Category: General

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with St. Thomas More Catholic School!

Families are invited to join us on Friday, September 29, from 3:30-6 p.m. at the school. This year, we will have our first talent show ever followed by a potluck with delicious food and traditional music!

More information can be found in the principal’s newsletter and red family folder.

See you there!

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

STAR Assessments are short tests that provide teachers with personalized learning data for each student. Students may take a STAR test for early literacy, math, or reading. Teachers analyze the data they receive from STAR Assessments to learn what students already know and what they are ready to learn next, to monitor student growth, and to determine which students may need additional help. These tests are research-based and scientifically proven to help teachers guide each student on their unique path to proficiency.

More information can be found here.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

The second day of school was filled with warm smiles and warm temperatures! All of the STM students and staff gathered together in the cafeteria to celebrate the beginning of the new school year. Father Jose began our assembly with a beautiful prayer honoring our Savior, followed by a blessing of our backpacks. After the blessing, Dr. Tyrrell introduced each class and the wonderful teachers and staff at St. Thomas More. We all cheered loudly in excitement and gave a special welcome to our new friends and staff members. 

Next, Dr. Tyrrell shared our new school-wide expectations which create the acronym HAWKS.

HAWKS stands for:

H – Honor God, Self, and Others

A – Attend & Achieve Academically

W – Work Collaboratively & Cooperatively

K – Keep Self Accountable

S – Succeed, Serve, & Soar

We look forward to following our HAWKS expectations all year long and in all parts of our school.

For the third year, GRACE’s Our Lady of Guadalupe (OLOG) Outreach Program was successfully presented to students and families from Father Allouez Catholic School, Holy Family Catholic School, St. Bernard Catholic School, and St. Thomas More Catholic School. A total of 172 children and adults from 56 families were involved and engaged in a series of workshops this past January through April.

Generously funded by Milwaukee’s Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the OLOG Outreach Program is meant to establish family activities and student programming to help both parents and students understand how to work together on issues of school engagement and academic success while fostering cultural integration. Dr. Jamie Tyrrell, principal of St. Thomas More Catholic School, describes the program this way: “From my perspective, the OLOG Outreach Program is designed with Hispanic families first. We want them to feel like an integral part of our Catholic school system.”

Ninety eight percent of the students who attend St. Thomas More are Spanish speakers, so the program was very beneficial to the school.

“Our staff helped plan the workshops and were presenters,” she said, “We had a large portion of our families attend.”

The OLOG Outreach Program achieves all of their goals in the context of empowering families through faith. The topics of this year’s workshops were Faith at Home, Internet Safety and Mental Health, Importance of Early Childhood Literacy and Preparing for High School and Higher Education. Presented primarily in Spanish, each two-hour session included a prayer, presenters speaking on workshop topics, interactive activities, take-home materials for families to use at home, and refreshments. The presence of vocations was evident as priests celebrated Mass and led prayer with Sisters affiliated with our parishes participating as well. Childcare was provided for younger siblings in order to allow students and their parents to attend. Organizations who contributed their time and talents included the Diocese of Green Bay’s Hispanic Ministry, the Green Bay Police Department, the YMCA, and Casa Alba.

In addition, teachers from participating schools provided their integral support at the workshops. The 2022-23 OLOG Outreach Program Team members were Alejandra Beals, Crystal Blahnik, Gabrielle Calewarts, Kim Desotell, Kay Franz, Dr. Jamie Froh Tyrrell, Jere Kubuske, Karlet Negrete, Lisa Niemuth, and Edgar Zaragoza. This team’s role is to plan the workshop topics and participate in the workshops as well as provide evaluation as to the program’s objectives.

Mrs. Blahnik shared, “Over the course of this year’s workshops, families and students have connected and become friends. This program has facilitated a very strong community of Spanish-speaking families who are engaged with their childrens’ education and equipped with tools to help them raise their children to their full potential.”

Through participation in the GRACE OLOG Outreach Program, families:

• Engage with other families in deepening personal and family faith life.
• Enhance personal knowledge of community resources for the health, safety and well-being of the family unit.
• Learn strategies for maximizing at-home support of student learning.
• Acquire knowledge of technology utilized at their child’s school and how to access key information pertaining to their child’s learning.
• Receive guidance in deciphering standardized test scores and learn how educators use this information to design instruction.
• Connect with GRACE school families to deepen the spirit of community and family friendships.

GRACE will again offer the OLOG Outreach Program during the 2023-24 school year in January through April. Information will be available during the Fall 2023 semester.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

GRACE’s Technology Integration Team has successfully rolled out their first “Tech Tote” this
year!

Since the inception of our Integration Team in 2020, we have been working toward the goal of providing the tools and training to help our educators successfully teach their students through integration of technology within the classroom. Over the past few years our team researched the best tools to help master our technology standards, secured funding through the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Green Bay to purchase these tools through various grants, created lesson plans and assembled totes.

This year our goal was to plan our strategy to introduce our first tote: Adafruit (coding circuit boards). After sharing an introductory video about Adafruit to teachers, the team scheduled a two-day presentation with every fourth grade class in GRACE. Day one included a discussion about “what is coding”, an introduction to the block coding software.

Students created their first block code so the circuit board would light up and make a siren sound. Day two was a software review, creation of a “lucky wheel” block code and transfer of the code to the actual circuit board. Students were thrilled to see their code work. Teachers learned along with the students and began generating ideas on how to incorporate Adafruit into other subject areas for next year.

The team has also begun to pilot several other tech tools to create additional totes for the 2023-24 school year with other grade levels. These tools include 3D Pens/Printers (Middle School), Spheros (Grades 3 & 5) and Beebots (K-Grade 2).

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

Greetings GRACE Families and Friends,

Over the 12 years that GRACE has existed as a system, we have found ways to become stronger together while continuing to celebrate the uniqueness of each of our communities. As I finish my first year as Superintendent and my seventh year with GRACE, I am amazed at the beauty and uniqueness of each school. Each community comes together in a unique way to serve children, create a Christian community for families, and live our Catholic faith. The gift of serving all our schools allows me to see the beauty and diversity of our Green Bay Catholic community.

In addition to faith and families, GRACE values high-quality education. One way we ensure this is through learning assessment tools. These tools hold us accountable and allow us to respond individually to each student. Our school leaders use the results to plan professional development and make curricular choices. Most importantly, our teachers look at the results of tests and quizzes and use them to adjust how they teach. One standardized assessment that we use is the Fountas and Pinnell Assessment. K-5 teachers administer this assessment by sitting individually with each child and reading with them. This standardized process determines reading levels to help students read and learn with books that fit their skills.

Over the past several years, the Diocese of Green Bay required the use of the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress Assessment (MAP tests). We will be ending the use of this assessment along with the rest of the Diocese of Green Bay and begin using the Star Assessment. The Star Assessment tests reading and math. This tool was selected in part because the tests are short, accurate, and the assessment data is efficiently accessible by our teachers to adjust instruction for each child. This test also better aligns with our Catholic faith in our schools.

This year, one of our biggest curriculum changes was using Project Lead the Way Launch, a hands-on science curriculum discussed elsewhere in this newsletter by our Director of Curriculum, Laura Blicharz. In the program, students begin each unit by learning about an area of science and then using that knowledge to solve problems through hands-on experimentation and design work. In addition to this work, we spent time with our teachers learning about how faith and science are interconnected and how to share these natural connections in the classroom.

GRACE also made great strides in technology this year. We are updating our long-term plans and strategy to remain low-cost and highly effective. This summer, projects are underway to increase the safety and security of our online environment. Our Technology Services Team continues to provide consistent and high-quality service to our teachers and students.

First and foremost, what makes Catholic education different is sharing the very person and love of Jesus with our teachers and students. It is also the way teachers seek to instill traditional Catholic values in our curriculum, handle problems on the playground with Catholic morals, and the way all staff helps each child learn to love one another. Our faith informs the decisions we make with our purchases of books, our Internet security, and every other decision. Most importantly, we point to our faith as the reason we treat students and families with love and respect.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

Save the date!

GRACE will be hosting our annual Welcome Back Mass on Sunday, September 17! All GRACE families, staff, and parishes are welcome as we join in prayer together at the start of a new academic year. The mass will be taking place at Prince of Peace Catholic Community, 3425 Willow Rd, Green Bay, this year. It will begin at 6 PM with an ice cream social to follow!

We are looking forward to seeing you there! Please contact us if you have any questions.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

Catch up on all of the latest GRACE news by checking out the Summer 2023 Newsletter. Read about some of the service projects students participated in, learn how Holy Cross is going green with an outdoor classroom, discover how a STEM-based program is changing how students learn science, and more! Click the button below to start reading.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

Celebrate World Youth Day 2023 at St. Peter and St. Paul Parish! We invite all youth ages 13 to 17 to attend. The event will be taking place this Saturday, August 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We will enjoy food and prayer together!

Sign up today! Call the parish at (920) 435-7548 for more information.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.

St. Thomas More, along with other GRACE schools, recently received a donation of student backpacks from the School Choice Wisconsin Program. It was the second year that STM participated. This is a positive offering for the community, as parents with school-aged children were invited to pick up backpacks and school supplies. This year, the school Backpack Giveaway was celebrated at the Ss. Peter and Paul Feast Day Sunday.

St. Thomas More Catholic School is part of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education (GRACE) School System. It is a private Catholic school serving Preschool and Elementary through 8th grade (PK3-8). The school has open enrollment and provides an individualized education in a faith-based environment. Each child is supported not only academically, but spiritually. To learn more about St. Thomas More, browse their website, stmoregb.com, or call the office at (920) 432-8242.