You are living our mission and our SLEs with us! This inclusive Catholic community of Christ centered people, will run, celebrate and pray together this weekend! The children and all of us are looking forward to an exciting few days! Join us tomorrow and get exercise at the Jog-a-thon! Then feel free to eat plenty at the Carnival. On Sunday, we will give thanks for all our blessings at 10:30 Mass. I am very grateful to Señor Pablo and his team of empowered disciples who have put so many hours into organizing and running the events tomorrow. Thank you also to Mari Halley, Becky Kelly, Julia Rudden for helping with Mass on Sunday! We will welcome Fr. Crispin in the best way we know possible, by praying with him!
On Monday, we will begin the MAP assessments with some of the grades. As I mentioned at the curriculum nights, this is new for all of us and the first go-around will not only assess the students but also all of us and our technological capabilities. See the link for further information about MAP. In the meantime, teachers continue to learn about your children and how they learn. I have watched some of the fifth graders’ very creative presentations on the school of their imaginations. I observed seventh graders applying Bloom’s Taxonomy to studying a book and fourth graders described what empathy meant and what it looked like in action! The kindergarten students are already managing themselves in small groups and they were able to tell me how to chose a ‘smart seat’! I read a book on mindfulness with first grade and walked with third graders as they solved math problems in the hallways! I listened to our youngest learners, the preschoolers, discussing with Mrs. Flood about how to handle board game rules and ‘disagreements’. St. John students are active learners!
Parents, remember that you are all members of the Parent Association. Your fearless leaders, PA Chairs Nancy Alton and Barb Folger, will host a meeting this coming Tuesday, September 20 at 7pm in the Mezzanine. This is the kick-off meeting for the year, so they will be talking about room parent duties and also going over the highlights of the year: our January speaker, auction news, author night, etc. This is a very informative meeting and well worth attending. On Wednesday, the School Commission meets. The School Commission is an advisory body to Fr. Crispin and school administration in such areas as finance, policy formulation, development, facilities. Members are appointed by Fr. Crispin and myself.
I am very, very grateful and humbled by the dedicated, empowered discipleship among our parent volunteers– not just active in the PA, School Commission, and Jog-a-thon– but in all the activities and support systems we have– planning for the Endowment Oktoberfest, supervising on the playground, helping with the Pizza Lunch, and so much more. Let me also give a huge shout-out to the 8th grade parents for feeding us today! Thank you! We thoroughly enjoyed the delicious luncheon!
I am looking forward to seeing you this weekend,
Beannacht,
Bernadette O’Leary, Principal
