Mustang Round-Up
October 20, 2019 Volume 12
Reflections From the Principal
As I mentioned last week, we will begin Incentive time again this week. We will have the homeroom google sheet updated prior to your homeroom time tomorrow so you are able to share with students who qualify. Also, we will be having our first ever Honor Roll Celebration on Friday of this week. Any student who made the Honor Roll for the first nine weeks (grades 7-12) will be invited to the Honor Roll Celebration on Friday during Advisory time in the cafeteria. Ice cream sundaes will be served! If you look on the October Advisory calendar, we will add an UPDATED Honor Roll list of students by Wednesday of this week. We still have some incompletes we are waiting to finish up our official list.
Have a great week!
Ashley
Great Things I Saw This Week
Ms. Kashmer's class was fully engaged in Spanish when I had the chance to stop by her room. I'm continually amazed at Ms. Kashmer's ability to fluently ask and respond to student's assignment questions in Spanish, while students are actively listening, responding, and participating in the classroom activities and discussions. Thanks, Ms. Kashmer!
Lastly, I stopped in Ms. Howell's English 9 class to find Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Foxworthy presenting a college and career lesson from the Learn More Indiana magazine. They were discussing the importance of working hard in classes as freshman in order to ensure you are prepared to take the courses you want to take as a junior and senior student. Thank you Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Foxworthy!
Feature a Teacher!
Mrs. Paige Brost
Years served in Corporation: 3 months
Currently Teaching: Science 7 & Science 8
“She is nice and caring. She will help you with anything that you need.”
-Danika Spurr
“She is nice and caring. She ensures that you know the material before you take a test on it. She works really hard.”
-Ely Thompson
Nuts and Bolts
- ILEARN Scoring Opportunity for Educators
- Faculty Meeting - Monday, October 21st @ 7:15 am or 3:15 pm (this will be held)
- English Teachers Professional Development with HMH - October 22nd, all day
- COMPASS Teacher AND Student meeting - October 22nd @ 7:15 am
- Fall Band and Choir Concert - October 22nd @ 7 pm
- FC Family Night - October 23rd @ 6:30-8:00 pm~ Sponsored by Band and Art
- October 24th - After prom "soup bar" lunch in the teacher's lounge - free-will donation
- October 30th - No VOCATIONAL!
- PSAT Assessment - 10th grade, October 30th @ 9 am
- November 4th - The Body Safety Program Parent/Community Night @ 6 pm
- November 5th - No PM Vocational
- November 5th - The Body Safety Program - 7/8 @ 12:35 pm and 9-12 @ 1:20 pm
- November 8th - Veteran's Day Program @ 9 am
#MustangMindset, SEL Coordinator
We are at a point in the year where I tend to feel a lot of stress. For some reason, it always seems to come in waves. One moment I foolishly think that I am on top of everything, and the next, I realize that I was actually just ignorant of all that I had to do. I felt this a great deal the last few weeks. Honestly, I just felt like I was drowning professionally. I had things on my to-do list and I did not have the motivation to get them done. So, I did what any good student would do and procrastinated like a pro. The issue became that the time I had reserved to end my procrastinating ended up being consumed by student needs, which is an important part of my job. I was stressed, behind, unorganized and on top of all of that-I was feeling the pressure of the end of the nine weeks and fall break quickly approaching. For me, it was a matter of becoming organized, coming in early, and staying late to crank out these tasks that I dropped the ball on. Don’t worry-I eventually got them done. However, the stress and panic that comes from the time crunch took a toll on my mental state. Then, of course, that ended up impacting my classroom, my home, and my relationships in those areas. Therefore, I started to search out ways for educators (who like me feel stretched too thin) to combat the effects of stress and being unregulated. I stumbled across a book called, 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators. I am working my way through it and plan to share anything that I think may be useful (even the book!). I wanted to share this from the book and then give you week two’s poem from Annette Breaux, which just so happened to be about procrastination. Isn’t funny how that happens sometimes? The book argues that “Well-being is not found in an app or a pill or a vacation or a wine glass (although those distractions can certainly feel good for a little while). True self-care is based on developing an intentional practice. A daily, deliberate, mindful practice. We have to do the work. Every single day. That work is all about three things. 1. Developing a deep, keen understanding of our own needs. 2. Checking in with ourselves throughout the day. 3. Responding to our individual needs with targeted action.” The better job we can do of taking care of ourselves and being regulated, the better our classroom management and our home lives will be.
Tip 2: Do not procrastinate. It’s much better to be on top of your workload than to have your workload on top of you!
I’ll Do It Tomorrow
I didn’t feel like doing it, so I put if off for a day
And the next day came and I put it off more-Too much was coming my way
I used up tons of paper with my list of “things to do”
And every day my list of things just grew and grew and grew
It overtook my kitchen, then it overtook my house
It overtook my children and it overtook my spouse
If only I had done the things that needed to be done
It would have been much easier to do things one by one
But now I’m overwhelmed with all the things I have to do
How will I survive this? I do not have a clue!
And sitting atop these things to do are feelings of guilt and sorrow
So I’m turning over a new leaf. Yep, I’ll do it tomorrow!