A Stone's Throw: November Update from Mr. and Mrs. Stone

Responding to a call from the Lutheran Church - Hong Kong Synod, former ILS Manager of Operations, Mrs. Ruth Stone, along with her husband, Lyman, are now serving as missionaries in Hong Kong. Mrs. Stone serves as a missionary and English teaching assistant in a local Lutheran school, and she and Mr. Stone together volunteer their time to support school extracurriculars, church functions and Sunday school classes, Bible study, and evangelism with the Mission of Christ Network.

Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing regular updates from the Stones as they embark on their work in Hong Kong.

Please join us in praying for Mr. & Mrs. Stone as they live and serve in the Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod, and especially the children, faculty, and parents in its’ associated school system.

It is also Mrs. Stone’s birthday this week, so please join with us in wishing a very happy birthday to her!

Walk-in-Wednesday: Latin II with Mr. Shawn Barnett

Interested in experiencing a classical, Christian education at Immanuel? We warmly invite you to attend an Admissions Open House or join us for a Walk-in-Wednesday tour to see us in action. You may also visit us each week here on the ILS Blog as we offer a virtual sneak peek into our classrooms from each of our teachers. Every Wednesday, we’re sharing a glimpse of what a visitor might observe when they walk into our classrooms at any given moment.

This week, Mr. Shawn Barnett, our Upper School Latin teacher, continues our “Walk-in-Wednesday” series with a peek into his Latin II class and the delightful scenes you might observe if you were to stop in to visit one of his classes this week!

We hope that you are encouraged by these snap-shots to join us in person to see us in action. Stepping through our red doors, you will be welcomed by the joyful sounds of learning, from poems and jingles in the lower grades, to great discussions and debates in our older grades. Singing and music ring out from the music room, and the wonderful sights and sounds of students and teachers engaged in learning can be witnessed throughout our campus.

What we're reading (December edition)...

Happy New Year! As we enter the season of Advent, the church celebrates a new year as we prepare and await the celebration of the birth of Christ, and also anticipate His coming again. Join us on Wednesday, December 19th, as we celebrate with our all-school Advent Service.

While the new church year may be just beginning, we are nearing the mid-way point in our academic year, and we’re kicking off December with another edition of "What we're reading..." and a collection of articles that we’ve found to be interesting or thought-provoking. We hope you enjoy perusing these at your leisure.

This month, we’re sharing articles on topics including: information on celebrating Advent, teaching reading through phonics, a look at the most important skills for the next industrial revolution, wasting time and human happiness, finding great books for your kids and for yourself, and much more!

What have you read lately that you think we, or other ILS families, may find interesting? Please keep sharing links and articles for us to enjoy!

Walk-in-Wednesday: 2nd Grade with Mrs. Rebekah Stegman

We hope everyone enjoyed a restful and wonderful Thanksgiving! At ILS we are extremely thankful for our outstanding teachers and the joy and enthusiasm they bring into each of their classrooms. Our teachers truly love what they do, and their love for teaching and learning is experienced daily by our students. We hope to capture just a bit of this each week in our “Walk-in-Wednesday” blog feature so that you can get a sense for the delightful learning happening at ILS.

This week, we are visiting 2nd grade, as Mrs. Rebekah Stegman presents a peek into the delights of her 2nd grade classroom during a history lesson.

Every week our ILS blog features an update from one of our teachers highlighting what a visitor might observe when they walk into our classrooms. Whether you are unable to join us for a Walk-in-Wednesday tour to see our students and teachers in action, or you would just like to get a better feel for what the experience of a classical Christian education is like at Immanuel, we hope this feature creates a picture of just some of what you might observe if they were to peek into Jr. Kindergarten, or 3rd grade, or Upper School Latin, or any one of our classrooms at ILS. 

Please enjoy, and check back each week as we share additional “Walk-in-Wednesday” features!

Walk-in-Wednesday: 4th Grade with Mrs. Molly Barnett

Happy Thanksgiving Week! We are on break today (November 21st), but we wanted to still share a “Walk-in-Wednesday” for you to enjoy a sneak peek into our ILS 4th grade classroom.

Every week our ILS blog features an update from one of our teachers highlighting what a visitor might observe when they walk into our classrooms. Whether you are unable to join us for a Walk-in-Wednesday tour to see our students and teachers in action, or you would just like to get a better feel for what the experience of a classical Christian education is like at Immanuel, we hope this feature creates a picture of just some of what you might observe if they were to peek into Jr. Kindergarten, or 3rd grade, or Upper School Latin, or any one of our classrooms at ILS. 

This week, join us in 4th grade, as Mrs. Molly Barnett presents a snap-shot of the delightful teaching and learning you may observe if you were to step into her classroom.

We hope you enjoy, and please visit the blog each week as we share additional “Walk-in-Wednesday” features! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Screen Time versus Book Time with Dr. Mark Bauerlein

On Thursday, November 15, 2018, Immanuel Lutheran School was pleased to host Dr. Mark Bauerlein, Senior Editor at First Things and Professor of English at Emory University, for a conversation on Screen Time versus Book Time.

In addition to serving for two years as the Director of the Office of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts (2003-05), Dr. Bauerlein is the author of several books, including Literary Criticism: An Autopsy (1997), The Pragmatic Mind: Explorations in the Psychology of Belief (1997), and The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (2008). His writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, The Guardian, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among other national publications.

With much talk these days about kids acquiring "digital literacy," Dr. Bauerlein urges parents to not to be misled. In his program, Dr. Bauerlein explained why the more children and teens read books and limit screen time, the better their prospects will be in college and at work.

"Thanks to Dr. Bauerlein, we are looking forward to continuing conversations on technology among the school community," commented Ms. Katherine Kramer, ILS Assistant Headmaster. "What a challenging topic: our world increasingly is non-functioning without the aids of technology and our culture promotes the use of technology as a good in every aspect of our lives, perhaps almost unquestioningly. At ILS, we are hoping to be far more "questioning" in our approach to technology. By intentionally limiting student exposure to monitors and screens, students are being granted a rare freedom from the world of technology during the day. We want students to gain the ability to look beyond themselves, their own times, their own culture, and think more broadly about the world. And then, just thinking is of course not enough. For here too, we want to train our students to discuss, read, and write. All these good things can be enhanced and helped by the resources of the internet, but not when the tool becomes the master. At ILS, our hope is to put first things first: learn how to think, learn how to discuss, THEN learn how use technology to that end." 

Screen Time versus Book Time with Dr. Mark Bauerlein. Thursday, November 15, 2018.

Posted by Immanuel Lutheran School - Alexandria, VA on Thursday, November 15, 2018

A Stone's Throw: October Update from Mr. and Mrs. Stone

Responding to a call from the Lutheran Church - Hong Kong Synod, former ILS Manager of Operations, Mrs. Ruth Stone, along with her husband, Lyman, are now serving as missionaries in Hong Kong. Mrs. Stone serves as a missionary and English teaching assistant in a local Lutheran school, and she and Mr. Stone together volunteer their time to support school extracurriculars, church functions and Sunday school classes, Bible study, and evangelism with the Mission of Christ Network.

Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing regular updates from the Stones as they embark on their work in Hong Kong.

Please join us in praying for Mr. & Mrs. Stone as they live and serve in the Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod, and especially the children, faculty, and parents in its’ associated school system.

Walk-in-Wednesday: Jr. Kindergarten with Mrs. Laurie Honig

It’s Wednesday, which means it is time to join us for a Walk-in-Wednesday tour, or if you can’t make it in person, to take another peek into our classrooms through our virtual “Walk-in-Wednesday” series on the ILS Blog!

During our school year, we offer families and opportunity to learn more about a classical, Christian education at Immanuel by visiting during one of our weekly Walk-in-Wednesday tours. The joyful sounds of learning will welcome visitors walking through our red doors, as students recite (and act-out!) poems and chant jingles in the lower school, and engage in excellent discussions of literature, history and theology in upper school students. Singing and music ring out from the music room, and the wonderful sights and sounds of students and teachers engaged in learning can be witnessed throughout our campus.

If you cannot visit us in person, or you’d just like to explore more of what you and your child might experience at ILS, we are sharing updates from our teachers highlighting what visitors may encounter when they step into an ILS classroom. Today, Mrs. Laurie Honig shares a delightful look at her days with our youngest ILS scholars, our 4 and 5 year-old Jr. Kindergarten students.

Please enjoy, and join us here on our ILS Blog each week as we share additional “Walk-in-Wednesday” features! (Curious to learn more? Visit us at an upcoming ILS Admissions Open House!)

Walk-in-Wednesday: Music with Miss Marie Landskroener

Interested in learning more about a classical Christian education at Immanuel? Curious what this looks like in action? We would love to have you join us during one of our Admissions Open Houses, or stop in on week for our Walk-in-Wednesday tour to see for yourself the joyful learning happening at ILS. If you can’t make it for a tour, or just want to experience more of this for yourself, each Wednesday, our ILS blog is introducing a sneak peek from one of our teachers, highlighting what a visitor might observe when they walk into our classrooms.

Enjoy this a virtual tour here on the ILS Blog through our “Walk-in-Wednesday” series, and we hope it provides more of a feel for what you might experience at Immanuel. This week, join us in our music classroom, as Miss Marie Landskroener shares more about some of the delightful moments you may encounter in one of her many music classes every week.

We hope you enjoy, and please visit the blog each week as we share additional “Walk-in-Wednesday” features!

What we're reading (November edition)...

Fall has finally fully arrived, and it is hard to believe that we have already finished the first quarter of the school year. It is such a joy to watch the ways our students are learning and growing each day. We so enjoyed welcoming parents, grandparents and other ILS friends to our First Quarter Lower School Showcase on October 19th. Our lower school scholars delighted in the chance to share their poems, songs, jingles, projects and other learning from the quarter. We are very much looking forward to sitting down together for first quarter parent-teacher conferences next week as another opportunity to continue our ongoing conversations about student growth and development throughout the year.

As we launch into November, we have once again collected articles and storied for a new edition of "What we're reading..." Our faculty and staff are always reading, and we take this opportunity each month to share with our families some of the things that we have recently read and found to be interesting, intriguing or otherwise thought-provoking.

As we do each month, we’ve compiled a selection of articles on different topics, including a look at the role of leisure in our lives, a reflection on some of the differences between boys and girls (and what that means for schools), news about an exciting discovery in a basement in Italy, several pieces on classical education, and a few great reads on music as well.

Have you read something lately that you think we, or other ILS families, may enjoy? As always, we love to discover new things to read and chances to learn!