December 14

The SAN Script – the week of December 15 – 19

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A month of contemplation

The signal is clear: There is no time to sink into the quiet of fall that is promised with the coming of Thanksgiving. By the Friday morning that follows it, the raucousness of capitalist Christmas bursts suddenly upon us. The warning of autumn, with its browning of leaves and graying of skies, that life too, is susceptible to the wisdom of the seasons gets lost in the plastic world of limitless desire and limited resources. Shopping becomes what Advent is meant to be: the consuming preparation for one of the greatest feasts of the Christian year.

But commercialism is not the problem. We’re a consumer society whatever the season. The problem is that the lack of contemplative consideration that comes with Christmas consumerism too often drowns out the sounds of Advent and drains not only the feast but even, perhaps, the rest of the year of its meaning.

As a result we have managed to make Christmas an event, a passing fancy, an exhausting endurance exercise, stripped of reflection by the pressure of social protocols. But judging from the scripture of the season, Christmas is surely meant to be an attitude toward life, not a carnival. It is meant to be arrived at slowly and lived succulently. Christmas is not meant to be simply a day of celebration; it is meant to be a month of contemplation. But because Advent has been lost somewhere between the Thanksgiving turkey and pre-Christmas sales, we have lost one of the richest seasons of the year.

Advent is an excursion through scripture meant to give depth and emotional stability to the days for which there are no songs, no tinsel, no flashing lights to distract us from its raw, tart marrow. Unless we can reclaim Advent, the lack of it will show dearly in the way we go through the rest of life itself.

Ben Coffman is a landscape photographer based out of Portland, Oregon, who specializes in night photography, in particular ‘landscape astrophotography’ featuring the Milky Way. Not only does this give Ben the opportunity to explore the great outdoors, but it lets us city dwellers gain a greater appreciation for the awe-inspiring night sky as well…

Ben Coffman is a landscape photographer based out of Portland, Oregon, who specializes in night photography, in particular ‘landscape astrophotography’ featuring the Milky Way. Not only does this give Ben the opportunity to explore the great outdoors, but it lets us city dwellers gain a greater appreciation for the awe-inspiring night sky as well…

 

One of the presentations on Friday with Holy Trinity – a great day!

The Week ahead

Monday, December 15

Sabina in all week

waste walkabout

FDK1 Ms. Greenwood’s class is having a Christmas lunch tomorrow with turkey and all the fixings 🙂

Advent in the gym – 2:00 PM

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Tuesday, December 16

Cathlee O’Connell to read with Mrs.Rupnik’s class

chess at lunch

waste walkabout

Dorothy reading with Mrs. Rupnik’s class

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Nativity Play Rehearsal-Gym

Wednesday, December 17

Visit to St. Vincent – 1:30 PM

Christmas baskets going out all day today

Thursday, December 18

Paul out (briefly) St. Ambrose co-op reception

Monthly assembly – 2:00PM

Friday, December 19

waste walkabout

PJ Day, popcorn and movies all grades

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Leader reveals 3 lessons for high-poverty communities

from Leaders to Learn From

—Swikar Patel
—Swikar Patel
Focus of Strength:Community Schools
Position:Superintendent
District:Jennings School District, Jennings, Mo.

For students without meals to eat and clean clothes to wear, learning can be difficult. To ensure such basic needs would not be a barrier to learning, Tiffany Anderson, the superintendent in the Jennings, Mo., school district, set up a food pantry and installed washers and dryers in all of the district’s school buildings.

Anderson is demonstrating how high-poverty communities can improve academic achievement by focusing on meeting students’ needs outside the classroom as well as inside it, and harnessing the power of partnerships to do so even in a volatile environment.

The 2,500-student district neighbors Ferguson, the St. Louis-area suburb rocked by unrest and racial divisions in the wake of the shooting death of an unarmed African-American teenager by a white police officer.

Three Lessons from Tiffany Anderson on how high-poverty communities can raise academic achievement:

    1. Build Relationships. Significant academic improvement won’t occur in high-poverty communities without strong relationships in the classroom, between teachers and students; in the district, among teachers, staff, and administrators; and in the community, among district leaders, parents, government officials, law enforcement, taxpayers, and community organizations.

 

    1. Create a rigorous curriculum. An aligned standards-based curriculum, with high expectations for students, is important. Students in the Jennings district are taught using an accelerated curriculum, one grade level ahead. For example, 5th graders are taught 6th-grade-level content. A new college- preparatory academy provides selected students with an advanced curriculum, which will allow them to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree at the same time.

 

  1. Pedagogy — it’s still about great teaching. Hire, train, and empower the best teachers. New teachers are given a content-based assessment before they are hired. Jennings’ teachers are also integral in developing the district’s curriculum. The district provides resources to help teachers improve their craft and has strengthened professional learning communities to foster best practices and idea-sharing.

 

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Posted December 14, 2014 by mcguirp in category random posts

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