Pius Pride

Website updates

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:22:00 +0000

As Father Mike talks about, while we cannot move our campus, we can always increase our digital presence - and that is something that we are continuing to try to do. Over the next few weeks you'll see some new features added to the website, updates to the way teachers disseminate information and even a few free activities that can help you to earn tuition credits on things that you already spend.

Check back often - and please, if you've got an eye for web design, give us a call to find out how you can help.

Recycling comes to Pius

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:36:00 +0000

I'd love to tell you that we're going "Green" - but the truth is that we're not trying to be trendy, we're just trying to do our part. Mrs. Fincher has put together a wonderful recycling plan for the school that will cover aluminum, paper, plastics and those little Capri Sun drinks that many of our students drink.

There is the potential for the school to receive a small amount of money for our efforts, but the real lesson is in how we can conserve our resources and make good decisions to help save not only money, but our environment as well.

Stay tuned to your Wednesday packet or talk to your student's teacher for more info.

Getting caught up

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:54:00 +0000

It turns out that I'm not very good at updating blogs, as was pointed out to me by Melanie and Corey Elias. We will again start out this year with intentions to keep you updated as much as possible, but I thank you again for your patience.

As the year begins we have a number of new initiatives which are rather exciting. Feel free to talk to your teachers or to email me if you would like more details.

First, tutoring services are still available, both for students who are ahead and those who are behind. Contact your child’s teacher for more info.

Second, after looking at the curriculum, the requirements of Bishop Kelley and what the best programs in the country are doing, we switched to Everyday math for the 3^rd – 6^th grade. K – 2 will follow next year. The great thing about this program is that it allows for acceleration so that all students will achieve algebra by the time they leave Saint Pius - something that is becoming increasingly desired at the high school level.

Third, a similar review of the English program has led us to leave Shirley and move to a Houghton - Mifflin program. This allows us to have vertical alignment with the middle school as well as allowing more application of the areas taught. It's also easier to help your student with if they have questions. The new program is more writing intensive and focuses on the application of necessary skills.

Fourth, we did have a couple of staff changes. Ms. Iten moved to library, Ms. Oberste was hired for 5^th grade, Mrs. Roberson moved back to middle school and Mrs. McCoy took the thrid grade position place.

Finally, we’ve managed to secure a grant that is going to allow us to hire a full time counselor at Saint Pius. We’re finishing up the details now, but expect a full announcement later this week.

That covers it for now. Have a great first full week.

The best of intentions...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:18:00 +0000

So I guess I'm still having a little trouble getting these updates in - hopefully you can forgive me; it really is because we have so many wonderful things going on, and this in turn often makes it difficult to talk about all of them.

But anyway, onward and upward. The middle school library is functional at this point. We still have two to three purchases to make in order to make the space a little more inviting, but soon your students will have every opportunity to read and grow within its walls. The best part about this situation is that it is really allowing us time to evaluate our K - 5 library as well, and we have made and will continue to make significant changes to it as we continue throughout the year.

At this point the middle school library consists of more than 3,000 volumes and close to $50,000 worth of new books - all made possible by your donations at our auction last school year. We built the library big - we can actually triple the number of books that we now have - and I fully intent to do so over the course of the next five years. As we do this, the school will continue to commit an increased budget number, but your donations will always be greatly appreciated.

Check back here to see photos as soon as the bulk of the furniture arrives, and check back soon for more updates on the changes to the Wednesday packet.

As always, I'd be more than happy to take you around and show you the improvements and all the wonderful things that we have going on.

So what is a tutoring center?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:50:00 +0000

As Theresa and I began to evaluate our progress last year, one thing became very clear: we needed to find a new and innovative way to help our students with special needs within the classroom. However, the more we studied the idea of "special needs", the more we realized that these were, more often than not, just needs.

All of our students, at one time or another, have needed extra help. Some can get this help at home, others get it from their peers, and still others attend outside activities. We wanted to offer those same types of help during the school day which would allow us to ensure that these areas could be corrected before they became problems.

Our tutoring center was therefore born. Both Stacie and Marisa have very full schedules and meet with students almost every hour of the day. They do a large number of activities, but their most common task is explaining things in a slightly different way. Fortunately, this allows many of our students to keep up with our very rigorous academic standards - standards that are truly paying dividends, because Saint Pius X again scored in the top 10% of all schools in the nation last year in math and reading (based on our Iowa Test scores), something we are very, very proud of.

Despite its great success in doing so, the tutoring center is about more than just helping students stay caught up. We also use this as an opportunity to make sure that all of our students who are very interested in a particular topic have the means to make studying that topic a reality. This is where our language lab comes into play.

At this time, we currently have 12 students signed up for six different languages. This will allow them the opportunity to be excited about coming to school everyday, but it will also remind them about some of the universal tenets of both our faith and our country. We are universal, we are not isolationist, and eventually, we hope that all of our students will have the opportunity to spend time abroad and learn about other cultures and places. It is our hope that the language lab will serve as a means to get them excited about these opportunities.

Questions or comments about all of this? Shoot me an email or respond in the comments below. And remember the road map; there will be plenty more information shot out this week.

Also, check out the pictures:

A little feedback

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:03:00 +0000

I received a little feedback this weekend from some parents who reminded me that the blog hadn't been updated in awhile. I'm really appreciative of the fact that this is getting some reading, and so I figured that I would take this week to give you some of the significant updates on our progress.

Today you can hear about the new offerings of the tutoring center, so make sure you check back often. Tomorrow I'll cover the new offerings of the middle school library; on Wednesday we'll look at potential changes to our middle school conference schedule; Thursday we'll discuss our coming electronic version of the Wednesday packet, and Friday we will take a look at potential changes to The Spirit.

Again, check back early and often, tell your friends, and if you have RSS feeds activated for your phone or browser, feel free to sign up to receive automatic updates whenever I do post a new entry.

All Things in Christ,

Matt

Language Lab Application

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Application for Foreign Language Self Study.doc

Great news! The tutoring center (and the language lab) is now up and running. Above you'll find a word document for students to fill out in order to be able to participate in the program.

Pictures will follow of the new facility, but if you want to see it before then, stop by for a tour.

Have a great holiday weekend, and be sure to cheer for the Irish: this is the one sure weekend when they can't lose.

Statue Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:57:00 +0000

The statue is in place and looks absolutely fantastic. Make sure to stop by sometime over the next week, or stop by for the dedication during the Feast Day celebration.

Middle School Handbook

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:15:00 +0000

Parents -

I've uploaded the middle school handbook to a few sections of the website. Here you can download a personal copy to supplement the paper copy you should receive at the end of the day today.

Feel free to download the handbook here.

Thanks,

Matt

Middle School Improvements

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Dear Parents,

I want to thank you for your patience as you have waited to receive information nformatio e waited to recieve teience about the myriad changes our school is undergoing. I know that the end of the school year is a busy time and that this document is quite long, but Theresa and I believe it is important to give you as much information as possible as you continue to look at Saint Pius X as your choice for a quality, Catholic education here in Tulsa.

It should first be said that Saint Pius X had a fiftieth year of amazing successes. Our undefeated seventh and eighth grade academic bowl team won state and was invited to nationals. Our fifth and sixth grade academic bowl team took first place in the city, their highest level of competition. Two of our students were named to the All-City Mathcounts team, and eight of our students were chosen for the Brother Bernadine Scholars Program at Bishop Kelley. Our test scores showed positive gains for the fourth consecutive year. I could go on and on, but ultimately the point is obvious: Saint Pius did a wonderful job of nourishing the talent that we have had this year, and this is a direct result of a wonderful job by our teachers.

I want it to be clear that I, as an administrator, truly value the effort and hard work put forth by all of our teachers this year, regardless of whether or not they will be returning. All of them have been consummate professionals and have helped to prepare our students for their futures, and as those who are leaving or changing positions do so, I want to wish them well in all of their endeavors.

Despite our teachers and our successes, however, we still have a few areas in which we need to grow. This is not an indictment of our current school or our teachers; as you all well know, parenting is a fluid process that needs to change as the child does. We have clearly had some wonderful things that have occurred and are continuing to occur, and it is for those reasons that changes have to come now and will continue to occur in the future. It is absolutely essential that each year we feel comfortable enough to adapt to the changing needs of our students, and our new policies this year will directly address those issues.

Those issues are as follows:

Instruction has been forced to rigidly follow curriculum without providing for special needs.

Students with special needs have had no resource other than after school or outside tutoring.

Teachers have not had the opportunity to seek further instructional training or professional development on the job.

Consistent discipline and academic policies have not been in place to provide students with a clear view of expectations.

The school has lacked essential resources to bridge these issues.

As a result of this, we have made the following changes:

We are moving to an elective system that features quarter-long classes in addition to those of the traditional curriculum. A full list of these classes follows, but the essential elements are these. First, by adjusting our schedule in minor ways, we were able to ensure that all traditional curricular classes would still be able to cover all the necessary material. Second, the quarter long class, while it has a specific objective, is also in place to provide a chance for remediation or extension as appropriate. Third, these classes will meet the essential needs of our students that might not be covered by our traditional curriculum while still providing a strong, educational backing that is flexible and can be adjusted easily as needs change.

In addition to our elective system, we are bringing on two full-time staff members that will work exclusively in a one-on-one situation with our students. They will be available not only for our students who need extra help, but also for our students who would enjoy the further expansion of classes that they have already mastered. We are doing this, first and foremost, to ensure that all students, regardless of ability, have access to challenging, academically appropriate materials that can help them to mature intellectually without the need for expensive tutors and outside help.

We are bringing in a new staff member, Paula Anderson Rubin, who has many years of experience as both a middle school teacher and a member of school reform movements. In addition to her experience, she also holds a Master’s degree in education, and will be our main teacher-trainer at the ground level of the middle school. Mrs. Anderson Rubin will be teaching our language arts classes but will have free periods each day to assist with daily teacher training, implementation of new methods, and other student and teacher assistance. She will furthermore coordinate our middle school handbook to ensure that all practices and procedures are consistent throughout the building.

We will also be launching a new middle school handbook that will detail policies specific to our middle school students, policies that exist above and beyond the traditional disciplinary procedures laid out in handbooks. For example, headings and formatting for all formal papers will be consistent in all classes, expectations for note taking and homework will be the same in all academic areas and procedures will be homogenized across the board. This handbook will be released with our revised general handbook following the summer.

As a result of the generosity of our parents, friends, teachers and benefactors, we have been able to add our new middle school library, purchase additional resources and set up our tutoring lab. For the first time in awhile we’ve been able to address needs not in the sense of adjusting the need to fit our budget, but instead adjusting the budget to meet the need.

All of these changes are just steps to our ultimate goal: providing a full school experience that integrates all aspects of the academic life and rigorously prepares all students, regardless of ability level, for future academic success at Bishop Kelley, Cascia Hall or any of our other area high schools. As a result of this, we will also be able to add the following highlights:

- We are adding an additional math class for each of the 6^th – 8^th grades, which will allow us to lower the student/teacher ratio and provide for more individual instruction.

- Additional class sets have been purchased (and more are on order) to ensure that all middle school students (at no expense to you as a parent) will be required to read eight novels next year (roughly a novel every four a half weeks). This will increase to twelve to sixteen novels over the next three years in order to ensure that reading and writing to continue to hold a place of high priority at our school.

- We are in the process of purchasing Spanish textbooks that will allow us to teach a Spanish 1 course at the 8^th grade level. This in turn will ensure that our eighth grade students will be able to take Spanish 2 as freshmen at Kelley should they so desire.

- Our language lab will also be up and running so that any middle school student who does not wish to participate in Spanish will have the opportunity to take a language that they truly enjoy.

So without further ado, I am happy to announce our middle school staff for the 2008 – 2009 school year.

Name:	Position:	Notes:
Jay Luetkemeyer	8^th Grade Homeroom, Social Studies, Social Studies Elective Team	Jay comes to us from Oklahoma City, and has his Master’s degree in education.
Cathie Kinnaman	8^th Grade Homeroom, Math, Math Elective Team	Cathie has graciously decided to step down as athletic director and take on a new role as one of our eighth grade homeroom teachers.
Paula Anderson Rubin	7^th Grade Homeroom, Language Arts/Writing, Coordinator of Middle School Programs	As mentioned, Paula brings wonderful experience to us as well as a desire to help us to continue to grow within the middle school.
Crissy Donatucci	7^th Grade Homeroom, Math, Spanish and Elective Team Teacher	Crissy will be taking a more active role in the middle school by focusing only on middle school students; another teacher will take over the duties for teaching Spanish to Kindergarten through 5^th grade.
Katie Blum	6^th Grade Homeroom, Science and Elective Team Teacher	Katie, sister of Amy Blum, comes to us and is ready to accept the challenge of taking over our science program.
Debbie Margerum	6^th Grade Homeroom, Religion, Social Studies Elective Team	Debbie has agreed to take on more responsibility of the moral and social development of our students to help ease their transition into middle school.
Heidi McCoy	Elective Specialist, Team teaching support	Heidi will bring her expertise as a former assistant principal and diocesan curriculum coordinator to help us build our elective program and assist other teachers with projects and complex assignments.
Russell Nance	Music, 8^th Grade Religion	Russell, brother of seminarian Todd Nance who spent time with us at Christmas, brings a degree in Theology and experience as the music director at Saint Thomas Moore parish.
Father Jim Caldwell	8^th Grade morality	Father Jim has agreed to teach a one day a week morality class to our eighth grade to help broach topics that include Catholic social justice, morality and ethical responsibility.

Below you will find a listing of all of the new elective classes. The first three quarters (as listed behind the class description) will be required classes for each of our grades and will consist of two sections. The fourth quarter will allow students, teachers and parents to dialogue and send students to the best fit for both their academic, social and personal needs.

Class Descriptions:

6^th Study Skills: Basic studying, note taking, essay answering and organizational skills. This course introduces students to middle school expectations through writing and the practicing of homework and sample tests and quizzes. It also teaches the importance of planners and gets students in the habit of writing down assignments and other important information. Students leave this class with a clear understanding of middle school policies, procedures and expectations. (Language Arts, 1^st Quarter)

6^th Health and Exercise: This course emphasizes the importance of total health and fitness for all people. It begins with basic nutritional instruction and demonstrates how diet affects mood, academic performance and disposition. Students learn how to evaluate nutritional information and set a healthily diet so they can succeed in all areas of their lives. Furthermore, they learn basic CPR and first aid skills, survival skills and basic exercise and fitness stretches, strengthening and rehabilitation processes. (PE, 2^nd Quarter)

6^th Elements of Service: This course teaches students the basics of Catholic social teaching. Spreading two grades, students learn the best ways to provide service to both the Pius and general community. Discussions and papers will be assigned to discuss stewardship and the importance of giving time, talent and treasure. Students will culminate this course by creating and implementing a service project at their time and expense to benefit those less fortunate than themselves. (Social Studies, Religion, 3^rd Quarter)

6^th Journalism and Writing: A second grade spanning course, students will create their own newspaper to highlight the accomplishments of fellow students as well as the good things that are happening at the school. Students will learn how to interact with those older than themselves, gain interview skills and writing prowess. Students will also have the opportunity to share their opinions about local and national issues. (Language Arts, Social Studies, Technology)

6^th Applied Mathematics: This course will serve a dual purpose: one, to extend the level of mathematical discussion for our top students, and two, to provide our lower level students with hands on, interactive activities that allow them to increase their personal math knowledge. The class will consist of creation activities that allow students to apply math in a variety of areas including construction, engineering, physics, and rocketry. (Math and Science)

6^th Engineering and Applied Science: This course will serve the same goals as the applied mathematics course, but will focus its energies on the science side of the discussion. Students will build rockets, robots, bridges or other materials that allow them to test and demonstrate scientific knowledge. (Math and Science)

6^th Extended Health and Exercise: This course extends the skills learned earlier in the year and provides a more intensive exercise course. Students will get more in depth instruction regarding nutrition and health, as well as learn more about exercise techniques and other health and safety issues. (PE)

7^th Relationships and Leadership: This is the introductory class for our seventh grade students and focuses on providing a forum to talk about relationships within the class with a focus on their coming into a leadership role. Students will be challenged to treat all people with respect, and this class will also help build friendships and community within the class. These values will be taught through guest speakers, activities and reading and writing. (Language Arts, Social Studies, Religion, 1^st Quarter)

7^th Essays and Applied Writing: This course begins to prepare students for high school writing and exposes them to other forms they may have not yet seen. The class will continue the refinement of the five paragraph essay as well as provide a forum for expository, opinion and humorous writing. Students will have the opportunity to extend their writing as well as share it with their peers, teachers and parents. (Language Arts, 2^nd Quarter)

7^th Elements of Service: This course teaches students the basics of Catholic social teaching. Spreading two grades, students learn the best ways to provide service to both the Pius and general community. Discussions and papers will be assigned to discuss stewardship and the importance of giving time, talent and treasure. Students will culminate this course by creating and implementing a service project at their time and expense to benefit those less fortunate than themselves. (Social Studies, Religion, 3^rd Quarter)

7^th Journalism and Writing: A second grade spanning course, students will create their own newspaper to highlight the accomplishments of fellow students as well as the good things that are happening at the school. Students will learn how to interact with those older than themselves, gain interview skills and writing prowess. Students will also have the opportunity to share their opinions about local and national issues. (Language Arts, Social Studies, Technology)

7^th Applied Mathematics: This course will serve a dual purpose: one, to extend the level of mathematical discussion for our top students, and two, to provide our lower level students with hands on, interactive activities that allow them to increase their personal math knowledge. The class will consist of creation activities that allow students to apply math in a variety of areas including construction, engineering, physics, and rocketry. (Math and Science)

7^th Engineering and Applied Science: This course will serve the same goals as the applied mathematics course, but will focus its energies on the science side of the discussion. Students will build rockets, robots, bridges or other materials that allow them to test and demonstrate scientific knowledge. (Math and Science)

7^th Extended Health and Exercise: This course extends the skills learned earlier in the year and provides a

more intensive exercise course. Students will get more in depth instruction regarding nutrition and health, as well as learn more about exercise techniques and other health and safety issues. (PE)

8^th Time Management: In this course, which is similar to the sixth grade modular for middle school, is designed to help eighth grade students prepare for the pressure of their final year and provide transitional instruction for the change in classes and scene. This also focuses on writing and reading. (Language Arts, 1^st Quarter)

8^th Advanced Writing: Students in this course focus on high school writing and learning how to extend the basics of the writing that they’ve learned. Specifically focused on preparing students for the style of writing at Bishop Kelley, this class will nonetheless provide an academic background to all instructional writing that they will encounter at any high school. (Language Arts, 2^nd Quarter)

8^th Global Concerns: In this course students will focus on newspapers and current event stories. In addition to analyzing the bias of news sources and the legitimacy of news stories, students will learn about other countries, changing political systems and hot-button topics that could affect them far into the future. (Language Arts, Social Studies, Religion, 3^rd Quarter)

8^th Journalism and Writing: A second grade spanning course, students will create their own newspaper to highlight the accomplishments of fellow students as well as the good things that are happening at the school. Students will learn how to interact with those older than themselves, gain interview skills and writing prowess. Students will also have the opportunity to share their opinions about local and national issues. (Language Arts, Social Studies, Technology)

8^th Literary Catholicism: In this course, students will learn about the connections between literature and their faith. Studying the works of Lewis, Chesterton, Greene and Wilde will be supplemented with video presentations and other areas of Catholicism and literature that are not normally explored. (Language Arts)

8^th Extended Health and Exercise: This course extends the skills learned earlier in the year and provides a more intensive exercise course. Students will get more in depth instruction regarding nutrition and health, as well as learn more about exercise techniques and other health and safety issues. (PE)

8^th Educational Initiatives: This course will allow students to experience firsthand the rigors and requirements of teaching. Students will be paired with a mentor that will help them to plan activities and to work one-on-one with other students who have demonstrated a need that can be met with direct instruction. (Social Studies)

8^th Engineering and Applied Science: This course will serve the same goals as the applied mathematics course, but will focus its energies on the science side of the discussion. Students will build rockets, robots, bridges or other materials that allow them to test and demonstrate scientific knowledge. (Math and Science)

Finally, stay tuned. Our middle school handbook will be out following the first weeks of school, and some other minor changes will be detailed in that document as well. Also, feel free to attend any of our forums should you require or desire more information about any of the previous data. We are ultimately here to serve our students, and our new plans do exactly that: make sure that our students are personally responsible, academically excellent and vibrant members of our church school community.

A few things

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:22:00 +0000

First, it's been quite awhile since we've had a post up here. Part of that has been due to the fact we've been preparing all of our wonderful changes to the middle school, and part has been due to the fact that the end of the year is really, really busy.

With all that said, you'll be seeing a few posts this week.

First, an update on the activity center.

We were flooded by what turned out to be a burst pipe in the girl's restroom. When Earl arrived on campus at 6:45 AM, some of the areas of the activity center were flooded with an inch-and-a-half of water. Because of the overwhelming response of our parents, we were able to get the entire area cleaned up and ready to use within just a few short hours. I want to especially thank Todd Goldsmith for overseeing the volunteers and Dave Fields and the Schnetzer family for bleach-cleaning all the floors.

For all of the other volunteers who showed up, thank you so much for your time and dedication. This could have been a terrible situation both financially and structurally, but we really dodged a bullet and everything looks okay.

So again, thank you so much for your quick response to our need!

Spring Break

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:37:00 +0000

I hope that everyone enjoys their spring break. We're just finishing up enrollment and our plans for next year, so be on the lookout the week after spring break for our year schedule, new class plans, and other fun things.

Also, if you know anyone who is looking for kindergarten for next year, send them our way - we still have openings in the class (which has a max size of 44).

And the banner goes to...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:07:00 +0000

A special preview of our academic bowl's State Championship banner. This brings the number of State Championships that we can claim to 9, ranging from girls and boys basketball to the academic bowl team. Not bad for a school 50 years old...

Batting 1.000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:40:00 +0000

Sorry for the long absence in posts - things have been busy, but there have been plenty of wonderful things to talk about.

First, our academic bowl teams demonstrated the Pius spirit at every level. Our 5th and 6th grade team took first place in area, the highest level at which they could achieve. This means that they beat every other team in our general location - public schools, charter schools and other Catholic schools.

Our 7th and 8th grade team completed the sweep by going a perfect 21 - 0 this season. They were the only undefeated team in the state and won the state title going away - their closest contest was decided by 80 points. Furthermore, we had the top individual performer in the state. I wish that I could list all of the names of our successful students, but as this is the internet and safety is always a concern, I will refrain. With that said, I am extremely proud of all of our participants and I want to extend to you all my congratulations and thanks for what you have accomplished in the name of Saint Pius X School.

If that wasn't enough, our Mathcounts team also swept districts and sent a number of students to further competition. Seven of the top ten students were from Saint Pius, including the first place finisher in sixth grade and eighth grade and the second place finisher in seventh grade. These successes are just another indicator that we are truly on the right track for the future.

Because even I was thinking small...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:53:00 +0000

This was a big weekend for Pius. From the visit of Sister Catherine to the unveiling of our new statue to the near ridiculous success of our auction, all of us have plenty to be proud of.

The defining moment for me was when Sister Catherine raised her hand to pledge a donation to the new library - as if she hasn't already given more than enough to the vision and success to the school, she is still contributing every chance she gets.

The big thing is that we met our goals - and exceeded them. It turns out that even I was thinking a little too small, because we've decided that Pius wants more, and I intend to make sure that it happens. In addition to the library that we've already laid out, then, we'll be adding an additional 500 student books and a slew of targeted resources to help out our most needy learners as they work with their new tutors.

The best news is this: the only thing we need to worry about now is the color of the bookshelves and the date of the grand opening.

Fifty one

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Fifty years ago…

Most people would agree that a library is an essential part of any school. After all, learning at this level is textbook based, and to lack resources that can and extend and refine those methods would ultimately lead to the demise of any school. No one book can contain all of the knowledge and information that one comes to possess over the course of their educational experience at Pius, which is all the more reason to maintain a vibrant and full stocked library so that all interests, ideas and needs can be better explored.

Saint Pius has always understood the importance of the written word to the instructional process. In June of 1959, just two years after the school had opened and before there was even a full, dedicated classroom for the eighth grade, the nuns at the school were already concerned about building up the library. They began, as did all things at Pius, with humility.

We recently came across a short article in a publication put out by the nuns call The Family Circular. Volume 25, No. 3, contained the following description of Pius and the library:

The new unit comprises two classrooms, a central library, and restroom facilities. This addition is referred to as the “Birdie School,” because of its various colors; Finch yell, Warbler green, Cardinal red, Pelican gray, and other hues harmoniously blended in an attractive and cheerful atmosphere.

While the construction crew was busy about many details, we began to catalog our library books into a central system. In order to accomplish this task more efficiently and quickly, we were very happy to have Sister Evangela and Sister Benedict with us for about four days. During this time, we cataloged about three hundred and fifty books. We have discovered that a librarian’s job is never done, and up to date we can boast of approximately four hundred books.

Thus it began. It is rather appropriate that the nuns who founded this place would do so in such a simple matter: they needed books, so they asked for them, one at a time. Saint Pius has never been concerned about the way things look to the outside world; it has always been concerned with finding a need and meeting it in whatever manner was possible.

We have come a long way since then, and our current library has far more than four hundred books. We now offer a software program, Accelerated Reader, that allows our students to assess comprehension of books that they read on their own. This in turn allows our students to exceed their school reading requirement. We have a library class that teaches students the basics of library skills and how to gather information. And we have plenty of resources that allow our students avenues to take their learning beyond the classroom.

And the bottom line is this: it is not nearly good enough.

A goal for the future

Truth be told, our library does not meet our current needs. It has long been catered to the younger grades, and our current collection lacks many essential titles that would interest our middle school students. We have little or no access to classic writers that could interest our exceptional learners. Middle school students generally feel that there is no longer any need to visit the library.

Other schools have addressed this issue before us. Many are moving to collaborative models where the library is the central hub through which cross-curricular instruction takes place. Essentially, students are taught that what is learned in their literature class carries over to science, which carries over to math, which carries over to social studies. It helps students understand that all parts of their intellectual journey are connected, and more importantly, it shows them how to find those connections.

A great library, then, would be one where students learn how to access information, how to extend and refine what they are learning in their classes, how to create new skills and build upon their current interests. It should be a collaborative center that allows teachers to step above and beyond their current curriculum as needed in order to reach students in innovative ways, and above and beyond all of this, it should inspire in them a love of reading, a desire to better themselves, and provide them with the materials to do so. The best news that we can give you is this: Saint Pius does not really want a great library.

That would be thinking a little too small.

Setting the bar higher

With all of our lofty expectations, there will still need to be practical details and plans to accomplish all we set out to do. To that end, we will be keeping our current K – 5 library where it is. We will convert the former preschool, located just off the cafeteria, into the new middle school branch. This space will be large enough to hold a full class, will feature numerous tables and a study area, and will also allow us enough shelving to continue to expand our library in the future.

Teachers will be asked to participate in building a love of reading, and a set of shelves will be dedicated to Top Tens, lists of books that the teachers, staff and friends of Saint Pius have laid out in order to inspire our fledgling readers. Students will be encouraged to use the library both before and after school, and will also be able to make requests for volumes that we do not have to be added to our collection.

We will also be offering a number of eBooks, digital books that can be accessed from anywhere and manipulated in ways that bound books cannot. This is important for a few reasons: first, the books are cheaper than their bound counterparts, meaning that very expensive texts can become affordable, and we are therefore granted greater access to information within our library; second, they can be accessed from anywhere, so students compiling research projects no longer have to do so within the library alone; third, these books can be manipulated – text can be highlighted or expanded, and this in turn allows us to eliminate the need to purchase expensive, large print editions of books for our students with visual issues.

Furthermore, we will be hosting a collection of novels that will be utilized by our middle school teachers in order to better teach reading to their classes. We will purchase enough copies of each novel for every member of the class, and there will be twenty-five such sets the first year. We will expand this to over one hundred sets within the next four years, meaning that students will have even greater access to classic texts that they can digest, share and take meaning from in a classroom setting. This will also allow us to ensure that all of our middle school students are reading at least eight novels each school year, a number that will hopefully continue to increase as they continue to develop.

And we’re not done yet

As I mentioned, the goal of the library is to bring learners together and allow collaborative, cross-curricular learning to take place. It allows students who might favor non-traditional methods of education to meet their potential, and we have not forgotten about them.

With this in mind, we were proud to design and fund a new tutoring center that will allow us to meet our remediation and enrichment needs. It is not every student who can sit through a traditional class and learn everything they need to know within the scant fifty minutes that they spend with a teacher. Just so, there are some students who have mastered entire concepts long before their teacher even begins class prayer. It is for those students that we have created our tutoring center.

The tutoring center will consist of a number of teaching tools. Twelve new computers, loaded with the latest software, will flank the walls of the old parish offices. We will convert the two current meeting rooms into one larger space that will offer tables for students and their tutors, teachers or parents to meet. A Smartboard will hang from one wall, and a high-definition computer monitor (to be used for video and image editing) will hang from the other.

Students will be able to also use individual TVs, CD players and MP3 players for a variety of projects, ranging from researching news shows, watching videos that allow them to further explore topics, explore classical music and jazz, and listen to books on tape. Another part of our tutoring center will be a digital media library that will house everything from music to photos to videos. Yet again, all of these materials will be in place not only for our students who need extra help, but also for our students who want to further enrich their educational experience.

In the same way, our students who require additional challenges will have access to our new language lab, a software based, self-study area where students will be able to become conversational in eleven different languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin and Vietnamese. This will also be housed in the tutoring center.

Keeping in mind that we are a church school community, we will be allowing adult and student members of both the parish and the school to use this language learning lab after school hours should they have the desire to do so.

We are also making a commitment that these changes will not languish after they have been undertaken: we have decided to increase the library budget by 690% for next year, and have pledged to keep that level of funding from this time forth. We are also going to add at least one aide whose sole job will be to work individually with both our struggling and advanced learners. We will be keeping the tutoring center quite busy over the coming year.

What you can do to help

There have been many other library projects throughout the city in recent memory, ranging from those at public schools to those at private. This is not an inexpensive undertaking by any means, and I know that any capital improvement can be daunting. The good news is this: we have decided, because of many factors, that we will make our library functional before we make it elegant. We will not have hardwood floors with solid oak tables and chairs, but we will have a massive number of books, hundreds of resources for students to use, and state of the art technology that will help them learn languages, enrich their experiences and refine what they have already learned.

Similar projects, due to their infrastructure costs, have run upwards of $100,000 – and that has not included language labs or dedicated tutoring centers.

What we propose can be done for under $60,000, language lab included, and will feature more resources than these other programs can boast. We are offering twice the library for half the cost, and the best part is that due to some very generous donations, we have already raised just over a third of the necessary money to fund this project. Our grand opening will coincide with the first day of school for the 2008 – 2009 school year.

We have the drive, the plan, and the need. The rest will soon follow, as do all things, in Christ.

What 50 means now...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:25:00 +0000

I know that it's been awhile since any kind of serious updates, so I thought I'd hit you twice today.

Sister Catherine was 31 years old when she became the first principal here at Pius. She was taking over a school that was built by the community around her, and she couldn't have had any idea that it would become what it became. For one thing, she was shocked to learn that we still maintained the original buildings, but was quite happy to learn that we had repainted them from their original teal. (That's actually not a joke. For all of our building skill, we apparently didn't know much about acceptable color schemes.)

The exciting thing is that she is now able to return to us, 50 years after the start of something which has grown beyond all imagining, and share that humble dream that once was Pius. What a tremendous moment this is for all of us; we have the wonderful chance to see where we were and where we're going all in the same moment.

Hope you can join us Friday after mass for her remarks.

Catholic Schools' Week, Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:20:00 +0000

A couple of fun things today.

First, Catholic Schools' Week has started out very well. We have some wonderful events planned, like the talent show, a student-faculty volleyball game, and a visit from the first school principal, Sister Catherine.

To make things even better, the Tulsa World will be out to do an education story on the new meeting the vintage, and it promises to be a wonderful time to talk about all of the great things that are going on at Pius.

So what about those great things? Well, Friday at 10:15 AM will be when we announce another one - not just great news for the school, but change in the way that we approach education here at Pius.

Be excited. Be very excited.

Catholic Schools' Week

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:55:00 +0000

I'm going to be mysterious and start a little buzz around Saint Pius, because Catholic Schools' week is going to be a big week for us.

There are obviously the things that you know:

1. We have new sculpture commissioned by Father Mike that will be unveiled just North of the library. Our students have had a chance to see this sculpture in progress, and OETA might be on campus to film the unveiling. I'll let you know more when I do.

2. We get a chance to celebrate being a part of a church school community, with a full slate of events that will be in your Wednesday packet soon.

3. Something big is coming. We'll be talking a lot about the future during Catholic Schools' Week (don't worry, it's not a new school - yet) and we have some exciting things to let you know about.

So that's it. Stay tuned!

A little behind

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:44:00 +0000

Welcome back!

After the events of our week before Christmas and now the extended break, I'm sure that most of you are happy to be back to the routine. I had a great break myself, but it was spent in snow, cloudy days and 20 degree weather. I was more than a little happy to step off the plane here in Tulsa and be a little warm in my hat, gloves, sweater and winter coat.

As you walk around campus, you can still see many signs of the storm. We're very happy to have campus up and running again, and special thanks to all those who offered to help and came out to take care of our issues. We were very fortunate that we didn't damage any of our buildings and we had enough money within our budget to cover the cost of the tree removal.

Hopefully you all enjoyed the notifications over the break. I must admit that I never envisioned us using it so quickly, but I'm very happy that we had it ready to go. It's a program that we will definitely continue in the future; as we continue to learn to use it, we'll be able to target specific groups with notices about other cancellations, changes and announcements.

So now it's 2008, and time to start part two of our year. Part one ended with quite a bang, but we made it through and I'm excited about where we go from here.

Update to web stats

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:52:00 +0000

We just finished compiling our web stats for November, and again we saw an increase. In total we had just under 2,600 visits (up from October) and a total of more than 5,650 pages viewed. The sky is the limit right now in terms of how much more useful we can make the website, so if you have any other ideas about what we can do or content that you'd like to see, either drop me an email or leave a comment here.

Thanks!

$2,200

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:36:00 +0000

Saint Pius has a long tradition of being present within the community, and a part of this has always been our commitment to service. So far this year our main focus has been on the Container of Hope, our wonderful program meant to help those less fortunate in Haiti.

Even as we think about Haiti, we've been also spreading our resources around to help other programs globally. Last week we had a fund raiser for an organization that helps African orphans, the Touching Tiny Lives Foundation.

TTL, as it is known, is a non-profit organization. Because of our connections (my sister spent two summers in Africa, helping to care for the orphans) we are able to ensure that all of the money that was donated (over $2200 throughout the diocese, with around $600 coming from Saint Pius) will be going directly to the orphanage.

Furthermore, we're going to be fortunate enough to be able to bring in a speaker to talk about the AIDS pandemic and exactly what this means for the future of children in Africa. Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, we're going to be restricting the talk to the eighth grade, and parental consent will be mandatory in order to attend. You can look for those consent forms starting in mid January.

5,136 and counting

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:15:00 +0000

At our last advisory council meeting we wanted to take a look at our web usage statistics to see if our changes to the website had a noticeable difference. Based on our recent numbers, the change has been staggering.

To give you a little idea of how far we've come, the website was launched in December of 2006. There wasn't much action the first month - only 24 visits and 244 page views. (A visit is defined as when someone comes to the website, and a page view is defined as when someone looks at an individual webpage). January saw a large upswing in the number of visitors and page views: we jumped to 1,200 visits and just over 3,000 pages viewed.

From there, things became pretty consistent. The next six months saw about 1,100 visits and 1,800 page views per month. But then August came, and everything changed. With the new information being added to the website and new resources to access it by, our visits jumped to 1,800 in August, 1,900 in September, and 2,200 in October, and we're right on track to break that record again here in November. Even more impressive is our page views. For the month of October, we had 5,136 pages viewed.

So what does all of this mean? Hopefully, it means that our website is becoming an incredible informative tool - not only for our current parents, but for prospective parents as well. If you're reading this, chances are good that you already spend a fair amount of time on the web. For new families that are coming into our area, the internet is an invaluable way for them to learn about Saint Pius before they come to visit - and with the information that we can now provide, in a format that is easy to access and use - we should be seeing the fruits of these labors very soon.

A Turtle on a Fencepost

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:19:00 +0000

On Friday, Father spent a good amount of time talking about the impact that Saint Pius X School can have on our students, and I was struck by the fact that our students can have a great impact on those around them as well.

Ernie Harwell, the famous Detroit Tigers broadcaster, often talked about exactly this topic. I had the privilege of seeing him speak when inducted into the Tigers’ Hall of Fame, and he spoke about how he felt that he was like “a turtle on a fencepost. If you ever come across a turtle on a fencepost, you know that he’s not there by accident. Somebody put him there.”

In one sense, I feel as if this sums up our mission at Saint Pius. Ultimately, our job as educators is to make students achieve things that they did not believe to be possible; it is to help them reach places even they didn’t think they could go.

But it also goes far beyond this, because our students aren’t the only “turtles” here. In fact, our students have never been content to allow someone else to lift them up; they always want to lift others up as well.

It’s like the three seventh grade girls who heard that Catholic Charities needed toys for Christmas, so they contacted the appropriate people and made Saint Pius an official donation drop off site.

It’s like the sixth grade boy who came into my office to tell me that a friend of his was getting bullied, and while he didn’t want to tell on the bully, he wanted me to know that his friend didn’t deserve to be picked on.

It’s like the eighth grade student who stood up for a younger classmate when he saw this person getting bullied, and then had six – yes, six – students write about the incident in our secret steward box.

It’s like the fact that our Secret Steward Program receives, on average, ten new incidents a day of our students helping each other out without being asked to, and over 50% of our student body has been implicated.

So it turns out that the lessons we are trying to teach are being heard – and now, our students are starting to teach them to us as well.

More tales of our preschool

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:40:00 +0000

Not to keep regaling you with news from the preschool, but I did have a rather funny incident the other day.

I was walking around campus at about two (the preschool dismissal time) I called out to one of our young preschool boys and asked him how his day went. His mom looked down and asked if he was happy that the principal knew his name and talked to him.

“He’s not my principal,” the boy replied. “He’s my big buddy!”

At least until he gets in trouble in kindergarten…