Catholic Schools Week

 Happy Catholic Schools Week!  What a great opportunity to celebrate who we are as a community.  Thank you to everyone who played a part in making this week a success.  There will be lots of activities, but somehow we need to manage to continue educating students.  Faculty and staff are welcome to participate in the Spirit Week activities and dress up along with the students.  Please remember to tell the students to listen carefully to afternoon prayer as that is when the top three classes in the Penny Wars will be announced each day.  Each day, teachers should review with their homeroom what the next day's activities and dress code are.  

Monday's faculty meeting is a Grade level PLC to grade Mustang Writes.  All teachers should meet in Heather's room to help.  Once you decide who is helping with which grades, you can break off into other rooms.  

Tomorrow (Monday) is the last opportunity to put your name in the raffle for two free tickets to the Angels Gala.  Coming to the Gala is a great way to show how, like the parents, we are United in Faith and Community.  I moved the bucket and slips of paper to the file cabinet right outside Mary's office so you can access it at any time.  The winner will be chosen on the morning show on Tuesday.  

Friday is a half day and teachers will be meeting with Patty for part two of our math professional development.  All teachers PK-5 as well as Lisa, Becky, and Melissa should be in attendance.  Other teachers are welcome to attend or you may work in your classroom on unit plans, grades, etc.  Encore teachers who do not normally work on Friday afternoon, do not need to be present.  

Have a wonderful week!

i-Ready Week

 I hope everyone is staying warm today.  The good news (for some at least) is that temperatures will rise during the week but fall again over the weekend.  Please be sure to review the dress code for cold weather.  I saw some non-uniform items last week like gray leggings which are not allowed regardless of the color.  

This week is the second PTCO General Meeting.  The following teachers are signed up to attend this meeting:  Lane, Heather, Julie, Susana, David, and George.  If you are unable to attend, you can ask the people who are assigned to the April meeting if they can switch with you, just let me know.  The April teachers are:  Darien, Melissa, Galy, Marianne, Becky, Maria, Mari, and Kate.  

One more week until Cathoic Schools Week.  Teachers, please review the schedule with your students and be sure they understand the dress options for each day.  Thank you to the committee that did a great job of putting this all together.  

Finally, approximately half the teachers have given their input on the Google Form I sent out regarding the one floating day next year.  Of those who responded, 80% have chosen the day in March.  I will wait until the end of day on Monday for the final results and will them speak to the parish to see if we can have our retreat during pre-planning.  Thank you to those who participated.  

Have a wonderful week!

            

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

I hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend.  I was looking for a short MLK Jr. quote for the blog title and I found one that made sense to me in a lot of ways.  I know he was speaking about America and how we all came from many places and got here in different ways, but I think we can bring it down to a day to day level of where we are.  We all came to St. Stephen for different reasons and at different times but here we are. Even though the people on the boat changes from time to time, I believe what makes this boat special is that regardless of all that, we DO work together to make the journey on our boat the best it can be.  There is no other boat I would rather be on.  

This is Mustang Writes week and next week is i-Ready.  This is a great opportunity for our students to show us how much they have grown this year.  When preparing the students, let them know that this is their chance to show off how brillliant they are!  Not too much else is happening until the end of the month when we celebrate Catholic Schools Weeks.  Please remember that we are about a month away from the end of the trimester and there should be no surprises for parents when they see the report card.  

Have a wonderful week and keep rowing!

Happy New Year!

 I wish everyone a year filled with joy and blessings.  At today's Mass, Fr. Lou talked about the Epiphany and epiphanies we have in our own lives.  I certainly had an epiphany over the past month that this that I probably can never retire.  Being at home was difficult.  The furniture did not respond when I spoke to it.  I am ready to be back at school and I can't wait to see everyone.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  

This week is a quiet week in terms of events and a good time to review classroom rules and expectations to start the new year.  The weeks following get busy with Mustang Writes, i-Ready, and Catholic Schools Week.  Mary will be discussing these upcoming events at the faculty meeting on Monday.  The CSW committee should be prepared to present the events for the week at the meeting and David should talk about what to expect with the Penny Wars that week.  

Once i-Ready is completed, it important that teachers are meeting with Mary regarding any students that are in danger of retention or needing remediation over the summer.  We would like to get the letters out to parents by the end of the month.

Thank you all for not letting the school burn down while I was gone and a special thank you to Mary who I know was very busy being both Principal and Assist Principal.  Have a wonderful week!