Happy Friday IA Families,
First, I want to thank the PTSO for their support in both opening the College and Career Center where our students have the opportunity to meet with college representatives and research different schools that align with their passions. I’d also like to thank them for the college and industry tours they have developed to give our students a deep dive into the opportunities they will have after graduation. Our PTSO has been incredibly supportive of all of our students. If you have not joined, I would still encourage you to join.
Today marks the end of our first round of Flex Fridays. At this point, all students have had an opportunity to participate in a Flex Friday. We have seen some incredible sessions with students deeply engaged in authentic learning opportunities. Today, I had a chance to listen to the biomedical ethics debate. Our students were well-informed and articulate in presenting arguments about some fascinating topics. I have to admit my favorite was the pros and cons of body transplants.
We’ll continue working to develop compelling lessons for our students. We had a great meeting with our Foundation partners and in the next round of Flex Fridays, we’ll see more opportunities for our students to work with professionals in their fields. We tell our students to take chances and be comfortable not having all the answers. You can’t be good at something until you are bad at it. To celebrate learning, I’ll be starting a principal series, where I get to join sessions in each pathway to learn with the students. I like to say this is to model good behavior, but truthfully, I just think it’s going to be fun to learn new skills!
Please continue to remind your students and reinforce that Flex Fridays should be considered a full learning day if it is your student’s Flex Friday. Please help us by arranging appointments and other non-school events on Fridays where your student is virtual.
Finally, we are still looking to dial in our approach to student supervision and supports. I’ll be starting a series of focus groups and round tables with students and parents to discuss some structures we need to put in place. We are working very hard to maintain a level of freedom and independence for our students, but we are aware we need some structures in place to support them since they are still young adults who need varying levels of supervision. I want to get student and parent input on what this structure could look like, so be on the lookout for some parent roundtable invitations in the coming weeks.
Scott Kent