The General: December 2014 Issue

PARTNERING WITH PARENTS SURVEY 
An important part of our vision at Thomas Nelson is parent and community partnership. Every December we issue the Partnering with Parents Survey. 

The purpose of this survey is: 

1. To learn from you and determine how we can continue to grow as a school community in supporting parents. 
2. Share the results in the January Edition of The General. 
3. Allow TNHS staff members to use the data in order to set goals for the coming year. 

Please take 3 to 4 minutes to complete this survey. 

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






ACHIEVEMENT WEEK & IA 2 - JUMP!

Achievement week will be held from 12.15 to 12.19 culminating in our 2nd Interim Assessment of the year and Future Story Support Day for our Seniors! The theme for this semester's Achievement Week is "Jump - How high can you go?" Final Exams and the Interim Assessments will challenge students to continue to grow towards their future story. The week will culminate in a Future Story Support Day with individual supports for all senior students. 

The General: November 2014 Issue

NOVEMBER GRATITUDE 

Giving gratitude is a part of our TNHS LEADER Value culture. Click on the link below to give gratitude to someone in the TNHS Community that you would like to honor during the month of November. We will post these notes of gratitude in the TNHS Teacher's Work Room. 

Click Here to Give Gratitude!

FIVE THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR 

October 2014: The General

Celebrating Growth - School of Proficiency
Join us in celebrating our students and teachers in achieving school of proficiency status for our first two years. This year Thomas Nelson was labeled a proficient progressing school. This label denotes that TNHS met all of the growth goals that were established  by the state for the 2013-2014 school year. We are very fortunate to have such remarkable students, teachers, and parents leading the way for our community. 

FALL DEAN'S LIST 


We are excited to announce our first Quarter Dean's List breakfast dates to honor all students that achieved a 3.25 GPA or higher in the first 9 weeks of school. 

9th & 10th Graders = October 29th - 8:30-9:20
11th & 12th Graders = October 30th - 8:30-9:20.

The General: September 2014 Issue

STRENGTHENING COMMUNICATION
I am excited to announce our first monthly house newsletters from Thomas Nelson High School in addition to a living calendar for students and parents. These additional structures were encouraged after working with the Citizen Advisory in August. During that meeting we wanted to increase transparency about the work that is going on in our classrooms to support our Generals for College, Career, and Citizenship preparation. Click on the links above for your son or daughter's grade level to learn more about what's going on in their house. Also, click on "Living General Calendar" for ongoing updates about what is happening at Thomas Nelson for both students and parents. 

Here is the key: 

MOOSE MEMO = 12th Grade 
LINCOLN LEDGER = 11th Grade
HAMILTON RECORD = 10th Grade
LAFAYETTE LETTER = 9th Grade
LIVING GENERAL CALENDAR = All grades

STUDENT ORGANIZATION RUSH

Student organization rush week kicks off Monday, September 15th with over 30 student organization for students to join. The commons area will fill up with student organizations in the morning from 7:45 to 8:15 for students to explore.  

INDICATORS OF CITIZENSHIP

The Citizen Advisory Team along with the General Assembly have been working in collaboration with myself and a group of teachers over the past four weeks to begin drafting indicators of citizenship for our Generals to aspire towards. This notion of Citizenship Readiness is working to build stronger alignment to our mission of serving as active and informed local, national, and global citizens. In 2013-2014 we had established a clear vision for college and career readiness while the vision for citizenship readiness lacked development. Click here to see the current draft with questions that the teams are exploring. The hope is to have a full draft to share in October. 

B2SB 2014: July Issue of The General

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.