A Halloween Treat: Guest Blogger

One of Halloween's biggest appeals, I think, is that for a day we get to be something different--a TV character, something from a movie, or a superhero. We have a real life superhero on our staff, Coach Nancy Kroll, who returned from a mission trip to Sainte Suzanne, Haiti last week. Here are some of her thoughts about the experience: 

To start, I want to thank my husband who was the one to give his blessing to go on quite a unique adventure.

My expectations began very mixed.  As Hurricane Matthew devastated western Haiti, I was nervous and apprehensive. However, educating my loved ones to the geography of Haiti and the fact that we were flying to Cap Haitien relieved some of their nervousness--and mine.

My first impression was the contrast of the country's physical beauty to the devastating level of poverty. After making our way through Customs, we took a very bumpy ride to our St. Suzanne church "compound."  We were greeted with welcoming arms by Father Volvick, Mrs. Boehm and Mrs. Tanis, who had arrived two days earlier. The women's quarters were apartment-like with a living room, small kitchenette and two bedrooms with an adjoining bathroom.  The men's quarters were on the top floor of the rectory. The rooms were equipped with several bunkbeds and mosquito nets. No alarm clock needed--the church bells are rung heartily at 5:30 am and 6 am, accompanied by dogs barking.

One thing I dreaded and was warned about was the food. Breakfast was served at 7 am and dinner around 6 pm.  I tried everything cooked and was very pleasantly surprised... Delicious. Refrigeration is a luxury so we did not have any milk or cheese products. We did have fresh mango, papaya, avocado and banana at most every meal. Rice was a staple at all dinners, and I tried the fish, chicken, goat and beef. 

Throughout the trip I grappled with many different emotions and thoughts swirling in my head.  I had the opportunity to tour two schools and received royal treatment--a creole welcome song (see the photos below), with visitation to each classroom. It felt like home and was fun to interact with the kids. One thought: it does not matter where you travel or the level of wealth, kids are the same. They are just kids. They do not know they are missing electricity and many other "necessities" of our Americanized way of life.  To me: unimaginably disadvantaged; to them: just another day at school.  

The students were extremely well behaved and polite. I told a few of my PE classes we could learn from their example.  Our CKS 3rd and 5th graders wrote pen pal letters to the students and each one was answered back. They exchanged their favorite classes, their favorite meals and their favorite way to play--futbol, tag, hide and go seek were very popular.

     

The medical/dental mission trip was also a success, especially when you look at the numbers -- and we are all impressed by numbers! We served close to 1000 men, women, and children in the medical and dental offices and chairs. I assisted the pharmacists with 677 prescriptions being filled. This was over the course of three and a half days. At the end of each day we were exhausted by the heat and happy to have a fan or two in the evening. We were buoyed each day by the people we served, who very appreciative and gracious.

My overall impression and the very shortened version of my trip: It's like the story of the boy on the beach with the starfish. Thousands and thousands have washed ashore and an old man is watching the boy throw the beached starfish back in the ocean. He finally says to the boy, "It doesn't make a difference; you can't possibly throw them all back in." The boy looks at the man and answers, "It made a difference to that one."

We did make a difference! Thank you to all our students who filled our suitcases with supplies and prayed for our safe trip and who continue to support our missions!

Red Ribbon Week at CKS!

We begin our celebration of National Red Ribbon Week today at CKS. The campaign, which began in 1985, was created to raise awareness of the destruction caused by illegal drugs and substance abuse. At CKS, it has been a tradition for our Student Government to plan activities to educate our students during this week. 

Many other worthy causes have used a ribbon to raise awareness over the past 31 years, as you can probably tell from your vast collection of different colored ribbons!  That is why, this year, we have expanded our focus at CKS during Red Ribbon Week to encompass making good decisions in all aspects of life, not just related to drugs and alcohol abuse. Here are the themes for each day this week:

Monday

"Have Clear Vision and Make the Right Decision" 

Tuesday

"Being Kind vs Being Mean"

Wednesday

"Be All God Wants You to Be"

Thursday

"Make Studying a Habit"

Friday

"Good Choices = Good Health"

We will have activities for the students throughout the week, culminating with a field day on Friday!

The CKS Difference

As I enter my 5th year at CKS and we prep this week for PTC on Thursday, I am reminded of one difference between my experiences in public and private school -- PTC night.  It was called PTSA in public school and the purpose was the same, foster collaboration between parents and teachers, but that is where the similarities stopped. I think our PTC nights are unique, even among private schools.  Mrs. Lowrey and teachers on our staff who have come from other schools will tell you how impressed they are by our PTC night.

Here are my top three things that make our PTC meetings the best thing to do with your Thursday Night:

Teachers 

You may be thinking to yourself, "I just met the teachers on Friday, do I really need to see them again on Thursday?" PTC night is more than just a meeting, our teachers use it as an opportunity to showcase the work they have been doing with our students over the quarter. This is your opportunity to see your child's work, leave them a note and do a quick check-in of the classroom.

Attendance

During my tenure in public school, our quarterly PTSA meetings averaged around 30 people. Other private schools often hold meetings during the day, averaging even less people. In many cases this makes the meetings more of a formality than an event. We strongly encourage our parents to attend and use PTC as a night to communicate important information. It is easy to become overly focused on the happenings of only the grades in which your children are enrolled. PTC allows us to communicate the bigger picture and vision for our school.

Fellowship

I won't make any assumptions, but I think our strong attendance may be influenced, slightly, by the refreshments we serve--you'll have to show up Thursday night to if you want more detailed information!  We serve adult refreshments because this encourages fellowship and that is really what we try to accomplish at PTC.  This fellowship is necessary to build the strong relationships essential for a successful school.

I am convinced we have something very special here at CKS -- the only other time there are lines this long on campus is at the Carnival beer tent!

I thank you for your continued partnership and will see you this Thursday night!
Classroom visitation begins at 6:45 pm; meeting begins at 7:30 pm in the McLoughlin Center.

I Bet You Learned It Wrong...

On Monday, our teachers attended a Professional Development workshop. One of the presenters was Dr. Jeff Borden, the Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning at St. Leo University. He delivered some shocking news to teachers: most of us have been tying our shoes inefficiently for most of our lives. There is even a TED talk to confirm this:

Click Here for the TED Talk

Alright, this is not the most shocking news to rock the educational world in the past century. Dr. Borden used it as a lead-in to how the brain is wired and how education in today's classroom should be the place where neuroscience, educational psychology, and educational technology meet. For a much deeper--and better--explanation in Dr. Borden's own words, check out an article he wrote for Wired about Education 3.0. Without quoting much heavy science, here are the three things I learned when I tried this shoe-tying experiment on my own this morning:

1 - Learning--and especially re-learning--takes time 

I fell into the large category of people who tie their shoes inefficiently, so this morning I was determined to right the wrong that had become an automatic part of my day. The result: tying my shoes the proper way added about 5 minutes to my morning routine. I had to stop and think about each step of the shoe-tying process. Hopefully I can make up the time by not having to re-tie my shoes throughout the day. So far, so good. 

2 - Learning takes perseverance over failure

Part of the added time to my morning was spent in futile attempts to actually make a knot. I sympathize with all our kindergartners learning (and probably re-learning after their parents read this) how to tie their shoes.  Just when you think you've followed all the steps properly and you pull the bows expecting a tight knot, failure. Let's try again. 

3 - Learning takes repeated experience

It will take continued practice and experience with tying the knot for this new learning to stick and become automatic. This is the KEY take-away for educators. When students learn material in isolation from REPEATED practice that applies the learning, it is forgotten. 

As we all reflect on the end of the 1st quarter and look ahead to the beginning of the 2nd quarter, I am encouraging our teachers to create learning experiences that are meaningful for our children. Although it may take more time, as well as perseverance through failure, it will ultimately make our children better prepared for the changing world in which we live. 

At the very least, they will know how to properly tie their shoes!

Rainy Day PE

Imagine the situation: You are gathered--closely--with 60 students in a classroom designed to comfortably hold 30 students. It has been raining continuously since the morning and all the students really want to do is go outside but you can't --  the fields are flooded, the pavilion floor is wet and lightning has been detected. What do you do? 

Increase your Annual Fund gift, so we can build a gym! Although our coaches would love that idea, they became creative last week and declared September 28th Attitude of Gratitude Day in PE. Before jumping into a game of Silent Speedball--the greatest rainy day activity since Heads-Up, 7-Up --the coaches asked the students to take some time and write a "thank you" to someone on the staff who has helped them this quarter. 

They gathered these notecards together and delivered over 200 notecards to 24 different staff members. Look below to see some pictures. It was amazing to see the reactions of the staff members after receiving these and the reaction of the students when they found out their message had been delivered.  Just a simple message of gratitude that only took a short time to create had a clear and immediate effect. 

Take a moment today and say, "Thanks" to someone.   You'll be amazed at the impact those two words can have on someone's day!