St. Joseph eUpdate
Believing, Living, and Enlivening
Moving Along with Mrs. Maddox
WE’RE BACK!!! Our teachers are here on campus, busy getting everything ready for the upcoming school year. This Monday, August 10th, we walked to Mass together for the first time in 5 months and it felt so good. Not only were we excited to be in full union with the Holy Eucharist once again, but we were greeted with a tunnel of cheering families!!! It felt like we were getting ready to walk into the Championship Game of teaching! Thank you to the many families who joined together to let our teachers know how much they were missed, and to help them remember “why we do what we do.“
As we began to evaluate our priorities for reopening the school, we knew creating an intentional space where a child’s spiritual, social, and emotional needs were nurtured was definitely going to be a top priority. Last year we had already begun brainstorming ways to enhance our Virtuous Behavior Formation program. We liked the foundation we had already laid, but we felt it was time to expand the curriculum to include “why” the Theological and Cardinal Virtues are a “road map” to leading a balanced life of grace and beauty. Knowing virtue would be our focus this year, and that we have not been together for five months, we felt the need to create a protected time each day that could help teachers tap into the spiritual, social, and emotional needs of their students. Lastly, we felt it was super important to invite parents to engage in the process as well.
Creating a unique system for our school community was a joyful process of reflection and ingenuity which eventually brought us to our new Team Huddle and Family Huddle format. I am so appreciative of the collaboration efforts of our Pastor, Fr. Scott, our Youth Minister, Jared Rottinghaus, our Counselor, Cindy Jussel, and our new Assistant Principal, Kelcey McCauley. These talented, gifted individuals have helped St. Joseph create a beautiful comprehensive "Morning Check In" for our teachers and students. Rooted in our faith, tied to the Theological and Cardinal Virtues, and laced with healthy social and emotional activities to help our kids process their present reality.
Keep praying, planning, and practicing for August 31st! We are ALL knee deep in practice mode right now. Setting an alarm, getting to bed early, reading every day are all things kids can do to begin getting themselves ready for a successful start to the new school year. Please also remember to pray our St. Joseph Pandemic Prayer. I have included it at the end of our eUpdate.
With a Grateful Heart,
Jodie Maddox
Principal St. Joseph School
New School Calendar
Check In Week Sign Up!!!!
K-8th Grade School Supplies
We know each of you are hard at work preparing and planning for our return to school. When purchasing supplies please do not worry about items you can not find like Lysol wipes, or paper towels. Below is a list of school supplies that should be brought in during Check In days according to grade level. Eventually all school supplies from the original supply list will be brought to school, right now we are minimizing how many items each child need to keep track of.
School Accounts
Chess Club
Hi Chess Families—
Eureka! The Knight School St. Joseph's Chess Team just perfected our new online and laughing friend-unit
that will be an innovative, amazing, interactive, bonding, enthralling, supportive, and reliable online chess team.
Strategy Squad! Kid Unit Chess Team for our school will launch August 24th and beginners and old kids alike are invited! Enroll in this unique and innovative online class right here!
And double Eureka!: We just finished filming a promo video, check it out!
The Knight School has developed a souped-up, breakneck-paced Zoom experience that finally offers a truly compelling and thrilling one-hour chess team experience, enjoyed from the safety of your own home. With the upcoming academic school year in almost every way unclear, you can rely on the stability and predictability of our uncloseable, delightful weekly class. From August-May, our 19-kid “Strategy Squad!” friend-unit will collaborate, laugh, critically-think, bond, and perfect their chess games, and maybe even their childhoods. Strategy Squad is designed as a group-building, supportive friend group when--in light of predictions of a second wave in the fall/winter--our kids really need a little stability, predictability, and reliability. Each week Coach and exactly 19 kids (20 makes a perfect Zoom Gallery View) will work as one tightly-bonded, Zoom-Class friend-unit to collaborate and combine their ideas to win all the traditional TKS wristbands and candy prizes. In the coming year of uncertainty, Strategy Squad! would love to be your child’s weekly haven of socializing, intellectual stimulation, chess improvement, and fun!
And our TKS Strategy Squad! will be periodically challenging TKS Squads from neighboring schools to a Lichess chess-team match! You eyeballing me? And every Squad member in KC has the option every Saturday at 2:15 pm to play in our city-wide 45-minute tourney, “Saturday Showdown!” Each semester, the entire The Knight School Nation--21 cities--will come together for an awesome national tournaparty, with real trophies shipped! And all of this done with no masks, no social distancing, just a reinvented twist on Zoom that cranks up the interactivity to a revolutionary new height. Thursdays 6-7:30 will be “The Varsity,” a separate, advanced class with Crazy House chess games, joke time, and a longer, 50-minute tourney. Concurrent enrollment is required.
If you like this approach, enroll in The Knight School Strategy Squad Chess Team for this upcoming year! Enroll right here. I suspect many, many new families completely new to chess will see the value in this unique, innovative offering. I intend for The Knight School to provide a great benefit to dozens of our students as we ride this storm out together. Please email me at brian@theknightschool.com to chat or for more information about the exciting approach to this fall’s Chess Team.
Masses back in the Church!
St. Joseph Pandemic Prayer
St. Joseph Pandemic Prayer for Healing and Guidance 2020-2021
Good and Gracious Lord, You have led us through difficult times before and continuously guide us with your wisdom and dignity. Be our navigator as we encompass new and frightening paths. There is much strife and anxiety when it comes to the unknown. Please continue to be our safeguard and our comfort. Help all of us discover, acknowledge, and honor your blessings during these times of uncertainty. Walk with us this school year. In Your name we pray, Amen.
Calendar
August 24th - 28th - Family Check In Week.
August 31st - First Day of School for 1st grade - 8th grade. Half Day.
September 1st - First Day of School for Kindergarten. Half Day.
September 1st - First Full Day of School for 1st - 8th grade.
September 7th - Labor Day. No School.
Contact Us
Email: school@stjoeshawnee.org
Website: https://stjoeshawnee.eduk12.net
Location: 11505 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, KS, USA
Phone: (913) 631-7730
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stjosephschoolshawnee/