December 21, 2014
Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,

We have reached the end of our 2 ^nd Quarter of the school year, and Christmas is upon us – hard to believe! We have a nice long break and will resume classes on Monday, January 5, 2014. Second Quarter Report Cards will be available for online viewing after we return to school, on Friday, January 9, 2015.

Many of you will be traveling over the Christmas holidays, and we all wish you safe travels. Although we are on a break from school, remember that you can continue learning experiences for your kids, and trips provide great opportunities for fun, experiential learning. If you are visiting family members, encourage your kids to take advantage of talking with some of their older relatives. Ask them to tell you stories about their childhoods, about their families, school, church, neighborhoods. Record the stories by writing them down, videotaping them, taking photos while they are talking. You could compile a book or electronic file of your family stories, a treasure for all of your family.

If you are visiting a new place, take some time to explore and ask your kids questions about what’s different from home, what they like and why, what they don’t like and why. Turn off the video games and DVDs in the car, and play some old fashioned road games like I Spy, counting license plates, and alphabet memory games (e.g. We’re going to New York and I’m bringing an ardvaark; We’re going to New York and I’m bringing an aardvark and a banana; We’re going to New York and I’m bringing an aardvark, a banana, and a chess set, etc). You could even sing Christmas songs together. Keep those brains active always!

Our featured teacher this week is Dr. Mark Schisler. Dr. Schisler holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and a Doctor of Chiropractic from Logan College of Chiropractic. He is certified in Biology. Dr. Schisler owned and ran a successful chiropractic practice in St. Louis before making a career change to education. He is our Science teacher for Grades 6-8, and our Challenge Math teacher for Grades 6-8, including Algebra for the 8 ^th Graders. Although Dr. Schisler is fairly new to the world of education, he is eager to learn about best practices in the classroom. Like any great scientist, he takes data about his students’ learning, and he uses that data to make changes to his processes, always trying to improve his results. His matter of fact approach garners him much respect from his students, and produces respect for the subject matter. Dr. Schisler is a long-time member of St. Raphael parish, and his children are all graduates of our school. He is often the voice of common sense and reason on our faculty, and his contributions to our school are so greatly appreciated!

I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy Christmas!
Peace and Blessings,
Kim Vangel
Principal