Trauma Informed Care

Trauma informed care and brain research are certainly hitting the national press.  We understand the impact in our own classrooms and schools.  Research is showing us that discipline is not the answer as our students need healing and support.  Perry Central is working to be a Trauma Informed School and we are working on Professional Development for all of you!  We have a team of dedicated reading a book called "The Trauma-Informed School" by Jim Sporleder.  I haven't gotten very far in the book, but I am already empowered by some of the key cornerstones such as:

  - "Trauma-Informed model works for ALL students.  Everyone benefits from being treated with kindness and connecting to a caring staff.  This model is an everyday process for every student."  
  - "Trauma Informed schools are a shift from fear-based culture to relationship and love-based."
  - "Brain drives behavior."
  - "The best way to describe someone that resists the new model is: fear."

Oprah Winfrey brought this pandemic to the national spotlight in her recent article in USA today, that is posted below.  She feels her life will forever be impacted by this information as she looks at individuals differently.   

I know you probably get tired of me writing about this area, but it is such an important piece to understanding our students and helping them meet their needs.  I am thankful that all of you are willing to learn with us.  I would encourage you to read Oprah's article.  It is inspiring! 

Oprah Article can be found HERE. 


School Notes:

* National School Walk-Out:  I will remind you of this information on Wednesday, but Wednesday, March 14th has been designated as National School Walk-Out Day.  At 10:00 a.m. across all time zones, this group is encouraging students to walk out of their classrooms for a total of 17 minutes to raise awareness and push for legislation that would be centered around gun violence and safety in schools, homes and places of worship.

Our administration team met with the Junior/Senior High Student Council members last week to talk about this event and other safety topics.  The student council did not believe that many students planned to participate in the event and even recommended that we did not promote it.  (They are such good kids - they said that students would get out of class just because and it wouldn't help anything.)

There is a potential that a small group of students may participate.  If at 10:00 a.m. you have students walk-out of the classroom, please allow them to do so.  Students wanting to walk-out should report to the football field.  We will allow them to be on the football field for 17 minutes and then make sure they are back to class.  If all of your students participate, please escort them to the field.  We want to help students that are interested make an appropriate stance, but we hope this does not bring a lot of disruption to the school day. 

Standards 201 Training:  This week on Wednesday and Thursday we will divide the staff up into two groups for some training during lunch/WIN for our PLC teams.  This was the training that we were going to try to have but instead had snow days!  We will be providing lunch for this training. More details will be forthcoming!

Wednesday (March 14): English Team, Social Studies Team, Carrie Guillaume, Nancy Poehlein, Mary Hagedorn

Thursday: (March 15) Science Team, Math Team, Carol Schwoeppe, Josh Craney, Keith Pierrard, Andrea Clark

Tech Changes:  I want to apologize for not getting this communication out earlier.  Dr. Clark reset this system a few weeks ago and I forgot to send the information.  To help ensure that students are getting replacements for broken computers, we have tried to develop a different system.  Students who have broken computers are encouraged to fill out a Tech Support Ticket.  Dr. Clark moved the link to the Tech Support Ticket to the front page of the school website for easy access.  If a student cannot get access to someone that can help them with a ticket, students are asked to please take their broken computers to the ISS room.  Mrs. Taylor is set up to help students write out the ticket and take their computer.  This will ensure there is a record of this event.  Students who do not have chargers should also report to the ISS room.  She has replacement chargers for students to use.  Students will be charged a fee for lost chargers.  Bottom Line - if students have computer issues, send them to the ISS room, NOT the tech room for the best results! 

The more you can help us make sure students are completing the Tech Support Tickets, the better this system will work.  We know our loaner bank of computers is low.  Next school year, we will be requiring that all classrooms have at least two desktop computers in them for students with computer issues.  We know that the computers are typically a very important part of your lesson plans and we want to make sure we are doing the best we can to accommodate these issues.  Please see Jody if you have questions about this process.

* Virtual Day - Just a reminder that Thursday, March 22nd will be a virtual day for students.  We are encouraging you to get that information out to students by Monday, March 19th.  This will allow students time to finish the work while they have help and hopefully help make sure work gets completed before they return in April.  I have had requests from several families to be gone during different days of our spring break.  Students are supposed to be contacting teachers for this work.

* Disability Awareness Month:  Faculty and staff are invited to wear jeans this week (March 12 - 19) in honor of National Disability Month for a donation to our program.  Donations can be made in the high school office.  Thanks to Kris Walsh for leading this charge!

* ASPIRE:  On Tuesday, March 13th, Perry Central will host all 10th grade boys from the county for our annual ASPIRE event.  This event is sponsored by the College Success Coalition and is a very large career awareness program.  Over 40 community representatives will be on hand to speak to our students.  We are excited to host this event!  Girls from across the county will be driving to Tell City High School for the other half of the event.  Girls will be leaving around 8:45 a.m. and boys will be released by intercom around 9:15 a.m.  The event will be over around 1:30 p.m.

* Safety Audit:  On Friday, Perry Central hosted over 30 individuals from several community agencies to talk about safety at Perry Central.  It was a great meeting and walk-through.  We learned several ways we can continue to work together to make Perry Central a safer campus; many of which we have already shared with you in the past couple of weeks.  We are very thankful to live in a community where so many people care so much about our safety.  Just a reminder we will have safety training on Thursday, March 22nd as our professional development opportunity.

ISTEP:  Thanks to everyone for a successful ISTEP testing week.  I tested several students and all of the students worked so hard.  Our next window will open the last week of April - Week of April 23rd - May 4th is the official window.  There are several more tests in the second window.

Important Dates: 

Monday, March 12 - School Board meeting 6:30 p.m. in high school library

Tuesday, March 13 - ASPIRE for all 10th grade students

Friday, March 16th - FFA Leadership Contests @ North East Dubois.  Bus leaves right after school.

Thursday, March 22 - Virtual Day for students/Professional Development Day

Friday, March 23 - First day of Spring BREAK!!

Friday, April 6th - Career Day during 3rd and 4th periods for students in grades 7,8,9

Supporting our Students

During times and events like we have had this week, I find myself reverting back to Lori Desautels' brain research.  I like to stalk her Facebook page for interesting articles and information that will help me better understand our students and find ways we can help during stressful times. During times like these, even though we are frustrated, the words of  Ross Greene echo in my head, "Kids do well if they can."

Ironically, this week, Lori has a great article about discipline vs. punishment.  (I have added a link to the entire article for your viewing below.)  In this article, Lori reminds us that when students have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) that pathways of fear are laid down within their brains, creating a flight or fight response.  This research fully explains the background of this quote, "A hurtful child is a hurt-filled child."

As educators, this new generation of student is challenging us to rethink how we approach and work with children.  We know at Perry Central that it is no longer appropriate to demand compliance from our students but we must find ways to teach and model the behaviors we want to see; laying the groundwork for prevention systems and strategies.  This research has led us to systems that teach and support such as Commodore Pride (Positive Behaviors Interventions & Supports), After-School Programs, teaching Restorative Practices to all 8th grade students, and our academic supports of Learning Lunch/8th Period/After School tutoring.  These systems allow us to teach students skills they may be lacking while at the same time bring hope to all of our students. 

I would encourage you to read this article as it is just a reminder of the importance of all of the system of supports we are working to put in place to help our students.  I want to personally thank all of you for being positive, caring and supporting individuals to all of our students.  The Indiana State Police even commented that they could not believe the calmness our faculty and staff bring to such stressful situations.  You are making Perry Central a very special place to be.

Link for article is here!

I do want to note that in this article, she talks about ways to approach students specifically who have an incomplete assignment.  Here is what she suggests: Teachers should have one on one discussions with students that convey what the behavior communicates to you, the teacher.  Teachers should ask if somethings has changed at school or home or if the student doesn't understand and then make a plan with the students and possibly parent for missing assignment (basically use Perry Central's system of support through learning lunch/8th period and engage counselor if you feel necessary.)  


School Notes:

* ISTEP Testing continues this week.  Most students will be taking English and Social Studies 7.  Thank you for being flexible during this time and helping students find the locations they should be testing in.  Please take a look at the ISTEP schedule for this week.  All tests must be complete by Friday, March 9th.

* Welcome!  We would like to welcome Dawn Huss-Howe as a new assistant to Perry Central Jr./Sr. High School.  She will start on Monday!  We welcome her to our PC family!

* Law-Enforcement Visits - On Friday, March 9th you may notice some extra law enforcement in our building.  Local law enforcement representing the Indiana State Police, Perry County Sheriff's Office, Branchville Correctional Facility, Conservation Law Officers, and Tell City Police Department will be here to help us update our safety plan, walk through the building, etc.  This is an annual event as we work to make sure we have strong safety plans in place.

* Aspire - On March 13, all 10th grade students will be participating in the Perry County College Success Coalition's Aspire Event.  This is a large career event for all of our students.  Perry Central will be hosting the boys and Tell City the girls! 

* Commissioner's Meeting - Perry Central will be hosing the Perry County Commissioner's Meeting on Monday, March 19th in the High School Library.  Seniors will be asked to attend this event from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

*Book Study - Do not forget to make your first post by March 9th!  Post should be made in Google Classroom. 


Important Dates:

Friday, March 9 - Book Reviews Due in Google Classrooms - Please make sure you are connected to your Google Classroom!! / Local Law Enforcement Visits.

High Expectations

Research shows that students will meet and exceed expectations when they are held to high standards for success.  Every child we serve deserves to have high expectations for academic success.  How do we ensure we are holding students to these high expectations?  Here is a comparison of teacher behaviors for low and high expectations from the "Disrupting Poverty" book by Kathleen Budge and William Parrett.  Thanks for always making sure our students are encouraged to do their best daily!  

Teachers who hold HIGH Expectations. . .

   - Articulate the belief that student can achieve at high levels

   - Create warm social-emotional relationships focused on strengths, funds of knowledge, interests and aspirations

   - Provide informative feedback on performance to scaffold learning

   - Teach content and use tasks with high cognitive demand

   - Ask frequent, high-level questions

   - Encourage a productive struggle (refrain from giving answers, allowing wait time, guiding to answer)

   - Maintain close physical prosimity

   - Interact Frequently

   - Use positive nonverbal communication

Teachers who hold LOW Expectations . . . 

   - Call on students less frequently

   - Provide less "wait time" for answers

   - Provide answers or call on another student without wait time

   - Reward low-quality or incorrect answers

   - Criticize more frequently for failure

   - Interact less frequently

   - Seat students far away from teacher

   - Rely on tasks with low cognitive demand

   - Overuse independent/seat work

School Notes: 

* ISTEP Test Schedule - Attached to the email is a daily ISTEP schedule with coverage listed.  EVERYONE should please look at this list to see if they are required to help cover students.  Thank you to everyone for their flexibility and help these next two weeks!  You can find the document for 2018 ISTEP Groups in the Teacher Resource folder in Google Docs.  Please help make sure students know where they will be testing and when! 

* Book Study!  We are very excited about our book study!  Please remember our first post in the Google Classrooms are due March 9th.  This first post is just an overview of the book - take a look at the Table of Contents and just flip through the book to gather a sense for what the book is about and share with us what you hope to gain.  We will have questions for the first three chapters of your book posted soon and feedback will be due by Friday, April 6th.  If you need help accessing Google Classroom, please see Phil.  

* Reminders:  The end of the grading period is now Friday, March 16th.  Report cards will come out on Wednesday, the 21st, so the window for finalizing grades will be shorter.  We will NOT meet after school for a PLC meeting on March 14th.  PLC Data will be due by April 6th.  You are encouraged to use your WIN team time to finalize this data.  Documents will be available in the PLC Organization Folder.  

Important Dates: 

Friday, March 2nd - Pep Session for Boys Basketball Sectional!   Boys will play at 5:30 p.m. at Castle High School on Friday night!  Go Commodores!!

March 13th - Aspire Event for all 10th grade students.  Students will be gone from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

March 22nd - Virtual Day for students/Teacher Professional Development Day with safety as the topic

March 9 - Book Study entry due

Relationships Matter

The events in Florida are on all of our hearts and minds this week.  Working in a school and knowing the vulnerability our children live in every day, every place they go makes these tragic events feel close to home.   At Perry Central, the safety of our students and staff are at the core of our daily actions.  More important than safety drills, security plans and protocols are the connections that we are making with our students.  Knowing and understanding our students allows us to reach out for help,in their behalf, when we notice they are reaching a breaking point with the stress in their lives.  I feel so fortunate to work in a place where students and their families are surrounded by caring adults, such as  teachers, custodians, cooks, bus drivers, and administrators, who build lasting, positive connections with the students in our school.  We know that punitive discipline is not the answer, but restorative justice brings hope and change to students.  

Thank you for making Perry Central a safe and great place to educate our communities most precious resource, our children.


School Notes: 

Safety Meeting - Just a reminder of the after school safety meeting that will be held in the high school library at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20th.  We will also use this time to have a school wide ISTEP meeting as well.  

Celebrating Bob - We will have a retirement celebration/open house at 5:30 p.m. in the high school library to celebrate Bob Ransome and his years of service to Perry Central.  Hope to see all of you there!   

12 Days to ISTEP - The PBIS team has been working on test taking tips to share with students in grades 7,8 and 10.  Teachers who have 7th, 8th and 10th grade students first period will be asked to share these tips each day as we count down to ISTEP.

SAT/ACT Test Prep- Please encourage students to take advantage of the SAT/ACT Test Prep Sessions that will be available to them for FREE starting this week.  Sessions are in the mornings 7:05 - 7:55 a.m.  On Tuesdays, students can practice English with Ms. Petty in her room and on Wednesdays, students can practice math with Mr. Linne!

Important Dates: 

Tuesday, February 20th -  Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m. High School Library/  After School Safety Meeting 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 22nd - 8th and 10th grade parent meeting 5:45 p.m. 

Friday, February 23rd - Boys Varsity Basketball Game @ home vs. Heritage Hills 6:00 p.m./ Bob Ransome open house - 5:30 p.m. in high school library/ Senior Night!!

Reading Children

This week, I just wanted to leave you with a few good reads I found on Social Media.  I think they are all just good reminders of what all of you already know and do every day.  Hope you have a wonderful week!  

“Psychologists usually try to help people use insight and understanding to manage their behavior. However, neuroscience research shows that very few psychological problems are the result of defects in understanding; most originate in pressures from deeper regions in the brain that drive our perception and attention. 

When the alarm bell of the emotional brain keeps signaling that you are in danger, no amount of insight will silence it.” 

― Bessel A. van der Kolk,
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

 

Children who have been hurt, learn how to hurt; themselves and others.

These children may engage in a barrage of negative behaviors including aggression, violence, threats, property destruction, and extreme disorganized behaviors.

The targets of this experience often find themselves moving away from the child, fighting back or feeling lost and incompetent.

The purpose of proving a trauma sensitive response to wounded children is that we learn to lean in during the most difficult times so as not to perpetuate the experience of abandonment.

The art of trauma informed care is a sacred practice. 

School Notes: 

PLC Meeting - Reminder we will have a PLC Meeting on February 14th from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. in High School Library!  We will learn about Restorative Practices along with time to work on our PLC Data.  See you there!

ISTEP Trial Test - New DATE:- All students in grades 7,8 and 10 must participate in an ISTEP Trial test on February 15th at the beginning of 4th period.  If you have students in these grades, we will be issuing you test tickets closer to time.  This should only take 10-15 minutes in theory!  Please just mark you calendars and more information will come out soon.  10 school days until ISTEP window opens!  

8th Grade Field Trip - Reminder that all 8th grade students will be on a field trip on Thursday the 15th until around the middle of 6th period.  Students will be visiting the Perry County Detention Center and Court Room.  The will also be watching the "Hit from Hell" documentary, learning about the opioid crisis. 

12 Days to ISTEP - The PBIS team has been working on test taking tips to share with students in grades 7,8 and 10.  Teachers who have 7th, 8th and 10th grade students first period will be asked to share these tips each day as we count down to ISTEP.  Watch your email for details!

SAT/ACT Test Prep- Please encourage students to take advantage of the SAT/ACT Test Prep Sessions that will be available to them for FREE starting this week.  Sessions are in the mornings 7:05 - 7:55 a.m.  On Tuesdays, students can practice English with Ms. Petty in her room and on Wednesdays, students can practice math with Mr. Linne!

Important Dates: 

Monday, February 12 - ISTEP Meeting for special education teachers after school in High School Library/ School Board Meeting 6:30 p.m. High School Library

Wednesday, February 14 - Valentine's Day Sweet Treats!!  7:30 a.m. in High School Office/ PLC Meeting 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 15 - 8th Grade Field Trip/ ISTEP Trial Test 

Friday, February 16 - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Paoli 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 17 - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Home vs. Tecumseh 5:30 p.m.

February 20th - Corporation After School Safety Meeting 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

 

The Blind Side

I am not very good at sitting down and watching movies, but last night our family started the movie The Blind Side.  Wow!  What a movie!  The entire time I was watching, I was thinking about some of our students. (If you are not familiar with the movie, Michael finds himself without parents (due to drugs) and another family adopts him.  He ends up being an NFL Star! He was doing terribly in school and teachers were giving up on him, except one - and after getting a tutor and a place to live, he excelled!)  We have many students that have endured complicated home lives.  This story reminds me that all students have a background; a story that many of us are not aware of. As professional educators, it is our job to never give up but to seek to understand and provide opportunities for our students to be successful.  

My favorite character in the movie was Ms. Sue.  She was Michael's tutor. Before Ms.Sue, Michael struggled in school and many believed he didn't know how to read as homework was hardly completed. She believed in the growth mindset as she told Michael that he didn't know the material, YET!  She was great at holding Michael to high expectations while at the same time supporting his needs. It took a lot of hard work, but watching him walk across stage for graduation with a high school diploma and a 2.5 GPA was well worth the effort and led Michael to go on to earn a college degree. 

We all have an example of a Michael in our classrooms.  To help these students be successful, it is important to build relationships, be kind and yet hold students to high expectations.  At Perry Central, we are fortunate to have a system of supports through learning lunch, 8th period and tutoring that helps make sure students are not falling behind in their academics (high expectations of doing the work) while at the same time supporting our students with engaging classroom projects, counselors and kind, smiling faces.  It is a lot of hard work, but when graduation comes, it is worth every minute of it!  Thanks to all of you for making a difference in our students' lives. 
 

School Notes: 

ISTEP Trial Test - All students in grades 7,8 and 10 must participate in an ISTEP Trial test on February 7th at the beginning of 4th period.  If you have students in these grades, we will be issuing you test tickets closer to time.  This should only take 10-15 minutes in theory!  Please just mark you calendars and more information will come out soon.  15 school days until ISTEP window opens!  

12 Days to ISTEP - The PBIS team has been working on test taking tips to share with students in grades 7,8 and 10.  Teachers who have 7th, 8th and 10th grade students first period will be asked to share these tips each day as we count down to ISTEP.  Watch your email for details! 

SAT/ACT Test Prep- Please encourage students to take advantage of the SAT/ACT Test Prep Sessions that will be available to them for FREE starting this week.  Sessions are in the mornings 7:05 - 7:55 a.m.  On Tuesdays, students can practice English with Ms. Petty in her room and on Wednesdays, students can practice math with Mr. Linne!

Snow Make-Up - We will now be coming to school on February 19th to make up our school days, along with the first four days of Spring Break (first week.)

Indiana Youth Survey -   The week of February 5th opens a survey that all students in grades 7-12 need to take.  The information we get from this survey is very important.  Students in grades 7-10 will take the survey in their science classes, 11th grade in US History and 12th grade in English.  More information will be coming.

Important Dates: 

Friday, February 9 - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Northeast Dubois 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 10 - Boys Varsity Basketball @ Home vs. North Posey  3:00 p.m.  (Career Pathway Night!)

Tuesday, February 14 - PLC Meeting  3:00 - 4:00

Thursday, February 15 - 8th Grade Field Trip

Tuesday, February 20th - Corporation Safety Meeting  3:00 - 4:00 p.m.