On Thursday morning, principals from all of the Portage township schools gathered for their monthly Leadership Meeting. At these meetings, a litany of things are covered including that involve the improvement and happenings within the Portage School System. For this meeting, there was an addition to the agenda - PortageLife.
President and CEO, Chris Mahlmann was invited to speak at the meeting; to let the principals and all in attendance know about what and how PortageLife can help spread all of the good news that takes place at Portage Township Schools.
Dr. Richard Weigel, the newly appointed Superintendent for Portage Township Schools, lead the meeting, and there was quite a bit to talk about, including the addition of Life in Portage Schools.
"These meetings are a great way for all of the principals to come together to talk about things happening at their schools, encourage each other, improve what we do in the buildings, and improve what we do for the kids," Dr. Weigel said. "We meet to build our collegiality and skills, to build our understanding of what we have to do to continue to raise achievement for every student. I think the PortageLife is a very important part of our community and getting information to the community about all of the good work that we are doing and the great things that the kids are doing is very important. Having PortageLife as a partner to us is very important."
Many educators from Portage are already utilizing PortageLife as a means to share news about what is happening at the schools and in their classrooms. But there are still a lot of great things happening that we at PortageLife would love to shout out to the community. Chris stood and gave a brief history of how Life started. He explained about how there was a need in Northwest Indiana, and through the beginning with ValpoLife, and the following additions of PortageLife, LaPorteCountyLife, and NWIndianaLife, that need is being met in a big way.
"It started out with me and two other people above my garage about five and a half years ago," Chris said. "And we want to put a Life Site in every community that will have one. The premise is extremely simple: go out and tell a bunch of good news stories and then tell people that we told the stories and invite them to share their own stories. We make it really easy for people to share their stories, see their stories online, share them, network, engage, and ultimately have a positive impact because of the spread of that good news."
Everyone listened attentively and some shared their stories about witnessing the impact that PortageLife has had and how it is a useful and integral tool for their community and schools.
"I love the 10 Fun Things To Do in NWI because that helps me to find great things to do with my grand kids on the weekends. If you have a weekend event then you should share it with PortageLife," Dr. Debra Dudek, Director of Title and Special Student Services, said to everyone. "I also love the Wednesday updates. We have educators here submitting things almost weekly to PortageLife...You guys are everywhere, and that's nice."
"Just keep proving people wrong," Jeff King, Principal of Myers Elementary said to Chris. "People like to read good news."
Jennifer Sass, Principal of Portage High School, chimed in, "I appreciate that everything that my teachers and students send, you post it."
"Last year, someone from PortageLife interviewed one of my teachers. And he was having a rough time then but when the article on him came out that Friday it sort of lit a spark in him," David Lesich, Principal of South Haven Elementary said. "It was a positive focus on him and he was on cloud nine for the rest of the year."
Hearing these testimonies and knowing that all of the hard work that we do here at PortageLife is making a positive difference puts us on cloud nine, too. This is why we do what we do. Keep sharing your good news with us!
If you have any good news that you would like to share send it our way at share@portagelife.com!