Student Success

Father Ray Modeski's homily at mass rang true for me this past Saturday.  It hit me as a Catholic educator and as a Catholic Principal at Christ the King C.S.S.

He was recounting a mass he had presided over recently for teacher retirees of the Halton Catholic District School Board.  To wit, he reiterated the words of a long-retired Superintendent in our board.  This gentleman stated that "good students earn our reputation; average students earn our salary; and difficult students earn our salvation."
As you take a moment to re-read this statement,  it sums up what our exceptional teachers do on a daily basis; teachers that embrace, understand and appreciate the complexities of their role and of the students they welcome through their classroom doors everyday that class is in session.  We are very blessed to have a Catholic Learning Environment filled with such teachers.

The Catholic Principal's role is to provide the instructional leadership, resources and job-embedded professional learning opportunities for their teaching staff which in turn will benefit all of our students in terms of meeting their diverse needs in the way curriculum is delivered and assessed. 

It is the Catholic Principal's role to communicate a message and put into practice a vision of discipleship for the entire Catholic Learning Community which directly impacts how we engage and support those students that are vulnerable, poor and/or disenfranchised.  Specifically, each learning environment should layer student success, mental health and co-curricular supports over the academic pieces mentioned earlier.

The Ministry of Education launched phase one of the their student success strategy called "Student Success/Learning to 18" in three phases commencing in 2003.  The goals are:

1. Increase the graduation rate and decrease the drop-out rate;
2. Support a good outcome for all students;
3. Provide students with new and relevant learning opportunities;
4. Build on students' strengths and interests; and
5. Provide students with an effective elementary to secondary school transition.

As you can see in the graphic, graduation rates have been increasing.  We are close to the goal of 85% as a province.

It has been through this strategy that students now have more supports from an intervention standpoint, more cooperative education opportunities that would go toward their Ontario Secondary School Diploma, access to a growing list of Specialist High Skills Major Programs (CtK has three: Arts & Culture, Information & Communication Technology, & a Sports Performance Specialist High Skills Major)

In the end, it is the one-on-one bond that a teacher makes with his/her students.  It is their efforts in opening up their hearts and in looking for Christ in the faces of each student they teach.  This approach will only spirit cooperation, a commitment to excellence and in the end....student success.

Thanks for reading.  Looking forward to your comments.

McKinsey and Company Report

I was re-reading the executive summary of the McKinsey Report for reference.  This study was done to find out why some schools succeed where others do not.  Specifically, they studied 20 of the world’s school systems, including ten of the top performers on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which tests student’s in math, reading and science aptitudes.

I mentioned some of the findings at our first staff meeting.  I would like to share some of their findings for your digestion.

FINDINGS

The experiences of these top school systems suggests three things that matter most: 1) getting the right people to become teachers, 2) developing them into effective instructors, 3) ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.  This is irrespective of the culture in which they are applied as well.

Ontario and Alberta (Canada) students were in the top 10 with Australia, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

·        Reducing class size from 23 to 15 students improves the performance of an average student by 8 percentile points at best

·        A study in Dallas shows that the performance gap between students assigned three effective teachers in a row, and those assigned three ineffective teachers in a row was 49 percentile points

·        The only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction through professional development

·        High performing school systems help teachers improve instruction, create awareness of weaknesses in their practice, provide them with a precise knowledge of best practice, and motivate them to make the necessary improvements i.e. mentoring, coaching, collaboration, principal’s as instructional leaders  

·        Being a teacher is about helping children to learn; being a principal is about helping adults to learn

·        The PISA scores of the top performing systems show a low correlation between outcomes and the home background of the individual student

·        All of the top-performing and rapidly improving systems have curriculum standards which set clear and high expectations for what students should achieve

·        All of the top-performing systems recognize that they cannot improve what they do not measure

Our school and system are in the intervention stage called great to excellent.

Great to excellent: the interventions of this stage move the locus of improvement from the center to the schools themselves; the focus is on introducing peer-based learning through schoolbased and system-wide interaction, as well as supporting system-sponsored innovation and experimentation

The McKinsey Report has been downloaded below for your reference.

http://ssomckinsey.darbyfilms.com/reports/schools/How-the-Worlds-Most-Improved-School-Systems-Keep-Getting-Better_Download-version_Final.pdf

Thank you for reading.  I am looking forward to your comments.

9/11 - 10th Anniversary

"Fear is the cheapest room in the house.  I would like to see you living in better living conditions."

Words from a 14th Century, Sufi Teacher that I reiterated at our Grade Assemblies last week.  My theme revolved around how fear disables our efforts in walking as a disciple of Jesus and staying true to a course of discipline that would precipitate a commitment to excellence.

I challenged our students to take that step to freedom by staying true to themselves and to be courageous when confronting such obstacles.

Using the American monuments and rebuilding efforts in response to the unspeakable horror that befell New York City, I reminded our students in the Friday morning announcements to pray for the souls of the departed; in particular the first responders who risked and in many cases lost their lives attempting to help those who needed it desperately in conditions replete with fear and gloom.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Welcome back!

I hope that your family had a wonderful summer full of rest, relaxation and enjoyment!

Another dynamic year of education is slated to take place at CtK for the 2011-2012 school year. One that is holistic in fashion, with our faith woven into everything that we do in our Catholic Learning Community.

Our Grade 9 Kick Start and Orientation the last week of August was a great success. Our Prefects did a great job acclimatizing our incoming Grade 9 students into the culture of our school.

Grade Assemblies will follow this upcoming week. We will review our eight governing values which are adorned on the beautiful banners in our atrium.

They are as follows:

Sincerity

Integrity

Honesty

Commitment to Excellence

Continuous Improvement

Passion for Learning

Compassion for Life &

Equity/Dignity/Respect.

Our staff selected these values over four years ago as a testament to what they would model and expect from our students.

Our school priorities of Discipline, Discipleship and Discernment will be the fulcrum point for our 2011-2012 School Improvement Plan.

Our CtK family is inclusive, embraces the poor, helps those with mental, social and/or emotional issues and truly endeavours to treat everyone with equity, dignity and respect.

In the end, the message that students will clearly receive from our administration is that they will be loved and cared for. However, expectations will be high in terms of their commitment to excellence in the classroom and co-curriculars. They will also be expected to work on their resiliency in solving problems with our staff and students in a ethical and faith-oriented fashion.

Please remember to visit our website at http://www.ctk.ca/ for school updates. You will also receive updates through our phone and email systems. If you have not submitted your email address to us and wish to receive notifications from our school through this medium, please come to the main office to express your interest.

New blogs will be posted at the beginning of every week until the end of the 2011-2012 school year. My blogs will range from commentary to school news regarding our academic and co-curricular pursuits. Please feel free to post your own comments/questions about this topic or anything else concerning our Catholic Learning Community at CtK.

Thank you for being a part of our family.

Graduation 2011

Below is an excerpt of my address to our 2011 Graduating Class.  There are three themes that have been implicitly and explicitly woven into it.  My explanation alluded to DeSantis' "3 Ds" of Discipline, Discernment and Discipleship.

"How will the value of our days be measured?
What will matter is not what we have, but what we give.
What will matter is not what we have achieved, but your significance.
What will matter is how long we will be remembered, by whom, and for what."
A life of meaning, discipleship, happiness and purpose.

After four or more years of walking with our Catholic Learning Community,
we are comforted by the fact that it has espoused discipleship,
added meaning, purpose, and happiness to all of our lives.

Jesus stated "follow me" 15 times in the Gospels.
We are all followers, learners or Disciples of Christ.
The question is how will we continue to live our faith
as a disciple of Christ in the 21st Century?

It may mean that we will have to look for Christ being present in our world.

It may mean visiting, noticing and listening
to the kinds of people with which Jesus spent time.

Jesus became friends with the nameless,
disenfranchised, poor and the downtrodden.
Jesus stopped to listen to people
and asked questions like
"What can I do for you?"
"What do you want from me?"

Who gets our attention
and who is easily overlooked
in your everyday life?

How often do we recognize Christ in the flesh?
Disciples in the 21st Century
have their eyes wide open.

They notice the Christ standing
in front of them at the bus stop,
in their workplace,
college or university classroom.

And so to the class of 2011,
disciples of the 21st Century,
in the presence of Ms. MacDonald
& Ms. Doyle our Chaplaincy Leader,
our teaching and support staff,
Father Dave,  Father Bob,
Mrs. Alice Anne Lemay – Chair of the Board,
Mr. Mark Rowe - Halton Hills Trustee,
Mrs. Jacqueline Herman, Superintendent of Education,
Mrs. Val Slater, Our Chair of Catholic School Council,
& Award Donors.

I urge you to continue to follow Jesus
by experiencing life in many destinations.

I urge you to practice being a disciple
by noticing Christ in the people you encounter.

I urge you to become a friend by listening,
asking how you can help
and reaching out to those who need you.

May God bless you on your journey in providing hope for tomorrow.

Thank you.


This will be my last blog for the school year.  Thank you for reading and for the occasional comments.  I hope my blog has provided some insight, information and perspective into our Catholic Learning Community.

Baptism

My family attended the baptism of a relative today.

The priest was invitational, calm and very open to the families baptizing their children.

He did not mind the noise made by the children nor by the families in attendance while he was anointing the beautiful children.

As a Catholic educator, it was a refreshing sight to behold. 

The most poignant part of the liturgy was his homily.  The priest related the watering of the plants that were before him on the alter to what we should do as Catholics in nurturing our children's faith. 

He pointed out that we should be careful not to water the plants too much that they become saturated.  In the same vein, he cautioned the audience not to bring their children to every mass on the church schedule as they would become saturated and stray.  Conversely, not watering the plants enough would result in wilting or a disinterest in our faith.

An excellent point that life is a careful medley of checks and balances and the pursuit of our faith should be part of this process for it to grow in a healthy manner.

Thanks for reading.  Looking forward to your comments.

Clarence Clemons - January 11, 1942 - June 18, 2011

You either love Bruce Springsteen or are indifferent towards him and his music.  I have loved Bruce for over 25 years.  I have all of his music and a bevy of magazines and books dedicated to him and his talented band mates.  I am the fan that would have collected outtakes of his music going back 40 years.  I have a thorough knowledge of all of Springsteen's band mates.....most notably Clarence Clemons.

Why Clarence?  I have seen Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in concert on several occasions. His concerts are simply second to none in my opinion. Bruce's interplay with Clarence in concert has been legendary.

Despite Clarence's tremendous talent and his seminal contributions to Bruce's music throughout the years, I have always been most touched by the trust, loyalty, compassion, care and camaraderie between Clarence and Bruce: A friendship that exceeded 40 years.

I am unable to think of a better example of a true kinship between two human beings.

You can imagine how I felt when I noticed this message on CNN this past Saturday evening.

Legendary rock saxophonist Clarence Clemons died Saturday of complications from a stroke, band mate Bruce Springsteen said. He was 69.

Clemons had played sax in Springsteen's E Street Band off and on since 1972.

"Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage," Springsteen said in a statement.

"His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly 40 years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."

So....on this day...Father's Day.....Clarence has  left behind four children.  I have been examining my own mortality, my friendships and the love for my wife and children. 

While I never met Clarence, I felt that I really knew him through Bruce's music, his part in it, and the love he and Bruce had for one another.

May God bless his soul.

Thanks for reading.  Looking forward to your comments