College Recruiters

Each year we have several college representatives come in to talk with our students. Juniors and seniors are encouraged to come meet with any schools that they may have an interest in. All students need to do is get a pass from Mrs. Lee or Mrs. Heidemann. Here's a list of the reps that we currently have on our calendar:

• 9/29 9am Drake
• 9/29 1:30pm ISU
• 9/30 9am LaJames
• 9/30 10:30 am Coe
• 10/3- over lunch University of Evansville
• 10/3 2pm Missouri Western State
• 10/11 10 William Penn
• 10/13 10am Hawkeye
• 10/14-over lunch DMACC
• 10/18 1pm UNI
• 10/18 2pm Iowa Lakes
• 10/20 1pm Northwest Missouri State
• 10/24 1pm Avila
• 10/25 8:15am Iowa
• 10/25 9am Central
• 10/27 8:30am Indian Hills
• 10/27 1pm Buena Vista
• 11/3-over lunch- Aveda

Plus, don't forget that the Golden Circle College Fair is happening this weekend at Hyvee Hall on Sunday from 12:30-3. Over 150 schools and armed services will be represented. You can register for your student barcode at www.iowacollegefairs.com.

HOBY Leadership Conference

Are you or do you have a 10th grader who might become Carlisle's next great leader? Then you should apply to be Carlisle's HOBY (Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership) representative!! Each year, Carlisle selects a student to attend the summer conference. The student gets to stay at Central College June 15-17 to learn leadership skills and work with other students who want to change our world. The application is due Oct. 26th in the guidance office. You can pick up a copy in the guidance office or off the high school website. We look forward to seeing your application!

Senior Meetings

We've been enjoying meeting with our seniors and parents to discuss plans for life after high school! If you weren't able to attend with your senior, didn't get a handout of important information/dates, or just plain lost it, you can find a copy on the Carlisle community school website (under High School, Guidance Department, Forms and Information).

Just as a reminder, it's a good idea to get your college applications in before Thanksgiving (and let Mrs. Heidemann or myself know when you've applied so we can send your high school transcripts). Please don't hesitate to call or email us if you have any questions this year, we'd love to help you!

Updates from Partnership for a Drug Free America

From time to time, I will be posting some links to some blog updates or articles from the blog "The Partnership for a Drug Free America". They update their blog a lot and always have great information. I will repost the best of the their best in case you don't have time to go through all of their blogs. Please click on the links below to read the articles in full.

Drug deaths now more than Traffic related fatalities
So many of us think driving is dangerous for teens, but experimenting with drugs is just something kids do. Well, now their is proof that drugs are more deadly. Click to read more!

Lung Cancer Declining as Cigarette Smoking Declines
Um....DUH! Of course it is going down. The best part is the new Iowa Youth Survey shows that 85% of our high school students basically never smoke and of the other 15%, only a few of those students are actual smokers. This gets better every time we take the survey!

Amphetamine-type Drugs the Second Most Abused Drug
When you read the article, note the part about Bath Salts at the very bottom. I will be writing a post about bath salts later this week and how students are using these as a drug, NOT as a bath tub accessory!

Less than 20% of Adults Now Smoke
Yes, now less than 1 in 5 adults even smoked in the past year. I probably know less than 10 people in my life who smoke currently. It just isn't something many people do now that we know all the horrible things it can cause. And since we know that number is even less with our Carlisle students, maybe our adult behaviors are starting to rub off on our kids!


That is it for now, tons more if you want to actually go to the DrugFree site. If you have questions, let me know.

Girls' Circle for Both 6th and 8th Grades This Year

If you haven't heard, our 6th grade Girls' Circle is already up and running. Tomorrow will be meeting #2 with our first group of girls. About 6-8 girls will be in each group and they will meet over lunch with Megan Thompson of the Young Women's Resource Center (YWRC). They meet for about 40 minutes as they eat lunch and miss only about 10-15 minutes of class. They work through a research-based curriculum over the course of 6-weeks which focus on topics of interest and importance to middle school girls such as body image, relationships, and the female body. I will be looking for girls who want to do this every 6 weeks and if we get enough interest, we will hold both 6th and 8th grade groups each week. I have not recruited the 8th grade girls as much yet, but plan to start talking to them this week and next. As I tell the girls, there aren't many opportunities in middle school where you get to eat a private lunch with some of your friends, have no boys bothering you, get to have some fun and learn at the same time. So, if your daughter is interested, please email or call and I can get them signed up. Look for more information to get sent home. In the meantime, feel free to click on this link to learn more about Girls' Circle.

Girls' Circle Website

YWRC site

Iowa Youth Survey Results are In!

Over the next few weeks and months, I will be publishing some information that we gained from the latest Iowa Youth Survey that our students took in 2010. Every two years, every 6th, 8th, and 11th grader takes a survey that asks about every question you can imagine. From the very basic like how many fruits and veggies each kid eats a day and how much sleep they get to what their drug usage experience is and what their thoughts on drugs are. This survey is anonymous and studies show our results are extremely accurate both at Carlisle and statewide. So, when we get the results back, we take them seriously. I just finished going through the nearly 200 page report and put about 80 sticky notes on stats that I thought were important. Next, I will be comparing these stats to the last 3 surveys over the last decade and see if I see any trends. All of this data gets put into a presentation that I will share with our staff, our school board, our SIAC team and even post online on this very blog! I would love to get your feedback by having you leave comments whenever you can so we can get a discussion going about the results. For now, about all I can tell you is that Carlisle looked very good compared to the state averages, but we do have some concern areas and areas to improve. So please, follow this blog or click on the links when I send them to you as I think you will realize that there are issues you need to discuss with your child so you are all prepared for what life will be, or already is, throwing at them.

Our 8th Graders are Blogging!!

Yep, they are blogging! Just like this blog, only they are much more creative and having even more fun. Well, some of them are having fun anyway. The others are still thinking this is just boring school work, but a few seem to like it more and more each day. So, why are the students blogging and what are they blogging about? Well, read more to find out.

First off, I have attached several links below to other articles and blogs about the importance of student blogging. But my beliefs are that writing and maintaining a blog can help a student with basic literacy skills (grammar, spelling, capitalization, etc.) and typing skills. I believe about 95% of my writing is on a computer and my family members who work outside the home say they think they do even more than that in their job. Bottom line is that students will be typing and writing online with their career someday. It truly is a Life Skill. Next, it helps student take a simple topic and expand on it and really reflect. As other 8th grade teachers start having students blog about what they learned or talked about in class, students can really reflect about their knowledge and express themselves. This is something they cannot necessarily do in a 40 minute class period. Finally, some students may really find that maintaining a blog online that is not just limited to assignments from teachers, but their own personal writing may be able to deeper explore themselves and actually learn and teach others. Each time we use the lab to write our blogs, I share a few blogs that I follow with them and they can see how these blogs can have an effect on our staff or even people all around the world.

One thing I didn't mention about students blogging online is that I am monitoring everything they post and helping them edit it and refine it. This is helping with their digital literacy and helping them be safer and smarter online. Over 80% of our students belong to a social network and randomly post information that they don't think twice about. Through these blogs, I am helping them think about what they post and what the consequences of those postings are. I hope what they learn in class makes them think a little more about what they put on facebook, twitter, etc. Students are going to be online, that won't change. I hope I can be their "driver's ed" teacher as they learn to drive on the Internet Superhighway and teach them the correct and safe way to be online. If they have learned one thing so far, they know whatever they post is out there and could affect them years in the future....hopefully for the good. Please click on the articles below to hear what other experts have to say about students blogging.

(By the way...if you want to read your child's blog or follow it, please ask them for the web address and you can follow it just like I do!)

Why Should Students Blog Answer 1

6 Reasons Students Should Blog

Edublog Blogger response (our students use Edublogs as this is the blog site built for teachers and students so it is much safer and has more restrictions)