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SRSD Newsletter Feb 28, 2013 Volume 2, Issue 10 Contents Confirmation News 1 Who’s that Baby 1 Yearbook Orders 1 Weather Policy 2 Kroger Time to Renew 2 Salsa! 2 Deaf Culture 2 Lions of the Week 3 Kindergarten News 3 ”Good Bye” Friends 4 Tech Corner 4 LSD says “Thank You” 5 Deaf Awareness Week 5 Book Fair 6 Spring Plant Sale 6 ASL Deaf Camp 6 Deaf Comedian Returns 7 Fundraising News 8 Summer Festival 8 Open House 9 Distance Learning 9 2013 Prom 9 Golf Marathon 9 Virtus Instructions 10 ccww If you would like to order a yearbook please send an envelope with cash or check for $20.00 payable to St. Rita School for the Deaf. Make sure the envelope is directed to Ted Jewell. You can drop the envelope off at the front desk for the receptionist to put in my mailbox or have your child or child’s homeroom teacher give it to me. Taking Yearbook Orders Now By Ted Jewell Remember February 28 th is the last day to place a yearbook order. WHO’S THAT BABY? - by Louise Burns LOFT through 12 th Grade and Staff: Send in a cute baby picture of your child and we will display it in our first floor bulletin board. Make sure you include the child’s name on the back of the picture so it can be returned to you later. Staff: Remember to send in your pictures too. We may do a guessing game with those. “Here’s Looking at You, Kid!”

Feb 28, 2013 Volume 2, Issue 10 - St. Rita School for the Deafs Roar Feb... · Deaf -Awareness Week 5 Book Fair 6 Spring Plant Sale 6 ASL Deaf Camp 6 Deaf Comedian Returns 7 Fundraising

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Page 1: Feb 28, 2013 Volume 2, Issue 10 - St. Rita School for the Deafs Roar Feb... · Deaf -Awareness Week 5 Book Fair 6 Spring Plant Sale 6 ASL Deaf Camp 6 Deaf Comedian Returns 7 Fundraising

SRSD Newsletter

Feb 28, 2013

Volume 2, Issue 10

Contents

Confirmation News 1

Who’s that Baby 1

Yearbook Orders 1

Weather Policy 2

Kroger Time to Renew 2

Salsa! 2

Deaf Culture 2

Lions of the Week 3

Kindergarten News 3

”Good Bye” Friends 4

Tech Corner 4

LSD says “Thank You” 5

Deaf Awareness Week 5

Book Fair 6

Spring Plant Sale 6

ASL Deaf Camp 6

Deaf Comedian Returns 7

Fundraising News 8

Summer Festival 8

Open House 9

Distance Learning 9

2013 Prom 9

Golf Marathon 9

Virtus Instructions 10

ccww If you would like to order a yearbook please send an envelope with

cash or check for $20.00 payable to St. Rita School for the Deaf. Make

sure the envelope is directed to Ted Jewell. You can drop the

envelope off at the front desk for the receptionist to put in my mailbox

or have your child or child’s homeroom teacher give it to me.

Taking Yearbook Orders Now – By Ted Jewell

For the past two years parents, students and staff at St Rita have been collecting plastic lids from various plastic containers (milk jugs, bottled water, coffee creamer, juice drinks, marker caps, medicine lids, coffee lids, and so on). Last year the Senior class designed and made a sculpture that is displayed outside of the Loft Building. It is made of copper pipe, plexiglass, and various plastic caps. It was presented to the school as a gift from the senior class. At the beginning of this school year, the Greenhouse dept was asked by the Cafeteria staff to design a mural to be displayed in the cafeteria that would represent our passion to recycle. The high school students, under the direction of the Greenhouse staff, designed a beautiful wall mural that is now proudly displayed in the cafeteria for all to see and enjoy. This past Christmas, all of the students that have Greenhouse class made Christmas ornaments using the collected bottle caps. That was a LOT of caps, but we had PLENTY to fulfill the project. The ornaments turned out beautifully, and were made of recycled plastic caps and recycled Christmas Cards. We are still collecting the caps (the smaller the better) and plan to make more use of them in the future.

Remember February 28th is the last day to place a yearbook order.

WHO’S THAT BABY? - by Louise Burns

LOFT through 12th Grade and Staff: Send in a cute baby picture of your child and we will display it in our first floor bulletin board. Make sure you include the child’s name on the back of the picture so it can be returned to you later. Staff: Remember to send in your pictures too. We may do a guessing game with those.

“Here’s Looking at You, Kid!”

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Page 2 of 10 SRSD Newsletter Lion News

Deaf Culture – by Louise Burns (taken from

www.pepnet.org)

Just a reminder about the school’s closing policy for inclement weather; any closing for

St. Rita School for the Deaf will appear as St. Rita School for the Deaf/LOFT closed on

all local TV stations. Because of the many school districts that we serve, St. Rita

School for the Deaf will never be on an hour delay, it will either be opened or

closed. Students will not be marked as absent or tardy if their school district is closed

or on a delay. With the new website, we will try to implement a message that will run across the top of the webpage so you can check there as well.

Weather Policy

If you utilize Kroger rewards and have the benefits go back to St. Rita School for the Deaf. You need to register again by April so the school can benefit. Go to www.kroger.com and make sure to register St. Rita’s number 81692.

Kroger – Time to Renew

Arrangements for another batch of salsa have been made and is available

for $5 a jar. Either stop in at the front desk to get a jar or 2 or you can email Angie [email protected] and set up getting some sent home.

Salsa!

When a Deaf person leaves a gathering of other Deaf people, the process is quite lengthy. In Deaf culture one approaches each group to say goodbye, which often results in further conversation. The entire process may take more than an hour to accomplish. This behavior may seem unusual; however; if we remember that Deaf culture highly values being interconnected with all of its members, the behavior makes a great deal of sense.

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Page 3 of 10 SRSD Newsletter Lion News

February 16 – 28 Lions of the Week

Evan Bartsch 1st grade Randall Bane 3rd grade

Tashiana Green-Jones 11th grade

Katie Jung Teacher Aide

Kindergarten Cheers on the Basketball Teams! By Veronica Schonkwiler

The kindergarten students thoroughly enjoyed cheering on the basketball teams at the recent pep rally. They were so curious about who was in the lion costume and were excited to have their picture taken with the St Rita Lion.

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SPRING READING AND WRITING EVALUATIONS HAVE BEGUN! – by Louise Burns

SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 4 of 10

Tech Corner – by Annette Cosgrove

If you come across some baskets or

new items while spring cleaning in your

house, please think of the St. Rita silent

auction. We can always use baskets to

display the items. The new items can be

used in the auction. Any donation is tax deductible.

We Say Goodbye to Some of our Friends The electrical power went out at St Rita on the evening of the 18th, and as a result we lost some of our classroom animals in Greenhouse Class. Iggy, our 96cm three-legged Iguana was one of those that could not withstand the cold and died in the outage. Also lost were a Tiger Oscar fish named “Oscar” and two Red-Tailed Sharks. You will be missed… (submitted by Richard Miller)

One of my new favorite apps is created by Callaway Digital Arts Inc. Endless Alphabet is a great educational app that allows children to practice letter recognition and phonics skills while learning new words. Older children can use the app to practice their spelling skills with these new words. Deaf children enjoy seeing the highly animated letters and characters while learning new word meanings. It engages and educates all minds as they explore new words. The creators of this Free (for a limited time) app are always adding in new words. There are no high scores, failures, limits or stress so children can interact with the app at their own pace. Keep in mind, you must be online and have ample disk space while running the app to receive all the words. Some samples of the words include: alarm, gigantic, demolish, flop, invisible, odor, and quarrel. I have to commend the creators of the app for making the word definitions simplistic and easy for all kids to understand.

Baskets or Items for Silent Auction

The Literacy Department has begun the Spring Reading and Writing assessments. To help with this process, teachers are asked to prepare the students by letting them know that we will be calling them individually over the next two months. Please stress the importance of these assessments. The students can prepare themselves by doing extra reading and writing practice for homework in the evenings. Parents: please make sure your child gets a good night sleep and eats a healthy breakfast. These both have been proven to help the students do better on testing.

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Page 5 of 5 SRSD Newsletter Lion News

Page 5 of 10 SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 5 of 10

Lexington School for the Deaf says, “Thank You!” Recently, St Rita raised over $1000 in a school-wide PTO sponsored “Penny War” competition. The money was sent to the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York to help with hurricane relief. The school received the following thank you from the school for our contribution. Nicely done, St Rita family!

Deaf Awareness Week at St Rita

St Rita will be holding a Deaf Awareness Week on March 25-28. More info to come in our next newsletter!

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Page 5 of 5 SRSD Newsletter Lion News

Book Fair – by Laura Edwards

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming soon. It will be held the

week of March 11, 2013. The theme of the fair is Story

Laboratory. It will be a barrel of fun! We would love to have your

help with the book fair. In order to volunteer at the book fair,

background checks and the Virtus initial training must be

completed. If you have any questions about the background

checks and training please contact Angie Frith

at [email protected] If you have already completed the steps

to volunteer, please contact Laura Edwards

at [email protected] to schedule a time to volunteer at the

book fair.

ASL Deaf Camp June 24th – 28th

Mark your calendars!

The Greenhouse will be holding its first Spring Plant Sale this coming Spring! Stay tuned for more details to follow!

Spring Plant Sale

SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 6 of 10

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SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 7 of 10

Deaf Comedian Returns to Cincinnati!

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St. Rita School for the Deaf Summer Festival

The festival is quickly approaching so mark your calendars now for July

12, 13, and 14th. We are always looking for volunteers to help run or

work in booths. Grand raffle tickets will be going on sale soon and we

will need your help with the selling. More details to come in the

upcoming newsletters. If you know of a business who would like to

sponsor an event or donate an item please contact Julie O’Meara

[email protected] or Greg Ernst Jr. [email protected]

SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 8 of 10

Shamrocks Against Dystrophy

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Mark Your Calendars!

Golf Marathon

If you are a golfer or if you need some serious practice, St. Rita’s Golf

Marathon is a good fit for you! This year’s Golf Marathon takes place on May

13th at Glenview Golf Course. There are full and half day rounds available. It is

a marathon of golfing which means it is different from your typical golf

outing. We can take 36 golfers. If you are interested please contact Greg

Ernst Jr. at [email protected]

Purple Paradise Prom 2013

St Rita High School Prom will take place on Saturday, April 13 from 7 to 10 pm at Queen City Riverboats. Cost for the tickets will be $25 per person or $45 per couple. Don’t miss this event that is sure to be a memorable evening!

SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 9 of 10

St. Rita School for the Deaf’s Open House is April 16th. It is a community

wide event so not only are parents invited but local businesses, donors, and

potential donors are invited as well. It takes place during the day from 10:00-

2:00 and tours will be given at 10:15 and 12:45. There will be an

opportunities to browse informational booths and see the signing choirs

perform at 11:45. Feel free to invite others who might be interested in learning more about St. Rita School for the Deaf.

St Rita Offers Distance Learning Classes!

For the third year, St Rita offers American Sign Language classes to students in the 7th and 8th grades at St Gertrude School here in Cincinnati. Students are able to take the classes for school credit via computer and modern technology. Maryann Barth and Richard Miller have been spearheading the project and hope that the market for this type of unique learning will grow so that students from all over the world will eventually be able to take part in our classes offered.

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The safety and education of the students at St. Rita School for the Deaf are the staff and teachers’ top priorities. Just a reminder that if you plan on volunteering or participating in field trips or other school activities, parents must have a background check and go through a Virtus training to do so. For those parents who have completed their background check and initial 3 hour Virtus training, please make sure you are up to date with your monthly readings online. Effective March 1, 2013 any person who falls behind and does not read three or more monthly bulletins in a row will be required to attend another full Virtus Child Awareness Session before you can further participate or volunteer with children at St. Rita School for the Deaf. Background checks can be completed at any of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati locations listed on this link http://www.catholiccincinnati.org/protecting-children/permanent-fingerprinting-sites/ There is a charge for the fingerprints and the cost is the responsibility of the parent. If you plan on volunteering at another parish or school in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, please make sure you list those names as well when you are fingerprinted so you do not have to do it again. To attend a Virtus training, please go to www.virtusonline.org and follow the steps below. You do not need to take the training at St. Rita School for the Deaf however please inform the school so we know to look for your results. Please follow the steps below to register for the session: 1. Go to www.virtusonline.org 2. Click on registration 3. Click begin registration process 4. Select Cincinnati, OH 5. Create an User Id 6. Create a password 7. Fill out the info boxes 8. Select Primary Location: St. Rita School for the Deaf 9. Answer question “Do you work or volunteer at another school or parish?” 10. If “no” move onto next step, if “yes” pick another site. 11. Mark the box of employee or educator. You are an educator if you have a certification from the Ohio Department of Education including teachers and aides. Please read the boxes carefully. Employees would include office staff and support staff. 12. Type in your title 13. Answer the questions 14. Download the decree 15. Click you agree 16. Pick your session. You can pick a session that convenient for you. It does not have to be at St. Rita School for the Deaf. If you have any questions please contact Angie Frith at [email protected] or 513/771-7600

Parent Volunteer Upgrade – by Angie Frith

SRSD Newsletter Lion News Page 10 of 10