January 2022 Students of the Month

Congratulations to Jackson Hobbs (2nd), the January ICS Lower School Student of the Month!

Jackson Hobbs is a new student at ICS this year! He comes to school each day with a smile and an eagerness to learn! When he’s facing something new and challenging, he works hard and keeps a good attitude. He’s even asked to take his assignments home so that he can keep working on them. He treats his classmates with kindness and loves to lend a helping hand to others. “Thank you,” are words he often uses in the classroom to show his appreciation to his teacher. ICS is a better place because of Jackson’s enthusiasm for learning and his kindness toward others.

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Congratulations to Olivia Frazee (8th), the January ICS Upper School Student of the Month!

Olivia steps up to lead in all areas of middle school. She excitedly serves as a student ambassador to welcome new or interested students to the class. She takes initiative by asking and answering questions in class and handles herself with a grown up level of maturity. Olivia's knowledge and understanding of God’s word is evident in the classroom and in the hallways. She shows leadership through her involvement in sports, dance and theater. Olivia's God-given talents run deep through singing and dancing! Congrats, Olivia!

Meet Mrs. Saullo!

What's your new ICS title and position? Part-time Pre-K Teacher

Where are you from? If you're not originally from UT, how did you end up here? For the last 20 years my husband has been in the navy. As a result, I have followed him around the country, moving 13 times! I would still consider TN home though, even though I haven't lived there in over 20 years. It is where I went to middle school, high school and college. It's also where my family still lives!

Where do you go to Church? We only moved to UT two months ago, but we have attended Salt Lake Evangelical Free Church several times and so far it feels like where we are meant to be.

Tell us about your family! My husband is in a residency program at the University of Utah for occupational medicine. He is one of the most hard working and dedicated men I've ever known. We have three loving and adventurous boys. Our oldest, Nate, is almost 10. He is a voracious reader and has an overall love of learning. Our middle son, Dean, is seven. He is an excellent playmate with his older brother as well as his younger brother. I love watching him transition from one to the other! He excels in building, design, and overall creativity. Our youngest, Gabe, is five. Gabe loves nothing more than spending time with his brothers. Concrete facts are his strength! His knowledge of our world, especially geography, is mind blowing!

What is something most people don't know about you? OR What are you most passionate about? I love to design cut flowers. It is a skill I picked up almost 15 years ago and something that brings me such joy.

What are you looking forward to most in your new role at ICS? I look forward to the chance to get back into the classroom after taking some time off to be home with my boys. The opportunity to work where they will be attending school is an experience I have always dreamed of. Teaching at such a Christ-centered school is such a blessing to me. I'm excited to instill in my class God's love for them!

What else would you like the ICS community to know about you? This opportunity to teach again at ICS was 100% God's will for my life! I've never had so many doors fly wide open for any other experience, job, or decision that I've been faced with. God is good!

Welcome to ICS, Mrs. Saullo! We are excited for you to be a part of the lion community!

The Teacher Effect

Let’s take a trip together- traveling into your memory-mind’s eye. Do you see whose face appears when I ask who was your favorite teacher? Did you take it back to your kindergarten days with his/hers undoubtedly kind smile, or perhaps that one awesome basketball coach who pushed you harder than any other during sophomore year? Do you have him or her in your mind? Now hold on to the feeling- not the image of their face, but the feeling they left in your heart which you are revisiting now- The peace you received during that rough personal time, the laughter bubbling up because they had a killer sense of humor, or the immense pride you feel in yourself at this moment because you know your life could have turned sideways if they had not crossed your path at that exact moment they did. Welcome to the teacher effect.

I would argue that whether you were a total school-loving, high-performing nerd to the max (like myself) or the kid who couldn’t wait to bust through the doors of your school for the last time and never look back (like my husband)- No matter where you stand on the grading scale, there was that one teacher who you had and currently have this undeniable fondness for. For me, it was my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Greer. She was the eldest teacher I ever had, and my goodness gracious her strict disposition was palpable, but she had this effect on me throughout the remainder of my schooling days that set the tone for my drive toward achievement. I was drawn to her teaching style- her almost military-like standard of focus really hit a note for me and to this day I still sing her praises (obviously).

Let’s return. We’re here watching our children make their own relationships, evaluations and memories with teachers of their own. A greater sense of appreciation has hit us as we see from the parenting perspective how each teacher molds, uplifts and pushes them to greatness better than we can ourselves. This year alone, I never knew how monstrously impatient I could be until attempting (ahem, *failing*) to help my son learn to read. That is, until Mrs. Brown came along to take the reins with a calm confidence, followed with Mrs. Veldhuis coming in with the assist (like a perfectly timed “alley-oop”) in “Reading Intervention.” With months of frustration internally building and often times spilling over at my son’s expense, he came home from school one day, sat himself at the counter and began to read me a book as I prepped dinner. Slowly and all at once, my kindergartner was reading and I wasn’t sitting next to him painfully going through each. and. every. word with him. HALLELUJAH! Something clicked for him in that classroom, at the side of his teachers, that spurred a realization to greater achievement than I was able to. As a parent, welcome to the teacher effect.

Being on the outside looking in to a life building within and around your children is one of the hardest realities of becoming a parent. But, man oh man, when I see the beauty through pain, the accomplishments through hardships, and the blessings through steadfastness, I experience that same calm confidence that Mrs. Brown had brought to the table. The stronghold of control in making sure my kids are okay easily slips away. I have the calm confidence in the molding of their minds and characters because of their teachers.

They are cared for.

They are loved.

They are heard.

They are stretched and challenged.

They are held to a higher standard.

They are becoming who they are in large part due to their teachers.

3 John 1:4

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in

the truth.”

Remember that teacher in your memory-mind’s eye? The good work he or she has done in your own life is the same good work your son or daughter’s teacher is doing right this very moment. The teacher effect is generational. I encourage you, do not hold back your tongue in thankfulness for those men and women who show up displaying God’s goodness in your kids’ lives. May the position of gratitude in your heart be expressed outwardly toward them today. If she were still alive today, I would track down Mrs. Greer and thank her for instilling a love of learning in my life, for giving me a king-size Snickers bar when I finally mastered my times tables and for keeping me in line when I was easily distracted by my crazy friends. Go thank a teacher today and let him or her know that their impact is tangible, life-bringing and ever so important.

Comment below who your favorite teachers were and share on Facebook!

Written by Erica Smith, ICS Mom

Expanding Opportunities

“We are not computers so how can we teach students to do things that computers can’t do?

The answer?

We need to teach students how to think, how to engage, how to take concepts further, how to do research, and how to use more of their brain.

A traditional approach to teaching has the tendency to limit our reach on the students who may not fall in line with the middle-of-the-road expectations. And that is why Katy McCombs is so passionate about Gifted and Talented Education; because of the reach for all the students, below, at, and above the average learning level.

Katy McCombs has been with ICS for two years and will receive her Master’s in Gifted and Talented Education in December of 2019. Her presence at ICS and in the classroom with our students is of immense benefit in that, as the students grow, they will reap tremendous reward to impact the world around them. In the 2019-2020 school year, ICS will be implementing a pilot program utilizing the gifted and talented approach to teaching. This program will expand opportunities for children, benefiting every student, even the ones that in the traditional classroom would be identified as “falling behind.” The benefits are clear and we look forward to the impact this approach to learning will have on our students.

Here are 5 WAYS THAT THE GIFTED AND TALENTED APPROACH BENEFITS STUDENTS:

1.       DIFFERENTIATION -  Gifted and talented education emphasizes variety - teaching which takes into account student’s abilities and interests. Using differentiation is taking a broader approach to learning. Differentiating between content, processes, the learning environment, and product creation brings different opportunities and perspectives to students.

2. INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING - Gifted education means teachers meet students where they are and then push them to learn more. Making a path for the learner to follow means that the teacher has an idea of where the students can go if properly led. Gifted and talented students can be motivated by making a new learning discovery that is further than where they might naturally go on their own.

3. ADAPTABLE, BUT STRUCTURED

The gifted and talented learning journey is intended to take students deeper into more complex thinking.  Walking up the path of Bloom’s Taxonomy and reaching across the Levels in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge is how deeper, more complex learning takes place. When combining these methods, it has the added benefit of preparing students for the kind of questions asked in standardized testing. Yet at the same time, students and teachers must remain flexible in their studies. If teachers have the knowledge to adapt their lessons to optimize student engagement, it ensures all the students have a better learning experience. Adaptable teaching reaches more students.

4.  PROJECT-BASED AND PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

This is where students learn how to think through a situation and reach a solution. These group projects promote teamwork, reward “out of the box” thinking, and help students to connect what might seem like disparate ideas. Problem and project-based learning lends itself to working through real-world scenarios that have real-life opportunities connected to them. This is a great place to be innovative!

5. GOING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM - Students need to be introduced to enriching outside resources. We want to think past the end of the school day, school year, and school career of a student and look forward to what’s ahead. Gifted students have big potential for having highly-influential roles careers, and they need to be introduced to possibilities in the world and challenged by witnessing excellence around them. The world needs our gifted students to reach their full potential to be Christ-like and wise influencers.

We want all of our students to shine and thrive! There’s no shame in being smart or being good at something and we want our students to be engaged, not bored. We also need to be vigilant to the responsibility of God-given talents, because like the age-old saying goes, “If they don’t use it, they lose it.” Mrs. McCombs and ICS are strong advocates of every student and we look forward to how the Gifted and Talented Education pilot program coming up in 2019-2020 will better serve our student body. We are proud to have such a forward-thinking faculty member as a part of our ICS family and we look forward to all that the ICS students will reap from what has already been and will continue to be sown into their lives.

Click on the links below to read through the fantastic resources on Gifted and Talented Education:

http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/frequently-asked-questions-about-gifted-education  

http://nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices

https://www.sengifted.org/post/competing-with-myths-about-the-social-and-emotional-development-of-gifted-students  

http://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10017