May 2014 Issue: Lift-Off Week

MORNING MESSAGE TO SENIORS

For this month's issue of The General I found it appropriate to simply share the message that was sent to all of our seniors during their last LEADER Prep class this morning. We are proud of our first ever graduating class and look forward to a historic week. 

LIFT-OFF WEEK PLANNING GUIDE

 

April 2014 Issue: The General

ORGANIZING AND EMPOWERING FUTURE STORIES 
One of the most important phrases that has emerged over the past two years at Thomas Nelson is "FUTURE STORY." This notion of FUTURE STORY is the driving force behind our mission. To this end, we meet with our students quarterly to have one-on-one conversations about goals, current achievement, and their future story pathway. Most recently, we have started to embrace the power of technology to organize and access future story portfolio items through individual student blogs. 

We see this new use of technology benefiting our Generals in a number of ways. Most notably, by organizing information and empowering students to act. The answer to how is yes. With tools like this we should be moving closer towards YES. 

SEE EXAMPLE STUDENT BLOG HERE 

Here's further reading on the relevance of digital portfolios. George Couros on Digital Portfolios

WE NEED YOUR HELP LAYING THE FOUNDATION
An important symbolic tradition will begin for our class of 2014 as they will literally and figuratively be laying the foundation for future generations of Generals that follow. To honor every graduate at Thomas Nelson annually, we will have their name etched in a brick and placed at the front of the building creating additional sidewalk with brick pavers (See right side and below)

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT?
To financially support the project we are seeking community partners (individuals or businesses) that would like to partner with TNHS and have their name etched in history along with our future graduates. 

The brick will say "Thank you to ________ for helping to lay the foundation."  

If interested in donating please email me at wes.bradley@nelson.kyschools.us or calling TNHS at 502-349-4650. 

Our goal is to partner with up to ten community businesses and/or individuals to donate and have their names etched in history. 

GRADUATION TICKETS - DISTRIBUTED MAY 16th! 
All Seniors will receive 8 tickets. 

March 2014 Issue: The General

READY FOR LIFT-OFF JUNE 6th, 2014

We are excited to announce our first ever graduation ceremony June 6th, 2014 at 7:30 PM. Planning is well under way at TNHS as the General Assembly Student LEADERship team, Classroom LEADERs, and School LEADERs are preparing for a remarkable event. We will be communicating whether or not seniors will be allotted a certain number of tickets by Friday of this week as we collect data about anticipated attendance from our Generals in their English classes. 

SPRING DEAN'S LIST BREAKFAST

Yes, it's that time again. Dean's List Breakfast invites will be going out over spring break to all parents of students that achieved a 3.25 or higher during Q3. Our first quarter event was a huge success. We are currently assessing the potential for  remarkable speakers for the event building off the great speakers from Q1.Report cards will go home Friday, March 28th during LEADER Prep. See event Dates on the Logo above.

SPRING BREAK House Pride Rally - Bring in lightly worn Jeans!
This Friday the Hamilton House will host the Spring Break Edition of the House Pride Rally. The celebratory event is inspired by "Teens for Jeans" and we are asking community members to donate jeans that are no longer being worn for national community members that are less privileged and/or homeless. 

LEADER Madness 
If Mr. Mudd's Senior picture doesn't tell you enough about LEADER Madness check out all of the others at TNHS on display this week. Annually, LEADER Madness offers our Classroom LEADERs extended time to embrace play and our Core Value of ENTHUSIASM in competition against their colleagues. Events included: 
1. Most Remarkable Senior Picture
2. Appetizer Showdown
3. NCAA Bracketology 
4. House Theme Day
5. Doar Roar - Most Inspiring Door

The General: February 2014 Issue

GOING MULTIMEDIA - 1st TOUCHCAST

Check-out the Youtube Video below or this Touchcast link for this month's edition of The General. Please be nice - this is our first attempt at multimedia principal communication. See the links below to contribute after the video. 

OPERATION EXPLORATION
1. Please click Here to Read The Overview Letter
2. Please click Here to Submit Your Name or Business to Host a Senior!

WRITING POLICY 
1. Click here to review the drafted policy and give feedback. Just hit "insert comment". 

Flying Close in 2014: January Edition of The General

FLYING CLOSE IN 2014
The notion of "flying close to the sun" has been a prominent theme at Thomas Nelson over the past six months. Derived from Seth Godin's Icarus Deception, an inspirational narrative on the importance of thinking anew about the limits that we may put on our potential. According to legend, Icarus was given the power to fly by his father Daedalus but did not heed his father's advice and flew too close to the sun, melting the wax that held his wings on, ending in his eventual fall into the Icarian Sea. From this legend Godin argues, we have been too often encouraged to play it safe and not follow our dreams. 

http://renahedeman.com/

It is my hope that our Generals aggressively pursue their most lucid dreams in the year ahead. It is our work as a school along with you as parents and community members to continue to inspire and connect our Generals with opportunities that allow them to follow those dreams. It is in the daily discipline that we strive to maintain that will afford our students and staff the courage to get outside of our comfort zone and work more passionately towards the dreams and goals we seek. Join me in supporting all of our Generals flying close in 2014.  

PARTNERING WITH PARENTS - Thank you for your feedback!
Learning from and with parents is essential to our ongoing improvement at Thomas Nelson. This survey data will be shared with our staff, SBDM team, and Citizen Advisory to establish meaningful dialogue about what we are doing well and how we can continue to improve our partnership. Both, the positive and critical feedback from the survey will help inspire our work in the months ahead As discussed in December we want to be fully transparent about the parent survey feedback. 

Please click here for a summary of the responses. Parent Survey Data 

GLOWS Include: 
1. Our school community has worked to establish a safe place to learn, a culture of care, and responsibility that provides a strong foundation for us to work from. 96% of parents agree that TNHS is a safe place to learn and grow!
2. This culture of care is founded upon consistently high behavioral expectations for all students. Consistency is caring. 
3. We work to support all students. 94% of parents agree that TNHS believes that their child can be successful!

GROWS Include:
1. Increasing the timeliness of communication in relation to grades and other needed parental supports. 
2. Ensuring that clear communication occurs about the distribution of Interim Assessment Reports. (They will be distributed next week for quarter 2)
3. Continuing to increase transparency around LEADER Prep and the Fusion Youth Service Center.  

The General: December 2013 Edition

PARTNERING WITH PARENTS SURVEY
An important part of our vision at Thomas Nelson is parent and community partnership. To that end, I work with The Citizen Advisory Team each fall to develop a partnering with parents survey. The purpose of the survey is to learn from you and determine how we can continue to grow as a school community in supporting parents. The results of this survey are shared with in the January Edition of The General and TNHS staff members will use the data to set goals for the coming year. Your voice is important to our continued growth! Please take 4 to 5 minutes to complete this survey. 

Click Here - Partnering with Parents Survey to share your voice. 

ACHIEVEMENT WEEK & IA 2 - ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Achievement week will be held from 12.16 to 12.20 culminating in our 2nd Interim Assessment of the year! The theme for this semester's Achievement Week is "I'm on top of the World" denoting the great opportunity that our Generals have in shaping their future story by excelling on both their Final Exams and the Interim Assessments. Join me in celebrating this opportunity for our Generals. 






 PAYING FOR COLLEGE 101

The General: November 2013 Edition

GIVING THANKS - THE POWER OF GRATITUDE

We have much to be thankful for this November at TNHS. Supporting our community members in actively giving gratitude is a part of our school culture vision. Importantly, research on schools shows that taking time for gratitude is correlated with cultural success. Read more here. 

I'm thankful for the continued contributions of students, parents, teachers, and community members in continuing to lay the foundation at Thomas Nelson High School. There are so many of you that have the courage to contribute and make TNHS a great place to be. The most recent contributions from our Project Lift-Off planning team is a great example of courage in our community. 

FUTURE STORIES: COLLEGE APPLICATION MONTH
November marks college application month across the state of Kentucky and at Thomas Nelson High School. To continue aligning our work to the TNHS mission of college, career, and citizenship preparation we are ensuring that all seniors are actively pursuing college and career applications each Friday during LEADER Prep. Aligning with the College Board's recommended best practices of applying to four or more colleges, our seniors are evaluating their options with KHEAA's matching assistant. It's work like this that our college and career LEADERship team continues to learn from in supporting all Generals being prepared for lift-off in May of 2014. 

December 16th - Parent Financial Aid Workshop: Paying for College 101

Paying for College 101 will help high school students and their parents understand the nuts and bolts of the financial aid application process.  Participants will walk through a detailed case study of how a college financial aid package is put together and will learn the methods used to award aid.  Parent and student signups will be available for individual sessions on Thursday, January 9, to complete the FAFSA (Free Application for FederalStudent Aid). More information on how to sign-up will be given at the December 16th workshop. 

PROJECT LIFT-OFF - YES!

Our project lift-off planning team has taken shape and is being chaired by Rick Greer. Currently, meetings take place on Monday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30. Please see the TNHS Daily Announcements for continued updates concerning project lift-off planning. The answer to how is YES!