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Many teachers can relate to having two or three students who are disruptive and making life difficult. It can be every five minutes that a teacher has to say, "Mr. Jones, please get back in your seat." Or "Ms. Smith, please stop talking and pay attention."

These constant types of disruption are upsetting for the teacher and cause one to feel inadequate. After all, the teacher has prepared great lessons for the day and within ten minutes may feel frustrated and angry. It is wearing on one's patience, and the teacher goes home feeling like a failure. This is not what a teacher signs up for when deciding to become a teacher. The motivation has been to love these children and make a difference in lives. The feeling, however, is different, and many a teacher feels overwhelmed, unloved and discouraged.

How does one face a challenge like that? What can be done? Who can provide the support that is needed? There are many people such as the principal, mentor teacher, community members, academic advisor and pastoral administrator. The teacher is not alone, although he or she may feel alone.

I was thinking about classroom experiences that drag teachers down and thought about a passage of Matthew, Chapter 25: 31 – 40. This is the story of the last judgment. Jesus says that when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and prisoners, we are doing it for him. I would like to suggest that you take this chapter and apply it to teaching.

Think about your students—and in particular the few who make you feel incompetent. Take the gospel and change it slightly. Consider Jesus saying:

" I was anxious, nervous, suffering from a learning disability, unable to read, and not respected. When you loved and accepted the troubled student, you did it for me. You made me feel I was a welcomed and a valuable person."

Every day that you walk into the classroom, notice the presence of Jesus in your students. If you do this, you will make a difference and you will see that your primary support is Jesus himself. The vocation of being a teacher is an invitation to connect your experiences to the gospel and grow in faith in Christ.

A new book from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University of Notre Dame gives voice to the commitment and concerns of Catholic elementary school principals across the United States and presents recommendations central to the future of Catholic school leadership.

The book, Striving for Balance, Steadfast in Faith: The Notre Dame Study of U.S. Catholic Elementary School Principals, draws upon a survey of 1,685 principals, yielding a rare, comprehensive glimpse of their views on what they need to do their jobs better and how they describe the state of Catholic education today. They identify financial management, marketing, Catholic identity, enrollment management, and long-range planning as their schools' top five areas of need.

The authors—Rev. Ronald J. Nuzzi, senior director of ACE's Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program; Anthony C. Holter, ACE's director of program evaluation and research; and James M. Frabutt, a faculty member of the Remick Leadership Program—assess an enormous amount of data from the survey, find a lively faith among their respondents, and identify problem-solving options in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

"This unprecedented study will help to inform and deepen the national dialogue about the future of Catholic schools," said Rev. Nuzzi, who is a nationally known expert and speaker on Catholic education trends. "New ideas for the support of our school principals deserve to be part of the dialogue, and in this study the principals themselves offered recommendations worth considering—such as revising the position description of principal and helping to amplify principals' voices and expertise through a new national organization."

Besides a call for "more manageable and realistic position descriptions" and a group to advocate for Catholic schools at the national level, the book presents these two recommendations:

1. "Develop a program of ongoing professional development and renewal for principals" that addresses their needs, both professional and personal.
2. "Convene multiple groups of national and international stakeholders to advance the understanding of Catholic schools as instruments of the new evangelization."

Based on the data obtained, "the Church seems to have hired well, attracting mission-driven and loyal individuals to the overarching goals of Catholic education." But the study, which was conducted in 2010, finds that these principals embrace a unique combination of goals, including their schools' important role in proclaiming the Gospel, in the spirit of the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith. They also live daily with what has been called "the tyranny of the urgent," hungering for more support—emotional as well as financial.

The book, which follows up on an earlier ACE study of pastors' views of Catholic education, is published by Information Age Publishing and is available for purchase in hardcover or paperback at the publisher's website.

Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education collaborates with dioceses and school leaders nationwide to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools, with a special focus on under-resourced schools serving disadvantaged children. ACE forms faith-filled educators, offers an array of professional services, and cultivates innovative solutions to critical issues. The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, established in 2002, forms tomorrow's Catholic school leaders.

Cassie Brownell had her first introduction to Catholic schools when she enrolled at Marquette University. "The closest Catholic school [to our small North-Central Montana town] was sixty miles away," she tells us. What captured her imagination as a college freshman is what continues to motivate her today: a love of service and living "as a woman for others."

That motivation is also what led her to ACE Teaching Fellows (plus, she says, the influence of "some great MU alums in the ACE program") and then spurred her to enroll in ACE Teaching Exceptional Children. About her interest in TEC, Cassie says, "After three years teaching in post-Katrina New Orleans, two years in second grade with ACE and one year in first grade at my post-ACE school, I recognized trends among the academic and behavioral needs of the students I encountered. From discussions with [ACE Senior Director of Program Development] Dr. Joyce Johnstone, I knew more could be done to address the needs of not only students but parents and educators."

Through TEC, Cassie established a Strategic Intervention Team (SIT) at her school, which allowed her and her colleagues to develop relationships with six families that now, she says, "have new hope for the future of their children's academic careers." She went on to say, "My principal commented that SIT is the single-best thing to happen at our school."

Now in her fifth year of teaching, Cassie continues her focus on service and living for others. Recently she visited her ACE school, where she ran into a former student. In the first moments of their conversation, the student asked, "Do you still love all of us?" That summed up Cassie's commitment as a Catholic and an educator: "Loving my students and meeting them where they are."

A national Catholic radio program, "The Son Rise Morning Show," talked with ACE last week about the communities of teachers who serve in 26 arch/dioceses around the country as part of the ACE Teaching Fellows  initiative. Amy Wyskochil, director of operations for ACE Teaching Fellows, talked to program host Brian Patrick about the recent New York Times column that commented how the legacy of religious orders' service in U.S. Catholic schools is recalled by these intentional faith communities for the 21st century.

Meanwhile, The Tidings,newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told an uplifting story of caring students and teachers engaged in the "Locks of Love" initiative at Mother of Sorrows School in South LA, a school served by ACE graduates. The story mentions the role of teacher Heidi Witte, formerly in ACE Teaching Fellows, and principal Griselda Villareal, who is currently a first-year participant in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program.

New York Times religion commentator Samuel Freedman offers a look at the ACE Teaching Fellows faith community in Tucson in a piece published on Oct. 19.

Freedman writes: "Devoting themselves to society’s overlooked and left-behind, voluntarily accepting a wage of $1,000 a month that is roughly at the federal poverty line, living in intentional Christian households, the 1,600 teachers produced by ACE in its 19-year history have formed the 21st-century equivalent of the sisters and brothers from Catholic religious orders whose sacrifices for decades sustained the American parochial school system."