Putting Relationships First

As you have already seen in the previous blog post is the direction of our state.  The focus on social skills have become just as important as our focus on academic skills.  I know this is easy for all educators to understand.  How many times have we seen "life" get in the way of academic work.  Life can be so many different things for our students.  It could be home life, interactions with peers, how I feel about myself, and etc...   Probably every week if not everyday.  Because of this several school districts are putting in time during the day to build relationships.

Here is an example of what one school district is doing to help the students work through their emotions.  Morning Meetings. What I would like to do is set up a Social and Emotional Professional Learning Community to research and come up with recommendations for our school district.  This would need to be a committee of four to five people equally divided out representing all grade levels. Let me know if you are wanting to help lead the district on this topic. 

I want to commend everyone for being out in the hallway in the morning and during the day.  Greeting students with a smile, handshake, high five, fist bump, has some really good research behind it.  Here is a great article on this very fact.  Welcoming Students

I have been meeting with our Junior and Senior High Class Officers to review our student handbook.  During our last meeting I wanted to interview them on what they think of "How we do school".  I got some really good feedback.  They are very interested in the hands on approach of learning.  This would have us emphasize the application phase of learning.   Some instruction requires us to be up front and leading.  Other settings requires us to be the "guide on the side" and learn with the students.  This leads us to think how can we do school in order to meet the way student's want to learn.  If we meet them at this level then their learning will go through the roof!

The Kansas Can Bedrock Principles will help guide us in the reflection of how we do school and what we want to do at Attica.  The question is for us as educators.  What role do you want to play in this redoing of school?

If you need something to help you think about how we do school, this video is a great way to get you in thinking differently.  What is School for?

This book also can get you thinking about how to move in a new direction with school.  Great book and if you want to read it let me know and the school will purchase it for you!  Here's more information on the book.  George Couros

The Harper County Community Foundation grant deadline is fast approaching.  It is October 1st.  If you are interested in applying for a grant, you can go to the foundation website at http://harpercofoundation.org/ or by calling the foundation assistant, Michelle Fahring at 620-840-1153, email is harpercofoundation@gmail.com

Here are some more pictures of the Mr. Fahring's Carpentry Class helping with the grocery remodeling project.  Great experience for these young men on pouring cement!

These pictures are from our new Youth Entrepreneur class.  Or better known as YE.  The activity is designed to create teamwork, cooperative trading of materials between the groups, focusing on the win-win component in a business.  These students will eventually write a business plan and  have an opportunity to make their own money in their business.  This program is fully funded by the Koch Foundation.  For more information on it check it out on their
Youth Entrepreneurs website.

These pictures are the Pillowcase Project done by the Red Cross.  They worked with our kids and provided a pillow case for each of our students.  This Red Cross project was started after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  The concept is to educate children in disaster preparation.  Here is more information about the program. Pillowcase Project.