The same thing can be said about a parish Catholic school: it takes a lot of money to operate; it puts a lot of wear on the buildings; and it requires a lot of time and energy to maintain. Parish life would be much simpler without a school. But just as the heartaches and headaches our kids cause are worth it, so are the challenges that come with operating a parish school.

School children bring a special kind of life to a parish community. They remind us of the importance of laughter and recreation. They help a parish fulfill its mission to evangelize.

There’s something deeply spiritual about watching a class of children kneel in prayer, trusting that God is listening. The noise of laughter from the playground is a sign of life and joy to a parish. It means God is present, that the Church is being renewed in the hearts of these young disciples who are just learning how to live like Jesus.

Just as children were brought to Jesus so that he might lay hands on them and pray, parents bring their children to their parishes to be touched by the hand of the Savior.

During this Catholic Schools Week, we remember not to follow the example of the disciples who tried to rebuke the children for coming to Jesus, but instead we open our hearts to hear the Lord’s words:

“Let the children come,” Jesus said, “and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Let the children come to our parish schools. Let them come with their grimy hands, their uncontrollable giggles, their fidgety fingers, and their raging hormones.

Praise God for the craziness of parenthood, and praise God for Catholic schools.

This article was written for Notre Dame’s ACE Advocates annual series of reflections on Catholic Schools. You can find the entire series for this year at the ACE website.

Several bishops have already begun their celebration of Catholic Schools Week by publishing their thoughts on Catholic education:

Parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith. Catholic schools support parents in this role #CatholicSchoolsWeek

— Eamon Martin (@ArchbishopEamon) January 26, 2014

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone:

…we see that we are greatly blessed with a well-developed education system poised and ready to serve our families and greater community well into this new Christian millennium, thanks especially to dedicated teachers, parents, administrators, benefactors and volunteers. To all of you I say: Thank you!

Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan:

I call on all of you who were given the great gift of Catholic education to contact your alma mater or another Catholic school to offer in gratitude for your Catholic education the support of your treasure, time and talent. I ask that each of us do what we can to encourage and support those who want a Catholic education but cannot afford it. Finally, I challenge all of us to get more vocal with our public officials and press them about aid to our Catholic Schools.

Bishop David Walkowiak (pdf)

I invite all Catholic families to think about the benefits of a Catholic school education for your children. Catholic schools not only present families and the Church a powerful opportunity for evangelization, but they are also effective in their mission of educating the whole person and have been consistent in producing successful graduates for over 150 years – students with higher academic achievement and a greater likelihood of practicing their faith, participating in
ministry, being civically engaged, giving generously, performing service, earning higher wages, and considering an ordained or religious vocation.

Bishop George J. Lucas:

“Never, ever, ever, ever bet against the Catholic Church or Catholic education. That is a fool’s bet. When the chips are the lowest, that is exactly when the game-changer happens.”

Demographic shifts, changing attitudes, leadership issues and finances are driving the struggles, he noted. However, James said, Catholic education has always faced these problems and has endured. He cited several instances.

In the early 1800s, Bishop Benedict Flaget of Bardstown, Ky., came to visit St. Louis and reported indifference among Catholics and a Church “in total disrepair.” Bishop Louis DuBourg arrived in St. Louis and cited an extreme personnel challenge. But he successfully recruited religious in Europe to come here and turned things around.

In the early 20th century, many of the women religious who staffed the schools had little or no training. But again, the challenge was met and they were trained. By 1972, a massive departure of religious orders from teaching was under way and even more predicted to leave in the next decade. Worries were expressed that lay teachers would not be able to fill the gap.

“Crisis is part of our DNA as Catholic schools,” James said. “While we do have some present challenges, we ought not be too afraid.”

Read the rest of the article at the St. Louis Review.

The Niagara Falls teacher has been coming up with app ideas for a number of years but discovered that developing and marketing an app can be a costly endeavour.

“I have these ideas since tablets came out but I found out that some apps are $30,000 to develop,” he said.

In December, however, the tides turned when he discovered Applits, a U.S.-based company that does all the legwork for budding app creators.

“The concept was great,” he said. “They want to make to make peoples’ dreams come true.”

Applits recently held a contest asking for app ideas and Stranges submitted an idea of an app that makes it easy for users to donate to a charity of their choice.

The app identifies charities based on a user’s preferences whether it’s from a recently-watched YouTube video or a news story.

“The goal is for it to be intuitive,” Stranges explained.

Users can donate to a charity and also win points towards additional monetary funds to use towards a future donation.

His iDonate app impressed the judges who felt the app fit perfectly with the company’s AppForCharity campaign.

Read more at FortErieTimes.ca.

MUNDELEIN, Ill.— NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, will become a flying classroom for Carmel Catholic science teacher Marcella Linahan during research flights that she will participate in as an Airborne Astronomy Ambassador.

Ms. Linahan and her partner, Lynne Zielinski from the National Space Society, Long Grove, Ill., are one of twelve two-person teams that have been selected for SOFIA’s Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program, representing educators from 10 states.

In April, Ms. Linahan will spend one week at Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. training and then flying on SOFIA for two missions. Each team will be paired with a professional astronomer to observe how airborne infrared astronomy is conducted. After her flight opportunity, Ms. Linahan will take what she has learned back to Carmel Catholic to promote science literacy.

“I am excited that I can experience astronomical data collection first-hand, and then bring this data and experience back to my students,” Ms. Linahan remarked. “I am passionate about exposing the students to authentic science research. I want them to realize that a STEM career is something that is exciting and obtainable.”

Read the whole story at the Mundelein Review.

Michael (Mikey) Satira, Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School’s director of student activities, has become the latest Internet sensation after a student captured him on tape executing a perfect windmill spin on the school’s cafeteria floor.

An unknown student filmed Satira, 41, who also works part-time as a DJ and entertainer, breakdancing in the lunchroom of the Windsor Terrace school during eighth period last Wednesday while students in the background are wildly cheering for the educator.
“Evidentally its pretty unqiue for a guy like me in a shirt and tie to be busting windmills in the cafeteria with students going nuts,” Satira told The Daily News.

Check out his video below, and read the entire article at NYDailyNews.com.

Holy Spirit Regional Catholic School is offering supporters a high-tech way to buy tickets to its biggest fundraiser.

The private school on Airport Road says reservations and donations to the Jan. 25 BASH (Building an Academic and Spiritual Heritage) event at the Von Braun Center can be made using Bitcoin, an increasingly popular digital currency.

“In a technologically savvy city, it only makes sense that the BASH embrace this new payment system and educate our parents and students through real-life experience,” BASH Chair Carlen Williams said in a news release.

Read more here.

According to Kathy Mears, Executive Director of Elementary Schools:

Our books have been selected and we hope that you will join us in our discussions.  Pick one or do both discussions!  It is easy to participate!

First, you must join Edmodo (www.edmodo.com), because that will be our platform.  After you register, you can follow one of the following links or use one of the following codes.

If you are interested in knowing more about how to transfer our faith to future generations, please consider joining the group reading:  Forming Intentional Disciples:  The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus by Sherry Weddell.  Through the reading of the book and the exchange of ideas, we believe that participants will grow stronger in their faith and their knowledge of how to share the faith, and meet other committed Catholic educators from all over the country!  To register for this book study, please follow this link:  https://edmo.do/j/u3vnpq.  The code for this book is:  2fdna7.

If you would like to learn ways to implement the best practices outlined in Robert Marzano’s book, Classroom Instruction That Works:  Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (2001), please consider registering for this book study!  We will read, share pedagogical practices and learn new strategies from each other.  To register for this book student, please follow this link:  https://edmo.do/j/bk3n4k. The code for this book is:  2w2se8.

These book studies require you to read a little, share a little, and work together to build some common knowledge with your colleagues from across the country.  Please consider joining us, as we begin to connect this way!

These two books are excellent choices to kick off the book club. I’ve read both of them, and I can’t wait to discuss them. I’ve already sent my request to join the Edmodo group, and I look forward to seeing you there!

*Ordering your books from this link helps support Catholic School Chronicle.

The show began an educational program intending to use time travel as a way to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. Thought it may have strayed from its initial purpose, there’s a lot we can learn about teaching from the time-traveling time lord known as the Doctor.

Regenerate every once in a while. 

The most famous and unique characteristic of the Doctor is his ability to regenerate—to get an entirely new body and personality every so often, while still remaining the same person. While we teachers (regrettably) can’t turn in our tired bodies for new ones, we can rejuvenate and reinvigorate our teaching. Maybe it’s time to teach a new novel, or move to another grade level. Instead of simply recycling our lesson plans from year to year, we can introduce some new angle to a unit we’ve taught for years. Maybe it’s time to try something out of our comfort zone, like a global project, or an interdisciplinary unit taught in conjunction with another teacher. We don’t need an entire personality makeover, but is there some new tradition we can start in our classroom that will energize the students and ourselves?

Travel with companions.

Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Amy Pond—the companions of the Doctor are almost as memorable as the Doctor himself. The Doctor always travels with a companion or two because they make him better. They keep him on the right path when he strays, they remind him of who he is when forgets, and they get him out of trouble when he risks too much. The same is true with teaching. We need colleagues for the same reasons. Our fellow teachers and administrators who travel this journey of education with us are invaluable to our success. Teaching can be an isolating activity in which we find ourselves locked in a room with twenty or thirty young minds looking to us for leadership. It’s easy to forget we’re not alone. Whether it’s the teachers in our building or the teachers in our Personal Learning Network on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook, we need   help from friends to stay on track, to remember who we are, and to get us out of trouble.

It’s not about big budgets or special effects.

The early years of Doctor Who are infamous for their cheesy effects and cheap costumes—green bubble wrap, duct tape—you get the picture. In spite of the low-budget effects, the show became an icon of British culture because of the power of the stories it told. The same is true of good teaching. It’s not the latest technology or a state-of-the-art classroom that is most essential to effective teaching. My principal is fond of telling me about the best college math professor she ever had, who simply walked into to the room each day holding nothing but a piece of chalk. Good teachers make the best of whatever environment they are given, with whatever tools they have at their disposal. Would it be great to teach in a 1:1 environment with air-conditioned rooms, smart whiteboards, and the latest textbooks? Sure, it would. But at its heart, good teaching is a relationship: between teacher and student, between students and the subject matter.

Everyone is important.

In the Doctor Who episode A Christmas Carol, the scrooge-like Sardick tells the Doctor that the person trapped inside a hibernation chamber is “nobody important.” The Doctor replies, “Do you know, in 900 years of time and space I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.” Would we say the same about the students we’ve taught? In all our years in education have we ever met anyone whom we ignored or treated as non-important? In our classes right now, whom do we tend to overlook, to dismiss, to avoid? Our belief in the dignity of every person compels us to reflect and actively seek out these students and build our relationship with them.

We may not last fifty years in a classroom, but we stand a better chance of being successful teachers if we find ways to renew ourselves, to spend time with our colleagues, to connect with our students, and to treat everyone with dignity.