De Marillac Blog

artwork by Alexis, 5th grade

Reflecting on De Marillac’s tenth anniversary, some students were asked the questions: Where will you be in ten years? How do you see your life changing over the next decade? Here are their responses:

Vince, 5th grade
Ten years from now, I will be a sophomore in college. I will be 20 years old and getting ready for a good job. When I am 22, I plan to graduate from a good college like Saint Mary’s, USF, UCLA or some other school. I hope that I will have a very bright future ahead of me.

Vivian, 6th grade
Have you ever thought how will your life will in ten years? If you haven’t it’s okay because some people wait to see what happens when they grow up. Others actually plan to be somebody. I’m one of them. And I know it’s too early to be planing your career if you’re just 11 years old, and, yes, I’m a 11 year old girl.  Anyway ten years away from now I can see myself as a doctor. The reason I want to be a doctor is because I really want to help others, and I want people to live happy and healthy lives.

Ayanna, 6th grade
Ten years from now I hope to be studying singing, dancing, drama, and clothing design. At that time, I will be 21. At 25 I want be a singer/dancer/actor and have my very own fashion line. To achieve this goal I will have to work very hard. If  that doesn’t work out I want to be a lawyer.  To achieve that goal I know I will have to work hard because as a lawyer you have to deal with hard cases and be prepared and ready. Whatever job I end up getting, I hope I am a successful doing it.

Luis, 6th grade
Someday I want to be a veterinarian because I really like animals. To achieve this goal, I need to get good grades and spend alot of time at school, maybe 6-8 years after high school.  De Marillac is helping me, and it is a great school because it teaches reading, language arts, social studies, religion, math and other things. If I can’t become a veterinarian I want to be a policeman so that I can stop people from doing bad things.

Dhita, 7th grade
In ten years, I will be 22 years old.  I will have graduated from De Marillac and from a great high school.  I plan to go to college to study animal science because I want to be a veterinarian, or my other option is to study music.

Santiago, 7th grade
With De Marillac’s support, I know I will have a great future. After passing the 7th and 8th grade, I will go to a good high school which will give me opportunities for success. I want to then do to college to be a dentist.

JonJett, 8th grade
In ten years, I will be in college happily doing my assignments and having more freedom to do what I want to do. I will also be helping my family when they need me.  I want to be an engineer or maybe an inventor.

Grace, 8th grade
In ten years, I will be 23 years old. By then, I will have graduated from De Marillac and from either SHCP, Mercy or ICA. I will most likely have finished all my basic college classes  and be workings towards a degree for becoming a doctor.

SIPPS stands for Systematic Instruction in Phoneme Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words. The goal of the program is for students to gain the decoding skills necessary to improve fluency and comprehension. Every lesson involves the students chorally reciting sight words, sounds, spelling words, and reading a passage. The students learn by reciting everything out loud and as a group. At De Marillac, it serves as a reading intervention program for students to obtain the tools they need to be successful readers.

The 8^th grade worked on a project to deepen their understanding of matter last week.  The students had to make a poster illustrating the ideas of matter, mixtures, compounds and elements.  The students were offered the option to make a poster that was related in concept. For example, Miguel, made a poster were he used vans as his example of an element then built up from there. “For my poster, I used the Cookie Monster to represent matter.  I used water as my compound because everything needs water to survive, and I used trees to represent carbon dioxide molecules because trees use carbon dioxide and humans produce carbon dioxide when they breathe out.” Grace, 8th grade

Br. Charles Hilliken, FSC, with students of the 7th grade
Br. Charles Hilken, professor at St. Mary’s College, came last week for his annual visit to the 7^th grade as “guest historian.” The students were in the middle of a social studies unit on Medieval Europe, and so Br. Charles came to answer their questions and supplement their knowledge of the middle ages by showing them artifacts such as candles made of beeswax and parchment made out of goat skin.  He also led them in an art project highlighting the Medieval use of bestiary – choosing an animal as a symbol to represent oneself and one’s family.  The students each chose an animal and then drew them, using color purposefully with their new knowledge of the meaning of various colors.  Some of the students have indicated that they would like to donate their artwork for the silent auction at the Annual Scholarship Benefit in February. Thanks to Br. Charles for this, his 4^th annual visit!

Elective classes are taught by teachers, staff and volunteers in an area of interest or talent. Students select a different class each quarter. This quarter some of the elective classes are crocheting, card games, photography and drawing.

Members of De Marillac’s first 4th grade class in the fall of 2006

Hello, If you are reading this blog post, I am here to tell you that this year the 8th graders are graduating. That’s not the exciting part, the exciting part is that we are the first fourth grade class!(Most of us, not all!)

Along with most of my classmates I am one of the first students to have been educated for 5 years at De Marillac Academy – 4th through 8th grade. The vision was that students needed more time to prepare for high school and succeed so instead of being limited from 6th to 8th grade, De Marillac expanded it’s student population by adding a 4th and 5th grade.  Thanks for your prayers and support over the years! And thank you very much for reading this!

Check out what a 6th & 4th grader think about De Marillac.

What do you think is the best part about De Marillac? Leave a comment!