Regal Leader
Volume 40 - February 12, 2018
A look to the week ahead
I hope everyone enjoyed their extended weekend. Congratulations to Nick Milder and Ryan Schott on qualifying for the state wrestling tournament. Our girls and boys basketball teams start tournament play this week.
Monday: ACT Meeting @ 10:30
Tuesday: Site Plan Meeting @ 3:30, SIAC @ 4:00
Wednesday: Ash Wednesday, Prayer Service @ 2:10
Thursday: Individual PD @ 2:30, Catholic Identity Comm. @ 4:00, Health & Safety @ 5:00
Have a great week!
This Week's Morning Prayer
Prayer to the Virgin Mary - 2/12 & 2/13
O Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of us all, we turn to you today as the one who said "Yes" to Life. "You will conceive and bear a Son," the angel told you. Despite the surprise and the uncertainty about how this could be, you said yes. "Be it done unto me according to your word."
Mary, we pray today for all mothers who are afraid to be mothers. We pray for those who feel threatened and overwhelmed by their pregnancy. Intercede for them, that God may give them the grace to say yes and the courage to go on. May they have the grace to reject the false solution of abortion. May they say with you, "Be it done unto me according to your word." May they experience the help of Christian people, and know the peace that comes from doing God's will.
Amen.
2/14 ASH WEDNESDAY
Gracious God, today begins a period of inner reflection and examination.
The days stretch before me and invite me inward to that silent,
holy space that holds your Spirit.
This special time beckons me to see my life through Christ's eyes
and the truth and reality of your love incarnate.
Give me the grace to enter the space of these days with anticipation of our meeting. And, when I open my soul to your presence, let your loving kindness flow over me
and seep into the pockets of my heart.
I ask this for the sake of your love.
2/15 Lord, let everything I do this day and in this season of Lent
come from you, be inspired by you.
I long to be closer to you.
Help me to remember that nothing is important in my life
unless it glorifies you in some way.
It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of my life and keep saying,
"Tomorrow, I will spend more time in prayer,"
but now my longing meets your love and I want to do it now.
Help me to rely on you for help.
The prayer asks you that I reach perfection.
Please, Lord, remind me that "perfection"
isn't the crazy, "successful" way I try to live my life,
but a perfection of my most authentic, real self.
My "perfection" might be holding my many flaws in my open hands,
asking you to help me accept them.
Heal me, Lord, and help me to find you in the darkness of my life.
Let me reach out in this darkness and feel your hand and love there to guide me.
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
2/16 Lord, I know how much you love me.
It’s hard for me to feel it sometimes,
but I know your love is always with me.0
Help me to use your love as a way to persevere in my Lenten intentions.
I am weak, but I know with your help,
I can use these small sacrifices in my life to draw closer to you.
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
Prayer Service This Week
Thursday Afternoon Meeting
AP Summer Institute Scholarship
Each year, the College Board offers a number of scholarships to support teachers in attending an Advanced Placement Summer Institute (APSI). AP Summer Institutes provide subject-specific training for teachers who are interested in teaching an AP course. Summer Institutes can also support current teachers of AP courses seeking to further develop their skills, or gain familiarity with a redesigned version of the course (such as the 2018-2019 redesign of AP US Government and Politics). There are APSIs all around the country, including Iowa’s only APSI on the University of Iowa campus (AP Teacher Training Institute; www.belinblank.org/aptti).
Scholarships offered by the College Board include the AP Fellows Program for teachers at schools serving minority or low-income students, the AP Rural Fellows Program for teachers at rural schools, the AP Redesign Scholarship for teachers of the AP US Government and Politics course, and the AP Capstone Scholarship for teachers of the AP Capstone course. Additional details and application materials are available on the College Board’s website.
The deadline to apply for these scholarships is February 15, 2018, so if you’re considering attending an AP Summer Institute, apply today!
IOAPA also offers a grant for Iowa teachers to cover the cost of tuition at the AP Teacher Training Institute (APTTI). See our website for more details.
Yearlong Reflection Journal
Links to past videos:
Week 3 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/week-3-2/
Week 4 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/week-4/
Week 5 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/2001/
Week 6 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/week-6_201/
Week 7 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/week-7_/
Week 8 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/big-mansion-episode/
Week 9 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/truth-person-episode/
Week 10 - https://beingcatholic.com.au/jesus-and-the-poached-egg/
Week 11 - https://beingcatholic.com.au/the-nobility-episode/
Week 12 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/new-missionaries-episode/
Week 13 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/2788/
Week 14 - https://beingcatholic.com.au/the-pope-francis-episode/
Week 15 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/internet-episode/
Week 16 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/rigorous-curriculum/
Week 17 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/power-witnesses/
Week 18 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/okavango-episode/
Week 19 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/human-rights-episode/
Week 20 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/going-deeper-ep/european-sports-car-episode/
Week 21 - https://beingcatholic.com.au/the-lost-sheep-episode/
Week 22 - https://beingcatholic.com.au/the-unity-of-purpose-episode/
Week 23 - http://beingcatholic.com.au/?p=3441
Reflection questions:
Week 3 - Popular culture brings many challenges and pressures to our students. What do you think the Church can bring them to help them deal with all of the outside influences they face? How does Regina do this? Can we do more? How?
Week 4 - What structures or opportunities exist at Regina to help students build a deep sense of community? Can we do more? What?
Week 5 - What kind of balance exists between a Regina student’s intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual lives? Are we happy with the current balance? If so, what can we do to change it?
Week 6 - What practical ways could we incorporate periods of silence into our school day?
Week 7 - Is Jesus the genuine foundation of Regina? In what ways can we improve in making Jesus the foundation of Regina?
Week 8 - Does the sense of Regina achieving its mission ‘depending chief!y on you’ make you feel excited or burdened as a community?
Week 9 - An authentic Catholic school will try to reveal to students the deep truth that they are made in the image of God, that they are loved and that are needed in the world. How effective do you think Regina is at the moment in helping young people know these truths?
Week 9 - It takes courage and effort these days to present Jesus both to the hearts and heads of young people. Do you think your school has the courage to first make Jesus a priority for staff and then proclaim Him to young people in the many opportunities of each day or is Jesus given an occasional mention? What could change and how?
Week 9 - The idea of your subject being a way that students encounter truth can be a paradigm shift. Being totally honest, do you think your school values academic and teaching excellence more in terms of rankings and its appeal to parents or in terms of leading students to truth and Christ? Could both be possible?
Week 10 - What ways currently exist to really encounter the person of Jesus at Regina? What could change or be given more emphasis?
Week 11 - In what ways do you see your school currently developing ‘strong habits of virtue’ in each student that will ‘sustain them in the struggle of life”? What is one thing that could be attempted to strengthen this?
Week 12 - How effectively do you think Regina addresses the spiritual hunger that exists in every young person? Could more be done?
Week 13 - Try and define two or three core elements that truly capture what living the Gospel means.
Week 14 - Do you feel your strengths and expertise are creating a community where love for others is increasing? If not, what could be attempted or done differently?
Week 15 - How could Regina, “...bring warmth and stir hearts.’ through how it understands and uses social communication?
Week 16 - What is your sense of the quality of Regina’s religious education curriculum? Do you think students are given the chance to engage deeply with the Catholic faith on a rigorous level?
Week 17 - If observers spent a week at Regina what would they encounter? What ways exist at Regina for staff to deeply encounter Christ?
Week 18 - John Paul II saw Jesus as the centre of the universe and of history. Would it be fair to say that Christ is the centre of Regina?
Week 19 - Do you think that Regina is currently a place where students, ”...sense their dignity even before they have a definition for it”? What things make this likely or unlikely? What needs to change or what more can be done?
Week 20 - As a staff how do you see the current balance at Regina between a focus on knowledge and outcomes and the bigger picture of human and spiritual formation of staff and students?
Week 21 - How are we meeting the needs of the poor at Regina whether that be financial, relational, social or spiritual? What do we need to do more of? What could we start doing that we are not doing at the moment?
Week 22 - Describe the ‘purpose’ of Regina in a single sentence.
Week 23 - In what ways are we currently bringing the brokenhearted in our Regina community, ‘...rest for their souls.”? In what ways can we help them encounter Jesus who wants to be closer to them? In what ways are we being the presence of Christ to them? What could we attempt?
Computer Science Opportunity for High School Girls
A new, innovative cybersecurity training program offered by the SANS Institute offers young women in high school the opportunity to learn basic cybersecurity skills through a no-cost online game of discovery called Girls Go CyberStart.
Participating students do not need prior cybersecurity knowledge or programming experience. All that is required is a computer and an internet connection.
Young women in high school in Iowa who excel in the Girls Go CyberStart game will have the opportunity to win computers and other prizes as well as a trip, with a parent, to the 2018 Women in CyberSecurity Conference.
Registration begins on January 29th and ends on February 16, 2018. The first 10,000 young women who have registered may play the game online from February 20th through 25th.
For information about Girls Go CyberStart visit: https://girlsgocyberstart.com/
Glenn Plummer
Email: glenn.plummer@regina.org
Location: 2150 Rochester Avenue, Iowa City, IA, United States
Phone: 319-321-4234
Twitter: @gap_4