Yesterday I read an article about the website Wordle.net. This website creates a “word cloud” out of select writings. A person may write an original piece, cut and paste some text, or link it to a blog for analysis. Using the submitted words, the website then creates an image. The most frequently used words appear in the largest font and the least used words are much smaller. The author may then change colors and fonts for greater effect.

I decided to try this for my blog to get a visual representation of what I emphasize when writing. The resulting image appears on my blog, and you can see that by far my top-used word is “students”. The next three are “school, learning, teachers,” followed by “excited, skills, 21st Century, world, different.”

As a school leader, I focus my energies on students and creating an educational environment that challenges them to learn and grow. It was nice to “see” that my professional writing does indeed communicate this focus.

But Wordle has many more possibilities.

I’m challenging my teachers to use this website in their classrooms. Ideas include poetry study, spelling lists, writing that includes a specified word list, and artwork. Wordle will enable them to effortlessly differentiate lesson plans and engage students using multiple intelligences. All this ties back into my goal of creating an innovative educational environment. As teachers and students become comfortable with this new tool, I’ll be curious to “see” how their Wordle creations reflect personal word choice.

The new school year began this week. This start was quiet as everyone fell into the routine that has been established over the last few years. While that sounds wonderful it is a little too uneventful for me. Each of the last three years brought changes and the challenges that went with them. It is this type of challenge that makes coming to school each morning exciting. This quiet start has made me realize that even though nothing big or new is on the horizon, we still have a very important challenge to face this school year.

Our most important goal is to prepare our students for their future. This includes what I call the Core Six; developing strong communication skills, learning to embrace challenges, becoming problem solvers, becoming collaborators, becoming critical thinkers, and embracing diverse ideas and people. To help the students gain these skills we as educators need to look at how our classrooms are structured, how information is presented, how we engage students and how we ask the students to demonstrate their learning.

We know that our school and classrooms should look different than they did in the past. In the 21st Century we have many more tools available for teaching and learning and additionally we need to approach students differently. Our students want to learn through real world experiences, work as collaborators and they see technology as a foundation for life, not a tool like we adults do.

This is no easy task for educators to embrace. However it can be done and the staff at St. Raphael’s Catholic School has embraced these changes over the past three years. To continue on this journey the staff will need ongoing training and support for implementing these tools and methods. School leadership has to support teachers as they try new ideas and embrace challenges. Parents need to desire an educational program that is different than their memories of elementary and middle school.

This is what I see as my challenge for the new school year: Helping the staff and students work together in new and innovative ways that will help the students gain the skills required for success in the 21st Century. I know this is no easy challenge but it does get me excited to come to school each morning.

From June 29 until July 3 I was with more than 17,000 attendees at the NECC in San Antonio. This national conference is an exciting place to learn about teaching and learning in the 21st century.

As I sat through various workshops in addition to the keynote speakers I met people from all over the world who are equally excited about engaging students in the learning process. We all agree the success of students learning is keeping them engaged in the learning process. The tools available now for teachers make it easier for them to engage all students through their various learning styles.

A part of the conference includes students sharing examples of their work. These young participants were from both the United States and Mexico and were as young as nine. They confidently explained their newly acquired knowledge and the skills they used to obtain the knowledge. Many of the projects included collaboration with students in a different community or even another country. These students were proud of what they learned and I am confident they will remember what they learned long into the future because of their level of engagement. They did not learn it just for the test.

On Tuesday morning the keynote speakers were Jim Carleton and Mali Bickley from Canada. These two teachers worked together to have their students connect and collaborate with students in Africa. The Canadian students became so engaged in their learning and along the way they realized the African students had so little as compared to them. These realizations made the students want to reach out and help the African students by raising money to send to Africa to help the school. These students were so excited to help others and you could feel the pride these young Canadian students felt as they spoke about their experience.

Being a part of this conference reinforces to me that our students want to contribute to our world in a positive way at a young age. As educators we need to provide them ways in which to do so. We need to create learning opportunities that connect the content we need them to learn to meaningful ways to reach out to the world. In doing this our students will amaze us in their learning but more importantly to their passion for life.

On Wednesday, June 18, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced publicly that an anonymous donor donated $10 million over the next ten years to 15 Catholic Schools who are members of FOCUS. This is great news for St. Raphael’s Catholic School because we are members of FOCUS.

FOCUS (Friends of Catholic Urban Schools) is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that has been working for over three years to raise money for fifteen Catholic schools that are located in urban or inner ring suburban settings. St. Raphael’s Catholic School is associated with this organization because of the changing socio-economic demographics in our local community. The goal of this organization is to support schools in their development and fundraising, not replace the schools efforts.

FOCUS has worked to solicit donations from people who believe in Catholic education. These donations go to support tuition assistance and program enhancements. This past year St. Raphael’s Catholic School receive money from FOCUS to help support our standardized testing and provide tuition assistance for some of our families.

On Tuesday, June 17, I attended the FOCUS general meeting. During the meeting details were given as to how the donation is structured; however, many of the details are not finalized.  Ms. Laurie Acker, Director of Urban Education for the Archdiocese will oversee the money and work with the donor to finalize the plan. I have outlined the details that were shared and how this donation will impact St. Raphael’s Catholic School.

• Each year for ten years, 1 million dollars will be given.
• Sixty plus percent will go to scholarships.
  • Most of these scholarships will be need based however some might be designated to high achieving students.
  • The division will most likely follow the percent of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch accounts.
  • During the 2007-08 school year 46% of students enrolled in the FOCUS Catholic Schools qualified for free or reduced lunches.
  • During the 2007-08 school year 15% of St. Raphael’s students qualified.
  • St. Raphael’s students represent 3% of the total FOCUS students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.

The remaining thirty plus percent will be designated to program or curriculum enhancement. Areas of focus will be English, math, science and religion. Money and time will be spent learning how to increase the quality of teaching and learning in these subjects. Small groups of schools will focus on the different subject areas and share their research and findings with other Catholic Schools in the area.

This is great news for St. Raphael’s Catholic School! The monies received through this donation will provide additional financial aid for some students starting in the fall of 2008. Each year as we continue our review of different curricula and make improvements in instruction we will additionally benefit from the donation.

We are fortunate to be one of the recipients of this money but our work to continue stabilizing our enrollment, developing our own fundraisers and reaching out to donors will continue long into the future.

Catholic Spirit Article

On Wednesday morning Kare 11 news was at St. Raphael to film a segment for their “What’s Cool in Your School”. They were here to learn about our school musical. During the interview I told the reporter what a wonderful program we have and the variety of ways it helps the students. The morning went well and the broadcast should be in a few weeks.

I went about the rest of the day, performed my part on Thursday but I did not get to see the whole show until it’s third performance. As I sat in the audience I watched with amazement the talents of the eleven through fourteen year old students that were on stage. I know that many others are behind the scenes who help make the show run smoothly. All of the involved students work hard to be ready for the performance and it shows. What also is evident are the talents that Mr. and Mrs. Bowen bring to our school. I am aware they have many helpers including parents, alumni parents and alumni students but it is with their efforts our school has a program that truly in newsworthy.

My husband came last year for the first time. I had told him how wonderful the previous year’s show was ,so he came out of obligation as the principal’s husband. He was very impressed with the quality and he had been looking forward to attending this years show. As we drove home Friday night he said of all the theater he has ever seen this one was the most impressive. He explained it this way. When you see professionals you expect a good performance and usually you get it. When you see amateurs who are in community theater you expect it to be good. When you go to see middle school students you only expect a show. However, at St. Raphael you experience a wonderful production with a variety of music, dancing and costumes of which the students are well prepared and are having fun. I could not agree more with my husband.

To the students who are involved, I hope you realize the talents you shared with the audience is appreciated. It is wonderful you are willing to share the talents God gave you. For all of the adults the talents you shared will live on in the students you have worked with and I thank you for this. Everyone involved in the St. Raphael Theater should be proud, the show was fabulous!

When the Kare 11 news article is aired I hope that this dedication to the theater and the sharing of talents is what will be demonstrated. We can proudly say we have something here that is “Cool in our School.”

Some of my staff members and students have noticed my newly chosen title. I have not explained it to them but thought this is the proper place for them to hear the answer.

As an educator I learned very early in my career that the principal does affect a school’s climate and student achievement. I have worked under some fabulous principals that have made working with them a joy. The whole school was very positive, the students enjoyed attending school and the staff worked very hard to support each other. Unfortunately not all of my experiences have been that positive. My goal as the leader of St. Raphael is to create that same type of positive and supportive school that I was fortunate enough to experience.

One way in which I work is to lead by example. I have asked my staff to grow in their skills of using technology as a tool for teaching and learning. While expecting my staff to grow in their skills and knowledge I held myself to the same standard. Just like the teachers I have shared my successes and failures. Together we celebrate all the wonderful accomplishments we have made. We also support each other when things do not go as we had hoped. I wanted to start the school year off with this message so at my staff welcome breakfast I presented my first staff development motivational movie.

Mostly, I want my staff to understand that we are all learning so that led to my title change….Chief Learner of St. Raphael.