January 18, 2015
Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,
We were able to order an additional 25 Chromebooks and a mobile cart for the school last week, thanks to the generosity of so many parents and parishioners at the Black & Gold Auction. This means that we will have over 100 Chromebooks available for students at all times. Seeing the kids in action with these valuable tools is pretty exciting. Students use these internet laptops for research, writing, and for practicing math and other skills. As early as 2 ^nd Grade, students at SRA are taught how to use Google Docs to find an assignment from their teacher, conduct research on the internet, create writing or presentation projects, and to share those documents or presentations with other students and/or their teachers. The Chromebooks do not take the place of handwriting or reading, but they do provide our students with 21 ^st Century tools and skills for accomplishing work. Thanks again to all of our supporters!
As you know, we utilize the Flock Note communication system for many of our communications that need to reach l arge groups of people. If you are having trouble receiving Flock Notes in your email inbox, please make sure to add [email protected] to your address book or safe sender list. If that doesn’t work, please contact your email provider and ask them to allow [email protected] emails through to your inbox.
Our featured teacher this week is Mrs. Peggy Martin, our PE teacher. Mrs. Martin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from UMSL in Elementary Education and Psychology. She is a certified Art Teacher, and she holds and regularly updates a variety of certifications in swimming instruction, life guarding, physical training, and health instruction. In addition to SRA, Mrs. Martin is also the PE teacher at St. Stephen Protomartyr School, and she teaches adult swimming classes at both indoor and outdoor pools in the area. Mrs. Martin has created a full PE curriculum for SRA, and incorporates regular exercise and health lessons into her PE classes. Every other year she organizes the Jump Rope For Heart activity, which is a student favorite. Last year during the Winter Olympics, Mrs. Martin created her own homemade version of the Olympics for students in the gym. Kids had a blast skiing, skating, and running the luge, and they even got medals! Each class ended with a glorious singing of the USA National Anthem. We appreciate Mrs. Martin’s enthusiasm for PE and her goal of inviting kids to make healthy lifestyle choices. We are so glad to have Mrs. Martin on our team at SRA!
We are going to be making some changes to The Guide, our weekly e-newsletter for school. Please look for information to come about those changes in the next week or so.
Please remember that Friday, January 16 ^th is a Professional Development day for our faculty. No school that day for K-8, but Preschool will be in session. Monday, January 19 ^th we celebrate Martin Luther King day and there is no school for K-8, but again, Preschool is open.
Thanks as always for your prayers and support!
Peace & Blessings,
Kim Vangel
Principal