Brick by Brick

Their World

Pardon my downtime...while numerous new and noteworthy events have transpired since my last post (Congratulations, Alissa!), I've been remiss in keeping up. Anyone with an RSS feed likely thinks we've disappeared.

Intentional reference, RSS feed is. This is a term and concept I only recently discovered. While I   consider myself passably competent in computer usage and technology, I'm also realizing that keeping up takes commitment and its worth it.

Why? Because it's their world.

By this, I mean that the world of ready digital access is the world that our students live in and act from. We help students a great deal when the web of meaning and values teachers desire to impart become, if not fully integrated, at least  something more than tangentially related to their (digital) world. From social networking to user-driven content, blogging to virtual classrooms, learning in their world calls for their tools. 

Toward this end, this week's school in-service for teachers will explore the necessary (and exciting, at times!) terrain of 'their world' in an effort to allow digital tools to enhance the meaning and values from 'our world' we are entrusted to teach.

Old wine, new wineskins.

Get Smart!

  As a school without alumni, we know that it is important for the entire Cape Catholic community to claim a stake in the school's success. This has happened -- from Knights of Columbus and Notre Dame Club of Cape Cod Book Scholarships to an annual summer intern placement courtesy of the Holy Cross Club of Cape Cod.

Recently, two Catholic community organizations, the Our Lady of Victory Women's Guild and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, teamed up to provide the school a portable SmartBoard. SmartBoards are interactive computer "chaulkboards" that provide a real enhancement to teacher and student presentations. This portable SmartBoard is the school's second, joining the permanent SmartBoard in our Computer Lab. Not only is the school making a pervasive commitment to computer technology but it's gratifying to see the Cape Catholic community taking ownership.

Cosmetic Surgery over Break

Now that I know that...
    (a) there's a modicum of interest in a blog about the goings-on at JPII, and
    (b) I'm not totally unreliable in submitting new posts,
it's time to upgrade my account from Basic to "Plus" and design something decent to view. IMHO, visually, the previous free iteration was, indeed, boring basic.

In the transition, it was necessary to put in all previous posts and comments by hand (Did I say to old account was basic?). This explains why all comments appear under the February banner -- a minor inconvenience.

Any feedback you have on the new look is most welcome.

So much is happening as we build, brick by brick, a great high school. Through this blog, I'll keep trying to shine a light on this special year. Your questions, comments, and observations help -- keep 'em coming!

Why A School Blog? [12-11-07]

I won't say the idea just came to me...unless I can claim that, by reading about a principal blog project in Principal Leadership Journal, the idea just came to me!

There are lots of reasons why people blog and I am an occasional reader of several blogs. With our new high school, I so often am asked how we are doing and what's going on by people with only a casual relationship to the school. A blog may well serve as unique communication about a school that holds the interest of many on Cape Cod. There have been frequent instances, in the brief sixteen months I have been involved with the school, of grace and a remarkable spirit that makes Pope John Paul II High School a school worth building. I look forward to sharing some of these stories with you.