Saint Peter School Newsletter

Picture of the Week: Our 7th graders returned from their Outdoor Classroom experience this afternoon. Outdoor classroom is an annual trip for 5th and 7th grade where they learn about nature, play games, and spend time together as a class.

Bonus Picture of the Week: Halloween-themed art projects hung in the stairway leading up to Oktoberfest. Thank you to Mrs. Grifkin for all of the beautiful art she helps our students to create!

Please remember:

• Food, drinks, and candy are not allowed in the gym. Please help us keep our beautiful gym floor clean of sticky and compacted candy and food!
• Keep to the open areas, which include: the Cafeteria, the Ted Hoff Court, the Driveway, and the ground-floor hallway leading to the bathrooms. All other areas of the school building are off limits during this event.
• Please keep an eye on your children during the event. Faculty and Staff are not responsible for your child during a school event like this one.
• Please help the PA to clean up at the end of the night! Many hands make light work, and we could really use your help picking up candy wrappers, sweeping the floor, and taking out the trash.

As many of you know, today there was a security incident in the city of Cambridge. You can read more here: https://www.wcvb.com/article/cambridge-harvard-shooting-alert-oct-24-2025/69147656.

Our school was alerted to this incident and immediately took action, following our protocols for such an event. Even though CPD said that there was no immediate danger, we took precautionary measures (e.g., bringing students in from recess, stopping all between-building transitions until further notice, etc.) I am very proud of our teachers and our students for their response to this incident.

Thank you to those of you who alerted us, we appreciate everyone's vigilance and their concern for our students!

One of the interesting things about the new AI revolution is that it's been in the works for quite a while. One of my favorite podcasts, produced by the tech news outlet called The Verge, has taken up this question in a lot of ways over the past decade or so. I'll share a podcast episode that demonstrates some of the challenges that new technologies introduce to our most basic assumptions. This podcast episode asks a pretty basic question: What is a photograph? Find the episode from 2024 by clicking this link.

This might sound like an easy question to answer, but it's actually gotten more complicated every year. Pictures are often created by combining many individual photographs, are often subject to "filters" and skin-smoothing, are often edited automatically, can select the "best faces", can be edited intentionally, and now can even contain elements that haven't existed previously! The final product looks like what we expect a photograph to look like, but really isn't what most people mean by a photograph; the word "image" might be more appropriate. So, we might need to re-think our relationships to pictures as arbiters of truth in our new modern era, just as we've had to do with the internet, broadcast TV, and many other institutions.

Similarly, in the Academic sphere, there are some real questions about the way that AI can impact our student's learning. We are so used to thinking of student products as the end-goal (e.g., is this essay any good, can my student express themselves, can they make a science project) that it's easy to recall that the main fruits of education are found in the process (e.g., organizing thoughts, outlining, researching, virtue building). There is, as of yet, very little research on how AI use is affecting children (as usual most is focused on university students), but some anecdotal evidence is emerging and is quite stark. It's common sense that over-reliance on any tool risks losing the capacity to do the work without the tool, and the issue with Generative AI tools is that the work that they replace is creating the product (seriously, try it, it's spooky!) and often also acting as a dramatic supplement to the process. If we lose the capacity to do both elements, what part is really left for us?

Put more simply: If our kids rely on AI now, will they build the skills they'll need for tomorrow? That struggle and frustration? That's how we build virtue. That repetition and practice? That's where the brain-building happens. AI can (and likely WILL) be in their tool belt later in their lives. But let's not deprive them of the opportunity to build real capability first!

Here are some questions to ask your kids this week to get the conversation started:

• Are you using any AI tools or platforms at school?
• Have you tested any out on your own or with friends?
• What do you think are the risks or rewards of these tools?
• Do you think it's okay to use AI to:
  • Write an assignment for school?
  • Change a photo of someone else?
  • Create a video or voice recording of someone saying things they never said?

Take some time to learn what's happening in your kid's world. You might be surprised by what they share!

Finally, remember: the primary goal of education is to transmit culture and to develop processes, not primarily to generate products. We should be proud of our students for struggling, we should be praising them for failing and trying again (e.g., re-doing an assignment, working closely with their teacher, asking for help), and we should encourage them to grow to be people of virtue. It turns out, we don't need machines that can produce essays above grade level or images that might not be photographs; we now have machines for that already.

On Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Grades 1-8 Progress Reports and MAP scores went home by BackPack Express. Please reach out to your childs homeroom teacher if you did not recieve a copy.

Friday, October 31, 2025, Halloween Day - Children are allowed to wear costumes to school. Costumes must meet the following criteria.

• Costumes cannot be frightening (especially to the younger children)
• No weapons (guns, knives, etc.) or props such as wands, baseball bats or hockey sticks, etc.
• Coloring hair is NOT allowed. Wigs are not allowed.
• Jeans in good condition (no cuts, rips or tears).
• T-shirts/tops must be loose fitting with appropriate words/pictures and no rips, or tears. Sweatshirt hoods will not be allowed to be worn in school during the day.

Still time to Sign Up Here for Parent Teacher Conferences.

Skip the flour fights and oven disasters this Thanksgiving — let Wilson Farm do the baking for you! Our 8th graders are raising funds for their Washington, D.C. trip in May, and you can help by treating yourself (and others) to some delicious, locally made pies.

Don’t spend days in the kitchen stressing over crusts and fillings — what if you burn it?! Instead, grab a perfectly baked pie (or six, seven…) from Wilson Farm, a local favorite. Stock up for your Thanksgiving feast, grab some for the grandparents and neighbors, or gift a pie to a beloved SPS staff member to send them off on break with a little sweetness for their sweetness. Feeling adventurous? There are so many varieties to choose from, you can even host your own pie taste-off! Click the order form below to get started and please note, all orders and payments must be received by November 14th to guarantee availability.

PIE ORDER FORM

While Dr. Kristiansen is out for Paternity leave, Students and Faculty of the week will not be occurring regularly. We will return in force in mid-November!

In place of this, I'd like to share with you all an email that I received this week about our students:

This past Saturday, I attended a funeral at St. Peter's Parish. Coming in from out of town, I was unfamiliar with the "lay of the land" and how/if I was allowed to park in the lot (as all the spaces are numbered). Since your school had an open house, there were fortunately some students outside with whom I could inquire about parking. These students, Dr. Kristiansen, are incredible -- they are the MOST polite, helpful, friendly, and kind children (all qualities that seem to be in shorter supply these days). They even offered to show me exactly where I should park my car (and gave me options) while also offering their condolences. I was so impressed that I said to them -- "your teachers, parents, and all the responsible adults in your life should be so proud of all of you".

I was so impressed with the St. Peter's School students that I encountered that I felt compelled to write you a note expressing, as much -- whatever you all are doing, KEEP DOING IT!

Cheers to you and your colleagues (and all the other adults helping to educate/raise these students).

St. Peter's CYO Basketball will be hosting a free basketball clinic for all students grades 3-8, boys and girls, on Saturday, November 22rd. The clinic will be run by Lance Dottin, a 3-time state champion as the former boys coach of Cambridge Rindge and Latin. He also played for St. Peter's CYO basketball once upon a time, too!

Please RSVP to the form below. Please also bring a basketball and wear basketball sneakers if you have them.

https://forms.gle/6vaKNZuZYfmSsqPv9

WHEN: Saturday, November 22rd, 1:00-3:00 PM for grades 3-5 and 3:00-5:00 PM for grades 6-8.

WHERE: St. Peter's School Gym, 96 Concord Ave in Cambridge. Please enter through the door at the bottom of the driveway.

WHO: The clinic is open to St. Peter's students, parishioners, CYO players and members of the Cambridge community. Any level of basketball experience is OK!

We’re teaming up with the Harvard Square Churches Meals Program (HSCMP) to support our unhoused and food-insecure neighbors right here in Cambridge — and we need your help (and your socks)!

We’re holding a Sock Drive for new adult-sized athletic socks — black or white, please. These humble heroes of the wardrobe are in high demand, and every pair makes a difference!

Bring your sock donations to Oktoberfest, or send them in with your student the week after. They can drop them off with their homeroom teacher.

Let’s warm some hearts (and feet)!

Exciting to hear that SPS students Leah (gr 8), Sandro and Izzy (gr 7) will be performing in the concert.

These links will remain the same each week, please use them as needed!

This year, due to security concerns, we will not be sharing our student mass schedule publicly. However, keep an eye on your homeroom teacher newsletter to know when your student(s) will be helping to lead the mass. We apologize for the inconvenience that this causes.