Be the Light

 

Thanks to all of you for being brave enough to be the light to so many in our community.  You make a difference each day.  Keep smiling, telling students you believe in them and loving them for who they are. 

                  A little FUN:

Bernie is waiting patiently for Mr. Zellers! 

He also thought the coaching staff did a great job in their win Saturday night!  Congratulations to our senior athletes and their coaches.  Girls Basketball Sectional begins the first week of February!  

Important Information:

Wednesday Meetings:   

  * 10:00 a.m. ISTEP Certification High School Library (for individuals who have yet go through the certification process and need help.  Jamie Guillaume will be there to help you through it!) 

  * If you haven't updated your Scope and Sequence for 3rd Quarter, please do so.  Looking at student data and power standards will be important.  Remember it isn't about getting through a lot of standards an inch deep, but what do we truly need the students to master before they move to the next grade level.  Review and remediation may need to be a part of your plan.  The PLC power is the opportunity for all of you to work together and have rich conversations that will lead to student learning.

Visitors - On Monday, we will have a few visitors from Madison High School visit Commodore Manufacturing.  They will be in the library around 10:30 and stay for about an hour.  Thanks to Josh Craney and his students for always being a great host.  We are proud of the program they have developed for our students and community. 

Regular School - We are anticipating the possibility of returning to school in-person in February.  A final decision will be made early next week.  This means we will be returning to spreading out lunches, etc.  We may be making some small changes to our protocols and this will be shared with you by the end of the week.  Please let us know if you have students that we need to get to school on Wednesday to help or you are welcome to invite students on your own.  It is a great day for students to receive extra help. 

Testing:  Reminder the ISTEP Tests for 11th graders is coming up!  If we are able to remain in-person for school we will be testing February 9th (2nd & 3rd), 10th (2nd, 3rd, & 4th) and February 16th (1st - 3rd) and February 17th (1st - 4th periods)   More details to follow soon.  

Kudos - Congratulations to Shea Berkhouse for earning a top spot in Indiana.  She was chosen as one of the top 5 to represent Indiana for the Presidential Scholarship for CTE students.  Shea will be earning the Academic Honors, Technical Honors and Indiana College Core (formally known as the Ivy Tech CORE 30).  Her Career Pathway is Business Administration where she is interning at the Perry County Chamber and EDC, has participated in the state's entrepreneurship contest called Innovate WithIN, been an active member of the BPA and she has applied her knowledge by helping on the business side of Commodore Manufacturing.  Congratulations!  

                                            

                           

Positive Comments for the WIN!

"The greatest form of motivation is exhortation.  Everyone wants to be encouraged.  Everyone wants a support group.  Find the things they do well and have a pep rally."  Bill McCartney - Former Head Coach of Buffaloes

All of us are leaders; leaders in our homes, in the classroom, on the athletic field/court, and in the community.  As a leader, research tells us it is important to bring positive energy to the group.  Randy Jackson in his book, "Culture Defeats Strategy" reminds us of the power of being positive and encourages at least a 5:1 ratio.  Research found that children in classrooms thrived when the ration of feedback was five positive parts to one constructive review.  The highest performing business teams/classrooms actually had a ratio that was 6:1.  On the flipside, students and teams fall into despair when the ratio was 2:1 (2 negatives to 1 positive).

Positive remarks equal big wins!  When we catch our students being good and reward them with a positive remark we change trajectory and increase success both on and off of the field.    

Happy Martin Luther King Day!  

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”      -Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Important Information: 

COVID Reminders: - We will have several students returning to the classroom this week.  Please remember to update your seating charts and keep the students spread out as much as possible.  We will continue the hybrid the next two weeks.  Let us know how we can support you!   HERE is the document that outlines who is returning.  

PLC Meetings:   We would like to have 45 minute PLC Meetings this Wednesday for core-content teachers.  Below are the assigned times.  If you would like to request a change in time due to working with students on-line, please let me know.  We will be discussing spring testing. Thank you!

             English - 9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.  High School Library

             Science & Social Studies - 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. - High School Library

             Math -  1:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.  - High School Library

Pandemic Findings:   Kim Waninger from the Special Education Co-Op Shared graphic from Lives in the Balance Survey. The results are interesting and just a reminder of the grace and kindness all of our students need.  Lives in the Balance is a Dr. Ross Greene Organization.  Dr. Ross Green wrote the book, "Lost at School" that we have read as a faculty/staff.  Survey results are from a national survey. 

 The Lives in the Balance online survey of parenting during the pandemic included 1022 parents of kids between the ages of 3-17 years, and was conducted in November, 2020. In terms of race/ethnicity, 68% of the parents identified as White, 13% as Black, and 13% as Hispanic. The vast majority of respondents were mothers. Our findings are detailed here.

Pandemic Findings | Lives in the Balance

State Testing:  Juniors will be taking the ISTEP test starting the 2nd week of February.  This test is important for students as it will help them complete their graduation pathway.  This is the last year for the ISTEP tests as next year, our current Sophomores will take the SAT as their state exam.  Testing always brings anxiety - but it shouldn't.  We have been preparing our students for this moment - now we need to get them mentally prepared to succeed.  

      Even in the pandemic, the state will require testing, but hopes the federal government provides flexibility about how tests are used (which is good!)  HERE is an article from Chalk Beat that outlines this information.  

For the Save - In Jill Taylor's 8th grade class, she hosted her on-line students live in a google meet with her class.  A student reached out to her in a panic voice asking her what to do because her air fryer was smoking! She was overly concerned because her parents were not home and she wasn't sure what to do.  Jill calmly told her to look for flames, unplug the machine and open the windows.  The student was very relieved to have this help!   After the student calmed down, they both determined the eggs were done.  

Legislative Session

 As a member of the Indiana Association of School Principal's Legislative Cadre, I get updates about the 2021 General Assembly and what is happening in reference to educational matters.  I thought I would share some of the bills the IASP is following this session.  

As we all are aware, 2021 is an odd year, so it is a budget session.  Bills are numbered in order of priority, so in both the House and Senate, the budget bill is number one (HB 1001, SB 1).  This will obviously be an area we are all watching.  The budget bill has not been proposed yet as they have until the end of this week to submit any bills for this year's session.  

Currently, there is a bill in both houses in regards to Tuition Support.  Last spring when the pandemic hit, the Governor was able to get passed that virtual students would receive full funding (prior to the pandemic, full virtual students - 100% Apex students for us - would only receive 85% of student funding).  The emergency bill passed in the spring only affected last spring and this fall's tuition count.  HB 1003 and SB 2 are two bills that have been presented that would continue to allow for virtual students to receive 100% of the funding for this spring's semester.    This is a good bill for all schools as it would allow our funding sources not to change.    These bills only affect this spring semester.  It is predicted there will be a provision in the Budget Bill to offer some long-term changes to the definition of a virtual student.  

Other Proposed Education Focused Bills: 

House 

HB 1027 and 1124 - both want to provide hand-gun training to teachers

HB 1093 - Choice Scholarship Bill that proposes expansion of vouchers

HB 1189 - Would allow for schools to receive full funding for students who graduate early (This would be beneficial to us!)

Senate

SB 52 - Cursive Writing - would bring cursive writing back to the elementary

SB 54 - FAFSA - Would require that all students fill out the FAFSA as a graduation requirement.  (This bill has good intentions but is a concern because currently it is hard to get information from parents.  It is a focus of the Governor's Workforce Cabinet.  I think the benefits to our students outweigh the stress to get it accomplished.)

SB 56, SB 85 - Both focus on Collective Bargaining

SB 64 - Anther School Safety Bill - focused on teacher training for hand-guns

SB 75 - Separation of Powers - not really an education bill, but this focuses on limiting the Governor's Executive Power  (Some legislators were not happy with how the Governor handled the pandemic and want to limit the power of this body.)

SB 97 - Indiana Popcorn Bill - would designate Indiana Popcorn as the official snack of Indiana!  (Fun
Agriculture Fact: Indiana is the leading state in the production of popcorn - Orville Redenbacher graduated from Purdue University!)

It is important that we are all involved in the process of creating legislative bills as they affect our lives.  I will occasionally give you updates as I receive them. 

Important Information: 

Hybrid Schedule:  Our Admin Team, in conjunction with the Perry County Health Department, will be making a decision early in the week about what kind of school schedule we will have after January 15th.   We will make sure to keep you in the loop as this decision is made.   It will be a difficult one.  

Teaching Observations:  Just a reminder you are welcome to send your evaluator one of your classroom videos for us to use for your observations.  I received several before Winter Break.  I really enjoyed watching the videos and teachers learned a lot about themselves as they reflected on their own work.  I appreciate how everyone in our building works hard to improve their craft.  Phil and I will be getting into classroom starting this next week.  If you have a lesson in the next months you would like us to observe please reach out and invite us!  

Reminder, we are focusing on Domains 2.1, 2.2 and 2.5 as an effort to lesson the stress of evaluations.  Our lens is always continual improvement and growth!  

Mental Health Update:  This week, Tara met with the CEO of the Perry County Hospital to share some of the alarming numbers around mental health and the lack of providers we have in our community.  As I listened to her share the following statics about Perry County, it reminded me of the heavy needs of our students.   Here are some statistics she shared: 

     * 20% of Perry County children face food insecurities

    * 48% of children live in abusive homes

   * In the last year, there were 209 CHINS (Children in Needs of Services - because they live in abused or negligent homes) cases in Perry County/ in the previous 9 years there were only 68 cases

   * 25% of our students reported they have had a parent in jail

  * 10% of students in the 12th grade made a plan to commit suicide (last year's data)

*Data sources:  Indiana Youth Institute Kids County Data; and IU student surveys)

 Thank you to Tara for leading the county's Sources of Strength Organization that advocates for mental health resources and thanks to Perry County Memorial Hospital for coming to the table.  Also, a HUGE thanks to all of you for providing a loving, caring, safe and encouraging place for our children to learn and develop.  Our job as educators is not easy - but nothing that truly makes a difference is ever easy.

Have a great week!  

Resilience

2020 seemed to be a time of many firsts; making for interesting memories for all of us.  The word RESILIENCE comes to mind when I think about last year.  Resilience is defined by Webster's Dictionary as the ability to recover or adjust easily to misfortune and change.  Learning to teach remotely with no warning, balance in-person and remote students, teach from a cart, incorporate digital tools for learning, build relationships virtually, etc.. . . all of these are examples of resiliency.  I am proud to work with such a strong faculty and staff that exhibit these traits daily and model for our students how to be resilient even during trying times.   

Simon Sinek says, "The goal is not to be perfect by the end.  The goal is to be better today."    My hope for 2021 is not to have a perfect year, but to strive to take one step forward each day.  With the resilience we learned in 2020, I know the best is yet to come.  

Important Information: 

PLC Meeting:   We will have PLC team meetings this Wednesday.  To help ensure small groups so we can spread out and a focused agenda we will use the following schedule: 

           Island Team:  8:30 a.m. 

          English & Social Studies Teams:   9:30 a.m.

          Math & Science Teams: 10:30 a.m. 

         Special Education Team: 12:30 a.m.  

All meetings will be held in the high school library.  Please bring your computers.

Missing Work:  If you have students that are missing work at the end of the semester, please fill out this link by the end of the day Monday.  Our goal would be to get students in on Wednesday that may still have assignments out from last semester.  If you have students that you will not get work from them in time for grades to finalize, you can let Phil or I know and we can put an Incomplete in the gradebook for you.  The Incomplete has to be added on our end.   

Link: https://forms.gle/pyyyBTVPfoxBVShP7

Grades:  Grades are due on January 6th at 11:59 p.m. and report cards will come out on January 8th.  

Struggling Students: We know some of you may have students you are concerned about moving on to the 2nd semester of the school year.  Please let Jody or Dana know about these students so we can see if a schedule change needs to be made.  Due to the hybrid schedule, it make take the whole week to take care of schedule changes.  Hopefully there will not be many!  

Reporting Topics:  Please remember to check your reporting topic percentages for the 3rd quarter. Let Phil or Jody know of any changes that need to be made.   

COVID Reminders:  As we return back to school, please remember to spread students out as much as possible in your classrooms.  Students facing the same direction 6 feet apart is ideal.  Please keep reminding students to wear masks. It is also important to spread out as faculty and staff as well!  All of you are essential to keeping school in session!  

 

Authentic Learning Opportunities

 This past week, Cole Johnson, Katelyn Howell, Cole Hess and Carissa Meyer finished their entry into the Harvard Innovation Center Neuromaker Challenge.  With the help of Ray Niehaus and Industrial Designer Mick Hetman from Hetman Designs, this group of students completed the challenge of building, programming and applying sensors in the hand that would allow for the prosthetic to perform sensitive tasks that a real hand could do.   The team was developed with a myriad of Career Pathway knowledge from computer science (Carissa), Engineering (Katelyn and Cole Hess) and Biomedical (Cole Johnson) that allowed them to learn how to pull from each other's strengths, work as a team and perform a learning task for an authentic audience.  You can see their contest video entry below.  It is only 2 minutes - so I hope you can watch it!  (Under the Video Tab)

For me, authentic, project-based learning opportunities are such an important component of learning.  Research shows that when PBL projects are implemented well that it helps students with long-term retention of content, prepares students for deeper learning and high-level thinking skills, improves problem solving skills, and improves students' attitudes on learning.  We have been fortunate over the past few years to provide our students with these opportunities in our classrooms and I hope we can continue to be a front runner in education reform by continuing to partner with local business and industry to create opportunities for our students such as these.  

This project is a celebration of all of your hard work.  It takes all of us to help students attain the knowledge and skills to complete in a project such as this.  Thanks to all of you for providing strong background knowledge to these students.  My challenge to all of you is to continue to look for authentic ways for students to grow and develop.  You will change a student's trajectory in life and help them see that learning is fun!  

Videos:

Neuromaker Challenge - PC

What I Learned

                                                                    Shout Outs: 

* Shout out to Carol Schwoeppe, Seth Gehlhausen, Melissa Toothman, Nancy Poehlein and Kris Walsh for providing our junior high students the opportunity to work together and perform a community service project this week.  Students created tie blankets, Christmas Cards and videos for the Nursing Homes.  They will be delivered this week.  Doing things for others is a great way to increase empathy and connection for our students.  Thank you for helping our students serve others!

If you haven't heard, Commodore Manufacturing is selling Christmas Ornaments in Guillaume's Store!  Could be a great last minute stocking stuffer!!  Great job CM!

Reminders: 

* Grades are due at 11:59 on Wednesday, January 6th

* There are 5 more gift cards available for tomorrow!!!  Last Chance to find an Elf!

* First day back to school is January 4th

* Feel free to wear Jeans this week!

Laughter

 We have all heard the old adage that "Laughter is the best medicine."  Truth is, it really does have positive short-term benefits - including releasing feel-good endorphins.  Long-term effects include a improved immune system, pain relief and improved mood.  

                  Dr. Boogren's self-care invitation this week is: Laugh, giggle and snort.  

     * Watch funny videos:   This is a video that my son Justin and I giggled at for a while this weekend.  (Maybe it is just because I come from a family of boys.)

        Funny Teacher Video

   * Spend time with animals

   * Be silly - have fun with your kids!  

   * Sing at the top of your lungs. 

   * Share a funny story with others. 

   * Learn and Share new jokes or tricks!  

Important Information: 

Speaking of Laughing - 12 Days of Christmas Video Taping will be held on the stage.  A time will be set and shared tomorrow.  Even if you were not there last time, please feel free to join us for the fun!

Early College Activity - On Tuesday, December 15 and Thursday, December 17th students in the 11th and 12th grade that are interested in attending a 2 or 4 year college are encouraged to report to the library for programming during 2nd period.  Recent graduates will be sharing their experiences of college.  This is a very powerful experience for our students and helps them understand the importance of their high school experiences.   Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.    

Surprise and Delight:  This week, we have a couple of surprise and delights for our students.  On Monday/Thursday during 2nd period students will be called out by grade for hot chocolate and Tuesday/Friday Subway Cookies will be delivered during 3rd period.  These surprises should be quick and easy.  We know the time you have with your students is valuable - but these fun breaks are important for learning as well!  

Christmas Dress Up Days:                        Monday - Christmas pajamas

Tuesday - Santa hats, reindeer ears, and Christmas socks

Wednesday - for the Staff - Red (for Ed) & Green (for PC) Christmas day 

Thursday - Red/Green day

Friday - Ugly Christmas sweater 

Missing Work Link:  Please continue to use the missing list link.  If you have a student that you feel needs some extra time this week to make up work - please let Phil or Jody know and we will try to get them to school on Wednesday.    https://forms.gle/9kC4woyVYacs72zSA

Grades:  Reminder that grades will be due January 6th at mid-night for students.  If you have students that have incomplete grades, this information has to be added in the high school office - you can let Phil or Jody know.  Please remember to have learning opportunities through the end of the day on Tuesday.  

Links:   We have some more students that have been added to the 4 day a week list and the on-line list.  You can find the links to these documents below: 

        Hybrid Document

      

        On-Line Students

Lunch - A reminder we will have a staff lunch on Wednesday.  COVID friendly lunches will be delivered at 11:30 in the high school office. 

 

Our students are so lucky to have such a caring and inspiring faculty and staff.  Remember, you are the light to so many.  Let it shine this week!  

Self-Care Tip:  Kindness - Research shows that doing good for others stimulate positive areas in your brain, helping us create positive feelings!  It gives us purpose and self-worth.  

    This Week's Invitation:  Commit to paying kindness forward (hold the door open, smile, offer compliments, assume positive intent for everyone you meet.)    Count how many times you were able to pay it forward each day!

Looking forward to seeing everyone back in the building!  

Spreading Cheer -  Calling all teachers/assistants who are interested in having a little fun with our students!   We would like to create a 12 Days of Christmas Parody that is similar to the video below.  If you are interested in joining several other teachers in creating this, please meet at the stage on Wednesday, December 9th at 11:30.  Our plan is to practice this week and record it next week!  The more the merrier! Even if you don't want to look goofy, we will need singers!  We all need some JOY in our lives this season!

12 Days of Christmas Parody - Click here for a laugh.

Important Information: 

* COVID - Just a reminder that Social Distancing, Mask Wearing and Washing Hands are all the best defensive methods against COVID-19.   Please spread out students throughout your classrooms and help them remember these steps of safety!  Seating charts are a key part of our success as well.  Thank you!

* Lunches:  During the Hybrid Only, all students will be eating in the cafeteria during their lunch times.  Assistants who cover lunches in the classroom, please report to the cafeteria during this time.  If we have too many students, we will ask you to help us take them elsewhere to eat.  We will resume lunches in the classrooms when we are back in-person.

* Attendance:  Please continue to mark students who are not in your class absent.  We will clean up their attendance in the high school office.  We know our on-line and hybrid list may not be accurate and we hope to get it back to very accurate this week with all of your help!

Important Documents: 

We know it is very difficult to keep up with the documents that house information about COVID schedules ad students.  I have created a folder in the Teacher Resource Folder in Google to organize these for you.  I hope it helps!

* Hybrid Updates - Please take a look at this document for Hybrid updates/student schedules.  We have asked some students to attend for 4 days a week and we are starting to get some students in on Wednesdays.  Also, there are a few students that are switching days.  All of this information can be found on this document.  You will notice the tabs at the bottom.  One tab is a list of students and the days they will attend, 2nd tab is a list of 4 day a week students that do not have IEPs and where they should report on their opposite days, and the 3rd tab is our schedule for Wednesday students and assistants.    Everything on this document will continue to change and evolve.  Document is HERE.  

* On-Line Students - We have had a few more students decide to remain on-line.  We are asking all students that are on-line to please stay virtual through January 15th.   On this document you will see the additional list of students all of the way to the right.  We will continue to place new students here.  Document is HERE. 

* Missing Work - Please continue to fill out the google form HERE for missing work.  If you are someone that is trying to help students get caught up on work and would like to see the list of work missing, HERE is the link to the sheet where all of the information is populated.  Teachers, if you have a chance and can strike a link through work that has been completed, it would help us stay focused on what needs to be accomplished.  

Final Exams:   In a 7-12 building with Early College High School in the mix, we need to have the flexibility for all of you to be able to wrap up the semester appropriately.   We ask that students are engaged in meaningful work each and every day - what ever that needs to look like for your students.  Here are a few logistics: 

      * We will not block time on any of our days remaining in December.  All class periods will remain the same. 

      * On December 21, 22 we will NOT bring in Thursday/Friday students.  Thursday/Friday student's last day in person will be December 18th.  

      * Grades are due in the gradebook by January 6th at midnight.  Please make sure that all incomplete grades are cleaned up by this time so that semester grades are accurate.  Transcripts are very important for seniors during this time of the year for scholarship and college application purposes.  

Winter Break Cheer: 

     * Wednesday, December 9th - Please stop by the high school office to enjoy a Hot Chocolate/Coffee Bar!  COVID free goodies available!

     * Wednesday, December 16th - Lunch will be provided.  Details later!