The Cardinal Way

First, thenk you to everyone who participated in this past Friday's Chirps & Cheers Challenge. It was great to learn a little bit more about each person through your upcoming plans for this past weekend. We have our school stuff, but it's nice to find connections through our outside of school activities.. Take a moment to read the responses on this document about what people did this weekend, what they did recently, or what they have upcoming that they’re excited about and that will let us all know a little bit more about them (as a person outside of school).

While the motivational image may have a typo in it, I appreciated the intent so let's just go with it. :)

"If you have the chance to make people happy, just do it. Sometimes people are struggling silently. Maybe, your act of kindness can make their day."

Listening to the message spoken by Denzel Washington last week, we heard how we can't control what happens around us but we can control our response to it. Much like that, we can't control what happens to our students or the personal struggles our colleagues may have, BUT we can show kindness and take the opportunity to make someone happy.

I hope each of you takes advantage of the opportunity to make someone happy this week. And I also hope that you are the recipient of someone else's act of kindness.

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Being a teacher is not just a profession or WHAT you do - it's a calling that requires passion, dedication, empathy, and a commitment to making a positive impace on the lives of others. So the next time someone asks you what do you do, please tell them truth and don't sell yourselves short.

Thank you for all that you do for our students, staff, community, and each other!

Ignite-Connect-Empower

• All of the staff for their efforts during the tornado drill last week.
• Our EL staff for their work supporting students and their families with summer school registration.
• Jake Fritz for proctoring SAT makeups this week as we closed out that testing window and Patrick Clark for helping track down students.
• Jake Harrell for his help with WDS each morning and for being an incredible CPR resource for everyone across the district.
• The athletic department and all who came out to support our student athletes during the college signing day this past week.

Southport High School’s student publications, The Journal news magazine and The Anchor yearbook, were awarded top honors by the Indiana High School Press Association (IHSPA). Both publications were named winners of the Hoosier Star competition, an annual recognition of the state’s top student-produced newspapers, newsmagazines, websites and yearbooks.

2024 marks the second year in a row that both the newspaper and yearbook were named among the top in the state. The Anchor won for its 99th volume, titled “Face It,” published in May 2023. Olivia Graphman ‘23 and Rin Diki ‘24 served as co-editors-in-chief. The Journal scored top marks for its 101st volume, published in the 2022-2023 school year. Grace Elder ‘23 served as editor-in-chief while Owen Hodges ‘23 and Megan Rogers ‘23 served as managing editors.

IHSPA announced awards on Friday, January 26 as part of the organization’s annual convention and

recognition program. More information about the Hoosier Star award, including a list of past winners, can be found on IHSPA’s website: https://ihspa.net/hoosierstar/

The softball coaching staff and students recognized influential educators and their impact on our softball student-athletes. Congratulations to the educators who were recognized!

Mr. Wright and the Advanced Orchestra visited the University of Indianapolis. The group was able to play in their auditorium and get string coaching from their faculty. It was a great experience for our students and we appreciate our partnerships with UIndy!

For the second year in a row, Perry Township Schools was selected as one of the Best Communities for Music Education for 2024 by the NAMM Foundation. We are one of just 17 school districts across the state of Indiana to receive thsi recognition. Thank you to the amazing music instructors across the district and especially the Performing Arts Department at SHS!

At the ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) Organizational Festival, the Advanced Orchestra earned a gold rating in Group II from all three judges. By earning this rating, the orchestra program will receive the ISSMA State All-Orchestra Award. Congratulations to Mr. Wright and the students who have work hard all year, and thank you for positively representing SHS.

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."

- Abraham Lincoln

Our Art Department represented SHS at the Perry Township Art show last Thursday and Friday night. Kris, Kait and David put together pieces of work students created throughout the year to be on display for the Art Show. Thousands of community members walked the gym at PMHS to appreciate the art programs across the district. The quality of the work SHS students produced was very impressive.

Mr. Snodgrass and the SHS Bug Bytes Robotics team were the topic of the most recent video cast with Dr. Spray. The students were able to describe the varios roles on the team, the robot game strategy, and even highlighted the upcoming Night of Engineering and the Mini Movers project.

Ms. Melisha Harris' Biology class was learning about the different kingdoms for classification purposes. The students practiced their research strategies by completing charts for characteristics of the various kingdoms. The students will later use this to categorize various species.

Mr. Whitlow's Sheltered English 10 class was working on writing responses in complete sentences. The students first practiced with sentence stems and writing about themselves. They them read a short passage together and wrote responses to the passage in complete sentences. Finally, the students read another short passage on their own and answered a few questions to demonstrate their ability to use the question to answer the response in a full sentence.

The PE students had an in-class competition in the Fieldhouse playing yard games. The students were participating in Yard Pong and Bulzi Buckets.

Our school counseling department did a great job bringing in local businesses searching for full-time and summer employment. Our students were able to walk around the East Gym to meet the potential employers and learn about the job opportunities at each location. Thank you to all who volunteered to be there for the event and for those who helped organize the community partners.

Website: https://www.perryschools.org/sh/
Location: 971 East Banta Road, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: 317-789-4800
Twitter: @SHS_Cardinals