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Now available: St. Gregory Hawks Twitter! Follow the Hawks @StGregorySchool
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October 23, 2009
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Message from Head of School
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Jonathan E. Martin
Head of School jmartin@stgregoryschool.org www.stgregoryschool.org www.21k12blog.net Twitter:@JonathanEMartin
520-327-6395
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Ted Sizer, 1932-2009
Education lost one of its mightiest heroes this week, in the passing, at age 77, of Ted Sizer. It is hard to be succinct about Sizer's accomplishments and contributions, but among many other things he was the Headmaster of Phillips (Andover) Academy, the Dean of the Education School at Harvard, and most importantly, the founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools. He wrote many books, including the incredibly influential "Horace" trilogy, and the wonderfully named "The Students are Watching;" I myself have five of his books on my shelves. His legacy may equal that of John Dewey in the influence he has had, and will have, over education; this legacy is best captured in the ten common principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
The beauty of the Sizerian principles for me is the way they bridge two disparate sectors of education; they look backwards to borrow from the best traditions of independent schools, going back a century or more, and, published in the mid eighties, they look forward to the best elements of what we now call twenty-first century education. Drawing upon our private school history, he offers principles such as (#4) personalized teaching, with students loads no greater than 80 in high school, no more than 20 in a class, and (#7), a tone of decency and trust, where " the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you but I expect much of you"), of trust (until abused) and of decency (the values of fairness, generosity and tolerance)." Other principles beautifully speak to what we now see as contemporary best practice: #1, "learning to use one's mind well" should be the focus of school; less is more, depth over coverage. The school's goals should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge; and #5, "The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker, rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves."
Ted Sizer the man has died, but I can say confidently his ideas live on, not only in education generally, but daily here at St. Gregory College Prep.
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Sarah Wille, President
St. Gregory Board of Trustees
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A Monthly Letter from the St. Gregory Board President
“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
Boards of Trustees for non-profit corporations are sometimes a bit confusing. For those of you coming from Castlehill, public schools, or religiously affiliated schools, independent school governance may be unfamiliar. St. Gregory has a twenty-member volunteer Board of Trustees which is charged with handling the fiduciary duties and strategic goals of the school.
St Gregory is very fortunate to have an extremely talented, experienced, and generous Board, composed of professionals and including parents, alumni, parents of alumni, and community leaders. It has wonderful diversity: our youngest Trustee is in her early 30’s (and is expecting her second child in the spring) and Bazy Tankersley, our founder and honorary Trustee, is approaching 90! But most importantly it is a board of experts in the fields of education, marketing, finance, and fund-raising who are all passionate about St. Gregory.
The Board consists of six committees which meet regularly with our Head of School Jonathan Martin and with key school administrators to strategize about the issues of marketing, finance, development, and fund-raising. Our entire Board of Trustees gathers monthly to share ideas, listen to Jonathan, and hear reports from the committees. However, the Board’s most important duty is to hire, support, and evaluate the Head of School. He is the ONLY person the Board is responsible for hiring. Our Board last fall unanimously approved Jonathan’s appointment, and we continue to feel very fortunate that he accepted. He has hit the ground running and has already embraced the Board’s commitment to “maximize the potential of every student through excellence in teaching, creating a supportive environment, and a challenging, rich, and engaging curriculum.”
The Board of Trustees does not own the school, nor does Bazy or Jonathan. A not-for-profit corporation, St. Gregory College Preparatory School belongs to ALL of us! We are a community and we are responsible for the success of the school. So I encourage you to get involved, support our teams with your presence at games, attend the plays, volunteer, recruit a new student, and yes, support the Annual Fund and Arizona tax credit. I am passionate about our school. Let’s all work together in positive ways for our children and for our future.
Many thanks,
Sarah Wille, President,
St. Gregory Board of Trustees |
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New Admissions and Marketing Director Appointed; Seeking Assistant Admissions Director
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On November 2, 2009, we will welcome on board our new Admissions and Marketing Director, Christine Thornton. Christine holds an undergraduate degree from Boston College, and a Masters in Educational Administration from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to having had an impressive corporate career in both finance and marketing, she was for two years Director, and four years Assistant Director, of Admissions for Stone Ridge School, a 700 student K-12 independent school in Bethesda, Maryland. Christine, who has never been to Arizona before, is here for the remainder of the school year at minimum. We are also now seeking, promptly, to hire an Assistant Director of Admissions and Marketing, and we welcome applications from persons with a relationship to the school. Click here for more detail. |
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St. Gregory Student Meets Sherman Alexie
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After Mrs. Pickrell's eighth grade English class completed Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the students wrote letters to the author about why they loved the book. His humor, authentic voice, and focuses on identity, the plague of alcoholism on the reservation, and the need for education as a ticket to a better life resonated with our students. The novel includes engaging graphics, and our students created a composite portrait of an eighth grade young woman and young man as part of our offering of appreciation for this author's imaginative work. On October 17, Hattie Groskind and her dad, Dr. Eric Groskind, traveled to the Heard Museum in Phoenix to hear Sherman Alexie talk about his new book, War Dances, and deliver our packet of letters and the posters the class created. Hattie was ushered to the front of the receiving line by the manager of Changing Hands bookstore. Mr. Alexie assured Hattie that he loves reading letters, so we hope to hear back from him. We anxiously await the sequel that is coming out in April. |
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St Gregory US Student Council is putting on a canned food drive until the end of the month of October to support the Community Food Bank!!
It is a competition between St Gregory, Green Fields, St. Augustine, and Pusch Ridge to see who can collect the most cans!
The winner will receive extra school pride as well as the satisfaction of helping those in need!
Drop off your cans in one of the big boxes in homeroom or the cafeteria (anything will be accepted and appreciated)!!
Thanks a ton,
Jacob Lifton |
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News from the St. Gregory Green Team
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Since moving here from California this summer, I have been missing the greenery, but luckily I found the new St. Gregory Green committee. We are a group of St. Gregory faculty, staff, and parents who want to see St Gregory become a greener place, in all kinds of ways.
There are many things to work on, and everyone has good ideas, but we have chosen to focus on just a few this first year and add to our list in future years. Our first two projects are installing the new community garden and making our schoolwide recycling more effective. We are also discussing and carefully considering the future development of our riparian area in the Upper School. The riparian area is the lovely nature water area between the upper school walkways. It adds a very nice feel to the campus, but it is overdue for a maintenance overhaul, and, as beautiful as it is, it is itself a draw on our electrical power and water usage. I am happy to hear from anyone in the community who has ideas about projects the Green Committee can take on in the coming years.
Another great way to save the earth is by consuming less. Remember the three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Our St. Gregory Rummage sale is great in the way it promotes recycling and provides buyers the opportunity to reuse. Come shop Saturday so that you, too, can Re-Use.
Take care and keep it Green!
Carman Ryken Martin
Chair of the Green Committee |
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St. Gregory Swimmers Rock at State Tournament
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The St. Gregory swim team traveled to Phoenix on Friday, October 16 to compete in the state tournament.
The St. Gregory women earned 4th place in the state of Arizona. Our womens' relay of Jordan Davis, Tessa Castillo, Allie Ward, and Sloane Burns placed 4th in the 4X100 relay. Zoe Womack ('13) took 6th in the 200 freestyle and 11th in the 100 freestyle. Tessa Castillo ('13) placed 10th in the 200 individual medley and 12th in the 100 breast-stroke, while Allie Ward ('13) came in 4th in the 200 individual medley and 5th in the 100 backstroke. Annalise Castillo ('11) earned 16th place in the 100 backstroke and 15th in the 100 freestyle. Jordan Davis ('13) took 5th in the 50 freestyle and 5th in the 100 freestyle. Sloane Burns ('11) placed 5th in the 100 butterfly, breaking a school record, and earned the position of State Champion in the 500 freestyle!
St. Gregory's mens' team earned 12th place in the state of Arizona. David Rhodenbaugh ('11) earned 7th place in the 200 freestyle, Jon Rhodenbaugh ('13) took 6th place in the 100 breast-stroke, and Jason Farmer ('13) placed 7th in the 500 freestyle.
Congratulations to all of our hard-working swimmers!
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8th Graders Visit the Upper School
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St. Gregory Grandparents’ Day
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St. Gregory Grandparents’ Day
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Grandparents are invited to attend this special event at school with their grandchild/grandchildren.
The names and addresses we have on file for grandparents come from your school application. If you need to update or change this information please contact us at 327-6395 ext. 212 or e-mail jport@stgregoryschool.org.
In the absence of a grandparent, add a “grand-friend” to the invitation list.
Watch upcoming Hawk’s e-Views for more details! |
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Science Fiction/Fantasy Library room
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Our Science Fiction/Fantasy Library room is flourishing with the sounds of students and teachers engaged in learning. The Science Fiction/Fantasy genre has the highest circulation within our collection. If you or your child has completed a Science Fiction/Fantasy book with a current (not before 2008) copyright date, and would like to donate the book to our library, we would love to consider it.. Please check out our library catalog at www.stgregoryschool.org, under Academics, then Library Resources, to check whether it is presently on our shelves. All books will be selected by the Collection Development guidelines. Thank you for your support. Happy reading!
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
- Ray Bradbury
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The volleyball team begins tournament Tuesday October 27 at St. Michael's against Pusch Ridge at 5:00. A win would put us at St. Michael's again on Thursday the 29th at 4:00 for a semifinal match with the possibility of playing in the Friday finals at Desert Christian at 4:00. Wish our girls good luck! The A football team finished 9-3 and the second seed and will host a first-round tourney game Tuesday October 27. A win would have us hosting again on Thursday October 29 with the finals to be at St. Gregory or Tucson Country Day Friday October 30. If TCD win its two playoff games, TCD will host the final. All games are at 4:00. A special congratulations to the B Football Team for an undefeated 13-0 season. Team members included Danny Benson, Caleb Groff, Cameron Davidson, Carlos Franco, Lalo Hurtado, Jake Roberts, Raymond Roesler, Gabriel Swenson, and Andrew Tinley. Great season, guys! Soccer and softball begin November 9 with practices Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 3:30 - 5:00.
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Reminders & Upcoming Events
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Picture Retake Day is October 28th
If you did not have your picture taken on picture day, pick up an order form in the Upper School or Middle School office. If you are dissatisfied with your picture and would like a new one taken, bring your old packet to exchange for a new photo. There will be no extra charge.
Middle School Halloween Dance
On October 30 there will be a middle school Halloween dance, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Cost will be $5.00, or $4.00 with 3 cans of food for the food drive.
College Visits October 26-29
- October 26
11:30 Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- October 27
11:30 Southern Methodist University
2:00 Hobart & William Smith College
- October 29
12:00 University of Chicago
Upcoming Events
- 10/30 - MS Dance 7-9pm
- 11/2 & 3 - Parent Teacher Conferences-students dismissed at 12:10pm
- 11/5 & 6 - Half 8th grade climbing and overnight
- 11/9 & 10 - Half 8th grade climbing and overnight
- 11/11 - Veterans Day - No School
- 11/13 & 14 - US Fall Production "Radium Girls" 7pm
- 11/16 - Biology Field Trip
- 11/16-11/20 - MS Mindfulness Week
- 11/16-18 - 11th Grade on Ropes Course
- 11/23 - Fall Music Concert
- 11/24 - Grandparents' Assembly
- 11/25-27 - Thanksgiving Break
For additional information about any of the events listed above or St. Gregory athletics, click here. For a printout of the 2009-10 Parent Calendar, click here.
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