St. Paul Staff Christmas Party

One of the very best things about the St. Paul staff (school, RE, and parish) is how much fun we have together. It's not often you find a community of over 60 people who genuinely enjoy each other's company, and who look forward to coming to work each day. Certainly we are committed to our parish, school, and mission - but it also helps to be able to laugh together!

Last night we celebrated our annual staff Christmas party. It's a tradition that a group of teachers will create a song for the group. Last night's song was written and performed by the "Young 'uns" (as our newer teachers were affectionately dubbed by Ms. Curtin). They sang an ode to Mrs. Herman to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer." Suffice it to say - a great time was had by all!

Second Graders Visit Pewabic Pottery

Most of the second grade students gathered at Pewabic Pottery on Saturday to paint the beads for the 2nd grade rosary auction art project. It was great success, and the kids had a good time!

Mr. Tom Coles' Presentation

We'd like to thank St. Paul parishioner, Tom Coles, for speaking to our intermediate grade students about the history of Detroit. Tom came dressed in an authentic voyageur costume, and talked with the students. Tom is a docent for the Detroit Historical Museum, and we're honored that he visited St. Paul to share his wealth of knowledge with us!

Blog Updates in Progress

Please forgive any difficulties in reading the blog this morning - I am in the process of updating the blog, and I see that I've made some unexpected changes.
Thanks for your patience!

Christmas Concert 2008

Last night's Christmas Concert will go down in the annals of St. Paul on the Lake Catholic School as one of the finest ever! The music was simply beautiful, and I know that everyone was impressed by the lovely harmony. Thank you to Miss Ring, our Music teacher, and our students in grades 5 - 8 who worked so hard to bring together last night's performance. Each group was amazing, and I'm proud of all of you.

Christmas Card Project

Last Friday, over 100 of our students and their parents participated in a service project, creating handmade Christmas cards for senior citizens and nursing home residents. The children made about 215 cards, many of which will go to SOC (Services for Older Citizens) for distribution, and some to the nursing home where one of our parents volunteers. I'm amazed that so many children were willing to stay after school for over an hour - on a Friday - to do something so good for someone else. Thank you to our School Committee Service group for organizing this project!

All School Mass

This Friday, December 5th, we will have an All School Mass. This is "First Friday," and as Catholics this is an expression of our love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Christ has promised us many blessings for devotion to his Sacred Heart, among them the grace of peace in our final hours. "In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour." (quoted in Wikipedia).

Our students attend All School Masses each month on First Friday (when we are in session), as well as on all holy days (the children will attend Mass again on Monday, December 8, as this is the feast of the Immaculate Conception). These Masses are in addition to the regular elementary (Tuesday) and junior high (Wednesday or Friday) Masses that we attend.

If you have never attended a school Mass, please join us on Friday or Monday (or on any of the upcoming All School Masses). I truly believe that you can best experience the community of St. Paul School when you attend Mass with us - the children's singing and participation is so heartfelt and enthusiastic you can't help but be moved! Many times I have had tears in my eyes, the singing of the children is so beautiful. Msgr. Pat once commented that the children "raise the roof" with their joy in the Lord, and it's so true. Please come and experience this joy for yourself.

A Grateful Heart...

We have so much to be thankful for. Our diocesan office recently sent this prayer to all the principals, and I wanted to share it with you - it's a very timely prayer!

Thanksgiving Litany 2008

In a time of financial insecurity,
we are grateful because we have the security of our faith.

In a time of world turmoil,
we are grateful that we have chosen the ways of peace.

In a time of grave injustice,
we are grateful that we been called to promote justice.

In a time of despair,
we are grateful that we know the virtue of hope.

In a time of uncertainty when the fire of hate and fear is fueled again,
we are grateful to hold on to charity.

May this time become a Kairos moment, a critical moment when we all turn towards a deeper understanding of solidarity and security.

May all our sisters and brothers receive your gifts and may we all share
the abundance of your Love.

Jane Deren, 2008, Education for Justice

Left Brain or Right Brain?

I have always been fascinated by the left-brain, right-brain theory - and, if asked to describe myself, I would always say that I'm thoroughly left-brain. I make lists for everything (my "Remember the Milk" task list has 20 categories, including one for each month of the year to store those repetitive tasks that principals must remember to do each year).

Over the last year or so, I've taught myself to use Photoshop to create digital scrapbooks, and I'm finding that I enjoy using the "other" half of my brain. It all started with my left brain - I wanted a better solution for organizing the thousands of digital photos I had taken (and scanned), and I came across Photoshop Elements. It has wonderful tools for tagging and organizing photos, and I was hooked.

I don't know how I found it (probably by wandering through Google), but I discovered the online digital scrapbooking community, and realized how much more I could do with my pictures. Not only that, many of the tools for digital scrapbooking are available as "freebies," and I didn't have to clutter up the house with all sorts of paper scrapbooking supplies.

Shown below are a couple of my favorite digital scrapbook layouts, from my girls' Regina High School graduation photos.

This summer, I created a recipe scrapbook for a wedding shower gift for Julie. Below is one of the pages from that scrapbook. I used digital scrapbooking elements (freebies) from a website called Imagine by Fran. Interesting how the Internet has shrunk the world - the site is hosted in France, and the posts are all written in French. There's just enough English on the site for me to figure out what I want to use!

Of course, now I have lots of wedding photographs to scrapbook, too! This one is my favorite, since I learned a new technique (how to blend photos). I guess I have more right brain skills than I ever realized!

Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast

Each year, on the day before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Herman gets up at 3:30 am, stops at the donut shop, and heads to school. There she assembles her team of dads and they begin flipping pancakes. Some of her team of dads have been with her for so long, their children are now in college (thanks, Tom!). This year's Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast (with sausage, juice, and donuts, too) was an outstanding success. The Pancake Breakfast is one of those St. Paul traditions that helps to kick off the holiday season on just the right note - fellowship, smiles, and great food. Thanks to Judy and her dedicated kitchen crew - you're the best!

Healthy Habits Day

On Thursday, October 30, we celebrated "Healthy Habits Day" at St. Paul School. Grades K-5 did a walk/run around the school grounds at lunchtime, and learned about healthy food choices in school. I wore my pedometer - did you know that making an entire circuit of the school grounds (from the school down to the lake, across in front of the church, back up to Grosse Pointe Boulevard, and back to the school entrance) is almost 3/4's of a mile? That's a great walking route!

Our junior high students participated in a TAP Relay on the playground during first period. Although it was a beautiful bright sunny morning, it was certainly chilly (as our "crab walkers" discovered). Congratulations to Mr. Addis's TAP group, who won the trophy (beating out all the other TAP groups as well as the teacher's relay team).

Mrs. McNeill and Miss Ring discovered that leap frog, across the entire playground field, is not as easy as it looks!

Mrs. Ray performs the crab walk for the teachers' relay team - even with practice, that's tough to do on a frost-covered field!

Mrs. McGrath's TAP team took second place (and they're already planning their strategy for the Winter TAP Basketball tournament)!

We Celebrate Halloween at St. Paul

Although Msgr. Halfpenny generously gave us the day off for Halloween (thank you, Msgr.!), our little ones still shared their costumes with us on the day before Halloween. The pictures below are from preschool, all day kindergarten, and young 5's, as they came trick-or-treating to the school office.

Girls' Soccer Team Receives Trophy at Ford Field

Miss Conroy's 44th Anniversary of her 21st Birthday

Today we celebrated a milestone birthday with our Kindergarten teacher, Miss Sharon Conroy. The 8th grade students presented Miss Conroy with their memories of all they learned in kindergarten, and the preschoolers created a crown for Miss Conroy. Truly, a day to remember!

Haunted Music Room

Today, the 5th grade classes presented "The Haunted Music Room" to the second grade classes. As you can see from the photos below, the fifth graders did an outstanding job - congratulations to Miss Ring, and to the fifth graders who sang, played instruments, and recited Halloween poetry. The teachers and I were appropriately frightened by their spooky music!

Hallway Displays

I know that many families don't have the opportunity to visit the second floor of school, and yet our teachers have some marvelous hallway displays of student learning on the second floor. I thought I'd use the blog to share some of those with you today.

The first display to go up was outside of the Science Lab, and it's in the Science display case. Mrs. Morris and her students created a very clever "Lab Safety Do's and Don'ts" display. The students had a great time creating the photos for the "Safety Don'ts" portion of the display!

Miss Wojcik's 5th grade classes created two displays: one titled "Fantastic Forces" (gravity, push, pull, etc...) and one telling what they're grateful for.

Mrs. Lalich's "LEAP" students created the following display about our system of government and the electoral process on the wall outside of the library.

All of these displays are outstanding examples of student learning and engagement. Thank you, teachers, for your hard work in helping students to design and display these projects.

My Daughter's Wedding

Of course, I have to share the best of my photos with you! This first picture is Dave walking Julie down the "aisle."

Next, Julie and her new husband, Kevin Currie. I know I'm partial, but I think they're certainly a photogenic couple!

This next picture is my mom, Margie (in green) with some of her grandchildren. My younger daughter, Megan, was the maid of honor, and is standing between Julie and my mom.

Next is the entire wedding party, jumping for joy!

This last picture is just my favorite. From left to right, Kevin, Olivia (Julie's goddaughter and flower girl), Julie, Rachel (junior bridesmaid), Katie (bridesmaid), and Megan (maid of honor). Katie, Rachel, and Olivia are my nieces (my sister, Colleen's, daughters).

Click here to visit my Picasa slideshow of wedding photos.