Academy news 3/28/08

I hope you have enjoyed the time off—it has gone by quickly!  A few notes to bring you up to speed on things. A new student will be joining us on Monday, Noah Gardiner, son of Brian and Kyra Gardiner.  The Gardiners have relocated here from Louisiana and Noah is actually in the 6^th grade, but he will finish the year with the 7^th grade and then rejoin us next year for a full year of 7^th grade.  Please join us in welcoming Noah and his family to SJJ. Our mission collection will be extended throughout the full week.  Remember we are collecting several items—gently used clothing; canned goods; dry good; and bottles of vitamins—to assist a few of the agencies students identified as recipients.   Last call for signing up for the golf program.  The program begins this Wednesday, April 2 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the golf dome at South Toledo Golf Course on Heatherdowns.  The cost is $80 for eight sessions.  Forms are available here at school.   There is still time to order tickets for the 2:00m p.m. Saturday, April 12 performance of “Les Miserables” presented by the high school.  The reduced cost for tickets is $5.00 each—the Academy is covering the rest of the cost to encourage students and their families to attend.  Let me know by April 4 if you would like tickets.     Next week is “International Week” in the high school and we are invited to attend presentations on the two focus countries for this year—Lebanon and India.  In addition Lebanese food will be available for purchase at lunch on Tuesday and Indian food will be available on Wednesday.   A few forms will be coming in the US mail next week including final information and itineraries on the 7^th grade class trips and a registration form for 8^th grade next year.  This form is for current 7^th grade students to officially register for 8^th grade.  We will also need to finalize 8^th grade foreign language selections if you have not already indicated your choice. If your son would still like to participate in a spring sport(s) there is still time!  Please see Mr. Butler–nbutler@sjjtitans.org–for more information. 

Academy Notes 3/18/08

  A few brief notes before we begin our Easter break on Friday. We received so many positive comments about the tremendous job the 7^th grade students did on their service experiences last Friday that we decided to give them a short break tomorrow and take them to the Maumee Cinemas to see “The Spiderwick Chronicles.”  We will leave here on the SJJ bus @ 11:00 a.m. in time to see the 11:45 a.m. showing.  We will be back to school by 2:15 p.m.  We will pay part of the cost of the ticket and the students will need to pay $5.  Send the money with your son or send it after the break if that is easier for you.  They will have a chance to eat here at school before we leave or they may purchase food at the theater, but, as you know, it is very expensive!  Visit www.spiderwickchronicles.com for more information on this PG rated, critically acclaimed, exciting fantasy film.  A permission slip is coming home today with your son. Several students indicated an interest in playing lacrosse this spring.  I know this is short notice, but the lacrosse program has a parent information night scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday,  at 6:00 p.m. in the commons.  If you cannot make it, don’t worry, your son can still participate.  Notify Mr. Butler or me if you are unable to attend but would like the information. Five 8^th grade students will be traveling to the Appalachia area in Mingo County, West Virginia over the break with some juniors and Mr. Skeldon from the Christian Service office to provide their assistance to community efforts down there.  They will help build a wheelchair ramp, put on a roof, do some landscaping, and work with the children in the community.   Please remember Mr. Jonathon Begley, father of 8^th grade student Tyler, as he undergoes hip replacement surgery tomorrow.  We pray that all goes well for Mr. Begley and the family.   A mailing went out yesterday with assorted pieces of information including hard copies of report cards and information on our mew mission collection.  We will collect items through April 1 after we are back in school.  Any items you can send in will be greatly appreciated as we try to help a few organizations with worthy missions. I will be in the office most of next week finalizing details of the upcoming trips among numerous other things.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  Thanks for your continued support and encouragement. I wish you and your family a blessed Easter and an enjoyable break.  

Academy news 3/10/08

:  Sorry I’m a day or two behind on the newsletter.  I had planned on being here a little longer that I was on Saturday and ran out of time!  So, here it goes, hopefully not too late. Tomorrow, Tuesday is a late start for the Academy students.  They do not need to be here until 10:15 a.m.  Every other day this week is a regular start time for the Academy. The Academy Basketball Banquet is Wednesday, March 12 starting at 6:30 p.m.  If you have not returned your reservation form, please do so immediately.  We will provide the main dish—lasagna—and the beverages and we ask you to bring either a dish to pass or a dessert. Wednesday morning we will attend a special presentation by “Team Xtreme” in the main gym beginning at 9:30 a.m.  Parents and families are welcome to join us for what we hope will be an inspiring and entertaining assembly. Friday is our 7^th grade Service Day and the 8^th grade/Big Brother UT Rec Center Day and we need drivers to help us transport the boys back and forth.  If you can help please let me know as soon as possible. 3^rd quarter report cards are on their way in the mail.  Remember, you can always check grades on Powerschool at any time.  If you are having trouble getting online please let me know.

Academy news 3/1/08

 The fourth quarter officially begins on Monday and third quarter report cards will be mailed home on Friday.  The high school is asking any 7^th grade students who are ready to select a foreign language for a full year of study next year to please do so at this time.  If students prefer to wait until the exploratory Spanish course in the fourth quarter they may do so, but for planning purposed it would help the high school if the 7^th grade students made their foreign language selection as soon as possible.  The languages to choose from are:  Chinese, Spanish, German, Arabic, French, and Latin.  We moved the Academy Basketball Banquet back a week to Wednesday, March 12 since we still have some teams in action.  A reservation form was sent home with the students so please return it as soon as possible to help us with planning for the evening. If you still have car raffle tickets out or you would like to purchase a car raffle ticket time is running out!  The raffle will be held on Thursday evening, March 7. Schedule notes:  there will be a late start for Academy students on Tuesday, March 11—students do not need to be here until 10:15 a.m. that day.    On Wednesday, March 12 we will host a presentation by “Team Xtreme,” a “group of world class athletes, conditioning experts and power lifters with a concern for today’s young generations.  While showing their strength, Team Xtreme has confronted life’s tough issues head on.  From their own experiences, they offer insights and motivate people of all ages to excel at everything and build themselves up in every way.”  We are inviting the Big Brothers to attend with us from 9:30-10:45 a.m.  Please feel free to join us in the main gym for this inspiring presentation. A reminder:  we rescheduled our “7th grade Service Day” and “8^th grade/Big Brother Day” for Friday, March 14.  We will need drivers for the 7^th grade trip to either Camp Miakonda on Sylvania Avenue in Toledo or the Catholic Club in downtown Toledo.  Permission slips will be sent home with the report card mailing and you can indicate on the slip whether you can help us out that day or not. It looks like a busy spring sports season.  We hope to field teams in tennis, soccer, track, and lacrosse along with offering a golf clinic.  Please encourage your son to try a sport—they can even play more than one thanks to flexible scheduling.  The idea is exploring something new and becoming more self-aware and more self-confident from the experience. We are trying to organize a chess tournament for junior high students that we will host here at SJJ on Sunday, April 13. Craig and Maria Zirbel have kindly agreed to help lead the effort, but we need help. If you are interested in helping out please let me or Craig and Maria know. Coming soon:  “7^th grade Shakespeare.”  As soon as the books come in Mr. Bumpus will start an interactive, engaging unit on Shakespeare with the 7th grade.Coming soon part two:  An introduction to scuba diving.  Beginning in April on five separate Fridays we will take groups of interested students to Aqua Hut on Reynolds Road in Toledo for an introduction to scuba diving.  Students will learn about this fascinating activity and get in the dive pool and experience it first hand.  More details to follow. Don’t forget the “Bake Sale” on Thursday, March 7.  Send your items in with your son and help us continue to raise funds for the class trips. As I write this I await a call from Mr. Nichols with results from today’s “Science Olympiad” on the campus of the Ohio State campus in Lima.  Fourteen Academy students were competing today.  Also, 7^th grade students Harry Thaman, Nate Stein, and Sean Wheelock are competing in “Destination Imagination” today at the University of Toledo. We are planning our next “After School Movie” and it may be an end of the school day excursion to a local theater.  Plans will be finalized on Monday.