What Joy Do You Bring To Others?

7th Graders in Ocean Springs

Today's blog might be a little shorter than usual. We will see how the writing goes. We got back from the 7th grade trip to Ocean Springs, MS late on Friday. I spent much of Saturday just getting caught up, and spent time today working. So, this doesn't leave much time for writing a blog since it is 8:30 pm already and tomorrow will be a long day with the start of the Advanc-ED accreditation process for the Catholic Schools of our diocese. I will need to get to work extra early tomorrow just to organize the day before everybody shows up.

Dissecting Sharks

At today's 11:30 Mass, Fr. Bill gave us a lesson on the parable of the Prodigal Son. When I was working on my Master's in Catholic Studies, my classmates and I broke down this parable because there are so many lessons to be learned from this one parable. What Father spoke about I had never heard, and I appreciated the lesson he taught us. His underlying question to this parable is what joy do you bring to others?

What joy do you bring to others? This question had me thinking about what joy I bring to others because as much joy as people bring into my life, I hope I'm doing the same for others.

Just this week alone, I was able to spend Tuesday through Friday with many of our 7th graders on our trip to the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, MS. The students and instructors brought much joy into my life as we learned about the aquatic life of the Mississippi Sound. I didn't even know there is a Mississippi Sound with its brackish waters providing a nursery for the Gulf of Mexico. I'm hoping that adventures such as these for our students will lead to the development of scientists and researchers who will make a positive difference for all of God's creation.

People brought much joy to my life on Saturday as well. Got to spend the day with Kelley, my wife, as we attended Mass at St. Michael with Fr. Ben Bradshaw. We wish him happiness and success on his trip to Our Lady of Lourdes in France. I asked him to say a special prayer for my mother and my mother-in-law while at Lourdes. What mother wouldn't appreciate prayers for them at Lourdes! Fr. Ben brought joy into my life.

Zac Brown Band

Saturday evening, Kelley and I were treated to the Zac Brown Band concert at FedEx Forum. What an incredible concert. They put on a show like I've never seen before. All the musicians in the band were beyond extremely talented. They have perfected their skills and talents through years of practice and performing. I never imagined musicians as talented as these guys. Hearing their songs on the radio is one thing, but seeing them live is a whole nother world. I hope to one day be as great a school administrator as they are musicians. The Zach Brown Band brought joy into my life. I've been singing their songs all day. Keep Me In Mind.

Boating in the Mississippi Sound

I do bring joy to others, but that is not always the case. Being a lead administrator doesn't mean I'm always the nice guy. When the ship is off course or listing, it is usually up to me to straighten the ship. Most of the time, this can be accomplished by communicating and working together. But some times, I have to make some hard decisions that don't bring joy to others. That's part of being the leader. The funny thing is that once things are straightened out, joy is usually a by-product.

What joy do you bringing to others? Are you the type that finds joy first or looks for a reason to complain first? Do people gravitate to you or avoid you? Are your stories happy or sad? Do you avoid drama or are you the center of drama? Do you find yourself smiling for no reason at all? Do you stand to greet people? Answer for yourself the question posed by Fr. Bill: What joy do you bring to others? If you do bring joy, thank you. You make the world a better place.

Student Spotlight:

Cassie Harmon

On March 22nd-23rd, the Rainbow National Dance Competition West Memphis Regionals took place. Cassie Harmon, fifth grader in Ms. Metaxas' class, performed in three dance routines and was honored with multiple high awards, two All Star invites, and an invitation for Dancer of the Year Nationals. Cassie receive three Double Platinum awards and had the highest score for each of the three routines she and her teammates performed. This was the first time she has ever competed in the intermediate division. She and her teammates placed in the overalls for all 3 of the routines as well. Cassie has earned many more dancing awards that I will feature in future student spotlights.

The accreditation process starts tomorrow. Actually, it started back in June. It is just that the Advanc-ED team will be here to finalize the accreditation. Lori Locke and Jimmy Crews will be representing the St. Ann parents at the accreditation meeting. Prayers on the success of this process are much appreciated.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal

Never an Uneventful Day

Fat Tuesday Alumni Party

One never experiences an uneventful day when working in schools. There is never a regular day where we can set our daily agenda and follow it. My daily agenda changes starting at 8:05 am. That's the time we usually finish the daily prayers and morning announcements. 9 out of 10 days somebody is waiting for me to discuss something, and you know that something is usually not about what a great job I'm doing.

Eisenhower Matrix

This makes me think of the Eisenhower Matrix of time management where I'm suppose to focus my time on the urgent and important versus the non-urgent and non-important. What the Eisenhower Matrix doesn't address is who determines what is important and urgent. What is important and urgent to my students, teachers, and parents is not always important and urgent to me. But, my job is to do the best I can for my students, teachers, and parents. So, starting at 8:05 am, I change my role from school principal to school fireman, and I do my best to put out fires. This week, the week before Spring Break, was definitely a firefighting week. Just glad this past week is behind us, and I can focus during Spring Break week on my list of urgent and important. In lieu of a raise for next year, maybe I'll ask Fr. Ernie for a fireman's helmet. :)

With Patrick Norman, St. Ann Grad

Just an FYI, I do enjoy putting out fires most of the time, and I don't mind dealing with unpleasant situations. I don't look forward to dealing with the unpleasant. It is just that I've been doing this for so long I know that it is a part of the job. And unfortunately, not everyone agrees with my methods or decisions of how I deal with the unpleasant or putting out fires. Not every day nor decision is rosy, but I do wear rose-colored glasses. So, I have that going for me.

With Virginia Norman, St. Ann Grad

Since last fall, we have been planning the Alumni Fat Tuesday Party. We had about 60 alumni RSVP and we were excited for such a great turnout. Our decorating committee, mainly made up of St. Ann alum, did a great job of decorating the gym. The Knights of Columbus stepped up as usual and took care of the food. Special thanks to Jack and Stacey Griffith for leading the charge getting the food ready. In the end, about 40 people attended the party. I am not a St. Ann graduate, but I had a great time, and do look forward to the next St. Ann alumni get-together.

Fat Tuesday Alumni Party

Parents and Students! Time for Colt Star Award nominations. The Colt Star Award recognizes faculty and staff members at St. Ann who exhibit leadership, participate in school and community projects, and foster good citizenship and high academic achievement at St. Ann.  CLICK HERE to download the Colt Star Award nomination form.

On Saturday, March 23rd, St. Ann will have a tent at the Jubilee Schools' Mardi Gras In Memphis Crawfish Boil and ETW 5K. We have a Memphis Catholic intern working at St. Ann every day. In return for their support, we are going to support the Crawfish Boil and 5K. Several of our St. Ann friends and alumni are also Memphis Catholic Chargers.

I am inviting all St. Ann folks to come out for a day of fun at Memphis Catholic. Bring your chairs and join us at the St. Ann tent. Admission is $5 with children 5 and under free. There will be live music, bouncy castles, face painting, and corn hole games included with admission. There will be food and drink available for purchase. A box of crawfish will be available for $10. My wing cooking friend from Jefferson City, Philip Schulte, will be grilling his "Soon to be World Famous Wings" and Mid-Missouri homemade sausage. We had a good St. Ann crowd at the Wings of Jubilee last fall. Let's have a great turnout for the Crawfish Boil and 5K.

Wiring for Security Cameras

The school security camera system is almost complete. When everyone returns from Spring Break, they will see our cameras covering every hallway, cafeteria, and gym. We are already working on installing speakers in the hallway. The final step will be the door locks. I might have to take a locksmithing class to get this done, but we need to replace the door locks throughout the campus.

Lastly for this week, the computer labs are being used more this year than ever before. Many of the computer programs such as IXL, ReadWorks, easyCBM, and Spelling Words used by the students require headphones. Many of the head phones we currently use need replacing. Amazon is running a special on the Califone headphones we use. We can purchase a set of 10 Califone headphones for $94.26. We are in need of two of these sets. Purchasing the headphones individually is roughly $13 a piece. If you can help purchase two sets of 10 Califone headphones for our students, we greatly appreciate your help.

Have a great Spring Break. I will be at St. Ann most of the week

Support St. Ann

working on summer camps. Hopefully, the fires will be few but know there will always be fires.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal

The Meaning of Success

Success means something different to each of us, and our meaning of success changes from day to day. On this beautiful Sunday, success to me means an incredible 2018 St. Ann Fall Fest. Wow, what an incredible Fall Fest we had this past Friday and Saturday!

The Sky Over Fall Fest- Beautiful

Hats off and a standing ovation to Stephanie Nichols, Jamie Coggins, and Kathy Schiavone. Over the past year, these three ladies have given up a good chunk of their lives to make sure the St. Ann Fall Fest would be a success. Ladies it was a huge success. Thank you as I bow to you for what you have done for St. Ann Catholic Church and School. Starting with the golf tournament and ending with the Wolfchase Hyundai car give-away and 5th Kind playing great 80's music, the Fall Fest could not have been any better. And yes, there was great music in the 80's.

My Golf Team

American philosopher Dennis Myers once said, "Some dream of success while others work hard to make success happen." Thank you Stephanie, Jamie, and Kathy for working hard to make success happen.

Personally, I enjoyed every Fall Fest event. On Friday morning, my team took second place at the St. Ann Golf Tournament shooting 15 under. I know how to stack a team. I recruited the St. Ann golf coaches Paul Mann and Mike Kauker as well as Derrol Jowell of the Jubilee Schools as my teammates. We were 12 under after 12, and that's when we started parring some holes. We actually parred an earlier hole but followed it up with an eagle to keep up our birdie pace.

The Best Auction Prize

The Italian dinner and auction were a hit. The food was awesome especially the meatballs. I'm craving some right now. Selina Trouy and I start our diet on Monday, so no more meatballs. I'm getting hungry just thinking about dieting. Something is wrong with that.

The silent auction was absolutely huge. The best item was a lunch with the principal. I look forward to hosting that lunch. There goes the diet.

I had the privilege of being the emcee along with Fr. Ernie at the live auction. I hope I'm included in the dinner and shooting with Fr. Ernie. That's one pretty creative auction item, and another diet breaker.

I want to send out a special shoutout to all the St. Ann staff (church and school) members who volunteered to help at Fall Fest. I love it when the people I work with take ownership of the organization. That's what the great folks at St. Ann do; they take ownership of the place, which makes St. Ann a great place to work.

4th Grade Coders

This week's shoutout goes to several students. First shoutout goes to 4th graders, Tomas Gomez and Shannia Bailey, for being the first in their class to complete the Hour of Code (coding assignment) in Mrs. Slattery computer class.

7th Graders at Memphis

The second shoutout goes to Cassie Richardson, Logan Wymore, Zach Griffith, and Luca de Jong for their participation in the University of Memphis Engineering Day. They participated in the water filtration competition. Alex Yong, Johnathan Clowney, and Chloe Ngyugen participated in the bridge competition. These young folks participated in the competitions on a day off from school. Thanks for your dedication. Thanks also to Stacey Griffith and Angela de Jong for leading our students at Engineering Day.

6th Graders at Memphis

St. Ann alum Justin Abart returned to show our middle schoolers how businesses use drones. I taught Justin World Geography at CBHS. I must have had some influence on him because he became a geographer. He earned a B.A. in geography from Tennessee and an M.S. in earth sciences from Memphis. I'm hoping that we can have some influence on the current students to study geography so they can help make a positive difference on global warming, deforestation, desertification, pollution (air, water, and land), rising sea levels...  Justin plans to return to continue helping our students in the areas of science and social studies.

I started off the week at the AdvancED conference at Middle Tennessee State University. The two day conference was to help schools preparing for the accreditation process. Our school is accredited every five years, and the accreditation process changes every five years. The conference helped me get more organized and become more knowledgeable in the new process. We have formed our school improvement committee to help lead St. Ann into the future. Our team members are Lori Locke, Liz Wehmeyer, Susan Hunt, Fr. Bill Parham, Teresa Ferrante, Annmarie Ghio, Angela de Jong, and I. Once we develop the school improvement plan, we will present the plan to Fr. Ernie for his approval. Once we receive his approval, we will present the plan to the St. Ann community, and start working on the improvements and school accreditation.

Justin Abart Returns to St. Ann

This week, we also celebrated Awards Day. We honored the students who made the Faculty Honor Roll, Principal Honor Roll, Father Oglesby Character Award, Student of the Month, and the Colt Star Employee of the Month. This month's Father Oglesby Character Award winners are Rock Garrett (K), Anna Tran (1), Taylor Hill (2), Emily Morales (3), Shannia Bailey (4), Cassie Harmon (5), Johnathan Clowney (6), Zach Griffith (7), and Louis Vidal (8). The Student of the Month is Logan Wymore. The Colt Star Employee of the Month is Susan Hunt. Congratulations to all who worked hard to earn an award.

Chili Cook Off Judges

It was an extremely busy week. Glad I spent most of today resting. Part of the relaxation for me was attending 8:30 Mass at St. Ann this morning and then 11:00 Mass at St. Michael. Nothing like a double shot of spiritual uplifting at two great parishes.

I wish all of you a fantastic week ahead, and start off by making Monday a great day.

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

The Cool Things

Carvalho Family After
Gustavo's Confirmation

The hardest part of writing a blog is just getting started. For this week's blog, I decided to just start with the cool things that happened this week. It was a short week but a very cool week.

The coolest thing took place this morning at 11:30 Mass. One of my former students from Holy Names, Gustavo Carvalho, was confirmed into the faith, and I was honored to be his confirmation sponsor. The Carvalho Family moved to Memphis from Recife, Pernambuco in Brazil so one of Gustavo's sisters, Gabriella, could receive medical treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The Carvalhos are an incredible family, and we are fortunate to call them St. Ann parishioners. Thank you Fr. Bill for today's confirmation ceremony.

If you want to see a beautiful city, Google images of Recife in Brazil. I've never been there but would add it to my bucket list if I had one.

With Fr. Bill and Gustavo

It is amazing how many people at St. Ann are a part of the St. Jude story including me. The reason my family moved to the United States is because my father was the first oncologist at St. Jude. We have a number of school parents who work at St. Jude in so many different capacities.

Three St. Ann students have spent the last week training in soccer at the Juventus Academy in Turin, Italy. Ruby Langford, Jack Langford, and Brett Battle were part of a team representing Lobos Rush Soccer at Juventus. The 10 day trip included trainings at the Juventus Training Center with the academy coaches and matches against local teams affiliated with the Academy. The trip culminated in a 1-1 tie against the Sisport Scuola

Rudy, Jack, and Brett in Italy

Calcio Juventus Academy team. They also toured the area around Turin, including Cantalupa, Vivono, Milan, Lake Como. They saw the Shroud of Turin, and the remaining wall from when the Romans ruled.  Congratulations Ruby, Jack, and Brett on representing St. Ann, Lobos Rush, and the US Soccer Federation successfully!

The third session of Extracurricular Exploration (EE) began this past

Brett at the Shroud of Turin 

week with many new activities. The coolest thing about this session is that two students are teaching a session. Lauren Truelove and Ruby Langford are teaching the sewing EE class. Thank you to Mr. Vince Migliaccio for helping our students with making Rosaries in the Rosary EE. We are looking to add volleyball to the fourth EE session starting in January. 

New Pyle Speakers
Mounted in the Library

Another cool thing that is taking place is the number of Pyle speakers being donated for the students and teachers to use in the classrooms. So far, 16 of the 21 sets of speakers we need have been donated. I just checked the school's Facebook page and it appears that 3 more sets have been ordered to bring the total to 19! Thank you to all the donors, which includes students, grandparents, parents, teachers, and friends. One of the friends, Philip Schulte, comes from St. Martin, MO. He is a good friend of mine who read my blog, and was the first person to order speakers from Amazon for us.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCYK12M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now it is teacher brag time. I have been doing classroom observations for nearly two decades. This past Friday, I observed two of the best classes, ranking right up there with some of the best I've ever seen. The two classes were 5th grade with Mrs. Metaxas and 4th grade with Mrs. Williams.

Kevin and Tavarius
Singing a Duet

The 5th graders were working in groups on their building projects (spaghetti, marshmallows, and tape). It was neat to see some of the groups succeed and some not succeed. Hey, we all learn when we don't succeed. The extremely neat part was the student collaboration taking place as they were doing the math to figure out how much they spent on their project, and if they were able to complete the building project. The whole time, Mrs. Metaxas was guiding the students in her calm and patient way. I greatly enjoyed this observation.

In 4th grade, some students were reading in a group with Mrs. Williams using ReadWorks on their iPads. (https://www.readworks.org) The students were reading Jenna and the Black Cat. The students not reading with Mrs. Williams were reading Jenna and the Black Cat or Holes on their own, doing vocabulary words, or working on handwriting (cursive). Students were focused, helping each other when needed, and transitioned quickly and quietly when it was time to do so. They were using the iPad, novels, textbooks, and workbooks. This is the way today's classrooms need to look. This class was pretty close to perfect. 

I noticed at Mass this past Thursday that Mr. Ryan Cooper was getting more students involved in the duets. I thought that was pretty awesome. I enjoy listening to our students share their talents.

Looking forward to two events this week. The first one is Donuts with Dad this Wednesday. The second one is the Fall Fest! I hope to see big crowds at each event. Let's support our students and school!

Also want to thank the Fall Fest planning team for allowing me to represent St. Ann on the Channel 24 Local Memphis Live with Chelsea Chandler. Thanks to James Dean from Wolfchase Hyundai for joining us on the set to talk about the car raffle. I hope your kindness and generosity pays you back ten-fold.

Support St. Ann

Please keep St. Ann Catholic School, our students and staff, and this week's events in your daily prayers. We need and greatly appreciate your support.

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

Thanks for Another Successful Jubilee Event!

Mardi Gras in Memphis turned out to be a fantastic 2-day event. We were blessed with the perfect weekend weather-wise; not a cloud in the sky with temperatures in the mid to low-70's.

The crawfish were spicy and almost all gone by the end of the first day. I'm not a crawfish lover, but I do love the sausage and corn on the cob boiled with the crawfish. Pineapple and green beans were the secret ingredients added to our crawfish boil this year.

I really like the format of the people's choice gumbo cook-off. Anyone who wanted to judge the gumbo did so. The gumbo tent was packed with judges. By the end of the judging, most of the gumbo was gone.

The winner of our first-ever gumbo cook-off was St. Joseph Catholic School despite protests from the competition claiming St. Joseph did not use Roux in their gumbo. Leslie Harden, New Orleans native and St. Joseph principal, refuted their claim and laughed off the protest by showing off the championship trophy with a victory lap. Nothing like a little touting to quiet your opponents.

The Risky Whiskey Boys, David Pool (Memphis Catholic '85) and Jimmy Smith along with guest soloists Fr. Michael Werkhoven (Memphis Catholic '84) and Philip Schulte, entertained the crowd on Saturday with their repertoire of classic rock, pop, and current music.

Memphis' own one man band, Charvey Mac, wowed the crowd on Sunday with his acoustic arrangement and vocally driven sounds. He is a former student of mine from CBHS. I love listening to him perform because his voice is so smooth and very relaxing.  Never seen that man not smiling.

This event could not have taken place without our many volunteers. The best volunteers were from St. Patrick Catholic School. They arrived early and stayed late. They worked the food tents throughout the entire event. Thank you to the St. Patrick volunteers: Susan Pittman, Jackie Brown, JoAnn McKinney, Jennifer Santes, Chad Martin, Kendra Masters, Yaschia Dillard, and Sheree Wilson.

I want to send out a special thank you to Heidi Ames, Mercedes Durham, Anita Whitthaus, and Philip Schulte for driving from Jefferson City, MO to volunteer at the Mardi Gras in Memphis. This was Heidi's first time in Memphis, but the other three have been volunteering for years.

Mr. Richard Jones volunteered once again to cook all the hamburgers and hotdogs for the 2-day event. Not easy for a strict vegan to do, but he did it and did it well!

Mrs. Lolita Miller put in her 20,000 steps each day of the event. No one works harder than Mrs. Miller, and she does so with a smile on her face.

Thank you volunteers! Here's a long list of volunteers who helped put on this event not including the dozens of students from Memphis Catholic and St. Patrick: Angela Fox (event coordinator), Terri Carney, Landaria Saulsberry, Nancy Eddins, Kristi Baird, Tunia Sangster, Lola Scarlett, Debra Robinson, Deacon Ted Schreck, Eda Fain, Victoria Moore, Rebecca Rosa, Dawn Rose, Eric Harper, Chip Pankey, Katie Trivitt, Erin Celeste, Erica Crabtree, Rosie Jupson, Michael Ash, Sherrie Justice, Consuelo Martell, Andrew McDougal, Carolyn Pinkston, Beth Niedzwiedz, Yolanda Scott, Derikah Scott, Deacon Henry Littleton, Esmeralda Martinez, Leticia Gonzalez, Antonio Hinton, Ruth Bowlin, Kelley Aur, Jonathan Aur, Brittany Aur, David Justice, Jeff Justice, and D.J. Harden.

Thank you to our crawfish chef, Shannon Runnels. Geaux Tigers!

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the Jubilee Schools at the Mardi Gras in Memphis. We had a great time celebrating the Jubilee Schools.

We thank the crewes that set up teams and invited their family, friends, and co-workers to come out to enjoy great food, music, and company.

We have already debriefed and have started making plans for next year's Mardi Gras in Memphis.

Our next event will be our 3rd Wings of Jubilee this fall. We have tentatively set the date of Saturday, September 29, 2018 for the Wings of Jubilee. My team is ready and in place. We used the Mardi Gras in Memphis to perfect our wings!

My next blog is going to be a shout-out to all our sponsors.

Thanks again!

God bless you,
Didier Aur

Mardi Gras in Memphis!

Mardi Gras in Memphis is the newest fundraising festival for the Jubilee Catholic Schools.  This festival combines the Tails of Jubilee (Jubilee Crawfish Festival) and the Memphis Catholic 5K (Education That Works Out 5K) to create a 2-day Jubilee celebration taking place on April 28th & 29th at Memphis Catholic located at 61 N. McLean Blvd, Memphis, TN 38104.

This event benefits the nine Jubilee Schools and 1,600 students supported by the Jubilee Fund.  For more information about the Jubilee Schools, click on http://jubileeschools.org.

Mardi Gras in Memphis takes place on April 28th & 29th from 1-5 pm. Admissions is $5 with children 5 & under are free.  There will be live music, bouncy castles, face-painting, and games included as part of the admission.  Purchase tickets online at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras.

The Crawfish Boil begins at 1 pm on both Saturday and Sunday.  Each box of crawfish (roughly 2 lbs.) is $10.  You can pre-order crawfish at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras

We will also be serving hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, water, sodas, and beer.

At 2 pm on Saturday, the People's Choice Gumbo Cook-Off begins.  It is free to enter a pot of gumbo for judging.  Register online at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras to enter the Gumbo Cook-Off.

Live music on Saturday will be performed by the Risky Whiskey Boys. https://www.facebook.com/Risky-Whiskey-Boys-879415615534581/

Live music on Sunday will be performed by Charvey Mac. http://charveymac.com/

The Education That Works Out 5K takes place on Sunday.  Registration and beer tent open at 1 pm with the race beginning at 2 pm.  All racers receive a Mardi Gras in Memphis shirt, 2 food/beverage tickets and festival entry.  Register for the 5K at https://racesonline.com/events/etw5k.

Bring your chairs, blankets, and umbrellas and join the party.  If you need more space for your crew and would like to bring a tent, we do have spaces available.  10x15 spots are $150, which includes 10 free admissions (worth $50), 10 boxes of crawfish (worth $100), and entry in the gumbo cook-off.  Reserve a spot for your crew at https://jubileeschools.org/mardigras.

If you cannot make it to the event but would like to invest in a Jubilee student, you can do so online at https://www.jubileeschools.org/invest.

For questions, please contact me at (901) 373-1226 or didier.aur@jso.cdom.org.

Hope to see you there!

God bless you,
Didier Aur