Dear Friends,
Just keep going, just keep going, just keep going…it’s mid-February and sometimes that’s the best we can do! Thank God for February vacation!!
Good things are happening here and despite the weather
we thank God for His school, His kids, and our HCA families. You are precious to us.
Thanks so much for encouraging your kids to fully participate in the
Read-a-thon. So many kids have their noses in books we may suffer some collisions in the hall ways! Our half-way party is today and the participation is high.
Thank you, parents, kids, Mrs. Lucier, and the teachers!
As I hope you are aware, we are working hard on our
Food for Life re-accreditation project and a million-page report to accompany it, okay…a slight exaggeration. Thank you for your prayers and support and please keep on praying! The report is due at the end of Feb. so please pray for stamina, focus and positive attitudes as we work.
Accreditation is an arduous task and great accomplishment.
Very few elementary schools, public or private, have been accredited but we continue to do so in order to become more excellent in every area. It requires examining every facet of the school and gives us standards to achieve in each area. This is our third accreditation visit as the term is every seven years.
One area we must
continually document is parent feedback. This is where we need your help. Although we hear stories of how our Food for Life program had made a difference in your home in areas of eating, fitness, and gardening, we have only a few
written statements to support it. So, would you
please take some time, perhaps during vacation, to document in writing and/or with photos some of the ways FFL has extended into your family and even impacted your habits? It could be things such as
- choosing physical activities, such as a family walk in the snow instead of a sedentary, indoor one
- cooking healthy recipes together
- a desire to create their own recipe
- eating new foods (especially ones that a 4th grader learned to like by trying what they cooked)
- a greater interest in plants
- a desire for more fruit and veggies
- eating the rainbow
- a desire to plant a garden at home or help plan an established one
- a knowledge of how to protect oneself from ticks
Any little indicators that they are
living out Food for Life learning would be great. Garden participation pictures from past summers would be helpful, as well.
Another thing we are working on as a faculty is an “elevator talk” (pitch) about HCA. The challenge is to be able to chat about HCA and give a clear description of what makes HCA HCA in a very short amount of time. What does make us unique? How are we different from other schools, even Christian Schools?
We have found that Amy Imbody’s acronym of BRIE (Biblical, Relational, Integral, Experiential) is helpful to define schools, like HCA, that are members of the Center for Redemptive Education. We use it, it helps but is not specific to HCA. We have been attempting to come up with our own acronym. It’s harder than you think!
Attached below is our first attempt.
We’d love your feedback. It covers a lot, is HCA, but perhaps a little long. Give it a try yourself if you want, and as I said to the faculty, the one who comes up with a perfect acronym gets an all-expense paid summer in Europe…again…I exaggerate! The process of trying to do this is helpful in itself and helped us all appreciate what God has been doing here at HCA for a very long time.
I pray you all have a restful, healthful and fun family week together. When we return it’s almost March and spring is right around the corner! Woohoo!
In Him who is able,
Susan Hayward, Principal
