Featured Blog Post

Eight months after resolving to move back home to Chicago after college, I’m standing with one of my community members in front of a fourteen-foot plastic alligator at an official Florida Welcome Center rest stop. Over the past day and a half, we’ve driven through three states I’ve never seen before, cycled through the soundtracks of half a dozen musicals, and survived our first dinner at Waffle House. And yet, the most intimidating encounter is still a week away: our first First Day of School, when I’ll meet the 140 sophomores and juniors listed on my rosters.

So now you have met the team behind Higher-Powered Learning (HPL), but you may still be wondering, “what is Higher-Powered Learning?” If you’re reading this post, you probably understand the reference to the “higher power.” We used it in our name to communicate our primary commitment to “the art of leading the young to wholeness, in the image of Jesus Christ” (Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C.). 

You may recognize this picture from ACE’s 2016 Annual Appeal Video:

As Fr. Scully says in the video, Nelvin had struggled in Language Arts, and this photo was taken after he recently achieved a perfect score on his spelling test. What the video does not tell you, though, is that Nelvin has progressed through nearly two grade-levels of reading material in a single semester thanks to his amazing ACE teacher, his own hard work, and his school’s new blended-learning program. Want to know more about blended learning? Read on!

The NBA season is well underway, and as a native Philadelphian now teaching in Sacramento, I do my best to keep up with both the Kings and the Sixers. While watching the Sixers string together a couple wins recently, I started to think about how the team’s development over the past few seasons highlights some of the best lessons I learned about myself during my two years in ACE. As the Sixers closed out a win over the Miami Heat, it made me think, “Record aside, there are actually a lot of similarities between my ACE experience and the Sixers’ development over the past few seasons.” The motto in Philadelphia is “Trust the Process,” and I have found much about this theme that overlaps with my own ACE experience.

I love it when their eyes widen. That is my favorite part.

"You teach English? To middle schoolers?" people ask, incredulous, awed. "Oh man, I was the worst in middle school."

In this season of Advent, the Program for Inclusive Education (PIE) is grateful to be among an amazing network of advocates for inclusion in Catholic schools. This week we celebrate our mission and begin today, December 2, with a Day of Prayer for Inclusion.

Earlier this month, the ChACErs met together on the road. Well, sort of. There was an actual road involved: we arrived to the retreat via a road that took us to Zapallar, two hours northwest of Santiago and seventy minutes north of greater Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. But none of us were on the same road; some ChACErs, like myself, are just beginning their time in Chile and are preparing to teach in the English department at Saint George for the upcoming academic year. Some members of the previous cohort will be staying for another year in Santiago, and some are returning to the US.

As a discerning senior, I was certain of only two things: I wanted to serve the Church, and I enjoyed working with young people. With those two ideas as my guide, teaching in a Catholic school seemed like the natural fit. As I learned more about the ACE program, I was thrilled about the teacher training component and confident that I would grow in my faith through teaching. The great unknown was the pillar of community. As a quiet person, I was a bit hesitant. I was used to having time to be introspective and was comfortably confident in my ability to be independent.

Dear Maeve-before-ACE,

You’re feeling pretty good about yourself, aren’t you? You have just graduated from Williams College, a prestigious school, where you were captain of the lacrosse team and were surrounded by tons of super smart people. You have “suffered” through eight-hour stints at the library, written several 15-page papers, and done this all while maintaining a decent social life and enjoying your college experience. You figure you know yourself pretty well at this point. You are hardworking, motivated, and certain that you know how to handle a challenge. Next year you’ll start at Our Lady of Grace as the third-grade teacher. You’re sort of nervous to be moving across the country to live with people you barely know. The teaching part–that’ll be difficult–but, as I said, you’re a hardworking, motivated person, right? Surely you’ll figure it out. You know yourself pretty well, after all.

“The servant-leader is servant first…It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” –Robert Greenleaf

Current ACE Teaching Fellow Nick Padrnos (ACE 22, Biloxi) details his recent trek back to campus for the Notre Dame-Stanford football game. 

For me, the feelings I get from teaching are probably closely related to that same feeling that a preschooler gets when they get to school and see that they are going to get to play with a tub full of dried pasta noodles: excitement and exhilaration. Although I am often faced with struggles and challenges, ACE has showed me how the amount of purpose and growth outweighs all else. As a result, this new extraordinary adventure of teaching has helped me recognize my inner calling, my gift to share, and my fundamental philosophy which will guide my life forever: teach with love, teach with respect, and teach with goofiness.

Many thanks to the Program for Inclusive Education's colleagues and their special contributions to this piece.

Can you feel the energy and positivity?

It’s the excitement surrounding the future conversations between Catholic schools and their Local Education Agencies (LEA—the acronym used consistently to refer to local school districts) regarding allocations of Title funds. Given the changes under the new provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Catholic schools can improve equitable services for students. These changes have the opportunity to provide a lot of hope for our students!

The first thing that my students notice when they walk into the classroom is the large sign that shouts, “CHOOSE JOY” above the front whiteboard. Just like last year, I enjoyed waiting the first couple days it took for a student to finally ask (usually without raising their hand, and in the middle of a very important lesson), “Miss Coutre, why does it say “CHOOSE JOY” in the front of the classroom?”

I can do hard things.