Rockford Lutheran Academy, Rockford, IL
Faith
Stories:
1.
One director
reported the joy of seeing a staff member develop a wonderful new prayer
journaling program in her classroom.
This same staff member had previously been somewhat opposed to
integrating faith into the school’s curriculum when the school became more of a
ministry of the church. The Holy Spirit
has truly worked hard on her heart in the last few years.
2.
Another school
reported about how a new sermon series based on Joshua 1:9 was used with both
the church and school. It had a great
impact on the children and adults. Lots
of visuals were used.
Conferences:
1.
Dr. Jean: April
18, 2018
Hilton
Garden Inn, 7675 Walton St., Rockford
2.
Concordia Early
Childhood Conference: August
3, 2018
Concordia
University, Chicago
$110 person
+ $10 optional lunch; Gateways and ISBE
credits
3.
NID Teachers
Conference: October
19, 2018
Concordia
University, Chicago
$90 person (lunch
included); Gateways and ISBE credits
Online Resources Recommendations:
80+
different podcasts for early childhood leaders; blog, child care helps,
parenting topics
Free
2.
Pre-K Pages
Helps for
preschool teachers
3.
Fairy Dust Online
Early Childhood Conferences
Ideas for Staff Relationships and Recognition
-Integrate with Scripture on compliments:
Romans 15:2, Philippians 4:8, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 100:3, Ephesians 2:10,
Isaiah 40:8
-Compliment Sheets:
Have one staff name on each piece of paper. Pass the papers around and add compliments to
them about the person. Eventually return
the sheet to the appropriate person with a fancy ribbon on it, attach a
chocolate bar to it, etc.
-Post-It Notes: Use a variety of fun, bright post-it
notes to leave little messages of appreciation, congratulations, love on
teachers desks. It’s fun to slip them on
these desks/areas when they are not expecting anything. Pick up lots of great, inspiring,fun,
colorful shapes especially during August/September during “Back to School” time
(St. Peter,
Arlington Heights)
2.
There is real
POWER in feeling appreciated. It’s a
great feeling to work with a group of people who you love to be around. Appreciated work keeps people motivated to
keep on going. (Immanuel, Belvidere)
3.
-Host baby
showers for staff members; live life with them through both the good and low
times.
-“One Eared
Reindeer Award” Pass this object (or
any other fun/silly object) around from
classroom to classroom to show appreciation for projects/activities/actions
that are “well done”
-“Great Elf
Competition”- Small containers are put
out in a common area where families can drop off/vote with coins/$ based on the
names of the various teachers. The
teacher(s) with the most $ in their container at the end of a certain time
period, would then dress up as an elf for the day. All proceeds goes to a charity.
-A handout
with “9 Fun Ideas for Employee Recognition at Your Center” was shared
(Rockford
Lutheran Academy, Rockford)
-Honor
employees with “fun foods” and bags of silly items (rubber bands, kalidoscopes, etc)
(TLC – Trinity,
Huntley)
Early Childhood Staff:
|
Teachers: Stephanie
Wilburn, Cortney Rehfeldt,
Lianette Lucena,
& Megan Schultz
Principal: Curtis
Wudtke
|
The staff is pictured
in the middle of their newly remodeled preschool gym area
Preschool Rainbow Color Experiment
|
-clear cups
-white paper towels
-food coloring
|
Each preschool room
is designed with a full classroom
theme such as jungles, dogs, oceans, etc. New lofts are being added this spring to all
of these classrooms with theses theme as the basis for them. Come visit next
year to see these completed lofts.
Principal Wudtke is building all of them.
Rockford Lutheran Academy uses the D.I.G. (Develop,
Inspire, Grow) materials as the basis for the preschool
curriculum. It is published by the
Abrams Learning Trends Company. It is a
9 month integrated, thematic program. It
uses as variety of charts, puppet “Letter People”, CDs, readers, alphabet
friezes, and other related materials.
A Classroom Rules
Chart used “Mr. Potato Head” parts to illustrate the expectations for
appropriate classroom behavior.
