Karen Dux

Nov 17, 2016Feb 13, 2019

Fairbury FFA Receives a $2,000 grant for Metal Fabrication Dreams

-Grant provided by Farm Credit Services of America Working Here Fund for Agriculture Education

FIARBURY, NEBRASKA – Fairbury FFA received a $2,000 Working Here Fund grant for metal fabrication dreams. The grant is provided through Farm Credit Services of America’s (FCSAmerica) Working Here Fund.

Fairbury FFA will use funds to continue updating the metal fabrication and welding equipment of the Fairbury Agricultural Education shop. Funds will be used to purchase a 12” Grizzly Pan and Box Brake Bender, a Grizzly Compact Scroll Bender and a Hypertherm Plasma Cutter. These tools will offer hands-on learning experiences for the students, enhancing their skills and ability to use them in a career someday. They can use these tools to make custom metal fabrication and bring out their ideas and vision.

“There is a need for more skilled metal fabrication workers and welders in the community that will be self-employed and workers that are interested in some of the businesses in town that work with metal,” said Thomas Dux, Agriculture Education Instructor at Fairbury Schools. “I would love for my students to gain all of these experiences of bending metal, cutting metal, and fabricating metal in the Fairbury Agricultural Education Shop.”
“At FCSAmerica, we value the opportunity to support the future of agriculture,” said Amy Blomenberg, vice president of retail operations at FCSAmerica’s Beatrice office.

Fairbury FFA is one of 99 organizations to receive a Working Here Fund grant in the third quarter of 2016. FCSAmerica awarded $133,405 during the latest grant cycle ending September 30, 2016.

About Fairbury FFA
The mission of Fairbury FFA is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. One of the major career success areas that has been a focus the past two years in the Fairbury FFA Chapter and the Fairbury Agricultural Education Program has been the Power, Structural, and Technical Systems Career Pathway. This focus has been updating and improving the metal fabrication and welding equipment.

About Farm Credit Services of America
Farm Credit Services of America is proud to finance the growth of rural America, including the special needs of young and beginning producers. With $25.4 billion in assets and $4.5 billion in members’ equity, FCSAmerica is one of the region’s leading providers of credit and insurance services to farmers, ranchers, agribusiness and rural residents in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Learn more at www.fcsamerica.com.

Nov 10, 2016Nov 10, 2016

Newbery Reading Challenge

Congratulations to the 6th graders in Mrs. McAllister’s room….winner of the Newbery Reading Challenge. They enjoyed a movie and a “berry” smoothie for their efforts in reading the most Newbery books. The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to an American author whose book makes an outstanding contribution to children’s literature. Keep on reading!

Nov 9, 2016Nov 17, 2016

Election time!

Ms. Engle´s 8th Grade American HIstory students have been following this years election. We have watched the debates and done class discussions over them. The students participated in a mock election in class on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they will compare their class results to the state and national election results. After they voted, they took a sample citizenship test by playing a Kahoot as a class.

Nov 3, 2016Nov 9, 2016

There Are Ghouls in the School

Central Elementary & Step Ahead students celebrated Halloween with lots of ghosts and goblins last Monday. There was a parade through the building for all to see, followed by treats and activities in the classrooms. Here are some pictures of the event!

Nov 3, 2016Nov 8, 2016

Reading by Flashlight

Fifth grade students got into the spirit of Halloween today by reading their daily reading story by flashlight. Students earned this privilege by earning strips on their theometor charts or earning student points in the “student/teacher” game which are both part of an incentive program built into their reading series.

Nov 2, 2016Nov 3, 2016

Students Attend National FFA Convention

By Michaela Buchli Fairbury FFA Parliamentarian

On October 19th at midnight, the Fairbury FFA Chapter set out from Lincoln on their way to the 89th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. While they were there, the group of ten, plus advisor Thomas Dux, attended various workshops and fairs. In attendance from the Fairbury Chapter were Jonathan Engelman, Carson Bohlmeyer, Sarah McCown, Brock Barton, Jacob Maschmann, Delaney Miller, Kaylee Sipek, Michaela Buchli, Kennedy DeBoer, and Cora DeBoer. They also had the chance to take a tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, complete with a racing museum and gift shop. They went to a leadership workshop that discussed being versatile. There is a large career fair held in the convention center each year, where various businesses and colleges have booths to give the FFA kids a chance to learn more about agricultural opportunities.They also went to watch some of the national creed speaking finalists, as well as some of the parliamentary procedure teams compete for a national title. Unique to the state of Nebraska, the Nebraska chapters sponsor a dance on two nights of convention that are only for Nebraska FFA students. The Fairbury FFA chapter attended both of these dances, and enjoyed meeting and visiting with students from other chapters closer to home. FHS senior Madison Black auditioned and was selected to sing with the National FFA Chorus. She stayed in Indianapolis all week, performing at various events. The chapter attends convention every year, and plans to continue this tradition. It was a full week, but they all enjoyed venturing outside the comfort of home and into the sea of blue.

Oct 28, 2016Nov 7, 2016

(Captain Underpants) Author Dav Pilkey Meets Mrs. Shinn

Mrs. Shinn attended an event at Concordia University in Seward, NE where author Dav Pilkey, who’s written such children’s books as the “Captain Underpants,” series and “Dog Man” talked to a crowd of fans. He stressed the importance of reading and children need to have time to read books of their own choosing. Mrs. Shinn visited with Dav Pilkey and the Scholastic representative about her students love of reading. They were so impressed that they sent her home with many items for her classroom. Including autographed posters for each student and “Reading Gives You Superpowers!” capes. Mrs. Shinn’s students were so excited with their gifts they put on their capes and went to the Library for some pictures with their favorite books.

Oct 27, 2016Nov 3, 2016

Snowstorm in Mrs. Ruhnke’s Class

Mrs. Ruhnke introduced a new “closure” strategy to her fifth grade social studies students. Closure is the act of reviewing & clarifying the points of a lesson. This particular closure strategy is called “Snowstorm.” This strategy consists of students writing down what they learned on a piece of scratch paper and wadding it up. On a given signal, they throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then each student picks up a nearby response and reads it aloud.

Oct 25, 2016Nov 7, 2016

Fairbury Jr-Sr High School Conducts Apply2College Campaign

On October 19th, seniors at Fairbury Jr-Sr High School took part in the Apply2College Campaign which was created by EducationQuest. All seniors were asked to apply to at least 1 college of their choice with the assistance from Mrs. Biehl and a rep from UNO. Thirty seniors were present for the campaign and 36 college applications were submitted. The philosophy behind this campaign is to promote the college going rate by having seniors who otherwise might think they would not get accepted to college, be able to see that they can. This also allows students to receive guidance during the application process as it can be overwhelming at times. In addition to applying to the different colleges, seniors promoted which college they had applied to as well as decorated a cupcake with the college school colors. Students and staff were also encouraged to wear college apparel from either the college they had attended, a sibling has attended or one they most interested in attending. All in all, this was a great event for students and staff!