We Hold These Truths...

”Since education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, and since wisdom and virtue are cultivated when a soul is nourished on truth, goodness, and beauty, we must teach our children truth, goodness, and beauty. The wise person understands the world he lives in (natural science and history) and has standards by which to distinguish what is from what ought to be (ethics and politics). The wise person knows the causes of things, and therefore is able to order things rightly and to judge things justly. Wisdom appears at different levels and in different kinds. The virtuous person is disciplined, purposeful, and focused in his thinking and behavior. In education we cultivate the moral virtues, the physical virtues, and the intellectual virtues. By refining all of them, we are enabled to bring them into a harmony that we can justly call integrity. Young people become wise and virtuous when their souls feed on truth, goodness, and beauty. The only way a person can perceive truth, goodness, and beauty is if these virtues are embodied or incarnated and he is then disciplined in their imitation.”

The words above come from the website of the Circe Institute.  If you came to our Classical Education Parent Night earlier this month, you met Andrew Kern (the head of the Circe Institute).  Mr. Kern was impressed that we were teaching our students about truth, beauty, and goodness.  One of the basic tenets of true classical education is the fact there are truths in this world and we are to teach them to our students.  Truths do not need to be deep, philosophical things.  Something as simple as 2 + 2= 4 is a truth.  It is universally recognized and we teach it to students.  Truths take many forms and can be communicated to children in a multitude of ways.  The most important part of teaching truths is that we show students there are truths in this world, things to be accepted without doubt or hesitation. We will continue through our curriculum to teach those truths to our students.

The October pillar ticket drawing took place on Friday.  The winners are able to choose a Lower School teacher to have lunch with in the next couple of weeks.  I will check in with the winners on Monday to get their choices and arrange the lunches. The winners are:

Nissa F.- 1^st Grade

Sonja O.- 3^rd Grade

Adam B.- 4^th Grade

Andrew M- 4^th Grade

Ayayo O.- 4^th Grade

Aquila, the eagle is residing in Ms. Rickard’s classroom this week.  Her entire class earned Aquila by working together as good citizens.

October is fire safety and prevention month.  The kindergarten students learned more about fire safety when they had a visit from the Eden Prairie Fire Department on Friday.  Firefighter Bill and Firefighter Chuck educated the students on how to stay safe if there would be a fire at their home and showed them the equipment a firefighter wears to fight those house fires.  At the conclusion of their presentation, the students were able to go outside and see one of the Eden Prairie fire trucks.  A few pictures of the visit are below. 

Lower School picture retakes are next Wednesday (10/30).  

Students are allowed to wear Halloween socks or ties on Thursday, October 31^st.  There will be no Halloween celebrations at Eagle Ridge Academy.

There is no school on Friday, November 1st.  

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Baier

Showing Excellence

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

~Aristotle

The above quote is the Eagle Ridge Academy faculty quote of the school year.  You may have seen it on our staff t-shirts for 2013-14.  We are striving for excellence in all that we do, and teach the students at Eagle Ridge Academy the same.  The definition of excellence shared with the students is to always do your best. Many grade levels have walls of excellence in the hallway for student work.  Students who are recognized for excellence in their work and behavior develop more confidence in themselves.  Students are taught they can show excellence in everything they do, whether it is at school or at home.  Please help encourage excellence at home to help make the connection with students.

Mr. Anderson has graced our Lower School Office with some wonderful student artwork.  He plans to continue to do this throughout the year, so be sure to take a moment to see what is displayed when you visit our office.  This month we have pictures from some of our kindergarten artists.  If you are unable to visit, please check out the pictures below.

The second graders read the book A Bad Case of the Stripes.  After reading that book they were charged with writing about their own embarrassing moments.  These are displayed in the hallway around the second grade classrooms.  These colorful recollections will surely catch your eye, as you walk through the hallway.  

The kindergarteners have been studying pumpkins.  They participated in a hands-on science activity where they explored the inside and outside of a pumpkin in groups.  Below are some pictures from some of their explorations.  They also have worked to learn the different parts of a pumpkin.  Mrs. Mills’ class has some of their work with pumpkins hanging in the hallway.

The fourth grade students took a field trip to Target Field last week.  While they might have been hoping to catch a Twins game, they instead were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the stadium.  This tour was designed to teach the students about sustainability and environmental stewardship.  Target Field is the highest-ranked LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified major league ballpark.  After their tour they were able to sneak in a few moments in the Twins dugout (as evidenced by the pictures below).  

Next week is Parent/Teacher Conferences.  I hope you have all taken the opportunity to sign up for time to meet with your child’s teacher(s).  These face to face interactions are so very important and help develop the team every child needs to learn and succeed. I hope you take advantage of the time to speak with your child's teacher and share some wonderful insights.

Have a wonderful fall break.  Blog updates will resume the week of October 21^st.

Mrs. Baier

Honoring Ourselves and Honoring Others

“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

~Socrates

Last week’s pillar of the week was honor.  There are many definitions for honor and we adjust them based on a student’s age.  Younger students learn about honor in the form of telling the truth.  Most students know honor as taking pride in yourself and others, as we have put on our Pillar circle below.   Older students learn about honor as it relates to trust.  People trust honorable individuals and we all want to be someone who others trust. Honor is also described to students as having the courage to do the right thing even if it is not the popular thing.  

Mrs. Madigan’s class participated in an honor activity where they wrote an adjective to describe each of their classmates.  The students then received their sheets and were able to take pride in the qualities their classmates noticed about them.  This activity is always well received by students and adults.  We did a similar activity in a staff meeting last year and it was always nice to look back at those honorable qualities others saw in me.  You could try it with your family, as well.

As you know next week is Homecoming for the Upper School.  There are always many questions as to why the Lower School does not participate.  I would like to address why that is here in the blog.  Homecoming is truly an Upper School event.  I worked in several K-12 schools and Lower School students truly do not understand the significance of Homecoming.  The activities actually prove to be a distraction to the learning process for younger students.  By not having Lower School participate, it also gives Lower School students something to look forward to as they get older.  There are some privileges that come with age, as we all know.  Having our younger students out of uniform for purposes they clearly do not understand is not the best use of those “out of uniform” days.  The Lower School students do get to participate in spirit wear days and free dress days.  As the school year continues, there may be other opportunities for Lower School students to have “special” dress days as organized by the Lower School teachers.   In deciding what to do for Lower School students here at Eagle Ridge, I consulted with several members of the Lower School Leadership Advisory Team (a group of teachers that were nominated by other teachers to meet with me and discuss issues or ideas within the Lower School) again this year.    It was agreed that Lower School students would not benefit from being involved (It would actually be detrimental for learning.) and there would be other ways for us to build community spirit both in the Lower School and school wide as the school year progresses.  

Friday is a designated Spirit Wear Day for Lower School. Students may wear Homecoming T-shirts, if they were purchased on this day and on any other Spirit Wear Day throughout the year, if they would like.   They should follow all of the regular dress code requirements for Spirit Wear Day.

Just a reminder that conferences are coming up on October 14^th and 15^th.  Below is the information from the Eagle Eye on how to sign up for conference with your child’s teachers.

                Fall conferences will take place on Monday, October 14^th from 8am to 8pm and Tuesday, October 15^th from 8am to 11:30am. The conference scheduler, Virtual Paragon, is now open and will close October 10^th. Please follow this link to schedule conferences with your child’s teacher http://www.virtualparagon.com/eagleridge/conference/ . The master password to access the conference scheduler is Eagle7255. In grades K-5, please schedule conferences only with your child’s homeroom teacher and specialists (Physical Education, Art, Latin and Music). Middle School and Upper School are also using the conference scheduler this year.

Next Friday is a fall event for students in grades K-8.  Below you will see information about the ERA event at the Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze on October 11^th.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Baier