Latest Updates

Happy Administrative Assistants’ Day to all of those who have assisted us untiringly during this past challenging year.   Thank you so much to our shining stars at the Office of Catholic Education–Jeanne Steitz,  Catherine Jennings and Kathy Boyce.

Jeanne is our “go to” person for all things elementary–induction records, administrative resources forms, job postings, maintaining records– and assists all of the Assistant Superintendents whenever needed.

In addition to serving as Andrew’s assistant, Catherine is our “communications expert” who built and maintains this web site, creates each Monthly Messenger, develops and maintains databases for professional development registrations, and records minutes for the many meetings we have had.

Kathy is our “Director of First Impressions,” and often the first to answer calls to the Office of Catholic Education and direct them to the appropriate staff member.  She helps out in so many other ways as well.

Today, we honor these ladies for all they do–far too much to detail here–and ask you to help us celebrate their gift to Catholic Education as well as that of the administrative assistants who serve in your schools!  May God bless and reward them for their service.

Below is the information for the EADP Information Session.  More EADP information will be coming soon and will be located under the Professional Development link on the website.

Click the image below for the pdf version.

For Lent, the children of St. Mary Magdalen School in Media collected boxes of cereal to donate to local food banks.  But before they delivered them, they had a little fun by creating a domino activity that ran through the entire hallway of the school.  Below is a video for you to see.  This is really great … you should check it out.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TehTbi5FN2SWme1j9

Do you need to take a STREAM break?  Will your students need an engaging, fun, and creative learning activity to do during TerraNova testing Week?  We have gathered over 500 activities for you to choose from–including a few that will help with the “wearing of the green” on St.  Patrick’s Day.  You can find these activities at the following link:  https://www.pinterest.com/srequinn/stream-activities/ 

Thanks to Maria Piel from St, Bernadette School who provided us with additional resources including STREAM-related books related to the activities in her slides.  Click on a book to see it open and readable.  Matia’ contributions can be found at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1x6OAcTvGGPgwqg5pGs6g_pkFakf68LBsgQR17uVJTcE/edit?usp=sharing

If you have STREAM lessons that you have found to be successful, share them with us so we can post them for others.

Click the image below to view the entire newsletter.

LOOKING AHEAD. . .check the https://aopelementary.org web site for announcements about the following opportunities coming soon:

• Virtual field trips to Independence Hall
• Free Zoom lessons from the Insectarium and Butterfly Museum
• After-school virtual Math workshops (Act 48 provided).
• STREAM lesson plans for every grade level.
• Webinars for Middle School students from the National Constitution Center

To assist teachers with their planning during the week of Terra Nova testing, our STREAM coach, Sara Dalton, is preparing engaging STREAM activities that can be used at every grade level. There will be a separate lesson for each grade.   These lessons will be aligned to our archdiocesan curriculum and will exemplify the nature of interdisciplinary learning at each grade level.   It is our hope that, by providing these lessons and activities, students will have the opportunity to engage in a “fun” learning activity while lessening the stress caused by test anxiety.

All of the lessons will be designed to use easily-obtained resources, and, for those not comfortable presenting a STREAM lesson, live presentations via Zoom will be available in the afternoons of testing days. For teachers, there will be a live “kick-off” of our STREAM initiative reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’s “Hooray for Diffendoofer Day” on March 4 at 3:30. P.M.  (A book that is not only very appropriate for Dr. Seuss’s week, but also for doing engaging activities during the testing time!)

Lessons and links to the Zoom presentations will be uploaded to the elementary website (https://aopelementary.org)  this week and next.

A STREAM SUCCESS!

If you would like to see a good example of how STREAM and interdisciplinary learning helped one of our schools win the regional Future Cities competition and move on to the National finals,  please go to:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7h84FK7LhE&authuser=1   We are proud of this accomplishment by St. Hilary’s students and wish them well in the virtual national competition in Washington!

 Important Dates for Terra Nova Testing – 2021

Please observe the following schedule so DRC may service all the Diocesan schools most efficiently.

• February 20, 2021        All test materials (test booklets, directions, test coordinators kits, pre-code labels) received by schools. All shortages have been reported.
• March 4, 2021`              Last day to order additional or missing test materials from DRC (Short/Adds). Orders received after this date are not guaranteed to ship to your school before the testing window opens.

Note: Any late orders that causes DRC to pay for shipping other than ground will be charged to the customer.

• March 11-19, 2021        Primary Testing Window.

These are standardized tests and, as such, it is important, for test reliability, that students in the same norm group adhere to the same testing protocols.  While current conditions call for some flexibility on administration timing for virtual students, the following schedule is to be followed by all in-person assessments in all schools.  This schedule allows for the admission of one section of the test per day with the intention that students would not have the stress of taking more than one section per day unless doing make-up testing that cannot be scheduled otherwise.  This also allows for the resumption of normal class activities at the end of the testing session and would avoid major interruptions in learning.

•       March 11          InView testing (Please note:  All students in Grades 3,4,5,6,7 take the InView
•       March 12          Reading + Make-up testing for students absent on March 11/virtual students
•       March 15          Language + Make-up testing for students absent on previous test days/virtual
•       March 16          Math + Make-up testing for students absent on previous test days
•       March 17          St. Patrick’s Day.  No testing for in-person students, but testing for virtual students can be scheduled.
•       March 18          Science + Make-up testing for students absent on previous test days/virtual
•       March 19          Social Studies + Make-up testing for students absent on previous test           days/virtual

•      March 22-26    Make-up testing for absentees/virtual students
•      March 26          Last day for make-up testing and testing of virtual students. .  If a student has not completed the test by this date, invalidate any section not completed using the directions in the Test Coordinators’ Manual.
•      March 29         Final day to ship cartons to the DRC Scoring Center.   However, we encourage you to ship your cartons as quickly as possible after testing. (Call UPS at least 1 day prior to pick up) DRC has provided UPS Return Labels so that your materials can be tracked.  Arranging return shipping to DRC is the customer’s responsibility. Directions for shipping are found in the testing coordinators’ manual.   Materials need to be received at the scoring center by April 2 in order for results to be received by May 1. 
• May 1,                   Online data will be accessible.

* Scoring does not begin until all answer documents have been received from ALL schools.

Archdiocesan teachers are being invited to do a radio callout for PBS radio.  Files must be submitted to Sister Edward (sr.equinn@archphila.org ) by Monday, February 22.

Following is the script for our radio call out. Please follow the script and keep the audio to around 20 seconds. Below is an example, but it does not have your intro. Please include:

I’m                   from ___________ School and this is [Name]. 

What motivates you to teach your students everyday? Make sure to rephrase the question as you answer it.

Audio-Only Tips from WHYY!

• Make sure to get the clearest, cleanest audio possible. They should be in a quiet room with little or no echo.
• Stand close to/looking right at a wall if needed, or even into a closet if this is only sound and not video. (Coats will help kill any bounce from your voice.)
• Hold the phone up in front of your mouth, about a foot away from your mouth, so your voice is as clear and crisp as possible in the recording. Not knowing anyone’s phones or available apps, I’d just ask that they use their phone’s native sound recording/memo app.

90.9, WHYY-FM, Philadelphia

WNJN-FM, 89.7 Atlantic City

WNJZ, 90.3 Cape May Courthouse

WNJB-FM, 89.3 Bridgeton

WNJM, 89.9 Manahawkin

and WNJS-FM, 88.1 Berlin