ACE Teaching Fellows

The Chicago ACE Advocates recently gathered in fellowship and solidarity with a Mass and dinner celebration at St. Sylvester Church and School. St. Sylvester Principal Allyn Doyle hosted, and Rev. Lou DelFra, C.S.C., presided over Mass.

Gone are the days of young children sitting stoically at their desks memorizing scientific facts handed down from generation to generation. Science class need not be only educational, but also creative, social, and fun. That’s what Dr. Matt Kloser, the founding director of the Notre Dame Center for STEM Education, and science educator Sophie Troy Grathwol posit in their new book, Reading Nature: Engaging Biology Students With Evidence From the Living World.

"It was after the Easter vigil. Saturday, almost midnight.

“I slipped my acceptance, that I wanted to do the program, under Fr. Scully’s door. Little did I know that the door would open. They were having an Easter celebration! It was kinda like this: ‘Oh my God! The program’s going to happen! We have someone!’ It was a really special time. It was an exciting time. It felt like the exact right thing to do,” says Steve Camilleri. There he was. ACE 1. Acceptance one.

As the new school year begins, take a moment to look back at some of the many highlights from ACE Summer 2018.

In a classroom at Navarre Middle School, Allie Olshefke has the students’ attention to herself. Her mentor teacher watches as she prods a group of seventh graders to explain their thinking.

“I’m glad you came to the answers, but I really want to know how,” Olshefke tells them, pointing to two triangles drawn on the whiteboard. “Sometimes it’s easier to show what we’re thinking than explain what we’re thinking.”