Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it.  The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.  ~T. Allen Armstrong

Week 5 in Review

I missed you all last week, and I was thinking about you all more than you can imagine.

If you didn’t already know, Kurt and I moved our oldest son Matthew to San Antonio to start his career in the Air Force.  Matt is my oldest.  He’s a graduate of the St. Joseph School District – Lafayette High School – and he’s also a Mizzou alum (go Tigers!), and he’s about to become one of the USAF’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) pilots.  As we all traveled south, I reflected constantly on how many skills Matt was using in his transition to begin his career.  These skills, many of which I am sure he first learned in high school, were critical to his success.  His success was dependent on his ability to adjust, try new things, ask others’ opinions, and remain open to learning.    I realized then that his progress in getting started in his career and his success in making through pilot training was the ASSESSMENT for all the learning he had done in high school and college.  It wasn’t just the math, science, English, history learning that was making him a success at this test – it was his interactions with all the adults in his life who guided his thinking and challenged him beyond what he was comfortable with.

Like I said, I have been thinking about you all more than you can imagine.

I know last week you prepped for our Super Assessment Day, CAMP, IEPs and our literacy plan. Thank you for that time in professional development.  I heard from many of you about problems you solved, problems you gained, ideas to make our school better, and ways to make yourself better.  What I hope you all realize, is how important that is to our students.  I beg you to share your own learning with our students.  Challenge them to be more than they think they can be.  Help them by guiding them in their post-high school plans.  As a parent, I am so grateful to all the teachers at Lafayette who did that for my son.  It’s hard sometimes to see the forest through all the darn trees – but we are getting our students ready for life.  The benchmark for that is what they see and say to us each day.  The final assessment – the super assessment – is how they navigate their lives after they leave us. Thank you forward for the difference you are making in the future of someone else’s son or daughter.

Week 6 – A Look Ahead

It’s going to be a fun week. Light the flames of learning.  Here we come…

Monday we have a fire drill at 1:15.  Make sure you review with your students as soon as you enter 4^th block.

Tuesday is THE DAY.  Super Assessment Day.  We report to CAMP first to give directions.  If you have questions before Tuesday, don’t hesitate to ask.  K’Lea Steeby (assessment counselor) and the rest of the counseling department have taken the lead on this day, and they are working diligently to make it all a huge success.  Please give them grace and support as we get through the day.   It’s really important that our students take the assessments seriously.  This information will help us help our students with data on areas to improve academically as well as goals for their life after high school.

Wednesday we have our next Leadership Team meeting at 7:00 a.m. in Room 103.

Friday is our faculty lunch.  Don’t forget to bring your items for lunch to Room 103.  We will dine in there together each lunch period.  I know it’s going to be a great day.  I will send out a reminder before the day to make sure we all are ready for our excellent dining experience.

A quick reminder – week after next (week 7) is Homecoming Week.  I encourage all teachers to make this one of the weeks you participate and join with our students to make memories of their high school years.  Our Student Council is dedicated to making our school more spirited and fun for everyone. I would be understating how much they want you all to participate with them, if I said it a thousand times.  They LOVE IT when their teachers join them in their craziness and fun – and they remember it for a long, long time.  🙂

Images:  Matt by me; MQ-9 Reaper from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper; in CC on Flickr Flame Colours by scienceatlife.