Tiger Talk! February 25, 2022

Dear School Family,

It has certainly been a very busy few weeks here. We had two weeks of Renaissance testing. The students worked very hard. I had a few that finished their test in 4 minutes. Those lucky little ones redid the test with me after the fact. I explained there was no way they could possibly have shown us all they know in 4 minutes. It appears that the record time for simply clicking any answer and then the next button is 4 minutes, in case you are wondering. The test should take approximately 30 minutes. Most students are able to complete the test sooner. Some do take advantage of the full amount of time. We are printing all of those results today. Hopefully they will be coming home to you today. Most likely they will be sent home on Monday. I will send a School Messenger when they go out, so you can be on the lookout. No parent signature is required. You may keep these reports. I make no promises for today, as we have been a little short staffed this week. That is very rare. I want to share how blessed and grateful I am to my teachers. I communicate with principals all over the world. The biggest issue is staff absence. We don’t have that problem here at St. Anthony’s. Your child’s teacher has been showing up every day for two years, pandemic or not. They are here and working very hard. I have had the pleasure of doing teacher observations recently. I am learning several new teaching strategies. School is much more fun than it used to be. This week Ms. Waritz challenged her Third Graders to tell a story using division. They used counters, the SMART Board, and a dry erase board all in one lesson. I am quite certain we did not do that in my Third Grade class here at St. Anthony’s; same school but different teaching strategies.  

I also had the joy of substitute teaching in Second Grade all day. Wow! God bless Ms. Wolfe. They are an active little bunch with so much to share. I learned way more than I needed to know about all of them. They love to share. We have focused on forming relationships with our students this year and really getting to know them. I can say that this week really helped me to do just that. I taught Physical Education yesterday. I incorporated Mrs. Angelo’s counseling lessons in my classes. We did several relays and students learned how important it is to follow directions, follow game rules, and to be a good sport. I shared with them that our girls basketball team has only 5 players, yet they made it to the championships. Students were able to tell me why they thought that tiny team was so successful. 

I spent last Wednesday through this Monday in San Francisco for the Learning and the Brain Conference. That is an excellent conference that I had attended before. Despite the turbulent plane ride (I hate flying!), I learned a lot. Mrs. Achenbach (middle school) and I both attended the conference. We have great information to share with our teachers. We were pleased to see that we were already doing what the conference focused on, which was relationships. Now more than ever, students need to feel loved, welcomed, noticed, and safe in school. Students can not learn if their needs for acceptance are not met. They also need to know the “why” behind their learning. If there is no point to them, they are not engaged and they will not retain information. When I was in school and asked why, my father said, “because I said so, that’s why”. That no longer works. Students today need to find connections between what they are learning and its relevance in their world. I feel that our teachers do a good job at explaining why. I was able to make a connection to this conference and Second Grade Reading this week. They had a new story about Chinese New Year in their reading book and learned the vocabulary words “parade, costume, customs, and surrounded”. I was able to show them pictures from my trip. I was able to show them pictures of Chinese lanterns and talk about the words in their story. I showed them the video of a tiger walking across the top of a building celebrating the Year of the Tiger. That brought the story to life for them and gave it meaning. 

I learned that it is very important to explain to children reasons for consequences and it is important to actually give consequences. Many students say that they never get in trouble or have a loss of a privilege. I hope that is not the case, because life will certainly challenge them, and they will not have coping strategies to handle those challenges or disappointments. I talk constantly about safety. Almost every rule we have here is to keep children safe. The response I get every day when someone is sent to me is, “I didn’t mean for that to happen”. Students really think there is zero fault if someone is injured and it was not their direct intention to cause harm. I give multiple examples to explain things that I may do accidentally but that have a direct negative result on another person. They associate wrongdoing with being a bad person, so I always ask if they think I am a bad person after I tell them the mistakes I have made. Inevitably they say no. So my motherly advice for today would be to talk through behaviors with your child. Be sure you say no to them once in a while. Don’t immediately grant them their every wish. Give consequences for bad behavior and explain the reasoning. Mistakes are chances to learn. They are always teachable moments. We see a lot of crying and overreactions when we have to have a simple conversation to correct a behavior. That is definitely a new trend this year. I always say that we are partners in your child’s education. I hope you will continue to help us in our school mission to “nurture children academically, spiritually, and emotionally, assisting them to lead enriching and fulfilling lives.”

Speaking of mission, we are moving along in the Middle States Accreditation process. Please be sure to take the time to do our parent survey. We will be sending the link via email on Monday as a Survey Monkey. Please participate and have a voice in moving our school forward and ensuring its sustainability. Everyone has something to share, and I really look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. We truly want your feedback. Each and every comment will be read and analyzed by our staff and stakeholders. Each comment will be placed into one document of feedback. Please be sure to comment if you rate the highest or lowest score. If you feel that strongly about us, whether good or bad, we would love to hear why you feel that way. Comments provide much more information than a simple rating.  

Lent is rapidly approaching us. For those of you who do not celebrate Lent, it is a time in our Catholic faith where we literally reflect on Jesus’s journey to the Cross.  The Lenten season consists of 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Thursday. It is our time to prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. During this time, we reach out to God in prayer. We read Sacred Scripture. We serve by giving alms (rice bowls for the Missions). We practice self-control through fasting. We are called not only to abstain, but to a true conversion of heart and to work to please God and do His will. This is a nice time to talk to our students about doing good deeds for others. 

As you already know, our diocesan theme this year is “Companions on the Journey”. Our Advent theme was “Jesus’s Journey to Us”. To align with that theme of being companions on the journey, our Lenten theme will be “Journey with Jesus”. We will be teaching the students about the Stations of the Cross, which is a walk by Jesus’s side. Our monthly Bible verse will be “Love of Enemies” (Luke 6:27-36). We will learn about bearing wrongs patiently. We all could use more patience with ourselves and others. 

Please check our school website calendar for upcoming dates. That calendar is updated regularly. Follow us on Facebook as well. 

Winter Blessings,          

Mrs. White

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