National Technical Honor Society

On Tuesday evening, Vantage Career Center will be holding our annual National Technical Honor Society banquet and induction ceremony. The National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) is a way to honor student achievement and leadership in career and technical education, promote educational excellence, award scholarships and enhance career opportunities for the NTHS membership. 

To become an NTHS member, a student must first be carrying a 3.5 GPA or above, have 95% attendance for their Junior and Senior years, no discipline problems in both years and have passed all of their Ohio Graduation Tests. If the student meets the above mentioned criteria, then they must write an essay stating why they feel they belong in the NTHS, have four teacher recommendations and complete their application. Once all this is turned in, a committee of teachers and staff meet to discuss each candidate and determine which students best represent the NTHS.

As a member of the National Technical Honor Society, each member has met the seven character attributes, and at the induction ceremony, vow to continue these attributes. They are: Skill, Honesty, Service, Responsiblity, Leadership, Citizenship and Scholarship.

I am so proud of these students because they have made so many great choices in their lives. They not only have been successful here at Vantage and their home school, but I know they will be successful in their future college or work careers. If you happen to see these students in the hallway or in your classes, please congratulate them on a great high school career and a great honor in being selected for the National Technical Honor Society. This is a very small percentage of our student body (roughly 5%), but they truly are the best of the best.

CONGRATULATIONS:

Brenna Baker - Wayne Trace

Elizabeth Burgei - Ottoville

Zachary Chamberlin - Kalida

Haley Dicke - Parkway

Tabbetha Dixon - Continental

Alexis Doster - Continental

Elijah Freund - Ft. Jennings

Landon Goins - Crestview

Levi Hiltner - Continental

Angelea Kimmel - Kalida

Allie Mihm - Van Wert

Justin Moenter - Delphos St. Johns

Kalyn Pierstorff - Parkway

Kenneth Pinks-Liebert - Parkway

Keli Ralston - Lincolnview

Bianka Robach - Continental

Makayla Ryan - Van Wert

Meghan Sherman - Crestview

Marcy Shoppell - Lincolnview

Jacob Sukup - Antwerp

Darian Tijerina - Continental

Nicholas Warnimont - Paulding

Cullen Wenzlick - Paulding

Drayson Wenzlick - Paulding

What's up with...

I don't know if anyone else has noticed the new icons that are popping up in Google Chrome when you log on, but recently they have suddenly appeared. If you look on the top right of the screen, you will notice three new icons. Now some of you may be very familiar with them but I am sure some of you have no idea what they are for. With that in mind, and because I wasn't sure what they were for, I have a quick and brief overview to help you use these handy features.

MOVENOTE: This is a feature that allows you to make and send video presentations to anyone you want. Simply click on the icon and begin making a video presentation. You can use a current presentation you have in Google drive or you can create a brand new one. It is all very simple to use and to learn. I found a great video on it that is about seven minutes in length that can be found at this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsKiISv1nR4. You can also use this in GMAIL. It is a great way for students to turn in homework assignments, etc... Get some great ideas on how to use MOVENOTE at www.movenote.com.



SHARE TO CLASSROOM: This is one I am sure I don't need to discuss in great detail. I know our teachers are using classroom all the time. This just allows the student or teacher to simply click the icon and whatever they are working on will be shared with the classroom or individual students.





CLEARLY: Clearly is put out by Evernote and is definitely my favorite. This app allows you to read any article distraction free and then print it. This makes blog posts, webpages and articles clean and easy to read. You can also save them to Evernote and read them anywhere. So many times I need to print off articles or college websites for our students and this allows me to print them with no advertising and no distractions, just plain print. Give it a try. I know you will love this one and it is so easy to use.


Well I hope this information is useful for you. Thanks to all who came to the College night last night. What a great turnout! Have a great weekend, the weather is going to be beautiful.

College Night

We have a pretty exciting night coming up this Wednesday evening in our commons area here at Vantage. I hope by now you have heard the messages, received the tweets and saw the announcements on Facebook regarding our college night. I want to mention it in my blog because I feel it is such a great benefit for both our juniors and seniors. So what is college night all about? Let me give you some frequently asked questions that have been asked of me:

1) What is college night all about? College night is a chance for the students to meet with several different college representatives all in one place. The student does not have to miss any school and also saves gas money because you don't have to drive to all those different colleges to speak with a representative.

2) How many different colleges will be here? We will have over 40 representatives from various colleges and universities.

3) Will the Military be here? Yes. There will be at least two military branches represented.

4) Can my parents/guardians come? Yes, they are more than welcome and in fact I highly recommend that if they are available, that they come with you.

5) Is this just for Vantage students? No. This is held in our Van Wert district so students from Van Wert, Crestview, Lincolnview and Vantage will all be here that night.

6) What should I expect? When you walk into our commons that night, it will look quite different. Tables are set up all along the walls and in the middle of the commons. We will also have several rows of round tables and tables on the stage. It is quite crowded.  The colleges will have their school name/logo banner draped over the table and the reps will be standing around the table. You will also see your home school counselor here that night.

7) How do I talk with the college rep? As you walk around the college fair, you will see all the different schools. If you see a school that you have an interest in or would like to know more about, then just walk up to the table and begin speaking with the representative. Once in awhile there may be a small line. You can wait your turn or walk around and check back when you see the rep is not busy.

8) Do the representatives bug you or are they pushy? No, not at all. All of the representatives have done a lot of these college nights and are very polite and nice. If you want to just grab a brochure and move on, that is no problem. They may say "good evening" or ask how you are doing, but it is very easy to smile, respond and move on.

9) What happens after the college night? What should I do? Well some of the colleges may ask you to fill out a card if you show some interest. That is so they can get hold of you later on. If you fill out any cards, then you can expect a call from them. However, I suggest that you talk to as many representatives as you can, grab as much information as you can and then go home and look through everything. When you see a college that has what you are interested in and it looks like a place that you would like to attend, then get hold of them and set up a college visit. Remember, you have two college visits every year that are not counted against your attendance. (Don't forget to pick up the form from the front office if you are going on a visit).

Well I hope to see a lot of you here on Wednesday evening, 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm. It's a great night to visit 40 + colleges and only have to drive as far as Vantage. Set a reminder on your phone!

Keeping Yourself Balanced

I know most of you had no idea that this week has been "Balance Awareness Week". Well to be honest, I didn't know either. However, when you read the counseling magazines and websites that I follow because of my job, you find out all kinds of oddities. Balance Awareness Week is to help all of us remember to keep our lives in balance. To be able to handle stress better and to find peace in our busy lives. I would have to say that not only are the adults feeling a lot of stress in their lives lately but I feel that our students have become more and more anxious and stressed the last couple of years. I am finding out by talking with our students that many of them are going to work right after school and working until 10:00 at night. They need the jobs for their cars, insurance, phones, help with paying bills around the house, etc. When we try to pack all of this in and don't bother taking care of ourselves, we create an enormous amount of stress in our life. I thought this might be a good time to provide some stress reduction methods that I think are very useful and easy to do. I do not want you to think this is a substitute for seeking help or talking with me or another adult if the stress and anxiety is severe. I believe these methods, along with counseling, can both act together to reduce the stress and anxiety in your life.

When feeling stressed or overwhelmed, take some time to practice these:

1) Breathing exercises: Simply breathing in for 4 seconds, holding it for 7 seconds and then slowly letting the air out for 10 seconds (Repeat 4 times) can be an immediate relief when you feel anxiety coming on or if you feel you are getting frustrated with something. Easy to practice and takes no time.

2) Exercise: I know a lot of people hate to hear the word exercise but exercise can be as simple as taking a walk. Getting up and moving around. Once you develop an exercise routine, it can act in preventing a lot of stress and  anxiety in your life.

3) Visualization: Lets's put it this way. Have you seen "Happy Gilmore"? Remember he was told to go to his happy place when he got upset. That's what visualization is. Find a place that totally relaxes you and in your mind, go there until you are calm. Mine is on a warm beautiful beach with the waves splashing on the shore. Try it. This one is fun.

4) Listen to Music: I think a lot of you have figured this one out. If this helps you then go for it. Music can take you to another place and calm a lot of anxiety. Now I know if I listened to the music the students listen to, I don't think I would be in my "happy place". I think I would be reaching for a tylenol. However, you get the idea.

5) Try some of the following apps. I received these apps while at a conference and I think they are excellent. I have recommended them to several of my students and have had positive feedback. I believe they are all free and should be on both android and iphone stores. They are:

              SAMApp - Use SAM to observe how anxiety affects you over time and learn to identify situations where you want to reduce anxiety over time. With this app, you can practice self-help options for managing anxiety.

               VIRTUAL HOPE BOX - This is a fun and cool app. You can play Sodoku, Word searches, Mahjong solitare and a photo puzzle that you create using a photo right from your phone gallery.

               MINDSHIFT - This app has something called "Chill-out tools". Under chill-out tools, you will find relaxation exercises, visualizations and mindfullness strategies. This app explains anxiety, has an area called "thinking right" which is a great tool for improving your self-talk. In other words, reversing the negative thoughts you have and replacing them with positive thoughts. It even talks about coping with test anxiety.

I hope today's blog will help all of us put our life in balance just a little bit more. Remember that life is short, it really is. Take time to smell the roses, enjoy a rainbow, laugh with your friends. It's important if you want to get the most out of each day. Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend.

Appreciation & Sharing

Last Friday we had to move our Student Appreciation Day indoors because of the rainy weather we experienced. I believe that was the only time we have had to do that. However, Mrs. Wilhelm and her entire crew managed to pull off a great day for all the students. There were plenty of corn hole games going on in the hallway, dancing in the cup and saucer and the National Guard set up the obstacle course in the commons. We had movies going on in the community room and plenty of popcorn and pop in the commons. The car show obviously couldn't be moved in the building (although I did have someone ask me if they could pull their race car into the commons - and he was serious) but overall it was a great day for everyone. Once again, thanks to Mrs. Wilhelm, Mrs. Keith, Mr. Unverferth, Mrs. Klinger and all the student ambassadors for doing a terrific job under those conditions.

Combined with our student appreciation day was also the start of our food drive for the United Way in Van Wert county. The Lee Kinstle car dealership was kind enough to lend us a couple trucks that we could use to load up all the canned goods that were collected from our staff and students. We always have a little friendly competition between the various labs to see who can collect the most cans of food. Each staff member is also assigned to a particular lab. This years lab winner was the Industrial Mechanics group. They collected the most cans of food overall. The lab with the most cans collected based on an average number of cans per student, was the building and grounds program. Both labs will receive a pizza party for their efforts. The overall winner was really the families in our community who will benefit from this outreach. Vantage collected over 3,020 cans of food!!!

The food drive will continue this week but the focus will be on collecting cash so that the Medical Office group can go shopping for all the other needed items. We will have cans set up on the stage during lunch time with each can representing a lab. Students and staff can throw their loose change in the cans and the lab with the most money will receive doughnuts for their class. We will also have a $1 jeans day and $1 t-shirt day on Wednesday. If you wish to wear jeans and a t-shirt, the medical office group will be by in the morning to collect the $2. This is such a great way to help out the United Way of Van Wert and all their causes. You never know, you may be helping out a classmate that you have no idea needs help, or you may need the United Ways help someday too. Thanks for all you do here at Vantage and let us keep up the good work this week. A special thank you to Mrs. VanTilburg and the Medical Office lab for all the hard work they put into this project to make this drive so successful.

The Fabric of our School

Sometimes it can be difficult coming up with an idea for this blog and sometimes the ideas come to me at the strangest times. I have gotten ideas while driving, golfing, vacationing and even sleeping. Now this one came to me in a strange way. For many of you, you have no idea that my wife loves to quilt, and in my opinion is very very good at what she does. I think her quilts are absolutely beautiful and an expression of her and her talent. Well that is where the idea for this blog came to me. While I was looking at one of her quilts, I couldn't help but think of how all those fabrics came together to produce something so wonderful. It's interesting because some of the pieces by themselves are rather simple and very ordinary. Now other pieces by themselves can be loud, bright and very busy. However, when they are put together, they make a masterpiece.

This is where the idea for this blog came to me. I thought of all the students that we have here at Vantage and the ones that come to us every year. We have such a diverse population of students here at Vantage and the mixture always makes it so interesting. We have the quiet students who barely say anything unless spoken to. We also have the outgoing students who love to get involved in everything and allow their opinions to be heard. I love the idea that we have so many non-traditional students here at Vantage. We have had the males in cosmetology, early childhood and the health tech programs and we also have had the females in welding, precision machining, electricity, auto body and carpentry. Our students come from different social and economic backgrounds. We have students who are interested in racing cars, hunting, sports, play acting, singing, musicals and the list goes on and on. I hope you can see what I am getting at. We are very lucky here at Vantage because we get such a different group of students but when you put them all together, we end up with a beautiful masterpiece, our great school.

Friday we will get to celebrate our appreciation for this great group of students. I hope all of you will have a great time and enjoy the activities, rain or shine. Thanks again for coming to Vantage and making our school a beautiful quilt of different students. As always, stop in and see me anytime you want.

Raised in a Barn

Well as we wind down the Van Wert County fair and having just completed the Allen County fair last week, I couldn't help but feel really proud of all our students who have been involved at both fairs. I had a chance to see some beautiful work the students completed and also saw some of them compete in various competitions. I hope all of you had a chance to stop by either fair and talk with them and see the hard work they have put in all summer. If you missed the opportunity, then please mark it on your calendar for next year. You won't regret it.

Visiting the fairs has also given me a chance to think back on how important the Ag instructors are to our students. I thought back to when my two boys were at Delphos Jefferson and were President of their FFA chapter. I thought of all the hard work they did but also the great instructors they had leading them. There was Mr. Mike Miller (not Vantages Mr. Miller), Mr. Scott Elwer & Mrs Lucy Bambauer. I thought of our own Mr. Mike Miller and what an awesome job he does for our students and how he has brought new life into our FFA. I remembered Mr. Vern Fischer who was here before Mr. Miller and also thought of Mrs. Susan Farr who has been involved in teaching AG for many years. Now talk about timing. While I was thinking about them, I came across a great article from a website raisedinabarn.org that was titled "Why Agriculture Education Instructors Are Important" and I would like to share that with you now:

For many that enroll into FFA in high school, they can’t imagine the impact one class will have on their life. An Agriculture Educator is key to success in the agriculture industry. These professors and teachers get their students involved in something that can eventually lead to a career or a better understanding of how things work. Agriculture instructors are the agriculture students driving force at school, and they take care of their students just like they are their own children.

I’ve had strong influential agriculture leaders my whole life. These people have taught me so much more from knowledge first hand, than they could from some book. In high school I had a great FFA Advisor. Later on in college I had a handful of more great agriculture instructors. They do so much for their students and deserve a thank you. So here is a list on why you should thank you agriculture teacher.

• They get you involved even if you don’t want to be. “You might not want to learn this now, but later on down the road it will benefit you.”
• They are your parents away from home. “Remember that our school is on the back of your FFA jacket. Don’t embarrass me or your school.”
• They are on speed dial on your phone. “Don’t be afraid to ask me questions if you aren’t sure.”
• They don’t like excuses. “Life doesn’t care about your excuses.”
• They know everyone. If you are in the middle of nowhere, they will find someone they know.
• They want you to know how important agriculture is. “If you know how to raise your own food, you’ll never go hungry.”
• They are hard on you because they know your potential. “I’m not sure why you made a C on this, you can do way better.”
• They can get anywhere without a GPS. “I’ve been there a million times, I should know it.”
• They are at every show, rodeo, and contest. They are your coach, and biggest fan all at the same time.
• They want you to reach your full potential. “Run for State FFA President. Even if you lose you can say you gave it all you got.”
• They know everything about agriculture. “The more you know, the better off you’ll be.”
• If you lose a show, rodeo, or speech contest they are the first person to comfort you and critic you at the same time.
• They understand because they have been there. “College is hard, but the harder you work, the easier it will be.”
• They remind you over and over again that the stuff outside on the ground is soil, not dirt. Dirt is misplaced soil.
• They help you meet people who will help you get where you need to be. “If you want to livestock judge, let’s go talk to some colleges.”
• They will remind you about how expensive college is every day, and help you fill out scholarships to pay for the college of your dreams. “College isn’t cheap, and scholarships are free to fill out.”
• They don’t care about your drama. When you are in their classroom you are there to learn. “Leave that drama at the door before you come in.”
• The most important reason to thank an agriculture instructor is because, they care. At the end of the day they want to see you doing what you dream about. They help you set goals and get you on the right path to reach that goal. “Go big or go home.”

Thanks teachers for guiding us, inspiring us, and making us what we are today.You are the inspiration for so many of us to pursue an agriculture career.

I would just like to say my personal thank you to Mr. Miller and the great job he does with our students here at Vantage. Also, remember: An industry that feeds us, is an industry worth caring about.

No Worries Man

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to tell you a little bit about a summer trip I just experienced. My wife and I were celebrating our 30th anniversary down in the Caribbean Island of Bonaire. Now I know many of you may be wondering where is Bonaire, as I have been asked that question several times both before and after the vacation. Bonaire is one of the southernmost islands in the Lesser Antilles. It is about 60 miles north of Venezuela and makes up part of the ABC islands; Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Bonaire is the second best diving/snorkeling place in the world, second only to the Great Barrier Reef which is off the coast of Queensland Australia. The picture just below is just one of several from our many dive trips. Please stop by the office and see several other pictures that are just as beautiful. The reason we chose this island is because it has a population about the size of Van Wert and is 111 square miles. In other words, not many tourists, only dedicated divers and snorklers. I am not one who likes to go on the all inclusive resorts or a place where it is packed with tourist. I like to go where I can mingle with the locals and talk with them. Find out how they arrived at such a beautiful place, where were they originally from or how far back does their family line go on the island. I believe that can be one of the more fascinating things about the entire trip.

There is on thing that I brought back from the island that I want to share with you today. There is a small city on the western side of the island called Rincon (There are only two cities Rincon and Kralendijk, the capital). Rincon is where all the local people live. By local I mean the natives that have had family on the island since the early 1800's when they were slaves. This is a very poor region as you can see by the picture. Some work in the restaurants in Kralendijk and the hotels and condos. By no means do these people have a lot of money.

One night in town, they held a "local fare" festival. It was a way to demonstrate their food, music and arts/crafts. The music was unbelievable. Any one of these groups could have put out a CD. It was all reggae type music and the musicians ranged from 8 year old children all the way up to the very elderly. However, the thing I noticed was the great attitude so many of them had. Not only that night but whenever you ran into any of them it was always the same attitude. They always smiled and said "No problems mon". Here they were, living in poverty but found the things in life that made them happy. They had friends and family and good health. They enjoyed food, music and fellowship. I couldn't help thinking about this over and over. Here we are in the United States, specifically the Van Wert area, and have so many things available to us. I recognize that many students have issues that they are dealing with, both at home and school, I get that. However, the majority of us have our smart phones, high-def TV's, 3D gaming systems, food on our table and friends and family, yet we like to complain about our life, our job, our teachers, etc... I wonder if all this technology we have and this busy lifestyle we lead isn't pulling us away from simpler times. I believe the people of Rincon would look at the way we live and say "no thanks". It's always interesting when you read about some of these islands or far off places that don't have internet, tv or technology, and yet the people live to be over 100 years old. Makes you wonder.

I'm not suggesting that we give all these "gadgets" up, but maybe we should think about how much they are controlling our life. Are they taking away from us communicating face to face with our friends and family? Are they replacing a nice walk in the park or a bike ride? I think this weekend I may try a day without the phone, laptop or television. You never know, maybe I will be smiling and saying "No problem mon". Believe it or not, when we were in Bonaire, we never once had the TV on, never used the phone (just to take pics) and accessed the internet very sparingly. Enjoy some of the pictures below of Beautiful Bonaire.