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Thursday Thoughts
November 6, 2008
Carlton Rider, Principal |
I will continue my discussion about the
impact of a declining enrollment on our
school during next week’s visit. This week I
would like to focus on our Holiday Happening
and Parent Conferences.
Our major fundraiser, the Holiday Happening,
is upon us. It will be held on Saturday,
November 8 between 12:00 noon – 8:00 p.m.
and on Sunday, November 9 between 9:00 a.m.
and 4:00 p.m. This annual event takes months
of preparation and involves not only our
students and teachers but also our parents,
relatives, and friends of St. Mary School.
This event helps raise monies that, for the
most part, support our enrichment programs
such as after-school-Spanish, enrichment
with Art and Clay on Main, various class
field trips and the many new programs that
will involve our students this school year.
In the past, money raised from this event
was used to purchase tables for our
cafeteria, lockers on the second and third
floor of our Main building, and a new stage
curtain and window curtains in our gym area
to name just a few items. Several years ago,
our Home and School Association decided to
use the profit from the Holiday Happening to
make possible various kinds of student
enrichment programs. Thus, over the past few
years we have been able to purchase new
physical education equipment, expand our art
program at all grade levels, and provide
funding for such field trips as visits to
the Ohio Theater, Columbus Museum of Art,
Serpent Mound, and other such
curriculum-related experiences. Without the
monies raised from our Holiday Happening,
such extensions of the curriculum would not
be possible. Thank you in advance for
supporting this event!
Parent conferences will be held this week on
Thursday evening November 6 between 3:00
p.m. – 8:30 p.m. and Friday, November 7
between 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. These
conferences give parents an opportunity to
sit down with their child’s teacher(s) and
discuss student progress to this point in
the school year. I am sure that if there
were concerns before now that those concerns
have already been discussed with the
teacher. In that situation, the conference
acts as an up-date to what may have been
discussed previously. At the upper level,
grades 6, 7, 8, and even lower, it is
advantageous that the child be included in
the conference. Having the child involved
gives both the parents and teachers an
opportunity to discuss the student’s
accountability for his/her work and helps
avoid the he said/she said discussion that
sometimes occurs at home when the parents
and child sit down to discuss the
conference. By having the student present at
the conference, any concerns or questions
can be brought up at that time and a clear
understanding of the situation presented by
all concerned. In the past, there has been a
misunderstanding of the concept of
conferences involving students in that
parents felt that the teachers no longer
took an active role in the discussion and
that all responsibility fell on the student.
Such is not the case. The concept of such a
student-led conference is that the student
is able to show his/her work, explain what
he/she has been learning and is accountable
for what they have done in class. Education
is a shared responsibility that involves the
student, parents, and teachers. In reality,
all share in being accountable for what the
student is learning and student progress.
Previous Messages:
October 30, 2008
October 23, 2008
October 16, 2008
October 9, 2008
October 2, 2008
September 25, 2008
September 18, 2008
September 11, 2008
September 4, 2008
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