Notes from the Principal's Desk: September 19, 2017

What if you could design your own school for your child or children?

What would it look like? How long would the day be? What would be taught? How would the students be taught? How would the students "feel" about the school?

Would students be required to sit in their seats all day for 6-8 hours, listening to the teacher deliver instruction from the front of the classroom?  Would students be given repetitive homework that has little to do with actual learning and only focuses on memorization? Would students be expected to give undivided attention and not ask probing questions to the teachers?

I suspect your answer would be no. Yet, that is the education most adults, we included, endured and sat through growing up.  Some may say, "That is OK!  I turned out pretty good."  I dare to say that we have succeeded not because of our educational upbringing, but rather in spite of the education we received.

Think of your time in elementary or middle school. Do you remember any of your classes? Perhaps bits and pieces here and there, but I would venture to guess that, like me, you don't have a clear memory of your teachers making connections to learning in other content areas. Instead, we experienced what educators call, "The Sage on the stage." We listened to a teacher lecture, demonstrate, and ask students to repeat back what was just "taught."

It is not a secret that students acquire and retain information differently today than we did growing up.  Our children are digital natives who have never experienced life without mobile devices or the internet. How our children consume information and entertainment is vastly different than how children did only 5 or 6 years ago. Because of this, we cannot continue to instruct students using old methodologies of instruction.

The 21st Century learner has a need to be able to collaborate, communicate, problem solve, and be creative. Moreover, the jobs and workforce that our children will enter, or perhaps create, will be vastly different than those today. The workforce will require these 21st-century learning skills.

The Cathedral School blends the best of what traditional Catholic education has to offer: a deep encounter with Jesus Christ, discipline, and respect with the learning needs of the 21st Century student. Students learn digital citizenship, research practices, and how to collaborate, communicate, and solve problems. We are technology rich, with our 1:1 iPad and Chromebook programs. This provides our students with many more opportunities than the public and private schools in the area.

However, we cannot rest on what we have done in the past.  Knowing we can always improve, faculty this year will be pursuing professional development in two different areas.  The first is using data to inform our instructional practices.  The second is to try to answer the question: What if we could design a school for students?  What would it look like, how would our instructional methods change and how can we make that dream a reality? Next week, I hope to share more about this professional development process and what it looks for this school year. In the interim, ask your child the same question. You might be surprised at what they have to say.

God Bless,

Michael Wright