No images? Click here ST. AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMYVirtually Educating our Students - Mind, Body and SoulDear Aug Prep Community, We reached out to you with an update last week regarding our plan to move forward with excellence in education and care for our families during this uncharted time. Our staff is pressing forward together to serve our students with grace, determination and positive attitudes. In one week, our team pivoted from normal lesson planning to distance learning for two weeks...which then became “indefinite.” One of our teachers summed up what we’ve been feeling as a team on LinkedIn.
At Aug Prep we are dedicated to educating the whole child - mind, body and soul. How do we continue doing that when we aren’t physically with our students? We got creative and rose to the challenge. We hope you find the following updates and stories as inspiring as we do! Warmest regards, Last week, 100% of our K-8 families picked up packets and technology. All high school students already had their Chromebooks, but over 250 stopped in to pick up musical instruments or biomedical engineering books. It says a lot about our students and their families. They care about their education; they want to stay engaged and keep learning; they take this seriously. Online classrooms started on March 19th. Our teachers didn’t just have a few little things planned, they went above and beyond to include devotions, creative lessons and interactive assignments. Some students were eager and signed in earlier in the week. One middle school student was on at 8am the day before distance learning started, and our first elementary student responded to a drawing prompt with this photo. At Aug Prep, culture has always been our strength. With distance learning, we’ve had to consider how we can maintain a strong, positive, and consistent culture both among our staff and for our students and families. We know that we must proactively and virtually bring light to our students each day. Here’s a glimpse into a few ways we are doing that. Our elementary music teacher, Ms. Wacker, prepared do-it-yourself kits to create a box guitar or rain stick that students can practice music with at home. This project was only days away from being worked on in her regular in-classroom lesson plans for 3rd and 4th grade students, but a couple days of preparations made it possible for the project to travel home with photo-based directions for students to guide themselves through this process. She even made enough for her entire 2nd grade class and about 40 extra kits for any other students who wanted to take one. Our elementary visual arts teacher, Ms. Conklin, is creating consistency and positive daily interaction with her students through a comic book project. I could explain it, but take a look for yourself at her creativity, love, and care for her students. Go to https://augprepartlab2.blogspot.com/ to follow along with Ms. Conklin and her students’ daily comic page. During the first four days, we served nearly 2,078 breakfast and lunch packs to our students and any of their siblings that don’t attend Aug Prep. That’s 4,156 meals! On Thursday, we opened "drive-through" meals to the broader community to feed any child who is 18 or under. Please don’t hesitate to share the opportunity with any students or families who can benefit. This spring, about 360 students were amidst participating in after school athletics, clubs or tutoring. Many other students are missing their physical education class or water safety training in the pool. Currently, there are few places students can go to be active. That doesn’t change their need to keep their bodies healthy and minds strong. Our team knows this, and they are prioritizing it. Mr. Van Dunk, our elementary physical education teacher, created and posted a fitness video to all 1st - 4th grade classes through Google Classroom. He will send them a new video each week to be used for daily fitness. He took it a step further and plans to send out a video for a fitness challenge/game each day next week. His goal is to create content that reminds our students that they are still Aug Prep Lions! In middle school, Mr. Wells is providing students with a variety of aerobic and anaerobic workout videos along with nutrition lessons. Life as we know it is disrupted right now. Change can be even harder on children. We know the lack of consistency as well as a different “school” environment and schedule impacts our students mentally and emotionally. We also know God is in control, He loves our students, and He holds their right hands (Isaiah 41:13). Daily, teachers post videos and teach students live to keep a sense of normalcy and remind students of God’s love and presence. They are sending messages of encouragement and devotionals to their students, and biblical integration remains a priority in lessons. Additionally, our social workers are providing videos and resources to help them practice gratitude, mindfulness and healthy living. Our elementary school social worker, Ms. Lokken, encouraged students to create a gratitude jar and fill it with something that brought joy to their day. When they return to school they can go through their jar and share what they were grateful for during their time away from the classroom. Our elementary students can follow along with our Godly Play teacher, Ms. Richards, on Youtube as she sings songs of praise and tells the Lenten story. Here’s the opportunity for you to sit in on a lesson. On Friday, we had over 90% student attendance. YOU help us do this. Your love, prayers and support helped us create this culture and continue our holistic learning. As Ms. Lokken reminds us, practicing gratitude even amidst challenges grounds us with perspective and joy that runs deep. We are thankful for you. We look forward to continuing to share updates. Please monitor our Facebook page for more updates, stories, and images of students doing school work from home (sometimes in their uniforms)!
We are sensitive to the fact that many events are being cancelled right now. Currently, we are keeping our 3rd Annual Golf Outing on the calendar and will continue to monitor the CDC and WHO recommendations as the summer months approach. For now, we just ask you to keep the outing on your radar in hopes we can gather together again this summer! |