Lutheran Schools Week - Serve Together

As a part of the 2016 National Lutheran Schools Week, members of our ILS faculty shared reflections on the theme of Life Together in Christ. Each focused on the different parts of our "life together" as we play together, serve together, pray together and learn together. In today's reflection, Upper School Lead Teacher, Ms. Kramer, shares insights on serving together at ILS.

Serve Together – Ms. Kramer

As they mature, ILS students are being trusted with more and more responsibility throughout the school: patrol, helping younger grades at chapel, other forms of chapel service, running the Talent Show, developing the culture of the school through our house systems. And there are countless other ways students serve without programs: I can think of two 4th grade students who scan the blacktop and playground every day for left-over trash without being asked, or students who jump at the chance to help a teacher with tasks. We take service seriously at Immanuel, because we are becoming who we are meant to be: members of community, people who will love and care for one another. Is there any more meaningful way to be an image bearer of Christ?

Lutheran Schools Week - Learn Together

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.

Lutheran Schools Week - Serve Together

Why do we serve together? Why take precious time away from academics to work on service projects?

I am reminded of Saint Paul’s warning to the Corinthians. Don’t gloss over the text; it’s worth reading:

“If I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

In other words, we fail as a classical school if the only outcome we achieve is a well-trained mind. If our students graduate as intellectually robust defenders of truth yet lacking love and vision to use their gifts in service to neighbors, then our work has been in vain.

Lutheran Schools Week - Play Together

"And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them" (Mark 10:16 ESV)

With just one day to officially celebrate National Lutheran Schools Week, students were excited to Play Together during a school-wide game hour. We give thanks for our minds and bodies - blessings from the Creator - allowing us to pray, learn, serve, and play. 

Play Together - Mrs. Schmick 

Children + playing = learning. Hands-down, one of the best equations ever. Our days in the Jr.  include a wonderful balance of not only instruction but also play. Whether a student is completing a puzzle inside or participating in a game of tag outside, they are learning. Both surroundings are perfect environments for little minds and bodies to use kind words (Mrs. Schmick, may you please play animals with me?), increase patience (as they wait in line to kick a soccer ball), and build muscle strength and coordination (as they climb steps and ladders and catch footballs).

Lutheran Schools Week - Learning Together

"And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him." (Luke 2:39-40 ESV)

Like the boy Jesus, ILS students are growing physically but also in wisdom. Students (and their teachers alongside them) learn language, mathematics, history, and science. They are also learning the words of Scripture as Jesus did. We pray that that the all of our learning might be to the Glory of God and in service to our neighbor. 

Enjoy this post on Learning Together by ILS 4th grade teacher, Miss Leithart. 

Lutheran Schools Week: Life Together in Christ

Although our full schedule of Lutheran Schools Week activities have been hampered by the snow, ILS and her families still join the nearly 2,300 LCMS preschools, elementary schools and high schools throughout the country celebrating this week. This year’s theme, Life Together in Christ, provides the opportunity to acknowledge that Christ is the creator of our life together and has sustained the our community for more than 70 years.

The theme verse for the week:

"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (I Cor. 1:9 ESV)

...focuses our attention on the joyful fellowship we have with one another, centered on Christ crucified. 

ILS Joins The Trinity Forum

Immanuel Lutheran School is excited to announce a new partnership with the Trinity Forum. From their website: "The Trinity Forum convenes leading thinkers and thinking leaders to consider and discuss life’s great questions in the context of faith. Trinity Forum Society members interact with some of the most distinguished thinkers on the arts, sciences, business, cultural engagement, and more, and will have the opportunity to connect with like-minded leaders from around the world." In other words, they help provide a classical education for grown-ups!

What books are you reading? What has captured your imagination?

Is fiction good for us?

Jonathan Gottschall, author of “The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human,” and teacher of English at Washington & Jefferson College, explores the question in a piece in the Boston Globe titled “Why Fiction is Good for You.”

ILS Soccer Game


Upper School students at Immanuel study a new sport each month in Physical Education classes.  For the month of October, the Upper School students worked on their soccer skills, everything from dribbling the soccer ball, to passing, to shooting, to goal-keeping. To set a goal for our students, a game was scheduled with Alexandria Country Day School on October 29.  Needless to say, with an upcoming game against ACDS, the students’ motivation was high to push harder and learn intently in PE classes. The students knew as well as I did that they had to take advantage of every moment in PE to get ready for their opponent just a few blocks away on Russell Road.