During Lutheran Schools Week, our faculty shared reflections on this year's theme of Life Together in Christ, focusing on the different aspects as we play together, serve together, pray together and learn together. In today's reflection, 1st grade teacher Mrs. Gorr shares insights on learning together at ILS.

Learn Together – Mrs. Gorr

Learning is most certainly a never-ending process. In first grade, we progress from smaller bits of information to greater and greater mastery of a task. Grammar is a subject that is formally introduced at Immanuel in first grade. We begin by learning jingles about the parts of speech and looking at sentences that have just a subject noun and a verb. Within a few months, we are marking words in sentences that include not just a subject noun and a verb, but also adjectives, adverbs, article adjectives, and prepositional phrases. Each year students will master more complex concepts and build upon what they know from their previous studies.

Learning is also not something that can be planned out completely. Even the most well-thought-out lesson plans cannot account for the reality of teaching. Students ask wonderful questions about a topic that the teacher did not even consider or make insightful comments about a book that lead a class discussion in a completely different direction than initially intended. In such a way, teacher and students explore new ideas together and learn alongside one another. This leads to new and exciting discoveries each and every day!