March 22, 2013

Moms' Time Notes - March 22, 2013



Announcements Brian R.
·       World view class
o   Mr. R. and Mr. A. will be offering a world view class on the survey.
o   If people choose this class, Mr. R. and Mr. A. will be teaching on alternating weeks.
o   The text for the class will be Thinking Like a Christian, which deals with issues in life from a biblical perspective.
o   Students will also read books to supplement the text like the student edition of The Case for Christ.

·       During the last elders’ meeting, some of the details for PSP were finalized.
o   From the perspective of those in PSP, nothing will be changing on Fridays.
o   The way PSP is run will be changing.
§  Even though PSP will still be under the guidance of the elders, the business and accounting portion will be completely separate from Grace Community Church. The leadership of PSP will be taking on more of these responsibilities.
·       Julie S. will be handling accounting.
·       Kristen H. will be the record keeper.
§  David C. and Matt T. will no longer be over the PSP.
o   PSP will no longer be Grace Community School. It will have a new name.
·       Next week, registration forms will be available. You will have a month to turn those in with your deposit for next year for the lowest registration price ($50).

David C.
·       The three goals for PSP remain the same:
o   Affordability
o   Flexibility
o   Independence
·       The third goal, independence, has been fast forwarded more than we initially anticipated.  This will give us clarity on how to move forward. 
·       There will be a change next year for Mr. C., as he will be  “just” a PSP dad and will submitting to the leadership of PSP.  However, he will be available to help in any way possible as a volunteer.  Please do not hesitate to ask him for help. He will be there to help in any way that he can.
·       Please pray for Christy. She may be done working in July, and the C. family is praying to that end.
·       David and Matt will be available all summer. Please pray for them as they start their new ministries at GCC after summer.
·       Thank you for your patience during this time of transition.

Brian R—SAT Testing
·       Everyone should have received a SAT handout in her mailbox. 
·       SAT testing will be Monday, April 22, and Tuesday April 23.
o   Everyone will need to be on campus.
o   All moms will be serving in some capacity.
o   These are uniform days
o   Refer to your handout for more specific details regarding the testing.
·       The scores your student receives are a tool to help you see areas that need to be worked on.
o   The most important scores are the language and math scores.
o   The scores for science and social science are not as important, particularly in the early grades.
·       This is not meant to be a stressful time.
·       Students will receive a raw score, which is determined by the difficulty and number of test questions (max points).
·       Students will also receive a percentile rank
o   Do not confuse this with the percentile of questions that they get correct.
o   The rank indicates how well the student performed compared to other students in his grade.
o   See the handout for more detail on this.
·       Students will receive a stanine which ranges from 1-9. 1-3 is below average. 4-6 is average. 7-9 is above average.
·       Additionally, students will receive a grade equivalent, GE. For example 3.2, would indicate a performance expected of a student in the second month of third grade. Again, you may refer to your handout for a more complete description.
·       If your student’s percentile ranking is 30% or lower in the math or language sections of the test, someone in the PSP leadership will come alongside you to help determine the reason for the low score and help you to develop a plan to work on that area during the next school year.

Sat Testing (Cont.)—Christine R.
·       Have your younger students practice filling in bubbles.
·       Students are not penalized for guessing.
·       The tests are not strictly timed, so if a student need a few minutes to finish that is fine.
·       Make sure your children understand that the goal is not to finish first.
·       Moms who are working in the classroom as a proctor or helper will need to be on campus both days.
·       Moms helping out in another capacity will need to be on campus one of the days. If you leave campus, you must be back to pick up your child at his scheduled dismissal time.  More details to come.
·       Each grade will be in a different classroom.
·       Grace Grill will be closed on that Monday but open on that Tuesday.
·       In your test packet, Christine included some graph paper that might be useful for math scratch paper. This might help your student line up his or her columns.
·       Each student needs to bring a book to read quietly when he or she is done.
·       It is helpful to prepare for testing with some resources throughout the year. 
o   One resource is Scoring High. It is probably too late to order it for this year.
o   There are other test books published by Spectrum that you can purchase at any bookstore.
o   There is also a company called Critical Thinking Press that publishes books on logic and thinking skills.
§  One book, Mind Benders teaches thinking and logic through fun stories and puzzles.
§  They also publish a book on analogies. These resources are helpful to work on throughout the year.
o   Red Hot Root Words is a resource for learning Latin roots, as well as English From the Roots Up, which is a class on the survey for 4-6 for next year.
o   Marie’s Words is a resource for learning vocabulary. It is a box with word cards. The cards have pictures that aid in the memorization of new vocabulary words.  (www.marieswords.com)

General Announcements
·       Prayer sheets were in your mailboxes. Bring them back next week filled out.
·       Next week, we will have our moms’ time from 9:30-11. At 11, we will have a craft time with Lisa A.
·       There are no afternoon classes next week (Good Friday).
·       Survey for new classes will be in your mailboxes next week. You will be ranking your choices. As of right now, it looks as though there will be four rotations next year: K-1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-8. Please be prepared to turn them in next week, if possible.
·       Enrollment should be open next week. The enrollment fee will be $50 in April, $75 in May, and $100 in summer. The fee is non-refundable.
·       For next year the goal is to have every family under an elder. Think about which elder your family is under.
·       Please get 6th, 8th, and 12th grade pictures to Rene ASAP! We want all graduating students represented in the slideshow.
·       Make sure you put your child’s middle initial and birth date on the SAT list.

·       4-6th grade Ideas
o   We now have many options for the 4-6th grade survey.
o   Kristen H. is offering to organize a literature co-op. This will involve one book a month.
o   Also, there is one semester class for Latin roots. This will involve learning 10 roots a week.
o   One idea for the other semester is a missions class. Angela has offered to teach this.
o   Another option for the other semester would be an art class taught by Kristen H.
§  Art could also be a yearlong class, but this would be a co-op.
o   There are two writing options.
§  Kristen has offered to teaching IEW’s writing with US history (volume 1).
§  Nancy N. has also offered to teach a creative writing class which would be ½ fiction and ½ poetry.
o   Kristen Harper has offered to teach US history if people would like a history class.
o   The afternoon options include
§  Gracious Girls
§  3-D art
§  Game strategies.

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