My! The first quarter of school is coming to a close today. I have enjoyed much of what I have observed inside and outside of classrooms at ACA. I have included photos to highlight some top events that have blessed me that I'd like to share with you!
On Wed. Oct. 4th, the ACA student body took part in the state walk for schools and businesses to exercise for 30 minutes. At our school we called it a Walk in the Spirit and children walked and prayed for our president, political leaders, those in the military helping to protect our freedom, fire fighters, police, pastors, teachers, students and those who yet do not know Jesus Christ personally. The students did a wonderful job on the walk and many shared that it was a great experience.
Kaylei Jacob in Mr.Gascho's 4th grade class and her father Kelsey were motivated after hearing in church about the need for food for the hungry in central Iowa and decided there were other needs that they felt could be met by the donations of shoes that could come from ACA students who wanted to share with others. The ACA Shoe Drive was launched Monday, Oct. 16th and will run until Nov. 16. Toddler - adult shoes can be brought to ACA and placed in one of three bins around the school.
Chapel is a special time each week when the students gather together to hear a speaker share God's Word. ACA's Elementary Chapel spotlights students who love to praise the Lord through instruments and voices. We are fortunate that Mrs. Mungons, our music teacher, has many students who enjoy worshiping the Lord as they lead the elementary student body.
Friday Oct. 13 was a day when students did not attend school, however we held an all-day professional learning where teachers met first in the morning to praise the Lord in song and prayer. Later in the morning, all faculty in three different groups completed a task for our Christian School International (CSI) accreditation. The educators needed to rank where ACA was in various areas and give evidence for the rankings. Before lunch break, faculty worked together reading various articles to put into a resource bank on Biblical Worldview that could sharpen their minds and enhance their teaching methods. The Biblical Worldview Task Force members include Johanna England, Melissa Hult, Jenny Anderson and Joel Willoughby. These individuals were chosen in the spring of 2016 by ACA's Board of Education after the recommendation by the Instructional Leadership Team: Steve Robinson, Joyce Hansen, Alex Coleman, Lisa Ihnen and Suzanne Sears. In the afternoon, two technology presentations were made available for ACA educators. The SMARTboard presentation was led by Mrs. Hartmann, Miss Brugioni and Mrs. Appell where teachers learned recent strategies for SMARTboard operation. Lisa Ihnen facilitated a Chromebook in-service informing teachers of various ways to incorporate them into a variety of classrooms. Our professional learning priority is teaching from a biblical worldview, infusing into the classrooms more use of technology and working on a variety of curriculum tasks like evaluating K-8 math materials for future recommendation to ACA's Board of Education for implementation in 2018-2019.
It is a pleasure to watch older students share their knowledge with younger children. Below view photographs of Mrs.Rose' fourth graders sharing their insect collections with Begindergarten students form Monica Dickinson's class. The children were able to view up close the insects and ask the scientists about the insects that they collected.
ACA in its 25th year continues to be a school where our mission is evident: Building Christian Character for Tomorrow's Leaders! We are thrilled to partner with you as parents/guardians and appreciated all who came out during conferences to talk about your student(s) progress so far this year. I am excited to share much more with you in my ACA Elementary Principal's Blog second quarter!
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