A Season to Remember!

Video highlighting Paris High School's football team! The school's first playoff team since the state went to the current playoff system. Congratulations coach Brouwer and team!



Nice job to the videographer!

If you don't know how to fix it, PLEASE STOP BREAKING IT!

Wow, and we are afraid to ask a group of kids to collaborate on a project. Watch this, it is worth your time!

Do Tech Tools Matter?

Spent some time today watching Michael Powell, former FCC chairman, talk about web 2.0 tools and their impact on education, medicine, and education. He talked about how broadband is the most important equalizer for the underprivileged. Like education of the 20th Century, the Internet and use of the collaborative tools their in will allow those who master them to play on an equal field with competitors across the globe. He remarked about the difference between rich students and poor students and their achievement. He noted that during the school year, students in low income areas make as much progress as students anywhere else. The difference is that in areas where students are not in poverty, they are engaged when they are not in school. They live in homes where technology is available and is valued. He said that kids in high socio-economic levels are continuing to be learners during the summer months where students in low socio-economic levels are not. The point he made that stuck in my head is that people are willing to pay 18% interest to own a big screen TV, but will not purchase a computer. We need to change our value systems. The rest of the world has caught us. They have longer school years. They have greater broadband availability and more wireless connectivity. I thought it was very ironic when he was finished speaking to the National Black Caucus of State Legislators about technology and Internet tools, they gave him a pen. A PEN! We have a long way to go!

Yet another change in finals!

We will run an 11:30 dismissal on Friday, December 19th, with no finals.
On Tuesday, January 6th we will run all eight classes for finals review and will run our finals schedule on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of January. Second semester will end on January 9th.

Day and Finals
Wednesday Jan. 7 1st, 2nd, 3rd hour finals
Thursday Jan. 8 4th, 5th, 6th hour finals
Friday Jan. 9 7th and 8th hour finals

IMPORTANT FINALS INFORMATION

All finals scheduled for December 18th and 19th will be given as scheduled.
Those finals that were to be given on December 17th will be given on Wednesday, January 7th. Tuesday, January 6th will be a full day of attendance and classes will review on that day. All students, exempted or not from finals, will be expected to attend on Tuesday, January 6th!

Google Docs.....good stuff!

We have started to use this here at PHS......but we have just scratched the surface!

Quote time

It has been a long while since I posted a quote....but this one hit me as quite poignant for our particular place in time.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
- Pablo Picasso

Why is it that human beings up to a certain point in their life live by this quote, then at some point in time decide that if they cannot do it now it is either not worth knowing how to do or they are afraid to fail or end up looking like a fool?

I sure am glad that at least during part of their lives, people are willing to learn for the sake of learning!

We have to frame our attitude!

Watch this video, then ask yourself, did these people have the luxury of finding all the reasons they could not do something? No. They had no choice but to find the way to get the job done! We are at the same juncture and I would argue the stakes are almost as high! WHAT CAN WE DO?

Ready or Not

In October of this year Illinois decided to join the American Diploma Project. Our state standards at the high school level were adopted in 1997 and have not been revised since. In order to refine its standards and bring them into line with other states and other nations, the state of Illinois will revise its standards based on a careful assessment of those of the American Diploma Project. Our close neighbors to the east, Indiana, have already been a part of the project and we can look to their experience to predict our own. The project is based on the premise that:

For too many graduates, the American high school diploma signifies only a broken promise. While students and their parents may still believe that the diploma reflects adequate preparation for the intellectual demands of adult life, in reality it falls far short of this common sense goal. The confidence that students and parents place in the diploma contrasts sharply with the skepticism of employers and post secondary institutions, who all but ignore the diploma, knowing that it often serves as little more than a certificate of attendance. In fact, in much of the United States, students can earn a high school diploma without having demonstrated the achievement of common academic standards or the ability to apply their knowledge in practical ways. The diploma has lost its value because what it takes to earn one is disconnected from what it takes for graduates to compete successfully beyond high school — either in the classroom or in the workplace. Re-establishing the value of the diploma will require the creation of an inextricable link between high school exit expectations and the intellectual challenges that graduates invariably will face in credit-bearing college courses or in high-performance,high-growth jobs.

If you would like to read more about the ADP, click here. If you would like to be involved in the Illinois review of high school standards see me about how you apply.

The Networked Student.....or teacher???????