It was definitely a busy week! We had a visit from the Vice President of Leadership Development from the NICS Home Office. We were very happy to have Pete Simano with us Wednesday through Friday for meetings with individuals as well as various groups and all staff. There were so many events throughout the week as well. They included the following: Beard Shavings for the Beard Shaving raffle fundraiser for the Week Without Walls, National Honor Society Induction ceremony, Farewell Gathering for Johanna Sigler (current Grade 5 teacher), a visit from Cora the Conqueror, Soccer Matches, Staff meetings, Model UN competition, Green Day for St. Patrick's Day, a dinner at the Haselmans for Pete Simano and me, and the discovery of a major hack into our school's student management system.
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Where do I begin? Well, I think I will take it day by day and just quickly give you some highlights and photos. Before I begin with the highlights, I want to ask you for prayer for two very crucial items:
1 - On Wednesday, we learned that our PowerSchool student management system that handles electronically all of the items as far as attendance, grades, report cards, communicating through email with parents, etc. was hacked into. Teachers went to their computers to report attendance on Wednesday morning and the screen was blank. No one could get into PowerSchool. Our IT person was at a school conference so we did not find out until Thursday about the seriousness of the problem. I am not a tech person so I can't explain it completely, but all of our grades and attendance records that were on PowerSchool are gone. Mr. Richards, our IT person, is working on getting PowerSchool back up, but it is going to take a LONG time. I am grateful that we had made hard copies of grade reports for students for Quarter One and Quarter Two. Quarter Three grades are lost. Teachers will be working throughout their Spring Break to attempt to recreate grades for Quarter Three. There are other complications. I would really appreciate it if you would be in prayer for all of this. It would be great if we discover that all of the records were not lost, but we will have to wait and see.
2 - This coming week, Mr. Kuhn and I will be meeting with two sets of parents to discuss a situation that should not have been allowed to happen about 4 or so years ago. I am discovering this during my first year and some tough discussions need will be scheduled for this week to bring resolution to the very complicated situation. I cannot go into the situation here, but I would ask your prayers as they will not be pleasant conversations. Thank you.
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OK, let me briefly go through this past week:
Sunday: Sunday after church I was invited to dinner with my very good friend, Jisan (English name of Jared) and Jihee, his young lady to whom he is engaged to be married to on May 2. Jisan wanted me to meet his bride-to-be and invite me personally to their Garden wedding. It will be a small private affair and I am excited to be invited and support my dear friend. Jisan and Jihee are both believers and excited about serving the Lord together.
Jisan and Jihee with GGG at the Puffin restaurant last Sunday after church. We had such a great time. After Sunday dinner, they came back to the house to talk some more and have some tea.
I enjoyed the Chicken Risotto.
Jihee enjoyed the Snapper Risotto!
Jisan wanted to try the Spaghetti and Meatballs...and loved it!
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Monday: Today was the day names were drawn out of the raffle jars of the seven male staff members who had grown beards for about 4 or more weeks. Mr. Mooney's son, Gavin, had his name drawn for me. He had chosen a design to have the initials "I C S" shaved into my beard. (ICS is International Christian School). one of our Middle School teachers, Mr. Edwards, was the one who shaved the design into my beard. I had to wear the new beard all week. We had a lot of fun, but I was glad when Friday night came and I could shave off the beard! :-) Enjoy some beard shaving pictures!
Gavin looks like he would love to shave the initials
into my beard! :-)
Gavin getting closer to shaving me, but then Mr. Edwards stepped in! Whew!! :-)
Kids at lunch gathering around to watch Mr. Edwards shave the three
initials into my beard.
Five of the seven who got shaved on Monday. Two others will have theirs done later.
If you look closely, you can see the "I".
The "C".
And the "S".
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Tuesday: I spent most of Tuesday visiting classrooms and chatting with teachers and students in between working on various projects and reports in my office. On one of my walks through the building, I noticed some delightful art creations by our Middle School students in their Art class with our Art teacher, Mrs. Lim. Enjoy some of their work below:
I usually get to chat with one of the sons of our third grade teacher, Mrs. Jacobo. His name is Isaac and we just enjoy talking and laughing together. Tuesday morning, when Isaac was waiting for the first period bell, I noticed his purple-framed glasses and asked if I could try them on. He then wanted to try on mine. He was surprised, as was I, that his eyes were as bad as mine. He actually could see a little better with mine. We had some fun and we each liked the other's glasses and were going to keep them, but we returned them to each other after having some fun.
Here we are - wearing each other's glasses!
Also on Tuesday, I enjoyed having some fun with our delightful and hard-working facilities' man, Mr. Song. I caught him eating his lunch in the kitchen and captured this picture of him eating. He always pretends to not want his picture taken, but then comes to me and asks me to send him the pictures. :-) Here is one of the pictures from that lunch. :-)
Mr. Song enjoying his lunch! :-)
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Wednesday: Another busy day which ended during period 7 with the induction of our new members of ICS-P's chapter of the National Honor Society. Mr. Coyner, our Guidance Counselor, was able to start our chapter last year. On Wednesday, those new members who were selected by the faculty selection committee were inducted into the National Honor Society. I enjoyed observing the current members present briefly about the Four Pillars of NHS (Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Character). They all did a great job and I was happy to observe this induction.
The current members of the National Honor Society!
The four officers spoke on each of the Four
Pillars of NHS, but I especially enjoyed the
presentation Mokin gave on the pillar of Service!
The five new members taking their oath and preparing to light their candles.
Mr. Coyner lighting each member's candle as he welcomes them
into the National Honor Society.
This is the ICS-P National Honor Society with all members and Mr. Coyner.
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Thursday: Thursday was a very busy day with meetings with Pete Simano and our Leadership Team and then meetings with our Field Leadership Team + group after school. Right before that meeting, our Member Care group had planned a farewell gathering for our Grade 5 teacher, Mrs. Johanna Sigler. Mrs. Sigler, her husband, and their two sons will depart next week for a new assignment with the military in the United Kingdom. We hate to lose her, but we know she needs to go. Her replacement, Mrs. Gross, for the remainder of this year was also present and has been able to spend several weeks in the classroom with Mrs. Sigler. Mrs. Gross is awesome as well! Next year Mrs. Gross wants to teach Grade 3. That is why we are still in need of a Grade 5 teacher for next year. We had a delightful time of sharing some very special messages with Johanna and all that she has meant to each of us.
Mrs. Sigler with Cora the Conqueror! She loves holding Cora!
And here are Mrs. Sigler and Mrs. Gross with Cora!
Thursday evening, Pete Simano and I were invited to the Haselmans' home for a very yummy feast and some great fellowship. Mrs. Haselman is the Business Manager at ICS-P and also is a great chef! We enjoyed a fantastic time together with the Haselmans and some very delicious food.
Clockwise from the left: Pete Simano, GGG, Mylene, and Steve Haselman. Their daughter, Ianne, was taking the picture!
The yummy salad with feta cheese, bacon, and raspberry dressing +
on the left is dessert - Puff Pastries filled with yummy pudding!
Wheat pasta with chicken and sun-dried
tomatoes! So delicious!!
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Friday: Friday was St. Patricks' Day and the elementary school students and teachers were encouraged to wear green. Everyone had a lot of fun including interesting attire by some of our staff. Enjoy some of the pictures of a few staff members and just a few of the many students who dressed in green!
GGG and Mr. Richards wearing his
green wig! The kids loved it!
After staff devotions on Friday, Mr. Richards and Mrs. Sigler paused for a photo op! :-)
Also on Friday, our adviser for Forensics and Model UN, Mr. Kolbe, took a group of 15 students to our district's Model UN competition at the Dwight International School. We are one of the smallest schools, but Mr. Mooney came back after driving students to the competition and told the staff that ICS-P had more participants than any school. Both he and Mr. Kolbe were very proud of the showing of our students. The Model UN competition goes on throughout the weekend with the students returning on Sunday evening.
Some of the young men representing ICS-P at the Model UN.
Mr. Kolbe and Mr. Mooney checking attendance as some of the young ladies join.
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I think I better stop for this week. Again, I would like to ask you to be praying for our PowerSchool student management system as well as the two meetings with parents this coming week. Oh, we are still in need of a High School Science teacher and Grade 5 teacher for 2017-18. (Still waiting to hear back from the one HS Science candidate
Love, Gregg
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