Basketball River Cities Conference Honors

Congratulations to Mohammad Elradi who was selected to the 2014-2015 RCC Boys Basketball All Conference Team. 

Receiving honorable mention were Tommy Farhart and Ben Borsch.

AdvancED Impressed by Students’ Work Ethic

Adam Terasinski | Copy Editor

The school’s five year improvement project in writing has seen significant success according to the external review and the steering committee.

Five years ago the school decided to work on improving students’ writing in all classes.. Since 2011, teachers have included more writing in their assignments.. In addition to this, a writing assessment was given during the second semester to the student body to track improvement.

“Our main goal, the writing goal, has shown that writing has improved in a variety of different classes,” Sister Carol Jean VanDenHemel, O.S.B. said. VanDenHemel was part of the steering committee, which spearheaded the writing project. Her duties were to score the assessments and write the written report about the projects goals with English teacher, Eileen Sullivan.

The AdvancED group spent hours writing up their observastions in the conference room.
photo by Adam Terasinski

The written reports were accompanied by a series of graphs and charts. Looking at the statistical data alone, I could tell that our writing scores have improved,” said Curriculum Director Jason Mackeprang, who converted the reports into data.

The statistical data and written reports are considered “hard artifacts” that show the school’s progress. These artifacts were one piece of a comprehensive report given to a group from AdvancEd, a national accrediting organization comprised of state and local officials.

“Two of the representatives are from the state itself and the others are nominated by Mount Michael,” said VanDenHemel. The school sought to nominate people who had a background working with Catholic Schools in the area.

While writing was the main goal, it was not the only area that AdvancED evaluated. Group members observed classrooms and also interviewed many students to grasp an idea of what it is like being a student at Mount Michael.

“They were impressed most by our students and spoke very highly of the work our students do,” VanDenHemel said, “they got the impression that our students know why they are here and that made us [the faculty] very happy.”

In terms of improvement, the committee did note that technology is an area of weakness for the school.

“It’s more than computers though,” Mackeprang said, “it’s the staff’s development with technology and incorporating all of that into the classroom effectively.

Head of School David Peters has been working to hire a full time head of technology in an effort to remedy some of the technological issues. The final decision will be announced in the coming months.

 

In addition to technology, the next area of focus will likely to come from surveys that students fill out. While the five year period focusing on improved writing has ended, writing will still be incorporated across the school’s curriculum and measured with the assessment currently in place.

Mission Trip to Mexico

More Mission Trip Photos from Mr. Cormier - Photos from Fr. Daniel

Monday: The Knights are currently working on their 1st building project, a chapel.

Basketball District Champions!

Video Highlights: District Semi Final -  District Championship - Alumni Support Team

For the first time in a decade the Mount Michael Knights are headed to the state basketball tournament in Lincoln.  In the district championship game the Knights soundly defeated the Blair Bears 70-44.

In the state tournament the Knights are eighth seed and will play first seed Gretna (24-2) at 7:00pm on Thursday March 12th at the Devaney Center. In early January Mount Michael lost to the Dragons 57-72.

Image by Joe Mixan Photography - Click photo for larger image

Omaha World Herald - State Bracket

World Herald Stats:

Mount Michael  12 16  18 24—70
Blair                       9    4    9 22—44

MM: Mohamad Elradi 4-9 3-6 12, Tommy Farhart 7-9 3-3 18, Ben Borsh 4-4 3-3 12, Jake Batenhorst 6-6 4-4 19, Garrett Raabe 2-3 1-1 5, Raymond Dorsey 0-3 0-0 0, Mick Steier 1-1 0-0 2, Logan Larson 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Kalkowski 1-1 0-0 2, Reed Tiwald 0-1 0-0 0, Harrison Hohman 0-0 0-0 0, Conor Luff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-37 14-17 70.

Blair: Ethan Cox 0-0 1-2 1, Vance Janssen 5-13 7-8 17, Nolan Kirwan 0-3 0-0 0, TJ Loudner 2-12 1-4 7, Jacob Jones 3-3 0-0 6, Jacob Sorensen 5-8 0-0 13, Matt Brunkhorst 0-0 0-0 0, Dylan Rahlfs 0-1 0-0 0, Derek Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Tim Bennett 0-0 0-0 0, Brandt Radloff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-38 9-15 44.

3-point goals: EMM 6-11 (Elradi 1-2, Farhart 1-1, Borsch 1-1, Batenhorst 3-3, Dorsey 0-3, Tiwald 0-1), B 5-21 (Janssen 0-6, Kirwan 0-2, Loudner 2-8, Sorensen 3-3). Total fouls: EMM 14, B 17. Fouled out: Janssen. Technicals: none. Turnovers: EMM 10, B 13. Rebounds: EMM 17 (Elradi, Batenhorst 3), B 17 (Sorensen 4). Field-goal percentage: EMM .676, B .395. Free-throw percentage: EMM .824, B .600. A: 800 (est.).

Go Knights!

Photo by Joe Mixan

Photo by Bro Luke

Jackson Thompson Earns 1st State Swimming Medal for a Mount Michael Swimmer.

Aqua-Knight Jackson Thompson ('16) accomplished a first for the Mount by winning a state tournament swimming medal, placing seventh in the 100 yard butterfly. Thompson also finished thirteenth in the 100 yard backstroke and was part of the tenth place 200 yard medley relay and the fifteenth place 400 yard freestyle relay. The Skutt Catholic / Mount Michael Benedictine swimming and diving cooperative team placed seventeenth overall. In state swimming and diving all teams and individuals compete against each other regardless of school classification.

Previously, a Knight, Kevin Koch '11, Medaled at state four  consecutive years in diving. The first year was during the Burke/Mount Michael coop. The subsequent years he dove for Skutt/Mount Michael. During those four years he never placed lower than 5th at state.