Radical Hospitality in the Classroom
As an Associate of the Sisters of the Presentation, Wahlert Catholic English Teacher Barb Ressler ’74 was invited to contribute the following article about Radical Hospitality for the Presentation Sisters’ newsletter. Where to begin? Greeting, smiling, asking, listening, watching, inviting, caring, challenging and affirming. “To teach is to create that space… that allows the spirit to…
Read MoreMentoring Makes it Personal
A few years ago, I was asked to be part of an innovation team made up of the Holy Family elementary principals and a few teacher representatives from each school. As a team, we were tasked with asking each other the hard questions. What exactly is our vision at the elementary level? What does our…
Read MoreOur Vision for Personalized Learning
Philosopher John Dewey wrote, “if we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” We now have the opportunity to embrace a new way of teaching that will prepare our students for a future we cannot imagine, while instilling in them the same core values and strong academic foundation our schools…
Read MoreAn Introduction to Cognitive Skills
What are Cognitive Skills? Cognitive Skills are interdisciplinary competencies that require higher-order thinking. David Conley of the Education Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) calls these skills “cognitive strategies” and defines them as “ways of thinking necessary for college work.” The Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) suggests that these skills are “how we use what we know”…
Read MoreAn Introduction to Habits of Success
What are Habits of Success? The Habits of Success we refer to in personalized learning are the social and emotional skills that enable students to be successful at both academic and non-academic pursuits. The field of social-emotional learning (SEL) is awash in terminology to describe factors required for successful learning, outside of traditional academic skills…
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