Thursday, November 12, 2020
Friday, November 13th - No School, Teacher Inservice

Tuesday, November 17th - Chipotle Restaurant Night, 4-8 PM

Tuesday, November 17th - November Birthdays Out-of-Uniform Day

Wednesday, November 25th - Dollar Jean Day

Wednesday, November 25th - 11:00 Dismissal

Wednesday, November 25th - Cousins Subs Day

Thursday & Friday, November 26th & 27th - No School, Thanksgiving Break




Family Prayer 


Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The wise woman receives her reward.
  • The poem of the first reading is the conclusion of the Book of Proverbs.
  • It is very likely that the poem is about both a good wife and Wisdom herself.
  • The whole poem highlights the point that whoever finds Wisdom does indeed find life.

Reading II : 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
You are children of the light.
  • The Thessalonians were caught between worry over the imminent return of Christ and the complacency in their faith.
  • Paul instructed them to be diligent in preparing, but not to worry.
  • Christians are children of light.

Gospel : Matthew 25:14-30
We must use the gifts we have been given!
  • The Gospel reading deals with the end of the world and the coming of God's Kingdom.
  • The paradox of today's parable is that the one who played it safe lost while, in the end, the risk-takers gained.
  • Faithfulness implies not only keeping the tradition but also the willingness to risk everything in order to increase God's Kingdom.
A Message from Mrs. Laidlaw Otto
 
Dear SJE Families, 

It’s hard to believe it, but the first trimester is nearly over. Report cards for students in grades one through eight will be sent home on Thursday, December 1st. Last year our teachers adopted Standards Based Learning and Grading. Using the standards allows us to plan and assess what our students are learning, and helps our students to take responsibility for their learning more effectively. However, especially for our older students, the change from traditional achievement grades has not been an easy one. An achievement grade (letter grade) is easy to define, and seems to be a clear measure. It represents the way we were assessed throughout school. Standards based grading challenges our community to look at what we teach and assess through a different lens; one that we believe helps our students to take ownership of their learning. It allows them to identify their own strengths and challenges. Teaching to and assessing our students in the standards allows for a clearer understanding of what students should know, and how they will demonstrate this knowledge.  

This year’s report card will also include a new category called “success indicators”. This part of the report card replaces our “learner behaviors”. Our teachers work to teach these habits to our students on a daily basis, with the understanding that these skills will serve our students well throughout their education and into their adult lives.  

As a refresher for our returning parents and an introduction to Standards Based Learning, Assessment and Grading for our new families, I am including a link to the Parent’s Guide to Standards Based Grading. Please take some time to review this document, provided to us by the Archdiocese. It is an easy reference to help you interpret your child’s report card.  


In addition, I will be offering a virtual parent meeting to answer questions about Standards Based Teaching, Learning, and Grading. This meeting will be geared for parents of students in grades four through eight. Watch for more information on how to sign up for this meeting in next week’s newsletter.

Together in God’s name,

Mary Laidlaw Otto
School Directory

In August, all families were asked to complete a release of information form. At that time, families were given the option to choose what information they wanted to share with other school families. Next week, we will be publishing our digital family directory, containing this information. Changes to the information provided in August should be communicated to Mrs. Kaminski no later than Wednesday, November 18th. You can contact Mrs.Kaminski at: mkaminski@sje.school.  
Covid-19 Update
 
We continue to be Covid-19 free in our building. At the same time, we continue to have students and teachers in quarantine. Considering the upcoming holidays, and daily news reports regarding our state’s rising infection rates, we have had a significant number of parents ask how we will communicate a school closing or class-wide quarantine.  

We communicate with our families primarily via email. Classroom quarantines will be communicated to families via an email message. We will make every effort to get messages out to our families as quickly as possible. In addition, we communicate emergency school closings on our school website in the form of a banner across the welcome page. We recommend that, as long as Covid-19 quarantines remain a daily occurrence, parents check their email first thing in the morning, before leaving for school. Our goal is to communicate every change in schedule with at least 12 hours notice, but ask our families to work with us and understand that it is possible to receive notifications later in the evening.  
NJHS Update


We did it!!!  We exceeded our school goal of collecting 250-300 jelly and syrup items.  The push this last day was amazing!  We are pleased to announce that the SJE students, staff and families collected 336 items.  This will help many families in need this fall and winter season.  The Milwaukee Rescue Mission will be delighted with this donation from our school community.

The parish has also provided tremendous support for our collection this year.  They collected 277 items to add to our count.  That is over 600 jelly and syrup donations from the SJE school and parish communities.  Wow!  

Thank you so much for all of the donations!  The students have earned their classroom movie and a small snack.  The teachers will inform the students when this will happen in the future.

We may be a small school, but we can accomplish great things when we work Together in God’s Name.
Annual Home and School Cookie Walk

Our Home and School Association will be sponsoring our popular annual cookie walk - pandemic edition - on Saturday, December 12th and Sunday December 13th after all weekend masses. This year’s cookie walk will feature pre-packaged, one pound boxes of cookies, available for pre-order or grab and go. Information on how to donate cookies, as well as order forms for cookies boxes will be included in next week’s newsletter.
St. John the Evangelist School
414-321-8540
Fax: 414-321-4450
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