American Public School System
http://www.onlinecollege.org – photo
This photo was recently found at Online College.org. It’s an interesting infographic of the American Public School System. So, what’s your opinion? Is our education getting better? Worse?
When you think of Community Christian Schools and excellent education, I would like to hear what you think of our school!
Dessert Silly
No Bullying!
Dr. Gary Harman came and gave a wonderful presentation to our students today for our “Anti-Bullying Campaign”. It was a joy to have him visit and the students loved seeing him again! Here is a recap of his lesson:
Bullying is a behavior – not a person! Jesus commands us to love everyone…but we may not love their actions.
Bullying is words or actions that are unfair or one-sided. It happens when someone keeps hurting, frightening, threatening or leaving some one out on purpose.
Dr. G’s 3 R’s of Bullying:
Recognize: “Words or Actions” that hurt someone on purpose
Refuse: Show courage! Stand tall and say stop it! “You mess with one of our eagles, you mess with me.” Partner up with someone to help you take a stand. If they don’t stop it…
Report: Report UP to a teacher, yard duty teacher, or principal
Remember, bullying is destroyed by courageous actions. Treat all people with respect. Don’t be afraid to be a leader and speak up for anyone you feel is being bullied.
Our teachers received a classroom poster and anti-bullying pledge form. Parents should see it coming home this week.
Thank you, Dr. G!
Middle School All Set Up!
Yes!
Our middle school classroom is all set up with its new technology. 
Thanks to a very generous donor, and a helpful volunteer dad to put it up, they have a new flat screen TV. The ladybug document camera came as well today. I went in and installed the ladybug this morning and the TV, computer, and ladybug all work together. Yea! Our 6th – 8th grade students will now be able to see anything the teacher does under the document camera (ladybug) on the flat screen TV in real time – books, writing, experiments – many things! I could hear the kids through the wall expressing their excitement!
I hope to post pictures soon.
Leader in Me
Our Leader in Me curriculum arrived and I am so excited! We have so many ways we would like to implement it and can’t wait for families to share in the experience with us. Look for a Parents’ Guide to be coming home shortly!
Here is a look at their first habit:
Habit 1: Be Proactive ~ I am a responsible person. I take initiative. I choose my actions, attitudes, and moods. I do not blame others for my wrong actions. I do the right thing without being asked, even when no one is looking.
Wow. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our kids really learned this? I know parents want their kids to do the right thing without being asked (I want that as a parent!). God does, too!
I believe we can, in a sense, color our own day. It’s done through our attitudes and moods. We can choose to be grumpy and see things in shades of grey. Or, we can choose to be happy, upbeat, and see even difficulties through the Light of God’s Word – which gives an array of color!
Thankfulness…
Wanted to say thank you for the beautiful card sent by the students at our school today – signed by everyone! Wow. What a blessing to be on break and receive it in the mail. I am truly blessed.
Hope you all are enjoying your holiday! God is good!
Naughty Dog and Watermelon Explosion
For all my Twitter followers, this really has nothing to do with life as a principal. (Well, maybe a little.) It’s simply life at my house.
Last night I was awoken by a thump downstairs. I could hear my precious Maddy downstairs and figured she must have knocked something down. Our other dog, Charlie, was still asleep. But – I ignored her. I wanted to sleep! Morning came and both dogs were downstairs. Hmmm. Not good. I knew they were up to something.
I went downstairs and there was Maddy – guarding a piece of bread. Charlie was in the kitchen – finishing off his 2nd loaf of bread. Yes, during the night Maddy got into the pantry and retrieved 2 loaves of bread…and cookies? Not so sure. Maddy is a sweet innocent looking dog. She is quiet mannered and scared of visitors. Charlie is a moose. He’ll eat anything. Really. He’s eaten an iphone, an entire calculator, shoes (many, many shoes), socks, toilet paper rolls, Bible…it doesn’t really matter. If he can get it, he’ll eat it. But Maddy, with all her innocence, is the instigator. She was the one up in the middle of the night getting out the bread. She might have eaten it all had Charlie not shown up. He is a bully. I’m sure when he figured out what she was doing, he ran downstairs, tore open the loaves and ate up all the bread – including most of the packaging. That’s one thing about them – Maddy will eat the bread, Charlie will eat the plastic and all.
I think about kids. We all love our kids. Their cute, lovable, adorable, innocent. Could they really do THAT? Let’s face it. We’re sinners. It’s interesting being a principal and sitting in my office. The after school care room is right outside my office door so I get to hear parents picking up kids from after school care. I’ve heard interesting conversations. Don’t worry – most of them are sweet and positive. But not all. I think kids sometimes are like Maddy – sweet, cute, but into some trouble. Other kids are like Charlie – maybe not the instigators, but guilty and bullies non-the-less.
I wanted to get a picture this morning for you so that you could see my sweet, adorable dogs. But they are very hard to get to sit still for the camera. So, I decided to take the last piece of bread, the one Maddy was guarding, and place it at the edge of the counter so that they could stare at it while I took their picture. So, here is the result:
Now if you look very closely at the picture, you will see a black figure at the right bottom corner. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Yes, that was Charlie…and the instant I took the picture, he jumped up and took that last piece of bread. Urgh. Guess that’s what I get for tempting them just for a picture.
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Slightly off the subject, what about times our kids really ARE telling the correct story, and we think they aren’t? Another incident at my home this week was the watermelon explosion. We had a small, plastic jar of fresh, natural watermelon juice in the fridge. But, it had been in there about 2 months. It was my 19 year old son’s and I was irritated that he wouldn’t throw it away. So two nights ago I finally took it out and told him to get rid of it. He proceeded to tell me that he wanted to take it outside, toss it up in the air, have it fall and watch it explode all over. I said no way. He wasn’t going to go make a mess in the street. So I told him to pour it in the sink and throw away the jar. “But mom! You can’t! You can’t open it up! See all the pressure it’s under? It will explode! No way. I’m not gonna do it.” I told him that was ridiculous, just take off the lid, let some air out, pour out the contents, and toss it. “MOM! I can’t do it. It will explode all over!!!!” He then started to tell me about…oh, I don’t know…scientific stuff about contents under pressure. Urgh. Did I believe him? No. Impatiently, I grabbed the bottle, brought it over to the sink, slowly started twisting off the lid (as he started backing away…) and BOOM! (I hope you read that LOUD and with expression!) Yes, it literally exploded. Watermelon explosion – all over the kitchen, and me! I’m not exaggerating…it went all over the walls, ceiling, curtains, and my white (yes, white) sweater. He started cracking up. What could I do? Yep. It was funny. We both laughed. Guess I better believe him next time!
Great Traditions
Since I have been at this school I have noticed that it is very keen on traditions. I have been told many times, “This is how we do it…” Sometimes that’s been great…other times…it’s time to move on.
However, there are a few traditions of the school that I really love. One is Operation Christmas Child. (You may get more information by clicking HERE.) Students brought toys, toothbrushes, kleenex, pencils, etc. to pack into shoe boxes to send to a needy child who has never received a gift. What I enjoyed was that they compiled all the items onto a table and had the students pack the boxes themselves. That’s a nice touch! Students could include a written note inside the box as well.
The other tradition I really enjoyed was placing flags out for Veteran’s Day. The first grade students and junior high students walked together over to the cemetery across the street and placed flags at all the memorials for the Veteran’s. What a great reminder for the sacrifice these men and women have given to our country! It was a beautiful sight watching the junior high students each take a first grade student to walk around and place flags on the graves.
I know there are many more wonderful traditions – those 2 are on my mind because they both took place this week! Keep up the great work, CCS.
Kids Say the Cutest Things…
What can I say? You work around kids and find out the funniest things. One teacher shared some of these statements of things overheard in the classroom…
(Names have been changed to protect the “innocent”.)
Student is looking for the picture of the rain to indicate that the weather is rainy. Teacher points out the picture to her, which is hard to tell because it is a picture of rain that is far away over the ocean.
Girl 1: That looks like a tsunami.
Teacher: What is a tsunami?
Girl 1: It is a big wave that went over Japan and covered it with water.
Boy 1: My cousin was in Japan and was hurt by the tsunami.
Teacher: Yes, I remember you told us about that. But he is ok, right?
Boy 1: Yes, but he had to go to the hospital because a crab pinched him. (makes “pinching” movement with his little fingers)
Teacher has to look away to keep from laughing.
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Class discussion led to a comment about a student’s mom being smart.
Girl 1 raises her hand: “My parents are really smart. They are smarter than you. They said you were wrong about something. It’s true, they told me.”
Teacher: Oh, really? Well then they are probably right. What was it about?
Girl 1: I don’t remember, but you were wrong, they said so.
Teacher: Well then they were right. Boys and girls, if your parents ever tell you something that is different than what I tell you, they are right and I am wrong. Your parents are always right!
(Parents, you owe me for that one!)
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Tommy takes an oral assessment. Teacher shows him a “B” Tommy says the sound /b/
Teacher: Right that is the sound it makes. Now what is the name of the letter?
Tommy struggles to remember the sentence with clue word : “It says /b/ as in….belephant!” (Teacher laughs.) “I mean bunion!”
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Teacher is discussing healthy habits and foods. Students circle pictures of healthy snacks on a paper. There is a picture of raisins and class discusses what raisins are made of.
Boy 1 raises his hand.
Teacher: Yes?
Boy 1: Raisins are good for your poop. I know that because my mom told me.
Teacher looks away, trying not to laugh. : “oh, really? That is good to know.”
Attitudes on Education – Results Are Out!
About a week ago I ran a survey to find out “attitudes on education”. It was a 10 point survey to find out what people felt was most important – or least important – when thinking about a child’s education. I have the results! While the survey will remain open, most of the results that appear are very similar, so – here you go in order from MOST important to LEAST important:
1. Spiritual Growth and Character Development
2. Mathematics
3. Reading Comprehension
4. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
5. Lifelong Learning and Self Direction TIED with Computer and Technology Skills
6. Oral Communications TIED with Teamwork and Collaboration
7. Written Communications
8. Creativity and Innovation
9. Media Literacy
10. Science
So, are you surprised by the findings? Our number one, spiritual growth, didn’t surprise me since we are a Christian school. However, for those wondering, our school does not discriminate. People to not have to profess a particular faith to attend here. However, they do realize that students will receive a Christian education with a biblical world view.
It’s not a surprise that our core subjects, math and reading, were next in line. Critical thinking skills were also deemed as vital. The last three scores – creativity & innovation, media literacy, and science – were way down in points compared with the rest. Do you agree? What are your thoughts on that finding?
I’d love to hear back from you and hear your thoughts about the findings! Please comment below.
