The Cardinal Way

Every interaction you have with students impacts that moment, their day, and potentially the rest of their lives. Your belief in them when they don't always believe in themselves matters. We have a choice with every moment our kids are with us - do we engage and encourage students to have a seat at the table or do we ignore them and allow kids to hide? But how do we do this? The answer is simple in theory but not always in practice - - - to make CONNECTIONS.

And what does making connections look like at SHS?

• We greet students with a smile and postive message as they enter the school and classroom.
• Staff members attend extracurricular events and then talk to kids about them.
• Teachers start class with a time to talk about the positive things happening with students and allow them to share with each other.
• Teachers ask kids what they enjoy doing and use this as a touch point during future conversations.
• Staff members high five kids in the hallway.
• Teachers give kids snacks that they like because they know they get hungry during class.
• Staff play music that the students like during work time.
• We go to see them at work and acknowledge how difficult it must be to balance school and work.
• We tell kids we believe in them.
• Staff make phone calls home to engage families.
• WE SEND POSITIVE NOTES HOME!!!!!

With your notes this week, 481 different SHS students have now received positive notes delivered to their homes. My goal is 100% by the end of this year because there is something good and positive in every student, and we can make a difference by highlighting their successes. If you don't think the notes matter, a student took a picture of his note and was showing other teachers the positive note he received!

You might not hear or see this from all students, but your words, actions, and how you truly believe in students make a difference in their lives!

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

Ignite-Connect-Empower

Thank you to our School Counseling Office staff for all that you do to support our students. You are there to help students enroll, build schedules based off their future goals, figure out their future options, navigate loss and trauma, apply for college and scholarships, enlist in the military, find jobs, approve summer school, figure out relationships, and much more. Our students are lucky to have you by their side!

Congratulations to Xoey Washington who was awarded $16,000 by winning the Abe Lincoln Award program. This scholarship program was created in 1976 to recognize studetns who have overcome unimaginable hardships and to provide financial aid to assist them in continuing their goals. Kiwanis of Indianapolis aims to guide young people by providing a community that cares about, recognizes, and encourages them.

Congratulations to the students who will be representing SHS at the DECA State Competition. Please stop by the Business hallway to write notes of encouragement for the competitors!

Students Going to SCDC:

• Samson Nguyen - Financial Consulting Event
• Esther Li - Retail Merchandising Series Event
  
• Natalla'h Wilson - Apparel & Accessory Marketing Series Event
• Manprit Kaur - Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making Event
• Mang Dim - Entrepreneurship Team Decision Making Event

Congratulations to Mark Snodgrass, Anthony Stanich, and our robotics team members on their performances this weekend. Southport High School had two teams qualify for the state championship! Below are the details from the robotics competitions this weekend.

22068 Bug Bytes who received the 1st place in the Think Award.

Removing engineering obstacles through creative thinking. This judged award is given to the team that best reflects the journey the team took as they experienced the engineering design process during the build season. The engineering content within the portfolio is the key reference for judges to help identify the most deserving team.

The team’s engineering content must focus on the design and build stage of the team’s robot. The team must be able to share or provide additional detailed information that is helpful for the judges. This could include descriptions of the underlying science and mathematics of the robot design and game strategies, the designs, redesigns, successes, and opportunities for improvement.

A team is not a candidate for this award if their portfolio does not include engineering content.

Team 22069 TV Junkies received the 1st place in the Connect Award.

Connecting the dots between community, FIRST, and the diversity of the engineering world. This judged award is given to the team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community.

A true FIRST team is more than a sum of its parts and recognizes that engaging their local STEM community plays an essential part in their success. The recipient of this award is recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself.

The team that wins the Connect Award actively seeks and recruits engineers and explores the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science, and technology. This team has a clear team plan and has identified steps to achieve their goals.

All 6 Southport teams earned an Award:

· 1st place in the Connect Award 22069

· 1st place in the Think Award 22068

· 2nd place in the Innovate Award 22066

· 2nd place in the Connect Award 22049

· 2nd place in the Think Award 22067

· 3rd place in the Design Award 13246 - Middle School Team

On Sunday, we had two of the teams win an award:

22066 received 1st place in the Motivate Award.

Sparking others to embrace the culture of FIRST! This team embraces the culture of FIRST and clearly shows what it means to be a team.

This judged award celebrates the team that represents the essence of the FIRST Tech Challenge competition through Gracious Professionalism® and general enthusiasm for the overall philosophy of FIRST and what it means to be a FIRST Tech Challenge team. This is a team who makes a collective effort to make FIRST known throughout their school and community, and sparks others to embrace the culture of FIRST.

Team 22068 received 2nd place in the Design Award.

Industrial design at its best. This judged award recognizes design elements of the robot that are both functional and aesthetic. The Design Award is presented to teams that incorporate industrial design elements into their solution. These design elements could simplify the robot’s appearance by giving it a clean look, be decorative in nature, or otherwise express the creativity of the team. The robot should be durable, efficiently designed, and effectively address the game challenge.

Congratulations to the C9 Students of the Month from C-9!

The top 5 finishers received a cookie and a gift card from a local restaurant to recognize their superior skills.

• Mr. Williams who is helping teach Mr. Johnson's AP Pre-Calculus class while he is on paternity leave.
• Mr. Duncan for giving up his department chair prep to take on an ICP class. With new enrollments, the class sizes were getting too large so Mr. Duncan offerred to take on this new class.
• The Science department and social committee for planning and providing cookies for the "Cookies from Cupid" event.
• The Pre-AP English 9 teachers for bringing their students to see Romeo and Juliet at the Carmel Civic Theatre.
• Mr. Wright along with the SMS Orchestra teachers for brining the violoin professor from Ball State University to work with our students and receive feedback so students can improve on their orchestra skills as they prepare for contest.
• Mr. Morse & Mr. Weimer for running our unannounced bus evacuation drill last week.

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

- Abraham Lincoln

Mr. Wright took the beginning orchestra class on a field trip to the symphony. Several people recognized that there was a school group at the performance and the patrons were welcoming and excited to see young students at the symphony. The school even got a "shout out" before the concert. Mr. Wright also received several compliments from patrons and symphony staff about how well-behaved and respectful our students were. It was a great experience for the kids and they were a positive representation of SHS!

Mr. Bockelman and Ms. Lyons have iPass groups this year that are trageting support for our black and Latino students. The goal is to support students in the hope to increase the students' understanding of AP/DC classes so that they will feel comfortable enrolling in the future. The iPass groups met together the other day to hear from SHS graduate, Enzo Zavaleta.

Enzo spoke about his experiences at SHS and thus far in college. He told the students to try things and stretch themselves in high school because high school gives you "handrails" as guidance and in college - you are on your own. The students were engaged and listening to Enzo's experiences.

Ms. Dortch's pre-AP English 10 class celebrated Valentine's Day by "speed dating" with books. Students were given a wrapped book and information about the books' genre, characters, and plot. Based on that, they picked which book they would read for an upcoming independent reading project.

Mr. Stewart's English 11 class is working on their poetry unit. Students wrote poems about physical spaces using the poetry techniques of similie, metaphor, and personification. The class then analyzed a poem by Emily Dickinson before mimicking a poem and writing another poem of their own.

The ILT members spent their time reviewing teacher portfolio submissions and giving individualized feedback. The group then analyzed strengths and areas needing support in order to determine how to adjust our PD plans for the upcoming weeks to best meet the needs of our staff.

A group of about 30 students met with the district's strategic planning group in order to give student voice to their data collection. The students shared what Perry Township means to them, strengths of the district, areas for improvment, and identified potential barriers to those improvement areas. The students did an amazing job of openly sharing their experiences and providing suggestions for our future.

Would you rather....:

Give the best gifts - 17%

Give the best advice - 73%

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