The Cardinal Way
Sharing the Stories of Southport High School
Leading and Learning: WHAT DO YOU CONTRIBUTE?
If you look up the definition of integrity, you find two things. First, integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. Secondly, integrity is the state of being whole and undivided. Integrity, therefore, is wholeness; and as a virtue, it is uniting belief and action. Breaking that unity (of belief and action) is literally possessing the lack of integrity.
When you are quick to anger, quick to dispute, quick to sarcasm, what does this tell a student? A colleague? We typically stand in front of our students and tell them how much we care, then when times get difficult, we behave very differently. The same can be said when we act one way at school and then rant on social media from home. Integrity is an alignment between belief and action.
As you think about the title of this month's posts, What Do You Contribute?. The concept of integrity is paramount. Your contributions come from your actions, words, and attitude. If we do not live compelled in all three aspects, our contributions to our school and our students are limited. Are you pursuing your purpose with humility and putting in the work it takes to achieve this mission, or are you chasing the wind while living in a world of comparison and want? The pursuit of purpose drives the compelled. Chasing "comparison and want" leads to cynicism because nothing will ever be enough.
As you think about the four people I have written about this month (cynics, compliant, committed, and compelled), make sure your attitudes, words, and actions align with the type of person of which you want to be known. It is up to you. You are the only one that can decide how you will live your life. Decide and then align yourself with those beliefs in your daily work. Ask yourself each day, what did I contribute today?
What it takes to #BeACardinal:
- everyone for helping with the chaotic days of ISTEP testing. We had great participation from students over those two days and are working through the small handful of retesters.
- Kim Roberts and the Cast and Crew from Almost Maine for a great opening night to the spring play.
Grateful Friday Challenge
Week 26 Grateful Friday Challenge
This is it! The last Friday in February. We made it. When we return on Monday, the calendar will flip to March. It just sounds good. It sounds like the home stretch. But here today we are still planted in the month, and lucky us, this year comes with a bonus day. This month teaches us a lot. With Groundhog Day, we are reminded that lessons will be repeated until they are learned. Then comes Valentine’s Day, where we are reminded to show love to others and ultimately ourselves. And then comes today- the last regular weekday in the month, and we are reminded that everything (even this seemingly endless month in the school year) will eventually come to an end.
But until the time when our vision shifts from red to green, we trudge on. This time of year, we are all feeling it- we are stressed, the kids are rambunctious, everything seems a little harder, easy tasks become less so for some reason. We seem to be short-tempered, and we feel like we need a break and a weekend won’t be enough. We need to know that we are not alone, the person who teaches next to you -- they are feeling it. The students who usually work so diligently -- they are feeling it. The admin, the secretaries, the custodians, and cafeteria workers -- they are feeling it.
Today, take a moment to think about all the great things that are going on. All the successes that came from this month. Reach out to the people next door- remind them that Monday is March and we will all march together to sunnier weather, and toward the end of the year.
The madness is about to hit. Let’s enjoy today...we won’t get it back. With banners flying as we go! #FlyAsONE
Be a Cardinal; Change lives; Put a mission into motion!
180 Days of Learning -- #CardsLearn
ISTEP
ISTEP
Today, was the second day of ISTEP testing for the 2019-20 school year. Sophomores took the first tests of round one and juniors and seniors retesters began both round one and two of ISTEP. It was a great day for students to show what they have learned so far this school year! Students who might have been absent will get their make-up tests down over the next few days.
Nicole Duncan
Bryan Elliott
Mr. Elliott's Chemistry students are determining the percent water in a compound. Students performed experiments with different compounds to determine how much of that compound was made of water. The student took an initial mass of the compound and then over different trails applied heat to see how much the mass changed. The change in mass gave them the amount of water lost through heating. The students could then use this new mass to determine the percentage of the original compound that was composed of water.
Jake Harrell and Chris Quinn
Educational Humor
Southport High School
Email: bknight@perryschools.org
Website: http://perryschools.org/sh/
Location: 971 E Banta Rd, Indianapolis, IN, United States
Phone: 317-789-4800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SHSCardinals/
Twitter: @SHS_Cardinals