Catholic Identity

As I reflect on the observations I have completed so far, there are two items that consistently stand out as "does not meet" or "partially meets".  The first is Catholic Identity.  Some rooms are infused with Catholic Identity, but there are some rooms that look no different from a classroom in a public school.  This is something we received high marks on when the accreditation team came to visit.  I'm not sure they were feel the same if they came back today.  We also said we would work harder at infusing our Catholic faith into all our lessons.  I rarely see this when I'm in a classroom.  I understand that it can be hard to find the connection in all subjects at all times, but I have seen opportunities that were missed.  It needs to be uppermost in our minds when teaching to make those connections to our faith life.

The second item was connecting the individual lesson to the overall unit.  I have seen some beautiful unit plans on paper, but when doing an individual lesson, it is hard to see how it connects to the big picture of the unit and students also had a hard time explaining the connections.  



It's like this picture.  We created something (great unit plans) but we're really not quite sure what to do with them.  So what's the solution?  Here's my plan.  Each week we will focus on one or two standards.  If there are two, one will be from the planning domain and it will connect to the either classroom environment or instructional strategies.   Some planning standards may repeat. This week we will focus on Catholic Identity.  Domain 1 - Planning: Element 1 and Domain 2 - Classroom Culture and Environment: Element 1.  In each of the standards, I have highlighted the specific things I'm looking for.  


This week, look around your classroom.  If someone were to walk into your room, would they know it's a classroom in a Catholic school?  If something is missing (crucifix, mission statement, etc.), let me know.  I was in one room and there was no crucifix.  I don't know when it disappeared, but it's gone.  Do you have a bible and stand.  One was purchased for every classroom many years ago.  Look in your closets.  Look in another room to see what I'm talking about.  If you need one, ask.  I will say that for the most part the way in which teachers and students interact does reflect Catholic Identity and that's a good thing.  I will also email these Domain pages so you can print them out and keep them in front of you throughout the week.  In the second week I will give a new benchmark to focus on and will do walk thrus specifically looking for the standard from the prior week.  The plan is that by the next formative assessment we will have gone through and looked at each benchmark individually.  

Social Media  

Be sure you have liked our school facebook page and check out our recent posts.  I put up a bunch of pictures from Trunk or Treat.  It was very successful and the DJ was awesome.  I have asked a few teachers to post something this week and I will continue to give out the login credentials so eventually many of us can post to the school page.  We have also started a youtube channel, google business page, and eventually I hope to add twitter.  This is how we will be communicating as we move forward.

Jean Days

I would like to clarify for everyone what a jean day looks like.  Jean day means students may wear jean pants, capris, bermuda shorts with any school shirt - polo, PE, spirit wear, CSW t-shirt, etc.  On some occasions they may ALSO (not instead of) wear halloween, fall, christmas, etc t-shirt.  The students I was concerned about on Friday were those who wore something other than school bottoms or jeans.  I saw leggings (which are banned in school period), fru fru skirts, and other assorted items.  I also saw random free dress tops that were not school items and had nothing to do with halloween. Please be sure to review this for Harvest Festival day and I will put something in tidbits that week.  If you ever have a question, check the handbook.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!