Eighth Grade
Welcome to 2019-2020 school year for eighth grade!
It is going to be a very busy and exciting year.
I look forward to working with many of you again and meeting all of you who are joining us this year. I know this will be a great year with so much to do as we prepare the 8th grade for high school. Our goal is to prepare students academically for high school and spiritually for life.
Eighth grade is very busy and will go by extremely fast, so we need to jump right in and begin. We will be working our way to Knighthood through our Virtue Formation Program, which is the culmination of the Junior High Virtue Program. This year any new students will create their own heraldic shields and move through the Virtue Castle to achieve Knighthood. Our goal is for each of you to become Knights of Notre Dame Court (see below). Sr. Veronica Marie, O.P., is teaching religion this year using the Spirit of Truth series. She will also be preparing the students for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Mrs. Donahue will be teaching social studies, using the Catholic Textbook Project series, From Seato Shining Sea, along with The History of US, a compendium of primary source texts. Mrs. Thompson will be teaching science and math. Science is presented as discipline specific, and 8th grade will study Physical Science using the state mandated NGSS standards and sequences; math is structured with an accelerated level in geometry and a grade level algebra course. I will be teaching English, literature and spelling. We have also introduced Rosetta Stone this year as our foreign language option for our students; 8th grade works on this program twice per week in class with a homework lesson once per week.
We have our trip to Washington, D.C., in April, and it will be here before you know it! I look forward to a great year working with all of you!
Please let me know if there is any way I can help you to get ready for this year. God bless all of you.
Mrs. Casagrande
Knighthood Virtue Program
The sixth - eighth grades participate in the Knighthood virtue program. This program is based on the virtues and qualities of the medieval knights and ladies and how we can transfer similar virtues into our own daily life. The students design their own personal heraldic shields to represent their qualities and the virtues they desire in their lives. Over the course of the year, they watch their shields move up the classroom castle bulletin board as they display consistent effort in working on the virtues. Knighthood is reserved for the eighth graders. Throughout the year, eighth graders are knighted individually as they meet their Dominican Court goals. Knighthood Ceremonies occur at the end of designated All-School Masses.
