Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.
St. Anthony Today
Pizza today!!
Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class – 2:20
St. Anthony Superstars!! – 3:00 PM
The Tradition of Advent 
Advent is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas (or sometimes from the 1st December to Christmas Day!). Advent means ‘Coming’ in Latin. This is the coming of Jesus into the world. Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas.
There are three meanings of ‘coming’ that Christians describe in Advent. The first, and most thought of, happened about 2000 years ago when Jesus came into the world as a baby to live as a man and die for us. The second can happen now as Jesus wants to come into our lives now. And the third will happen in the future when Jesus comes back to the world as King and Judge, not a baby.
Advent Sunday can be from the 27th November (which it was in 2016) to the 3rd December (which it will be in 2017)! Advent only start on the 1st December when Christmas Day is on a Wednesday (which will happen in 2019)!
No one is really sure when Advent was first celebrated but it dates back to at least 567 when monks were ordered to fast during December leading up to Christmas.
Some people fast (don’t eat anything) during advent to help them concentrate on preparing to celebrate Jesus’s coming. In many Orthodox and Eastern Catholics Churches, Advent lasts for 40 days and starts on November 15th and is also called the Nativity Fast.
Orthodox Christians often don’t eat meat and dairy during Advent, and depending on the day, also olive oil, wine and fish. You can see what days mean now eating what foods on this calendar from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
In medieval and pre-medieval times, in parts of England, there was an early form of Nativity scenes called ‘advent images’ or a ‘vessel cup’. They were a box, often with a glass lid that was covered with a white napkin, that contained two dolls representing Mary and the baby Jesus. The box was decorated with ribbons and flowers (and sometimes apples). They were carried around from door to door. It was thought to be very unlucky if you haven’t seen a box before Christmas Eve! People paid the box carriers a halfpenny to see the box.
There are some Christmas Carols that are really Advent Carols! These include ‘People Look East’, ‘Come, thou long expected Jesus’, ‘Lo! He comes, with clouds descending’ and perhaps the most popular advent song ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel!’.
There are several ways that Advent is counted down but the most common is by a calendar or candle(s).
English: Advent wreath, First Advent Sunday (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Photo and caption by Tianyuan Xiao / 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
Quiet morning after raining for whole night in Xingping, Yangshuo.
“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands.”
-Robert M. Persig
God, we keep inventing ourselves and our underneath selves turn out to be less than adequate and we wish we were other than we are. We juggle your good purposes and our hidden yearnings and try to serve two masters, try to live two narratives, try to live two dreams, and we are weary. Gives us patience and steadfastness as we process the ragged edges of our lives. Amen.
-Adapted from Prayers for a Privileged People by Walter Brueggemann
St. Anthony This Week
Monday, December 12
Office Hours Rec Link Mondays 9:00 – 3:00PM
9:00 to 10:00 – Group 1 (50 Kids)
Kindergarten (46 students)
46 Students
10:30 to 11:30 – Group 2 (50 Kids)
Grade ⅘ Troccoli (23)
Grade ⅚ Colaiacovo (26)
49 Students
Paul at Meeting at Somerset West 2:00PM
Tuesday, December 13
Peter Atkinson visit to classrooms – 9:30 – 11:30
Guest Reader Session in Mrs. Rupnik’s class AM- 9:30 Tyson’s mom and 1:15 Aiden’s dad
Goodlife – Ms Troccoli -12:50
Staff meeting cancelled – no items listed by staff for discussion
Wednesday, December 14
Theresa Patenaude, Speech-Language Pathologist, in Mrs. Rupnik’s Class all day.
Grade 5/6 to St Luke’s Table
Goodlife Gymnastics – Grade 3 2:00 pm
Family of Schools Meeting 12:30 – Paul out
SWCHC Open House – 4:00 PM
Thursday, December 15
Papa Jack popcorn
Advent Week 3 – 9:15 am
Friday, December 16
Pizza Day
meeting with Little Horn – Andrea and Cindy – 8:00 PM
Mr. McGuire and Mrs. Rupnik IPRC JGU from St. Elizabeth + IPRC for new stude… 10:45
Goodlife Fitness M Chartrand’s class
St. Anthony Super Stars
Staff social at Denis’ place
Discovery Education’s Young Scientist Challenge starts next week!
voice of the day
Jesus promised his disciples three things — that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.
In this breathtaking capture by photographer Jakob Wagner, we see an endless sea of clouds somewhere over Germany. The photo is part of an incredible 35 photo collection of aerial photographs Wagner has taken in the last five years.
He shared the amazing gallery of images on Behance in a project entitled, Aerialscapes #3. Be sure to check it out for more aerial goodness.
St. Anthony Today
Papa Jack Popcorn
Shepherds of Good Hope Assembly – 12:30
St. Anthony Super Stars today
In the course of a year I lead many training sessionsabout Google Forms. In all of those sessions I have a handful of Google Forms Add-ons that I introduce to participants. These five Add-ons cover a lot of bases.
FormLimiter allows you to set a time for a form to automatically stop accepting responses. You can also use FormLimiter to set a limit on number of responses a form will accept. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to enable and set limits on Google Forms.
Form Notifications is a Google Forms Add-on that will send you a notification when someone has completed your Form. You can set notifications to be sent to your email address after every response has been gathered or after a set number of responses has been gathered. You can have notifications sent to more than one email address.
g(Math) is a Google Forms Add-on that allows you to insert graphs and mathematical expressions into your Google Forms. To insert graphs and equations into your Form select g(Math) from your Add-ons menu and follow the directions that pop-up on the right side of the screen.
Choice Eliminator removes response choices from your Google Form as they are used up. This can be handy when you are having people complete a Google Form in order to select meeting times with you or you’re having them complete a form to indicate what they are sending into school for a class party. To use Choice Eliminator start by creating your Google Form as you normally would. Then enable Choice Eliminator on your Form. Once Choice Eliminator is enabled you can select the question or questions that you want to have choices removed from as they are used.
CheckItOut is a great little Google Forms Add-on that allows you to create a simple check-out/ check-in system. With CheckItOut enabled in Google Forms you simply title the set of items that people will be checking out (iPads for example) then choose if you want people to choose from check boxes, a list, or multiple choice question. Watch the video below to see how the CheckItOut Add-on works.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
St. Anthony This Week
Monday, February 22
Sabina in all week
Shannon(Tonia), Natalie (OPEN), and Meg (Paolo) @ Math Inquiry
Tuesday, February 23
Paul away all day
Board-wide Jeans Day for Shepherds of Good Hope
Maria away – OPEN
Speech Language Student from Dalhousie U to work with Mrs. Rupnik’s class
Teresa at System Class networking At CEC – Kirsten in
Dorothy Stanyar, volunteer, in Mrs. Rupnik’s class PM only
Wednesday, February 24
Wastefree Wednesday Today
Paul at Board Office all day
Ski Day for Juniors
Susie in to assist with coverage for Denis, Sylvain and Nora
Thursday, February 25
Recycle Day at St. Anthony Catholic School- PLEASE recycle today – all material to be left inside near the parking lot door
Meg away – OPEN
OECTA Unit General Meeting @ 4:30 p.m. at the Hellenic Centre.
Friday, February 26
Kindness Project with Lindsey Barr and Mrs. Rupnik’s classes
St. Anthony Super Stars award
Pizza Day!
link to Open Culture Blog for rest of this really interesting post
If I could send a message back in time, I might send it to the wide-eyed and skyward-looking children of 1960s America, apologizing that we never did build those jetpacks, flying cars, and moon colonies, but also letting them know that at least we, the citizens of the 21st century, have developed such technologies as smartphones and a myriad of ways for snack foods to taste both sweet and salty at once.
I probably wouldn’t tell them how many of us long for the spirit of their own time, which American history has labeled “the Space Age” for good reason. It had its share of awfulness, starting with the apocalyptic tensions of the Cold War, but that competition between societies did spur mankind to voyage boldly and unhesitatingly out into the great beyond, at least for a while there.
In 2005 Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns set up a baby kangaroo rescue centre in central Australia’s Alice Springs. The centre was created to raise and nurture orphaned kangaroos whose mothers had been struck and killed by vehicles in Australia.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Romans 8:38-39
We are are now 10% funded – we need a full staff effort to make up the rest – please tell everyone you know about our campaign – e only have 23 days left!!
St. Anthony Today
20 chromebooks arriving within the next ten days – we will then be the first (along with St. Luke’s) 1:1 school in the board!!
Junior teachers, please start the process of registering chromebooks with individual students through Cathy
Paul and Meg out – Implementation of iOs devices in the school (AM)
PIZZA DAY!
Little Horn Theatre starts again today – with fiddler Chad Wolfe please see schedule below:
Little Horn Theatre
* MUSIC/FIDDLE WITH
CHAD WOLFE St.
Anthony’s
JK/SK 8:30-9:00 (20)
JK/SK 9:00-9:30 (20)
9:45-10:00 recess
10:00-10:40 Grade 1 ( 12) +
Grade 1/2 (20)
10:40-11:15 Grade 2/3 (16)
*get ready for lunch upon
dismissal
11:15-12:15 LUNCH
Earth Hour 10:00-11:00
Photograph by NASA/Barry Wilmore In this incredible photo we see spirals of lights bursting from Earth. The photo was taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Barry Wilmore, the commander of Expedition 42 and one of six astronauts currently on board.
Blogging club – lunch time
St.Anthony Super Stars today at 2:30
Once again Jesus had to explain to them: “You know how the so-called rulers of nations like to lord it over the people? And how those at the top like to make their authority felt? Well, with you it has to be different. If you want to be important, serve others. The son of man himself did not come to be served but to serve, to give his life so that everyone might be set free” (Mark 10:42-45). Jesus offered the world a new pattern of power and leadership, which few in church or state have ever really agreed with.
If only the Church had shared Jesus’ bias toward the bottom the past two thousand years! If only we had seriously believed him, how much sooner we would have seen the coming of peace and justice on this earth. If only we had truly listened to the Gospel, how differently Western history would have unfolded. Instead, we have made easy and happy friends with power, prestige, perks, and possessions–even in the name of God and the Church.
Adapted from The Great Themes of Scripture: New Testament, pp. 42-45 (published by Franciscan Media)Gateway to Silence
The way down is the way up.from The Paschal Mystery, Richard Rohr
March Break note from Gerry Sancartier:
Please make sure to turn off computers, lights, printers, photocopiers and close
blinds/curtains. Any equipment that doesn’t need to be on should be turned off. Please be
aware that Caretaking staff will require a period of time to implement their energy conservation
measures at the end of the day, Friday, March 13th
much appreciated.
Coffee in the staff room 7:30 – a little thank-you for all the wonderful work you all do every day!
Parent meeting 8:00AM – Paul Geraldine and Meg
Pizza Day!!
We will be handing out the first St. Anthony Super Stars Award today!
Blogging Club at lunch today
From Teach Children Well @lookforsun
Our Wednesday math RTI time resources have been altered due to PARCC tests and a couple of other scheduling issues.
That leaves me with about 36 fifth graders to teach in an approximately 20-minute period without our usual access to technology.
What’s a teacher to do?
I decided to make those Wednesday TED Wednesdays. On TED Wednesdays we’ll watch a TED talk, and explore the mathematical idea relayed during that talk with discussion and hands-on activities.
Today we started with making origami cats and dogs and then we watched the Lang talk below. Next week we’ll focus on mathematical thinking, and then after that we’ll examine math puzzles.
I had heard a long time ago that Gates favored a type of professional development for educators where experts educate many through the use of video and other online vehicles. Last week when I attended a Mahesh Sharma’s math workshop, I thought that he’d be a good candidate for that kind of professional development. In a similar fashion, sometimes a TED Talk is a terrific vehicle for students learning.
There’s never one way or medium for all share and growth, but online learning is definitely a positive path for some of the teaching/learning we want to do.
