San Antonio Adventures

This past weekend I ventured all the way down to Texas with a few friends for some professional development. Mrs. U, Miss Alabata, Mrs. Prokop, and I went to San Antonio for a three day workshop by "The 2 Sisters". It was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the Daily 5 and CAFE strategies for teaching literacy. The Sisters were fantastic! We learned so much and were reminded of even more while we were there. We spent most of the plane ride back discussing our classrooms, deciding what we can start doing right away, and making plans for next year already.

The Sisters shared this beautiful quote by Rachel Naomi Remen with us
"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing w ever give each other is our attention. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words." 
However I think my favorite quote I heard while we were at the workshop was from Louisa Moats "Teaching reading IS rocket science."

Of course we had a little bit of fun in the evenings and I promised my students some pictures. Being teachers, our first stop was the famous historical landmark, The Alamo.

 

We were able to take a trip down the San Antonio river on a boat tour, enjoy the River Walk, and of course eat lots of delicious Mexican food al fresco. In fact, for our last meal in the city we were even serenaded by a Mariachi band singing La Bamba!  

Overall it was a great learning experience and a fun trip, but I missed my students. I'm glad to be back!

What a Wonderful School

I've been working on a research and data analysis project of our school recently and I had the opportunity to really study some of our greatest strengths. I am so proud to be a part of our school family for many reasons, but most of all because we have the chance to share God's love with each other and the world around us. In addition to our Christian atmosphere we have a lot of other good things going for us. If you haven't decided about re-enrollment for next year yet, please consider a few facts.

1. 100% of our high school students graduate - the average graduation rate in Illinois is between 72% and 76%.

2. Between 95%-98% of graduates from our school continue on to higher education.

3. The average student to teacher ratio in our school is 12.5:1, meaning we have small class sizes.

4. We are a highly diverse school with students literally from around the world!

5. Our teachers are very highly qualified, half of the faculty and staff in the building either have or are working on advanced degrees.

Most of all we are Christian family passionate about educating young people for eternity! I'm praying you will all be a part of our family again next year.

Just a reminder that if you fully register by Monday you will save $50, registering by May 15 will save you $25.

For more information visit our website here.

March in Review - Part 2 - Look Up!

Over the course of the month we learned all about things in the sky. It was great that just as the weather warmed up we were learning about birds and the weather.

One of the things I love is that we have teachers with so many talents and interests teaching in our school and they are willing to come do special activities with other classes! One of the things the students love is listening to someone besides me on occasion. :) Ms. Morse, our fifth grade teacher, is an avid bird-watcher and wealth of knowledge on the subject, so she spent an afternoon with our class sharing a little bit of what she knows. She shared video and sound clips of some common birds in our area such as the Mourning Dove, Black-Capped Chickadee, and the Cardinal (our state bird).  Ms. Morse even took us on a "field trip" to her classroom where she has several bird feeders just outside her windows. We learned some important tips for successful bird-watching, be very quiet and do not make any sudden movements. Our "field trip" continued with a hike around the school. We saw a number of birds, heard even more, and even spotted a few nests. Ms. Morse ended her visit with fun bird coloring books for all of us. Thanks for visiting us Ms. Morse, we hope you'll come back soon!

After learning so much from Ms. Morse, I thought it might be fun to make little bird feeders to hang outside. It took some searching, but I found a great way to make our own bird feeders without peanut butter and without leaving litter after the seeds are gone on Bargain Hoot.

Of course birds weren't the only things up in the sky that we learned about. The Kinder Kids really got excited about studying weather and rainbows.  We read two books in particular that the students really enjoyed. Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons and Sometimes It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.  After we read Spilt Milk we created our own version by painting cloud pictures and describing what they looked like. This class book is a favorite for read to self time.

We spent a lot of time discussing primary and secondary colors. We learned about color mixing, prisms, and how rainbows are formed. As a concrete representation of our learning we created hanging rainbows to decorate the room.  

 

We ended the month (and started April) by studying the solar system. The kids created their very own Solar System Big Books. 

I think their favorite activity was orbiting in the gym though. Each student acted as a body in the solar system and we attempted to orbit around each other. It was a wonderful way to demonstrate how God's power is evident throughout the universe, the student's couldn't think of any way, other than through His power, the planets would fall into such perfect orbits.

March was busy, but so much fun. I'm sure April and May will only bring more exciting learning!