Mustang Round-Up
February 23, 2020 Volume 29
Reflections From the Principal
I am so blessed to be part of such a great team of people, who literally stepped in and did anything necessary in my absence. Here's to getting better everyday and all good doctor reports moving forward!
Thanks to all!
Ashley
Great Things Mr. Webb Saw This Week!
I had the chance to visit Mr. Turner’s PLTW Digital Electronics class. The students were programming a numeric counter. They had to generate start and stop buttons, a high tech circuit, and a screen that would generate the numbers 1-5. The program was intricate, and the students were working hard on their project. In discussing the steps with one student, we marveled at how detailed cell phones have to be in order to perform the detailed operations they do. The student went on to say how hard building these intricate circuits are, and that cell phones would be even smaller. What a great class and project.
If you are in the hallways after school, you might notice some of our spring athletes gearing up for the outdoor season. While the winter sports season is not over yet, many of our athletes are running, sliding, hitting golf balls, pitching, throwing, fielding, and getting in shape for their seasons.
In Mrs. McCarty’s class, she was describing the final project for her Ceramics II class. They were to make three sketches and fire/glaze one of those pieces. Students were also working on various pieces of pottery around the room. It made me wish I had some artistic abilities!
Mrs. Britton and Mrs. Good presented at the Indiana Whole Child Summit conference in Indianapolis this week. As always, they were rockstars and had great feedback from their presentation about great things happening at Fountain Central. Great work, Mrs. Britton and Mrs. Good!
Lastly, we had great feedback on the Advisory activity on Friday. As most of you know, you had to write your name in the middle of a sheet of paper and spend one minute writing something nice to the person. After one minute, the papers were passed to the left and again you had one minute to write something nice/positive about the person who's name was on the paper. Teachers and staff joined in and wrote their names on the paper. Mrs. Froedge and Mr. Shabi had great results and really enjoyed how positive this activity was for students and adults! Great work, everyone!
Wishing the best of luck to Mr. Hall as he begins his week-long journey with the Marine Corps! Enjoy San Diego!
Feature a Teacher! TWO This Week!
Mrs. Jill Kler
Years Served in the Corporation: 1 Year
Currently Teaching: Early Childhood Vocational Teacher
“Mrs. Kler is an outstanding educator that goes above and beyond for the vocational program. She helps with elementary education before and after vocational, not because she has to, but because she is the kind of person that just helps everyone.”
-Will Frazee
“Mrs. Kler is an extraordinary person. She goes above and beyond for her students to make sure that we are all doing our very best.”
-Lexie MartinMr. Ric Walke
Years Served in the Corporation: 2 Years
Currently Teaching: Special Education
“He is a great man who wants the best for you even if he doesn't know you. Very respectful towards all students even when they may not respect him.”
-Nathan Newell
“Mr. Walke is the most supportive person that I know. I consider myself lucky to have met him and know him.”
-Alexis Van Hook
#MustangMindset, SEL Coordinator
For the next few weeks I am going to be featuring one SEL competency from the IDOE. Hopefully by providing more information about the competencies it will further reinforce what SEL can do for our students and our community.
The first SEL competency is Growth Mindset. Growth Mindset is the ability to demonstrate cognitive flexibility and a willingness to learn. Developing mindset is a critical learning skill for building resilience and perseverance, which all of our students need. In addition, it is also critical for adaptability, self-discovery, and the ability to give and receive constructive feedback. Carol Dweck, a Stanford Psychologist, coined the term growth mindset in her research on Neuroscience. Dweck found in her research, that mindset has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A “fixed mindset” assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.
This is a SEL competency because we have to have cognitive flexibility to develop the other competencies and to learn and grow. Growth Mindset is a competency for every student in our building because it is this type of mindset that makes people resilient. This video is one I show to my students at the beginning of school every year. It is a great talking point for the type of mindset we need in order to learn and grow. The IDOE also has standards for growth mindset, including useful teaching resources linked in their SEL Toolkit.
You can reinforce growth mindset in your classroom in several different ways without having to take away from your curriculum time. You could show the video at the beginning of the year and talk about it with your students. It would take class time, but in the long run, it would probably pay off in other ways. You could also do an activity with feedback and take that opportunity to talk about the importance of feedback, how to use it to improve yourself, and how it is constructive.
If you are interested in working growth mindset into your classroom or have other ideas about how you have used it, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I will put a folder for growth mindset on the SEL Teacher Resources shared folder (on my page on the website) so you can access it. As always, if you need anything from me, please let me know.
Kim
Nuts and Bolts
- February 24th - 28th - FFA Week! Dress Up Days Below
- February 25th - February 28th - ISTEP 10 begins, All Sophomores TESTING SCHEDULE
- February 25th - COMPASS Meeting with students and teachers @ 7:15 am
- February 26th - After Prom Breakfast - 7 am - Free will donation
- February 26th - Freshman Orientation @ 6 pm
- March 4th - Winter Sports Banquet @ 7 pm
- March 10th - Banking 101 by Fountain Trust for SENIORS @ 12:30-1:15 pm - Aux Gym
- March 13 - 15th - Drama Club Musical (7 pm, 7 pm, and 2:30 pm respectively)
- March 16th - March 17th - Snow Make-Up Dates
- March 23rd - March 27th - Spring Break!
- April 8th - National Honor Society Induction @ 7 pm
- April 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th - 10th Grade ISTEP 10 Part 2 Testing
- April 22nd - Senior Top Ten Luncheon – 11:15 A.M. @ Beef House
- April 29th - Academic Honors Banquer -6:30 p.m. @ Beef House
- May 7th - Senior Pizza Luncheon – 11:30 a.m. @ Aux Gym
- May 13th - Senior Awards Night – 7:00 p.m. @ FC Cafeteria
- May 17th - Baccalaureate – 7:00 p.m. @ Twin Lakes
- May 19th - 20th - Senior Final Exams
- May 19th – 21- Grades 7-11 Final Exams
- May 21st - Graduation Practice – 8:45 a.m. @ FC Main Gym
- May 21st - Senior Luncheon – 11:30 a.m. @ Beef House
- May 21st - Student's Last School Day
- May 22nd - Teacher's Last School Day
- May 22nd - Graduation Ceremony – 7:00 p.m. @ FC Main gym