Supportive Community

Do you know who these wonderful people are in this photo? These are the volunteers who work faithfully and diligently to make Christian Education an option for students at Holland Christian and Zeeland Christian. These folks are many of the faces who work at DITTO. Thanks to their hard work and faithful commitment, each child in your class receives $195 off of their tuition bill. The DITTO store is able to offer $39,000 PER MONTH to our schools! Even though we have so many to select from, I often find myself at a loss for words. A simple "thank you" and warm smile simply doesn't seem adequate for all they do. Hmm...is there a SPARK opportunity here if you're still looking? It is quite a ministry!

CEA reimbursement
HC gifts all teaching staff with the opportunity to grow and learn together at the CEA convention every year. This year the convention is in South Bend. The expectation is that all teaching staff will attend both days unless you have been excused. The following stipend is being offered for staff:

$125--for teachers who travel down on Thursday, stay overnight and travel back at the close of the convention on Friday.

$100--for teachers who travel back and forth and attend both days of the convention.

Will you please find me at the convention and let me know which of the two options you have decided to accept? I'll be on the look out for you as well. Thank you.

Literacy Instruction
We had a very informative, albeit brief, meeting with Erin on Thursday. I will be sure to invite her back again so we can continue our talking points. I'll capture a few pieces of our conversation here:

Instructional level is what we report to parents on our report cards. For first and second grade running record scores entered on the data spreadsheets that are blue and green are 3. Scores that are yellow will be a 2. Red is a 1. Please don't hesitate to ask if that does not come across clearly to you.

Leveled Letter Grades on report cards: please feel free to use your professional judgement when reporting your students' reading levels. This reading level may also be communicated during your parent/teacher conference time as well.


Fire Alarm
How about that! Our first alarm is on the fritz! So....no starting fires in classrooms for AT LEAST the next week, please. If you do find yourself in non-compliance with that request (in other words, if you do start a fire in your classroom) please push the black button on the wall in your classroom to inform the office. If you hear Pat or me over the intercom (I'll likely be the one out of breath!) informing the school that we are conducting a "fire alarm" please follow fire drill protocol. We will let you know what the system is up and running again. It should be early next week.