Our Story

Joshua 4:6-7 "In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ 7 Tell them the water stopped flowing in the Jordan when the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord crossed the river. These rocks will always remind the Israelites of this.”

We are a group of God’s children who have been assembled here at South Side for such a time as this. God has placed children in our care. Children who need understanding, nurturing, patience and love. God is willing to use us: our arms to hug, our hands to hold, our mouths to smile, our lips to tell His story to teach about His world, and our hearts to share His joy and love with these children and their families.

The water shifts around us. Sometimes, the sand we stand on feels loose and unsteady. But we place this rock in our midst to remind us that our work belongs to God. He has placed us on this path and we are answering His call. He has called us to work here today, to deliver Holland Christian’s mission to the best of our ability with our children. It takes perseverance. It takes patience. It takes willingness to see the big picture. It takes forgiveness. It takes offering help and sharing guidance to one another. It takes identifying and using the strengths that God has blessed us with. It takes God’s mighty strength and hope living in us. But we are doing it. We are growing His children for Him.

So with this rock, we tell our story. If children ask, what is this rock for? We can tell them, we are standing on God’s solid foundation and growing YOU! Teaching you that God loves you so much, he sent his only Son to die here on earth to forgive our sins. He is using us to teach you and show you that you are His child and that you are dearly loved!

This is our story. This is our rock!

The following is our agenda for Monday:

8AM-11:30AM Report Card Work (snacks provided during the morning)

• Talk and decide as a grade level, what are 2-4 questions (mission-related) per grade level to send home with report cards for parents to consider and prepare for conferences? These are suggestions to get your wheels turning, edit, and use, as desired:
• How does your child feel about coming to school
• How is your child doing socially?
• Are there particular subjects that are favorites or not?
• Anything going on at home that I should know to effectively teach your child?
• What is a typical night like at home?
• How have you seen your child grow since the start of the school year?
• How has your child’s faith grown since the start of the year?
• Has our theme focus made it home in specific actions and words?

• Discuss and walk away with any common content-specific comments that can be copied and pasted into your students’ report cards.
• Begin entering any specific comments or data you may already have for any of your students on report cards.

11:30-12:45 LUNCH

• We insist that you take a lunch break after working so hard in the morning, and anticipating more good work in the afternoon. You have the freedom to go wherever you like with whomever you like.

12:45-3:00PM Reading Workshop and Rubicon

• Take a look back over your first unit of Reading Workshop and discuss one essential question that demonstrates an intentional faith integration into the unit. When you have decided, please enter it into your Rubicon map.

• Discuss your next unit teaching points, faith integration essential question, and plan and enter into your Rubicon map.

• We will be doing Report Cards with comments for Quarter 1 (all but K).

• Report Cards are due for completion by October 16, 8AM when we will print all report cards for you from the office (even though quarter end has been pegged for October 31).

• Report Cards will go home with students on Friday, October 17 so that parents have the weekend to examine them before conferences.

• Part of Monday's PD day next week will be designated for some report card conversation and preparation at grade levels, for writing some of the curricular "what students have been learning this quarter in...." comments, as well as preparing any other segments of your Report Cards that you desire. Dan Vos will also be present and available for any refreshers or training any may need for accessing and preparing Report Cards. Dan will also be sharing, likely today yet, a screencast of how to begin your Report Card work again this year so that you can begin as soon as you desire.

Report Cards
We want the best possible experience for parents, students, and staff for effective, timely, and helpful communication affirming our partnership with parents all year long, but especially during this critical time of parent/teacher conferences. 

• We will be doing Report Cards with comments for Quarter 1 (all but K).
• Report Cards are due for completion by October 16, 8AM when we will print all report cards for you from the office (even though quarter end has been pegged for October 31).
• Report Cards will go home with students on Friday, October 17 so that parents have the weekend to examine them before conferences.
• Part of Monday's PD day next week will be designated for some report card conversation and preparation at grade levels, for writing some of the curricular "what students have been learning this quarter in...." comments, as well as preparing any other segments of your Report Cards that you desire. Dan Vos will also be present and available for any refreshers or training any may need for accessing and preparing Report Cards. Dan will also be sharing, likely today yet, a screencast of how to begin your Report Card work again this year so that you can begin as soon as you desire.

Dates for your Blog:

Sept. 29: No School: Staff Development Day

October 9: Grandparents' Day

October 21 & 22: Parent/Teacher Conferences

October 22: No School

October 23& 24: No School: CEA Convention

Please know, my door is always open...I may not be there, but it's nice to know the door is open ;)