Academy newsletter 10/22/08

:  This is a two-for-one newsletter covering last weekend and next weekend.  This has been a busy time and we’ll all look forward dot a three day weekend starting next Friday, October 31 when there is no school due to the freshman retreat which will take place throughout the entire school building.  Until then though, we continue to be pretty busy.  The second quarter started on Monday and we will be mailing home first quarter report cards early next week.

 

Monday almost all of the students joined us for an afternoon movie, with the majority seeing “The Express” and the remainder seeing “City of Ember.”   Both movies were at the Maumee Showcase Cinemas and I received a compliment from the theater manager on how well behaved the students were.  Yesterday the 7^th grade learned about car design and engineering while building Lego motorized race cars with their junior Big Brothers.  Today all of our Arabic students are spending the day with their instructor, Dr. El-Gharbawy, visiting the Arab-American Center in the Detroit area.  Tomorrow we will look into the election with State Rep. Randy Gardner, father of 8^th grade student Austin, providing some insight into this historical moment in our country’s history.  Finally, on Friday we will have three different groups going out on service projects to Camp Miakonda to clean cabins, to the Seagate Food Bank to help sort and box food donations, and to the Wood County Historical Society to do some yard work. 

 

Thanks to all the parents who helped out at the 7^th and 8^th grade Fun Night—we couldn’t have done it without you.  We had over 1200 7^th and 8^th graders in the building and all had a good time with very few problems—a big success!

 

Congratulations to our soccer team on the completion of a successful season.  The team was eliminated in the semi-finals of their tournament and laid the groundwork for the spring season when we hope to have individual 7^th and 8^th grade seasons.  Thanks to head coach Tim Coleman and assistants Dee Tilley and Kym Sloan for all their time and work with the boys.

 

Our mission collection is underway and we need your support.  We are collecting men’s shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, and blankets for the Homeless Awareness Project as they sponsor the Tent City event that will be held in downtown Toledo at the end of October.  Ken Leslie, founder on 1matters.org, www.1matters.org, spoke to the students last Thursday about his work and how they can support the program.

 

Student-led conferences will be held in the commons this Monday and Tuesday from 5:00-7:30 p.m.  Stop by anytime that is convenient for you either evening.  Your son will have a portfolio of work he and the teachers have compiled.  He will review it with you along with his self-evaluation and comments from the teachers.  The teachers will be available to participate, but the idea is for your son to take ownership of his work and his efforts to date. 

 

Finally, we have been having some cell phone issues with students—inappropriate use, texting during school, etc.—that have caused to question why students need their cell phones during the day and we cannot find a reason to justify it.  I certainly understand that some students may need them after school, but during school students have access to the phones in the Academy whenever they need them.  So, starting Monday, October 27 we will collect cell phones from students in home room each morning and return them at the end of the day—3:06 p.m.  Cell phones will be kept in containers behind Mrs. Fritsch’s desk in the work room.  If you need to contact your son during the day please call the work room-ext. 342—or my office –ext. 341- or e-mail us.  Conversely, if your son needs to call you he can use one of our phones whenever he needs to.  This should result in fewer distractions for students, no inappropriate cell phone usage, and no phones being lost during the school day (a student brought me one he found this morning).  If you feel that this will cause a problem for your family please contact me directly.  We will take responsibility for keeping the phones safe and protected during the day.

 

Thanks

 

Academy Newsletter 10/11/08

:  I write this having just returned from out of town.  The week ahead is the last week of the first quarter.  Now is the time to encourage your son to make his best effort this week, make sure he has turned in all of his assignments, and finish up any projects that need to be completed.  We will mail report cards home as soon as they are completed.

 

Next week also promises to be a busy one.  On Tuesday the students will learn about the art of “improvisation” as members of Children’s Stage Adventures, a traveling company based in Vermont, will be here to present workshops to both the 7^th and 8^th grades.  The group is working with the Ohio Theater this week and we are excited to have them return to the Academy.  Also, on Tuesday and Wednesday we will have our final two presentations from “The Victims’ Forum,” an outreach program for junior high students created and sponsored by the Lucas County Prosecutor’s office.  These presentations will be held from 12:30 -1:30 p.m. in the theater each day and parents are welcome to attend.  The program seeks to educated students about the consequences of negative and harmful choices others make and the impact those choice have on many other lives. 

 

On Thursday morning Ken Leslie from the Greater Toledo Homeless Awareness Project will speak to the students about the project and help them understand how a person/family can find himself without a home.  Our next mission collection will begin with Ken’s presentation and will consist of a collection for men’s sweaters, sweatshirts, shirts, socks, hygiene products and blankets.  We will continue the collection until October 29.

 

For most of next Thursday and all of next Friday I will be at a diocesan principals’ conference in Huron, Ohio.  I’ll try to check my e-mail on Thursday evening so feel free to keep in touch before I return to the office. 

 

Next Monday afternoon we celebrate the end of the quarter when we go on the road for our next after-school movie as we travel to the Maumee Showcase Cinemas for the mid afternoon showing of two different films.  Students will have a choice of either “City of Ember,” produced by Walden Entertainment, the people who did “The Chronicles of Narnia,” or “The Express,” the true story of football player Ernie Davis.  Both of these films are rated PG and contain excellent lessons and messages for young people.  We’ll have more details on the times and transportation in the middle of the week.  We receive a group rate for the movies so a ticket will only cost your son $5.  We hope all the boys can attend and celebrate the end of the quarter.

 

Thanks to the following students who joined me for some service work at Swancreek Metropark on Friday:  Walker Lowell; Ron Birchfield; Malik Carrington; DaJuan Jones; Zach Oberhaus; Tom Schafer; John Booth; Sean Welling; Bailey Crawford; Connor Kelley; Casey Shugarman.  The boys collected thirty bags of garbage on a trail cleanup and collected a large number of seeds for planting in new habitats.  Our next service day is Friday, October 24.

 

Last call for chaperones for Saturday night’s “7^th/8^th Grade Fun Night” from 7:00-9:30 p.m.   We’re expecting @ 1000 area students to attend so we could use a lot of help!  If you haven’t already responded, please e-mail Kris Fritsch at kfritsch@sjjtitans.org to let he know that you can help us out.

 

Finally, Pam Clark, mother of 8^th grade student Stanley, has a unique fundraising opportunity to help you earn money to reduce the cost of your son’s class trip.  On Saturday, November 22 from 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. you can earn money by doing some packing at Consolidated Biscuit Corporation.  Workers will package Nabisco cookies and earn money for every case that is packed.  Contact Pam at 419-277-4835 or by e-mail at pwclark@buckeye-express.com.  Pam said she has done this with other groups and they have made as much as $1200 for five hours.  Think it over and contact her for to sign up if you’re interested.