Mindsets: Growth vs. Fixed

Welcome to Local

Welcome back! I know it may feel like this summer went by extremely fast, but we are excited to have our students back and eager to provide them the very best teaching and learning experiences. It is my sincerest hope that all of them enjoyed the summer months and were able to enjoy the time with family.

The feature story in this issue is about growth metrics, and how we are using them to better guide student learning. The illustration at right explains a little bit about the two mindsets we all can develop: fixed or growth. My experience as a first-time tennis player while in high school helped me to understand this difference. I wasn’t very athletic; I saw sports as something fun to do and thought it that would look good on my college application. During our first practice,  I could not land a serve, nor could I sustain a long volley. I thought I was never going to get the hang of it. Over time, practice by practice and season by season, my skills improved. The harder I worked, the better I became at tennis. I turned my failures on the court into lessons and eventually found success. The message is simple: never give up, work hard, and be willing to take risks. I am enthusiastic about seeing our students back in our classrooms, ready for the new learning and challenges that await them.

This whole issue is about growth. In our first story, you are invited to discover the Learning Gardens growing across the district. Next, we will show you how academic growth is being measured across the state before sharing a lesson in compassion as our Upper Elementary students experience Ability Awareness with some pretty cool tools. After that, you can take a look at some of the improvements we are making to our facilities and read about the different funding sources that make those improvements possible. On page 11, our Technology Integration Specialist explains what guides the growth of our inventory of tech tools and offers some insight into how educational innovation happens. Finally, help us acknowledge how one native son with deep roots has funded a reading intervention program that will produce bountiful fruit for years to come. I hope you enjoy reading about Ferndale Schools and its amazing students in this magazine.