LCHS Guidance Dept

The summer of 2009 found several LCHS faculty members and administrators on the road again. Casey Jaynes, LCHS principal, Marisa Hopkins, curriculum coordinator, Kristina Rice, CLASS Academy Team Leader, Amy Taylor, COUGAR Academy Team Leader and Alecia Rogers, SLC Coordinator traveled to Las Vegas for the NWREL “Structure to Instruction” Conference.  The COUGAR Academy teachers, including  Allison Yell, Mike Hoots, Heather Allen, Wendy Barry, Amanda Coursey, Carrie Kelley, Miranda Logsdon and Team leader Taylor attended GRREC’s “Integration of Curriculum” workshop in early June.  They were joined by Hopkins, Rice and Guidance Counselor, David Brooks.  The emphasis of both conferences, instruction, will be continued during the last two years of the grant. 

Other conference and participants were:

Model Schools:  Jaynes and Scot MacAllister

High School that Work:  Alisa Toon, ACE Academy Team leader, Alissa Todd, Assistant    Principal, Adam Webster and Brooks

 Teachers’ first professional development activity of the year was centered around the concept of SLC’s (Smaller Learning Communities) and PLC’s (Professional Learning Communities).  Teachers who attend summer conferences shared what they had learned with the faculty.  The teachers also worked as teams on integrated units to develop common goals, themes and lessons for the upcoming school year.

 The school year has found students equally busy and involved in the Academy action.  Each academy now has an active student advisory council, plus they have combined to form a Council of Councils.  Their September activity was motivational presentations prior to the Fall CATS testing sessions.  Luke Wetton and Anna Link showed seniors the proper, and not so proper, ways to complete On-Demand Writing Prompts.

 The CLASS and ACE Advisory Councils combined to sponsor the “Are You Smarter Than the Principal” game show for the 10^th grade students.  The game, hosted by Ethan White and Cameron Hesson with contestants Todd and Avery Collier, stressed the importance of the PLAN test and its relationship to future ACT scores.  

October Activities included travel to Murray State University for the STEAM girls as they attended the STEM program while another group of STEAM students attended the National FFA convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.   The ACE Academy teachers and students represented LCHS as they were showcased during the annual SLC site visit on October 21^st, 2009. 

 We have reached several of our SLC goals and are well on our way to meeting others.  The next big step for the SLC is to improve school and community relations.  We hope to do that by increasing the number of community partners for each of our Academies.  If you or your business would be interested in partnering with us, please contact us at LCHS and we would be delighted to find just the right place for you.  We are also in need of parents to support our school as we do our part to “…challenge students today to be responsible leaders tomorrow.”

Name2Face is a five-year Smaller Learning Communities project of the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative (GRREC). The multi-million dollar award from the U.S. Department of Education is one of only 51 in the nation in 2006 and will benefit the 11,700 high school students within six districts, including Daviess County, Grayson County, Hardin County, Logan County, Meade County, and Warren County. Together, these districts support the nine large high schools that will directly benefit from the SLC project.

Our project title, Name2Face, reflects the essence of the project’s goals and objectives. The acronym – Nurturing Adolescents through Meaningful Engagement to Facilitate Academic and Career Experiences – was created based on the hope our school will be a place where all students feel they are known by name (i.e… where everybody knows your name).

STUDENT SURVEY

Logan County High School has implemented wall-to-wall academies based on the smaller learning community concept.

After seeing the success of its freshman (Cougar) academy, the concept of career academies was adopted. During the freshmen year, students explore various types of careers through their Practical Living course. In 10th-12th grades, students are then placed into one of three academies based on their career interest.

The three academies are:

ACE- arts, communication, & education

CLASS- community, legal, health, & social services

STEAM- science, technology, engineering, agricultural, & mathematics

Even though all students get access to the same curriculum, our goal is to be able to make classrooms more engaging by relating the content to the students' career interests.