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 

  

  

 

Unplug

 

Here we are again, another winter break!  It is hard to believe that time flies so quickly.  

I hope all of you get to truly unplug and spend time with those who mean the most to you.  

Thanks for all you do for our students and community each day.  You make a difference.

See you back on January 3rd!

Last Few Days:  Well, mother nature is knocking on our door and Thrusday's weather is up in the air. Because of the forecast, we are going to let teachers decide when they are going to give their final exams - either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of this week.  Here are a few stipulations: 

1.  If you give your finals early, you just need to have an educational activity planned for Thursday.  You could play an educational game, go over your exams, have a fun activity that builds on relationships, etc.  (No movies)    We want to make sure all of their time is valuable at school.

2.  Please know that grades have to be finished by the 4th at midnight.  We will not be changing this due date.  

3.  Please be mindful of students to ensure they do not have too many exams on one day and that your exam schedule is clear to them.  Ideally, you would move your Thursday exams to Tuesday (if you want to test early).

Finals:  It is important that all classes have some type of assessment or activity during their final period.  If you feel you need to do something different than this, please let us know.  Grades need to be finalized by January 4th at midnight.  Report cards will be distributed on January 6th. 

PD Day - Just a reminder we will have a Professional Develoment day on January 3rd.  Attached HERE is a rough agenda.  Please let us know if you have any questions. 

12 Days of Christmas -  

     * Monday - In your mailboxes, you have a little bag of candy to share with your students.  Holidays is a time of sharing and we wanted you to be able to offer a suprise and delight to your favorite people!  We will have you pass them out 2nd period to give everyone time to gather their bags. 

      * Tuesday - Our Christmas meal will be Tuesday, catered from Bill and Dave's.  Hope you enjoy.  

Early College Meetings: 

          * Monday, December 19th - College Freshmen will be returning to speak to 11th and 12th graders.   12th Grade:  3rd Period     11th Grade:  4th Period        ICC Teachers - Lunch with college freshmen to learn about college rigor and trends they are seeing  (11:24 - 12:24  High School Library)

          * Tuesday, December 20th - Early College Mentor Meeting with students - during first WIN (Teachers involved in this will have a detailed email from Dana.)

Faculty Meeting:  Tuesday, December 20th, we will have our faculty meeting at 7:25 a.m.  We will have a light breakfast, special guests presenting and more. See you then!  

PSAT Data:  High School Math and English teachers will meet first WIN on Wednesday, December 21st to look at PSAT data.  Dana Harris has created an outstanding document that will help us see our strengths and weaknesses!  We will meet in Jason Barnett's Room.

Junior High House Competition - Last two periods on Thursday!  (Competition is close!  Thanks to Mrs. Blake and all of the teachers for making this fun and meaninful for students!)

Hot Chocolate - Phil and Dana will have hot chocolate available for students on Tuesday during 2nd and 3rd periods.  Details will be forthcoming.

Why I Hate Christmas

  

 I wanted to share the above video where Trevor Muir shares his experience with a student, not being excited about Christmas Break.  I feel like the video is a good reminder about the reality some of our students are faced with duringt his time of year and the positive impact that each of you have on our students each and everyday.  The video is less than 4 minutes, I hope you take time to listen!

Important Information: 

Last Few Days:  Please remember to keep students busy the last few days of the semester.  The final exam schedule will be as follows:  December 21 - 2,4,6       December 22 - 1,3,5,7    Students should have normal days all of the way up to this point.  Playing educational games, reading engaging text and other purposeful learning activites are important!  

Finals:  It is important that all classes have some type of assessment or activity during their final period.  If you feel you need to do something different than this, please let us know.  Grades need to be finalized by January 4th at midnight.  

PD Day - Just a reminder we will have a Professional Develoment day on January 3rd.  An agenda will follow next week.  

12 Days of Christmas -   “Two Scoops, sir? Two?  Make it three!  I am not driving!”   Ice Cream Sandwiches on Monday!!! Also, as a bonus, feel free to wear jeans the rest of this semester!

Early College Meeting - Dana is arranging for current college freshmen to come back and speak to our juniors and seniors on Monday, December 19th.  She will be sending a schedule.  Also, teachers who teach courses in the Indiana College Core will be invited to eat lunch with our college friends on this same day.  Our goal is to ask them about rigor and their experiences and how we can embed better practices that will help our students continue to be successful in college.  

Faculty Meeting:  Tuesday, December 20th, we will have our faculty meeting at 7:25 a.m.  We will have a light breakfast, special guests presenting and more. See you then!  (Also this day is our 12 days of Christmas feast!  Come hungry on the 20th!)  

Socratic Seminar

 

This week, I was honored to visit Jennifer Ball's classroom as she was teaching socratic seminar strategies to her Honors English 10 students.  They were reading the book, Farenheit 451, and they will use this strategy to deepen student understanding through active thinking along with learning how to listen and communicate with each other, which are the golden nuggests of this protocol.    

Jennifer had students run a practice seminar and she videoed the experience of her students.  She then provided students a rubric for how to communicate and allowed them to watch the video of themselves and pick out what good looked like and areas they needed to improve in.  She really took time to use students to model the experience she wanted all students to have!  I have no doubt that all students will participate in a meaningful manner this week when they run their seminar for her!

If any of you are interested in running a Socratic Seminar in your class, Jennifer is a our expert!  I hope to have an opportunity at our next PD day to learn from Jennifer about this great teaching tool! She has great rubrics that I am sure she will share! 

Important Information: 

Tis the Season - Please find our "Home Alone" Version of 12 days of Christmas in your mailboxes!  Something fun for the last few days before break!  Monday we will have Auntie Anne pretzels as a bonus day - delivered to the high school office around 12:00 p.m.

Early College Mentor Meeting:  Dana is leading us in an Early College Mentor meeting on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. in the high school library.  She sent an email to the teachers it will affect.  We look forward to seeing all of you there!  

CTE Open House - Thursday, December 8th will be a BIG day!  Perry Central will be hosting a lunch and learn for all of our community partners along with a ribbon cutting for our CTE building.  Many students and teachers will be involved:  Mrs. Howe's Honors English 12 class is developing an advocacy presentation and Carrie Guillaume, Josh Craney, Tim Ball, Michael Jarboe, and Kris Walsh will have students participate as well.  Our goal is to show our community the great things happening at Perry Central and find more ways to create partnerships that benefit our students and community.  

  ** By the way, as next year's legislative session gets closer to starting, you are going to hear a lot about High School Redesign and Diploma Flexibility.  Tara Bishop was asked to sit on a panel at the Superintendent's Association Conference with Indiana Superintendent of Education, Katie Jenner, so she could talk about the work at Perry Central and how we are already working in this "Redesign" space.  The work we are doing to increase STEM opportunities, connecgting to industry partners and credentials of currency through our Early College High School and Industry Certifications is helping us stay ahead of the game!  It will be an interesting legislative year, but one that will help us move forward with the work we are doing.  Kudos to all of you for helping make it happen!

Assistant Lunch and Learn:  Friday, December 9th, we will have an Assistant Lunch and Learn.  The Office will be providing pizza on this day.  Special Education teachers have been working to develop this training opportunity.  We hope to make it a monthly event!  I know some of you eat lunch 5th period.  If you can please email me if this is the case, we can make arrangements for one of your WIN classes to be covered so you can attend.  Unless you hear differently, we will meet in the high school library.  This will be during both lunches - so only come during your lunch time.  

Resources: 

PBL Resources:  As we continue on this journey to authentic learning opportunities, I want to share resources with you!  I found this information from Trevor Muir.  He has a lot of great ideas and a book that talks about how to set your room up for collaboration!  HERE are some resources I thought may be helpful as you think about moving forward in the PBL/Workplace Challenge World! 

Unite and Connect:   PASSWORD is a fun game to play with students, especially around vocabulary you are working on for your subject!  Thought I would share this resource - could be a fun Unite and Connect activity or a game to fill some time in a meaninful way!

Infinate Games

 

I just started a new book this weekend, The Infinte Game by Simon Sinek.  In his book, Sinek talks about the difference between finite and infinite games.  In Finite games, like football or chess, the players are known, the rules are fixed and the end point is clear.  Winners and losers are easily defined.  On the contrast, infinte games, like education or politics or life, the players come and go, rules are changeable and there is no defined endpoint.  There are no winners or losers in an infinate game; one can only be ahead or behind.  

From Simon Sinek's viewpoint, as an organization, it is best to lead your organization or classroom in infinite games.  Infinite games build stronger, more innovative and inspiring organizations that are built on trust and become change-agents in our world, instead of staying focused on winning games that are not even important, like state testing! Staying focused on meeting students where they are and taking them as far as we can go (with no clearly defined ending) will lead us to greater success in the end; moving our students ahead and bettering our society.  I feel like all of you are infinite game leaders.  You are always working hard to inspire our students, build cultures of trust and innovation in the classroom and inspire our youth to be change-makers in our society.  

I want to thank all of you for your openness to learning more about a poly-tech approach to learning;  integrating project based learning/work place challenges along with our focus on relationships and credentials of currency in the workplace.  This shows your drive to creating innovative, edcuational experiences that can better prepare our students for the 21st century, that could impact many generations to come. 

Happy Birthday to Phil on Monday!!!!!

Important Information: 

Poly-Tech Visit - On Monday, November 28th, we will be hosting several individuals from New York.  They are the team helping Indiana develop poly-tech high schools.  Perry Central is excited to be written into the grant with the opportunity to expand our programming.  The high school library will be closed on Monday for our meeting.  We will also be giving a tour of the school from 8:30 - 9:00.

PBL Training - Reminder to junior high teachers that you are encouraged to participate in PBL training from Dawn Lynch and Emilee Brinkman.  The next meeting is December 15th from 3:15 - 4:15.  If you want to see what you will be learning, you can click HERE to see their "commercial".  We are grateful to be learning through all of this together!

Upcoming Dates: 

November 30 - 11th grade field trip 

December 1 - Spanish students to Nut Cracker

December 5 - Surprise and Delight - Auntie Anne's Pretzels

December 6 - Early College Mentoring Meeting 7:25 - 8:00 a.m. (Invitations will be sent by Dana)

December 8 - CTE Ribbon Cutting/Open House  11:00 - 1:00 

December 19 - Returning College Freshmen to speak to 11th and 12th grade & Early College Teachers

December 20 - Faculty Meeting 

December 21 - Finals for Periods 2,4,6

December 22 - Finals for Periods 1,3,5,7

                                                 CREATE - Authentic Learning Opportunities:

Workplace Challenge - Michael Jarboe and Glenn Etienne will be in partnership with the Civil Engineering class after break as they develop their workplace challenges.  Glenn Etienne from CES has agreed to come in and talk to students about his company and the work he does along with giving them a couple of challenges:  

                1.  CTE Parking Stalls - students will use distance/angles to maximize use of space using 100 ft tape, paper, pencil and creative minds!  They will present their plans back to Glenn.  

                2.  Drainage Project As-Builts - document the location, elevations, slopes and pize sizes of new drainage systems (as-builts).  

8th Grade PBL - Science and English teachers are working together for a Project Based Learning opportunity.  Students are learning about Environmental Science including water quality, forestry and soil quality and then they will be producing an informational text in English about their findings.  The audience is our community.  Looking forward to their final products.  Thank you, teachers, for being vulnerable and trying something new!

Influence

 

  I was reminded of this quote from Trevor Muir this week when my former high school assistant principal, Ed Ransom, posted on Facebook.  He told a story about Owen Lynch, his former English Teacher and Coach and the impact he had on his professional career.  (He also mentioned that you would have to be over 60 to remember who Mr. Lynch was!)  

Teaching is a challenging but very rewarding career.  You are all making an impact on students in ways that will influence them for the rest of their lives.  There are not many professions that get to say that!

I also know this heart work is exhausting at times - so I hope all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving break with your families.  

THANK YOU:  This weekend, I listened to a podcast from Andy Stanley about the importance of expressing gratitude.  He said that gratitude not expressed really feels like ingratitute to the people around you.  His podcast reminded me about the importance of making sure the people in my life know how much I appreciate them - that includes all of you.   The way you care for children and the pride you have in our school community leaves me speechless each day.   I appreciate you all more than you know.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

To celebrate, we will wear jeans this week!  Hope you enjoy!  Also, on Tuesday, we will have Dunkin Donuts to help you get you through the day!  

Important Information: 

STEM Grant - On Monday and Tuesday this week, there are teams of teachers (who were notified by email) that will be listening to a grant presentation during WIN/Lunch.  If you have questions about the invitation, please let me know!  The invitation is focused on STEM teachers (Science, Math, Next Level Program of Study, AP teachers) and junior high teachers.  This is aligned to the STEM grant.  (If anyone else just wants to join - you are welcome!)  

Assistant Survey - We are working on some professional development for teaching assistants.  Assistants, please take THIS SURVEY by the end of the day Tuesday so we can start planning to meet your needs!  

Pitch-In - Don't forget about the pitch-in on Monday for lunch!  

Upcoming Important Dates: 

    

    Monday, November 28th - We will be hosting our friends from New York and CELL for a training through our Poly-Tech Grant.  Thanks to Michael, Josh and Dana for attending along with our business partners Glenn Etienne, Susan Miller and Pam Metz.

    Wednesday, November 30th - Junior Field Trip to Terre Haute/ RECN Quad meeting at Bedford North Lawrence (RECN Team)

     

     Thursday, December 1 - Spanish students to the Nutcracker 

     Thursday, December 8 - CTE Open House during lunch 

    

The Extra Mile

 

This past week, I had the priviledge of riding one of our special education buses that picks up students in the mornings, driven by Kevin Koelling.  It is a long ride (about an hour) and there are several stops along the way, down the long windy roads.  The students he picks up are truly special and make you smile, but some morning do not like riding the bus, leaving them crying and upset all of the way to school.  

Kevin has been working hard to help the students feel comfortable everytime they step on his bus.  He is making a sound track with students' favorite songs, using music to sooth their ride.  He also ensures that everyone who rides with him as a bus monitor knows what each students needs and the best way to support them, keeping close contact with family members and Mr. Walsh, the students' teacher of record.  

The ride for me last week reminded me of how lucky our community is to have individuals like Kevin, and all of you, who go above and beyond, caring for our children each and every day.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for seeing the positives in each child (even on days when it is hard) and going the extra mile to ensure they are loved and find success.   It truly is #good2bgreen!

Important Information: 

PLC Meetings:  Thanks for your time last week and Lunch and Learns.  Hopefully you found the time valuable for reflecting on your Marzano Elements.  We are back to normal PLC meetings this week.  I also have heard a lot of great ways you are using WIN.   Thank you for working hard to ensure all students are learning - even if they need a 2nd time to get it!

PBIS Lesson: Be on the look-out for the PBIS lesson for this week from Phil!  He is planning for everyone to give the lesson on Tuesday during 2nd period.  Thank you for helping with this important lesson!

Tutoring:  Reminder if you have students that need tutoring, you can use the Learning Lunch/8th Period request form but select tutoring.  Alyssa Hill is available for high school students 1st WIN in the Learn and Leave room.  She appreciates a little heads up so she can study the material a bit before helping the students.  We also have several great options after school.  

9th Grade Field Trip:  All 9th grade students will be participating in a field trip on Wednesday, November 16th.  Thanks to Dana for arranging this - it isn't easy to get all of the locations to coordinate!

STEM Grant: Perry Central is excited to be a receipeint of a STEM Grant.  The grant is aimed to increase Workplace Challenges and Project Based Learning in the classroom.  For the grant and STEM certification, we had to identify our STEM teachers, which mostly consist of Next Level Program of Study (Pathway) along with science and math dual credit teachers.  I will be reaching out to this team by email for a meeting on Friday, November 18th during your WIN time to help get us started!