Plickers – Combining Old and New Technology

Mrs. Ruhnke’s fifth grade students practiced the meaning of their Social Studies Vocabulary words using the “Plickers” method. Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices.  The questions are projected on the board and students pick either answer A,B,C,D by holding their cards so that the answer they chose is on the top.  The teacher then uses a device to scan the room and capture the students’ answers.  

Rock in Prevention

The first PTA sponsored program, Rock In Prevention was held Tuesday.  Rock In Prevention, along with mentors from the high school provided the message that drugs are bad for your body and bullying should be stopped immediately.  This interactive program included lots of fun songs and actions!  Each family will receive a Rock In Prevention cd that reinforces these positive messages.  Be sure to ask your child about this fantastic program.

Football Team Visits Central School

The Fairbury football team had a blast Thursday morning greeting the students at Central Elementary. They were there to give high fives, get them excited for the school day, and talk a little bit about the homecoming game this Friday. It was an awesome opportunity to spread Jeff Pride throughout our community and schools. The Jeffs will take on Lincoln Christian this Friday @ 7:00p.m. GO JEFFS!

SCC Construction Career Days

Students attended SCC Construction Career Days in Milford, NE.  There they learned about many different programs at SCC.  Students got to participate in hands on activities such as bricklaying, heavy equipment operation, diesel mechanics, computer-aided drafting, construction, electrical lineman work, concrete work, brick laying, nondestructive testing and automotive technology. They even ran into some former students from FHS!   It was a productive day. Adam Montague and Brett Sutton both won $100 scholarships.

img_6745
Students learned about highway maintenance heavy equipment operators.
img_6748
Ethan Novotny runs a small bucket trencher.

 

img_6760
Blake Bauer built a block wall!!

Brain Dissection

The Dual-Credit Intro. to Psychology Course dissected sheep brains at the conclusion of their chapter about the parts of the brain.  Students were able to see some of the various parts that they discussed in class.

img_8881 img_8915

Health Screenings Successful

The State mandatory school health screenings were being completed at Fairbury Public Schools September 12th-14th. FPS nurse Becki Schmidt partnered with SCC Beatrice Nursing Students and Public Health Solutions Dental program to get these done. The State of Nebraska mandates that schools screen student in grades Kindergarten through 4th grade, grades seventh and tenth and any student that has transferred into the district this year. We also screened our Step Ahead Preschool students. The state requires the following screenings to be done: height, weight, BMI, vision, hearing and dental.

This partnership benefited both FPS and SCC students. FPS got their screenings done with very minimal loss of education time. SCC nursing students used the three days as a growth and development clinical rotation. The students had to observe the differences from the high school students vs the early elementary/preschool students, learn how to operate the hearing machine, do some blood pressures, and then fill out their observation paperwork. Many positive comments came from the SCC students as they were able to work one on one with the students. The SCC teachers also voiced how wonderful this rotation was for them and what a wonderful learning experience it was for the students.

Teachers at FPS were also very supportive of this way of screening as the students come by class and do not miss parts of academic time.

Partnering with PHS allowed not only for dental hygienist to screen the dental needs of the students but they also provided sealants and fluoride varnishes to those that had parental consent.

A big THANK YOU goes out to the SCC Students and Teachers, Public Health Solutions, and the FPS teachers and administration, and the staff that helped make the screenings successful!

TeamMates Raffle

The TeamMates Program is raffling off two tickets to the Nebraska/Iowa VB game on November 7.  Drawing will be held at halftime at the last home football game on October 14th. The tickets benefit TeamMates -Fairbury Chapter.  Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00.

Dr. Jerold & Mrs. Sharon Ebke have very generously donated these for us.

Contact Karen Janssen or Patty Swartz for tickets.

Teacher’s Working to Improve Their Craft – Professional Development Fridays!

Ahhhh, the dismissal bell tolls early on this sunny, bright fall Friday. “What will I do on such a beautiful afternoon,” asks a Fairbury Public School teacher? This is a new question being asked these days in Fairbury, as this is the initial year of our “early outs” on Friday afternoons. Starting this year, we dismiss each Friday at 1:35pm to allow us the opportunity for staff development time for our faculty.

What is being accomplished during this time? As a k-12 staff, we are learning and working to improve our craft…the art of teaching! Teaching is not easy, teaching is not exact and teaching is definitely not for the “faint of heart!” We are working through Charlotte Danielson’s A Framework for Teaching. It is important to recognize that great teaching is what we want for all of our students and that great teaching is a very complex endeavor.

We are focusing our learning on the “Essential 8” components of great teaching:

  • Setting Instructional Outcomes
  • Designing Coherent Instruction
  • Establishing a Culture for Learning
  • Managing Student Behavior
  • Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
  • Engaging Students in Learning
  • Reflecting on Teaching
  • Communicating with Families

In addition to learning and working on these components, we are using our Professional Development time to look at our assessment data to improve our focus for instruction and the development of Student Learning Objectives (SLO’s). Too often educators do not use the data that we have available to help inform our instruction. We want change that notion and use the different forms of data (MAP testing, NeSA testing, ACT results, classroom data, etc.) to guide us on where we need to spend our time instructing.

So, as you can see, we are very busy on Friday afternoons!

Remembering 9/11

Ms. Engle´s 8th Grade American History class participated in a live online webinar sponsored by the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  The students got the opportunity to listen to a principal in a school two blocks away from the World Trade Center and what happened that day.  The webinar reached all 50 states and students were able to participate by asking questions through an online chat feature.  We also had an opportunity to have a class discussion asking questions to better understand what happened this day, since this group of 8th graders were not even alive when 9/11 happened.

Translate »
strivorTicket-removebg-preview