eGazette - October 8, 2008

Principal's Piece

Fall has officially swept in, surrounding us in crisp mornings and cooler evenings. Something about the vibrant colors also lends formality to the start of the academic year. Thank you to all who attended our recent Back-to-School night, including our Faculty, Staff and Family Club volunteers. Our Back-to-School night provided needed information about class schedules and procedures, parent involvement opportunities and Family Club activities. Thank you for focusing through my rapid WASC/WCEA Action Plan update. (Mr. Jordan sweetly asked me if I'd had a lot of diet coke that evening.) Yes, I do have a lot to say, yes, I am passionate and yes, I was trying to stick to a strict time-limit! We are on an exciting path right now, journeying with our children through this most fantastic period in their lives. Our program is solid, our future plans are ample and our potential limited only by our hopes and motivation. You've heard a great deal about our facility improvements and if you have not yet sent in your campaign pledge envelope, please do so as soon as possible. Any amount will help meet our goal and once our basic needs are met, we can move forward with additional campus developments.

Today, I share with the first piece on our systematic academic projects. You have been given the academic "scope and sequence" in your child's classroom. Again, per our WASC/WCEA Action Plan, several school-wide/systematic projects are also in progress, with the goal of continually examining and improving our academic program. I will link our annual Action Plan update on our web site and provide you with more frequent updates during the year.

On Writing:

During August, in the midst of sorting through boxes and wiping away dust, we, organized an all-day, on-campus presenter on the "Six Traits of Writing". Beverly Flatten is a nationally renowned expert in writing instruction who guided us through this constructive and readily applicable technique, a technique we adopted last school year.

The "Six Traits of Writing" refer to the "language" of writing. Its implementation provides an objective base for writing assessment, something fairly tricky as writing has been traditional scored more naturally with subjective measures. The "Six Traits" suggest the use of scoring guides, called rubrics, which provide a solid, attainable list of traits teachers look for in their student essays. Scoring then becomes consistent across all grade levels in any produced writing. This leads to standardization in writing instruction and thus, our students benefit.

The "Six Traits of Writing" are: Ideas, Voice, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions.

Ms. Flatten relayed to us the following pillars of the "Six Traits of Writing":

1. Provide the same language of instruction and grading used across the grades

2. Provide common expectations

3. Emphasizes that writing is a process, not an event

What does this mean to parents, the primary educators?

As partners in our children's education, both teachers and parents play a critical role in all areas of development. Think about your experience with writing and relay this to your children. How many times have you produced a written document today? Maybe you have written a report for work, an e-mail, a shopping list, a card for a relative? To make the natural application apparent to a child is critical. Explain to your child why these skills are important in "real life". Encourage your child to write: a journal, a log of a family trip or a story for a younger relative.

Modern education focuses heavily on those subjects that are most easily measured. In other words, Scantron-tests are often relied upon to give us primary information about a student's reading, writing and arithmetic achievement. Through our Student Learning Expectations (SLE's, see attached flyer), we at St. John believe that expressive knowledge, which generally can't be measured by a "bubble-test", to be equally important. Whether it's writing prayer intentions for morning assembly, singing during a school liturgy, creating an art-piece or producing a PowerPoint project for Social Studies assignment, our children are becoming competent communicators (SLE #3). The "Six Traits of Writing" allow for organized development of a major form of expressive communication: writing. Watch for those rubrics coming home and watch the creative ideas flow!

Have a Faith-Filled October!

In Peace,
Nancy Jordan
Principal
Student_Learning_Expectations.pdf

Back to School Night was a great evening, and it was especially wonderful to see so many of you gathering around the tables connecting with event and committee chairs! Thank you to event and committee chairs for hosting tables, and contributing to a fun and successful evening. As always, we thank Jody Bolen for coordinating hospitality, along with her very busy and dedicated committee. A very special thank you to Claudia Kalten, cupcake extraordinaire and owner of Pastelillos; those teeny-tiny cupcakes were adorable!

Room Parent Coordinators have been busy compiling Class Phone Trees. These lists will be activated by our principal, teachers or Room Parent Coordinators in the event of an emergency, or when any other important information related to your class or the school is needed to be delivered quickly and efficiently. Room Parent Coordinators, please have your phone trees completed and turned into Mrs. Jordan by the end of the week, as they are becoming a part of the official Emergency Preparedness Plan. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Trisha Tortolani 310-1196 or at tortolani@sbcglobal.net.

Get your calenders ready, we have important dates for you to jot down.

Dine & Donate at Filippi's Pizza!
Tuesday, October 21, ALL DAY-DINE IN OR TAKE OUT!
Gather a group of friends, team-mates, or your own family and help support our school library! The proceeds will go directly towards the purchase of a new rug for the students to sit on during story time. In this weeks Wednesday Envelope you will find a Filippi's Pizza flyer, which you will need to present.

Scholastic Book Fair is coming to our school library-Tuesday, November 4th through Friday, November 7th. Since both Filippis Dine & Donate and the Book Fair benefit our library program directly, take a chance to familiarize yourself (if you haven't yet had the chance) with our adorable, and interactive school library! If you stop by during lunchtime, you will spot groups of children coloring holiday pages, reading, and a few even working to help Mrs. Evans, by adopting bookshelves.

Be on the look-out; our "Holiday Wishes" catalog will be coming home with your child very soon! As we've mentioned before, this fundraiser will help provide funds for the 2008-2009 Family Club budget, and will assist in our ongoing effort to support important programs throughout our school, including library programs, staff luncheons, classroom support, appreciation gifts, student incentives and hospitality. In addition, it will give Family Club the ability to support a few new activities, including the 8th grade graduation luncheon and a curriculm-based art program.

In advance, we thank you for helping support our endeavors! Please join us for the next Family Club meeting on Tuesday, October 14th at 8:30 a.m...

With "Breakfast with St. Nick" scheduled for December 7th, the planning must begin, so it will be on the agenda. Hope to see you there! We appologize for the confusion, this meeting was listed as October 12th in the last Gazette...

The Family Club

Thursday, October 9, 2008 at New Tech High (corner of Main and Yount)

Follow the chalk drawings!

KG - 4th Grade: 12:30 - 1:30
5th - 8th Grade: 1:40 - 2:40

Students may wear their Jog-A-Thon t-shirt to school on Thursday October 9th with shorts or jogging pants. Tennis shoes only, no sandals please.

Lunch schedules on Thursday will be adjusted as follows:

KG - 4th grade: 11:15 - 11:55
5th - 6th grade: 11:45 - 12:25
7th - 8th grade: 12:15 - 12:55

Please come out and support your children during this exciting fun-filled day. Remember to bring a chair, hat and your camera!

Volunteers please meet in your assigned classroom at either 12:00 or 1:15. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, October 9th!

Please contact Mary Beth Bemis at 363-4854 or Katie Batt at 738-1266 with questions.

Thank you for your support

Please look for Student ID Cards from Lifetouch Photography in your Wednesday Envelope. Picture packets will be delivered to students as soon as they arrive.

Retake picture day is Wednesday, October 22. Look for information in your Wednesday Envelope. Only those students who did not have their picture taken on picture day and those students who return their picture packet may have their picture taken.

Thursday, October 9 - JOG-A-THON
Friday, October 10 - NO SCHOOL
Friday, October 10 - Sunday, October 12 - FAMILY CAMPING TRIP
Tuesday, October 21 - DINE & DONATE @ FILIPPI'S PIZZA GROTTO
Wednesday, October 22 - PICTURE RETAKE DAY & 12:30 DISMISSAL
Friday, October 31 - HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL & 12:30 DISMISSAL

Dine and Donate Fundraiser to Benefit St. John the Baptist Catholic School.

When: Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Where: Filippi's Pizza Grotto
645 First Street, Napa
Time: 11am - 9pm

Eat in or Take out!

Just present the flyer included in your Wednesday Envelope (or print out the flyer attached) and enjoy lunch or dinner. 20% of all proceeds will be donated to our school.
Dine_and_Donate_Flyer.pdf

St. John the Baptist Catholic School 8th Grade Class Presents:

Our annual Halloween Carnival

Friday, October 31, 2008
Please note that this is a 12:30 dismissal day and Extended Care will be open.

Cost is $10 per student. See flyer in your Wednesday Envelope or print out flyer attached.

Donations:

KG - 4th grade - one bag of candy
5th grade - 8th grade - baked goods for the Cakewalk
If you would like the Halloween committee to do the shopping for you, please send a cash donation.

All candy and baked goods are due by Wednesday, October 29.
Halloween_2008_Flyer.pdf

See flyer attached.
Scrip_Program.pdf

Attached is an order for for scrip that we have on hand. Send in the order form with payment or just email jgiaquinto@stjohnscatholic.org with your scrip order.
Sales_Order_Form.pdf

Attached is a listing of ALL scrip that is available to us. You may order this scrip at any time. Orders must be prepaid. It takes approximately five days to receive your special order scrip. If you have any questions, please contact Jenny Giaquinto @ jgiaquinto@stjohnscatholic.org.
SCRIP_SPECIAL_ORDER_FORM.pdf

A limited selection of scrip is now available to purchase after the Sunday 10am Mass in the Narthex. Lucky and Safeway Grocery cards in $25 and $100 denominations and Macy's and Walmart in $25 denominations are now being sold after every Sunday 10am Mass.

Although Safeway is eScrip's biggest vendor, eScrip does have a few other local vendors that participate in their program. Vallerga's donates 5% of qualifying purchases to our school. Please note that Whole Foods is no longer participating in the eScrip program. See a complete list of eScrip vendors on the flyer attached. Be sure to sign up your debit/credit cards with eScrip to take advantage of these eScrip vendors.

Apply for an eScrip Visa Card and up to 2% of ALL your purchases will earn scrip credit. See flyer attached for information on obtaining an eScrip Visa Card.

Lucky's scrip program has changed so that they are no longer tracking purchases by individual customer. With this change, we do not have any way to identify earnings by family. You may continue to use your S.H.A.R.E.S. card, but your earnings will not be credited to your scrip account.
eScrip_Mercant_List.pdf
eScrip_Visa_Flyer.pdf

Attention Prospective Kindergarten Families for the 09/10 School Year!

A class list is forming! If you have a younger child who will be ready for kindergarten next year, please join us at our upcoming Kindergarten Open House. Details can be found in the attached flyer. Please pass this information to any non-St. John families who may be be interested in learning more about our dynamic program!
Kindergarten_Open_House_2008.pdf

Another opportunity for on-campus music lessons.

We are considering the possibility of offering on-campus music lessons/band through the Napa School of Music. This would add to our already established on-campus music program which includes choir (Tony Carlin), piano lessons (Gloria Good) and violin lessons (Cynthia Lang). If you are interested, please read the attached flyer and contact Peter Sykes directly at www.napaschoolofmusic.com or 707-252-4040.

NSM_Music_Program_outline_for_parents.pdf