Thank You!

I want to take this opportunity to say thanks to all the people who work so hard to make PHS a place for students to learn and grow. We have a great staff that really worked hard this year. They picked up with several new items this year and really made them work, especially the new mentoring program. I know I do not say it enough, but you truly are a great group of people! Our office staff works so very hard to make the school run efficiently. I cannot say enough about the main office secretaries and what they do to keep things running. Our guidance staff has been wonderful too. This years seniors have managed to earn right at $500,000 in scholarships! Our support staff: janitors, cooks, maintenance, IT, and aides have also done an exceptional job this year. I am already looking forward to the 2008-09 school year knowing that our students will have the benefit of working with you all again! HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Summer Learning Opportunities

This is borrowed from a post at Dangerously Irrelevant. These look like good ideas for students to try out over the summer.....and come to think of it, maybe staff could try some of these out just for kicks (you just might find an idea you can use next year!)

Here are some summer digital learning opportunities:

Discover the fun of geocaching.
Use a digital camcorder and YouTube to make a commercial for your city.
Use the WorldWide Telescope or Stellarium to find the view from your home. Then go outside at night to locate the sky features shown by the software.
Get involved with a project at TakingITGlobal.
Use Google Earth to make an annotated map of your summer trip.
Research a topic and create an article on Wikipedia.
Visit your grandparents or a nursing home or the local VFW chapter. Use a digital voice recorder to capture folks’ memories of a specific time period or event in history. Post as a series of podcasts.
Check out the pictures of your hometown on Flickr. Use a digital camera to add local landmarks that are missing.

Is this the end, or just the beginning?

As we enter the final week of school I find myself reflecting on the school year that we are about to close the book on. Several things keep resurfacing in my mind. One of them is the realization that time just keeps passing, and although I know that it is at a constant rate, from my perspective it seems to just keep speeding up! After nineteen years in education, it seems like the last three years have just flown by! Which brings up the second thing that keeps coming back to me. It is a saying that I am sure coaches everwhere use, but it is a saying that has always resonated with me and it goes: "somewhere someone is working harder than you are to get better and if you don't get after it they are going to beat you!" Now you might ask yourself what's the point of this...... well, it is simply this, we have been working hard at improving Paris High School. We have made a lot of headway thanks to the efforts of a fine staff and some outstanding individuals, but I truly believe we have a lot of work left to do and have a short time to do it. The 2008-09 school year will be here before we know it! Our students deserve the best we have to offer......I am looking forward to our school improvement meetings this summer.

Essential Skills for Students

On Friday, May 2nd, the PHS staff met to discuss the essential skills our students will need to have mastered upon leaving high school to be successful in any post high school endeavor. These skills move beyond what is taught in the mandated curriculum and need to be integrated as best we can into our everyday methods of delivering curriculum. Some of these items are part of a specific class curriculum and might need emphasis throughout the curriculum. Our challenge this summer is to integrate these skills via our school improvement plan for 2008-09. The skills identified:
Life Skills--Management
Coping with daily demands
Money Management
Drug/Alcohol awareness
Life long learning
Decision making
Goal setting Time management
Decision making
Social Skills
People to people skills
Character
Morality
Relationships
Responsibility
Commitment
Respect
Conflict resolution
Adaptability Skills
Use and adapt to new technology
Problem solving
Critical thinking
Ability to prioritize
Communication Skills
Written
Oral
Reading
Non-verbal
Listening

Just to remind myself!

Originally posted on:
Monday, November 19, 2007

Mostly Sunny?....Mostly Cloudy? We make that determination!
What is the weather like in your room today? Did someone in the hallway tell you about the awful experience they had today or gossip about the latest bad behavior by this student or that student? When someone unloads their negative experience on you does it make you feel better, or does it throw some clouds into the weather of your day? We are the barometer. If we are giving off "low pressure" a gloomy day is assured. On the other hand, if we choose to spread sunshine by talking about what a great day it is or by sharing a positive experience with our colleages and students, I will bet your day as well as your students' day will be a little bit sunnier because of the difference in attitude! One of my goals for the remainder of the year is to put on a sunny disposition and to make the weather pattern of the building a little bit nicer for the effort!

NETS for Teachers Part VI....Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

OK, here is the last of this series. I think in light of last Friday's inservice on Internet safety, it is a fitting end. We have been debating cell phone policies, filtering websites, and how to make technology resources available to all of our students.
VI. Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

Teachers understand the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools and apply those principles in practice. Teachers:

A. Model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use.
We have to integrate safe and ethical use of technology. We must move beyond trying to keep our students from using these tools in school to teaching the correct time and place to employ these resources.
B. Apply technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities.
Schools is where the playing field has to be leveled. Technology is available to all learners. I have watched some sets of student flourish while using technology this year. Great job to those teachers who are integrating new ideas into their teaching repertoire!
C. Identify and use technology resources that affirm diversity.
D. Promote safe and healthy use of technology resources.
Cell phone use, social networking (like MySpace and Facebook) and video games all have educational implications. If harnessed correctly we could transform the way we engage our students. But we have to integrate them in such a way that students learn to use them in socially responsible ways and in their own best interest.
E. Facilitate equitable access to technology resources for all students.
This can be accomplished when classes across the curriculum all integrate technology tools and strategies.