St Martin de Porres High School, Cleveland

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

I would like to acknowledge the contribution to this post of the Finance Director of St Vitus Parish, in which the High School is situated, who noted inaccuracies in my post and emailed me information about the school, which I have used to update the post.

Just after 7.00 am, I took a taxi from the hotel in downtown Cleveland. The taxi driver was a Vietnam vet who had grown up in the downtown area and knew it well. He once worked for Yellow cabs and he informed me that his boss was on the board of the school I was visiting. He told me that the "genius kids" went to the school. It was an interesting ride, informative and entertaining. He dropped me off in Lauschke Avenue at the corner of the school after we arranged that I would ring him about 30 minutes before I was due to leave. He would pick me up and take me to my next appointment.

Compared to the young school I teach in (Kolbe Catholic College will turn 25 in 2014), St Martin de Porres High School looked old and well-worn. It was a large red brick building that had seen better days. Completed in 1913 as an elementary school, it once housed about 1,000 students. In 2004, it opened as as St Martin de Porres High School, one of a nationwide network of 25 Cristo Rey schools. These schools have been established to provide opportunities for children from poor families to receive a private education. 

The Finance Director of St Vitus Parish in Cleveland emailed me the following description of the development of the Church's involvement in education in this part of Cleveland. "The first such building was a wooden building constructed 1902 to meet the increasing demands of incoming Slovenian immigrants, the majority poor. The Sisters of Notre Dame was the principal religious order with their primary mission to be teachers.

"The rather "old looking" building as you noted performed its primary task, that being to educate children from age 5 to 13 years-old, with a sufficient knowledge of math, English, religion, spelling, history, geography, and the sciences. From this humble building, a number of lawyers, doctors, accountants, dentists, clergy, one US Senator and one auxiliary bishop, all graduated and became contributing members in society despite not having English as the primary language at home.

"A second wave of Slovenian immigrants arrived in the early 1910 through the 1920s followed by Slovenian political refugees at the end of WWII; and then Croatian immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s, immigrants from Ethiopia, and toward serving primarily non-Catholic African Americans in the 1980s, 1990s, toward 2003. The school served primary low income households. [And] St Martin de Porres HIgh School ... also serves low income households in Cleveland, providing a college preparatory curriculum alongside a corporate work study program. Most of the students are most likely the first such household children to attend a college and also graduate from a college....

"The high school uses the parish church, St. Vitus Church, for its main prayer services, Masses, etc. The school and auditorium buildings have been and continue to be owned by St Vitus Parish: The high school has a lease agreement for the use of said buildings as well as parking lots."

Steve, the Director of Campus Ministry, met me out the front of the school as we had arranged. He took me into the school - security is important in the school, with locked doors and codes for entering the building. We went down to the Campus Ministry Office, where I deposited my jacket and other items. Then we headed for the central meeting area where breakfast was being served.

By now I was used to hearing the terms "freshman", "sophomore", "junior" and "senior" to identify the different year levels. The school is maintained through the provision of funding from the State of Ohio, the Work Study programme and other funding. The State provides more than $5,000 subsidy for each student. Those who attend the school sign up to the Work Study programme, which requires students to spend at least one day a week in a work programme. The school has sourced funding from more than 120 businesses. Each business undertakes to pay $28,000 to the school, which in return provides one student each day to work in the business doing tasks that are practical enough to give the students the chance to succeed with consistent effort. The students are broken into groups of 4, one from each year level, and they are cycled through the days of the week. For instance, in Week 1, the freshman would attend on Monday and Friday. In week 2, the sophomore student would attend work twice.

Students are provided with breakfast and lunch. Steve let me just stand and watch. The sophomores were getting ready to spend the day in their workplaces. They served themselves - cafeteria style - and were signed off. Normally, they scanned their finger print at the check out, but the server was down, so the staff member responsible for checking the students had to write down their names. The meals are funded from a government grant and they have to keep records.

The sophomores had a brief meeting at which awards were presented and one student announced a talent quest. Then they headed outside to a line of small buses to take them to the places where they work.

Rather than show me around, Steve had arranged for one of the "smurfs" to take me around. The school often has visitors, so a team of students take charge of showing them around. Meesha is a freshman. Her work placement is a medical centre, where she does filing, some computer work and other general office duties. She took me around the school, upstairs and downstairs, and introduced me to some of her teachers who wanted to know when she would be coming to class. We visited their chapel and spoke briefly about life at the school from a student's perspective. Meesha spoke with pride about the school and considered herself privileged to be offered the opportunity to study there.

"This near northeast neighborhood in Cleveland has many challenges and this HS is one manner to have a child rise above the poverty level."

The administration centre is set up in a building across the road from the school. It was once a market with a boarding house above it. Later, the building was converted to a set of units. Then the school purchased it and was involved in renovating it so that it would serve their purposes. Their board room was on the top floor. I spent most of my time there meeting with faculty and staff members, beginning with members of their executive, then some teachers and finally with staff members involved with ICT and with fundraising and maintaining their programmes.

The use of technology in the school impressed me. The use of Apple TV, the implementation of a 1:1 iPad programme - these features reflect our own journey at Kolbe, but they were further along with experimentation with Google Apps for Education (as they have come to be known). It was their use of PBL in the senior year - referred to by someone at the school as the "Capstone Program" - that really impressed me. While there are some teachers at Kolbe who would welcome it, most would never entertain the idea because it would bring undue pressure on students in an already overheated curriculum.

Campus Ministry at St Martin de Porres

I was impressed by the flexibility and creativity of the campus ministry programme provided by the school.

They provide two staff retreats each year, one at the beginning of the school year and the other in the middle of the school year. These retreats set the tone for the whole staff - I found great enthusiasm for the mission of the school in whomever I spoke with during my visit. Staff were provided with options in the retreat programme to meet the spiritual needs of individuals. Moreover, the retreats were designed and run by staff members.

The school does not have a Student Ministry Team, but there are opportunities for students to be involved in ministry. For instance, the school provides an elective through which students are trained to lead school liturgies.

What we call "Christian Service Learning" at Kolbe exists on an "as needed" basis. When the school is approached for help, students are urged to volunteer. Some assist with a local soup kitchen, or help out when needed to shift things in the local parish drop in centre.

However, they are well-advanced in building service opportunities into the curriculum. For instance, their sophomores responded to the perceived need in the local community for information about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Through their curriculum, they organised and ran a health fair for the local community.

I was impressed by their commitment to providing Immersion experiences for their students. Bearing in mind that the students come from poor families, the immersion programme can happen only because the school attracts funding for the trips. Some staff have committed themselves to taking students to New Orleans to expose them to the poverty caused through hurricane Katrina in 2010.

While I was there, I spoke with only one student who said that she felt welcome and at home in the school. She was grateful for the opportunity to attend St Martin de Porres High School. While she was not looking forward to the introduction of a school uniform, she understood why it was being introduced.

I came away from the school convinced that I had glimpsed something special. There was a buzz about the place. I had been in the presence of passionate professionals who modelled friendliness, respect for strangers and patience. It was clear that they were proud of what they were achieving with their students. St Martin de Porres High School offered me insights into Catholic education that will stay with me for years to come.

A Day at Brophy College Preparatory

Monday, March 11, 2013




The cross draped with a piece of purple cloth is placed in the centre of the college. It stands as a reminder that we are in the Season of Lent. In the background is another cross, one of four such structures, representing the four corners of the earth and symbolising aspects of the Summit on Human Dignity, an annual event, that the school is engaged in.

The 2013 Summit is about "The Opportunity Gap." The College Office of Faith and Justice (OFJ) has published the following aim for the Summit: "Through this Summit, we hope to create a forum in which the Brophy community, and in particular our students, will consider education, health care, wealth, access to resources, and the realities faced by individuals and families of various income levels, as well as the Catholic tradition’s perspective on how to navigate these arenas, so as to guide our personal and communal response."

I came here to find out about campus ministry, particularly the involvement of student leaders in ministry. I also hoped to find out about the teaching of RE and the integration of technology in curriculum, particularly RE.

As with the other schools I have visited, I was not disappointed. I was made to feel welcome and was given some insights into how Catholic education is conducted in Arizona.

Campus ministry is well-developed in the school with an Office of Faith and Justice being the powerhouse for the integration of faith and culture and life. They don't have a Student Ministry Team, but they do have an elective called Contemplatives in Action, which provides opportunities for students to become involved in giving service in the areas of prayer and liturgy.

Christian service is part of college life as is immersion.

Religious education is called "Theology" in American Catholic schools. There are core units and electives. The core units address Scripture, Sacraments and Ethics. Chris, one of the RE teachers I spoke with and observed in full flight in class, had planned a unit on Judaism with the help of a colleague with an interest in and knowledge of the area.

Watching Chris teach his Freshman Scripture class was enlightening and inspirational. He commenced the lesson with a review of what they had learned about the reasons behind the writing of St Matthew's Gospel. That had been part of their last topic. They had been tested on the work and Chris told them that their marks were available online. He also used the review to introduce the topic for the lesson, which was St Mark's Gospel. He was keen to establish the reasons why St Matthew's Gospel was placed prior to St Mark's Gospel, even though the latter had been written before the former.

I was impressed not only by the technology, but also by his teaching style. Clear, direct statements, moving forward by means of question and answer - Socrates would have been proud of him - and skilful use of technology: these were valuable lessons for me. The students used iPads. What Chris projected on the screen, which he addressed from around the room, was also available to the students on their own machines. Chris had converted his PowerPoint to a PDF and the made it available to his students via Blackboard. He reviewed the lesson material about Mark's Gospel with part of a YouTube clip, not the whole clip, but just enough to reiterate what he had addressed through the PDF and through his questioning. Really neat!

It is a pity that we cannot embed videos in PDFs. It would have been so much easier for him had it been seamless, like the ePubs I have been creating, or the web apps. Chris made use of two videos in the 50 minutes he had. The second one was projected from the laptop that sat on his desk. He used it as a back up to his iPad - not yet ready to trust mobile technology completely.

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Inside BC High

Tuesday, March 5, 2013




The first thing that struck me about BC High was its size. It is a solidly built school, probably to withstand the weather, to keep the heat trapped inside its thick walls - it was cold outside and there were piles of snow.
Inside, it was warm, comfortable, secure - in every way. I felt welcomed and appreciated. It was quiet - partly because the walls were solid, the ceilings high. From the Principal, Mr Stephen Hughes to the delightful, wizened-faced Terry in the canteen - she was one of the keepers of the story, along with the Principal, whom she had known as a child when he attended the College - there was an obvious pride in the school and what they achieved there.


Benefactors make change possible …

It became clear to me that finding benefactors from among the alumni of the College was an important factor in the continuing development of the College. Here the role of the President is crucial. High schools like BC High rely on the generosity of benefactors. Whereas at Kolbe, capital development happens because Federal and State Government funding is made available through the Catholic Education Commission, at BC High the construction of new facilities and the refurbishment of older structures happens through the relationship the school has with individual donors.

Through the generosity of their donors, BC High placed a roof over the area between two multi-story wings of the College and created a huge indoor gathering space and cafeteria. I recall something similar being contemplated for Kolbe some years ago: the area between blocks 3 and 4 being covered to provide a gathering space for the school community, with a canteen, a cafeteria and a meeting space for students. I have seen a similar design in a school in Adelaide, but it lacked the feel of the setting in BC High. In the school in Adelaide, the lockers dominated the space. By this I mean they remain embedded in my memory, along with the grey walls and concrete. BC High will remain in my memory as a colourful space with the flags of many nations hanging from balconies – part of a United Nations experience organized by one teacher.

The Principal took me on a quick tour of classes to show me how BC's teachers integrate technology in the classroom. I visited an American literature class. The teacher had projected two pages of the novel on the Smart board using a state-of-the-art overhead projector connected to the smart board. The students had their own copies of the novel and the teacher taught his class seated at his desk at the front of the room. 

We entered a history class. The students were looking at post-war Europe. The teacher had projected a map of Europe on the Smart board. He had also handed out copies of the map to students. Then by question and answer and also by way of instruction, he proceeded to analyze the map to draw out political themes and the lessons of history. He wrote on the whiteboard to help students with their note-taking. He was a dynamic teacher, but he later apologized for not being more engaging. Many of his students had iPads. The Principal focused his attention on one student and quietly instructed him on a more effective way of using the iPad.

Next, we visited a freshman Maths class. The teacher was sitting at the back of the room next to a student. All the students had the work in front of them on their iPads. The teacher's work was projected on the screen. She was using her iPad and Apple TV. The worksheet was made available to the students through Blackboard, a popular LMS in the US.


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Re-imagining RE

Saturday, March 9, 2013




I walked down this avenue in Arizona State University, Tempe completely uncertain of where I was going - and then walked up the avenue two days later convinced that I was walking the right path in re-imagining religious education.

I went to Arizona to find a knowledge community to share my view of religious education and my vision for the future of the subject - and I found a listening audience and people who questioned me about my ideas.

I started on this journey with the decision to change how I looked at the world and at knowledge. My research led me to conclude that I am more likely to be a social constructionist than anything else. What do I mean by this? Well, the faith that I profess is socially constructed. It has relevance and meaning in the society that I choose to belong to, that is, to the Catholic community of which I am a member. So here is my social constructionist argument.

We tune in to all types of discourses, that is, we are aware of sets of images, symbols, statements and so on that have the power to create realities if we choose to align ourselves with them. We navigate our way through life choosing to move in this direction, or that, and accept the responsibilities and restrictions that come with holding to the realities that are constructed from the decisions we make. In some discourses, there are absolutes, while in others, there are no absolutes. My argument is this: most students I teach reject the idea that there are absolutes. They have moved from accepting a religious identity given them at Baptism and supported and nurtured by their parents (if they were ever in that position) to forming their own religious identity. When religious education teachers ignore this reality, they invite disaster. Students become disengaged. RE is irrelevant.

In my research, a Year 12 student who calls herself Morgan, reports on the conditional loving God
her mother thrusts on her. This God requires her to go to Mass every Sunday and to be good, or he won't love her. Morgan recalls this discourse amidst others some of which are critical of the religious education she receives at her school. Foucauldian discourse analysis highlights the orientation of people's actions in response to discourses. It also draws attention to responsibilities and the restrictions discourses place on people, that is, their thinking is constructed according to the discourses they accept. Morgan recalls her mother's attempts to make her go to Mass so that she can counter it with other discourses that are more meaningful for her. She draws on the unconditional loving God discourse and also her father's discourse - he goes to Mass when he feels the need to go, that is, when he is worried and needs help. Morgan reports that he goes to Mass at Easter because his wife makes him go. The discourse that Morgan listens to does not require weekly attendance at Mass. She wants to be like her father and go when she feels like going.

Cameron is a Year 12 student from a different Catholic school. His parents took him to Mass when he was a child and made sure that he understood what was happening. He reports that when he entered secondary school, they gave him the responsibility of choosing whether he went to Mass with them or not. The discourses he listens to support his freedom to choose. It is reflected also in his interpretation of the Church's teaching about Sunday Mass observance. He considers it to be of lesser importance than his experiences of needing God.

Both students "listen" to discourses about religious education being there to help them make their way through life, but they reject the Church's attempts to teach the truths of the faith. They want equal say with the Church, that is, their views are just as important as what the Church teaches. They endorse the use of discussion about issues that affect them directly. Morgan rejects much of the content of her religious education course as "bulk material." Cameron is critical of producing written work that regurgitates the teaching of the Church, but does not allow for individuals' beliefs to be expressed and respected.

You can access the paper I wrote here.


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Visiting Bishop Feehan High School

Monday, March 4, 2013




BFHS is a Catholic co-ed high school with about the same number of students as Kolbe, but in Years 9-12. Their Senior Year (Year 12) has around 260 students. I spoke briefly with its Principal, Dr George Milot, a respected Catholic educator and then spent time with their Deputy Principal of Academics Ann Perry and their Technology Coordinator Susan Kiley to look at the integration of technology in the curriculum. Of particular interest was their intention to go 1:1 iPad across the curriculum in all years in 2014.

Every classroom is equipped with data projectors and they will soon have 20 classrooms with Apple TV. While they still have some desktop computers in the school, most students use laptops. There are some sets of iPads which have been allocated to groups of teachers in the various learning areas to develop pedagogical skills that draw on the use of iPads. One Maths teacher has been flipping her Maths class in much the same way Shane and Lian do, with some amazing results.

What I found interesting was the approach to integration. At a diocesan level, Catholic secondary schools have been directed to evaluate their curricula with the Common Core Standards. This has been embraced by BFHS and they have drafted a skills development framework designed to be achieved through the use of mobile technology. Put into our language, it looks like the following: The HOLAs have collaborated to determine which learning area would take responsibility for developing which skill at which Year level during which Term.

So, what does this look like? Here are some examples given to me. I will apply them to our situation. At Year 10 level, students are taught how to blog in RE. Year 8 students are taught basic research skills, including how to reference sources accurately in their SoSE classes. These and other skills are programmed to be taught at specific times in the overall school curriculum so that other learning areas can follow up with activities that draw on and reinforce these skills AFTER they have been taught in the learning areas that have taken responsibility for teaching these skills.

This approach has been possible at BFHS only because the HOLAs worked together to decide on a list of 21st century skills and then volunteering to cover them in their subject areas. Then a small team programmed their commitments and published it.

Their next step was to develop sets of rubrics for assessing the learning of these skills. To this end, weekly learning area meeting times have been built into the school day so that learning area teachers can collaborate in drawing up the rubrics for each skill. They are currently involved in completing this task.

Susan told me that they do not want to be depending on specific apps across the board, eg, requiring everyone to use Evernote, but rather to find apps that help their teachers to teach effectively using the technology. Helping teachers to find apps that will be useful in their learning area and to become comfortable i using those apps seems to be the focus of their PD for staff. Ann and Susan were off to a curriculum PD meeting at another school after meeting with me ... and the PD was about using iPads in the classroom.

I asked about Edmodo, but they don't use it because diocesan policies discourage the use of social networking sites, of which Edmodo is one. They use Edline, which sounds like an upmarket version of Myclasses. It appears that it is run on their intranet and provides everything they need. I found the following introduction to a testimonial from Bayside Academy on the Edline website:
"With Edline, Bayside now has a coordinated and systematic method for sharing information with parents via a private and secure website customized for Bayside. When something new is posted or when important details change, parents receive an email alert encouraging them to access that information."

I asked about the use of Google Drive and Google Docs. It appears that they make use of these apps to store files for easy access and for collaborating on projects.

Some Gems found along the way ...

The school has PA announcements in the morning and in the afternoon, when school starts and when it ends. The announcements are delivered by students. Morning announcements begin with prayer. Afternoon notices end with a prayer. They have been experimenting with producing "TV news" with some success. There present efforts have been posted to the school's YouTube site. They make use of their Facebook page to publish their productions so that ex-students and current students and their families can view them. Their aim, according to Ann Perry, is to produce their morning and afternoon news as video broadcasts, possibly from their TV studio, which is in their media room.

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Cultivating the Imagination

I have been reading A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by DOUGLAS THOMAS and JOHN SEELY BROWN.
I was drawn to it by the title and their reference to the imagination as opposed to "cultivating imagination". The sense of purposiveness in the use of the definite article attracted my. I had deliberately chosen to do the same in my doctoral thesis. The imagination is more than a mental construct.

I found in the book a structured reflection on matters that concern me (education, teaching, learning, change, the digital world, knowledge, passion, the imagination, play). I am going to use this blog to reflect on the ideas that have challenged me and that I want to work into my efforts to re-think my approach to teaching and learning. I have chosen to post my thoughts here rather than in the security of my school's intranet because the system is clunky and the effort to provide such security works against what I think the internet can provide to the learning collective I want to belong to (which embraces and includes more than those with whom I work).

Fearing God

When I was preparing for my Confirmation a long, long time ago, I was taught that one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is "fear of the Lord." I found that pretty difficult to understand and I think I grew up being afraid of God. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I suppose.

When I was much older, I started to discover that the "fear" of God was not the same as my fear of other things, such as snakes, death, and so on. I have spent some of my life reflecting on the loving mercy of God and have come to the conclusion that the "fear" I was taught about when I was about 11 years old, is really revering God, placing God before all, and acknowledging that God is the source of all that exists.

It was the death of my parents - my Dad passed away in 2007 and my Mum died in 2009 - that taught me about relying on God. I have to rely on God to look after them. Yes, I believe that there is life beyond this earthly existence and I pray daily that God will be merciful to my parents and grant them eternal life with all the angels and saints.

Today, I came across a reading about fearing God. I liked what I read because it resonates with my belief. You might find it worth reading, too.

http://www.godtube.com/devotionals/our-daily-journey/daily-devotional-may-27-2011-fearing-god.html?utm_source=GodTube%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=05/27/2011

This link is through GodTube. If you want to go straight to the source of the reading, then use the following link:

http://www.ourdailyjourney.org/category/daily-devotional/