Staff Newsletter
February 28th, 2025
"Hospitality is the key to peace. A Christian is always a person who is ready to open the door, to welcome, to give something to the other. It is a sign of faith."
- Pope Francis
Calling All Trivia Masters!
We need your help to make our Spring Trivia Fundraiser Event (formerly at Fiesta) the best one yet!
Do you have a knack for coming up with fun, creative, and challenging trivia questions?
You challenge minds in the classroom every day—now it's time to put those skills to the test. We’re calling on YOU to help us create the most fun, creative, and downright tricky trivia questions for our big event. From history to science, pop culture to wild and wacky facts—we know you’ve got some fantastic ideas up your sleeves!
Let’s make this an unforgettable night of friendly competition and fundraising fun! Submit your best questions and let’s get the trivia party started!
Dear Teachers,
Thanks to our social committee for infusing some fun into our week with "secret spirit" initiatives. It was fun!
Tomorrow (Friday) I am hosting state Senator Nichole Mitchell at 10 am. I plan to give her a tour and have her talk with teachers, hopefully a few parents, and some children to show her the good work we do, and why we need the title funds that are cut in the current budget proposal for 26-27.
Thank you for welcoming her into your classrooms and for answering questions/sharing your experience at Saint Ambrose.
A couple of upcoming dates:
- We will have a faculty meeting (with breakfast) on Tuesday, March 4th. The meeting will start promptly at 8:30-breakfast is available by 8:15.
- March 4th is Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent on March 5th. Please note-the first section on the left upon entering the church will be available for parishioners and parents attending Mass.
- Friday, March 7th - There is a funeral we will use one side of Fellowship Hall.
- Peace of Mind Session - MARCH 11, 2025
Suicide Prevention and Intervention
*This session meets licensure requirements
REGISTRATION LINK - Our next retreat/PD day is Monday, March 17. Kenna and Pat will be back with us in the AM.
- Report Cards will go home after Spring Break, Friday March 21st. Grades are due Wednesday March 19th by noon.
TO do:
Catholic Mutual Group Required Trainings - deadline is March 17th.
What You Need to Do:
- Log in to CMG Connect: cmgconnect.org
- Complete all required trainings on your dashboard. For many of you this might be only one Cyber training, it will depend on when you were hired.
- If you’ve never done this before, you’ll need to create an account first.
- If you’ve forgotten your login, follow the site's recovery steps (I don’t have access to login info).
- Submit Your Certificate:
- Once completed, download/print ALL your certificates.
- Submit all certificates in one stapled packet and place in the black folder in my mailbox.
- Starting next year, submissions will be digital only.
Important: This training is required for all Saint Ambrose employees.
Thanks for taking the time to complete this! Let me know if you have any questions
Here are some resources directed toward adoration for children.
They are not Lent-specific, but they are beautiful.
Children of Hope https://www.adorationforchildren.org/
Children’s Adoration Leader’s Guide https://www.adorationforchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Leaders-Guide.pdf
Children of the Eucharist (Worldwide Children’s Eucharistic Holy Hour—every October) http://www.childrenoftheeucharist.org/
Guided Children's Adoration https://www.guidedchildrensadoration.com/
Other Info:
- Janet will return on Tuesday.
- Wednesday, May 7 we will have Mass and Bishop Kenney will be here. This is in addition to Grandparent's Day Mass on Friday of that week. We probably all need more Mass in May, right?
Virtues - Hospitality
During the month of March we are focusing on Responsibility and Being Safe. If you would like Betsy, Dianna, or Melissa to share a story with your class for this month's special focus please email one of them. The books we will be sharing this month are: My Magical Choices, Manners in School and Schools Have Rules.
🌟 Gratitude in Action! 🌟
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who took a moment to add a positive note to the Gratitude Jar in the office! Your kindness and encouragement make a difference, and we love seeing the joy it brings.
Here’s how it works:
✅ Drop a few kind words into the jar anytime during the month.
✅ At our faculty meetings, we’ll draw a few to share and hand out prizes!
✅ The rest will go in mailboxes, so everyone gets a little boost of encouragement.
Let’s continue lifting each other up and recognizing the incredible work happening every day. Your words matter! 💛
Dear God, guide us to see the blessings in every moment, appreciate the small joys and express gratitude for that you have bestowed on us. may we learn to let go of anxieties and frustrations, replacing them with a spirit of thankfulness and the strength to persevere through difficult times.
Amen.
Enjoy the weekend!
Betsy
Lenten Resources
The Religion Teacher Site has a lot of wonderful Lent options
Your Membership Info:
U: dhelmberger@saintambroseschool.org
P: imYU8ltH
Login URL: https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-login.php
Day of Mercy - March 26th
Stations of the Cross
We encourage you to take your class to the Church for Stations of the Cross. Here is the sign-up for classes.
Triduum Scripture packet—a collection of digital, printable pages from The Catholic Children’s Bible and The Catholic Youth Bible® that expand on the events of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection in age-appropriate and meaningful ways.
Draw your class into a preparation for Easter with a collection of lessons for grades 1–5 that draws students into the love that God has for them with fun, engaging activities. Download the elementary lessons here!
Help your tweens enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus by helping them understand the Passion. This lesson welcomes reflection and gives tweens a way to more deeply understand Jesus’ love for them! Download the middle school lesson here!
We started a document with a few resources for Lent for each of the grade levels. Please feel free to check out what we included and/or add resources that you use during Lent in your own classroom.
PD Opportunities
Coming up: There are 3 opportunities for licensure hours.
1. Opportunity for Reading PD (Specialists and 6-8th grade teachers particularly). Sign up here if you want to get hours for relicensure on Tuesday, February 18 from 2:00-3:30.
2. Monday, February 24, 4 p.m.
Meg Forgette, Associate Director for Educational Quality and Excellence, will be offering a virtual training on suicide prevention for staff in the Archdiocese. This one-hour training will meet state requirements for teacher licensure renewal in the areas of suicide prevention and address key warning signs for early-onset mental illness in children and adolescents.
New: Click here to register.
All registrants will receive an email with the link to the training the week of Feb. 17.
3. On Monday March 17th (the day after spring break, staff retreat day) we will have a "lunch and learn". If you choose to participate in this optional Cultural Competency PD, you will go through the lunch line first and then spend the lunch hour discussing the books/resources.Books and articles will be read before and discussed during the lunch. Clock hours will be given based on the amount of reading and for the discussion. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please choose from the following options and fill out this form for planning purposes. More info below!
On Monday March 17th (the day after spring break, staff retreat day) we will have a "lunch and learn". If you choose to participate in this optional Cultural Competency PD, you will go through the lunch line first and then spend the lunch hour discussing the books/resources.
Books and articles will be read before and discussed during the lunch. Clock hours will be given based on the amount of reading and for the discussion.
If you’re interested in this opportunity, please choose from the following options and fill out this form for planning purposes. We look forward to learning together!
Option 1: Dual Book Study: Read one or both!
Student Resource: Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros (4.5 hour listen on audible)
Efrén is an American-born citizen who worries about his undocumented parents. They work hard to provide for his family. One day, his worst nightmare comes true when his mother doesn't come home from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. Now more than ever, Efren must do his best to help take care of and unite his family.
Teacher Resource: The God Who Sees by Karen Gonzales (5.5 hour listen on audible)
"The God Who Sees" sets the biblical stories Hagar, Joseph, Ruth, and Jesus along side the story of modern day immigrants seeking safety in another land. Gonzales recounts her family's migration from the instability of Guatemala to making a new life in Los Angeles and the suburbs of south Florida. They face language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and tremendous pressure to assimilate. Karen Gonzales also describes her encounter with Christ at a campus ministry program and how she begins to follow Jesus.
Option 2: Article - Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education
This article will include ways to practically create an anti-biased classroom culture. It includes critical practices with strategies on how to implement them. We will also share options for implementing diverse perspectives in books for your classroom and looking at ready-made activities.
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things―from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen―provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
Staff Evaluations
Evaluation Schedule and Information
Please contact the administration the week before your dates to schedule a meeting time and send in your filled-out self-evaluation and reflection.
If your name is highlighted in yellow, you have been with Saint Ambrose or your position for less than 3 years, and we will also do an observation.
Schedule -https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pVOIX-GZd-qcFPgGZFhetB7SrvisgsE2laZaoekl3A0/edit?usp=sharing
Self-Evaluation Template - (please copy before editing)
Please fill out and send this to the admin doing your evaluation one week before your scheduled meeting.
Teacher - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tPa26K9iSmR48ec2yVnEKCVZGNVFGDq9bEFQSwwhRtE/edit?usp=sharing
Aide - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qoyDsNaz9VewdTVrwLiwhTEipgbx6zOQ/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=112805606474059936011&rtpof=true&sd=true
Special Ed - https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B9Ai1B2_YRGweXF5b2hZNFVjMzg/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112805606474059936011&resourcekey=0--qqNDdY6CMnEvYN-jaBQ1w&rtpof=true&sd=true
Media Specialists - https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B7dd6C0JRCl_RVdwOEJHdFd1Zm8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112805606474059936011&resourcekey=0-DqrnyAesXfhvwDqeZh6F6Q&rtpof=true&sd=true
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Upcoming Dates to Add to Your Calendar
March 7th - End of 2nd Trimester
March 10 - 14th - No School Spring Break
March 17th - No School - Staff Retreat
March 19th - Grades Due by Noon
March 21st - Report Cards Go HOme
2025-2026 School Calendar
Calendar Update for 25/26:
The Archdiocese of Saint of Saint Paul and Minneapolis will host the National Catholic Educational Association Convention in April of 2026, They are asking all schools to designate April 7-9, 2026, as professional development/school-out-of-session days. We ask all staff to attend this event. I encourage you to think about presenting at the conference. We have an incredibly competent staff with much wisdom to share.
Committee Reports
Saint Ambrose Way - Let us know if you need any resources for Virtue Circles!
Catholic Identity - Join us at Feed My Starving Children on Thursday, February 27 at 5:00. Let Melissa know if you and any of your family members are able to attend.
Social - Join us for a Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday potluck! Sign up here.
March Madness is coming! Watch for an email from Stephanie Shippy with the details.
Tech/STEM -
We are still here to offer help to anybody that needs it. I am working on the SAW news as well.
If anybody has ideas for us to work on, we are open to suggestions!
Wellness-
Continue to enter your minutes for the Healthy Heart Challenge, while it looks like the Specialist are in the lead, percentage wise it is pretty close.
Look forward to the Serving Others opportunity at the March staff retreat.
Assessment - We have a meeting on Wednesday, March 5
Cultural Competency - See PD opportunity above!
Science Curriculum - We have LOTS of samples of 6-8th grade Science Curriculum in the science lab. We will be getting K-5 in soon and share more with you in March. If you are intrested in a sneak peek of anything please stop by the sceince lab and check it out!
Here is our "final" draft of the science philosophy https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nnnxs72cP-5tMM2yfNUKSKT9HdrDfVLYuB4NfMXofY8/edit?usp=sharing
Virtue of the Year - Hospitality
One way students and teachers are emphasizing responsibility this month is through safety. Students can be safe in their interactions with others and in their actions by avoiding choices that can lead to harming themselves or others, thus leading to a hospitable environment. Growth in hospitality through responsibility and safety are traits that can be practiced at home and school.
It is a blessing that we have this opportunity for parents, students, and staff to work in cooperation to build hospitality at St. Ambrose and in the world.
A few ways we can practice responsibility and safety:
Focus on self-improvement
Doing a little better each day
Be more Christ-like
Be aware of our surroundings
Think before we act
Follow directions
Keep our word
Consideration for others
Saints we pray with this month:
Saint Katharine Drexel Feast March 3rd
Saints Perpetua and Felicity March 7th
Saint Patrick March 17
Saint Joseph March 19
Saint Oscar Romero Feast March 24th
Holy Day:
March 25th Annunciation of Our Lord
To Do/ To Know:
Monthly Math Update - Click Here to learn more!
We look forward to formal visits for new teachers:
New Teacher Fall Observation Schedule
Email the assigned admin to schedule.
Sub Requests- Please text or call us as soon as possible if you need a sub. Betsy 651-338-8784 or Dianna 651-246-0318. Please send Betsy, and Dianna a test text if you have never texted them before. When texting for a sub send one group text to both of us please!
Pictures-Media Decline List
This link should connect you to many common needs - 2024-2025 Teacher Info Page
Safety and Security
March
Secure Monday, Mar 25 @ 2:00 pm
Staff Prayer
March 5 - Evening Prayer
*March 12 - No staff prayer (Spring Break)
March 19 - Evening Prayer
March 26 - Rosary
