Mrs. M. Wilson

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May 7
Be sure to turn in Graduation Fees and the slips for the dance and Great 
America!
Ribbon Pinning on May 14 after the 8:30 Mass!
Grades are updated today! Check to see if you have any missing assignments.

April 25
Many end of the year notices are going home in the mail today. Please look 
for: Great America Trip Slip, Graduation Dance Slip, Graduation Fee Notice, 
Ribbon Pinning Notice

April 19
Please return Springfield trip slips and money, the Expectations letter and 
the trip slip for St. Xavier.

Apil 16
Slips for the Grade 8 Trip to Springfield went home before Easter Vacation. 
The slips and money are due this Friday,April 20.

March 30
WONDERFULLY, SPECTACULAR JOB ON THE PLAY!!!! I LOVED EVERY MINUTE!

March 28
Do not order Hot lunch for May 24 or May 25!
Order forms are due Monday

March 26
Field Trip tomorrow!
Wear your normal school uniforms, bring a bag lunch
No cameras

February 29
Confirmation Practice is Thursday, March 1, from 3:30-4:30 in Church. Only
students need to attend!
For Friday, you are asked to be in Church around 6:30. Mass will begin at 7 
pm.

January 10
Don't forget: your service hours (all 20) must be completed by the end of 
January

January 5
Confirmation Retreat is on January 12 at 7 pm in Church; All Students making
their Confirmation are required to attend. One of your parents must attend
with you!

Faith History Reports are due February 10

Graduation Pictures: January 18; This is a Dress up day

December 15
***Service Hours should be completed by the end of January; There was an FSA
Email about reffing Bitty Basketball games that will count as service; please
contact the people on the FSA email (Mrs. Carroll and the Zions)

******** The School Board will need about 20 people to help set up for Trivia
Night on February 4; If you are interested in getting service hours for this,
speak to Mrs. Reger.

December 7
***Service Hours should be completed by the end of January; There was an FSA
Email about reffing Bitty Basketball games that will count as service; please
contact the people on the FSA email (Mrs. Carroll and the Zions)
*******
We have been asked to give totals for Service Hours to give Father Frank and
Mrs. Reger an idea of how many people have completed. Whatever forms
(reflection sheets and logs) I have Friday morning, I will use for those 
totals.

December 1
Saint Cajetan School will be hosting a Toy Drive for Catholic Charities.
Please donate toys (new and unwrapped) to be given to ages from 0-2 and 11-15,
for both Boys and Girls. The drive will continue until December 9th.

November 30
2nd Trimester Grades are posted on Powerschool --- please check!
Check out the Gallery Page for Pictures of a 7th Grade Science Activity and
our Visit by Scuba Bob

November 18
A few important dates...
Graduation Pictures will be on January 18. It is a dress up day!
Confirmation Retreat January 12 7pm in Church. All students who are being
confirmed are required to attend!

November 16
Results from the EXPLORE test are coming home in today's mail.
Remember to work on Service Hours (You need to turn in logs and reflection
sheets!).
Start working on your Accelerated Reading Points for the 2nd Trimester!

November 2
*Saint Presentations tomorrow in class.
*A slip went home today about a book Junior High will be using during Advent.
The cost is $5.00 and we need the money by November 8 so we can order the
books and receive them in time for Advent.
*Accelerated Reading tests need to be completed by November 9. Remember, you
need 50 points. Today, I told you how many points you had as of this 
afternoon.

October 24
Field Trip tomorrow to St. Rita for the retreat. Wear your normal school
uniforms!!!

Confirmation Saint Presentation
On Thursday, November 3, you will be doing an oral presentation of your
Confirmation saint.  Your presentation should include pertinent information
about your saint including but not limited to the saint’s place of birth,
family information, life story, time and place of death, feast day, patron
saint of __________, as well as any other interesting facts.
Remember, this is the saint’s name that you have selected to become a
permanent part of your identity.  You should know this person well and be
prepared to share the information with reasonable expertise.  
Your costume should reflect the dress of the time of the saint’s life. 
Additionally, any props you can bring to enhance your presentation should be
included, i.e. – a stuffed animal if you are St. Francis the patron saint of
animals, a basketball if you are St. Sebastian the patron saint of athletes,
or perhaps some tools if you are St. Thomas the Apostle, the patron saint of
construction workers.  Costumes do not need to be fancy, but you should put
considerable effort into making yourself into the best visual representation
of your saint.  
You must have your speech memorized and it should be no more than 3 – 5
minutes in length.  You will be presenting to the students in the lower grades
and you should be prepared to answer questions as your saint.

October 20
Testing took place the last two days. According to information I have, results
should be sent in roughly 3 weeks.

I have updated assignments on Powerschool to include anything I have received
from the students as of this morning.

Field Trip on October 25 to St. Rita High School. Students need to bring a bag
lunch and will wear their normal school uniforms.
Halloween Dance Permission Slips and Money are due tomorrow!!
The Trip Slip for St. Rita was due today -- if you have not yet turned it in,
I need it asap!

*****Commitment Sunday: All 8th Grade students who are making their
Confirmation are expected to attend the 9:00 Mass this Sunday, October 23.

Also, remember, there is no school on October 28 for students.

October 17
Please return the Parent Teacher Conference Forms by Wednesday, October 19.
Please return the Permission Slip for our Trip to St. Rita
Halloween Dance forms went home last week and need to be returned

Wednesday, October 19 is a Tuition Raffle Dress Down Day -- $2.00
	
October 13
Remember to check grades on Powerschool. Teachers update their grades at least
every 3 weeks (if not more often). The 1st Trimester ends on November 11 and
Report Cards go home on November 18.

Tomorrow, October 14, is our annual Homecoming Pep Rally. It will be held at
1:45 in the school gym. Students may wear their St. Cajetan attire (gym
sweatpants, gym shorts, sports uniform, etc..)
                                                                     
     October 5, 2011

St. Rita, “It’s Academic”

St. Rita is cordially inviting 7th and 8th Grade young men to participate in 
the annual “It’s Academic” competition. This is based on the old College Bowl 
format and is designed to acknowledge grammar school students by recognizing 
their achievements in the classroom.

The competition will take place on Wednesday, October 19, in the school 
auditorium and library. It will consist of a team format and schools may 
enter more than one team. Registration begins at 3:30p.m. and competition 
will begin at approximately 4:30. Snacks and refreshments will be provided 
for all the participants.

Each team is comprised of four young men for the competition (7th or 8th 
grade teams may be mixed). However, only three are allowed on stage at one 
time. Substitutions may be made in the middle of a round. Questions are 
divided into the following categories: Math, English, Composition and 
Literature, Social Studies, Science, Current Events and Geography.

Competition is divided into three rounds.  In Rounds I and II, each team will 
have the opportunity to answer up to 10 questions in 90 seconds. In those 
rounds, only the team whose turn it is will be able to answer. In Round III 
there will be tem questions for either team to answer. Team members 
will “buzz in” and attempt to answer the question. If they fail to answer the 
question the other team may elect to answer.  There are no penalties for 
incorrect answers, just lost opportunities to score points.

St. Cajetan is the reigning champion after taking first place last year. The 
team had two 7th graders and 2 8th graders, Bryan O’Malley, Mike Hollander, 
Max Stinites and Mike Redmond!!  It was awesome to beat Cardinal Bernadin!

If you are interested in competing this year, please let me know by October 6 
and I will RSVP for the team, but I must have the rosters in by October 7, so 
please get your teams together. It is really a fun competition, even more fun 
to win!
You are responsible for transportation to and from St. Rita.

This is truly a great experience for our students, so please encourage your 
sons to participate.

September 26
The 8th Grade Commitment Mass has been moved to October 23rd at the 9:00 Mass.
The move was made due to the Holiday weekend.
All students are expected to attend.

September 21
Please be advised that there is a change for the Grade 8 Commitment Sunday
Mass. It will be held on Sunday, October 9 at the 9:00 mass.
Students should plan to attend.

September 9
Kellogg School is presenting their 10th Annual High School Fair on Thursday,
October 6 from 4:30-6:30.  Public and Private High Schools will be present.
This is a chance for parents to speak with representatives since our High
School Visit Days are during our regular school day.

September 7

Parents, St. Rita will hold its annual "Academic Olympics" on Wednesday, 
September 28, 4:00-7:00. Following is a description of this event. If you are 
interested in sending your son or daughter to this event, please read the 
following.

Academic Olympics is an individual competition in Math, Science, Social 
Studies and English. All young men and young women in 7th and 8th Grades are 
invited to participate.
A snack will be provided and all will receive a St. Rita T-shirt. 
To register, log on to www.stritahs.com and click on Academic Olympics.
This is a great opportunity for our students. Last year we had several 
winners! Please encourage your child to participate!

August 30
I distributed TAB Book Order forms last Wednesday in the mail. Could you 
please purchase "Romeo and Juliet", it costs $2.00.  I have extra order forms.
If you wish to order online, our class code is: HZ4WC

WELCOME BACK!

Parents,
Please plan to attend Meet the Parents night on Wednesday August 24 at 7:00. 
We will meet in church where it will be cool! Though most of you know our 
goals and expectations, it's always good to hear them again as a reminder. At 
this meeting, we will be handing out the Junior High Discipline Policy, which 
is a little more detailed to meet the needs of this age group.
You can take the policy home, cut off the bottom, sign it, have your child
sign it, and please give us your email address, as that is our best form of
communication. Send the bottom piece back and hang the bright orange
reminders on your frig! The Junior High Team is ready to go!

The homework for all subjects will be listed on each of our homework pages,
not just the homeroom homework, and even though we post our homework on this
site, the students are still expected to write it down in their planners in
the event the internet goes down, which we all know is a possibility!

Please remember to return all the notes that were in the registration packet,
especially the emergency card. I am sure more things will be coming home soon 
so it would be good to get a jump on things!

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Religion:  
For Religion this year, we will be using the Blest Are We book. We will be 
focusing on the story and history of our Church. We will look at the four 
marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic) and the growth of 
Christianity (councils, crusades, etc...) from past to present. The website 
for Blest Are We is: www.blestarewe.com.
We will also preview the Sunday Gospel through the use of a magazine 
called "Visions".
In addition, we will also be preparing for Confirmation. Students are 
expected to have their service hours completed by the end of January. As soon 
as you are finished, please turn in your sign in sheet and your Journal 
Reflections. We will be using the book, "Confirmed in Spirit", to prepare for 
this important sacrament.

Vocabulary:
We will use the Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Book Level C this year. In 
seventh grade, you used Level B. Normally, it takes about 1 1/2 weeks to 
complete a unit. Test dates vary during the course of a week. I give a 
Spelling pretest for each unit at the beginning of the unit. At the end of 
each unit, there will be a Spelling test and a separate test covering 
definitions, antonyms, synonyms and sentence completions. Every 3 units, 
there is a review unit. There will also be a Unit Review test covering all 60 
words, focusing on antonyms, synonyms, definitions and sentence completions. 
The book has a very good website: vocabularyworkshop.com. Then, you enter the 
level of book that you are using. There is a flashcard review and other 
puzzles to complete that are helpful in reviewing the words.

Reading: 
By this point in time, you should be familiar with most of the literary terms 
and elements (main idea, supporting details, inference, point of view, 
personification, etc...) We will be reviewing these terms and elements 
throughout the year. For each selection we complete in our reader, students 
will be asked to complete Comprehension qeustions to assess their skills. 
There will also be a test for each selection.
Our reader is "Literature, Course 3" by Glencoe publications. The entire book 
is online.
 To access the student text book online, you need to do the 
following:
Go to glencoe.com; Enter Quickpass code GL39848u1T. You then want to access 
the Student Online edition. The code to access the book is FB66CA2F2B 
(capitals matter). The online edition should pop up.

Accelerated Reading: 
Students will be required to attain 50 Accelerated Reading points each 
trimester. The books they choose to read must have a Reading level of at 
least 5.5. These Accelerated Reading tests will be counted as a test grade 
for Reading each trimester.

In addition to our Literature Book, we will also read various novels 
throughout the year. This past year, I allowed students to download books 
onto electronic readers to use in class (if they had one). 
The novels that we will be reading this year are: The Pigman, Life As We Knew 
It, The Book Thief, 5 People You Meet in Heaven and maybe The Outsiders. For 
some novels, we read the novel together as a class. For others, students will 
be divided into groups and complete novels as part of Literature Circles with 
certain jobs they are responsible for.

Students will have me for 8th Grade Science. For the course description, 
please go to the 8th Grade Science tab.
Students will have Mrs. Salabura for Social Studies, Ms. Brannagan for Math, 
and Mrs. Dokianos for English. They each have their own teacherweb pages for 
their classes. You can access their classes via the school website.
Once a week, they will go to Gym (Mrs. Lippert), Computers (Ms. Salazar), 
Art (Mrs. Carlson),  and Spanish (Ms. Hughes).

GRADES:
Again this year, grades will be posted on the Powerschool website. If you do 
not remember your user name or password, please contact the office as soon as 
possible. Please check your grades on a regular basis. I return assignments 
as soon as I have them graded (I try to get them back within a day or two of 
the students turning them in). The grading scale is posted on the powerschool 
site.

HOMEWORK:
Homework will be posted on this site every night under the 210 Homework tab. 
If I am told what the homework is in other classes, I will post that as well. 
However, I am not responsible if there are any mistakes in the posting of 
homework for classes that I do not teach. You need to check the websites of 
the other teachers.
Students are still responsible for copying down assignments in class before 
leaving for the day. We write down the assignments each day on a homework 
board. This ensures that students will bring home the necessary books.

Extra Credit:
I normally do not offer extra credit in my classes. For Science, there is an 
opportunity for extra credit at the end of each chapter by completing an 
online quiz and turning it in the day of the test.

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Mrs. M. Wilson

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