Saying Thank You to a Senior's Teachers

My youngest son graduates high school today. Below is a letter of thanks my wife and I sent to  each of his teachers during his 12 years of school.  Writing the letter not only let us show our appreciation to his teachers but it also allowed us to remember all of the wonderful people that has helped shaped my son into a fine young man.  Good luck Lucas, your Mom and Dad are very proud of you and love you very much.

"If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away."   Henry David Thoreau

From the first day of school, Lucas has gone to the beat of a different drummer, and Beth and I want to thank each of you that have both embraced this and allowed him to prosper.  We also want to thank each of you for the role you have played in his life.  Lucas has obtained a wonderful education that we would put up against any school system in the country.   His education has been well-balanced between the core content and the arts, and because of the efforts of each of you, Lucas is ready for the next stage of his life.

 It has been a pleasure to type each of your names into the recipient line.  It has given us time to reflect on all the hard work each of you has done both in and out of the classroom that has benefited our son's life.  Many of you have spent additional hours after school as he has prepared for plays, concerts, academic team meets and all the other extracurricular activities that have made his education complete.  Field trips, AP workshops and review sessions, club activities--none of these efforts have gone unnoticed, and he has been blessed to have each of you in his life.

 As the school year winds down and we all start to become exhausted from all the demands of our profession, we wanted to let each of you know that because of your efforts,  you have made a difference not only in our son's life but in many students' lives.  Thank you again for all that you have done, and have a great end of the school year.

Sincerely,

Chip and Beth Southworth

Seven Questions of Great Significance

We have conducted Team Competitions for 14 years, and the Seven Questions of Great Significance has been the final event every year.  The beauty of this final activity is that it allows teams that are behind in the competition to catch up, and it allows teams that are in the lead to wager wisely and still win.

Team Yellow with the correct answer

Before the competition we create seven trivia questions and create a category for each question. Questions should be considered that are difficult but the teams should have a chance at answering.  I always tried to create questions that teachers at least have an opportunity to answer.  Here are the actual categories and questions from this year's competition. Feel free to answer in the comment box below.

Great teamwork in action

Category	Question
Presidential Trivia	Name the first President born in a hospital.
Kentucky Derby	The winning horse of the Kentucky Derby receives roses, what type of flower does the winner of the Preakness receive?
Infinity	Who was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story?
Mad	On April 1st of each year, Alfred E. Newman celebrates this birthday. (Looking for an age).
Over/Under/Push	Joe Pat Covington (Assistant Principal at Scott County High School) has 400 friends on Facebook. Is the real total Over/Under/Push
WWF	How many "s" tiles are there in the game Words With Friends
Georgetown, Ky Economics.	Toyota is the biggest employer with 7,900 employees Scott County Board of Education is second with 1,045 What is the third biggest employer (with over 800 employees)

Teachers can wager 5 points on the first category up to 35 points on the seventh question.  The wagers are made on the category before the team members see the question.  The picture below shows the winning team from this year' competition and the wagers made on each category.  

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner 

Cow Patty Bingo

Successful leaders create a culture that allows for creativity and the desire for employees to take chances.  Too often we get in a "rut" and it is important to have people in your organization that think creatively.  

Lucas Gravitt

Below is a blog from Lucas Gravitt and his "Cow Patty Bingo" fund raiser for the Scott County High School's Project Graduation.  Lucas was willing to try a different slant on fund raising and the blog describes an event that may go down as one of the most original ways to raise money ever.  

Bev - gives cow advice

If you would like to donate to a Project Graduation to help keep our graduates safe and have a great time on graduation night, please contact Mr. Gravitt at Scott County High School.  Any donation of time or money will be appreciated.  

Tonight, Project Graduation made $1,840.00 in donations by hosting Cow Patty Bingo.  We held the event at the county park, had parents to volunteer to use field chalk to line out the grid, paint on the numbers, and we had a cow who volunteered from the local petting zoo.  After all tickets were sold ($20 each), we let the cow loose and let him "go".  It only took about 40 seconds before his tail started to rise.  After he walked around for a bit, he went and we had a winner!  The prize was given by two local businesses, this way 100% of the ticket sales goes straight to Project Graduation

Action Shot 

We have a winner

.  The lucky winner receives 7-night hotel accommodation at any Wyndham Resort (owned or affiliated) in the world.  The winner is a parent of one of our seniors!  

We are quite happy for our first cow patty experience and the spectators in attendance demanded that we schedule another one in two weeks! 

The Urban Dare

On Sunday, April 28th Ben and I teamed up to take the "Urban Dare". Along with the team of Michael and Lauren Feeback we  teamed up to conquer the  "Amazing Race" around Lexington, Kentucky in the amazing time of 1 hour and 43 minutes.

Clue List - click to enlarge

Map we used to plot our course

We solved the twelve clues and covered over 6.5 miles around the streets of Lexington to a 10th place finish out of nearly 130 teams.  As proud as we are of our  finish we are more proud of the way we worked together to compliment each others strengths.  We took our time and figured out all of the clues, plotted all of the locations on a map and then decided the best and fastest route to all 12 checkpoints.  Taking time to plot our course before we started running enabled us to never having to double back at any point.

Ben and I at Memorial Hall

 It was a very special day exploring both Lexington and the University of Kentucky with my son.  We have both spent our lives just outside of Lexington and I am an alumni  of UK and Ben is currently a sophomore.  It was really special to count on him to use his expertise to solve clues and find check-in points that I didn't know existed   It was really cool to see the city  and my son through a different perspective.  The picture above is Ben and I at the answer to clue #8 - Memorial Hall.


To better understand  the competition I have included three of the twelve clues below along with pictures that we took to prove we were there.  (The clue sheet above has all of the twelve clues.)

1.  This "Black Box" theater was named for a woman who was a champion and philanthropist for the arts in Lexington.  (Ben's knowledge of the College of Fine Arts saved us a ton of time on this one.)

2. Get a picture of one you on bended knee proposing marriage to a Non-Race participant.  If the bride is wearing a traditional white wedding dress you will earn a 5 minute bonus. (We were just fortunate to have this lovely lady around to propose. )  

3. A person locally know for ignorance and stupidity.  Take a photo at an eating establishment that is named after this definition.  (I think I am pointing at Ben is this picture.) 

Once you arrive at some of the checkpoints, you must complete a "dare" in order to have your passport stamped.  An example of a dare was when we arrived in Duncan Park we were asked to give the last name of the actor that played John Coffey in the "Green Mile".  Spread around the park were the letters of the alphabet with numbers under the letters.  We had to find the letters of (Clarke Duncan) add them together and tell the number to the judge in order to have our passport stamped.  

The Urban Dare is a great competition that test both brains and brawn and we simply can't wait to do it again next year.  

Six Great Ideas

   Today's blog is courtesy of Michelle Cassady, Director of Instruction for Woodford County Schools.  Michelle has sent a lot of wonderful ideas that can be used to increase morale in many different areas.  I am sharing just six of the ideas today.    My thanks to Michelle for sharing ideas and I look forward to sharing more ideas over the next couple of weeks. 

   1.  “Another Great Week” Coffee Café celebration—end of week get-together with coffee house atmosphere (coffee, tea, scones)—play someone’s IPOD playlist or invite a musician to play

 2.  T.G.I.T. Refreshments—Thank Goodness It’s Today---everyone writes a note about what they are thankful for on a post-it note to display

3.     Adult Wellness Time—teach a hula hoop session (or have someone else teach) every Monday after school for 15 minutes for the adults

  4.  Above and Beyond Drawing—have faculty member put names of other colleagues in a drawing when they see them do something that shows they are going “above and beyond” in their jobs—have a drawing where the winner gets the principal teaching their class for one hour

 5.  Have your student leadership team make signs to decorate the teachers lounge (after school) to surprise the staff with Bravo, You’re Great, You Rock. 

6    6. Have the oldest students in your school and/or PTO write in colored chalk every teacher’s name and positive messages.

Online Motivation - Lose It

If you are needing a little extra help with your goals, there are a number of online motivational tools/applications  that can help.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will share  my experiences with three of the online motivational tools.  The following three (with hyperlinks) will be the focus of the blogs:   Lose It, Run Keeper and StickK.

The tool I have used the longest and the tool that I enter data in everyday is Lose It.  Lose It is an application for computer and phone that allows you to set a goal weight and a time period to reach the goal.  Once the goal and time period is set, the application will set a limit of calories that can be consumed per day that will enable you to meet this goal. You enter the amount of food you eat and the amount of exercise you complete throughout the day.

As most of us know, weight loss is generally a simple math problem.  Burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight.  The Lose It application allows you to see vividly how many calories you are consuming and how many calories you are burning through exercise.  What I personally found was the large number of calories I was consuming through snacking.  By simply keeping a closer eye on snacking and becoming more dedicated with my exercise I have been able to lose nearly 20 pounds since Thanksgiving.

Sample Daily Log - Click to Enlarge

Lose It as a very good application.  The positives are:  it is free, can be used on phone or computer, has a fair number of preloaded food items,  great variety of reports,  allows you to create your own foods and it allows for a good number of exercises you can enter that will deduct from your daily calorie intake.

The concerns are:  the food choices are limited and I often find myself having to search other sites in order to input my meals and I feel the exercise counter may be a little too liberal in awarding calories burned while exercising.  I also find it very tedious inputting all of my meals and snacks every day (as a matter of fact, I am taking off a week from entering to see what happens to my weight during this time).

As you can see the concerns are minimal and the results are good.  I highly recommend this as an application for those trying to get his or her calorie consumption under control.

National Library Week

Two great competitions from the Scott County High School library.

The first competition has both students and staff guess "Who is behind the book".  The wall of the library has 21 pictures of staff members behind one of his or her favorite books.  Prizes go to the students and staff members that can both identify the book and the reader.  Feel free to guess the two posted readers in the comment box below.

The second part of the competition has students and staff members look at a combination of  clues to identify famous books.  Take a shot at the one to the right and place your guess in the comment box below.  Click on pictures to enlarge.