October 5, 2014
Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,
It’s been a beautiful week of weather, and we are especially grateful for the sunshine during our outdoor activities this week, the Feast of St. Raphael and the Blessing of the Pets. Thanks be to God!

If you are checking grades on Fast Direct, you may have noticed that there is now more detailed information on your student’s gradebook report. You will begin seeing the actual Learning Goals (also called Standards) from the curriculum in English/Language Arts and Math showing up with grades. This information is meant to help you, your student, and the teachers understand more clearly what each student is mastering, and where each student still needs assistance. The Learning Goals are italicized for easier identification. It’s taken us a while, but we are getting there with our Fast Direct system! Our goal is for everything to be in place in time for 1 ^st Quarter Report Cards; we believe that you will greatly appreciate the readability and important information included in our new Report Card format. As always, we appreciate your constructive feedback as we try to make our information system the best possible system.

One of my favorite parts of my job is visiting classrooms and seeing all the wonderful things happening there. If you’d like to know what I’m seeing, you can follow me @SRAToday on Twitter. I am “tweeting” with the best of them!

We have a number of calendar events coming up next week. Our Student Ambassadors and our Student Council Officers will be going off-site for training, and we are sending a group of our most serious upper-grade students to the Academic Decathlon at Vianney High School. Our 8 ^th Graders are participating once again in World Food Day, where they join students and volunteers from all across the St. Louis area to prepare food packs for people in Third World countries. Weeks like this remind me that, although we are a small school, we are strong and mighty in the leadership and service opportunities that we offer for our students.

Our featured teacher this week is Mrs. JoEllen Sarich, our Kindergarten Teacher. Mrs. Sarich is in her 11 ^th year at St. Raphael, and has taught both Kindergarten and 1 ^st Grade here. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education and a Masters Degree in Computer Education, both from Fontbonne University. Mrs. Sarich is certified in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education and Special Education for Early Childhood. She was a recipient of the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award last year, one of the area’s most prestigious education honors.

JoEllen is creative and playful, but she packs a lot of learning into the lively Kindergarten environment. When you enter the Kindergarten room, you are first struck by how interesting everything looks. There are tables and activity areas, there are colorful supplies and creations, there are unusually shaped furniture arrangements, and bigger than life letters and numbers. JoEllen can engage her 24 students all together on the big carpet with a math lesson on the Smart Board, and a few minutes later, the students are all in different groups working on math projects that are appropriate to their individual level of understanding. You see children building, counting, graphing, and engaging with Mrs. Sarich and each other. Learning is fun in Kindergarten!

Best of all, Mrs. Sarich is ever patient, explaining and teaching, comforting and encouraging, praising and congratulating all day long. She truly is a Master Teacher. What a blessing for SRA!

We will all be happy to have Monsignor Breier back with us next week! Please pray for his safe travel, and please continue to keep our students and teachers in your prayers.
Peace and Blessings,
Kim Vangel
Principal