| United and Alive in Christ | News from the Federation of Catholic Schools |
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|  | Join the Parish Picnic and Festival Fun! North County Catholic Schools and Parishes are filled with spirit and activity this time of year. It's Parish Festival/School Picnic Season! Here are a few highlighted upcoming events:
STREAM BOOST: Federation of Catholic Schools Receives $100K Beyond Sunday Grant for 2017-18 The Federation of Catholic Schools Professional Learning Teams received a boost for 2017-18 with the news of a $100,000 Beyond Sunday Academic Capacity Enhancement Grant from the Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri. The grant project will provide each school in the Federation with a classroom set of 30 Chromebooks (with charging storage cart) and professional development for teachers through the PLTs and beyond.
A kickoff celebration is set to take place on the afternoon of Friday, May 5th during the final PLT gathering of this school year at St. Rose Philippine Duchesne School. At this meeting, teachers will learn more about the professional development opportunities that will be available to them as a result of this grant project.
The grant will help provide consistent access to technology equipment and training, support teachers to develop confidence and creativity in using blended learning to address individual student needs, and increase student achievement in math.
Principals agree that this initiative will help them implement their schools' STREAM curriculum goals. A lead teacher, who will become a Google Certified Educator this summer, will be the point person at each school and will assist the rest of the teachers in their building as they all become familiar with the equipment (Chromebooks) and technology (GSuite for Education and Google Classrooms).
Some of the 2017-18 PLT time will be dedicated to learning more about best practices in Differentiated Learning through a book study. Each teacher will receive a copy of The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson and the PLTs will discuss how the concepts in the book can be applied in their classrooms.
Dancing with the 5th Grade Stars! Congratulations to St. Ferdinand's Fifth Grade, who won the "Gold" in the recent Dancing Classroom Competition. The students competed against four other schools, Christ, Prince of Peace, St. Cecilia, St. Joan of Arc, and St. Stephen Protomartyr. St. Ferdinand is one of two teams now moving on to the next level of competition on May 9, 2017. We look forward seeing our students at this next level. Way to go and good luck in the Colors of the Rainbow Team Match.
North County Educators & Administrators
Attend NCEA17 Convention & Expo This year, Easter week included some extra break time for students while teachers attended the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) in downtown St. Louis. They joined more than 8,000 fellow Catholic educators and administrators from across the country and beyond for three days of professional learning and networking. Check out a few "tweets" from the convention. Read more about NCEA in the St. Louis Review article.
It's time to make your Annual Catholic Appeal Pledge! Our north county parishes and schools have benefitted from generous grants from the ACA to support our Catholic education programs. Please pray and listen to God's call for how you can support this important appeal this year. Each parish is taking pledges this weekend - call your parish office for details. You can learn more about the ACA by visiting their website at http://archstl.org/stewardship/page/annual-catholic-appeal.
|  | | | Keep Sharing the Good News! Enrollment for the 2017-18 school year is happening now at each of our Federation Schools. Word of mouth is always our best marketing tool - so please share your experiences with your friends and neighbors and encourage them to explore our Catholic schools in north county as an excellent education option!
God Bless Our Students Receiving Sacraments this Easter!Keep in your prayers all of our students who are receiving the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion this Easter Season. Pallottine Renewal Center invites you to check out their Gift Shop with a nice selection of religious gift items right here in north county:
A Renaissance for Catholic Education Change, Challenge, Choice - A Vision for the Future  A memo from the School Oversight Committee representatives and a 16-page "Question and Answer" document was published last month. Please visit federationofcatholicschools.org/renaissance to view/download the document.
| Looking for Summer Programs for your Kids? - Two of our north county parishes have summer camp programs with limited space available. Contact St. Norbert at 314-831-3874 and/or St. Ferdinand at 314-921-2201 to learn more. Spots are filling quickly, act fast!
- Metro Theater Company, who brought the "New Kid" production to our middle school students this school year, offers a variety of fine arts summer camps - learn more at the Metro Theater Website.
CatholicFIT Family Fitness Challenge Thanks to all who joined the Family Fitness Challenge at Trinity Catholic High School on Saturday, April 8th. It was a beautiful morning for a workout, practicing some of the exercises students learned in their PE classes during February and March.
Dave Reddy, Fitness Trainer and CatholicFIT Creator, has been visiting PE classes at each school over the past few weeks. It's a unique opportunity for students to learn from a health and fitness expert and reflect on how their faith and fitness are connected! Special thanks to SSM Health DePaul Hospital for sponsoring this program for our schools.
Upcoming Events and Activities
Spread the Word! Follow our Schools and Parishes on Facebook Many of our Federation schools and parishes are becoming more active on social media, especially Facebook. Please consider "Liking" these pages on Facebook and sharing their posts when something may be of interest to your network! Think about why you choose (or chose if you have alumni) a Catholic school for your children. Share your thoughts on social media or simply in conversation with friends and family members.
And, most importantly, PRAY for our students, teachers, principals, pastors, parishioners and all who support Catholic education in our community.
Other North County Catholic institutions are also on Facebook - be sure to follow them, too! |
| (314) 537-3174 Email: advancement@FederationofCatholicSchools.org |
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