McMillen Minute
Week of April 15
Campus News
ID Badges
Last Day of Lions Lunch
Heart of a Lion Award
Teachers and Counselors,
Each semester the PTSA gives deserving students the Heart of a Lion award. This award should be given to only one of your students. We’d love to have 100% teacher participation! We are not looking for the student who always does a good job and is often acknowledged, but rather the student who may routinely be overlooked, who may have a hard time in or outside of class, who may have recently done something out of his or her ordinary, etc. Please consider carefully which of your students is most deserving by thinking about the following criteria:
The heart of a lion is an idiom that describes a person who has courage in the face of adversity. Lions represent strength and a desire to never falter, even if a task is difficult.
· Have they recently improved their attitude?
· Have the struggled this semester, but are now improving?
· Have they overcome some adversity?
· Would a little encouragement go a long way in motivating this student?
· Have they shown courage with something this semester?
· Have they made mistakes this semester but learned from them?
· Have they positively affected someone else this semester?
Click on link to nominate: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ZcI5D2Q9oEZEpqwDIjBWBfXBZqvf6Ca6B7qqa8XCn8/edit?usp=sharing
Lunch Schedule 2019-2020
- Lion's lunch is an excellent way for students and teachers to have valuable time spent working together. The other two options limit tutoring time and students/teacher visibility.
- more consequences for students who do not attend tutorials.
- The only reason why I picked Option 1 over Option 2- Dividing by grade level is difficult when some 4th period classes have both 9th and 10th graders (i.e. Biology with 10th graders repeating a semester/year)
- The extended lunch is very important for my computer science students and robotics team. We need every minute of it to allow the students to eat and work. Additionally, it has been very useful for my history students when they miss school, it is much easier for them to make up their work without having to arrange alternate transportation.
- I think the most important part of this is to have a schedule that we can all depend on. PLEASE KEEP THE LUNCH SCHEDULE CONSISTENT as much as possible.
- I teach mixed grade levels and that could be complicated for #2. I like the idea of Once a week be a Lion's lunch (perhaps a hybrid of 2 & 3?
- Lion's lunch is a teacher perk but does not meet the needs of our on-level student population. I prefer homeroom or before or after school tutorials to capture students where I know they are.
- I have found that option 1 is not effective. Most students do not attend tutoring or their class lunch detention during Lion's lunch. Too much free lunch time is given to them, which they rather do instead of going to class for help or to make up work.
- As someone who monitors the halls, I have observed a disregard for the outlined expectations that have been a part of Lion's Lunch from the beginning. Also, the implementation of expectations from staff is not consistent in holding fast to those expectations. I think we have given Lion's Lunch and students more than ample opportunity for it to succeed. It is important to know when to move on from what hasn't worked in what was the original intent of Lion's Lunch which was to bring down failure rates and go back to our four lunches and a 30 minute homeroom period with tutorials before or after school.
- Option 1 is only effective if there is some type of consequence for students who are not exhibiting the McMillen Way (passing classes, not tardy...)
- After our emergency situation with a student this spring, the rationale for going to "Pride Lunch" was for the "safety and security of our students." This should come first and foremost to any other rationale to have any opportunity where students are given such a large amount of "open-ended" time.