ACE Advocates News

To celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, we are sharing four reflections centered around the themes of "Learn, Serve, Lead, and Succeed." Today's reflection on "Serve" comes from Katie Dugan, a member of the Program for Inclusive Education's (PIE) inaugural cohort.

The enthusiasm is high as the students finish jumping and singing to GoNoodle on the SmartBoard. With nineteen boys in my first grade classroom at Mater Dei School in Bethesda, Maryland, getting their “wiggles” out is necessary before we start our language arts class. I am about to enter quicksand of uncertain depth by letting them practice their spelling words with shaving cream on their desks. It will clean their desks AND provide a fun way to practice!

To celebrate National Catholic Schools Week, we are sharing four reflections centered around the themes of "Learn, Serve, Lead, and Succeed." Today's reflection on "Learn" comes from Jenny Dees, Katy Lichon, and Clare Roach of the English as a New Language team. Subscribe to receive the rest of the reflections in your inbox.

On this first day of Catholic Schools Week we focus on our call to LEARN. As we reflect on our many years in education, we are certain of one thing–the knowledge that we have collectively amassed does not reflect that we have been the masters of our students’ education, but that our students have been the masters of ours!

When describing her first year as an ACE teacher, Elizabeth Nava says, “I saw myself as a person with hope to bring.”

Elizabeth, who graduated in the 15th cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows and taught in Atlanta, has remained committed to spreading this hope to Catholic schoolchildren. After her service with ACE, Elizabeth taught at St. Monica Catholic School in Dallas, Texas. While she has since left the classroom, Elizabeth continues to support Catholic education and now leads the Dallas ACE Advocates regional community. This group, comprised of over 100 ACE graduates and friends of ACE in Dallas, strives to “find ways to be the salt and the light and the yeast in the world.”

Kelden Formosa, a graduate of the 22nd Cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows, returned to his home country of Canada upon finishing his time in the program. He now teaches 5th grade at Immaculate Conception in Vancouver.

In the second segment of ACE Advocates’ Teachers Helping Teachers series, Kelden discusses his Word of the Day routine. As the name suggests, Kelden incorporates this into his classroom every morning to ensure that students go home each day having learned at least one new vocabulary word. This activity takes place in three main phases: the teaching phase, the practicing phase, and the assessment phase.

ACE graduate Sheila Walsh was honored by the Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics (LATM) as the Outstanding New Math Teacher of the Year at the organization’s annual conference in Baton Rouge on November 7.