Creating a Positive Culture

Great Life of
Pre-K Students

Everyone who attended 8:30 Mass this morning had the privilege of listening to the parish youth choir led by our very own kindergarten teacher, Tricia Cooper. About half of the youth choir members are St. Ann students. I would love to see more of the St. Ann students participate in the parish youth choir, but I know it is hard for them to participate in two different choirs since the school choir has over 60 members. The school choir performs at Mass every Thursday morning. 5th-8th grade school choir members practice 5-days a week. Ryan Cooper, the school's choir teacher, does a great job of leading the school choir. I want very much so for our school choir to sing at a Sunday Mass. Wouldn't it be cool to see and hear 60 St. Ann choir members at Mass. I think the parishioners would greatly appreciate the school choir singing at Mass.

4th Grade STREAM

The St. Ann girls' volleyball team ended their season this weekend with a 7-3 record. They placed 4th out of 10 teams in their league. The girls had an incredible season. According to Coach Jennifer Podesta, the girls came to practice ready to learn, and came to the games ready to win. I believe they started the season losing the first two matches before winning six matches in a row.  The entire team was brand new to volleyball, and they all ended the season loving the sport. With such success and being led by outstanding, dedicated coaches, I'm hoping a lot more of our girls participate in volleyball next season. It would be great if we had several teams participating in volleyball. Congratulations to the girls, Coach Podesta, and Coach Jessica Orban. Thank you for doing such an awesome job of representing St. Ann.

Drew Battle's 1st Out of Town
Soccer Tournament- Birmingham, AL

Thanks to Lt. Justin McNeely and the Bartlett Fire Department, our faculty and staff are certified in CPR.  For our E-Care and Pre-K staff, this was a re-certification.  For the rest of us, it was a certification. This is a 2-year certification. Next, we will set up a 1st aid training class for our staff for anyone interested. For those working with Pre-K students, this is a requirement. For everyone else, it is just suggested. Thanks to Captain Steve Sones of the Bartlett Police Department for helping to set up this training.

6th Grade Science Class

Our administration is working with staff members and Home & School representatives to review the uniform policy. We would like to streamline/simplify the uniforms policy and hopefully help families save some money. We should have a finalized new uniform policy this week. We are still getting input from staff and Home & School.

John Baum, our band director, is hoping to take the band to a band competition in St. Louis in April. The choir might be a part of this competition as well. We are working on the plans to make this happen.

With Abe Abuelouf at the
Bluff City Wing Fest

As an administrator, I highly encourage these types of activities. I believe these activities can be more educational than classroom teaching and learning, and develop a life-time of positive memories. I want St. Ann to be a place our students want to be every day as opposed to being a place they would rather not be. I want to develop positive student experiences so students look forward to seeing their classmates, learning in collaboration with their teachers, and developing great memories for when they graduate from St. Ann. Students should not dread coming to school. We need to create a school atmosphere and culture that students want to be a part of.

Support St. Ann Catholic School

In next week's blog, I hope to expand on some items we would like to purchase for each classroom. As with everything, I'm going to ask for people to step up and purchase these items for the classrooms. We aren't talking about a lot of money. We are talking about $50 for each item for the classrooms. More information to come.  Contact me if you would like to learn about these items before next week. If you can help us, please do help. I invite you to help. didier.aur@sascolts.org.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, principal
St. Ann Catholic School