Ms. Ashleigh Koch: Music Teacher & Choir Director

The teachers at St. Mark's give so much of themselves to their students and the school. Ms. Ashleigh Koch, our music teacher and choir director, is a perfect example. 

Besides doing a fantastic job getting the students excited about music and singing, Ms. Koch is the choir director and music director of the spring musical. Below, she teaches the students the songs for last year's Seussical Jr.

This year's choir has 30 members, including five 8th grade boys, which is amazing and gratifying to 8th grade parents and others. This level of participation is a tribute to Ms. Koch's ability to inspire the students about music and singing. 

The past month has been a busy time for the choir. They sang in an Advent program for the Heading Avenue Sisters.

Then they performed at the Mayors' Christmas Party held at Sky Harbor. The mayors demand that the choir return each year!

They also performed at the Peoria Area Civic Chorale's "A Family Christmas" at Five Points in Washington, along with students from 13 other schools. 

Ms. Koch also directed the amazing Christmas Program at the School. Below, she tunes a ukulele before the sixth graders start their number.

Did I mention that she directs a different class each week in leading the singing for the all school Mass?

And sings like an angel, herself!

Ms. Koch dedicates a lot of time outside of the school day for rehearsal and community performances. Thanks to her effort and instruction, our students represent St. Mark's in an excellent manner. Equally important, the students are learning the joy and value of music in the world, in their lives, and as part of their faith. She who sings prays twice! Thank you Ms. Koch, for teaching our children to pray so well!

Basketball Tradition at St. Mark's!

St. Mary's of Bloomington has a nice tradition of praying together with the opposing team, at home and on the road, after games.

The last part of the St. Mark's School motto is: Traditions Thrive. Talented, hard-playing basketball teams have taken the floor on Underhill for decades. For the fifth year, Luke is suiting up in the Marksman blue and gold.

The start of Luke's 8th grade basketball season was delayed a couple of weeks, due to some back pain and a respiratory infection. But he is back in the saddle now. Above he waits with his teammates before the start of the game against St. Mary's of Bloomington.

The boys have been fortunate to have Coach John Stephens mentor them through the years. 

They are a quick, hard working team and always give a great defensive effort.

The Marksmen won this evening.

I didn't get too many action shots. But I promise this won't be my only basketball post. :)

Our children are setting a great example for us!

Classroom Scheirer: PreK 3 & 4

Mrs. Antoinette Scheirer is our wonderful PreK 3 & 4 teacher and our English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. She has worked at St. Mark's for eight years. Luke did not have her for preschool. However, he has attended and helped at Camp S'mores, a fun and academics camp that Mrs. Scheirer and Mrs. Willi run each summer. Camp S'mores helps children continue to learn over the summer months.

Mrs. Scheirer has a great enthusiasm for teaching three and four year olds. As the first professional teacher many of her students have, she says, "I want to get the children excited about learning!" 

She does this in a number of ways. Funds of Knowledge, a program she introduced to St. Mark's, solicits parents and others interested in St. Mark's to come into the classroom and share with the students their area of expertise, whether it be career, hobby, or other interest. Above SMS dad and alum Tom Dwyer talks to the students about his job.

As part of the ESL experience, Mrs. Scheirer invites people into the school who can teach the students about the richness of other cultures. She helps Hispanic, Asian, and African students improve their English language skills.

Professional development is important for teachers. Mrs. Scheirer is doing graduate work at the University of Notre Dame. She is also a big help to parents and serves on a committee of the Education Commission.

We are very blessed to have Mrs. Scheirer as our Pre-K and ESL teacher at St. Mark's!

It All Starts With the Teachers

One of the things-the most important thing-that has made Luke's experience over the past almost nine years at St. Mark's so outstanding has been the teachers and staff. Most of the people in the photo above he has had as a teacher. Or if they haven't been his teacher, they know him by name. Because we are a family at St. Mark's. We know and care about each other across classes.

Throughout the months of this blog, I will introduce you to the wonderful teachers and other staff members at St. Mark's and some of what they have done to make St. Mark's such a great place for children to learn and grow in their faith.

Making the Streets Safe at Bradley and Underhill

I remember when I was a student at St. Mark's, how big all of the 8th graders seemed. Especially when they were in their role as crossing guards. As an 8th grader, Luke and his classmates have rotating one week shifts serving as guards through out the year. It's an important job as Bradley Avenue is a busy street, especially when school is getting out.

Here Luke and Ethan must be plotting crossing strategy, while Zach listens and learns.

Happy about another afternoon of helping students safely cross the street. . .

. . . from the best school in the world!

Portraying Saints on All Saints Day

A few weeks ago, Sr. Diane of the Heading Avenue Franciscans, asked if Luke and I would portray two saints-St. Bernadette and St. Dominic Savio- for a presentation that she was making today. Talk about intimidating! Luke and I had to do a little research on the two saints and dress how they might have dressed.

St. Bernadette is familiar to many for the visions of Mary that she saw which led to the shrine at Lourdes, France. She was born in 1844 and when she was 14, Mary visited her 18 times while she was by a spring near Lourdes. In the years since then, at least 69 people have had unexplained authenticated cures from visiting Lourdes. Despite the great honor of having Mary appear to her, Bernadette remained humble. When people would ask about the apparitions, St. Bernadette would say, "The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.

I am humbled to say that I had never heard of St Dominic Savio until Sr. Diane asked Luke to portray him. Dominic, who was born in Italy, was a very holy and loving boy who kept his friends from fighting and showed them kindness. One winter day, a couple of his classmates filled the stove at school with snow and garbage. Dominic took the blame for this action. When his friends found out the real story, they asked him why he didn't say anything. "Jesus remained quiet during his persecution and crucifixion and I wanted to imitate him." For this, St. Dominic Savio is the patron saint of the falsely accused. He was 14 when he died and is the only non-martyr child saint.

Becoming a saint seems like an impossibility. But during her presentation, Sr. Diane said that in order to be a saint a person has to want to be a saint. This is where it starts. Another way to put this is to want to be what God wants us to be. Perhaps this start is within all of our sights.

P.S. John was in Haiti doing the work of a saint!

Feast Day of St. Luke

The sky above St. Mark's this morning, October 18

Today, October 18, is the Feast Day of St. Luke the Evangelist. When the students all gathered for morning prayer in the gym, they learned that St. Luke traveled with St. Paul as they spread the Good News of Jesus. 

It didn't take John and I long to settle on the name Luke for our son. I had always liked the name and when I mentioned it to John, he liked it too. It seemed to fit. I also liked that Luke is the patron saint of physicians.

At Mass, Father Gifford told us that the poor and the role of women are two themes in Luke's gospel. Father Gifford also said that he didn't think that it was a coincidence that Pope Francis chose this year as the Year of Mercy when the liturgical cycle features the Gospel of St. Luke so prominently. Another name for Luke's gospel is the Gospel of Mercy. It makes sense that Luke, the physician, would highlight the healing power of God's mercy.

St. Luke at St. Mark's Church

We are happy that Luke has confirmed that his name is a good match for him by choosing it for his Confirmation name.

Confirmation Preparation & the Story of the Clay Balls

Terry Mischler preparing St. Mark's students for Confirmation.

Luke along with his 8th grade classmates are preparing for their Confirmation next spring. Do you remember your Confirmation prep? I don't remember much about mine, so it's been good to be a part of Luke's preparation. When we first met a few weeks back, Msgr. Brownsey used a fun analogy to help explain Confirmation. He said we are like a glass of milk and at baptism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit (chocolate!) are poured into us. Well you know how the chocolate and the milk can separate? Confirmation is like a spoon, stirring up the chocolate, reactivating it. so to speak. Reactivating the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Tonight we met again, the 8th graders first, then all of us for a potluck and a session together. Msgr. Brownsey brought some Bradley Newman students with him and three of them gave amazing testimonials about their faith and the important role it plays in their lives. At St. Mark's we are so blessed to be close to Bradley and have the wonderful relationship with the Newman Center.

Next our junior high religion teacher and DRE Mrs. Terry Mischler spoke about the sacraments and how they use simple, basic things, like water and bread and oil. These things both point to something beyond themselves and also contain it. Mrs. Mischler told the story below which beautifully illustrates how appearances are not the most important thing.

A man was exploring caves by the seashore, In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of  hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.

They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. 

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with each of you. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

An October Day Made For Cross Country

On their own, this is how our boys from St. Mark's prepared for the sectional cross country meet today: with a team prayer.

They warmed up on the green-for-October grass.

They waited for their Lady Marksmen teammate Ellen, so they could cheer her on.

Look at her go!

They listened to Coach Stephens.

And to the IESA official.

A few pensive moments before the race.

On your mark, get set, GO!

And they're off!

Away they go!

Here come Brady and Alex!

Luke and Will.

Luis.

Spectators line the course.

Including some of ours.

Almost done.

 Feels good to finish.

Luke said, "Cross country was sometimes fun and sometimes not fun." Kind of like life. Great season, boys and Ellen!