Be Like Bosco!

The sun may have set on summer but at CKS we have kept the energy and excitement associated with this season going strong with the launch of our school theme: Be Like Bosco!

In our first quarter, students and staff members will #BeLikeBosco by "Being a Light for Others." I hope to capture some pictures of our students doing this in action and will post them on my Instagram and Twitter accounts. 

Here is a preview from our 4th grade students who came up with ways on the 1st day of school to "Be a Light for Others." 

My top five recommendations from our 4th grade class

1) Clean up someone else's mess

2) Give compliments

3) Show them how to obey God

4) Give compliments 

5) Smile at a sad person

We could all use more 4th grade logic!

3 Things You Need to Know for the 2015-2016 School Year

Welcome Back! It is the eve of the 2015-2016 school year, and I have three things you have to know for a great start.

1) It's OK if you haven't gone back to the normal bedtime routine.

Waking up on the 1st day of school is actually the easiest day. It's the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days that will give you trouble. The excitement and adrenaline helps us push through the 1st day but then reality sets in, and everyone gets tired. Make sure your family eats a good breakfast and after a week your bedtime routines will be back to normal.

2) The carline will get better. 

But at first it will be a mess--expect it and leave early. When you think to yourself and say, "Well, it wasn't like this last year," its because you are remembering it as it was the last month of school. Your brain has helped you by blocking out the 1st few weeks. Trust me, it takes time for everyone to reestablish their routines, especially the carline. Keep your patience and use the time to say a prayer. Also, I guarantee there is never a problem with the carline at 7:25am of 3:20pm.

3) We love your children as much as you do. 

It may come as a surprise, but few, if any of us, actually teach for the money, fame, or glory. We teach because we love children--we love helping them grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Although we may show it differently or may have a different approach than you, we ultimately want what is best for your children. If at any time you or children think differently, tell us. Just as you'd want your children to come to you when something is wrong, we want you and your children to feel comfortable to do the same. It is only together that we can help our children grow in the love of Christ, joy of knowledge, and spirit of service.

If you haven't had a chance, please check out the special back to school message below and participate in the poll at the top:

Courage is Contagious

Rick Wormeli is an educator, author, and speaker who passionately believes in making the right changes in our schools to ensure student success. Any change, though, takes courage. Click here to read Mr. Wormeli's article on "The Courage It Takes" to be an educator for change. 

The main point of the article is that courage is contagious. When one person exhibits bravery it becomes easier for the next person. Wormeli recounts a conversation with a high school student about the growing influence of gangs. The student responded to Wormeli that "gangs are only as strong as the town lets them be." I see applications of this thought process with our own students and the formation of cliques or tolerance of bullying behavior. If students are brave enough, with the support of school staff and parents, these types of negative behaviors weake--our community won’t allow them to be strong.

In addition to the academic foundation and commitment to service we provide to our students, I truly hope their spiritual formation gives them the courage to be brave. Each day we are faced with opportunities to test our bravery--sometimes it is an act of bravery just to read the headlines: "Ebola Spreads," "ISIS Advances," and "Suicide Bombers Attack." These types of headlines can cause fear and uncertainty--the enemies of bravery and courage. A more local example, students may be afraid to speak up for a friend being called names for fear of what will happen to them or the uncertainty of what other people might think. Bravery, then, is overcoming fear to do what is right.

I heard a story about a recent CKS graduate who had a class debate in high school. The assignment was to pick a side of the pro-life vs pro-choice issue and to argue for your cause in front of the class. As the students were gathering research it became apparent that only the former Christ the King student would be arguing the side of pro-life. She became nervous and scared to be the only dissenting voice in her class of peers. She did, however, feel so strongly about the topic that she bravely defended her pro-life position alone. I am not sure how many students she was able to bring to her side, if any, but that is not the point. The point is that she was able to stand up for her beliefs and be a light in the darkness—what Christ calls of us to do, and what I hope all our students are brave enough to do both at Christ the King and when they leave.

As Don Bosco would often tell his boys, “Don’t be afraid, Our Lady will send us all that is necessary.” This summer, Lions, let us remember Our Lady and say at least one Hail Mary each day asking for Her to pray that God gives us the courage we need to be Agents of Change. 

Memorial Day

No post this week! Take some time this Memorial Day to pray for those that made the ultimate sacrifice for us. 

Summer School?

The summer slide—we've all heard about it and educators have been trying to battle it for what seems like forever. A quick Google search using the scholar filter will give 101, 000 results (in .24 seconds mind you) on research which shows that at worst students can lose a month’s worth of learning over the summer. Any teacher will tell you, without needing Google's help, that the 1^st few weeks of school seem like a necessary review of last year's material.

Research further shows that students tend to slide more in math than they do in reading.  One key reason could be that we, as families, naturally participate in more activities that promote literacy: we take our children to the bookstore or library to check out books; however, when we take them to the grocery store do we make them add up the number the cost of items in the cart and multiply for sales tax? Most attempts at preventing the summer slide involve providing students with summer reading and pounds of repetitive math practice—we were guilty last year.

However, research by the American Psychological Association shows that learning occurs with deliberate practice rather than rote repetition. To borrow a basketball example, going out and shooting the ball 100 times a day will not make me a better basketball player or shooter, unless I deliberately practice form and shooting in game situations. Likewise, rote repetition of basic facts can improve performance in the short term but won’t help with long term learning and improvement. That is part of the reason reading skills slide less than math skills—many of our students read over the summer, not just for the purpose of doing the required reading for a project but for the deliberate purpose of reading for enjoyment or for information.

Therefore to prevent loss of learning in math, we should deliberately practice it with our children. Here are 5 easy ways:

1. Play Games—multiplication war is like the traditional card game except the first person to multiply the product of the two cards wins the round. Scrabble is also a great way to combine vocabulary, addition, and multiplication. 
2. Bake cupcakes—use proportions and fractions to adjust ingredients for different numbers of people—I am happy to taste test if you need a reason to bake.
3. Map a summer trip—figure out the miles traveled, average car speed, time traveled, the gallons of gas needed, and the cost.
4. Let you kids grocery shop for the week—give them a budget and have them price items on-line to make a menu for the week.
5. Keep Pace—using a summer reading book, have your child see how many words they can read in 30 seconds (and comprehend what they read). Using that information, they can figure out how many words they can read per minute, how many words per page, how many pages in the book, and how long it should take them to read it. This can be done several time to see if they are improving their pace. 

In the next few weeks we will be sending home a list of summer reading for students entering 3^rd through 8^th grade. Students will have one required book and a list of suggested books. We will also be sending home math activities you can do as a family. My hope is that you can enjoy your time with your children this summer instead of fighting with them the last week of summer to do their packet. This way, together, we can stave off the summer slide. 

Don't forget to answer the poll question on the left side of the page to give your feedback about summer work. 

Standardized Tests

Standardized tests and their place in education seems to be a regular feature in the news cycle and as subject matter for bestsellers. Here are just a few headlines and titles:

“The case against standardized testing: Raising the scores, ruining the schools”

“The Uses and Limitations of Standardized Tests in Meeting the Demands of Accountability”

“The Standard Test: To Be or Not to Be”

“Testing in a Democracy”

“Standardized Test Scores: Voodoo Statistics”

Perhaps even more interesting than the headlines are the dates they were published: 2000, 1971, 1975, 1985, and 1988 respectively. It is hard to believe that we have been debating the merits and uses of standardized testing for over 40 years. At Christ the King, we use the Iowa Assessments which are norm-referenced tests. This means we receive results about how our students’ skills compare to other students across the nation on a test of similar standards.

It is easy to oversimplify the results of the test and look solely at numbers. It is important to remember that each test represents one moment in a child’s education on one day. Rather than looking solely at the cumulative scores, it is more helpful to look at student results over time to measure growth, and scores on skill subsets to determine strengths and weaknesses.

Each of our teachers performs an analysis of these areas for each student in their class. This helps teachers plan for future instruction. For example, if after analysis, a teacher found that many of her students performed below the national average on computing with fractions, this would point towards a need for professional development to help learn how to better teach this skill.

Teachers also share the analysis with the next grade level teachers, so those teachers can plan instruction to target specific skills. It can also help teachers know which skills students have mastered, allowing for the pace of instruction to move quickly through concepts students already grasp. When used in this way, test scores no longer become numbers that define our students. Instead, they become numbers that help teachers outline their instruction.

For more detailed information, please join Mrs. Metz and me this Thursday, 5/13, at 2 pm or 6 pm in the cafeteria. Also, please take a minute to provide me some feedback about what you would like to know about standardized tests. 

Mother's Day

Next Sunday, we will all be celebrating and giving honor to our mothers. This may include making breakfast, going out to eat, making gifts, or just spending time as a family. I asked our students at assembly this morning what they do for their mothers and here were the top 5 responses:

1. "I bought her a Rhoomba one year, but that made her mad for some reason?" (7^th grade)

2. "My siblings and I try to stay far away from her." (4^th grade)

3. "I make her a card" (multiple grades)

4. "I make her flowers out of tissue paper." (2^nd grader)

**Spoiler Alert**

5. "I bought her an iPhone 6 Plus." (???)

During the month of May our school community also honors a special mother, Mary, the mother of Jesus. This devotion to Mary is sometimes confused as worshipping Mary. As Catholics, worship is something reserved for the divine (God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit). Mary is not divine, although she is recognized as the first and greatest saint.

Just like we take special time this weekend to honor our mothers, we should make time to honor Jesus’ mother. We ask our own mothers for help or to “soften” our Dad’s before asking them for help. It should be appropriate, then, to ask for Mary’s help, through her intercessions and prayers for us. That is what we ask of her in the final line of the Hail Mary” “…to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

I always listen to my mother when she tells me to do something, I am hoping Jesus will do the same thing when I ask for His mother to pray for me. Enjoy your Mother’s this week and every day.

Here is a picture of a special mother in my life at our 1^st Grade Mother’s Day Tea last week.