January 7, 2016


Dear St. Katharine of Siena School Families,

          Welcome to the first blog of the New Year. Joy, health, and peace to you and your families. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your generosity and goodness to the faculty/staff and me over the holidays. Not every school is as fortunate as ours to have such caring families .
          We are back into a routine. It's tough coming back from Christmas break, but the kids are smiling and happy to see everyone, including their teachers and even their principal!
          Wednesday morning we had an in-service for teachers as a teacher/coach from the DCIU
(Delaware County Intermediate Unit) worked with our teachers in improving their technology skills with Google Apps for Education.  So what did Mr. T. do with 452 students while the teachers were in the media center?  Thanks to some courageous moms and dads who helped me, we had an  SSR (silent sustained reading) time with the students. Each student in each grade is paired with their older "Buddies" ( KG-6 , 1-8, 2-4, 3-7) and 5th grade has me as their one and only "Buddy."  So throughout the entire school  for a 90 minute block of time students were either reading quietly on their own,  the older Buddy was reading aloud to the younger Buddy, or had the younger one read aloud to them. They read quietly for enjoyment and the older students took great care of the younger ones.  I am exceptionally proud of how our students carried themselves during this entire time.  It made me proud to be their principal.  Pictured below are a few of our students with their Buddies. 
            Finally, one of the keys to being successful as a student is to have a neat, legible, and organized  homework pad. There is a direct correlation  to students who succeed and those who have an organized way of knowing what they have to do.  It's an example of working smarter as well as harder.  To that end , one of Mr. T's New Year's resolutions is to drive that point home. I have communicated to students this week that I would be checking homework copybooks at random. I started it today and checked about a dozen or so, and it raised more than a few eyebrows in the process.  Whatever it takes to get them  moving forward, right? I 'll be back at it tomorrow and the days to come.   

          Thank you for entrusting us with your children each day. We are blessed.


           Take care,


            Bud

                              Pictures from Yesterday's Buddies Reading