Celtic Courier: Celtic Courier: Week of Nov. 3

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

We hope you have had a wonderful Halloween weekend and that you and your family stayed warm in this unusually cold start to November!

What a terrific Halloween dress-up day! The costumes were amazing and we appreciate you all coming together as a family to have Halloween fun together! The fun and terrific photos are below.

Congrats to proud Mom Lori Davis-- Carly finished 8th overall in State XC meet and was the top Dublin finisher. Congrats also to Brian Stevens-- not only did the Marching Band earn all 1's at the State Band Contest Saturday (thanks also Micah!) but also the Ohio State Marching Band performance at halftime featured Brian's drill design-- yes-- that is the maneuvers that band performs on the field! Wow! Way to go!

Our football team wrapped up their season in brutal weather Friday night with a loss to Westerville Central that is the end of an era here at Jerome. After 11 years as head coach, Mark Hundley is stepping down to spend more time with his family. As you all know, Mark is the kind of person and man that changes lives, and we have been so fortunate to have called him Head Coach for all of these years. Thanks, Mark, for all of your dedicated service to Jerome, our players, and their families. Ryan Walker is facilitating a football head coach search and we will keep you informed.

Fall Sports are now officially over for us and we are on the "banquet" circuit! We look forward to Winter sports starting soon!

Thanks so much to all of you who have volunteered to participate in Challenge Day Nov. 10-13. This is an event that helps define Dublin Jerome and after this year's Challenge Day all of our student body, except for some new students, will have engaged in Challenge Day.

Words cannot adequately express our appreciation to Andy Zweizig and Gretchen George who head up the monumental task each year! Challenge Day emphasizes how much we are all alike rather than how we are all different, a life-changing paradigm for students and staff and one that brings us together as a family. If you have not participated in Challenge Day, please choose to do so this year and let Andy or Gretchen know. It is a choice you will never regret.

Our Social Media Parent Information Night last Wednesday was a huge success with over 100 parents attending. We have received much positive feedback and appreciation for the information, which included possible school and legal consequences, specific sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Yik Yak and others and a good discussion on inappropriate videos and/or photos on students' phones. Students Chris Marek, Addison Stern and Kelly Fox did a great job at presenting student usage information.

This Week--

Kay has been called our of town this week due to illness in her family so please be patient with the office staff. It is especially important that you take care of any absences in AESOP as Kay is not available.

Monday-- Remember to have turned back your clocks one hour as we "fall back." Please remember to contact the parents of your students with D's and F's for first quarter or who are doing poorly second quarter and invite them to PT Conference Day on Thursday.

Tuesday-- Election Day

Wednesday-- Working Wednesday. We continue to look at your forms, especially the barriers that you identify and make changes as we can. One change we made last week was to give you more time to decide your team pyramid of interventions. These are now not due until the end of November.

For those of you involved in good and deep discussions on how to provide extra time and interventions for students to learn, (PLC Question #3) you may enjoy this graphic from Rick Wormeli, a noted educational researcher:

Also Family Night. Please do not assign Homework on this night to support the district Family Night.

Thursday-- Department Chair meeting 7:15 AM in the media center. This important meeting will discuss Nov. 17 PD Day.

Also Parent-Teacher Conference Day 3-6:30 PM. Conference forms are in the purple Staff Cloud folder under Conferences. Please be sure to turn in your Conference sheets prior to leaving on Thursday evening.

Looking ahead--

Nov. 10-13: Challenge Days. Please be patient and flexible with students and fellow staff members who are participating. Please adjust work for freshmen as the majority of freshman students are participating as well as some CAP mentors.

Nov. 11: Veteran's Day. a special day set aside to honor those who have served to give us the freedom we enjoy.

Nov. 12: Staff meeting. Doug Baker is visiting each school and will present for about 10 min. Science Department presentation follows.

Also College Signing Day. Please stop by the cafeteria at 3 PM to honor our student-athletes who are committing to play at the college level.

Also NHS Induction 7 PM. Much thanks to Michael Cook and all of you who volunteered to be on the NHS Faculty Council!

Enjoy these wonderful family memories from Halloween: