Today was an exciting day as Fortune administrators meet with Rich Cooper, Vice President & Chief Programs Officer for Conner Prairie. Increasing opportunities for performance based learning for our students while making connections within our community has lead us to a new and wonderful collaboration with Conner Prairie for this coming year. We look forward to the new doors that have been opened and the wonderful learning that will take place within the doors of Fortune and on the grounds of the Prairie!
Baseball, BBQ and Blogging!
Summertime fun is filled with baseball, barbecues, bicycles, and the beach! We also know that the summer break can cause a regression in reading and writing skills. Fortune Academy is launching an exciting way to engage our students this summer.
Have they read a great book? They can write about it!
Traveled to a museum? They can write about it!
Watched a new movie? They can write about it!
Attended a camp? They can write about it!
Get the idea?! We would love for them to write about that they learned, read, or watched! They can then enter their writings to be published in the Fortune Student Blog on our website! We will have special awards for those students who are published on the website when school resumes in August.
Here is how it works:
Enjoy your summer and share with your child this summer experience!
With your help, students submit their written work as often as they wish to jgeorge@thefortuneacademy.org
With your help, visit our website often to see if their work is published on the Student Blog!
The Student Blog will begin June 7th!
Coming Up This Week in High School
Biology--Tulbert
Students will be learning about genetic mutations (Chapter 13). And Human aHereditu (chapter 14). This is our last chapter for the year. After we finish chapter 14, we will be studying for the exam. Next week we will also start a lab where students wipe areas in the school to see what is on them. We will grow cultures in petrie dishes, and thes see what happens when we drop in hand sanitizer on the growth.
Anatomy and Physiology--Tulbert
Students will be starting Chapter 8 on the Endocrine System. This is our last chapter for the year. After we finish this chapter, we will be studying for the exam.
Independent Biology--Tulbert
Student will Finish Chapter 13 )Mendelian Genetics) and take a test.
Psychology--Tuilbert
Students will be completing Chapter 26 on Abnormal Psychology, and taking a test on that chapter.
LA Lab I- Carroll
We will continue working on our Vocabulary Board Game. We’re wrapping up the rules, and starting the creative process.
English II- Carroll
We will continue practicing vocabulary strategies, using text evidence to help us comprehend a text, and activating prior knowledge before we start reading a text. We are developing our skills for having effective group discussions, and practicing giving kind, constructive feedback to peers.
LA Lab
We will be practicing to effective note while we read texts.
Studio Arts
We are wrapping up our fabric bowls, and starting personal fabric arts projects.
Health-Simon
Students will continue to learn about contraception. Students need to bring binders to every class. We will also begin learning about PSAs and discuss steps for creating our own PSA based on topics learned this semester.
Geography - O’Donnell
Students will continue their unit on the islands of Oceania. Students need to bring their notes to class everyday to research different aspects of their country.
Economics - O’Donnell
Students will continue their Senior Thesis for Economics answering essential questions about the real nature of either the new tax plan or the new tariffs.
College/Career Planning - O’Donnell
Students are working on part two of their Career Planning Workbook.
Coming Up in High School
Eng I - Sheehy
We are reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” alongside a long list of vocabulary. We discussed “anachronism” in literature and the students are considering a topic that they could write about with an anachronistic theme.
Eng IV - Sheehy
We are listening to the audiobook of “The Illustrated Man” and watching parts of it from the movie. Along with discussion, the students will begin writing their own version of “The Last Day of the World.”
Language Arts I & II - Sheehy
We are in the middle of the Editing, Revising, & Rewriting stages of our opinion papers on School Shootings and Gun Control. Upon completion, we will develop a form to fill out to be our own film critics to use while watching one or more of the following movies: “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Remember the Titans,” or “Facing the Giants.”
Pre Calculus - Ahearn
Working on Logarithms
Algebra 2- Ahearn
We are finishing up our lesson on Mixture Story Problems
Algebra 1- Ahearn
Factoring Polynomials
Paced Algebra -Ahearn
Solving Systems of equations by graphing with equation conversions
Geometry- Ahearn
Introducing SAS and SSS Triangle Proofs
Biology--Tulbert
We will finish Chapter 12 on DNA, have a chapter test, and start Chapter 14 on Heredity.
Anatomy and Physiology--Tulbert
We sill finish Chapter 10 on the Blood. Have a chapter test, and start the chap[ter on the Endocrine system.
Independent Biology--Tulbert
We will have the Chapter 9 test Monday and start Chapter 13.
Psychology--Tulbert
We will have the Chapter 28 test in 2 parts the first part of the week. We will then organize notebooks and gather test materials from the whole semester.
Speech and Communication - Dust
The date has been set!
**LIVE **From the Theatre at the Fort
Y.O.L.O Talks May 17th from 1:00-3:00.
Currently this is a closed event, but as the draws closer and our speakers become more comfortable with their individual messages, invitations may be extended. Video production of each talk will be available post performance.
Next week we begin practicing our Talks. Saying ‘um’, pacing back and forth, turning away from the audience - these are just a few bad habits we pick up when we’re standing in front of a room. This week we will begin to practice and work to become more comfortable and begin building a connection with the audience.
Geography - O’Donnell
We are currently working on a Human Geography project involving the islands (and “garbage island”) on Oceania. We are looking at birth rates, mortality rates, human distribution and land capacity to just the health and viability of the islands.
Economics - O’Donnell
We are currently engaged in our “Senior Thesis” in Econ. Students had their choice to cover either the recent tax plan or the recent proposed tariffs. We are are engaged in step one of the project, which is finding at least two unbiased reports defining what these things are. We will them build on that to look at each partisan view of the subject.
College/Career Planning - O’Donnell
We are working on a Career planning workbook.
Health-Simon
We just finished up our study of reproduction and will begin studying contraception.
Digital Arts - Casey
We have concluded our section on music production and will be sliding into movie making this week.
Get, Give, and Get Again
Our crack team of scientists have been working 'round the clock, tirelessly compiling data to come up with a graphical analysis of various activities and their relation to happiness. We are honored and very proud to share their findings.
Did you know that when you donate through the scholarship granting organization (SGO) Sagamore you can receive 50% of the amount of the donation back as a state tax credit and can take a federal deduction on the gift as well? That's pretty great, right?
So during this tax season, what better way to use your return than to give to our school in a meaningful way, make a tangible difference in the lives of our students, and THEN on top of all of that goodness, next year, you'll get back a good portion of what you gave.
For more information on how this all works, check out the Sagamore website by clicking the image below.
Purchase your Jack and the Beanstalk Photos Today!
We still can't stop thinking of the student performance of Jack and the Beanstalk. Remember it for years to come and purchase photographs taken by Kristin Madeja.
CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS HERE
Coming Up This Week in High School
English II-Comer
We are watching the The Great Gatsby and have started our comparison of the two movies. Students are watching to decide who was the better Gatsby and Daisy. They are also writing about which movie was a better portrayal of the novel.
English IV-Comer
We are working on our poetry analysis and writing summaries about the poem we chose from Dead Poets Society. Essays are due Friday, March 16.
Digital Arts-Comer
Students working on creating their very own album label.
Math Lab-Comer
We will be learning about probability in class. On Thursday we will be putting our bowling score keeping knowledge to work at Woodland Bowl!
L/A Lab I & II - Sheehy
We continue to label and diagram sentences which now include Direct Objects. Next week, we will discover how to diagram compound subjects. Thursday will be test day. If your student will NOT be here next Thursday (March 22), they need to make arrangements with me to take their test early.
Eng I- Sheehy
Upon completion of watching West Side Story and comparing it to Romeo & Juliet, we began our focus on the American Short Story with a reading of James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” We will be reading from F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, and the student’s will be choosing their own short story to read and choose a special project as a form of book report.
Biology--Tulbert
Students are working in Chapter 11 on Heredity. We are using the text information to have them practice taking notes on their own from the book. We will have a quiz next week on the first part of Chapter 11
Anatomy and Physiology--Tulbert
Students are working in Chapter 12 about the Lymphatic and Immune Systems. We are using the text information to have them practice taking notes on their own from the book. We will have a quiz next week on the first part of Chapter 12.
Independent Bioogy--Tulbert
Student is finishing Chapter 6 about Bacterias and will have test the beginning of next week. We will be selecting our next chapter together.
Psychology--Tulbert
Students are working on an independent research project. That will be due on Monday.
Speech and Communication - Dust
Launching into Exploration #5- Mastering the Story Arc - Beginning - Middle -End
As a class we are watching examples of TED speakers and discussing the ‘tools’ used by each speaker
great openings
great methods for sustaining an audience
great closings (e.g.: “Aha!” moments, props, passionate one-liners)
and discussing how they could potentially use these tools in their TED style talk. We are also of course practicing public speaking. The students will be talking about their ideas for a beginning, middle and end, in small groups and then with the entire class.
Health-Simon
We are researching patterns in messages about sexuality. We are looking at print media, music videos, and advertising and discussing how these messages shape our thoughts and behaviors.
Coming Up This Week in High School
English II-Comer
The Great Gatsby final projects were turned in on Friday! Now we’ll begin our comparison of the two movie versions.
English IV-Comer
We are working on our poetry analysis and writing summaries about the poem we chose from Dead Poets Society. Essays are due Friday, March 16.
Digital Arts-Comer
Some students are finishing their self portraits. Others are working on creating their very own album label.
Math Lab-Comer
We’ll be studying how to find the average of different sets of addends.
Biology - Tulbert
Students are taking their Chapter 10 test today (Thursday) on Cell Division and we will start Chapter 11 on Heredity Monday. Today is the Fermentation Buffet--it will be interesting to see who tries what!!
Anatomy and Physiology -- Tulbert
Students are taking their Chapter 6 test today (Thursday) on the Nervous System and we will start a new chapter on Monday. I’m going to let the students decide which body system we study next.
Independent Biology - Tulbert
The students finished Chapter 5 on Cell biology and are working on Chapter 6 on Bacterial biology.
Psychology - Tulbert
Students completed Chapter 24 on Self Awareness and will be working on an individual research projects for the next week.
Health-We are wrapping up the end of our mental disorders unit and will begin unit on intimate relationships. Students will take pretest, set up binders, and complete an inventory of topics they are interested in learning more about.
Eng I - (K. Sheehy) We begin the new quarter studying the American Short Story. As a class, we will read 2 or 3 short stories (I am still deliberating which ones) and each student will choose their own short story to read and choose a special project due at the end of the quarter from which they will make a presentation to the class. Writing skills will be explored and developed during this quarter.
L/A Lab I & II - We continue using our labeling and diagramming skills to determine the parts of speech and each word’s function within a sentence. This week, students will write, label, and diagram their own sentences using words from their Latin roots vocabulary development from last quarter.
Speech and Communication (Dust) - We will review our framed ideas and storytelling outlines. Share our road maps with the class. And if that wasn’t enough; we are going to begin discussing the importance of a good introduction. What does it look like? Are there certain techniques or strategies that seem to catch their attention more than others? Then they are going to take those ‘hooking’ strategies and apply them to the introductions of their own TED Ed Talks.
Pre Calculus-Ahearn
We will be continuing to work on Vectors.
Algebra 2- Ahearn
We are finishing our unit on Motion story problems and we will begin Review 4 types of graphs: Lines, circles, parabolas and hyperbolas
Algebra 1- Ahearn
We just finished up our Systems of Equations unit and will be starting applying those skills through story problems involving coins.
Geometry-Ahearn
We just took our quiz over surface area and will be starting a new lesson on radicals.
Geography- O’Donnell
The start of a new nine weeks and it will get a little more challenging. First, we will start with the countries of the Middle East, but we will also be working on the concept of the Five Themes of Geography.
Economics - O’Donnell
We are going to finish our unit on the Law of Supply, and start to delve into the stock market and pricing.
Career/College Planning - O’Donnell
We are going to take a couple of career surveys to begin looking at what kind of direction we want to head towards after high school.
That's a Wrap!
Congratulations to our students in their final performance of Jack and the Beanstalk, a Fortune Academy retelling of an age old tale. The cast and crew delivered a fun filled adventure climbing to new heights and learning the power of persistence. A special thank you to all who were involved in making this production happen. It was truly extraordinary and one not soon forgotten.
Coming Up This Week in High School
English II-Comer
We have finished The Great Gatsby and have started working on final projects that are due on Friday, March 9. Everyone is working on an independent project. They will have class time to work but they should be working at home each night on their projects.
English IV-Comer
We’ll be finishing reading the poetry from Dead Poets Society. We are reading and discussing “Ulysses” by Tennyson, “Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” by Shakespeare, “She Walks in Beauty” by Byron and Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”
Digital Arts-Comer
We are working on our self-portrait painting on Pixelmator.
Math Lab-Comer
We have been learning how to keep score when we bowl. We are hoping to plan a field trip to practice our scorekeeping skills.
Geography - O’Donnell
FInishing our unit on Europe. There will be an exam late next week to cap the unit.
Economics - O’Donnell
We are focusing on the Law of Supply. We finished the Law of Demand this week, and we will be contrasting it with the Law of Supply and studying how these two theories work together.
Career/College Planning - O’Donnell
We are focusing on budgets, specifically how much one would need to make to live on their own. We are going through local apartments, factoring utilities, food, and other expenses….. And then figuring out how much money one would need to make in order to meet that budget.
Speech and Communication - Dust
Now that we have shared our BIG ideas, we are going to begin framing our talks. This week the class will launch into Exploration 4. The students will learn about story mapping and learning how to create a story arch. Consider how they want to start, fill in details and complete their talks. This is where they really roll up their sleeves and dig into the purpose of the message.
Biology - Tulbert
We are working on Chapter 10 about cell division, which we will finish next week. Chapter 10 test will be Thursday--students should be studying!!! We are also getting all our goodies fermenting in preparation for our buffet Thursday afternoon.
Anatomy and Physiology - Tulbert
We are finishing Chapter 6 on the nervous system and will have a test on it Thursday next week--Students should all be studying!!!
Independent Biology - Tulbert
We finished Chapter 6 and will be starting Chapter 7 next week.
Psychology - Tulbert
Students completed Chapter 21 on states of consciousness, will have there test on Tuesday next week. They will then start a project about a topic from the last several chapters.
Eng I -
We will finish the quarter by completing our Romeo & Juliet theme. We finished watching the movie version today and will complete our reading through of the play on Monday. They have a test on Tuesday on Acts 4 & 5 (they should be studying their Quizlet that was posted on Google Classroom). On Wednesday they will make their oral presentations to the class of their special projects (Mrs. Simon and Mrs. Dust are doing their best to be present for this). Beginning Thursday we will watch “Westside Story,” the musical modern version of “Romeo & Juliet.” Next quarter will begin an exploration of the American short story.
L/A Lab I & II -
We have completed our review of some the most common roots and they all did well on their final test this week. We had an (ungraded) assessment of their knowledge (and for some, their memory of) the grammatical parts of speech. We are going to delve into sentence labeling and diagramming as a way to develop our writing skills. By using the vocabulary that they have been introduced to this quarter, they will be incorporating it into their writing lessons.
Health-Simon
We are wrapping up Ch. 4 on Mental Disorders. Students will read and discuss the treatment options for various mental disorders, review all four sections, then take exam. We will introduce next topic: Intimate relationships.
Order Your Yearbook
Order Your Yearbook Today!
UPDATED: Yearbook orders are no longer being taken.
We can't believe how fast this year is going by, and its been an action packed year too! So many memories, so much awesomeness. Be sure to order your copy of our student-created yearbook to commemorate the 2017-2018 school year.
Single softcover yearbook is $37 or you could upgrade to a hardcover for just $5 more.
Orders are due by March 5th.
PARENTS: There's still time to create an ad especially designed for your Fortune Academy student! Showcase their unique strengths and all the effort they’ve put into this school year. It's perfect for senior and 8th-grade graduates!
- Full page ad $100
- 1/2 page Ad $50
- 1/4 page ad $25
Congratulations to Enrique for winning our yearbook cover contest. Our students have voted and your design will be featured on the cover of the 2017-2018 Fortune Academy yearbook! Great job!
Calling All Middle School Parents!
Do you have a student about to enter high school? You're invited to attend our High School Information Night with Holly Simon. Come learn about what our high school has to offer including different diploma tracks, the support you'll receive, and so much more. Mark your calendar for January 30th, at 6:30 pm to be here at the school for the event.
We hope to see you there!