ParentNewsletter The La Salle
FOR PARENTS AND FRIENDS OF LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL • PASADENA • CALIFORNIA • NOVEMBER 2013
Principal Ideas Learn•Serve•Lead
In educational journals today, it is most common to read the phrase, “Start with the end in mind.” It means, of course, know what you want to accomplish, and then design/plan the necessary steps to achieve your goal. So, let me start with the end in mind for this Newsletter, Happy Thanksgiving!
Google Apps Last week, I communicated with you by email regarding our new relationship with Google Apps for Education. This service will allow our teachers and students to more easily collaborate on individual assignments, projects and group work. In early October, the entire faculty spent an in-service day being educated in one area of the Google Education offerings. Since I was “learning on the job” that day with my fellow educators, it was wonderful to see the teachers of this school both questioning and embracing these “new” tools. The opportunities to enhance our instructional tools and methods with technology are numerous. The most recent “step” we have taken is one of many to come for our faculty and students.
All of our technology improvements must have the desired effect of improving the student learning process - easy to say and yet difficult to measure.
Mid-point Grades During this past week, we concluded our first grading period of the year. In the next few days you will be receiving in the mail an actual report card that will advise you of your student’s work, as we have reached the mid-point of this first semester. This report is the best and most accurate indicator of how each student is doing academically. While these grades are important, they are in fact leading us towards semester grades in December, which become permanent and are placed on each student’s transcript. The vast majority of students at La Salle are achieving fine grades that are appropriate to their ability, their hard work and their dedication to studies. I congratulate them for achieving outstanding grades. I encourage these students to continue taking care of business. We are at the mid-point of the semester and I commend them on their work ethic and achievement. Continued on page 2
The words of St. John Baptist de La Salle to the first Brothers “He, Christ, has chosen you in preference to many others to announce his truths to your students who are his beloved ones.” Saint John Baptist de La Salle c.1703 Meditations for Sudays PAGE 1