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Michael Berino (ACE 19) has expanded his teaching and learning by spending the past nine months in Senegal. Thanks to a prestigious grant he received from The Fulbright Program, he has worked with the Office of English Teaching at Senegal's Ministry of Education, assisting in professional development for English teachers throughout the country as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) & Teacher Trainer. This blog post is the first in a series of reflections on the tie-ins between his Fulbright experiences and the three pillars of his formation as an ACE Teaching Fellow. Here, he discusses the vocation of education and teaching as a whole.

Dear ACE 22,

Congratulations! You have successfully completed your first year of teaching and have made it to the second summer. As you get settled back on campus and focus on becoming a student once again, here are a few thoughts based on ACE’s three pillars that you should keep in mind over these next eight weeks.

My friends often ask me what I will do now that it’s summer and I’m on “vacation” from teaching for several months. The truth is that summer never seems like much of a vacation, but rather a time to do different kinds of work for my students. This is hard to share with friends who work a 9-5 job. They often misunderstand the work of being a teacher since much of the work of being a teacher is hidden from the students’ (and parents’) eyes.

To our newest ACE Teachers,

As you begin your first ACE summer, here are some tips from someone who’s been in your shoes to make the most of your time together on campus.

“Zeal is the great desire to make God known, loved, and served, and thus to bring knowledge and salvation to others…[Leaders] who possess it fulfill the duties of their profession with enthusiasm, love, courage, and perseverance…To reach it, [leaders] must neglect nothing. Without it, everything falls apart.”

- Blessed Basil Moreau

In a seminary in Southern California, set in beautiful buildings within a citrus grove, men are preparing to bring the Gospel to diverse realities of the people of God. One of the realities the seminarians are preparing to address is Catholic schools--a great challenge and a wonderful means of evangelization.

“Catholic schools are good for America!”

“We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.” - Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero

School leaders function within dynamic and complex systems. No one day is the same as the next and there are always a number of plates spinning. To some this work may seem complicated and messy, but for those of us drawn to the vocation, we relish knowing that each day brings something new. How we manage the multiple and often competing demands of our work is one determinant of how successful our school will be. Principals of high-performing schools focus their attention on key areas when managing complexity. According to Chenoweth & Theokas, authors of Getting it Done: Leading Academic Success, there are three key leverage points to focus on:

When Pope Francis' latest encyclical Amoris Laetitia was released earlier this month, most of the attention was given to the Holy Father's thoughts on family life, and not much of the conversation centered around educational options, much less the school choice discussion. But yesterday in RedefinED, Remick Leader Renée Stoeckle (12th cohort) wrote a piece giving a great overview of the Catholic Church's historical stance on school choice and how Pope Francis confirms and reiterates those views in his latest encyclical. As the Student Learning Coordinator at Step Up For Students in Florida, Renée knows a thing or two about school choice. In the event you haven't read the 250+ page encyclical yet, this short article's worth a look!

Read the article

As the number of educational technology resources continues to grow, it can be easy for educators to be both excited about the potential they have to transform classroom learning, and also overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources that are available from which to choose. These options deserve the critical attention of ELL teachers. Choosing the most effective tools can make a significant positive impact on our English language learners' ability to acquire a new language. 

As educators, one of the core values we look to instill in our students, parents, and colleagues is a growth mindset, a constant yearning to improve and a deep belief that everyone can improve. A key behavior that helps to cultivate this value is seeing the best in others. Yet this is not an easy thing to do. Our natural inclination as human beings is to view ourselves in the best possible light, and that can have a powerful impact on the way we view others.

“The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.” - Carl Jung

Last week a dear friend shared with me the story of how he stood at the top of a New Hampshire mountain ski slope and watched his nine-year-old son successfully navigate his way to the bottom. “As a parent, we spend so much of our time trying to teach our children to do the right thing and make good decisions. When they’re on their own, we simply have to trust that what we teach them, they put into practice. Watching my son from the top, I was praying he’d make the right turn when he needed to, and he did. And when he needed to maneuver, so as to avoid another skier, he did. Slowly he made his way to the bottom—his accomplishment was pure joy for both of us.”

This time of year brings me back to some of the more challenging days in my third grade classroom in Jackson, MS. Even now, every day, I spend at least a few minutes wishing I could go back to that classroom and teach those students again, knowing what I know now. 

This month we celebrate women’s history and reflect on the many contributions of women to Catholic education. With Fr. Ron Nuzzi, I recently explored the history of women in Catholic education for a chapter we are writing for a book on International Perspectives on Women in Educational Leadership. I was inspired by finding that dating back to colonial times, and continuing into the present, women have been instrumental in establishing, leading, and ensuring the success of Catholic schools in America.

This month’s 15 on 15th spotlights an innovative school model – Dual Language Catholic schools or Two-Way Immersion (TWI) Catholic schools. We invite you to take 15 minutes to learn more about this model, which manifests deep mutual respect for linguistic and cultural diversity. This model has shown evidence of cognitive, social, emotional, and economic benefits (Gándara, 2015).