Red & Blue Review 12/8/22

Head of School Review

BY DR ANDY GRAHAM

We are getting closer to Christmas Break, and all of the students are excited! It is especially fun to see the anticipation and exhilaration that the Lower School students exhibit. It reminds one of the Christmas seasons of their youth. Growing up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky, most Christmas seasons were simple. We would have a tree freshly cut from the farm; there were usually oranges and apples, peppermint candy sticks, and of course some small gifts under the tree. However, in my mind, those are still very magical

Head of School Review

CONTINUED

We have already had many memories made on campus as we approach Christmas Break. We had a wonderful all school Christmas chapel yesterday. All 3 divisions were well represented, and the music was excellent. It seems nothing gets me in the Christmas spirit like the sound of student voices singing carols. We are excited about the Christmas Choir Concert this Sunday at 6 pm in the TRA Performing Arts Center and the Lower School Christmas shows next Wednesday and Thursday The students have been working hard preparing, and we know they are going to put on amazing performances.

Lastly, thanks to all of you for your support and assistance this semester. Thanks as well for welcoming all of our new families to our school and making them feel part of their new school community. We have so many great new students, and they are contributing in so many ways to our school. Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for sending us this great group of students each day!

Upper School Review

BY STEPHANIE WEHRER

Last Friday Ms. Vego’s senior Government class welcomed Drew Lonergan, who works for Majority Strategies as a political consultant. Drew is the State Strategist for both Arkansas and Tennessee. He spoke to senior students about campaigning for office, and specifically how those efforts have changed to reflect today’s digital age in which we are currently living. Drew provided statistics and shared how information is gathered to make a successful campaign and ultimately a winning candidate! We are so grateful to Drew for taking the time out to visit with our students, and we look forward to welcoming him back on campus to share more of his political knowledge with us. This week our school, all of our school, celebrated the blessing of the season through worshiping together in a Christmas chapel. One of the many unique blessings of being on one campus, is the opportunity to gather as one school community to lift praise and worship together. It is even more special when that chapel is for celebrating the birth of our Savior, the Light of the World, the One who was born to take away the sins of the world. We wish all of our students and families the Merriest Christmas!

Upper School Review

CONTINUED

Ms. Lea Ann Grantham and Ms. Ann Watson have introduced a new high school elective course this semester called High School Seminar. During this course students have been learning about different skills that are often not incorporated into content area learning students, but are a very valuable component to our mission of preparing students for life. Their culminating project has been to develop resumes and cover letters, but that’s not all, they are also participating in mock job interviews where they are presenting their completed documents to an interviewer. Students are wearing business professional attire, and actually answering questions they may experience when interviewing for a job! We are especially grateful to members of our stakeholder community who have willingly taken time out of their day to help us with this endeavor. This is such a great experience for our students, and we could not have done it without the planning and leadership of Ms. Grantham or Ms. Watson, or our community leaders.

Lower School Review

BY SUSAN CRANFORD

The spirit of Christmas is definitely alive and well in the elementary school! Our students are busy finishing up grade level standards and assignments and trying their best to stay focused! It is hard to work with Christmas break coming so soon! Our teachers are doing a great job of blending work and fun this week!

Our first graders read the book Pig Elf, while studying fact and fiction. Pig was quite mischievous! The first graders did a directed drawing of an elf to coincide with the fun story.

Our Kindergarteners also paired up with their Senior buddies to have Christmas sock day and write letters to Santa together. This was such a fun time, and the older students enjoyed it just as much as the younger ones.

Mrs. Bri Zink, our elementary guidance counselor, coordinated a “Kindness Challenge” for the month of December Our students are enjoying doing various activities to bring joy, while showing God’s love and kindness to others.

Lower School Review

CONTINUED

We loved our all school chapel this week We love the opportunity to worship together as one school. Special thanks to Mrs. Samantha Pence and Mrs. Lalania Vaughn for getting this together so beautifully for us. We had our regular Wednesday elementary chapel this week, too. Seniors Alexis Phillips and Eli Ramsey read The Christmas Story for Children, by Max Lucado, to our students, and they loved it!

Our PreK-4 students joined with some upper school student ambassadors to make Christmas treats to share with others. They had fun making and eating these! We have recently had so many opportunities of lower school and upper school students working together, and we love these mentoring times. Being a PreK 2 12th grade school has many advantages, but this is my favorite!

Coach Hood had a great rainy day PE game today. I caught third grade playing “castle ball”. It looked to me like a fancy dodgeball! Students loved throwing the balls to try to get other students “out” and knock down the castle of the opposing team So much FUN!