learning

Growing Wings

Mrs. Dyson with her students, releasing the butterflies

~ Gladys Dyson, Kindergarten Teacher


Three weeks ago, our Kindergarten students released the 5 butterflies they had watched develop from caterpillars. The excitement was high as the insects flew off, but there was some sadness too as our students loved watching these beautiful and fascinating creatures leave our learning space. Tiny caterpillars had arrived in the mail in early May, and we watched them grow, develop into chrysalides, and then waited eagerly for the butterflies to emerge. Our students were so interested in watching the butterflies feed and fly around in their mesh habitat. Most were sad to see them released, but I explained how they needed to be free to move on to bigger spaces and continue to grow.

On Friday, June 2, our last day of the school year, we released our precious Kindergarten students onto bigger things. They flew from the protected space of our K classrooms, much like the chrysalides (one definition is a protected stage of development), since they are ready to take off and learn, read and shine!

When we released the butterflies, 3 flew out of the habitat quite quickly (to rousing cheers, of course!), but two seemed reluctant to leave the safety of the known green mesh space. Those two had to be coaxed out and still one hung around on my finger for about 5 minutes, then on the nearby sidewalk. I find our K students are not much different. Last week, several talked excitedly about moving on to 1st grade and looking forward to what new and challenging things they would do there. But others were a bit tearful and said they wanted to stay in Kindergarten. While I would love to keep any of them, who would want to keep these eager students from the wonders that lie ahead? Who would want to limit their potential? They are ready, and though their excited giggles and delightful unique personalities will be missed, I will enjoy seeing them move on to new challenges and adventures. And I will look forward to the new little ones who will come through our doors in August – ready to grow, learn and again move on. 

Kindergarten – The Acorn Year

Logos Academy is currently accepting applications for Kindergarten students for the 2017 – 2018 school year!
Kindergarten is such a special time of life. Curious little boys and girls are awestruck at the wonders of God’s creation, especially in their science studies. At Logos Academy, we embrace that sense of awe and wonder and nurture it in every Kindergarten boy and girl. We believe it is a vital part of developing a lifelong learner and we deliberately nurture a student from an acorn (Kindergarten) to an oak sapling (Senior).

 

Academically, our students are excelling. All of our seniors have been accepted to their first choice colleges and have received substantial scholarship funding. More importantly, at Logos Academy, we are committed to shaping the minds and hearts of our students. Formation does not stop with the intellect but extends to the physical, emotional and spiritual development of these incredible beings made in the image of God.

 

Would you like to visit our Kindergarten classes and learn more about our Christ-centered, culturally diverse urban school? Register now for a KINDERGARTEN TOUR on May 11th or 17th. We think you will be delighted with what you experience at Logos Academy. Our classes for next year are filling up quickly and this is a great opportunity to see our school in action before the summer months!

What is Logos?

Logos Academy is sometimes a misunderstood education option for the children and families of York. “Are you a charter school?” is a question we field often. Charter schools receive funding from local school districts, while private schools, like Logos Academy, do not. Our vibrant learning community is supported through donations from business, organizations, and individual supporters. They are our Logos Champions and their support directly leaves an impact in the hearts and minds of our students that then carries home to their families and community.

Our whole-child educational approach is what sets us apart from many other educational options here in the York area. We are intentional about creating a joy and wonder of learning in each student through a Christ-centered, classical education. This begins in Kindergarten with educational tools such as, SuperKids, a phonics-based reading and writing program. The students relate to “friends” they meet through play, reading, and writing exercises. In our Upper School, our students participate in an annual Team Project Week to spark collaboration, interdisciplinary learning, and creative outcomes. This year the theme was film (link to the films) and the films were shown at an all school film festival before a panel of judges who work and play in this area of expertise.

Each year, we are entrusted with tiny acorns (our 36 Kindergarten students) and plant these acorns in the rich soil of Logos Academy. Our 1:9 teacher to student ratio allows for purposeful gardening and harvesting by our teachers and staff. Over the years, we water, we fertilize, and we watch, as they sprout and grow. Then together, we celebrate when these acorns graduate as “plantings of the Lord for the display of His splendor.” (Isaiah 61:3)

Our doors are open on  March 4, 2017, from 10am-12pm. Come and meet our teachers and students and families. Bring your questions, there is so much more to learn about Logos Academy!

Team Project Week 2017

Every year, our Upper School sets aside the usual class schedule for a week of inter grade-level collaboration.  For five days, Team Project Week takes over the building and the brains of our students. The topic (project) is announced in an assembly. Then, our 6-12 grade students are assigned teams and roles to support the completion of the comprehensive project. Each day, for a week, the students participate in: hands on learning through research, teaching from community members, student collaboration, and creative problem solving.

So, are you curious about what the project will be this year? Past projects have included physics based building competitions, a small business simulation, as well as a presidential election simulation. Check back on February 6 for the big topic reveal! Any guesses? Leave them in your comment below.

Open House: 2017-2018 school year

 

Logos Academy hosted our first Open House for interested students for the 2017-2018 school year. The whole school was open, welcoming families to visit classrooms and talk with teachers, watch a video about our vibrant learning community, and experience the many unique aspects of our urban facility. The next Open House is on March 4 from 10am-12pm. Please join us! If you have any questions about admissions, please contact Carolyn Butera, Recruitment and Admissions Coordinator.

Learn More

Past and Present Collide

When the Unresolved Past and the Unprepared Present Collide:
History Lessons Beyond the Classroom with a Call to Action

~ Brandon Grunden, Upper School Teacher

It really is quite something, as a history teacher, when already planned history lessons for the classroom coincide with events that take place outside of the classroom in the “real world”. It is in these moments that there is the potential for a life lesson.  Unless you have been living under a rock over the past 18 months you know that those last 18 months culminated on November 8th with an election outcome that shocked many.  Perhaps even more shocking was the day after fallout that took place in schools, college campuses, and communities nationwide perpetrated by folks who feel emboldened by, and fearful of, the divisive rhetoric from this past election cycle.  

In my U.S. History II class, the seniors and I have been covering events going all the way back to pre-Civil War America up to the 1990s.  We had just finished up our unit on the Civil Rights Movement when we saw in the news what was happening in our nation and in our community after the election.  This unit included the reading of an autobiography that takes place from The Great Depression onward, but spends a large amount of time in the South in the 50s and 60s.  Going further back  in U.S. history (1600s) we began to wrestle with issues of race, gender, and class equality that continue to this day.  Students were encouraged by gains made after the Civil War; the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, only to be disappointed by what happened at the conclusion of reconstruction-presentation-2015-7-638Reconstruction with federal troops pulling out of the South to fulfill a deal to ensure a presidential outcome. Between the end of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement we saw women fight for and gain their right to vote (19th Amendment) and we saw workers organize to fight for and gain decent working conditions.  While these wonderful gains were being made, the South was still entrenched in their Jim Crow/Jane Crow ways and in the North, things were certainly better, but not by much.

As we got into the Civil Rights movement, students were continually perplexed by the fact that there was no justice in the South considering there were Amendments in place “guaranteeing” certain rights.  We learned that there are no guaranteed rights when laws aren’t enforced by those in power.  From the death of Emmett Till to the fight for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, my students were asking questions like, “wasn’t there already laws protecting these rights?” or “where was the non-partial law enforcement?” leaving some of them rightfully incensed at the lack of protection for a group of people based on their skin color.  

(Enter Hope) in the form of Mamie Till, Malcolm X, John Lewis, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., The Greensboro Four, and countless others, who won’t get the recognition they deserve, but were so important in the fight for equal rights.  (Enter Hope) in the form of people across all races, religions, classes helping in the cause for equal rights and equal protection.  This diverse help and togetherness was profound and instrumental in the successes of the Movement, but there was one thing missing, one thing that could have helped the achievements of this cause come quicker, with more oomph, and be more everlasting: white moderate Christians and church congregations leading in the fight.

While the people out in the street and on the frontlines of the Movement were of diverse backgrounds the people in the lead were mostly people of color.  In fact, it is white Christian leaders in the South whom King is addressing in his Letter From Birmingham Jail.  King considered white moderates (those that supported his cause and weren’t violent, but didn’t want fast moving change) to be more harmful to the causes of racial unity than those who were wearing the white hoods and claiming membership to the KKK, which was a bold but honest critique.

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I bring all of this up in order to provide context in light of the events following this election and to maybe offer a lesson that comes from history.  History has shown that there are patterns of response that people tend to follow when they witness various forms of inequality, whether it be based on race, gender, or religions.  Some people will choose to speak out against the harsh treatment that they see and some will choose to either ignore it or to claim that what they see “really isn’t a big deal”.  The former are usually those represented by the victims of this harsh treatment while the latter are typically those that are not directly affected by such actions.  We must consider the historical implications behind the post election incidents and the response of some leaders and lack of a response from others.  While the gains made in the last 50 years have been encouraging we have to be honest with ourselves in saying that maybe we haven’t come as far as we thought we have.

There are many reasons to study history, but one of the most basic, tangible reasons is to learn history so that it doesn’t repeat itself.  When reading about what was happening in our country last week, after the election, I was reminded that I am only one generation away from the Civil Rights Movement and that our children are only two.  And that in just two generations, the progress that was made in terms of legislating race relations seems close to becoming undone.  This means that while the gains of the Movement were important and awesome, they did little to change people’s hearts, which brings me to my next reason to learn history, empathy.  Learning history builds empathy for those that have experienced some of the most terrible things that human beings can do to one another so that we don’t allow that to happen to anyone regardless of who they are.  To learn about Manifest Destiny should make us pause and think about how the U.S. government treated the indigenous people that are native to this continent, almost entirely erasing a culture of people.  To learn about slavery in America and the global slave trade should make us pause and think about the experience of Africans in this continent and other continents and should literally break our hearts knowing families were ripped apart and human beings were stripped of their humanity.  To learn about immigrants flooding the shores of Ellis Island should remind us that most of us are here because at one point our ancestors were immigrants and that we should be supporting a path to citizenship, not treating certain people like second class citizens with threats of deportation.  To learn about the Holocaust should give us a compassion for the Jewish experience, enough so that the thought of a swastika being used as graffiti forces us to remember that six million Jews were victims of genocide.  To learn about Islam should give us a respect for the tradition of that religion given that it was born out of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but has been hijacked by some fringe members of that community much in the way that Christianity was hijacked by those committing acts of American terrorism in the Jim Crow/Jane Crow South.

At this point you may be thinking that my view on things in the world is a pessimistic view and while there are things out there that I could quantify for my reason to be pessimistic, I am not. I am Hopeful!  You may be thinking that the students that come into and out of my classroom leave my classroom with a sense of pessimism and disdain for events in history.  While it is true that my students have a critical view of history, it is also true that this critique is balanced with Hopeful tones and an emphasis on progress despite hardship.  

At the end of the novel we just finished, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn says this, “to be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness.  What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.  If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.  And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.  The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” (208)

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I am hopeful by what I see in the diverse classrooms of our school and in the diverse ways we are learning to value and respect each other (if only every classroom in the country looked like ours).  I am hopeful by the fact that this year’s graduating class from Logos Academy will be armed with the skills of critical thinking, compassion, and empathy and will refuse to buy into anything that contradicts the example set forth by our Lord, Jesus Christ..  I am hopeful by the fact that there are people exposing the hate they are witnessing and rightfully taking a stand about it.  I am hopeful by the fact that our school leader and pastor, Aaron Anderson, is one such individual taking a stand by putting something in writing for public consumption in order to move people’s hearts and minds in our local community.  This is history in action and this is what we need so urgently.

My one desire, my one Hope, is to see more people take a stand, to see churches and church leaders by the thousands denouncing these acts of hatred, which do not fit with the Christian ethos, in no shape or form.  All movements begin small.  Which movement do we want to see grow?  The movement of hate and a calling for white supremacy that is anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-woman, and anti-Semitic? Or, a small movement of love and unity, that pushes back on those views in such a way that might begin to change people’s hearts and minds.  History tells us that either path can happen, has happened, and that it is up to us to choose.  I am continuing to remain Hopeful though because as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once quoted, “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”  

Math + Students + Fun = QUIZ BOWL

Dr. Hubert Huang ~ Upper School Teacher

Dr. Hubert Huang ~ Upper School Teacher

~ Dr. Hubert Huang, Upper School Teacher, Guest Blogger


As a new mathematics faculty at Logos Academy, I feel blessed to be able to serve God while doing what I am passionate about: teaching. Prior to coming to Logos Academy, I worked for four years at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA where my wife was completing her residency program in OBGYN. Although my primary responsibilities included designing curriculum, assessments, and workshops, teaching physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers, performing data analyses, and providing consultative services as a research statistician, I was also fortunate to be able to work with youth. The two programs I most enjoyed working with was a dual-enrollment program for high school seniors interested in healthcare careers and a competitive undergraduate summer research program. Before my wife’s residency, I was a high school teacher at York Suburban and Northeastern. Among the academic programs I started at both high schools were quiz bowl, Model United Nations, and a robust AP human geography and AP U.S. history program. I believe deeply that these academic extracurricular activities are important to developing academically strong students and a culture of high achievement.

Here at Logos Academy, we have several academic competition teams starting up this fall, most notable quiz bowl. So what is quiz bowl exactly? Quiz bowl is an academic competition that can be described as team Jeopardy! although unlike Jeopardy!, quiz bowl focuses on more content and subjects aligned with school curricula. BrainBusters on channel WGAL on Saturday mornings gives you a comparatively better idea of what Quiz Bowl is. screen-shot-2016-11-10-at-7-51-16-amWhile Quiz Bowl covers the middle school and high school curriculum, including American and world literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, theology, music, art, and current events, it often requires students to dig deeper into these subject areas than they would normally do so in their classes. Academic extracurricular activities such as Quiz Bowl offer students the opportunity to take what they are learning in the classroom here at Logos Academy and apply it in collaborative, fun, and competitive environments. Research suggests that participation in extracurricular activities promotes greater academic achievement.

screen-shot-2016-11-10-at-7-51-31-amIn a standard quiz bowl match, two teams of four players face off against each other and compete to answer pyramidal toss-up questions (questions with three- to five-sentence clues that start out difficult and become increasingly easier) and associated bonus questions. Players each have a buzzer that they may “buzz in” as soon as they want to answer. This rewards players’ breadth and depth of knowledge rather how fast they can press a buzzer.

Every third Tuesday of the month Logos Academy is hosting a faculty-student Quiz Bowl match in the auditorium from 3:45pm to 4:30pm. Parents, students, and the community are welcome to come see what Quiz Bowl is about! Besides Quiz Bowl, Logos Academy will also be participating in Envirothon, Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad, and National History Day this year.


2016-2017 Schedule for Logos Academy Academic Teams (subject to change)

  • Pennsylvania Central Region Science Olympiad at Millersville
  • York County Envirothon at John Rudy Park
  • Math Olympiad
  • Moody’s Mega Math Challenge
  • Lehigh University High School Math Contest
  • Faculty-Student Matches
  • Manheim Township Academic Challenge at Manheim Township HS
  • Manheim Township Middle School Quiz Bowl Tournament at Manheim Township HS
  • Regional High School and Middle School Science Bowl at City College of New York
  • Penn State Spring Academic Bowl at Penn State University, University Park
  • Conestoga Valley Quiz Bowl Tournament at Conestoga High School
  • Pennsylvania Academic Challenge

Wonder in Education

Guest Blogger – Nancy Snyder, K-12 Student Support Services Coordinator

splashThe fifth-graders have been working on growth goals. To learn about a growth mindset, students read and discussed the picture book The Most Magnificent Thing. Students negotiated with their teachers to establish goals. They continually self-monitor to become aware of how they are doing in areas where they need to grow. Every two weeks, if their self-monitoring is adequate and their teacher recommends them, they choose what they would like to do in a fun snatch of time–ten minutes of spontaneous fun in the middle of the day. Yesterday, one of them lamented, “It’s too bad we can’t take a walk in the pouring rain.”

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WONDER IN THE RAIN

Why not?

I ran home to grab every umbrella I own. The students donned their jackets, and we marveled over the height of the Codorus Creek and all the debris floating down it. The sun burst through (like a bright idea after a growth-mindset struggle).

We looked at the huge puddles at the corner of King and Newberry Streets. One student said, “It’s too bad we can’t put down our hoods and umbrellas and run back to school in the rain.”
IMG_0611While I held their umbrellas, they danced and did cartwheels in the rain. It was a wonder-filled moment.

Wonder in education–it’s what we do at Logos Academy.

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