Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving

We pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving celebrating with family and friends. The Lord has blessed us greatly as a school and we are grateful for that.

 

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Student Art on Display

Mrs. Bourne is gearing up for our Christmas Art Show.  This year we will have all of our students' first semester art projects on display during the Elementary and MS Christmas programs.  In the past, we've done one art show in the Spring and kept everyone's work until then.  This year, we will have two art shows.  One will be in conjunction with the Christmas programs and then another will be in May. 

Here are some samples of what is already up around the hallways:


Our Christmas programs will be Thursday, December 1 at 6 pm when our MS/HS Drama presents "Ebenezer's Christmas Carol" along with our Chorus presenting, "Old English Christmas Carols".
Our Elementary students will have TK-2nd grade performing at 6 pm on December 8 and the 3rd-5th graders presenting their program at 6:45 the same evening.  Come see our students sing and perform and explore our hallways filled with student art work.








Monday, November 21, 2016

Reality Store with the Eighth Grade

Each year we take our eighth grade students to the Reality Store.  This is an event sponsored by the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce and area businesses and individuals.  Students are assigned an occupation based on their GPA, an annual and monthly salary and number of children (which is based on their attendance and tardies). 



Once there, they have to report to Uncle Sam and pay taxes first!  They then work their way through about 20 different stations to arrange housing, insurance, transportation, child care, groceries, furniture, and more.  They have opportunities to sign up for supplemental income by enlisting in the National Guard and/or part-time jobs with Walmart or Kroger.  I always enjoy when the National Guard representative puts them through drills and calisthenics!



Each year I enjoy going with the students and hearing their conversations and reactions to this experience.  One student came up to me at the end and said, "Mrs. Tigges, if I didn't have any kids, I would have a lot of money!" and another student said, "How do my parents do this?". 




I appreciate the work that our local Chamber of Commerce does to put this together.  It is a valuable experience for students as they navigate what it means to pay your bills and have a set amount of money to work with to manage.  They make them talk about savings, insurance, and more. 


These type of activities are so important for our students as they continue to connect their choices to life consequences!


Wednesday, November 16, 2016

If I Had a Hammer demonstration

Today we were fortunate to host a visitor in our middle school math class to demonstrate the "If I Had a Hammer" math curriculum.  If you'd like to see a demonstration of this, go to the website here.


I really enjoyed seeing how he used technology and manipulatives to teach measurement, fractions and more.  The students really grasped what he was teaching from a visual, audio and tactile point of view. 

Here are a few photographs of our students interacting with the demonstration.



I am excited to see how we are able to incorporate real life application of math concepts into our classrooms. Making house plans, building scale models, calculating mortgage rates and more are all ways to help our students learn how they actually WILL use math each day. 

We are Thankful......

One of my favorite things about our school is being able to walk around and see student work displayed and/or hear them during instruction in class.  Right now, there are a lot of items on display about Thanksgiving and being thankful.  I thought I would share a few of them on the blog:


Mrs. Bevins' 4th graders



Mrs. James' 3rd graders



First Graders writing



Preschool



Kindergarten 



2nd Grade Turkeys



Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Upcoming Service Opportunities

It is such a blessing to lead students to serve our community.  We have several upcoming opportunities to serve Frankfort and beyond.

1- Operation Christmas Child boxes - our shoeboxes are due back by WEDNESDAY, November 16.  We will pray over them and dedicate them in our chapel services on that day.

 Operation Christmas Child

2- Ringing Bells for Salvation Army - we currently have openings to help ring the bell for the  Salvation Army at the East Side Kroger THIS SATURDAY, November 19 from 10am-8 pm.  See the sign up genius link to sign up for time:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c48a9ae23a3fa7-volunteer

 

3- "CRAM the CRUISER" - we are partnering with the Kentucky State Police to bring in non-perishable food items from November 22-December 12.  You may send in any non-perishable food items during that time and we will deliver them to help feed people in and around Frankfort during the holiday season. 

 

Thank you in advance for partnering with us as we strive to serve those less fortunate in our community!

Monday, November 14, 2016

What I am Reading......

Our Board of Directors is currently reading through a book, Rethinking Sustainability:  A Strategic Model for Christian Schools by Alan Pue.



I have read through this book once already, as it was/is a requirement for my courses through ACSI Leadership University.  Now that it is highlighted and underlined and starred, I am re-reading it again and looking for themes, important items to discuss in our monthly board meetings and items we can use to directly impact the financial stability and vision for our school.

Right now, we are discussing current paradigms that exist within the Christian school at-large and specifically in our school.  We are also examining biblical principles that need to be applied when examining finances at our school.

I really enjoy the way this book forces me to think, to examine pre-supposed principles regarding financial decisions.

One question he posed is, "Do we want to make Christian education accessible or affordable?" and that really resonates with me.  For me, the choice to educate my children at a private, Christian school requires dedication and sacrifice.  Every family has to decide what that looks like for them, what it requires.

I want to value my faculty and staff.  I want to retain dedicated and committed individuals.  I want to provide high-quality professional development for them to continue to grow, expand their practice of educating our students, learn more about specific subject matter.  We want to provide "out of the box" opportunities for our students.  All of these requirements have to be properly funded.

Our board brings much thought, expertise and prayer to each decision we make for the school.  I am excited to see how we grow and learn together through this study.  I am also excited to see how we continue to lean on God's provision!

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Parent Teacher Conferences



Tuesday is our fall parent/teacher conference day.  We set aside one day each fall to have initial parent/teacher conferences.  Our teachers can certainly meet with parents throughout the year for concerns, but this day is specifically aimed at partnering with our parents to document progress of our students academically, as well as spiritually and socially.

It is exciting to see so many parents invested and interested in meeting with their children's teachers.

Several of our teachers are incorporating progress monitoring data from our CBMs (curriculum based measures), as well as class work and even reflections from the students as a part of their materials for these meetings.

Recently, I found some fabulous resources on Teachers Pay Teachers and Pinterest to share with our staff for them to utilize for these meetings.

Here are some suggestions if you are looking for resources:

Student Self-Reflection page - http://inspiremeasap.com/2011/03/time-for-report-cards.html

Parent Teacher Conference form packet - http://www.ateachableteacher.com/parent-teacher-conference-tips-and/

Resources from TpT - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:parent%20teacher%20conference

Parent/Teacher Conference Report - http://create-abilities.blogspot.com/2014/09/parent-teacher-conferences-10-tips-and.html


Monday, November 7, 2016

Get Out and VOTE!

Tomorrow is Election day across the United States.  Our students are out of school and our teachers will be hosting parent/teacher conferences.


Today, Monday, our Young Republicans Club and their sponsor, Mr. Lewis, have been hosting a student Presidential election.  Students are voting on who they would pick to be President of the United States.

We have "voting booths" set up and ballots that they fill out so they can cast their vote.

Here are the results of our voting:

Students:
Hillary Clinton - received 46 votes
Donald Trump - received 186 votes
Gary Johnson - received 16 votes
Evan McMullin- received 11 votes
Jill Stein -received 4 votes

Our students have been reading books in classes, discussing the electoral college, doing Presidential Election research reports, analyzing polls and debates.

Set an example for our young people - GET OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW!

Fall Retreat



Each year, we take our middle school and high school students on a "Fall Retreat".  The focus is on fellowship within our student body, bible study, reflection and worship.  The past few years we have journeyed over to Crossings at Cedarmore in Bagdad, Kentucky.  The camp is situated on several hundred beautiful acres of rolling hills.  The lakes are serene and the recreation area is perfect for hosting 140+ middle and high school students.  They can play basketball, ga-ga ball, 9 square, volleyball, soccer and more all in adjacent areas. 



Our theme this year was centered around Redemption.  John Nix, of Vertical Purpose Ministries, (www.johnnix.com), was our pastor for the retreat.  He focused on preaching from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament.  He did a fabulous job preaching, as well as meeting individually with parents and high school students. 



Three college students, Logan Carver, Braden Burford and Mac Price, came and led our worship.  Logan and Braden are recent graduates of TFCA.  The students listed this as one of their favorite parts of retreat - the worship!


Another favorite is bazooka ball - students use "markers" similar to paintball guns.  They use small, nerf balls about the size of golf balls.  Middle school students play one another, then high school and then the parents and faculty get a turn!



Each year, I enjoy getting to spend time away from school really talking to some of our students and parents.  Being in a relaxed environment and able to connect in our small groups (homerooms) is a blessing. 





One of the items Mr. Nix focused on with parents was the idea that we are all making disciples as we parent.  As we guide and direct our children, we want to point them constantly toward God's word.  Fostering a love for reading the Bible and applying his truth has to be a focus for us as Christian parents.  He gave some practical advice for incorporating discipleship in our home!