Hello everyone, welcome to This Week At St. Joe’s (TWAS). Contrary to popular belief, summer is a crazy busy time around school. A lot of things happen that keep us energized and focused on the future during the summer. Here are a few things that happened This Week at St. Joe’s (TWAS):
Two new Staff members were hired:
2nd grade: Ms. Bonnie Triplet. Ms. Triplet is from Watertown, SD and she graduated from the College of St. Benedict this spring with a major in Elementary education and a minor in Music. Besides her academic preparation, Bonnie also was an Education Technology Intern and an Assistant Media Specialist in college. She had 7 student teaching practicum experiences and she worked in an after-school care program while at college. She has some unique STEM experience including Inquiry based instruction, Robotics coaching, Directing Student News, Programming “Ozobot” robots and 3d Printing. Ms. Triplet also has experience as a Catechist in Faith formation as her mom is the DRE (Director of Religious Education) of her home parish in Watertown, SD. She is excited to join our school community. Please welcome Ms. Triplet to our St. Joseph Family.
5th grade: Mrs. Brooke Maciaszek (Ma-chez-ick). Mrs. Maciaszek graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2015. She has taught 1stgrade at Epiphany Catholic School in Coon Rapids and Notre Dame Academy in Minnetonka. She and her new husband recently moved to Mayer and they have been worshiping at St. Joe’s since last fall. When she heard about the openings in our school, she jumped at the opportunity to work at her new parish: aka St. Joseph. Brooke has experience in EnVOY classroom management, differentiated instruction, Literacy through inquiry, she is a team player and she has a devotion to our Catholic faith. She is passionate about integrating technology into her instruction and she has a desire to work on a collaborative team of educators. Brooke has a keen sense of the importance of building relationships with colleagues, students and parents. She is excited to join our team! Please extend a hearty welcome to Mrs. Maciaszek when you meet her.
We had 4 new students (all girls) enroll this week:
Marin ~ 1st grade
Maggie ~ 3rd grade
Alyx ~ 5th grade
Unity ~ 7th grade
Please welcome all of our new staff, students and parents when you meet them.
This week we also had a lot of staff training happening:
- Mr. Richards and Ms. Gelhar attended a two-day conference called, “A Place at the Table”. This conference helped us learn strategies that make a Catholic education a reality for students with special needs. We are excited to continue to study and implement these ideas.
- Mrs. Hagen and Mrs. Kelzer went to a one-day workshop called, “Front Office Professionals Training”. (Mrs. Hagen was actually one of the presenters for this workshop). They learned about best practice ideas on keeping the front office flowing smoothly.
- Mrs. Gallus spent the week taking a class on STEM teaching and learning at the University of St. Thomas.
- Our Summer Saints program had another great week, led by Mrs. Good and Ms. Matlon.
New furniture was ordered for several classrooms. This was our Boogie Blast fund-a-need. We were able to purchase furniture for about ½ of the classrooms. Furniture will arrive in August and we are planning a “Put Together Furniture Day”. Hopefully we can find 20 or so people to help with this when it all arrives.
