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Mr. James Cooney Associate Superintendent Jim & Joe’s Accreditation Corner Dr. Joseph Belinski Director of School Planning As they begin the process of revising and updang accreditaon, the Florida Catholic Conference is carefully assessing the current Standards of the FCC Accreditaon Program. As I menoned in the September issue of Lumen Chris, one of the standards under close scruny relates to school media centers. Over the past few months the Office of Catholic Schools has sponsored two informaon sessions focusing on some of the forthcoming changes in school media centers, with a third session to be conducted on February 25, 2013. The purpose of these professional development opportunies was to provide our current media specialists with informaon about the rapidly occurring transion from a center where books are catalogued by the media specialist and checked out by students, to an informaon resource center for students that is driven by technology. This shi in the funcon of the media center has necessitated a need to study appropriate revisions to the exisng media center standards. Mr. Pat Lamorte, assistant principal at Bishop Moore Catholic High School, has shared his experse in the areas of media, technology, and innovaon by coordinang and presenng informaon at these sessions. During the first session on October 30, 2012, he addressed the factors that are responsible for the transion in media centers, most explicitly, how technology has affected the way in which students work and learn, and how these changes affect the paerns in which students access informaon. He discussed the transion from passive to acve learning, including the emphasis on student collaboraon; the expectaons of higher educaon instuons, and the expectaons in the world of work. The most recent session occurred on January 11, 2013. This session focused on creang a space in schools that is conducive to sharing ideas, brainstorming, collaborang, and providing the “electronic outpost’” to support student needs. Mr. Lamorte invited Mr. Dan Tarczynski and Mr. Patrick Rauch, architects from the firm of Schenkel Shultz. They presented actual designs for repurposing any size media center into a student technology and resource center. They provided many examples of flexible space for student group work and individual study. They emphasized the need for students to be able to access a variety of resources, use school technology or bring their own devices, have access to an informaon/media specialist, and be able to work in a safe and comfortable environment. They also gave the media specialists the opportunity to design their own space based upon their parcular school, and assisted them in this process. The media specialists forwarded their dra plan to the architects at Schenkel Shultz, who have created formal drawings of each. The final session of this series will occur on February 25, 2013. At this session media specialists will visit a school that is in the process of redesigning their media space. Parcipants will hear about their vision, and how they plan to implement it. The media specialists will have their own formal drawings from Schenkel Shultz and be able to share their ideas with their peers. Just as it will take me to implement new accreditaon standards relang to media, it will take me for each school to develop and implement their unique vision. Febrar Birhdays Happy Birthday and may God bless you with many more! Sr. Dorothy Sayers, Principal Holy Family Catholic School, Orlando Mr. Sean O’Dell, Principal Lourdes Academy, Daytona Beach Click here for SAINTS OF THE MONTH Mrs. Donna Witherspoon, Principal Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, Melbourne Mr. Peter Randlov, Principal St. Peter Catholic School, Deland Bishop John Noonan Diocese of Orlando Mr. Jon Arguello Office of Catholic Schools, Diocese of Orlando
Dr. Jacquelyn Flanigan Associate Superintendent CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK Thank you so very much for the opportunity to visit schools during Catholic Schools Week! I was able to visit several schools and was so very impressed with what I saw. Highlights of my week: • the overwhelming warmth and hospitality at every one of the schools I visited; • the way in which the older students helped the younger students in their bowling acvity at Lourdes Academy and the 8 th grade “teachers” at All Souls; • the very gracious manners and spirit shown by both faculty and students at the Basilica of St. Paul, parcularly the kindness shown by the 8 th grade during their Spirit Cheer compeon; • the generosity of the students at St. Thomas Aquinas while at Give Kids the World; • the way in which Melbourne Central Catholic supported its “feeder” schools with a regional spelling bee – this really brought in the parents of prospecve MCC students!; • the student engagement and cooperave acvity at Divine Mercy; • the organizaon and parcipaon of the teachers at Our Saviour during their Field Day; and • the way in which the students at Holy Redeemer greeted me, looked me in the eye and shared why they love their school. Our schools are amazing places! I am only sorry I couldn’t get to more schools and stay longer! Thank you to the principals, faculty and students for demonstrang why Catholic Schools Raise the Standards! * * * REGIONAL PD DAY REMINDER! Reminder: Next week, we begin our last cycle of Regional Professional Development days. As you may recall from my January arcle, during our upcoming days we will review effecve strategies that define what a Common Core classroom “looks like/sounds like.” As part of reflective practice, we will discuss what strategies worked and which ones were not as effecve. Addionally, teachers were asked to provide 1-3 samples of student work from their unit as well as the unit itself. Principals: Please bring the unit you created to your administrave day with Peg. Next week, we will connue to work in groups to reflect on student work as part of our focus on learning strategies and assessment. Remember: our goal is not to crique or evaluate a teacher’s pracce or assessment strategies; rather, to engage in collegial “reflecve pracce” for it is in that reflecon that we become more effecve.
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Page 7 and 8: Phyllis Mann Administrave Assistant

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