Great night out

Guest blog by school parent Susan Callanan

It's time for the St Robert School Annual Fund party set for 7 p.m., Friday, November 17, 2017. We hope you have the date circled in red on your calendar. If not, read on to find out why the Callanans do. 

This fall marks our 13^th year as a St. Robert family. We graduated two daughters, who currently attend Divine Savior Holy Angels High School. And we have a 5^th grader, Jane, who started as a 4K student and is now enjoying her first year of school sports and beginning band – i.e., the “big kid” activities. Over the years, we've always looked forward to the Annual Fund party and made a point of attending. Here's why. 

It’s a great night out! Parents enjoy an evening of gracious hospitality at a beautiful home with fellow friends of the school. This year you'll be welcomed into the home of Margaret and Michael DeMichele, parents of current 8^th grader Mio, as well as three older children who are all Bobcat alumni. 

You can make new friends. At St. Robert, we often spend a lot of time with parents in our own grades at those wonderful class parties and on the sports sidelines. At the Annual Fund parties, Liam and I have met some of our favorite St. Robert people that might not otherwise have crossed our paths.

Experience the depth of the St. Robert community. You may meet St. Robert supporters who actually have not set foot in the school in years. We have had the pleasure of meeting a number of alums, and even parents of alums, all of whom have wonderful stories and histories to share about the school. We can say thank you to them for continuing to help keep St. Robert financially strong. 

Learn more about the Annual Fund. This is one of the most critical financial pieces of St. Robert’s success. It’s the easiest tax-deductible way to support the mission of the school, and relies on the support of current and alumni parents, alumni, grandparents, parishioners, foundations, and friends. 

   

Cross one thing off your to-do list. Gifts and pledges to the 2017-18 Annual Fund will be gratefully accepted – and will make you eligible for a prize drawing that night! Even if you can’t commit anything the night of the 17^th, come by for a taste of community and camaraderie.

So uncap that red pen (or crayon) and circle November 17 on YOUR calendar! We look forward to seeing you and perhaps forging another new friendship! 

Saints and leaders

Guest Blog by Jennifer Luna, 2nd Grade Teacher

This year the Climate and Culture faculty leadership team and the Faith and Mission leadership team are joining forces to make some positive changes in our school.  Last Friday, we kicked off one of our initiatives with the very first meeting of our “Spirit Teams.”  The spirit teams are a mix of students in 4K-8^th grade and are led by a faculty member.  The teams will meet periodically throughout the year to do service together, pray together and have fun together.  Our last spirit team meeting will be on Field Day in the spring. Our spirit teams are a way to inspire the saints and leaders in our community. 

On Friday, we made banners to show our support for Veterans in our community in preparation for Veteran’s Day on November 11^th.  Teams had a lot of fun working together to create the banners.  Older students were naturally leaders for the younger students.  It was wonderful to be a part of this.  As Ms. Dahl said, it was very fitting that we came together as a school community on a day when we lost a beautiful member of our school family, Kate Almond.  Kate was a loving mother, and an incredibly supportive parent to us, the teachers.  She will be greatly missed by all those that knew her. 

During the first week of November, Catholics celebrate two feast days, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.  On November 1^st the adorable second graders inspired us to be more like the Saints, and on November 2^nd we remember those loved ones who have gone before us to be with the saints in heaven.  In our small school community, we have 11 students who have lost a parent in the past 5 years and many more students have lost loved ones.  As a way to show support for each other and in honor of all the loved ones we have lost, we will be having a “saints and leaders” memorial bulletin board during the month of November.  If you would like to send in a picture for the board, please include the name of the deceased, student’s name and relation to the student.  Pictures can be sent to school, attention: Mrs. Luna.  One of the messages I took away from a character conference I attended this summer is “It is more important who you are, than what you know”.  Let’s show who we are this year at St. Robert.  Let’s be saints and leaders. 

D-Day!

Once every seven years, religious and independent schools in the state of Wisconsin are visited by a team of professionals who are charged with validating findings of an intensive self-study, recommending goals for continuous improvement, and (hopefully!) recommending the school for accreditation to the board of Wisconsin Religious and Independent Schools Accreditation.

After a full year of self-study and preparation, our hour of reckoning has nearly arrived!  At 7:15 on Wednesday morning, a team of ten principals and teachers from throughout the Archdiocese will arrive to begin an intensive two-day review of our findings.   The review will include examination of collected artifacts and evidence, observation of classes and other environments in the school, and interviews with teachers, non-instructional staff, students, administration, volunteer leaders, and parents selected randomly from our directory.

The evaluation process used by Catholic Schools in the State of Wisconsin is derived from the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools.  It is based on identified best practices and is rigorous, comprehensive, and objective (rubric-scored).  It is also viewed through the lens of nine defining characteristics of Catholic schools.

The Benchmarks are divided into four domains (Mission and Identity, Leadership and Governance, Academic Excellence, and Operational Vitality), thirteen standards, and about 70 individual benchmarks.  These were studied by teams of teachers and School Advisory Board members from August of 2016 through June of 2017, with the final touches put on our digital collection of evidence artifacts just last week.

Final preparations will include putting a shine on our spaces with some thoughtful tidying and displays - and of course planning hospitality for the visiting team.

Your children are the best evidence of a St. Robert education.  You can join our effort to showcase our excellence by reminding them to employ their very best manners, effort, and engagement during the visit.

I am proud of the work we completed and the collaborative nature of the study process we undertook; I'm pleased with our findings relative to rigorous standards; and I look forward with anticipation to the guidance of peers in defining next steps in the growth of our school.

Plan to join us for our annual State of the School meeting on November 7th for a brief summary of the visit, summary impressions of our reviewers, and next steps.

Difficult questions

The aftermath of unthinkable evil and trauma brings awareness of the potential risk in everyday life - and difficult questions for young minds we can't always protect from sensational media coverage or a sea of swirling conversations.   Parents often ask for help determining the just-right balance between protecting their children from and preparing them for the realities of a dangerous world.

In response to the recent concert shooting in Las Vegas, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed resources to help families and communities. I have included some that you may want to consult: 

The Psychological Impact of the Recent Shooting

Parent Guidelines for Helping Youth After the Recent Shooting

Tips for Parents on Media Coverage

Restoring a Sense of Safety in the Aftermath of a Mass Shooting

After a Crisis: Helping Young Children Heal

We are ONE, part 2

Our theme this year, which comes from the archdiocese, was intended to shine a light on the archbishop's pastoral priorities of Catholic identity, evangelization, and stewardship.  For our community in particular, however, it resonates in a uniquely personal way as well.  "Community" was adopted as a core value of our institution when we wrote our current school mission statement in 2009.  We envisioned the ever-present ideal of  "learning, praying, loving, serving, working, and playing - as one."

The St. Robert School community continuously works toward forging a singular identity out of many sometimes disparate parts.  We live in many different kinds of neighborhoods in many parts of the city and its environs. Our families are representative of multiple races, ethnicities, and religions.  Our students bring a wide range of passions and abilities to their classrooms.  But we are united by our values and, most particularly, our values about education.  So, still, we are one.  Our ongoing efforts toward maintaining a singularity of identity and purpose stands as one of our unique strengths.

We can't forget, though, that the strength of a parish school comes also from an identity entwined with its sponsoring parish. This is another area where our school stands apart. Because our population of new students in any given year does not come primarily from St. Robert Parish, we have had to work strategically and continuously to maintain a oneness of community that understands the school as part of this larger parish identity.

There are, of course, many ways that a parish identity is forged.  Few would dispute that foundational among them is worshipping together every week.  If this isn't realistic for our diverse school community, then we do need to work intentionally at other creative ways to strengthen this critical bond.  A meaningful start would be to simply socialize as a larger extended family.  Don't minimize the potential of familiarity and friendship to build a powerful entity that could accomplish great things - and maybe feed your spirit along the way in ways you didn't even realize you were hungry. Whether or not you have previously engaged in the larger parish family, you are afforded an opportunity to do so this Saturday, September 30th.  

Please join us for our first parish-sponsored Family Fun Night from 5:30-7:30 in the parking lot. Food and fun are are the menu, along with the opportunity to meet up with old friends and make some new ones.  All school families are invited - whether you belong to our parish or not; whether you're Catholic or not.  Let's start playing together in a bigger way this year.  Understanding that we're a parish school isn't enough to keep us strong.  We have to walk the talk.

I hope to see you on Saturday night!

We, who are many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

Romans 12:5

Three questions

A blog post by Meg Conley, who writes on topics of motherhood and childhood, recently caught my attention for its relevance to the changing rhythms of family life that come with the start of school. After a summer of spontaneity and adventure, fall brings with it an opportunity to renew the important ritual of the family dinner.  At a table.  With napkins.  And prayer.  And conversation. Real, interactive conversation.

If this routine is foreign, or you think your children are too little or too teenager-y to embrace a ritual of actual interactive talking and listening, Conley suggests a framework of three provocative questions:

• How were you brave today?
• How were you kind today?
• How did you fail today? 

How brilliant!  To talk about these things daily keeps them on everyone's radar and sets them up as expectations. Hearing our children's answers gives us a glimpse into their evolving challenges and keeps us more intimately connected as a family.  Further, conversations framed on values allow us not only to coach, but to model self-reflection. Talking day upon day about our own attempts at bravery and kindness and our own moments of failure affirms our children's experiences and challenges as normal, and, most importantly, sets them on a course to cherishing critical values and honing important competencies. 

Though you could certainly choose different questions to guide your conversation, I really like the package Conley proposes. The definition of bravery does, of course, change with life's stages and is impacted by one's personality as well, but acts of bravery always bring a sense of accomplishment and hope.  Talking about bravery daily gives parents the opportunity to celebrate those moments when a child asked a teacher for help or stood up to a bully or read in front of the class. It gives Mom and Dad opportunities to reflect on the risks we take in learning something new or defending our values or our faith publicly. When we affirm a family's ever-growing diary of these little moments, we form our children's habits and skills and, eventually, their honorable character.

  

Making kindness part of daily conversation is a reminder to all of us that we are surrounded by opportunities to spread goodness.  From a friendly word to the cook or the janitor to including a marginalized classmate (or coworker), hearing a growing list of daily examples will inspire the entire family to make kindness a habit, not just something for an annual "kindness challenge."

Finally, failure is a necessary ingredient in growth and every failure - whether by omission or commission - is an opportunity to become better:  more skilled, more responsible, more holy.  To normalize failure in daily conversation supports a lifetime of reaching high.

We know from research and child development experts that the family dinner in and of itself is an important ingredient in academic success.  Perhaps by adding the structure of three questions it could be a platform for much more.  And I have no doubt that listening to our children's responses will inspire our own personal growth.

Bon appetit!

We are ONE

Looking out at the faces gathered in the gym for our welcome assembly on Monday gave me an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm for the adventure - and potential - that lies just ahead.  If we define our school by its people, the good-byes and hellos just behind us have given us a fresh face and a new identity.  From among these many distinct voices and hearts and minds, we have actively begun the work of forging one community of purpose.

In addition to thirty new 4K students, we welcomed new students in every grade level this year - 26 in all - with ten in the middle school alone!  Seven of our new students are also new to the Milwaukee area, including one from Vietnam and one from China.  We have also been blessed with two new students with Down Syndrome and one student who has returned to St. Robert after four years away.

This is a big year for shifts in staffing as well.  In addition to the moves of Chris Stefaniak to third grade, Katie Dahl and Mr. Fedie to 4th grade, and Ann Schroeder to first grade, we welcomed seven new members to our instructional team:

• 4K: Ms. Byers
• 1st Grade: Ms. Vogler
• Middle School: Mrs. Kinateder
• Reading: Mrs. Lasic
• Aides: Mrs. Klawien and Ms. (Cat) Schroeder
• Piano Mr. Donica

Our new students and staff members come to us with their own stories, their own passions and pathways.  Though they will also have their own distinct futures, for this moment in time and space, we are ONE.  And together we will accomplish much that is good and holy.  

Let us give thanks, for God has indeed been good to us!

We thank you for a safe and comfortable school where everyone is known and loved.

We thank you for inspiring teachers who guide us and learn alongside us.

We thank you for a rainbow of friends with many gifts and many stories.

We thank you for learning tools that bring the whole world to our classrooms

We thank you for fresh rooms and shiny floors; for new pencils and new shoes; for hopscotch and kickball and new friends and new beginnings...

Help us to live and work each day in the glory of God

AMEN