2016 Gratitude - Happy Holidays!

 2016 - WE ARE GRATEFUL

                                       

We have enjoyed a remarkable 2016 with students and parents across our TNHS Community! We want to celebrate some of the most memorable growth from the past year!

1. The Original Generals 
Our first ever four year graduating class! A truly remarkable group of young men and women that will continue to make the world a better place. 

2. Ranking 7th (top 2%) in the State Academically
While we know the work we do at TNHS goes well beyond test scores, it is important to know that are our Generals continue to grow academically each year. Our student's performance continues to show that our student's believe in the power of hard work and focus on their future story success. 

3. Four Year House Structure 

Perhaps more important than anything we have achieved at TNHS, we made powerful transition to our four year house structure this year. This revised structure allows students, teachers, and parents to CONNECT, CARE, and CREATE in a more focused community structure over four years. Our student's and teacher's response has been a powerful reminder of why meaningful growth often requires meaningful change. 

A TNHS HOUSE COMMUNITY GRATITUDE CIRCLE

4. Parent Gift Cards 

Our first annual parent gift card collection provides an essential opportunity to CONNECT with and celebrate parents over the coming year. This initial gift card collection serves as an important reminder that everyone has a unique gift to offer our community. We need you!

THOMAS NELSON HOUSE PARENTS SORTING GIFT CARD DATA = YES

12.7.16 General Hand House Parent Meeting

Whole House Opening
1. A Story of Gratitude (5 min.)
2. E-Card Protocol 
   - E-Cards 
3. Overview of Gifts and House Parent Roles for January
Individual House Breakout
4. Gift Card - Inventory of Gifts (30 min.) 
   - Grade Level Data Entry 
5. Gratitude Circle in Houses (5 min.)

November 2016: Giving Thanks

2ND ANNUAL FEAST OF THANKS

We are excited to celebrate our 2nd annual Feast of Thanks  tomorrow the 22nd of November! For the first time in our short history, our House Communities will come together for shared readings, a House gratitude circle, and a shared Thanksgiving luncheon.  An essential part of our work at TNHS is honoring the gifts within our community. As we move into the Thanksgiving holidays we that ask that you consider a student or staff member at TNHS as a way to celebrate!

Click Here to Give Gratitude!

Watch this short video for inspiration for further gratitude. It's worth 5 minutes of your life. :) 

House Parent Kick-Off

Forty-two parents attended our first ever House Parent Kick-Off beginning a journey that will extend far into our school's future. We are thrilled to continue this essential, legacy building work on Thursday, December 7th at 6:00 PM in the media center. Parent House Cup points are on the line! 

October 2016: Values and Community Growth

OUR SUCCESS =  VALUE DRIVEN

In the past month our school community was recognized as one of the top 10 high schools (7th Overall) in the state of Kentucky based on the K-Prep accountability model. This model represents academic achievement, graduation rate, and college and career readiness. While the accountability system aligns to our Mission of college, career, and citizenship readiness we recognize that our success comes primarily from our ability to live our LEADER Values each day. The stronger our commitment to these values, the more successful we are in CARING for each other and the long-term growth of our school. 

HOUSE PARENT KICK-OFF

We have received over 500 Gift Cards from parents and continue to build towards our House Parent vision with our first ever Kick-Off Dinner. If you are interested in learning more please email wes.bradley@nelson.kyschools.us for more details.

DEAN'S LIST BREAKFAST

Here are the dates for your House!

Lafayette House = November 2nd from 8:35 to 9:20 AM

Washington House = November 2nd from 9:30 to 10:10 AM

Hamilton House = November 3rd from 8:35 to 9:20 AM

Lincoln House = November 3rd from 9:30 to 10:10 AM

September 2016 - Parent Gift Card Collection

PARENT GIFT CARDS GO OUT THIS WEEK!

The 2015-2016 General Hand Team Writing Parent E-Cards

As we continue to grow as a community, becoming aware of and utilizing parent gifts will be instrumental for our student's success! 

The TNHS Parent Gift card came out of conversation with our parent General Hand team last year. We recognized that in order for our houses to grow, parent LEADERship was essential. 

Here are a few frequently asked questions and responses. 

What is a gift? 
A strength, talent, experience, profession that you as a parent want to share with our community. 


Why gift cards? 
The gift cards will be utilized by house parents to begin organizing important parent information. This information will be used to CONNECT parent gifts with opportunities at TNHS.

To learn more watch this video from Mrs. Vincent and Mr. Mudd. Yes. 

Interested in giving even more to our Generals? 
Consider becoming a House Parent and marking the box on the gift card. A House LEADER will follow-up with you in the coming weeks. :)  

Creating Together: Lessons from our Original Generals

SALUTING FOUR YEARS OF GROWTH!
It has been an honor to serve our first four year graduating class at TNHS. As we look back at the amazing growth within our community we wanted to share some of the most important lessons we have taken from our Original Generals - the class of 2016. 

LESSON #1 

Culture is King: CARE Comes First 

While our class of 2016 was wildly successful academically (ranking TNHS in the top 10% in the state), their modeling of CARE for each other and our school far exceeds anything else they achieved. From the beginning we focused on building a culture with our students that would provide for authentic care and connection with each other. As adults, we referenced the often coined term "Culture is King" regularly and focused our energy there from day one. Our Original Generals proved this adage to be absolutely true! At the same time, we have learned that authentic culture isn't created overnight. It takes students, parents, and teachers working together over time to create a school. By the end of their four year tenure our Original Generals have initiated organizations, rituals, and traditions that we could not imagine prior to the opening of TNHS. They did this through sustained CARE and commitment over time. 

LESSON #2

Growth = Change

Each of the past four years our Original Generals have embraced growth through change. While we have naturally grown in size (from 520 students to 720), we have also created additional responsibilities and opportunities for our students each year. This change came in the form of new courses, programs, and people to support their future story goals as we learned each year how to best support our students. Change also came in the form of increasingly higher expectations for academic achievement and behavioral non-negotiables. We work to "coolify" achievement at TNHS and we feel confident that we have made immense progress towards that goal. To this end, a remarkable bi-product of our growth came within our student's increased expectations for each other. As they found individual success, they expected more from each other. Achievement is contagious! In the end, creating a school is collective task. Growth demands small incremental changes over time. Over the past four years our students have experienced immense growth by continually embracing such change. 

LESSON #3 

The Answer to How is Yes

One of the primary TNHS mantras in the fall of 2012 was "The Answer to How is Yes." From T-shirts to signage, YES was the word that inspired our work. Take a look at our Facebook Page and you will find the word "Yes" used consistently to reinforce a sense of pride and community over the past four years. "The Answer to How is Yes" simply means that your belief is the most important aspect of your success. If you believe you can, then you can. Say "Yes" first, then you figure out how. If there is no yes, everything else is irrelevant.

To this end, our Original Generals continued to say "yes" with our team of teachers. They believed not only in their individual future story goals, but also in the future story of our school. They believed that anything was possible, if... they put their nose to the grind and worked together. They embraced a growth mindset that would allow them to be successful beyond what we could have imagined. Over 98% of our Original Generals graduated in four years, over 95% were college and/or career ready, and most importantly, we felt like 100% of our graduates walked across the stage proud of their school. 

LESSON #4

Everyone LEADs

In schools and in education at large we can sometimes get caught up in this program or that program to solve your challenges. In contrast, our Original Generals have worked with our teachers to build from the ground up! We have not taken prescriptive programs, but rather created something that is uniquely ours. From curriculum design, to the TNHS Student Organization Council and the Athletic Legacy Core Teams we have created together to build living systems and connections that work for our community. We have observed that you cannot take most programs in one place and make them work in the same way for another community. It is essential that the community that will be utilizing the program, has its hands in creating it. Class of 2016 - thank you for being a courageous, remarkable, fearless group of world changers that make our world a better place! We are proud of you and want you to know that there is always a place for you at Thomas Nelson. Here's to continuing to LEAD together. Yes. 

5.11.16 - General Hand Meeting

5.11.16 General Hand Agenda

1. Parent Partnership E-Cards (All Parents)
2. Read Aloud Norms (Wes)
3. Parent CAREBook (15 min Total)
1. Next Steps
4. House LEADERs and House Parents (5 min).
5. Parent Video Messages (25 min.)
1. Breakout Groups (wear T-shirts)
6. Gratitude Circles (Small Groups - 5 min.)
1. What gifts did we share today?

Connect, CARE, and Create App

Connect, CARE, Create

We are excited to bring the TNHS App to you live on the App store. The App is designed to align directly to the three components of our House Team Model - Connect, Care, and Create. 

CONNECT - Through intentional planning we lay a foundation for deep relationships to develop between members of our community. Through these partnerships our students experience academic and social success.

CARE - We believe in choosing the common good over what benefits one. Our House Structure provides a sense of stability, structure, and a deep seated belonging for all students, LEADERs, and Parents at Thomas Nelson High School.

CREATE -  By asking the question “What do we want to create together” we redefine the traditional model of school culture, creating new opportunities for shared ownership, LEADERship, and service.

LIFT-OFF WEEK!

March 2016 Agenda

   

3.17.16 General Hand Agenda

1. Parent Partnership E-Cards (All Parents)
2. Celebrate 2020 Data
3. Read Aloud Norms (Wes)
4. Parent CAREBook (15 min Total)
1. Feedback 
1. What feels right? (5 min.) 
2. What needs more clarity? (5 min.)
3. What should we prioritize in our videos? (5 min.) 
5. Parent Video Messages (25 min.)
1. Breakout Groups (wear T-shirts)
6. SACs Feedback and Gratitude
7. Gratitude Circles (Small Groups - 5 min.)
1. What gifts did we share today?

February 2016: Parent CAREbook

PARENT CAREbook

       We know that for our community to continue to grow we must sustain meaningful parent engagement. Developing our CAREbook for students has become an important annual cultural ritual for students and staff. Now we are working to develop a CAREbook for parent engagement. Please help us make it awesome by watching this short video and sharing your ideas below. 

Click here to share your ideas.


Parent Survey Feedback

Click Here for Our Parent Survey Data 

2.11.16 General Hand Meeting

2.11.16 Meeting

1. Parent Partnership E-Cards (All Parents)
2. Read Aloud Norms (Wes)
3. Parent CAREBook - What should we prioritize? (Wes - 5 min.)
4. Four Year House Model Review - Mark (20 min)
5. SACs Accreditation Parent Partners
6. Inputting Class of 2020 Data (20 min.)
7. Gratitude Circles (Small Groups - 5 min.)
1. What gifts did we share today?

Parent Prom 2017! 

2.2.16 Parent Educator Team Meeting

1. Parent E-Cards
2. Implications of Ch. 1: Beyond the Bake Sale
3. CAREBook Brainstorm

Parent Feedback Survey

Parent Partners Please Click Here  

JOIN US ON OUR CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY!

January 2016 - Going Global

LOCAL, NATIONAL, GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP 

Check out this short video led by our Global Ambassador Pedro Estrella to learn more about opportunities in the coming year to explore the globe!

STUDENT LED EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE

Click here to see how Dylan Wilburn and Grace Calhoun are helping to initiate the Rafiki bracelet project at TNHS supporting education in Kenya. Click here to support!

From WLKY News

1.12.16 Meeting

1.12.16 Meeting

1. Parent Partnership E-Cards (All Parents)
2. Read Aloud Norms (Wes)
3. Parent CAREBook - What should we prioritize? (Wes - 5 min.)
4. Four Year House Model 
5. Inputting Class of 2020 Data
6. Gratitude Circles (Small Groups - 5 min.)
1. What gifts did we share today?

Parent Prom 2017!