3/3  - Servite Track Invite 

3/6  - LATE START

3/6  - Parent Council Meeting 7:00pm

3/9  - NO SCHOOL

3/9 - Rosary Red & Gold

3/14 - Junior Student/Parent College Info Night 7:00pm

3/15 - Spring Jazz Band Concert 7:30pm

3/16 - End of 3rd Qtr. 

3/17 - Feast of St. Patrick's Day

3/18 - Mother/Son Mass and Brunch 

3/19 - Spring Academic Awards

3/21 - New Parent Orientation 7:00pm

3/23 - Father/Son Mass

3/26 - Prior General Election

3/27 - Career Day 

3/30 - PRO DRESS - MASS

3/31 - Sadie Hawkins Dance at Rosary

March  Newsletter

 Counseling Notes and Classroom Takes

 

It's hard to believe, but we find ourselves almost at the end of third quarter!  (Third Quarter ends on March 16.)  Time flies when you're having fun, and fun we have!  All while we learn...A LOT!

Before we highlight some amazing classroom experiences, we'd like to let you know about our upcoming Honors (HP) and Advanced Placement (AP) sign-up day.  All students interested in taking an honors or AP course next year in Science, Social Studies, Computer Science and/or English must meet with their prospective teachers and sign up for their preferred courses.  We have set aside Tuesday, March 6 from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. for students to meet with the teachers and pick up course information.  Zero Period will not meet on Tuesday, March 6.  If your son is interested in taking any advanced or honors course next year in Science, Social Studies, Computer Science and/or English, he must go see the teacher Tuesday morning. 

 

We also held a Freshman Parent Information Night and a Spring Sophomore Parent Information Night on Wednesday, February 29.  If you were not able to attend your respective meeting, please don't hesitate to contact Dan Coates, Freshman Counselor, at extension 1457 or Doreen Moore, Sophomore Counselor, at extension 1133.  They will be happy to cover the information with you and even schedule a meeting with you, if you'd prefer.

 

In an earlier edition of this newsletter, we mentioned the Chapman University Holocaust Writing Project.  We want to congratulate Miles Williams, Juan Carlos Martinez, and William Champlin for being chosen to represent Servite at the Holocaust Awards Ceremony at Chapman University on March 2.  Miles and Carlos were chosen by Mrs. Van Metre for their art, and William was chosen by Ms. McCoy for a poem he wrote.

 

Students in Mrs. Van Metre's CP Drawing classes are putting into practice what they have learned about linear perspective.  The classes drew the hallway in the 100 building, including all the lockers, doors, windows, lights, floor tiles, and each other in one-point perspective during the first week.  The second week required them to begin adding the shadows and colors.  What is interesting is that many of Mrs. Van Metre's former students (including Mr. Kause) give "advice" learned in past classes to help out their fellow Friars "draw what they see."  The next step is to go outside and draw the quad in two-point perspective in "plein air," as did the California Impressionists.  Unfortunately, by being outside, the classes will have to contend with rotating periods, changing light and shadow patterns, and color changes due to atmospheric changes.  Watch for upcoming photos of their progress. 

Students in the CP Painting class have just completed peer portraits, building upon what they learned from painting the Ecuadoran orphans from photograph, as well as their own portraits from mirrors.  Now they actually have to LOOK at each other and match values and skin tones to create three-dimensional forms and hopefully, a likeness.  Stay tuned for upcoming photos.

 

What a great year the Friarbots have had so far! Servite, Rosary and Connelly's FIRST Robotics team has been working very hard the past two months to design and build a robot for our competitions in March and April. This year the challenge was to design a robot to shoot basketballs and auto-balance on a seesaw. At the Harvey Mudd scrimmage, on February 19th, the Friarbots got a chance to show off all their hard work. Despite delays from back ordered parts and algorithm conflicts, they still managed to complete both their competition and practice robots by the February 21st ship date.  But the work does not stop there. They still have an identical practice robot to work with and a lot on their plates. The programming committee will be busy refining their code, and the design team will be working hard to create a new robot dolly for the competition. While those committees work on the engineering aspects of the robot, the scouting committee will be diligently working to create strategies and forms to aid in cooperation with other teams.  Drivers will be practicing and PR will be arranging demonstrations and ordering merchandise to distribute at the competition. The team will be producing a video highlighting their outreach and promotion of the FIRST message (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) for the Chairman's Award, the most prestigious award that FIRST offers. Please come to support the Friarbots at their LA Regional Competition from March 16th and 17th at the Long Beach Convention Center!  

 

This past Sunday a few of our students reached out to Servite College in Perth in order to let students there know about FIRST Robotics and our team.  Some of our team leaders had a Skype conversation with Dr. Cox and about eight students who had expressed interest in hearing about robotics.  We really hope to build on this relationship and would love to be a part of helping Servite College students start a FIRST Robotics team, if there is sufficient interest.

 

 

To follow the team's progress, be sure to check out www.serviterobotics.org and 'Like' the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/friarbots!  Check out videos of the robot in action at www.youtube.com/friarbots.  To learn more about FIRST please visit www.usfirst.org.

 

The Greek and Latin students will be taking their National Exams in March.  Greek students will take theirs the week of March 5, and Latin students will take their exam the week of March 12.  Mr. Emparan does an excellent job of preparing the young men for these challenging exams, and our Friars do quite well.  We wish all of Mr. Emparan's students the best as they show off their skill.  Let the parcing begin!  (The kids in Latin will know what that means!)

 

In freshman English, students focused on a Narrative Writing Assignment.   Students wrote about a time in their lives when they learned that the way they initially perceived something was not completely accurate.  Students were allowed to draw on real experiences or create a completely fictional narrative.

In Mr. Ronan's CP Theology 1, students watched and discussed the YouTube phenomenon video "Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus."  This video was an overnight sensation, with over 15 million views when it was viewed in class.  Students were then challenged to create a Catholic response to the video, using the same spoken word style.  Students completed the project using iPhones on Courage Field and did editing at home.  It was a great success in challenging the young men to critically evaluate what they view in the media and helping them understand the Catholic Church's teachings on faith, religion, Church and discipleship. 

In Mr. Goodwin's HP Church History, students are viewing a History Channel DVD on the Crusades.  After taking notes and participating in intense discussions of how and why such a phenomenon occurred in the church, they will write a perspective of their understanding on the subject using Google Documents.

Finally, in Ethics, students are currently studying a unit on citizenship.  They are exploring different issues which serve as the basis for an individual's relationship to the larger community, as well as issues which call into question our moral position as citizens and Catholics.  Under this umbrella they have discussed human rights, nonviolence, just war theory and voting.  As an introductory activity to just war theory, the students played "Just War Risk."  In teams of 4-6 the young men had to play the game, normally designed for world domination, according to just war principles.  Each young man on a team was assigned a different role and thus had a different objective to meet in order to win.  There were 'aggressor nations', 'small powers', a 'United Nations' and a 'border power.'  Besides appealing to the young men's competitive spirit, the activity provided extremely fruitful examples to relate to the principles of just war theory.  It was a great success and a blast!  The game itself was inspired by alumni Zack Golda class of '08 and developed by Mrs. Maggie Lauder and Mr. Stephen Walswick.

 

As you can see, we keep your sons busy around here.  And they keep us on our toes, too!  Thank you for entrusting them to us.  We love them like they were our own and cherish every moment we have with them. 

May this Lenten season bring you peace, may you grow closer to God, and may our Blessed Mother be with you all.

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