What We're Reading - October

We’re one month into the school year, and it is delightful seeing the return of all the rhythms and routines of the school year! September was filled with many wonderful ILS traditions - our annual Constitution Day celebration, Oktoberfest, our First Friday coffees, fall parent socials, and more! We are looking forward to ongoing conversations with families during our fall Parent Teacher Conferences, welcoming guest for our first Lower School Showcase of the year, and planning ahead to our November Month of Service and our Salute to Veterans on Veterans Day next month.

Every month, we share our "What we're reading..." blog, filled with a variety of articles and news. This is one of the many ways we endeavor to spark on-going conversation and engage our community. As we think about and work together at shaping and nurturing our culture together at school and at home, we hope that these articles may be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking, and that hopefully they will spark further conversations and dialogue.

We are excited that the PTL is working to engage families in more conversations with their Book Club. Please consider joining us in reading these selections and participating in some of the conversations throughout the year!

Are there things that you have read that you think others in our community may enjoy? Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

What We're Reading - September

Our new year is underway! We’re so thrilled to welcome back all of our returning families, students, and staff, and to greet all of the new members of our Immanuel community! We’re delighted to begin this new year together, and we look forward to seeing you at all of the back to school events over the coming weeks.

One of the things we look forward to discussing as a faculty and with our families in the coming year is the idea of habit building. We enjoyed the conversation around this topic at our First Friday Coffee, and we look forward to building upon this throughout the year.

Our monthly "What we're reading..." blog series is one of the ways we engage in this on-going conversation as we share a selection of articles. As we think about and work together at shaping and nurturing our culture together at school and at home, we hope that these articles may be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking, and that hopefully they will spark further conversations and dialogue.

Are there things that you have read that you think others in our community may enjoy? Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us!

Meet Our ILS PTL Co-Chair: Ms. Lily Foks

We are so excited to introduce our new ILS Parent Teacher League (PTL) Co-Chairs for the 2022-2023 school year to give you a chance to better know the parents who are going to be serving in the coming school year!

We are so grateful for all of the ways that our parent community serves our students, teachers, and school. The Parent Teacher League (PTL) supports classical Lutheran education at ILS and helps to provide opportunities for parents to engage in the life of the school. Our PTL Co-Chairs are in regular communication with school administrators and room parents to help engage parent volunteers, communicate events, and strengthen our community.

Please watch for emails from the PTL and from Room Parents throughout the year about events and activities!

Meet Us Monday: Katie Baldwin

As we count down to the 2022-2023 school year, our Meet Us Monday Blog series returns to introduce you to the outstanding new teachers joining our ILS faculty this year.

Mrs. Katie Baldwin will be joining our team as one of our Extended Care Teachers. After teaching in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and China for several years, we are delighted to have Mrs. Baldwin join the staff at ILS this year!

Please join us in welcoming Mrs. Baldwin!

Meet Us Monday: Mrs. Ashley Palmer

It’s our final countdown to the end of the 2021-2022 school year! It is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2022, we have again launched our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we are sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!As we count down to the 2022-2023 school year, our Meet Us Monday Blog series returns to introduce you to the outstanding new teachers joining our ILS faculty this year.

Mrs. Ashley Palmer will be our Jr. Kindergarten Assistant Teacher. Mrs. Palmer has been a part of our Immanuel community for many years as a parent to two ILS current ILS students, and we are delighted to have her join the faculty this year!

Please join us in welcoming Mrs. Palmer!

Meet Us Monday: Mrs. Yee-Peng Tang Royster

As we count down to the 2022-2023 school year, our Meet Us Monday Blog series returns to introduce you to the outstanding new teachers joining our ILS faculty this year.

Mrs. Yee-Peng Tang Royster will be our Kindergarten Assistant Teacher. Mrs. Royster has been a part of our Immanuel community for many years as a parent to two ILS current ILS students and one ILS graduate (Class of 2022), and we are delighted to have her join the faculty this year!

Please join us in welcoming Mrs. Royster!

Meet Our ILS PTL Co-Chair: Ms. Stephanie Vogelzang

We are so excited to introduce our new ILS Parent Teacher League (PTL) Co-Chairs for the 2022-2023 school year to give you a chance to better know the parents who are going to be serving in the coming school year!

We are so grateful for all of the ways that our parent community serves our students, teachers, and school. The Parent Teacher League (PTL) supports classical Lutheran education at ILS and helps to provide opportunities for parents to engage in the life of the school. Our PTL Co-Chairs are in regular communication with school administrators and room parents to help engage parent volunteers, communicate events, and strengthen our community.

Please watch for emails from the PTL and from Room Parents throughout the year about events and activities!

What We're Reading - August

We hope that our ILS students and families have been enjoying a restful and relaxing summer. While it is certainly quieter on campus, our faculty and staff have kept busy - participating in the CCLE summer conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and continuing to work on may projects for the upcoming year. We are delighted that a number of our families have joined us in our ILS Summer Book Club as we’ve enjoyed Anthony Esolen’s “Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child.” (We’d love to have you join us for our final conversation on Thursday, August 18th!)

Next month our hallways and classrooms will again be filled with the delightful sounds of children and teachers as we kick-off the 2022-2023 school year! We are all looking forward to seeing all of our returning families and welcoming many new faces to our Immanuel community. September will be a busy month with Back to School Nights, Constitution Day, Oktoberfest, and more!

Returning families will be familiar with our monthly "What we're reading..." blog series. Each month we share a brief selection of articles with our community. As we think about and work together at shaping and nurturing our culture together at school and at home, we hope that these articles may be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking, and that hopefully they will spark further conversations and dialogue.

What are you reading this summer? Are there things that you have read that you think others in our community may enjoy reading? Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us!

ILS Summer Book Recommendations

Happy Summer! We are already missing the joyful sounds of students filling the classrooms and hallways, but we do hope that students and families are able to enjoy a fun and restful summer break.

As it is throughout our school year together, we hope that reading continues to be a regular part of the summer routine and summer schole for both students and their families. Parents are welcome to join us in reading our Summer Book Club selection: Life Under Compulsion: ten ways to destroy the humanity of your child, by Anthony Esolen, and join us at one or more of our book club discussions.

Looking for some additions to your child’s summer reading (or your own)? We invited faculty and staff to pass along their suggestions for books for students and parents this summer.

Additionally, our ILS teachers have compiled a list of suggested readings for both Upper and Lower School students as a resource for families to help select books that students may enjoy, both reading books from their own grade level, or listening as parents read aloud from more challenging texts. Looking for even more recommendations? Check out a couple of our past summer reading blog posts filled with ideas and favorites from ILS faculty past and present!

What is on your own summer reading list? Are you checking out something new, or re-visiting an old favorite? Let us know in the comments!

Class of 2022 Meet Us Monday: Erika

It’s our final countdown to the end of the 2021-2022 school year! It is a particularly bittersweet time for our 8th grade students as they prepare to graduate. To help celebrate and recognize our ILS Class of 2022, we have again launched our “Meet Us Monday” blog series to introduce you to the members of this year’s graduating class.

Each week, we are sharing interviews that we have done with each of our 8th grade students, in which they share more about their favorite ILS memories and traditions, words of wisdom they’ve received over the years, and other reflections from their years here with us at ILS. We hope that you will enjoy these reflections, and join with us in congratulating and celebrating these students!