Happy Marathon Week St. Michael Families!
This school year I am feeling particularly thankful for each school day we are privileged to complete. This week we marked the completion of 10% of our school year! I guess that is a happy consequence of the strange times we live in - remembering to be thankful for each day!
Tomorrow is our Marathon Day of Service followed by a drive-through celebration (please remember to RSVP and decorate your car with school spirit!). I am looking forward to seeing our Blues in action serving our school and parish communities as well as our surrounding neighborhood. They will earn their drive-through dessert with good old-fashioned hard work.
Our pledge money has been coming in strong, and there is still time to get it turned in and counted toward prizes. We celebrated our week two milestones on Tuesday. Any student who had turned in at least $100 had a chance to spin the prize wheel. I happened to be in one of the kindergarten rooms when the kids realized the prize wheel was coming down the hall. It was quite the hit, and caused quite a commotion! Thank you Mrs. Zalusky, the kids had a ball!
Our top six classes earned an ice cream party this week:
Ms. Kaczmarek’s fifth grade finished in 1st place
Mrs. Bollig’s kindergarten in 2nd
Mr. Olson’s second grade in 3rd place
Mrs. DeGross’s third grade in 4th place
Mrs. Disher’s sixth grade in 5th place
AND Mr. Amundson’s fourth grade in 6th place
On Wednesday our kindergarten through third graders had their first Mass in Church, while the fourth through eighth graders watched via livestream in their classrooms. Father Tom’s homily was about how we can follow Jesus, and he got some great answers from the students. Jesus demonstrated again and again how we are to love God through our love and care for all people. The Marathon service projects are a great way to practice that love and care.
This was a big week for feast days, with our own St. Michael the Archangel celebrated on Tuesday along with Gabriel and Raphael of course, St. Jerome on Wednesday, Therese of Lisieux today, and the Guardian Angels tomorrow (nice timing for our Marathon day!).
This week our students are finishing up their NWEA MAP assessments, and the faculty is looking forward to seeing how the scores will compare to last fall. We expect they will seem a bit “off” after the abrupt end to in-person learning last year. These assessments give us a snapshot that is used along with classroom assessments and observations by our knowledgeable educators to determine where the kids are, and where they need to go next. Our children are in great hands!
The teachers and I have been discussing how to do parent conferences this year. They strongly feel it is better to meet in person, so we will be sending up a sign up genius with time slots available on the evenings of Tuesday, October 20 and Thursday, October 22 between 3:00 and 7:00. We will practice our mitigation procedures, but also understand if parents feel safer with a virtual conference. Please contact your child’s teacher via email if you prefer a virtual conference this fall. We will use the sign-up for in person conferences only.
See you tomorrow at the drive-through family fun night; God bless your families, and go Blues!
Mrs. Kerr