd place in the AA Pep Band Contest!  They did an outstanding job this weekend in Orleans.  

Workplace Challenges - We have some movement with our Workplace Challenges.  Below are projects on the move: 

    * Alyssa Howe/Honors English 12: Working with Nursing Homes and reading Tuesday's with Morrie.   

    * Vanessa Johnson/Chemistry:  Working with Chemist at Waupaca - we are meeting next week to determine challenge

   * Nancy Poehlein/Digital Art:  Working with Boston Interntational on Napkin Design Challenge

   * Carrie Guillaume/Precision Ag:  Working with GroPod and developing a manual for other schools to learn how to design and create a grow tower.  The manual will include business plan models.  Students will also use their time in English to help create this.

   * Payton Malone/Biology:  Hope to work with GroPod on scientific design and developing research that can be utilized in GroPod's Open Source Resource.  

   * Dana Harris/Tyler Spressor (Oklahoma Researcher):  Bee Polen - How to label and test honey in a lab setting

There are other project ideas we are working on with other teachers!  So exciting!  More information to come!!  

Core Principles:  Our CTE Advisory Board met last week and determined that the following will be our Core Principles for Perry Central (meaning the Employability Skills that we will eventually use to provide students feedback on):  Communication, Reliability, Perservence,  Problem Solver, Team Oriented.  Our next job is to create the rubric!  

Have a GREAT week!

    

Purpose

 

Important Information: 

Reminder:

   

      * Domain 1 & 3 are due again this year.  We are asking that they will be filled out the day after our next PD day, which is April 11.   If you need help filling it out, please let us know!  

      * We are ready to move to the second semester for professional goals!  Many of you completed your first Marzano Element and now we are ready to move-onto the second one!  Looking forward to seeing your growth!

New Assistant:  We will be welcoming Marie Hitz as a new assistant on Tuesday!  We are fortunate to have her!  

Admin Coverage:   On Wednesday, January 18th, both Phil and I will be out of the building for a little while at the same time.  We will have coverage for situations that are severe, otherwise, we will catch up with what we miss on Thursday.  I don't think it is supposed to be a full-moon!

Have a great short week!!!

The Ideal Graduate

We had a great PD day on January 3rd!  Thank you for all of your hard work and great team effort.  After that meeting, and reading the articles that we discussed, it seemed like my inbox filled up with content about Project Based learning and the importance of thinking about skills students need in the workplace such as communication, problem solving, and more!  

Two authors that are great to follow and learn more about PBL are: 

      Trevor Muir, who just recently posted this article, "The Ideal Graduate".  You can find him on Facebook.  He posts a lot of great things and has useful content.

       John Spencer, who wrote one of the articles we read last week and has some great content when it comes to Project Based Learning.  He uses the acronym LAUNCH for his design thinking (PBL) framework.  You can find him on YouTube.  

L: Look, Listen, and Learn

A: Ask Tons of Questions

U: Understanding the Process or Problem

N: Navigate Ideas

C: Create a Prototype

H: Highlight and Fix

Launch to an Authentic Audience

Important Information: 

PD Day Follow Up:  Thanks for a great working day!  Just a few quick reminders:

    * Data Sheets - For core content classes in the meeting a reminder that your quarter 2 power standard student data is due in Jody's mailbox.  I received a few, but not all of them.  You can find a link to the data sheet HERE.  Please do this by Wednesday.  

    * Scope & Sequence - I had a lot of great conversations over scope and sequences with everyone.  Great work.  Remember, this should be a living document, one that we update each year and continue to grow with it. 

    * MTSS Form - Thank you to those who filled out the MTSS Form.  If you haven't already and have some students that are struggling, please fill out the form by Wednesday this week.  We will be having an MTSS meeting soon.  HERE is the form.  

    * WIN - Data sheets from WIN show that you are pulling a wide variety of students!  Great job!  Please continue to utilize your data to determine who you will pull for remediation.  

    * Tutoring - Just a reminder we do have after school tutoring options and for upper level students, we have a tutor that can help them during first WIN.  Kacey Dyer will be taking Alyssa Hill's place and she can help with upper level math, etc.  Please utilize her.  You can email her with information to help her get started helping students.  

Visitors:  Brownstown Central will be visiting on Thursday morning to see our CTE programs.  Please welcome our visitors to the building!  ;-)

PBL Training - Don't forget that Dawn and Emily will be leading a PBL session after school in Dawn's room from 3:15 - 4:15.  You will earn $50 by attending!

NAPE (National Alliance for Partntership in Equity) Gathering - Early in the fall, we attended a training through Toyota to work on developing an equity mindset, specifically when it comes to a varitey of students entering CTE fields, including Manufacturing (That is why Toyota sponsored it! ;-))  Looking at our data, we realized that we do not have very many boys or girls in non-traditional careers, especially girls in advanced manufacturing, construction or diesel.  This Friday, Jane has invited a small group of girls to the library who are in these fields, to get their take on why our data is that way.  As we gather data we hope to start having a positive impact that encourages more females into these career fields.  Thanks, Jane!

Cheers to our Pep Block and the positive way they cheered on the Commodores Saturday in the Coaches Vs. Cancer games.  All athletes gave their best in both the girls and boys games.  We are proud of them!!!

 

Happy New Year!

Happy 2023!  What a great first half of the year we had and I am SO excited about this next half as we have so many exciting things happening:

      * Workplace Challenges/Project Based Learning  - truly redesigning school for our students!              

       * Strong, Collaborative PLC work - tightening our curriculum and creating more learning/growth opportunities for students       

       * Innovative Engagement - Students excited to come to school - learning from each other through authentic learning opportunities, inquiry based, collaboration - focusing on our Core Principles (Employability Skills)

       * Relationships First Environment - "Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love." - Dr. Bruce Perry     

       * Celebrations - Students performing well on state tests, personal growth and career success!

The vision of our 2023 is exciting!  This work cannot happen without all of you (everyone in this building).  Your work matters - YOU matter.  Looking forward to an outstanding 2023!!! 

Important Information: 

PD Day -  We are looking forward to a great day of learning on our PD day, January 3rd.  The agenda is HERE.  You will notice that we will start breakfast early!  

      Assistants - You will notice the outline for your day the bottom of the agenda.  We are looking forward to a great half-day of learning.  We are excited to have Debbie Richey back!  Also, we will be welcoming Kacey Dyer and Katelyn Coultas as new assistants.  I will pass out an updated assistant schedule as well on this day as some things have changed.  

Administrative Intern - We are pleased to welcome Hannah Sitzman to our builidng this semester.  Hannah is a 6th grade English and Social Studies teacher at Cedar Crest Intermediate school and she is completing her administrative license and will complete her internship hours with us!  We will try to introduce her to all of you as her time allows.  We are excited to bring her into our building and have the opportunity to learn from her!

Grades - Remember that grades will dump on the 4th at midnight and we will pass out report cards on January 6th.  If you have a student that needs an incomplete, please let Jody or Phil know so we can mark them appropriately. 

MTSS Tier 2 Academic - Now that we are at the end of the first semester, we would like to check in and see what students are struggling.  Please fill out this MTSS Tier 2 link for students that are struggling academically by the end of the day tomorrow (PD Day).  If we need to make changes to schedules or figure out tutoring options, we would like to catch that early.   

        Here is our MTSS Framework for how we support students, just for your review.

Testing Dates: Attached is the state list for testing for spring semester.  SAT for all juniors will be March 1-3 and the ILEARN 7/8 window is April 17th - May 12th.  I will be meeting with math and ELA teachers to determine testing dates for 7th/8th grade and Biology very soon!  It is best practice to start planning backwards from these dates.  All of the work you are doing daily is preparing students for tests - but being intentional is important!  

Upcoming Dates: 

January 4th - Grades must be finalized by midnight.

January 5th -  PBIS Lessons/ 2nd Period

January 12th - Brownstown Central Visiting our CTE Programs

January 12th - Project Based Learning Training, 3:15 - 4:15, Dawn Lynch's room (remember you can earn $50 to attend!)

January 24th - Faculty Meeting