The ACE Blog

As educators, we must be committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure that every child succeeds. While this certainly means that we will provide extra time and supports to help our students learn, we are only attending to half of the job entrusted to us as Catholic school educators if we simply focus on meeting the academic needs of the children entrusted to our care. We must also seek to cultivate a sense of awe and wonder in the Creator among the children we serve.

“Why?”

This is the question I heard when I told people that I was staying in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Why Oklahoma?” Good question. If I’d moved back home to mostly sunny Sacramento, California, I would’ve been taken care of. Here? I think 50 degrees is freezing. Most of my Oklahoma friends (my “Oklahomies”) are either religious sisters or married women. I eat crackers and cheese for lunch four days in a row because I just paid a mortgage, but I can’t be at home because I’m coaching, directing, grading, or planning. So why’d I stay a third year at Saint Catherine School? 

Monica Kowalski, Ph.D., serves as a faculty member in the ACE Teaching Fellows and Mary Ann Remick Leadership programs. She writes about how we must focus on doing small things with love to better equip ourselves to face the larger challenges in our lives.

Navigating life after college inevitably teaches you some hard-earned lessons. However, I think that serving as an ACE teacher brings with it a different type of wisdom. Thinking about ACE? Read the fine print one more time. You have no idea about the challenges and joys you are signing up for! 

The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program prepares transformational school leaders who make God known, loved, and served. As the school year begins, Melodie Wyttenbach, Ph.D., a faculty member in the program, reflects on the need for each of us to bring zeal to our work.

For the past 16 years, the Alliance for Catholic Education has missioned graduates of ACE and other UCCE programs to teach internationally in Santiago, Chile, as part of ACE in Chile (ChACE). Throughout the 18-month program, these master educators grow as teachers and leaders while immersing themselves in an international cultural experience. This includes leadership opportunities, meaningful professional development, and growth in Spanish language fluency. Following a four-month language and school immersion, "ChACErs" spend one academic year teaching English at Saint George's College in Santiago.

Over the next few weeks and months, we will be hearing from members of the most recent ChACE cohort through a series of blog posts. Below is the first installment from Jack Casey, which describes the group's Spanish language classes in Quito, Ecuador. 

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 third and last in a series of reflections on the tie-ins between his Fulbright experiences and the three pillars of his formation as a member of ACE Teaching Fellows. Here, he discusses the pillar of spiritual growth.

When the Senegalese ask “How you are doing” in Wolof (the most widely spoken language in Senegal, even more than French), the standard response is, “Maangi fi,” which literally translates to, “I’m here.” It bodes well with Senegal, and shows the importance of simply being present.  

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 second 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 pillar of building community.

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!”