NOTES AND NEWS FROM DR.

HERRICK

Given St. Francis of Assisi was known for

celebrating poverty, it seems odd our first goal as St.

Francis Catholic School is to raise $4 million dollars.

However, the more money we can raise will help us

serve low income students, create a more efficient

and ecological school, and unite our entire Catholic

community under Jesus Christ. I believe those goals

represent St. Francis well. We also wanted a mascot

that would represent St. Francis well. There is the

well-known story where St. Francis protected the

town of Gubbio by taming a wolf. Another idea

came from St. Francis joining the 4th Crusade as a

knight, but eventually helped secure peace with the

Muslims. We also looked at his founding of the

Franciscan Order; his life in poverty and guardian of

the poor. Multiple votes were too close to call, so the

school board looked for a common theme. After

much deliberation, the board decided on the St.

Francis Guardians. Our next effort will be centered

on logos. We hope to have good momentum and

have working ideas soon. Stay tuned.

The capital campaign has left me in utter

amazement. Only 1 year ago, the feasibility study

said we could expect $1.6 to $2.4 million. They also

said nine months wasn’t enough time to raise it.

Well, thanks to your contributions we’ve raised a

couple thousand short of $3 million. With $800k in

contributions from the savings of St. Francis, St.

Henry, and St. Mary, we have enough to design and

cost out all three of our building goals. That means

an office and a kitchen. It’ll be a few more weeks

before we have exact figures, but we believe we’ll

be very close to realizing all our building goals.

Therefore, our fundraising has reached a point of just

having a new building or having a new building we

can be proud of. I want a building to be proud of.

Not because I’ll be using it every day; I want the

building to serve as a testament to what’s been

accomplished here. I want the building to say

“Thanks to the cooperation and selfless giving from

parishioners in 2013, this building serves as a

monument to what can be done by a committed

community.” You’ve all given so much, I can’t ask

any more from you. I promise to do my best to help

design a solid, functional building with the funds we

have. You just need to decide what the building will

say.

However, we can’t focus all our energies on just the

future. We have students to help today. The teachers

have been working hard on a number of initiatives

already: Iowa Core, ELL, Daily 5, Science

Curriculum, and more. They have also been reading

and studying the book Rediscovering Catholicism to

further their own religious development. We’re also

looking to the past by trying to outreach to our

alumni. My point is, we don’t have to wait for the

building to finish in order to see great things. Great

things are already happening. You can help by

volunteering, participating with Harvest Ball, and

simply asking your child “what did you do today?”

MACS FACTS

St. Francis Catholic School

Quality Education With Christ as the Focus

Dr. Matthew Herrick, Principal

~ Information about upcoming

school activities/events

are sent home through emails

and posted on the

St. Francis website

www.st-francis.net

Please check these two

sources of information on a

regular basis.

September/October ~ 2013

St. Henry Children’s Prayer Service

October 2 Mrs. Burns’ class October 9 Ms. Kuhlers’ class October 16 Mrs. Erbes’ class October 23 Mrs. Pohle’s class November 1 All Saints Day

12:10 pm Mass - Staff

St. Mary Children’s Mass

October 3 Mrs. Simons’ class October 10 Mrs. Davis’ class October 17 Mrs. Eveleth’s class October 24 Mrs. Boone’s class

November 1 All Saints Day Mass – Mrs. Sickles’ Class

UUUPPPCCCOOOMMMIIINNNGGG EEEVVVEEENNNTTTSSS………………………...... October 4 St. Francis is in session ~ NO BUSSING 2:30pm St. Francis Prayer Service @ St. Henry Attendance Center Parking Lot Week of October 7 Fire Prevention Week National Food Service Week

October 9 School Picture Retakes October 23 ~ 31 Red Ribbon Week October Preschool Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences 22/23/24/25/29 October 23 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences 2:30-6:30pm @ St. Mary Attendance Center October 24 Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences 3:30-7:30pm @ St. Mary Attendance Center October 25 Early Dismissal 11:10/11:15 No AM/PM Preschool

October 28 Culver’s Night 5:00-8:00pm November 2 Harvest Ball

ART REQUEST ~ All sizes and colors of plastic bottle and jar lids such as water, pop, syrup, Gatorade,

peanut butter, medicine, etc. are needed for a recycling art project to be done later in the year.

Also needed are a variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, flowers, leaves, bark, twigs, etc. that might be

found in the four seasons. I do not need a large quantity of the nature items, but do want a large variety of

items and want them to come on Monday, Oct. 7th, for St. Henry's students, and on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, for

St. Mary's students. Thank you for your help!! Mrs. Betty Kadner, Art Teacher

In third grade we are working on writing good paragraphs.

In Language Arts we are using the Daily 5 to build fluency,

gain more one-on-one time with students, and develop independence.

In math we are learning how to round and estimate sums and differences.

Mrs. Jennifer Sickles & Mrs. Jennifer Hopkins, 3rd grade teachers

We are off to a great start this year in fourth grade!

We are so happy to have Ms. Bailey with us as a student

teacher from UNI. She has been an excellent addition to

our class! She will be with us until October 11.

One of the highlights so far this year was our Farm

to Table field trip on September 12 at the fairgrounds here

in Marshalltown. Students learned about crops, animals,

and farm safety. They learned about how agriculture is an

important way of life for many people in our state and that

their work provides food for us. Ask the students about this

field trip, and they probably will tell you that their favorite

part was getting to meet and pet a goat and a calf that was

born just 2 days before our trip! It was a fun learning

experience. Ask your child to see the fun brochures that

they received that will help them learn additional facts

about the farm.

In Reading/Language Arts, we read a story each

week from our reading series and do activities related to the

story. Recently, we have read a story about a girl’s

“Greatest Wish.” Ask your child about his/her greatest

wish. Students will be asked to put their “Greatest Wish” in

a paragraph. We have also read biographies about Lou

Gehrig, Amelia Earhart, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Each week

we have a spelling test and vocabulary/reading test related

to the story. We have also been working on our Harvest

Ball project. This includes a paragraph about what each

student thinks Heaven is like and a picture to illustrate these

thoughts. Look for some fantastic ideas about Heaven!

Students have been studying a specific state for

their Social Studies state project. Students are researching

facts, taking notes, and will make a display about their state.

Please reserve Friday, October 25th from 9:00-10:00 A.M.

to join us in the St. Mary’s gym for the students’ state

displays. Students will also be sharing their state

slideshows in class with one another.

Weather has been the topic of study in Science.

Students are learning about different clouds, storms, and

how weather is predicted. A weather sock was created by

each student to measure the speed and direction of the wind.

Students will be creating Emergency Kit Posters to remind

them of what they need to have in case of a weather-related

emergency. If you have not discussed a safety plan with

your child in case of a thunderstorm or tornado warning, we

encourage you to do so.

In Religion, we have discussed the two creation

stories in the Bible and the students created Haiku poems

about creation. We are also discussing ways God is faithful

to us and ways that we can be more trusting in God. We

have learned about the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Adam

and Eve, and Cain and Abel in the Old Testament. See if

your child can summarize these stories for you.

In Math, the fourth graders have worked on the properties for multiplication and division: One, Zero, Commutative, and Associative. We are also working on continuing patterns with shapes and numbers in Chapter 2. Students should always be studying their math facts at home

Mrs. Monica Boone & Mrs. Cherilyn Eveleth,

4th grade teachers

Third graders are getting familiar with fiction order

on the shelves and regularly hunting for books by the

author’s last name. They are also finding or creating their

own haiku to type on the computer. In addition, they will

find a picture that fits their Haiku to save in their folder and

paste onto their Haiku page. This will be displayed

somewhere in the building.

Fourth graders are researching information on their

state using a nonfiction book along with Gale and/or

Britannica Online from the online resources provided on our

website. They are learning to use the Big6 model for

research. They have also been assigned a fiction shelf to

keep in order all year long. We have just begun a slide show

for their state project using Open Office. They will soon be

assigned a mystery/detective book to read and complete an

Inspiration web on it.

Fifth graders are currently practicing taking notes

using an article from Britannica Online, keeping a fiction

shelf in order (a much more difficult one than the fourth

graders) and they are practicing finding a fiction book on

the shelves using the card catalog computer. They will soon

be assigned a science fiction book to read and complete an

Inspiration web on it.

Sixth graders are currently beginning a year-long

project on a notable person. They will be reading and taking

notes, looking for character traits of people or events that

influenced them to become great at what they do or did.

They will be pulling together all the skills they have learned

since they have been taking library skills: Big6 research

process, web evaluation, works cited, various resources, etc.

All are in preparation for moving on and growing in their

In the Media Center Continued….

student lives. New this year is the spreadsheet for keeping

track of everything: categories they are searching for (slug),

notes, comments, page numbers, citations, etc. In the past

we have used our notebooks or index cards.

Mrs. Johnson, MACS Librarian

Art is smart Fall and school are here again and we are excited about what we will be learning in art. We are starting

out the year with some review of what we learned last year. It is surprising how much can be forgotten over

the summer! The first things we are learning are the Elements and Principles of Design. Two of the Elements

are line and shape, of which we have explored the various types of line and the two kinds of shape, (geometric

and organic.) Ask your child to tell you what these types of lines and shapes are. The Principles include

repetition, of which pattern is a part. We will be using these Elements and Principles of Design, plus several

more, in the coming weeks.

At St. Henry’s we started the year off by working together in groups of two or three and drawing

different types of intersecting lines on large sheets of paper to make shapes and then filled in the shapes with

patterns in various color. Each student is making a portfolio by drawing/writing what they are learning this

year. The 1st and 2nd grades took advantage of the nice weather and had a drawing lesson outside to apply

what they learned about line and shape by drawing their impression of the construction site.

The St. Mary’s students also have worked on line, shape and pattern and are writing about them to put

in their notebooks. We are learning ways to make a poster visually neat and interesting to help put across a

certain message. Our posters are for the Fire Department’s Poster Contest with this year’s emphasis on

preventing kitchen fires. I feel making a good poster is a valuable skill, but the possibility of saving a valuable

life with awareness is even more important.

As their Visual Arts Educator, I will be aligning the lesson plans with the Iowa Core and Universal

Constructs. We will be incorporating more reading, writing and collaboration with each other in our lessons.

Last year we studied a variety of famous artists and we will be reviewing them and we’ll also be adding more

artists to our appreciation. Vincent Van Gogh is one of the featured artists for this month, but each classroom

has quite a few hanging prints that we talk about.

Last year the students literally blew me away with the quality of work they did. I really challenged

them and they all were successful, with even the youngest surpassing what is normally expected for their age

and experience. I hope parents appreciated what their children accomplished. Please encourage your child to

practice what they have been learning in art and to explore with various media because…

Art is Smart!

Mrs. Betty Kadner, Art Teacher

Before You Send a Young Person a “Friend Request” Are you on a social networking site? Do you text? If there are older children or teens in your life, you can bet that their answer to both of these questions is a scoffing, eye-rolling “Like, who doesn’t?” And if you are an interested, modern parent or caring adult, you may be using social networking or texting to stay in touch with the young people in your life. After all, prevailing wisdom tells us to use kids’ own media choices to reach them; it is likely that no vigilant adult would allow a teen to operate a social network site without friend access. Yet, these tools have their risks. What about the attendant risks for responsible, well-intentioned adults? Just as adults who work with children must be cautious and thoughtful with how they interact with kids in person, so too must adults watch their online communications with young people. Not only must you protect yourself from allegations of inappropriateness, you must teach kids what to expect from adults online. Additionally, employees and volunteers should be aware of an organization’s policies regarding such communication. Read on for a simple standard for making sure that your online communications are exemplary and without reproach. We have before applied the “PAN” standard for appropriate touch in real-life physical settings. If an adult touches a child in any way, it must be Public, Appropriate, and Non-sexual. The “PAN” standard is a useful way to think about “virtual” touch, as well. Public. Your communications with children online should be as public as possible. In a text message, whenever feasible, copy another adult on the communications. Similarly, comments on social network sites should be made on their public “wall” or other open portion of the site rather than as a personal message. Not only is it more difficult to misconstrue a message not shrouded in secrecy, its public nature will hold you more accountable to what I’ll term as “adult professionalism.” Appropriate. Make sure that your communication with kids is for a good reason, that the communication is warranted by some other activity or event. No matter how good your intentions, it raises red flags when an adult texts a child out of the blue with something like, “So what’s up?” Non-sexual. It may seem obvious that any online communication with a young person must be non-sexual. What you may not appreciate is just how high the standard is. Beware of physical compliments (“You looked great at the meeting last night”) or signs

of affection (“Your message made me feel so good”) that, even if innocently intended, could be construed as sexual. In addition to these standards, remember that in any communication between an adult and a child, the adult bears the responsibility for keeping things on the straight and narrow. Be wary of the teen who wants to chat via text or is suggestive or provocative in his or her messages. Similarly, make sure that you have an idea of the conversation you are joining and the online party you are joining. Being the “friend” of a young person who is circulating inappropriate material is problematic in and of itself—even if your conduct is just fine. Working with young people carries the responsibility to always model the manner of behavior kids should expect from adults. As communications become increasingly virtual, you must be aware of what you are doing—and how you are doing it—online, as well.

adapted from Virtus Forum with permission

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Antes de enviarle a una persona de menor edad una “solicitud amistosa”

¿Es usted parte de una red social? ¿Envía usted mensajes de texto? Si existen niños o adolescentes en su vida que lo hacen, usted puede apostar que la respuesta a ambas preguntas es “¿y quién no?” Y si usted es un/a padre/madre moderno/a, o adulto interesado, usted a lo mejor utiliza redes sociales o mensajes de texto para mantenerse en contacto con los jóvenes en su vida. Después de todo, nuestra sabiduría y lógica nos dice que debemos utilizar las redes sociales preferidas de los niños o adolescentes para llegar a ellos; es probable que ningún adulto permitiría a un niño o adolescente operar sitios de redes sociales que no permiten acceso a amistades. Sin embargo, estos instrumentos tienen sus riesgos. ¿Qué pasa con los consiguientes riesgos para los adultos responsables y bien intencionados? Al igual que como los adultos que trabajan con niños, que deben tener cuidado y pensar en la forma en que interactúan con los niños en persona, también los adultos deben analizar sus comunicaciones en línea o redes sociales con los jóvenes. No sólo tiene usted que protegerse de las acusaciones inadecuadas, debe usted enseñarle a los niños qué esperar de los adultos en línea o redes sociales. También, los empleados y los voluntarios de una organización deben estar conscientes de las reglas con respecto a dicha comunicación. Continúe leyendo para que pueda conocer una norma simple para asegurarse de que sus comunicaciones en línea o en redes sociales sean ejemplares y sin reproche. Anteriormente hemos aplicado el criterio de “PAN” (por sus siglas en Inglés) para el tacto adecuado en situaciones físicas de la vida real. Si un adulto toca a un niño de cualquier forma, debe ser Públicamente, Apropiadamente y de manera No sexual. La norma de "PAN" es una manera útil de adaptar como tacto “virtual”, también. Públicamente. Sus comunicaciones con los niños en línea o redes sociales deben ser lo más público posible. En un mensaje de texto, siempre que sea posible, copiar o mandar el mismo mensaje a otro adulto en las comunicaciones. Del mismo modo, los comentarios en los sitios de redes sociales se deben hacer en el “muro o pared” público u otra parte abierta del sitio en vez de como un mensaje personal. No sólo es más difícil interpretar erróneamente un mensaje no cubierto en secreto, sino que su carácter público lo haría a usted más responsable e igualmente podría describirse como usando “profesionalismo de adultos.” Apropiadamente. Asegúrese de que su comunicación con los niños sea por una buena razón, que la comunicación sea garantizada por alguna otra actividad o evento. No importa lo mejor de sus intenciones, cuando un adulto de repente le manda un mensaje de texo a un niño con algo así como: "Y entonces, ¿qué pasa?", ésto levanta curiosidad y preguntas al porqué.

De manera No sexual. Debe parecer obvio que cualquier comunicación en línea o en redes sociales con un joven o menor de edad debe ser de manera no sexual. Lo que no puede apreciar es lo alto que es esa norma. Tenga cuidado con los halagos físicos (“Te veías muy bien en la reunión de anoche”) o señales de afecto (“Tu mensaje me hizo sentir muy bien”) que, aunque la intención sea inocente, podría ser interpretado como sexual. Además de estas normas, recuerde que en cualquier comunicación entre un adulto y un niño o joven, el adulto tiene la responsabilidad de mantener las cosas en el buen camino. Tenga cuidado con el adolescente que quiere “chatear” a través de mensajes de texto y es sugestivo o provocativo en sus mensajes. Igualmente, asegúrese de que usted tiene una idea de la conversación y de quienes están participando. Al ser el/la “amigo/a” de una persona de menor edad o joven que está circulando material inadecuado, es problemático en sí mismo, incluso si su propia conducta y participación está bien. El trabajar con personas de menor edad o jóvenes carga la responsabilidad de siempre modelar una manera de comportamiento que los niños deben esperar de los adultos. Hoy en día que las comunicaciones se vuelven cada vez más virtuales, usted debe ser consciente de lo que está haciendo—y cómo lo está haciendo—en línea y en redes sociales, también.

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