"A Year With Frog and Toad"

There is a lot of research out there that support the positive correlation between being involved in extra-curricular activities at school and academic success.  Students who are engaged in the life of the school have  a connection that carries into the classroom.

A couple of weeks ago our Drama Club performed "A Year with Frog and Toad."  I want to congratulate all of those who were involved in this production!  I also want to encourage all students to get involved.  We have a huge variety of groups with which students can be involved - athletics, academics, fine arts, and more.

2014 Youth In Government

Earlier this spring a few Shepherd students attended the Annual Youth In Government Conference in Lansing.   The students had a great time and had a chance to learn about state government first-hand.  The annual event is sponsored by the YMCA.  Shepherd has been involved in this program for over 10 years.  The following excerpt from the YMCA does a nice job of describing what the students experience.

"There are two ways to learn about government. The first is to read textbooks about what others have done. The second is to take that theoretical knowledge and apply it in an actual government setting.

The Youth In Government program provides over 1600 high school students with a unique opportunity to become acting state legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, committee chairs, etc. In essence, the students simulate all phases and positions of the actual state government. These students are challenged with many of the issues our real legislators must face in their elected offices. 

Youth from throughout the state are selected as delegates from student councils, government classes or YMCA'S and spend months researching for the event. Students take positions in the House and Senate as well as the executive branch. They work in chambers to introduce, debate and vote on proposed legislative bills that have been written by the youth legislators in their hometowns."

The students had an opportunity to gain even more this year by getting a tour of the Michigan Hall of Justice where the Michigan Supreme Court resides and meeting with our local representative, Representative Kevin Cotter.  Representative Cotter invited the students into his office for a time and then to a conference room to talk to the students and answer any questions the students had.  

Girls Cross Country State Champions

We are very proud of the Shepherd High School Girls Cross Country Team.  This past Saturday they won a state championship in division three.  This is such an accomplishment.  I am sure many people in the community saw girls running through town when it was cold, snowy, hot, humid, and rainy.  These girls demonstrated huge dedication to work towards this goal that they achieved.  There was a real sense of family with this team and they came together to be the best in the state.

It was very inspiring to be at the state meet and see our girls cross the finish line.  Though I didn't want to get too excited without seeing the actual results, I didn't know how any other team could have beat us.  It was awesome to see so many people attend and support the girls.  There were band members there playing the fight song and leading the Shepherd fans.  I am sure there was not school that had more supporters that Shepherd.  I think the band took everybody by surprise.  I don't think cross country teams are used to that much support.  The event workers commented on who the heck had a band with them.  It was Shepherd.  But. when you are state champion caliber, you get a little more excited.

Congratulations to the team and Coach Hammel.  The girls represented themselves, their team, the school, their families, and their community well!

Blue Jay Character

One of the things that has been a priority for me has been to help students develop into good human beings.  To that end, we emphasize doing "the right thing,” having good sportsmanship, and simply treating people in a way that makes the world better.  Our students have been awesome.  I think they get tired of hearing how impressed I am of them when we have assemblies and special presentations.  I have been in other schools so I have a comparison from which to judge.  They are the best audience in our league.

I love to get notices from administrators and parents from other schools when they recognize the quality of our students.  This has happened several times in the past few years.  Our students united with the students from Bullock Creek to support one of their students who was involved in a serious accident that nearly took his life and left him in a coma for a long time.  We received many letters of thanks and gratitude for our support.  There were parents who took the time to send me an email of thanks because of the way our students and fans behaved after losing to Bridgeport in a regional basketball game.  Our fans stayed for the trophy presentation for the other team.  They clapped for their players as they were announced.  They didn't walk over the court, leave, disrupt, etc.  They were supportive and it was noticed by the parents and administration of Bridgeport.  I also received a letter from the principal of Valley Lutheran who was impressed by our students and fans during a basketball game at their school.  We had formed a tunnel to congratulate our players.  Their students were doing the same thing so both student bodies just formed together.  There was no conflict.  There was unity in support of the teams.  I recently received a call from the athletic director from Hemlock who commented on how impressed he was when he went to the visitor bleachers after a JV football game.  He said all of the trash was picked up and there was nothing he had to do on that side.  He couldn't believe it.  I don't know who was responsible, but someone took the initiative and it made Shepherd look good.  Just this past week, I received another thank you from Bullock Creek as they were doing a drive to support a student during our football game.  The note said:

Shepherd High School

Creekers for a Cause would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to your parents and students for contributing to our fundraiser for Katie K.  Even though they did not know this special six year old, they dug deep into their pockets to contribute.  That shows the character of the Blue Jays and we appreciate your support!  Together we were able to raise $4,500 for Katie and her family.

Thanks,

Creekers for a Cause

As I have told the students, what they do matters and people do notice!      

Power School Mobile

The following information was provided from Pearson regarding a new mobile app for Android users.

Pearson Tech Notes

Android Version 1.0 of PowerSchool for Parents and Students Apps Now Available!

 

The PowerSchool for Parents and PowerSchool for Students mobile apps are now available for Android devices! Features include real time access to:

• Attendance
• Grades
• Assignments and Scores
• Standards Progress
• School Announcements
• Teacher Comments
• Grade Point Average
• Lunch Transactions and Balance
• Fee Transactions and Balance

Getting Ready for Mobile

If you have previously enabled access for iOS mobile devices, you are all set to use the Android apps. If not, make sure your schools are mobile-ready by completing the following checklist:

1. Parent and student access are enabled on your PowerSchool server.
2. Single sign-on for parents is enabled.
3. PowerSchool version 7.2.3 (or higher) is installed.
4. Your PowerSchool server is registered with PowerSource.
5. Mobile settings have been enabled for each school.
6. Each school calendar has been set with a “Type” and a “Note” for days when school is not in session.

For complete instructions on configuring your school for mobile access, download the Mobile Administration User Guide here.

For questions or feedback, visit the Mobile Solutions forum on PowerSource here.

Click here for a video tutorial to share with parents, demonstrating how to set up single sign-on.

Click here to download and install PowerSchool version 7.2.3 or higher.

Digital Footprints

In the age of social media, kids are "posting" and "tweeting" and "texting" from the time they get up to the time they go to bed.  Students are no longer limited to have conversations or make remarks in person.  Now, everything is instant.  If a person had a risque picture of a friend back in my day, the only way it would be seen would be one person at a time, in person, at a particular time.  Now, pictures can be seen by thousands at a time, any time and any place.  All digital information that is shared via the web is creating what is called a digital footprint.  The purpose of this post isn't to dig deep into this idea but I wanted to share a couple of links that I think are worth a quick look.  The first is "10 Things Your Students Should Know About Their Digital Footprints" and the other is "5 Things to Know About Digital Footprints."  I would also encourage you to look deeper into this issue as it can have huge implications for future success.

Click the links to view these articles.

10 Things Your Students Should Know About Their Digital Footprints

5 Things to Know About Digital Footprints

Tim Elmore - One Gigantic Predictor of Success for Students

Over my years in education, one of the behaviors that has had a huge impact on students in the ability to delay gratification for a future benefit.  We see it with students who skip class or cheat on a test.  There are, of course, many other social areas that effect students as well.  A researcher, author, and social commentator that I follow is Tim Elmore.  In a recent blog post, he spoke of this topic, and the implications for a student's future success.  He also speaks about ways to help students understand these implications.  I would encourage you to check out Tim Elmore's post.

Click:  One Gigantic Predictor of Success for Students - Tim Elmore, October 3, 2013