A Message from Mrs. Murphy

N O V E M B E R V A L U E S :

Concern for Others

Responsibility

C O M I N G H O M E

T O D A Y :

Restaurant Week flier

Weinberg Christmas outreach

flier

S E E F O R M S P A G E

F O R E L E C T R O N I C

O N L Y C O P I E S :

Evite link for the Mother’s Tea

U P C O M I N G D A T E S :

Thursday, Dec. 1

+HSA Executive meeting—

9:15

Friday, Dec. 2

+Trees & Greens sale begins

Saturday, Dec. 3

+Breakfast with Santa

+Trees & Greens sale

Sunday, Dec. 4

+Trees & Greens sale

Tuesday, Dec. 6

+Vocelli’s Pizza fundraiser

Wednesday, Dec. 7

+Welcome Wednesday—9:30

Thursday, Dec. 8

+School Mass—10:00

(Immaculate Conception)

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to Advent! The church gives us four weeks to prepare for Jesus’ Birthday. It is four weeks of preparation, prayer, and reconcilia-tion marked by lighting a new Advent candle each week.

At RSPS we are celebrating Advent in a few ways. As students walk into the school each morning, hopefully they will notice the calm and reflective Christmas music playing over the intercom system. Each morning we are singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel as we light each candle of our Advent Wreath with the corresponding week. We read the Bible passage which relates to our Jesse tree orna-ment (each year the students make one to take home so that the students who have been with us for 9 years have their own Jesse tree set to use at home). Each morning we are also opening up a different door on our Advent Calendar which suggests an action for the students to do that day. Finally, every day a different class is surprised with a prize of some sort. Many of our primary classes have the three wise men traveling around the classrooms in search of the manger.

As an outreach project, our Student Council has chosen to support Believe in Tomorrow. Monies from the Reindeer Race will go direct-ly to this charity (see notable notes for more on this). We also have another opportunity to make lunches for the homeless for those who visit the Weinberg Center in Baltimore for services. They tell us each month how much of a difference we all make.

As adults, we too must think of what we can do to prepare during this Advent Season. I would like to share something I read recently from Jean Chittister on the Productivity of

Rest and Recreation.

Turn off the television and read a good book. STOP texting and ride your bike or take a walk. Turn off the computer and go to a mov-ie. Don’t answer any emails. Don’t try to “get ahead”. Don’t take any callbacks. During the family dinner, turn off the phones. When the television is on, watch it instead of talking through it. Reclaim your life, your thoughts, your personality, your friends, your family.

No, the world will not end. And no, others will not get ahead of you. They’ll be too tired to even think about catching up.

It’s time to sleep in like you did in the good old days! Have a late breakfast. Read the news-papers all day long. Call some friends to join you for a game of cards. And then, on Mon-day, when you go back to work- having really gotten away from it all- you’ll feel like what you have to do is really worth doing. As Ash-leigh Brilliant says, “Sometimes the most ur-gent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.

As the proverb teaches, “A good rest is half of the work”. At least, that is, if you really want to be productive.

Praying that everyone has a peace filled Ad-vent!

Peace,

Karen Murphy

Principal

News and Notes submissions are due by 10:00 a.m. on Monday, later submissions may need to be printed the following week.

Please email all submissions to newsletter@resstpaul.org.

November 30, 2016 We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight

The first week of Advent

Glimpse in the Classroom Consistent with the Health Council’s goal of promoting safety, health, and wellness in our school community, we have arranged with Howard County Fire and Rescue to conduct Hands Only CPR Training for our students. This course is being taught by EMT Kathryn Larkins. Mrs. Larkins has worked for 15 years in local emergency departments, has been a volunteer medic for HoCo Fire and Rescue for 5 years, and has been teaching Hands Only CPR for over three years. To date, over 47,000 citizens of Howard County have been trained in this course and the cardiac arrest survival rate in our county has tripled! The goal of this educa-tion is to decrease the “Bystander Effect” and to get more members of our population trained in recognizing cardiac arrest and initiating CPR immediately.

Students are learning:

That 400,000 people in the US die each year due to cardiac arrest that occurs outside of medical facilities.

On average, HoCo Fire and Rescue responds to

about 300 cases of cardiac arrest annually.

Every minute that passes without CPR leads to a 10% decrease in a victim’s chance of survival.

In 2015, Maryland enacted Breanna’s Law which requires all students in public high schools be trained in CPR and AED use, prior to graduating.

The Process for Hands Only CPR.

How to recognize the signs of cardiac arrest, call for help – 911, start Hands Only CPR, get an AED (if available), and continue until EMS/Paramedics take over.

Mrs. Larkins tells students “We need your help. We need you to start CPR immediately and don’t stop until we get there.”

THANK YOU

We want to thank those who supported RSPS on Giving Tues-day! Our Annual Fund campaign kicks off this week if you missed yesterday’s giving event.

Holiday Gift Cards

The holiday shopping season is in full swing! If gift cards are on your list, make your shopping easy by purchasing from us. Our Scrip program offers hundreds of retailers at different denomi-nations. Orders must be placed by Friday, Dec. 9th for delivery before the Christmas holiday. All orders are now being sent home on Fridays so the 16th is our last delivery.

As a reminder, all rebates are split between you and the school (fundraiser) so it is a win-win! For more information, click on Parents, then Fundraisers in the Resources box.

Reindeer Race

Tickets for the annual Reindeer Race are on sale now, $.25/each or 5/$1.00. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to Believe in Tomorrow, an organization that provides hospital and respite housing services to critically ill children and their families. This event is run by our Student Council and will take place on Dec. 20th at 9:15am (parents are welcome to attend).

Here’s how the “race” works. We create a life sized board game with our 13 values as stations. Students purchase tickets which go toward their homeroom. On race day, all tickets are mixed up into a large bucket and are drawn out, the selected homeroom will move to the next station. First one to finish, wins the race. The win-ning homeroom will receive a prize to be determined.

Breakfast with Santa

This weekend is our annual Breakfast with Santa! Tickets will be available at the door if the time slot is not booked. Even if you can’t join us to eat, you are still welcome to visit with Santa, shop the vendors, and of course, pick up you tree and holiday greenery from our trees and greens sale (no charge to visit and shop). We hope to see you here on Saturday.

Trees & Greens

Our Trees and Greens sales will begin Friday afternoon and run through the end of Masses of Sunday. All proceeds support RSPS!

PowerSchool

Parent access to PowerSchool will reopen on Monday, Dec. 5th. This is revised from the Dec. 8th date given previously.

Attention 8th Grade Parents

As we near high school applica-tion deadlines, we wanted to remind parents of a few things; You do not need to send us record release forms or teacher referral forms for Catholic Schools listed on the HSPT appli-cation. However, we do need these forms for those applying to Non-Catholic private schools and they should be sent ASAP to the school office, attn.: Karen O’Connell.

Welcome

Two new families joined the RSPS community this week. Welcome to the Cho family (6A and 8A) and the Tacchette family (7B). We will publish an updated family directory before the Christmas break.

Notable Notes

IN OUR PRA YERS

For all who are sick and are in need of God’s healing presence. Especially:

Cathy Frederick—Sister of Ms. Frederick (2A)

Paul Ruch—Grandfather of Ms. Cline (3A)

Harriott Bethke—Grandmother of Sal Bellafiore (1A)

John Martin—Friend of the Hannan family

John & Helen Collins—Grandparents of Madeleine Frechette (6B)

Marge & Ben Nelson—Grandparents of Madelyn Nelson (6B)

Michelle Rametta—Cousin of Mrs. Tomko (PKB)

Eva Letzer—Grandmother of Freddie (5B) and Alexandra (3B)

For all who are deceased, may God grant them eternal rest. Especially:

Clement Thomas—Great Uncle of Sophia (3B) and Teagan (1B) Cunningham

News and Notes submissions are due by 10:00 a.m. on Monday, later submissions may need to be

printed the following week. Please email all submissions to newsletter@resstpaul.org.