February

February
Happy Valentine's Day		Conducting Effective Assemblies

Happy Valentine's Day!! It is time to call those room parents and decide who is bringing what to the annual Valentine's Day Party! But, do your students know who St. Valentine was and why? TACSC has taken the opportunity in past issues of Leadership Times to help educate student leaders on the history of St. Valentine. Yes, Valentine, not VALENTIME. Here are a few websites and an excerpt from www.catholic.org to help you in allowing your students to learn a bit more about a very commercialized holiday. It is a HOLY DAY! www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine/ http://www.catholic.org/saints/ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm http://www.stvalentines.net/stvalentinesdayhistory.htm Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith in effectual, commended him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270. Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to he memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta del Popolo, formerly, Porta Valetini. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. His name is celebrated as that of an illustrious martyr in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, the Roman Missal of Thomasius, in the calendar of F. Fronto and that of Allatius, in Bede, Usuard, Ado, Notker and all other martyrologies on this day. To abolish the heathens lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on the fifteenth of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets given on this day. SUMMER CONFERENCE IS ONLY A LITTLE OVER 4 MONTHS AWAY!!! MENLO COLLEGE Menlo, California - JUNE - , 2003 PITZER COLLEGE #1 Claremont, California - JULY - , 2003 PITZER COLLEGE #2 Claremont, California - JULY - , 2003 NEUMANN COLLEGE Aston, Pennsylvania - AUGUST - , 2003		Our assemblies are boring. No one pays attention during our assemblies. How can we make our weekly assemblies more appealing to the entire student body? In order to plan assemblies effectively, decide what types of assemblies the student body likes. Have student council members take a survey to determine their preferences. Then take the student body's suggestions and involve the student council members, the staff, and the student body in the finals selection. Schools vary on the number of assemblies that they have. Most of you will have assemblies each week, making it difficult to create new ideas for each one. It might help to conduct several smaller assemblies that are similar in their agenda. Then a few times a school-year plan an assembly for a specific event: Catholic Schools Week, the launch of an all-school fundraiser, or the end of the school-year. Here are some tips... Set up a bell schedule for assemblies. Most assemblies last approximately forty-five to fifty minutes when someone comes in to perform, or special announcements are made. Allow five minutes for students to enter and settle down and five minutes for dismissal at the end. Consider having some form of entertainment during the assembly. This may be a student with a special talent, a local resident, or even a teacher. It is important to remember that if you invite someone from the community to attend your assembly that you schedule far in advance and that you get permission from your moderator and your principal. Include other mediums in your assembly, music, visual aids, and other people. Most of time the students will react better to assemblies that involve them. Ask the upper grades to plan something for the assembly. Once they are engaged, then they will buy into your assembly. Other things to remember.... Can everyone hear you? Are you speaking slowly and deliberately into the microphone? Is the lighting bright enough so the students can actually SEE you? Are you excited about your material so that others will be excited, too?