Good Morning, Everyone, 

This is just a quick note to update everyone! 

We have all just completed our first week of online learning!  All of us, and that includes all of you have worked harder than we could ever have imagined as we began this new era of educating our children.  Thank you one and all!  Our teachers are rock stars, and the best is yet to come.  Together we are continuously brainstorming to determine new and exciting ways to encourage our new online learners.  This week I will be working on a plan for our classes to take Virtual Field Trips.

Thank you to those of you who contacted us with your thoughts and commendations.  These suggestions   were really appreciated and have served to help us improve! We are exceptionally grateful for your kind notes, they have really helped maintain our morale. One concern that parents mentioned was that they found it difficult to determine which email or assignment was the current one, because they had to scroll down through all of them to find the most recent correspondence.  To avoid this when possible, we are now creating a new email each time we contact you, rather than piggy backing on the original one that was sent.  To continue to streamline the process, we are asking parents to press reply to sender only when emailing teachers.  This will avoid everyone receiving your correspondence.  

Your child's teacher, if they have not already done so, will contact you to let you know which completed assignments will be graded.  Mrs. Leonetti, and our Student Council members are planning some fun activities to promote school spirit.  All students will be able to participate from home.  Some of you have been asked by your child's teacher to send in pictures of them studying from home.  Teachers have been forwarding them to me, and it really has been a fun way to keep in touch with our students. They are awesome, so keep them coming.  I'm asking if you would like to share any pictures of your children engaged in fun activities to please email them to me. I would like to tweet them, and eventually am hoping to create a slide show.  This will be a good way to share the joy and to stay in touch with everyone.  Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.  Our Twitter handle is @StFreehold.  If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us.  We welcome your feedback!

I had the opportunity to conference this week with other Monmouth County Catholic school principals, the Superintendent of Schools and the Diocesan Educational Team.  I will be doing this at least once a week and more frequently if necessary.  I am very proud to say that we are really on track with our online learning capabilities, and communications with our students and families. I believe this is credited to all of us and all of you because of our ability to rise to the current difficult situation, and work as a team.

As we prepare for week two of online learning let's all continue to work together.  Sending you all good wishes and prayers for the safety and success of you and your family.  May God bless us all! 

I think the following quote speaks to what we were all up against this week...