Pilgrims of Hope

 Who knew that our August retreat could aid in receiving a plenary indulgence.  It might.  Pope Francis has granted a Jubilee indulgence for making a pilgrimage to an official site and doing other things like receiving communion, reconciliation, etc.  Bishop Parkes has named six sites Official Places of Pilgrimage in our Diocese.  Among them are Sacred Heart Church and St. Leo Abby (a couple of you went there recently).  You may have a head start.  You can find all the details at https://gulfcoastcatholic.org/pilgrimage (You will need to copy/paste.)  There are also plans for a Corporal Works of Mercy challenge, but I have not seen the details yet.  We probably have a good start on that as a school already.  

Monday is Holy Card free dress.  There may be a variety of cards tomorrow, so please accept any holy card.  They were delivered to the church Friday after the office closed, and every priest may not have known their location.  Monday is also IXL Math testing.  Please see Mary's email for any questions you may have. 

Let's talk about Sunday's homily for a moment.  You may have wondered about something if you were like me and listened to Fr. Primus. Or maybe it's just my ignorance, but I learned a new word.  The word is Theophany.  Fr. Primus talked about how we went from Epiphany to Theophany.  I was grateful that Prince was with me to tell me what the word was because I'd never heard it.  He knew what it was and Googled it for me.  I learned that the Baptism of Jesus is also called Theophany in Easter Christian churches, both Catholic and Orthodox.  It is the manifestation of the fullness of God.  If you want to learn more, this is a good article about it https://www.catholic.org/news/national/story.php?id=66425  

Finally, this part is for teachers.  Coming back to our conversation about note-taking.  Maria and I continued the discussion all week and did some research/reading.  Here is what we learned:

• Kudos to Anna for highlighting!  While this is not truly a form of note-taking, it is a prerequisite for that skill.  Students need to be able to identify main ideas and essential information.  The next good step is graphic organizers, where the 3rd grade is headed.
• Kudos also goes to Heather for her discussion on helping students learn to organize information into graphic organizers.
• Kudos to those teachers who know that not all students benefit from the same type of notes and introduce multiple ways of taking notes.  While graphic organizers are great, simple Cornell notes or just two-column notes (used by Claudia and David) are also important to teach. 
• We learned that this skill is a high school benchmark.  That means we need to keep teaching the skill of taking notes all the way through 8th grade.  While they may have learned note-taking skills in 5th grade, it doesn't mean they are skilled at it in 6th grade.  They will be in 9th grade if we keep teaching.
• Finally, there is a great deal of research supporting hand-written notes over electronic note-taking.  While it may be optional for students to do either, we may want to look at having times when it's mandatory for all.  

During the next two PLC meetings, please talk about what you are doing at grade level (for early childhood it may be as simple as highlighting words or ideas). and then at subject area, how these ideas can progress from grade to grade.  If you are a core subject teacher and do not teach math or ELA, please join the ELA PLC for this discussion.

Have a wonderful week and Happy Theophany to all! 

Happy New Year!

 I hope you all have a great holiday.  Bring that holiday smile and lots of patience tomorrow to receive tired, cranky children who wish they were still in bed, especially with how cold it will be this week.  Monday is a good time to review classroom rules and behavior expectations and a reminder that our goal for this year is to spread kindness.  As we enter the new year, this is a perfect time for students to reflect on how they treat others with genuine kindness.  January is also a good time to conference with students (post i-Ready testing) about the goals they set earlier in the year and their progress.  

Most of the planned work for over break did happen.  We are, however, still waiting for the fence people to fix the gate.  They have given us a date of Saturday, Jan. 11.  Fingers crossed.  

It's a quiet week.  The faculty meeting will be important for all teachers.  We will be discussing Catholic Schools Week.  The committee, David (Penny Wars), and Connor (Spirit Week) will be presenting.  

I will be at the Bethany Center for an administrator's meeting on Friday but will be available by text or email.  

Have a wonderful week!

Happy Gaudete Sunday

 What is Gaudete Sunday?  The day when anyone can wear pink and it's cool.  It's also the Sunday we rejoice.  For two weeks, we have been saying the Lord is coming.  Today, we say the Lord is near, and we are reminded that it is God who loves us and is still in charge and that we await his coming not with fear but with tremendous joy.  Vestments change to the rose color which is used on joyous occasions in the church.  

Another reason to rejoice was watching our students shine on Friday night.  Not only did they do a great job of singing and performing, but you could see the joy on their faces while they gave their performances.  I received sooooo many compliments not only from families but from extended family members and one former principal who had no connection to any of the children.  The evening was amazing and I told everyone who came up to me that I was not the one to thank.  Thank you, Jeff and Heather, for making the night happen.  

We also rejoice as there are 4 1/2 days left before our Christmas party.  Don't forget to bring a gift for my famous Left/Right Game.  

The faculty meeting this week is a grade-level meeting. I would like to meet with the CSW committee (Julie, Susana, Melissa, Anna, and Claudia), David, Connor, and Lisa for a few minutes prior. We can meet in room 19, which is centrally located for everyone.  

This is a reminder to make sure students bring in their Advent Angel gifts before Friday so you can be sure everyone has one. If someone forgets, please reach out to the parent.  On Friday, I will do the end-of-day prayer right after my final Christmas song, which starts at 11:55 am (less than 2 min.).  

Have a wonderful week!

On the 10th school day before Christmas break....

 There are ten more days of school before break. I'm amazed that despite all the breaks we had this Fall, I still feel like I need another. Let's pray for an uplifting, amazing Part 2 of this school year after Christmas break.  Speaking of uplifting, wait till you see the Christmas concert this year.  I've seen the script and it will be fantastic!

Please remember that we have Mass on Monday this week.  Some students with the Holy Family holy card will be in free dress, which is fine.  The rest of the week is pretty routine until we get to Friday.  Start walking over at 9:15 to church so we have time for two run-throughs.  If you can, stop by the FLC on Friday after the concert to see the PTCO after-party.  

Thank you, everyone, for a fabulous first half of the year.  Let's make 2025 even better.  

One more thing.  I hope you enjoyed Give a Little Kindness on Friday over the PA.  Now that I know how to do that (with some help from Yesenia), I will have some fun leading up to Christmas.  Enjoy!

Oh, and let's see who gets this 😁

Watch, Prepare, Rejoice

 

Today marks the beginning of Advent, a time of preparation and the beginning of a new liturgical year. As we enter this season, we are renewed with anticipation of the birth of Christ. With only three weeks of school before Christmas break, many things are happening in a short period of time.

Our Holiday Shop will be open this week; everyone should have the schedule (it can be found in Tidbits).  Someone will come to your class to pick up the students with money to shop.  

Monday, there will be people on site to work on the holes on the property.  They will start with the hole near the sidewalk at approximately 10 am.  It should not affect access to the FLC, but I will update you when they arrive in the morning.  They plan to start working on the playgrounds at 1 pm.  This means they need a clear path to the hole on the PK playground, and no one will have access to either playground after 1 pm.  Extended Day students will remain indoors unless they have finished.  The plan is to complete the work in one day. 

We have found a company to fix the gate near the basketball court, and I am just waiting for a date for the repair. The contract for the hurricane damage has also been signed, and I am waiting on start dates for that project, too. The good news is that things are happening!

Wednesday is our Advent Retreat and the start of confessions for students in grades 3-8; more details to follow.  Thank you, Melissa, for all your work on putting this together.  Finally, 6th grade will be attending Focus 11 on Friday.  Please keep them in your prayers as they explore religious vocations.  

A special hats off to Kenny, who spent the day at school yesterday fixing a leak so we could have school tomorrow.  We don't need any more school closures!  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a great week!

We did it...

 and I am still amazed and very grateful!  I do believe this was our most successful Walkathon ever.  $42,000!  Thank you to everyone who supported this with money or cheering on the students.  The winning team was Pink.  They raised $6400, with the Blue team not far behind.  The real winner was the White team, which raised $17,800!!  Even though this team had double the number of students, they raised far more on a per-student basis. The White team raised approximately $150 per student versus $128 for the Pink team.  Great job everyone!!

You may have noticed I was absent for most of the second half of the Walkathon.  I was busy walking the property with two gentlemen looking at holes.  It is my hope that we get a quote this week and they can take care of the issue during Thanksgiving break.  It will require a lot of digging, excavating, repairs, cleaning out drain pipes, and putting it all back.  I am told they can do it in three days.  They will need to bring in equipment through the PK gate from the sidewalk, so please be sure everything is off the turf between the gate and hole before leaving on Friday.  I will confirm by then if this will happen next week.  If not, it will most likely happen over Christmas break.  I also hope, to get the estimate on the Angel's Wing so we can start those repairs soon too.  

There is not too much happening this week, except Friday when volunteers will be transforming the school in preparation for Christmas.  

Lastly, for those of you who were during the time Fr. Bill was the pastor, I received word this weekend that Mike Juran recently passed away.  I do not have details, but I do know he was 76, and his body was in decline for some time now after years of being a stunt car driver.  He is being buried near Buffalo, where he was from.  If you don't know who Mike is, a video was produced at the old church when he was Fr. Mike and interviewed about his stunt car driving days (see below).  Legend has it that he was the stunt driver for Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit II.  Enjoy the video, and have a great week!

Link to YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sCY9mmtqAs  

With Respect, Honor, and Gratitude...

 we remember our Veterans.  Please be sure your Morning Show is running on time Monday for a special Veteran's Day prayer service.  There may even be some singing :)

Teachers, please be sure all ATLs and comments are completed by Monday morning.  Mary and I will start going through them as there is a quick turnaround this week.  The faculty meeting this week is the second part of the Socratic Seminar.  For those teachers who have completed their conferences, you are still required to be here (if normally scheduled to be here Friday afternoons) until 3:30 pm.  

Here is what I learned at the principal's meeting Friday, we are doing a great job of sharing our Catholic Identity with our students and our parents.  I also learned the consensus is, throw away the religion books, but that's another conversation.  We talked about hurricane make up days.  What I know and what I feel good about are two different things.  I know we do not have to make up any days.  I would not feel good about not making up some of these days.  This will be a discussion before a decision is made.  

I will resend the Walkathon schedule tomorrow to everyone.  Please be supportive and wear you team's colors.  

Lastly, I have hired someone part-time to help with maintenance at the school.  His name is Kenny and his first day is Wednesday.  He will work from 12:30-4:30 so that he can make repairs after school hours and is here to help Ken with lunch clean-up.  

Have a wonderful week!