Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast - Week 5: The Unsung Heroes: Remembering 9/11 and Celebrating the Everyday Valor of Teachers

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Happy Friday!Thank you for all you have endured this week to accomplish the mission of our school district! We are already a month into this school year and our pace and rhythm are starting to set in. Across our school district, teachers, staff, and administrators are putting in tireless hours and immense effort to create a nurturing and effective learning environment for our students. Our community recognizes and deeply appreciates this dedication, understanding that it takes a collective effort to shape the future leaders of tomorrow.Everyday ValorAt tonight’s football game against Riverview, we will take a moment to honor those who serve with a large American flag displayed from our city’s new fire engine. This is to commemorate 9/11 and honor those people. But let us feel just as proud of the service we are providing on a daily basis. As we mark another year since the devastating events of September 11, 2001, our hearts are heavy with the memory of the lives lost and the families forever changed. The images of firefighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens rushing into danger to save others are indelibly etched into our collective consciousness. These heroes, who emerged from the ashes of tragedy, exemplify the very best of the human spirit—courage, selflessness, and an unyielding commitment to put others first.But heroism is not confined to moments of national crisis. It is also found in the quiet, everyday actions of individuals who dedicate their lives to serving others. As the Superintendent of Mena Public Schools, I am privileged to witness a different kind of heroism that, while less dramatic, is no less impactful—the heroism of teachers who rescue young minds from the clutches of ignorance and despair.Just as the first responders on 9/11 navigated through smoke and fire to bring people to safety, teachers navigate through the complexities of human emotion and intellectual barriers to guide their students toward enlightenment and emotional well-being. They don't wear capes or badges, and they don't make headlines, but every day they enter their classrooms with a resolve as strong as steel. Their mission? To ignite the spark of curiosity, to tear down the walls of doubt, and to build bridges to a future filled with promise and potential.One of those heroes was honored today - Annita Hendrix. Annita teaches History for us at the high school and has been at Mena Public Schools for 36 out of a career total of 37 years! In today’s pep rally at the high school, Annita was recognized as this year’s winner of the Arvest Bank’s We Love Teachers Award. This was a surprise for her and we are very honored to have such a worthy educator in our community. Here is a short bio used in her recognition ceremony.District TargetsWe are still working on gathering baseline data for our academic targets for the year but our attendance and discipline targets are being tracked. There will be another website like the one we had last year that will be our staff and community dashboard. It is important that we all are aware of our progress as we advance through this school year. Here are a couple of graphs that are ready now.ClosingThanks to those who took the time to participate in last week’s Thought Exchange. Here are the results. The public exchange has not been created and released yet. That information was good but now that we are a bit further into the year, what other observations do you have that will help us with our planning? The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is offering equipment and materials grants for Advanced Placement (AP) courses.  A grant may be requested for an AP course being taught at a high school that has not recently received a grant for the course. The application is here. Also, more grants have been added to this page I shared last week. Another opportunity that we have is The Writing Revolution. To connect the science of reading to writing, DESE is excited to partner for a third year with a team from The Writing Revolution to offer Advancing Thinking Through Writing. This synchronous course will be offered for the 2023-2024 school year and is open for all content teachers in grades K-12 to participate introducing participants to the Hochman method, an explicit set of sequenced strategies for teaching expository writing that can be integrated into any content. There will be multiple cohorts of training beginning this September. If you are interested in participating in this opportunity, please let us know and we will add you to the list! Districts interested in participating should assemble a team of educators and at least one administrator or specialist. Specialists could include but are not limited to instructional facilitators, gifted and talented specialists, content area leaders, and special education advisors. An administrator could include but is not limited to a principal, assistant principal, curriculum coordinator, or program administrator.   There is not much else to report except that our students continue to be active and successful in many ways.Hey! There were only three teachers out today! That is awesome!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.Have a great weekend!! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Good afternoon and welcome to the week five wrap-up entitled The Unsung Heroes, Remembering 9-11 and Celebrating the Everyday Valor of Teachers. There are two kinds of heroes, the enduring legacy of 9-11 heroes and the everyday courage of educators who guide our students out of ignorance into a world of possibilities. who guide our students out of ignorance into a world of possibilities. Happy Friday! Thank you for all you have endured this week to accomplish the mission of our school district. We are already a month into this school year and our pace and rhythm are starting to set in. Across our district, teachers and staff and administrators are putting in tireless hours of immense effort to create a nurturing and effective learning

environment for our students. Our community recognizes and deeply appreciates this dedication, understanding that it takes a collective effort to shape the future leaders of tomorrow. Everyday valor. At tonight's football game against Riverview, we'll take a moment to honor those who serve with a large American flag displayed from our city's new fire engine. This is to commemorate 9-11 and honor those people. But let us feel just as proud of the lives lost and the families forever changed. The images of firefighters, police officers, and ordinary citizens rushing into danger to save others are indelibly etched into our collective conscience. indelibly etched into our collective conscience. Those heroes who emerged from the ashes of tragedy exemplified the very best of human spirit,

courage, selflessness, and unyielding commitment to put others first. But heroism is not confined to moments of national crisis. It is also found in the quiet, everyday actions of individuals who dedicate their lives to serve others. As the superintendent of Mena Public Schools, I am privileged to witness a different kind of heroism that, while less dramatic, is no less impactful. The heroism of teachers who rescue young minds from the clutches of ignorance and despair. Just as the first responders on 9-11 navigated through smoke and fire to bring people to safety, teachers navigate through the complexities of

human emotion and intellectual barriers to guide their students toward enlightenment and emotional well-being. They don't wear capes or badges, they don't make headlines, but every day they enter their classrooms with a resolve as strong as steel. Their mission? To ignite the spark of curiosity and tear down the walls of doubt. To build bridges to a future filled with promise and potential. One of those heroes was honored today, Anita Hendricks. Anita teaches history for us at the high school and has been at Mena Public Schools for her entire career of 34 years. Today's pep rally at the high school, Anita was recognized as this year's winner of the Arvest Bank's We Love Teacher Award. There's a link in the text with more information about that. This was a surprise for her and we are very honored to have such a worthy

educator in our community. Here's a short bio used in her recognition ceremony. The link is in the text. District targets. We're still working on gathering baseline data for our academic targets for this year, but our attendance and discipline targets are being tracked. There will be another website like the one we had last year that will be our staff and community dashboard. It is important that we are all aware of our progress and we advance through this school as we advance through this school year. Here are a couple of graphs that are ready now, and you'll have to go online.

If you're listening, you'll have to go into the text to see the graphs and how we were doing. But in short, our attendance is above our target right now, which is good. And while discipline was staying about the same, even a little more in one week, we did have less discipline referrals in week five of course not all of them may have been reported just yet either in closing thanks of those who took the time to participate last week's thought exchange the results are linked in the text the public exchange has not been created and released yet then if information was good, but now we are a bit further into the year. What other observations do you have that will help us with our planning? There's a link to an additional thought exchange with a different question. The Arkansas Department of Education

Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is offering equipment and materials grants for advanced placement courses. A grant may be requested for an AP course being taught at a high school that has not recently received a grant for the course. The application is linked in the text. Also more grants have been added to this page that I shared last week. That link is in the text as well. Another opportunity that we have is the Writing Revolution. To connect the science of reading to writing, DESE is excited to partner for a third year with a team from the Writing Revolution to offer advanced thinking through writing. This synchronous course will be offered for the 23-24 school year and is open for

all content teachers in grades K-12. To participate, introducing participants to the Hockman method, an illicit set of secret strategies for teaching expository writing that can be integrated into any content. There will be multiple cohorts of training beginning this September. If you're interested in participating in this opportunity, please let us know and we will add you to the list. Districts interested in participating should assemble a team of educators and at least one administrator or specialist. Specialists could include but are not limited to instructional facilitators, gifted and talented specialists, content area leaders, and special education advisors.

An administrator could include but is not limited to a principal assistant principal, curriculum coordinator, or program administrator. Not much else to report except that our students continue to be active and successful in many ways. Hey, there were only three teachers out today. That's awesome. Keep up that work. Thank you. At Mena Public Schools, our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident. Have a great weekend.