THE WOODLANDS THE WOODLANDS
C H R I S T I AACADEMY N CHRISTIAN A C A D E M Y MAY 2, 2014
Head Of School Notes As this school year winds down, we are busily preparing for an even better one next year! We have accepted almost 100 outstanding new students, and we are hiring some dynamic new teachers to join our already stellar faculty. I am very pleased to announce that The Woodlands Christian Academy is working with Apple by entering the 2014 nomination process to become an Apple Distinguished School! Partnering with Apple will allow Woodlands Christian to facilitate a blended, digital learning environment by placing iPads and MacBooks in the hands of all of our students while training teachers to leverage digital content from the iTunes repository for education. A finite number of schools were nominated in 2013 and only 247 worldwide (including higher education) hold the Distinguished status. In order to be named an Apple Distinguished School, we must demonstrate best practice qualities of a 21st Century digital learning environment, and our faculty is already doing a tremendous job of meeting these standards. The benefits of this designation will include product discounts, the opportunity to test operating systems and new products months before they are released to the public, monthly training on-site for our teachers, advanced training for our on-site technology staff, introductions to other Apple Distinguished Schools to share ideas and best practices, opportunities to host Apple educational training sessions on our campus for national and international guests, and ultimately, the support needed to equip our students to use technology to become global critical thinkers. I, along with members of our faculty, senior administration team and our technology department, will be guests of Apple at an educational super-briefing hosted at Apple’s world headquarters in Cupertino, California at the end of May. The
approval process is quite lengthy and we will keep you updated on this venture. After six months of intense work, we have gone live with a fresh new look to the school website! On the cutting edge of website design and technology, our new site is responsive, designed to give the user the best possible experience regardless of the device upon which the site is being viewed. Much of the design is based on market research and aims to clearly communicate more about Woodlands Christian. The site is image rich and highlights some of the school's best features – our people! As with any new website, it is possible you may encounter a glitch or find a bug we have missed. If so, please let Shelie Goodwin know so we can continue to improve the user experience. We will continue to add new features to the site (including one specifically for parents) in the coming months. Every year, we budget a portion of auction proceeds for general operations and invest any excess proceeds into further improving the educational environment for our students. Thanks to the abundant generosity of our families at this year’s auction, we will be adding 2,700 square feet of locker rooms/ bathrooms to the David Gymnasium this summer. We will also be acquiring two 14passenger buses to accommodate our growing enrollment and desire to safely transport our students to enriching field trips and athletic competitions. Additional enhancements for next year will include an expansion of the early childhood playground, iPads for PK through 1st grade, and one MacBook cart for each grade in 1st – 8th. As we celebrate important milestones in the coming weeks and plan for the future, we wish you all of God’s blessings and thank you for trusting us with the education of your precious children.
5800 ACADEMY WAY . THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS 77384 . 936-273-2555 . WWW.TWCA.NET
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