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11/20/15 - The Buzz Newsletter
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November 20, 2015 |
The Springer Buzz
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In This Issue:
Quick Dates for your Calendar:
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December 10, Thursday: Springer Gives Back Wednesday, December 16, 7pm: Springer Singers Winter Concert Friday, December 18, 1pm: Winter Concert, 4th - 6th Grades December 21 - January 1: Winter Recess--No School January 4, Monday: School Resumes
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Principal’s Message |
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Growth Mindset I’ll admit I’m not much of a basketball fan. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been short and never felt I could be any good at the game (fixed mindset), but I’ve not had much interest in the sport. However, it’s hard to ignore what our Golden State Warriors have done in the last month. I watched last night’s Warriors game, and as they fell behind by more than 20 points to the Los Angeles Clippers, I turned the game off- figuring an early bedtime would be more beneficial than watching the Warriors lose their first game of the season (again, fixed mindset). Imagine my surprise as I drove into school this morning, only to hear that the Warriors came back, and won the game by 7 points! Listening to the radio analysts trying to explain how the Warriors accomplished the feat, they used terms like, “perseverance”, “hard work and effort”, “belief in themselves” and “a will to never give up”. It made me wonder if the Warrior coaching staff had the team read Carol Dweck’s book on mindset. Those terms the analysts used described a growth mindset- a belief that you can accomplish your goals by hard work, effort, and grit. Why would I write to you about a basketball team? The correlation to a NBA team and our students is pretty clear. Our job is to continue to instill in our students the growth mindset attitudes. The next few days give us a golden opportunity to facilitate those attitudes with our students. As report cards come out today, every student and parent will receive feedback on student accomplishments towards goals (standards). While all of our students will receive feedback on areas of strength, there will also be areas where all of our students need to grow. A fixed mindset could cause a child to take on an incorrect assumption; that they may simply be “no good” at math, or writing, or science. As parents and educators, it’s important to point out that an incorrect assumption that a student cannot improve in an area is simply that- incorrect. The truth is: we ALL can get better and improve in multiple areas of our lives. We are never stuck being “bad” at math, a poor writer, or even a horrible basketball player. Through hard work, effort, learning about ourselves, and an attitude that we can improve, we ALL can get better and better and better. One of the many aspects of being an educator that I love is the idea that learning is life-long. Some learning comes easier to us (like a Stephen Curry 3 pointer). Some learning is more difficult. But, we must always believe that improvement is possible. And, we must accept that the road to improvement is often paved with hard work and occasional failure. We are all a work in progress! If we put in the work, accept the challenge, acknowledge that setbacks are part of the process, and commit to never giving up, then there’s very little that we cannot accomplish. The Warriors are just one example for us but the world is filled with so many. Many examples of success despite long odds are present in our Springer community. We can all learn from each other. We can all adopt a Warrior growth mindset. It is my sincerest hope that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Wade Spenader- Principal |
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Crayon Collection |
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Girl Scout Troop 61170 Crayon Collection Drive! Springer 5th grade girl scout troop 61170 will be collecting used crayons for The Crayon Initiative for their community project this year. Collection box will be at the front office starting Monday, 11/16/15 through Thursday, 12/3/15. Your unwanted crayons will be collected, sorted and Crayon Initiative will melt them and make them into new crayons to be used by pediatric patients. Please contact Wen Crane - wenbk[at]aol.com for any questions. |
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Shop Springer! |
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Dear friends of Springer: Are you aware that we have a ShopSpringer (www.shopspringer.com) website where 4-12% of your purchases are paid directly to our PTA, just for directing traffic to their sites?!? On this site you will find active links to a variety of online vendors, including Amazon, iTunes and Walmart.com. Rest assured that using this site will have no impact on pricing, discounts, special shipping offers, etc.. So by simply stopping first at ShopSpringer.com, on your way to Amazon, you make $$$ for our kids!!! Thank you for your support! Springer PTA |
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Blach School Holiday Faire |
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Blach School invites you to its annual Holiday Faire on Friday, December 4th, 2015, from 1:00-4:00 pm. More than 100 7th and 8th grade students will host over 60 booths to sell their own creations: treats, crafts, clothing, jewelry, holiday decorations and much more. Come stop by and shop for the holidays! For more information, please email blachholidayfair@gmail.com, and click here for the flyer. |
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Living Classroom |
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Become a LIVING CLASSROOM docent... share your love of nature with kids! It's time to build bird nests, harvest veggies from our gardens to make soup, look for symmetry inside fruit, make natural dyes from plants and learn about nitrogen fixing bacteria by dissecting the root nodules of fava beans! If you like all those things and more, please consider becoming a Living Classroom docent! LIving Classroom is looking for docents to help deliver hands-on garden-based lessons to the students of the Los Altos School District. No experience necessary as we provide all the training needed! Our Winter Docent Training will take place Monday mornings from 9 - Noon on 12/7, 12/14, 1/11 and 1/25. Please click HERE to view our Winter Training Flyer which lists the locations of each of our trainings. Apprentice-style training is also available to those who can’t make our Monday morning trainings. Questions? Email us at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or call (650) 947-1103. For more information about Living Classroom, please visit our website at www.living-classroom.org. |
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Science & Technology Championship |
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Information Session Sponsored by Synopsys, the Championship is a regional science and engineering fair competition for students in Santa Clara County held on March 17, 2016. LASD 6th, 7th and 8th graders are invited to enter!! LASD students may compete in the middle school (grades 6-8) division for awards and prizes in multiple areas of study. LASD students have won prizes in prior years, and gained valuable experience with science, engineering and project management. Winners of the Synopsys Championship compete in the California State Science Fair and may advance to the prestigious Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, which presents nearly $4 million in prizes and scholarships each year. Students and parents are invited to attend the Synopsys Championship Information Session to learn more about this opportunity and how to enter:
Sunday, November 15 For more information, see the 2016 Synopsys Championship website at Questions? Contact parent volunteer Ann Hepenstal at annhep@yahoo.com or LASD STEM Coach Karen Wilson at kwilson@lasdschools.org |
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Tech Challenge |
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Information Session Come to the informational meeting for all LASD 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and their parents interested in participating in The Tech Challenge, hosted by the Tech Museum. You'll form a team to compete to solve a real-world problem in this annual design challenge. This year's challenge is "Taking Flight: "Your team will build a glider to deliver supplies to a remote location, and this year, you tell the story! What is your glider carrying? Where are you going? Why? New this year, there will be an award for the Top Tech Challenge story. Tech Challenge projects build skills in problem solving, time management, creativity, and teamwork, while working through the engineering design cycle as you build and test your design. Most importantly--it's great fun!!! Students and parents are invited to attend the Tech Challenge Information Session to learn more about this opportunity and how to enter:
Sunday, November 15 The event day will be April 23, 2016 for grades 4 to 6, and April 24 for grades 7 and 8. (No conflict with Junior Olympics this year!) For more information on the Tech Challenge, visit the website at http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/ Questions? Contact parent volunteer Ann Hepenstal at annhep@yahoo.com or LASD STEM Coach Karen Wilson at kwilson@lasdschools.org |
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LAEF |
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Donate to LAEF on #GIVINGTUESDAY 12.1.15 We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Now we have #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, December 1st, charities, families, businesses, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. We are pleased to announce that DeLeon Realty will match every dollar you give to LAEF on #GivingTuesday, up to $10,000. Pledge today at LAEFonline.org (click on the “Donate” button and select option #5) and we’ll get in touch to ensure your donation is processed (and doubled!) on December 1st. Thank you! |
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Student Extracurricular Activities: |
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Academic Chess is back for a second session starting November 19 - February 11! Click here for flyer! Soccer with Coach Ken is starting their Winter Session January 13 - February 24! Click here for the flyer! Springer has many after school activities! Please click here to link to the Springer website to see the selection and register for a class. |
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Parent Education Opportunities |
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Through enriching presentations from local and national experts on topics of interest to parents, faculty and staff, the MVLA Parent Education Speaker Series seeks to contribute to the academic, physical, and emotional health of our students. All events are free of charge and are for parents, faculty and staff in Los Altos and Mountain View public schools. For a schedule of upcoming presentations, please click here. |
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How to Submit an Article to the Springer Buzz |
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If you have an article to submit to the Springer Buzz, please send it to the editor at springer.buzz@gmail.com by noon on Monday for inclusion in the next edition. Late arrivals will be included if possible but can’t be guaranteed! All flyers must be in either WORD or PDF format, accompanied by a brief summary of the activity in the email. |
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