Friday Focus
August 22, 2014
Quote of the Week
Thanks for a great couple of weeks!
Elementary staff--great job of Tweeting pictures and updates of your first day of school! Keep it up! Let's challenge the high school staff to get on board!
Remember to add #norfolkcatholic to a tweet to help organize and catalog our school's social media presence! Check us out on Twitter and make sure you've "liked" us on Facebook!
When I am in the building, I want to continue to visit classrooms. I may lean in your doorway for a few minutes, or I may come in and sit down in the back. I'm not there to interrupt--just keep teaching! (If I need to talk to you or your class, I'll let you know!) I'm not there as a part of any evaluation, either; Jeff and Norm will do that. I'm just looking to see what's going on in our school--and I love to see dedicated teachers doing what they love to do! When you have "special" events or projects going on, don't forget to invite me or Jeff or Norm to come in and see what's going on. Those "special events" are also golden opportunities to catch on camera and post to Twitter or Facebook!
Speaking about asking--Father Andrews would LOVE to be asked to come into your classrooms! He'd love to know in advance (he doesn't want to just "drop by" and interrupt your classroom) but if you let him know the topic you're discussing in class and a date/time for him to stop by, odds are he will.
Goin' Fishin'
It's a family affair at NC!
Opening Mass Celebration
ACT Scores
I share this news with our elementary school teachers, too, as most of our high school graduates received their foundation at Norfolk Catholic Elementary. Our elementary and middle schools deserve just as much credit as do the high schools for these very strong ACT scores.
For comparison sake: (I can't control my columns here, but you get the idea)
Class of 2014 (NHS average is listed first; NC average is second)
English 21.6-----22.7
Math 21.4----- 22.2
Reading 22.2------ 23.3
Science 21.8-----23.8
Composite 21.9------23.1
We should absolutely celebrate this success! But before we break our arms while patting ourselves on our backs, we need to realize that the Archdiocese composite was a whopping 24.6!! So, obviously there is room for improvement in our instruction!
Quick Notes
- Foreign students/new students: Make sure to touch base with them often! I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to move to a new country as a high school student! Or how difficult the transition might be for an elementary student from another city. We want to be generous and kind with all of our students, but especially with those trying to find their way in a new place.
- Ice Bucket Challenge!! Dusty Korth called out Jeff, Norm and me yesterday, and we will accept the challenge. We will complete it today (Friday) at 3:30pm in front of the elementary school.
- Change to the Mass Schedule: We will NOT celebrate First Friday mass on Sept. 5. Instead, we will have an all-school Mass on Wednesday Sept. 3 at 8:20am. The reason for this change is that the Archbishop will be here for the Ignite the Faith dinner on Sept. 2 and is staying overnight. He asked Fr. Andrews if he could "do something" with our students on Wednesday. It will be great to have him here!
- The Friday Focus will not always be this long! It will be sent via email late Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. If someone at school is not receiving the FF and would like to, please have them contact me and I'll add them to my distribution list.