Greetings, As I compose this update, our Seventh and Eighth Graders are attending the Holy Fire Retreat on the campus of UIC. Hopefully, this has been a meaningful experience for them as part of their spiritual growth and development. In Language Arts, all three grade levels have either just completed or are nearly finished completing...Read More
Greetings, As we finish September, the first full month of the school year, please make sure that you are checking Classroom and PowerSchool regularly for updates on grades. I have been reaching out to those families whose son or daughter may be missing assignments and consequently need to improve their grades with urgency. Still, it’s...Read More
Greetings & Happy Spirit Day To All, This past week in Language Arts, all three grade levels completed Unit 8 in their grammar textbooks and completed their open book tests. The best preparation for the open book test is for students to complete the grammar exercises in their notebooks when assigned and then be fully...Read More
Greetings, I hope that you and your children are adjusting well to to new school year. So far, there has been a great deal of promise shown by students at all three middle school grade levels. All three levels have been covering subjects, predicates, and sentences in Unit 8 of our Writer’s Choice textbooks as...Read More
Parents & Guardians, As many of you know by now, my wife and I welcomed our second child in January. One of the benefits that the Archdiocese of Chicago provides its employees is the opportunity to take up to 12 weeks of parental leave. Mine will begin on Monday March 14th, and it will extend...Read More
Next week marks Catholic Schools Week. This is an appropriate time for all of us to reflect upon what a privilege it is to be part of a faith-based learning community, especially one that is a special as St. Cletus School is. I’d like to thank Mrs. Gorman for the incredible job that she did...Read More
Season’s Greetings, Throughout Advent, lessons in both 7th & 8th grade Language Arts and Literature have been Christmas oriented. Readings in Literature have included A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, “The Other Wise Man” by Henry Van Dyke, and a selection from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. We are also using the classic holiday films A Christmas Story and Miracle...Read More
Season’s Greetings, We’re already reaching the halfway point of the Advent season, and that means we’re beginning our sprint towards Christmas break. There is still so much for us to do until then! Eighth grade has finished its unit on O. Henry short stories. Students were able to identify examples of irony and O. Henry’s...Read More
November & Thanksgiving Greetings to All, On Saturday November 6th, I had the opportunity to join the 8th Graders for the combined Day of the Spirit and Holy Fire Retreat as part of the students’ Confirmation preparation. A big thanks to Mrs. Campbell and Fr. Ken Baker for their efforts in making this a meaningful...Read More
Greetings, Things have been so busy over the course of the last few weeks, that I haven’t had many opportunities to provide updates. Both seventh and eighth grade are in the middle of reading classic horror stories as we approach Halloween. These include the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” by...Read More
