We ❤️ FREE 💰❗️Mr. Eddins was awarded a ⚡️Corn Belt Energy Grant⚡️ to provide more experiential learning opportunities for our students! 👏Nice job, Mr. Eddins👏
Exposure to "in demand" careers is a great way to end the week! This morning a few of our students got to learn the basics of Stick Welding in our Virtual Reality Lab.
Upcoming Job & Community Resource Fair.
After speaking with many of our female students, Miss Ryan discovered most of them do not feel safe walking alone. Quick to problem solve, she inquired about offering a self-defense class to help our students build their confidence, awareness, and ability to protect themselves. Enter Gracie Barra Twin Cities Jiu-Jitsu. Owner Torree was quick to say yes to Miss Ryan's request to offer a free session for our students. Torree is an amazing instructor and taught our students so many techniques to protect themselves. We cannot thank her, and her helpers, for their time and support today! We appreciate this new partnership!
RAS Staff had the opportunity to participate in the annual ICEARY Conference in Normal the past two days. It's always beneficial to collaborate with other programs and learn from other educators around the state. BONUS: Mr. Thornton and Mr. O'Kraski presented on the benefits of using art to create your own brand!
🏒🥅🦬 Thank you, Bloomington Bison, for inviting RAS students and staff to your Education Day today! Everyone had a great time and enjoyed watching the game and participating in the activities you offered. We're lucky to have you as neighbors!
🗣️💻 Friendly Reminder 💻🗣️
RAS students will work remotely Thursday, 3/6 and Friday, 3/7 to allow for staff to attend the annual ICEARY Conference. Students will be expected to check their email and Google Classrooms for posted assignments and expectations for each day. Please email or text your child's homeroom teacher if you have any questions. See you back in the building on Monday!
‼️Positive Post Alert‼️
Marc and Kelly, local community members, recently toured our school to learn more about our program. We must have really impressed them because they keep coming back! These two amazing individuals have spent hours in our School Market making sure our donated food and dry goods are nicely organized, assembling food bags for our students and families, and unpacking new deliveries. Thank you, Marc and Kelly, for all you have done to help the RAS Family!
RAS recently teamed up with community partners First Christian Church and University of Illinois Extension to provide some of our high school students with a unique and customized planetarium experience. Students in STEM class just finished a 5 week unit covering all things space! We ended it with an out of this world experience flying to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, different moons and asteroids in real time. Thank you to Heather at UI extension and First Christian Church for making this possible for our students! 👨🏿🚀🧑🏽🚀👩🏼🚀🌝🌖🌎🪐💫☄️
Today, a few members of our staff had the pleasure of setting up for the Senior Citizen Valentine's Day Dance at Western Avenue Community Center. We are always happy and willing to help our great community partners! Here is a list of what we can provide your organization if you ever need assistance:
✅Muscles 💪
✅Event planning skills 📋
✅Teamwork 🤝
✅Ability to put on challenging chair covers 🪑👏
✅The best emotional support animal ever 🐾🐶
Our dear friends at First Christian Church provided RAS Staff with the sustenance to hold productive and collaborative conferences with students and their families over the past two days. Thank you, as always, for showing RAS so much love! ❤️
Friendly reminder: Student-Led Conferences are tonight and tomorrow morning. Please call to schedule one if you have not already done so.
What is getting us through a long day? Matching dino sweaters and cupcakes from our favorite EPG Bus Monitor, Paige!
Pic for attention 🤣
RAS-Bloomington Campus will have regular, in-person learning today. If your home school district is not transporting today, please log into your Chromebook and complete your work remotely. Email your teachers if you need any assistance. Thank you!
We were delighted to host a Staff Wellness Day at RAS! We wore comfy clothes and enjoyed a morning stretch, smoothie bar, energy balls, and a calming VR experience. The highlight of the day was Action Wellness providing free 10-minute chair massages 🤗 It's always a great day to be at RAS!
Dash is loving every minute of this beautiful day! Soaking up the warmth and vitamin D ☀️ We 🧡 our amazing support dog! Rated #1 RAS Staff Member 4 years in a row!
Showing up is the first step and often the hardest part of anything. Today, Mr. Eddins and Mrs. Quick rewarded students who had 90%+ attendance first semester with RAS gear. As Mr. Rudicil often preaches to our students, "The habits you build now will stay with you as you get older. If you get in the habit of coming to school, you'll get in the habit of going to work." We are proud of the 33 students who prioritize school attendance! Keep it up!
On Friday, RAS escorted a few students to the Jewel-Osco in Normal for a job fair and had the opportunity to catch up with one of our recent graduates while there! Providing vocational support for our students is an important part of our mission. It was also wonderful to see Trace doing well and hear about his future plans!
RAS would like to send a big thank you to Jason Rabbass from Lincoln Tech Skilled Trade Schools & Vocational Training Institute for visiting us this week! Jason spoke to students about postsecondary opportunities and shared information about the programs Lincoln Tech offers. It was great for students to learn about the career possibilities in the skilled trades.
Due to the predicted unsafe wind chills for tomorrow, RAS will have a remote learning day for Tuesday, January 21st. Teachers will be emailing students tomorrow morning with expectations, check-in times, and learning activities. Please email or text Kara Quick (kquick@rasblm.org/309-445-3539) if you have any questions. Stay safe and warm!
Friendly reminder: There is no school tomorrow in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Spread some kindness in his honor.
