Twin Oaks Fall Highlights are Mission Strong!

God rocks!  It’s 100% true.  Now imagine an almost-two-year-old redhead shouting it at the top of her lungs while pumping her tiny fist in the air.  Then it’s 100% true and 100% adorable.  This is a ritual my granddaughter, Eden, and her parents practice at the end of each prayer.  It’s a toddler-sized reminder of a God-sized truth:  He is the best thing ever.

I start with this so that 1. I can talk about my granddaughter and 2. The good mission work we’re about to celebrate together is grounded in the knowledge that God is the source of each one.  Twin Oaks Christian School is stronger than ever and that is a direct result of God’s hand of favor blessing our work and worship.  Let’s magnify Him together as we consider His faithfulness in these fall mission highlights!

Spiritual Development:

Students have really gotten on board with our theme this year—Nurturing an Attitude of Gratitude.  They have filled up our gratitude tree with leaves naming everything from pets, to people, to answered prayer.  It fills up an entire wall and is a vivid visual reminder of the gratitude we owe the Lord for the blessings He has bestowed on us.  Here are a few samples to inspire you:

• PreK student Jonathan is thankful for his new dinosaur toys.
• Kindergartener Maverick is thankful for his family.
• 1st grader Kenna is thankful for her mom and dad.
• 2nd grader Hadley is thankful for her family, Jesus, her dog, school, and her mom and dad.
• 3rd grader Penny is grateful for Jesus because He died on the cross for our sins.
• 4th grader Robbie is thankful for his Nintendo Switch, dog, family, chickens, and God.
• 5th grader Ashlyn is thankful for family, good food to eat, shelter, and a good school to teach me subjects and more about God.
• 6th grader Caitlin is thankful to be able to ride horses as a sport.
• 7th grader Tyson is thankful for family, friends, love, joy, humor, fun, food, and siblings.
• 8th grader Micah is thankful for the ability to go to Twin Oaks Christian School.

Academic Excellence:

If you peeked into any of our 3rd-8th grade classrooms towards the end of September, you would have seen students working intently to complete their first ERB Milestone Test!  These tests and teacher training have laid the foundation for more consistent, comprehensive assessment for our students.  This is important because it allows teachers to learn and respond to information about the students in their classroom as early in the school year as September.  What an advantage that gives us when planning an academic course that incorporates the twin elements of optimal student success—high rigor coupled with high support.  This is one of the ways we honor your child’s unique image-bearing in God’s Kingdom.  Our next Milestone test is coming up soon in January.

Students have been benefiting from the richness of our new Core Knowledge History (CKH) curriculum.  Imagine opening a book filled with colorful photos and illustrations to learn about historically accurate accounts of pivotal people and events essential to understanding our nation and world.  CKH exposes students to primary historical sources, project-based activities, and geography lessons that expand their understanding of history.  It provides teachers with opportunities to continue to implement biblical immersion principles as they help students see God’s sovereign hand at work throughout all time.

Servant Leadership:

It’s important for your child to learn that leadership isn’t about gaining power or influence but using whatever power or influence God has given them to serve others.  Our Savior demonstrated this quality over and over during His earthly ministry, and our desire is for our students to become more like Christ in this way.  A few weeks ago, students met in their Crew Groups to brainstorm ways they could serve together.  This Wednesday, they’ll put those plans into action, using their Crew Group time to do everything from making cards that the Honors Choir will deliver when caroling at a local nursing home, to taking over morning announcement duties for me for a day, to raking leaves and cleaning up around the building.  When students have ownership in coming up with ideas to serve, there really is no limit to their creativity and desire to make a difference!

Our servant-minded students also rose to the occasion for our Thanksgiving Food Drive and One Heart Family Ministries Pajama Day!  Twin Oaks collected 1,731 food items and raised $1,130 to help take care of our less fortunate neighbors during this holiday season.  Our 7th & 8th grade Student Council members collected and delivered the food items to The Peace Pantry, where recipients not only receive access to food, but to the nourishing truth of the gospel.

Painting/Flooring Projects:

We’re excited to announce that the downstairs school hallways and our three Early Childhood rooms upstairs will be receiving a fresh coat of paint over Christmas break!  In addition, new flooring will be installed in the Early Childhood classrooms.  We are committed to continuing building improvements so our students can learn in beautiful spaces.  If you’re interested in helping fund some of these larger, ongoing projects so they can be completed more quickly, please contact me for more information.  We want the spaces we inhabit to reflect the quality of the programming we have to offer, and we’re excited to take these first steps toward achieving that goal.

The ability to aim toward and embrace a shared mission is one of the hallmarks of a healthy organization, and I am thankful for our partnership with parents who encourage and support it so fully.  It fills my heart with joy to read back over just a few of the ways God is providing direction and meaning for the students who are part of our community.  By God’s grace, we will continue to boldly pursue His mission for Twin Oaks Christian School so that all of our students will be supported to realize their place in His Kingdom and know that, in words from the mouth of a babe, God rocks!

We’ve only been back at school a little over a month, but already we’re settling into the rhythms of work and worship that define our days at Twin Oaks Christian School. What a joy it is to know that God is sovereign and good, orchestrating circumstances in the life of the school so that we are sanctified and He is glorified.

It’s important that we all understand who we are and where we’re going as a school, so we can pull in the same direction and grow into ever-increasing effectiveness. I thought I would use this first quarter communication to remind us of our school’s mission and to describe the ways in which we’re seeking to faithfully live it out as an entire community.

Our mission is to glorify God by nurturing spiritual development, academic excellence, and servant leadership in an environment where each child is known and loved. It sounds like an amazing pursuit! But what are we doing to fulfill it?

Spiritual Development: Your child’s growth in Christ is our top priority. It doesn’t mean we pause all of the other good things necessary to provide a quality education for a spiritual “time out.” It means all we do is grounded in God’s truth so that everything, from learning math to resolving conflict to hanging out with friends, becomes an opportunity to point them to Christ. Assistant Head of School Chris Rensink has been hard at work preparing professional development for our teachers that will help them identify and take advantage of these opportunities even more. For those of you who didn’t see last week’s social media post on the subject, teachers will be studying the book Beyond Biblical Integration by Roger Erdvig, learning and applying principles designed to immerse students in a biblical worldview throughout their whole day.

Continue reading “From the Eagle’s Nest – Quarter 1 – 2023”

I’ve talked a lot about the significance of this year in the life of Twin Oaks Christian School; it’s our 50th anniversary after all. You may have also heard me mention that Twin Oaks began with prayer. Before there was a building to move into, a board to govern, teachers to teach, or students to fill the hallways, God’s people got down on their knees and prayed to Him to provide all these things. They believed in the value of Christian education, that lives would be transformed. So they made plans and got to work. But first, they prayed.

Continue reading “From the Eagle’s Nest – Quarter 3 – 2023”

Greetings, Twin Oaks Community! I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with you and update you on significant developments in the life of our school. One of the highlights of this past week was our 50th Anniversary Celebration Gala where we showcased fifty years of God’s faithfulness to Twin Oaks Christian School! It was a special evening of looking back at all the Lord has accomplished over the years and also an opportunity to think about where we’re headed for the future. I’m eager for us to follow Him into a new season of growth in fulfilling our mission.

One of the initiatives I’m most passionate about is building the habit of scripture engagement among our students as another way to nurture their spiritual development. What exactly is scripture engagement? It is the practice of reading God’s Word and then applying Bible study methods to dig deeper into its meaning. We want students to be informed by the content of scripture, but we also want them to be transformed by experiencing it as living and active, not just another subject in their school day. Recently we demonstrated and then had students put into practice a method where they hear a passage read aloud, and then “mark up” that passage on a sheet of paper that provides plenty of space for them to underline or star keywords, make notes, write questions, draw pictures, etc. that help them “engage” that particular passage in an active way. We practiced with our theme verse, since it was familiar, and I’d like you to see what one third grade student noticed when he slowed down to really chew on God’s Word.

Notice how looking more closely at this scripture allowed him to make a key observation–If God’s Word calls you to work with all your heart, you first “have to have a heart to work.” This puts him in a position to consider a very important question, “Do I have a heart for God?”–and is a chance for the Holy Spirit to speak to his heart and mind as he slows down and looks more intently at the scriptures. This is one example from one student. Imagine the impact this practice could have schoolwide as students begin to truly engage their hearts and minds in this way!

By: Julie Cordray, Head of School

I have a deep question for you to consider regarding the first few weeks of school–How is it the middle of September already?! August was so full of back-to-school flurry that I blinked and it was gone. One thing is certain, however. Whether the days seem long or short, God has had His hand on every one.

From before time began, He ordained that Twin Oaks Christian School would open its doors this year for the 50th first day of school. He knew that you would want your children to have a Christian education, and He made a place for them here. He knew those children would need skilled, godly teachers, and He has brought them. From generation to generation, since1972, God has been leading, sustaining, and growing the ministry of the school. I don’t know about you, but that gives me a lot of confidence as we look ahead to the future.

Here are just a few short stories to illustrate God’s faithfulness to Twin Oaks as we have begun our new school year.

• Three weeks before school started we had not yet met our enrollment goal of 155 students and were contemplating whether we needed a third Early Childhood class. Within the next two weeks we had almost filled our Early Childhood program, including that third class we weren’t sure we would need, exceeding our enrollment goal.
• Both our new music teacher, Mrs. Graham Behnke, and our new 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Natalie LaRose, both described a strong sense of calling to apply for those positions. Mrs. Behnke received an unexpected nudge to contact someone unconnected to Twin Oaks, who happened to know and then share with her that we were in need of a music teacher. Mrs. LaRose wasn’t planning on coming back to the classroom at all this year after having a newborn last January, but developed the impression that God wasn’t ready for her to step out of the classroom and applied for the position.
• Last year adding Robotics was just an idea, but the Lord provided the resources, teachers, and coaches needed to begin our first-ever middle school Robotics class and competitive after school club. We now have a Boeing sponsor, Westminster Christian Academy Robotics Team seniors to assist during class on Thursday mornings, and a college sophomore Robotics Team veteran who have joined our teachers in leading the competitive club.
• A “chance” connection with a parent in the school parking lot in the middle of summer led to us adding Elementary Drama Club to our after-school activities, providing more opportunities for our students to learn and grow.
• We have welcomed over twenty new families this year, and God has assembled a team of teachers and staff who are intentionally taking time to connect with and get to know them as individuals. Many have made a point of sharing how they have felt embraced and accepted into their new school home. In the words of one young enthusiast, “This is the best school I’ve ever had!” Friends, God is the author of this type of loving community. Let us praise Him for it!

Continue reading “From the Eagle’s Nest – Quarter 1 – 2022”

Greetings, Twin Oaks Families! I hope you’re enjoying summer break and have had some time to rest and refresh from the busyness of the school year. Isn’t the Lord is good to recognize our need for seasons and to give us periods of time when we can enjoy a more relaxed pace?

Though the office is operating on reduced summer hours, we have been steadily preparing for the return of our precious students (We miss them!) and are committed to continuing to fulfill our mission for their good and God’s glory. As we look ahead to August, we know that the Lord is faithfully paving the way for another wonderful school year.

Following are some updates and changes regarding this fall:
The 2022-2023 school year will mark Twin Oaks Christian School’s 50th Anniversary serving the greater St. Louis community with quality Christian education. This year special activities and events recognizing God’s faithfulness to sustaining and growing TOCS for 50 years are being planned. To help with these and other school events, TOCS parent Becca Fox will be joining our team this year as part-time Event Coordinator! Please congratulate and welcome Becca to her new role.

I’m also excited to announce that Katie Ragsdale will be moving from the 5th grade classroom to become our new TLC coordinator and teacher! Mrs. Ragsdale’s extensive experience teaching a wide range of grade levels, including students with learning needs, along with her strong leadership and administration skills make her a wonderful fit for this role. We are enlisting the services of St. Louis Learning Disability Association to provide highly specialized and customized consultation while Mrs. Ragsdale pursues special education certification. Please join us in congratulating her on this exciting transition!

One of our goals for this past year was to find a language arts curriculum for our Kindergarten through 3rd Grade classes since our current Treasures curriculum is no longer in print. The curriculum committee worked hard throughout the year, praying and pouring over a variety of options to identify the one offering our non-negotiables of academic rigor, opportunities for applying a biblical worldview, comprehensiveness, and adaptability. We are pleased to announce that McGraw-Hill’s Wonders curriculum came out on top and is Board-approved to be implemented for grades K-3 beginning this coming school year. This curriculum provides a wide variety of quality reading selections as well as robust and well-aligned vocabulary, spelling, and writing exercises. Online resources that can be used for supplementation at home if desired are also available. As part of the curriculum committee, I can vouch for the thorough, intentional way the review process was conducted and look forward to seeing how this new curriculum provides an edge for our students’ language arts learning.

Another big change is that middle school will join elementary school in starting class at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8:20 a.m. This past spring I worked with a school scheduling consultant to optimize our academic and co-curricular schedule. One of the necessary changes was to create 30-minute modules to help streamline transitions and create uniform blocks of time for instruction, co-curricular classes, and lunch/recess times. The result is that daily schedules are more uniform and students have larger blocks of academic time in the mornings when their minds are more fresh, but the 30-minute modules require the middle school day to begin at the same time as elementary. We hope the extra 10 minutes in the morning will be a blessing to our middle school families!

We are thankful to the Lord for new additions to our staff as well as those who are returning in the fall. I’m more excited than ever to be a small part of what God is doing through the ministry of Twin Oaks Christian School. By His grace, we have already made significant strides towards strengthening our ability to carry out our mission to glorify God by nurturing spiritual development, academic excellence, and servant leadership in an environment where each child is known and loved. And together, by His grace, we will continue to do so.

May God’s richest blessings of knowing Him and His Son continue to be your source of joy, hope, and peace as you enjoy the rest of your summer!

By: Julie Cordray, Head of School

Where has this school year gone? It seems the closer we get to the end of the year, the more quickly it rushes towards us! So many wonderful things have happened since the beginning of the school year, and I’m thankful for your grace, patience, and support as I have transitioned into the role as your new Head of School. I pray that we will finish as we have started, filled with the joy, hope, and purpose that the Lord has given us.

Staffing Updates 2022-2023:
As the end of this school year approaches and we begin to look ahead to the next, I have some staffing updates to share with you.

• TLC teacher Laura Quinn will be moving with her family to Cape Town, South Africa at the end of the summer, where they have been called to serve Mission to the World at Cape Town University.
• Bekah Marsh will be leaving her music classroom to devote more time caring for her family and focusing on her graduate studies at Covenant Seminary.
• Julia Bowman will be leaving her TLC classroom to finish her graduate degree in Reading Specialty, to tutor, and to spend more time with her family.
• Mike and Lydia Thebeau will be stepping down from their role as Athletic Directors as their youngest daughter Bailey prepares to graduate from our middle school program this year. Praise God that Jared and Rachel Messer have agreed to step in and pick up the mantle.

I want to thank these outgoing faculty and staff, who have faithfully and sacrificially served Twin Oaks Christian School and who have made knowing and loving our students a top priority. God has used their time here with us to grow and nurture our school, and the good fruit that has come from their service will be enjoyed for years to come. We look forward to what God has in store next, both for them and for Twin Oaks Christian School, knowing that His plan is always good!
I’m excited about some doors that are already opening for these positions to be filled. I came across scripture in the book of Exodus that has inspired my prayers for these open positions. The LORD had commanded Moses to assemble workers to build the tabernacle, which would serve as the Israelites’ place of worship. It was an important work, and God himself called and equipped the exact workers He wanted involved.

Please pray with me, according to Exodus 36:2, “And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.” I believe what was true of those called to build the tabernacle is also true of each open position here at Twin Oaks-that God already has specific “craftsmen” appointed to fill these roles and continue to carry out the mission of Twin Oaks Christian School with integrity and excellence. I will continue to pray that He will bring them to us.

As we head down the final stretch these last few weeks, may our hearts be filled with gratitude as we realize all the ways God has been present with us this year and how He will continue to abundantly bless Twin Oaks Christian School for all the years to come.

By: Julie Cordray, Head of School

Greetings, Twin Oaks Family! It’s unbelievable to me that the first week of April is behind us. I was talking recently with a teacher who wanted to borrow the balloon inflator we ordered to create the first-day-of-school balloon arch, and it seems like that was a few weeks ago instead of a few months ago. It’s said that time flies when you’re having fun, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year back at Twin Oaks. God has been so gracious and kind to allow me to have a front row seat to all the ways He’s been faithful to our school this year. The past couple of weeks have brought to fruition two major projects we’ve been working on-our school garden and the middle school cafe, recently dubbed ‘The Eagle Express.”

To launch our garden initiative, parents and students gathered on a warm, sunny day last month to transform what used to be a playground into a space where vegetables and flowers, planted by our students, can grow and bear fruit. I stopped working a few times to look around and take it all in-and let’s be honest, I’m not used to shoveling dirt. Watching students, parents, and staff working alongside one another was good for my soul. Students hunkered over newly tilled planting beds to search for worms and pill bugs, holding and studying them with their bare hands-pure fearlessness! Dads who had never met before fell into a rhythm, measuring, hammering, building our raised planting beds. Others dug up weeds and got to know each other better as they worked side by side. A number of seeds were planted directly into the beds, and soon seedlings that have been getting a head start in the first and third grade classrooms will be transplanted outside where they can continue to grow and bear peas, jalapenos, cabbage, and more.

But the garden is not the only thing that’s been growing here at Twin Oaks! On Friday, April 1, the middle school Eagle Express Cafe opened for the first time. When the 7th grade students presented their idea to me back in the fall, it was just that-an idea. But their perseverance, hard work, and creativity has led to a very successful start to their business. Already, it has raised over $400, some of which will go towards funding their 8th grade Washington D.C. trip next spring and part of which they voted to donate to our very own Mrs. Chan and her church, which is raising funds to improve their playground. It has been my privilege and joy to walk alongside them and watch them dream, problem solve, and push past discomfort and fears to make their dream of opening a cafe a reality. Right now the cafe is open to teachers, staff, and middle school students, but we hope to expand our menu and offerings to include more and more of our community, increasing our profits as well as our ability to bless others.

Hasn’t God been faithful? Look at what He has done! If someone would have told me last summer that we would develop a garden and open a cafe this year, I’m not sure I would have thought it possible. But God, in His infinite wisdom, opened doors at just the right time, putting just the right people and resources into place to bring these blessings to our community. And that in and of itself is a great lesson for our students-for me-for all of us­ to remember. He will equip us with everything good for doing His will, working in us what is pleasing to Him, to the glory of Christ Jesus. That’s something to get excited about!

By: Julie Cordray, Head of School

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good! These are the words the students echo back to me each morning at the close of announcements. It’s a great reminder of such a central truth. But do we move through our days like we really believe it?

We’re almost at the end of the first quarter of school and for many of your children, and maybe for you, the honeymoon is over. Life is busy. Activities fill your schedule. Homework is just one more thing to get done. I’ve been there and done that! Both of my now-grown children went through the paces here at Twin Oaks. I could tell you my own stories: Fruit flies we needed for my daughter’s science project delivered the very next day after it was due. My son using his pudding cup to score a “touchdown” in the hallway, splattering chocolate onto the ceiling (hmmm. . . I wonder if the stains are still there?). Meltdowns at the kitchen table over middle school math. . . and I’m not talking about the kids.

At times like these, it’s easy to forget God’s goodness. What’s more noticeable to us is the incomplete assignment or the chocolate stains on the ceiling. The struggling child or the impossible math problem. Second Corinthians 5:7 has some wisdom for us: “For we live by faith, not by sight.” Why would we need this reminder from the apostle Paul to live according to our faith instead of by what we can see? If you’ve ever noticed a warning sign because it’s yellow, you already have the answer. What’s predominant in our field of vision is what we tend to focus on. The tough circumstance right in front of us is like a flashing neon sign, while the belief that, “God is good all the time,” can fade into the background. It’s not easy to tear our spiritual eyes away from our circumstances, but it is the Lord’s antidote to unbelief.

We say God is good all the time because we put our faith in Him. We say God is good because we choose to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ instead of our circumstances. We say God is good all the time because He is.

So many good things are happening here at Twin Oaks that there are too many to count. Your children are learning and growing. They are loving one another and they themselves are loved! Each day I see good fruit and evidence of God’s grace in the life of this school. But on the days when the shadows of this world dim our spiritual sight, we can remember that Good (that comes from God) is there even when we don’t see it.

Say it with me: God is good all the time. All the time, God is good!

What a joy it has been to have students back in the building for the start of our new school year! All of the summer preparations finally paid off when we welcomed your children back to a community where they can excel in their learning, grow in their faith, and be celebrated for who God has created them to be. What a sweet time of fellowship and exciting time of learning we’ve had these past few weeks with our beloved Twin Oaks family.

Here are some of my top back-to school highlights:

• Greeting students on the first day with worship music, banners, and balloons!
• Starting the year off in the sanctuary together, worshiping the Lord during our opening
  chapel.
• Visiting individual classrooms and getting to know your children (and their favorite
  candy) by name–ask them about it 🙂
• Watching teachers work like crazy to make sure your children felt welcome and had meaningful learning activities to set the tone for a great year.
• Reading to our PreK friends during library time.

  

  

  

  

  

Continue reading “From the Eagle’s Nest – September Newsletter”