Dear All Saints Families:
Last week was a busy week with the new inductees of the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) being recognized at our school liturgy. The NJHS is an international student organization that was founded by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. To be considered for the honor of membership at All Saints Catholic School, students must demonstrate Catholic faith, leadership, citizenship, character, service, and scholarship. These are known as the pillars of expectations for membership. I explain to the members accepted that it is just the beginning of their membership as the pillars must be upheld in all they do. As educators, we strive to mentor the students so that these wonderful pillars drive their decisions and behaviors in years to come. Thank you to the moderators, Mrs. Berndt, Mrs. Pomerantz, and Mrs. Townsend for leading these wonderful students. Thank you to our parents who have and will partner with the school in this journey.
This week we have an early dismissal day on Wednesday, September 19th. Most months have one early dismissal day to allow for trainings and faculty meetings. This Wednesday, the faculty will be attending an "Active Shooter Training" in order to enhance our emergency procedures. We will also be trained with the materials in our emergency kits found in each classroom to enhance knowledge of wound treatments. The Diocese and school have and will always put security at the forefront of our concerns and plans. We are very happy with the officer presence at the school. It is also a wonderful opportunity for our students to meet and build positive relationships with these dedicated police officers in the community. Further, these officers are keeping us informed about minor changes in routines to increase safety. As a result of these conversations, it was recommended that our concrete backyard fence might be easy to climb. As a result, a thorny hedge boundary has been planted in front of our walled fence to deter individuals from climbing our walls. We are constantly improving facilities and procedures to keep our children safe.
Thank you to all who have volunteered in any way with the annual auction. I know all grades are now in the midst of completing class baskets. Thank you to those who are organizing and participating. The annual auction is the largest fundraiser of the Home and School Association and is critical for the contribution to the operational expenses of the school. As our annual financial report found, tuition is not cost based and in order for us to meet that gap between cost and tuition, fundraising is critical. We thank everyone for their continued support of this amazing school.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs. Jill Broz
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Mrs. Charlton's Class STEAMing in ELA
For a summer reading assessment, the seventh grade students had the choice of three English Language Arts STEAM projects. The first one was to create an app that a character in their novel would invent for him or herself, someone they knew, or for a specific demographic in his or her community. Students required a thorough knowledge of their character and their environment, as well as their social connections, in order to develop this app. After brainstorming ideas and completing a storyboard for the app, students wrote an analysis that explained the connections between their character and the character app created. Students were graded on their app's creativity, but also on their apparent understanding of their character through the app developed.
A second choice required students to take on the persona of a character from their novel and design a home for him or her. Students needed to understand what was most important to their characters, list three elements the character would want to include in a house, decide who the character would want to have live in the house, determine the house style the character would use in the design, include something that would make the character's house unique to him or her, and create a room in the house that the character would want just for him or herself. A written component explaining the above choices was also part of the project.
The final choice was to create character street art in which the student had to determine what image their character would choose to make and have seen by millions of people in a large city. Students were allowed to select the type of medium used for their art. In a written analysis, students answered why the street art was important to the character, and what it revealed about his or her personality and values.
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