В Бостоне открылись летние академии для подготовки и повышения квалификации учителей католических школ

Catholic school teachers prepare for upcoming year with summer academies BRAINTREE -- Growing up attending Catholic schools, Silvianna Zhao dreamed of teaching in one someday. This fall, she will begin teaching kindergarten at St. Anthony School in Everett. She was drawn to kindergarten because she wants to be there when kids start attending school for the first time. "Allowing the connection between home and school, and building trust with the parents, and learning who these little humans are, and introducing them to school, is one of the most exciting things for me," she said. Although she is a teacher, Zhao considers herself a constant student. When her principal asked her if she wanted to be part of the McNeice Academy, the Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools Office's bootcamp for new teachers, she said she was "more than thrilled." Zhao and about 50 other teachers entering their first, second, or third year of teaching in K-8 schools throughout the archdiocese participated in the Aug. 10-14 program to study faith formation, academic instruction, and executive management. The McNeice Academy, named after the McNeice Foundation that funded it, launched last year. "There's a lot of different people here, and there's a lot of different experiences," Zhao said. "And one of the things that was most poignant to me was that a lot of these teachers realize that we're all human, and that we might have different perspectives, different ideas, but we're all here for one purpose, and it is to become better teachers for the students that we're going to teach." The teachers met at the Archdiocese of Boston Pastoral Center in Braintree for the training. On Aug. 10, they studied faith formation. From Aug. 11-12, they looked at lesson plans and studied how to give "excellent instruction" to their students. From Aug. 13-14, they studied communication and how to create a healthy environment in their classrooms. The teachers also prayed and reflected together each day. "We look at the teacher as (a) faith leader in the classroom," said Mary Bridget Chick, CSO director of teacher development. In the room opposite the novice teachers, over 60 more experienced teachers from the archdiocese's K-8 schools were having a training session of their own. The Teacher Leader Academy, a new program offered by CSO, lasted from Aug. 10-12. Teachers whose principals identified them as important leaders studied MAP testing and were trained in adult leadership by Jeremy Alexander of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College. "These are folks who already play a pivotal role of leadership, but a lot of times it's informal within their schools," said CSO Leadership Director Anthony Zavagnin. "What we're trying to do is continue to build that capacity, and in some ways, formalize some of the learning and work that they're doing." On Aug. 10, Zavagnin led the teachers in a "mini retreat." They were asked to do some journaling and reflect on "how they bring light to their school using Matthew's Gospel." While the teachers are used to leading children, Zavagnin said they also need to know how to lead other adults. Archdiocese of Boston Superintendent of Catholic Schools Eileen McLaughlin said the training was "meant to build systems and structures for stronger professional environments in order to recruit and retrain talented teachers to work in our schools." A smattering of books had been laid out for teachers to choose from. Ariele Greene, a third-grade teacher at Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton who partook in the Teacher Leader Academy, had her eye on "Building Thinking Classrooms for Mathematics" and "The Languages of Learning." "There are so many different kinds of learners and so many different kinds of students," Greene said. "Even if you are a teacher of 15 years of experience, there's always different ways to learn how to teach those students." She wants to become a stronger leader, and, hopefully, become part of an administrative team someday. "We are all called here for a reason," she said. "A lot of us, whether we're at different schools or teaching different subjects, are called here for the same reasons, and it's nice to be put in a room with other experienced teachers to share those."