What's the Buzz?!?
December 6, 2015
December is flying by!
Speaking of spirit- Catholic Schools Week is fast approaching!! This is an exciting time to help students become aware of how blessed they are to be in a school where both educating the heart and the mind are important! It is also a time to recognize all of the people that make that possible; our Parish community, our Priests and religious, our teachers, and of course all of the students and their families! I would like to ask that anyone who would like to be a part of the plans for this send me an email tomorrow. I would like to know how many people would like to be a part of the planning before I schedule a meeting time. Falcon Family Network would like to know how they can help. We have an FFN meeting this Wednesday, so, I would like to present them with a shell of what we would like to do as a school. I look forward to hearing from all those who would like to help plan!
I hope you have a wonderful week (and that your Secret Santas are being good to you :) )!!
A peek at our week!
- This Tuesday, December 8, we will celebrate Mass. Please reference the schedule for specials classes that Colleen created. Lunch periods and recess will remain the same.
- This Thursday, December 10, we will enjoy Emmanuel's Song. Please remind your students that they should wear their uniforms. Individual classes have chosen whether or not students should wear white or red polos. I would encourage teachers in grades 5-8 to have their students wear mass attire.
- The Polar Express will be coming to St. Francis this Friday. Since it is not a mass day students in grades K and 1 are permitted to wear their PJ's to school. Thanks to all of the teachers who help this special memory come to be for our students!
- We will be administering our Student Surveys for OCSAA this Monday and Wednesday. 7/8 grade will take them on Monday, December 7 and 5/6 grade will take them on Wednesday, December 9. After this is completed the steering committee (Mary Alice, Stephanie, Kathy Ott, Mark and myself) will meet to do a preliminary overview of the results as well as draft some potential goals. We will meet as a staff after the break to solidify goals for year 2 of the Accreditation plan. If you would like to know more about this process before our next faculty meeting, please see me!
- I hope that all of you were able to edit your teacher pages with ease and enjoyed having some freedom to make them your own. I am always open to suggestions on what might make it more functional for you or your students so please offer up any feedback you may have. Additionally, please do not hesitate to use Shelly Ivy as a resource, but remember that she has many things she does during the day so please try to give her a heads up if you are having trouble!
- Please remember that lesson plans are due to me, electronically or on paper, on Mondays by 5:00 pm.
- Formal Observations will begin when we return from break. Next week I will send out a Sign Up Genius for you all to sign up for Pre and post observations as well as the formal observation itself!
CODA
CODA stands for Curriculum On Digital Academy. I ask that if you have not yet requested access to CODA from Dolores Bruno (via the directions I supplied last week) please do so tomorrow. If you need assistance with this just stop by and ask either myself or any of the aforementioned teachers who attended the training!
I am looking into a day in January or February that we could use as a teacher work day in order to really dig into CODA as a faculty and begin to reap some of the benefits from having an online curriculum. CODA has an abundance of teacher tools and resources and will ultimately be a wonderful vehicle for lesson plans, curriculum maps, and collaboration. I am excited to get all of you on board!
Silent Auction
This year we will use the funds to support the beginning stages of a 1:1 program in our middle school. It is my hope that over the next couple of years we will be able to fully transition our middle school and junior high to a 1:! program and curriculum. Please note the letter that was in your mailbox on Thursday to see what other wonderful causes this Silent Auction has benefitted from in the past!
Teacher tickets to attend the auction are free. I will check with Andy Jager on how to redeem a free ticket and get that information to you ASAP!