National Early College Week

 

I smiled this morning when I saw this lone iris blooming.  Spring is always my favorite time of the year; the flowers give me so much hope as we start to emerge out of the cold dark winter. 

This week is National Early College High School week.  Just like this flower, Early College programs are giving our students hope for their futures.  Early College provides students the opportunity to earn dual credits, gain valuable skills that will help them transition from high school to college more successfully and saves our students a lot of time and money.  

60% of career opportunities in Indiana will require education beyond high school by 2023.  The Early College program helps ensure all students will have the opportunity for credentials beyond a high school diploma so they can meet the needs of the workforce, which will provide them the quality of life they deserve.  The State of Indiana has been helping us do this by changing graduation requirements and adding Graduation Pathways and Next Level Program (Career Pathways) which promote skills beyond a high school diploma.  

Perry Central is proud to be recognized as an Early College High School since 2017.   This year's senior class alone will graduate 38% of students with the Indiana College Core, which is their first year of college for free (a very high percentage of students).  On average, 20% of students leave with an industry certification and 80% leave with at least 15 or more dual credits aligned to a career pathway.   We also know that less than 10% of students who earn the Academic Honors Diploma require zero remediation in college as well.  Our data is outstanding.  

Our Early College program could not be possible without all of you.  All of the blood, sweat and tears you put into each day, helping students overcome obstacles is making a difference.  Just like this little purple flower, you are giving each of our students hope for their future.  Thank you for your commitment.  

Early College Week Celebration Items:  (Thanks to Dana and Laura for organizing!)

     * All Week - Wear Jeans

Monday - Celebrate seniors earning Indiana College Core.  Seniors will also be making videos for underclassmen about what it takes to be successful in the Early College Program. 

Tuesday - Celebrate Teachers!!  Please wear your green Early College T-Shirt.  We will have a staff (assistant) picture taken at 8:45 on the front stairs and a faculty picture taken on the front stairs at 11:25 a.m.    We will also serve Subway for lunch to everyone on this day. 

Wednesday - Highlight our Internship Program

Thursday - Early College Mentor Lunch Meeting with students

Friday - Celebrate Ivy Tech with Desserts in the high school office 

Hope you have a fantastic Early College Week!

Important Information: 

ILEARN - This week! You can find the schedule HERE.  Please make sure all students know where to go.  ILEARN packets will be in the high school office for pick up on Tuesday morning. Teachers who are proctoring the tests, received a detailed email Sunday evening.  Please let us know what questions you have!  

Grading Practices - Last month, Dana and Ty shared our grading practices at the SIEC to several school administration.  Crawford County Schools were so excited about our grading practices, they are working to implement them in their school setting.  They asked Ty and Dana to come back and present to all of their staff on May 3rd.  Thanks to Dana and Ty for their leadership.  

Professional Development (Teacher Only):  We are working on our Professional Development Plan for this summer.  Below is a doodle poll link that will help me schedule a one day training for each of our teams.  All teams, except for the English Team, should please fill our the form.  (English, I will send you a separate email, as we already have dates set-up with Carrie Rosebrock for your team.) 

Doodle Poll:  https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/elYXlPVa

School Visit:  A small team is leaving on Monday, April 25th at 10:00 to visit White River Valley school corporation.  They are a rural school, like Perry Central, who is pushing the envelop by adding more enterprise programs like Commodore Manufacturing to several of their Career Pathways.  Our team of Michael Jarboe, Carrie Guillaume, Dana Harris, Ray Niehaus, Jody French and Tara Bishop are going to visit for a couple of hours to learn how we can continue to grow these innovative pathway opportunities!  

Self-Awareness - This week, I am going to present to 8th grade students and teach them about self and social awareness.  (Panorama data suggests that students are weak in these two areas.)  Preparing for this presentation was good for me, because it reminded me of the importance of brain states in our decision making daily.  The states include:  executive state (upstairs brain), emotional state and survival state (downstairs brain). 

 I realized this past week, that I spent a lot of time living in my emotional part of my brain (sorry to those I was in contact with!)  Sometimes stress gets to all of us.  To try to overcome this, I worked hard this weekend to take time for myself.  I tried to take extra walks, enjoy watching Jace play golf, spending time with my mom and taking many deep breaths.  Recognizing our own brain state is so important - being conscious of where we are making decisions from and then having the discipline to make changes so we can stay in our upstairs brain (where we make the best decisions) is vital.   This is a busy time of the year - don't forget to take time for you!  

Congratulations to Mrs. Poehlein and her art students for a fantastic art show last week!  The Holidays never looked so good!  

   

Week of April 18

 

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend.  We had a great Easter gathering at the Etienne (my maiden name for those who don't know) plantation.  It is always good to be with family and friends.  

We are getting close to the end of April.  Only 5 full weeks left of school, but they are sure to be eventful!

As the weather gets warmer (hopefully),  the sun begins to shine, and we get closer to the end of the school year, our students also bring a little more energy.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that we work hard to make sure our students are in their assigned locations and we are all working together for strong supervision.  It is important to never leave a class of students unattended, be in the halls during passing periods, and always make sure you have meaningful work for students to engage in these last few days of school.  All of this will help ensure the safety of everyone.

Thanks for all you do for our students!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Important Information: 

Faculty Meeting - We will have a faculty meeting on Tuesday, February 19 at 7:25 a.m. in the high school library.  It is important that everyone is there, unless you drive a bus!

Student Mock Interviews - Thanks to Mike and Dana, all of our juniors will be going through an interview this week on either April 20 or 21st with a business partner.  This is a great opportunity for students to learn interviewing skills.  Some will also be interviewing for internship positions and the Work Ethic Certification.  There are a few seniors that will be interviewing for a job as well!  Also, a shoutout to Jennifer Ball and Alyssa Howe for helping students practice their resume writing and interview skills!

Calling all Teacher Leaders - Next school year, it is our goal to develop more structure for our PLC process.  We will be looking for someone in each PLC group to step up into a leadership role.  Some of the requirements of the PLC Leader would be:  attend a training in Jasper in June, create agenda's for each week's team meeting, meet with me twice a month to discuss goals for your team, and be willing to lead your group to collaboration and success.  There will be a stipend for this position.  We are looking for leaders in: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Special Education, CTE, and Fine Arts/PE  

        We will use an application process to determine who our leaders will be.  If you are interested in taking on a leadership role, please fill out this quick google form by Friday, April 22nd.    

Surprise and Delight (cookout):  This Friday is our cookout for students in grades 9-12. This will happen within the lunch/WIN hour. Details will be shared at our faculty meeting on Tuesday and then through email.  Assistants, we will be asking you to help with supervision in the cafeteria for junior high and in other places as well.  Crossing our fingers for a beautiful day!

Why to Students Disengage?

 This week in San Diego, I had the honor of listing to education guru and author, Dr. Douglas Fischer.  (You may recognize him as the Fisher in the Fisher and Frey books that we read all of the time.)  He is an education researcher and author of many books.  He also still teaches one section of English 9 in the San Diego school systems. 

His presentation was on SEL and the importance of it in our school systems.  He shared many great things (and I am sure will be in a book we will need to purchase, soon.  Lol!)  that I will try to share with you in the next few weeks.

One of the articles he mentioned was about student engagement.  The research he shared talks about student disengagement and the  9 identified  challenges for students and what we as teachers can do to help our students with these struggles.  

To the left, you will see a chart that lines everything up in an easy to read way.  I would encourage you to read the article as well - it is short and sweet and you will find the link below! (You can read the chart easier in the article as well.)  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Article is HERE.

Important Information: 

House Leader Meeting - Monday, April 11th - First WIN- Lauren said it would be quick.  We appreciate and are excited about the great things to come for House thanks to all of you! Rock, Paper, Scissor activity this week!!!

RECN Meeting - This week, Dana, Laura and I will be traveling to Indy on Tuesday for another RECN network meeting.  This meeting is for the Early College Grant that we have.  We will share with you what we learn!

Container Home Raffle - Just a reminder that we are in the last days to purchase tickets for the container home our construction class is building!  You can buy one ticket for $20 or 6 for $100!!!  Raffle will be the 15th!

Faculty Meeting - Our next faculty meeting will be Tuesday, April 19th at 7:25 a.m.  

Student Interviews - Dana and Mike are gathering up business partners for our annual interview program.  All juniors will have a 15 minute interview with a business partner on either Wednesday, April 20 or Thursday, April 21st.  This interview will serve many purposes including: work ethic certification requirements, internship opportunities for next year, jobs for students going straight to work and just good experience!  Thanks for Jennifer Ball and Alyssa Howe for helping pull together lessons about how to interview and Dana for helping students with resumes!  A schedule will be shared soon. 

Surprise and Delight - We will have a cookout for students on Friday, April 22nd during their assigned lunch periods.  In the past, this has happened during Commodore Pride day, but we are spreading the wealth a bit.  Be on the look out for a lunch-time whiffle ball tourney and some other fun activities during lunch!  

Celebration: 

Congratulations to Josh Craney, Blake Tucker and Jolene Lagrange for making it to the state level for the construction Skills USA Contest.  They not only received a high ranking at the district level that led them to the state, but they also received a scholarship from Vincennes University!  GREAT JOB!

Congratulations to Andrea and our high school band for earning a Gold Rating at their contest Friday night.   They didn't think they sounded very good - but they are wrong.  They were AMAZING!!  The band banquet is May 5th if you would like to catch their wonderful sounds!

Standing In The Gap

 

In our jobs, we have so many things happening throughout the day.   It can be mind boggling!  When these situations occur, we have the choice to consider how we will think/react to each one.  We can lean to the negative side OR we can choose to be positive.  In the moment before we decide, we are standing in the gap; the opportunity to decide if you are going to lean into the negative or the positive.

     Positivity is the world's most underutilized, natural occurring resource available to fuel success and forward progress.  Too often our brains get caught up on all that is broken, forgetting about all that's working. .  . Leverage positivity and optimism to simultaneously activate the people around you and ignite positive change.    - Michelle Gielan

So this week, when the work piles up, students forget to turn in their homework, the same student forgets their pencil everyday, your car won't start, etc. . . .  when your in the gap deciding if you will focus on the positive or the negative I hope you can lean into the positive.   

Professional Day Agenda:  Here is the agenda for today!  I hope all of you have a great day.  

RECN Survey:  We had 16 people take the RECN survey!  Yeah!  If you haven't had a chance, please do so by the end of the day on Monday.  If we have a high percentage of teachers take it, we will get $400 to spend on you!  Here is the link: https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0qbzVEZ6744zdY2?=t1&sc=1886

Junior High House Brainstorming Meeting:  Anyone interested in brainstorming improvements to the Junior High House system for this school year is invited to meet at 11:45 in the Health Science room with Lauren on Tuesday, April 5th.   A lot of great ideas floating around out there! Bring them to the table

Focus on the Positive

 

This weekend, I ran across this post on Facebook.  Reading this and thinking, "that is nice" is a lot easier than actually being in this mindset daily.  My Grandma Miller and mom are always good at this.  I will call my mom to vent to her and she is always flipping the story on me, making it positive.  It is SO ANNOYING sometimes!  :-)

But, what I have learned about my mom and grandma is they are always happy as they see the world through a lens where the glass is always full.  They know how to create their own happiness by choosing to focus on what is positive.  

Last week, Stephanie shared some SEL activities for teachers to help us flip our script.  She taught us the importance of focusing on things we can control and not on what we can't.  Just like this Facebook post, this work is very powerful and necessary to help us manage our stress.  

All of you have made it through some of the toughest years in education and I know the kids are still struggling, making your jobs stressful.  Thank you for your continued work and care for our students.  We are lucky to have all of you.  I hope you can find all of the positives this week and create your own happiness! (Even if it is annoying!)  

Important Information: 

RECN Survey - Please, please, please fill out this RECN survey.  They have extended the due date to April 5th, so you can take some time on the 4th to do it if you need to.  If we get 3/4 of our teaching staff to take the survey - we get $400 to spend on all of you!   If you have any questions, please let me know.  

https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0qbzVEZ6744zdY2?=t1&sc=1886

Professional Development Schedule:  Attached HERE is a copy of the tentative Professional Development Schedule on April 4th.  We will make a few updates this week, but it will give you an idea!  Assistants, like the past few times, you are welcome to come in for training in the morning and eat lunch with us.   Remember there will be no students on April 4th!  

8th Grade Dessert and Learn - 8th Grade teachers are invited to join us for cookies and brainstorm ways we can possibly incorporate SEL into the school day.  We are only taking this one step at a time!  You should have received an email as well.  We will meet on Tuesday, March 29th from 11:45 - 12:24 in the Health Science Room.

Reflection Meetings - Thanks to all of you who have met with me so far for our reflection meetings.  They have been so helpful.  I appreciate everyone's honest feedback.  Looking forward to the rest of the meetings!

Spring Dates - HERE is a link to important dates this spring.  We will continue to add to it as we move forward. 

Commodore Pride - Thanks to everyone who met last Friday to discuss Commodore Pride. There will be another meeting this Friday morning in Vanessa Johnson's room.

Special Thank You - A special thank you to all of the assistants for their work everyday and specifically for their help last week covering so many classes.  They all worked together through last minute changes and my mistakes to get it all taken care of.  Our building wouldn't run without them - so please give the an extra high-five this week!

Noticing the Best in our Kids

 

As our students return this week, remember that many of them didn't really enjoy their week away from all of you. Some of the kids that are the toughest, need you the most.

Thanks for being a place where students can feel loved and safe! 

I hope you had a great week that allowed you to rest and be ready to conquer the last 8 weeks!

Important Information: 

* Faculty Meeting - We will have a faculty meeting on Tuesday, March 22 at 7:25 a.m. in the library.  A light breakfast will be served.  

*Reflection Meetings - I would love to meet with all of you over the next few weeks to get your feedback about how I can support you and ideas for making learning opportunities better, ideas for the master schedule, etc.  I am thinking we could have a 15-20 minute individual conversations and use these questions to guide our conversation: 

             * What are your reflections for the year?  Good things?  Struggles?  

             * Your goals moving forward. 

             * What do I need to keep doing, stop doing or change to help you do your job better?  

     Please sign up for a time that works for you.  I know that time is an issue, but we will do our very best.  I have created a google sheet for you to sign up on with times that work for me for now.  If any of these times do not work, please let me know and I will work with you individually.  I know that your feedback will help our school grow and continue to be a better place for our teachers and our students.    Sign Up HERE

* Dual Credit Teachers - Please remember you will need to do your REQUIRED Ivy Tech on-line training by April 1st.  The training will take you some time to complete (it has taken some teachers a couple of hours).  Please see Dana if you need help with this.

* NHS Induction - NHS induction is Tuesday, March 22 at 6:00 p.m.  

* WIN/Lunch Assignments - Thank you for talking to your students about tightening WIN.  I had several students stop and ask great questions and I know they were because you were preparing students for this change.  Reminder that we are working to tighten WIN/lunch.  Please use WIN for remediation/learning - coding out 10-12 students that need academic help.  I appreciate some of you want to eat lunch with students - please do this in the cafeteria or make special arrangements.  Please do your best to take good attendance.  We are printing WIN documents daily and looking at attendance daily to follow up with students in the wrong locations.  Please let us know if you have questions!

* Professional Development Day:  Our next Professional Development day will be Monday, April 4th.  Students will not have class on this Monday, but we will have PD.  A schedule of events will be sent out soon. 

* Professional Development Resources:  The Central Education Center (Keep Indiana Learning) has posted many great resources for teachers.  You can sign up for what you are interested in.  I have participated in many of their events and they have been worth my time.  Please see a list/link below.  I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities!

OnDemand Learning with SAT Prep in Mind

Analysis of Information and Ideas in the Literacy Classroom Close reading. Questioning. Feedback. Independent writing. There is much going on in literacy classrooms. How do we combine it all to have students thinking deeply and critically? Learn More >>

What Does A Good Question Do? Explore the power of a good question and how to tap into deeper thinking with Erik Francis. Learn More >>

Free Events

Unlock the Power of Gmail Take a 1-hour dive into Gmail settings which can change your workflow entirely. Learn how the simplest of settings in your browser and phone can impact communication and workflow for you and those you work with. Learn how to manage your inbox, attachments and utilize features such as task manager, scheduler, filters, and more. Learn More >>

Legislative Update: Please find an update on the legislative process below.  This information is from the Indiana Association of Secondary Principals!

    Bills that DID NOT Pass (the work you did connecting with our legislators made a difference!):

* Partisan School Board Elections - The idea that school board members would have to declare their parties or run in a primary showed up in at least 7 bills - none of them made it out of committee.

* Special Education Conflict Resolutions  (HB 1107)  would have not allowed schools to defend themselves in public - was defeated 0-50 (even the person that wrote the bill ended up voting against it)

* Materials Harmful to Minors (SB17) -  Did not advance.  This would have allowed parents to have control the types of books and resources we provide to students.  

* SB 67/HB1134 - CRT Bill - Bill would have made us post our curriculum on-line and run all of it through a committee of parents, not allowed schools to help students with mental health issues, etc.  - Didn't get a third reading and none of the tenants of the bill made it into other bills, which was amazing!

      Bills that DID pass: 

* Participation in School Sports Bill - Prohibits a biological male (trans females) to participate in female sports (This will be challenged in court.) 

* HEA1093 - No letter grade this year, authorizes DOE to study machine scoring, requires teachers to discuss student state test data at school parent conferences, new e-learning language (virtual student instructional days) which would only allow schools to have 3 virtual days that are asynchronous  

* HEA 1130 - requires testimony at public board meetings (we have always done this)/ allows school boards to set time limits and take measures to ensure that meetings are safe

*HEA1031 - DOE must apply for assessment flexibility waiver with US Department of Ed that would allow us to only test in 3,5,8,11 grades moving forward, DOE must have research study in standards and how they can be streamlined and created the adjunct teacher permit (no education degree or bachelor degree), 

*SEA 2 - Allows for schools to receive 100% funding for virtual students, requires DOE to collect and conduct a study on early graduates (could affect funding in the future)

*SEA 82 - FAFSA Bill - only requires schools to send information to families about the FAFSA/most of the burden ended up on the Commission for Higher Ed and not our counselors, so it is a win!

*SEA 290 - DOE Career Coaching Pilot program/ null of school letter grade for 2022-2023 school year

Power of Tiny Gains

 This weekend was full of college basketball memories, including Duke University's, Mike Kryzyzewski's, last home basketball game.  As I filtered through on-line articles, I found a video clip of the coach talking about some of his best players and how they always wanted to be "coached hard".  He described how they not only had unbelievable talent, but were always asking for feedback and finding ways to get better!

His remarks reminded me of an article I read at from a training this week.  The article is around continuous improvement and how important it is to always be finding ways to move forward and the difference that a 1% change for the better can make.  If you get 1% better each day, by the end of the year, you will end up 37 times better than when you started.  That statistic is phenomenal!  

As we continue to move through the school year, I think this mindset is a powerful way to help us work to continuing to find powerful gains for student learning in a manageable way.  The article was a great reminder to me that even though being "coached hard" is not always easy, the mindset of continuous improvement is powerful and worth it.   

I would encourage you to read the article!  It is a great 3 minute read!  Continuous Improvement Article

Important Information: 

* Grades - The gradebook will dump this Wednesday night at midnight!  Please make sure you have your grades updated at that time.  If you need to issue incompletes, please see Jody or Phil and we can help you with that.  It is also a great time to check your reporting topics for 4th quarter to make sure you are ready!

* Spring Break Week - This is always the week that our students get to be a little squirrely as Spring Break approaches.  It is important to continue teaching bell to bell and providing students with highly engaging lessons.  Please do not allow students to stay by the doorway at the end of the period and hold your high level of expectations like you do all year!  

* Lunch and Learn - High School Assistants, we will be hosting a Lunch and Learn on Wednesday, March 9th.  We will announce the location of the meeting in an email soon!  Please keep a look out for it!  The meeting will be from 11:24-12:24.

* House Competition - We will have our House Competition on Friday, March 11 during 6th and 7th periods.  Students will report to 6th period and we will release them by intercom.  If you are a house leader and have a high school group 6th or 7th periods, please let Jody know so she can find coverage. 

Surprise and Delight - Stop in for a Surprise and Delight in the morning as we celebrate "Rolling" through this week!  We are also looking at a possible Surprise and Delight for students in 2nd WIN on Thursday.  We will determine that tomorrow based on the weather.  

I hope all of you have a restful Spring Break!  We will be back in school on March 21st for the sprint to the end!!!