October 27, 2024

Professional Development Day for Catholic School Teachers; Building Unity Among Educators

REGIONAL
By  Kathleen Harrington

Catholic teachers from across western Massachusetts gathered on Friday, October 25 at Pope Francis Prep in Springfield for annual In-Service Day.

SPRINGFIELD – Teachers and principals from all the Catholic schools in the diocese gathered on Friday for a professional development day at Pope Francis Preparatory School.

The day began with Bishop William Bryne celebrating Mass in the auditorium. Joined by Pope Francis chaplain, Father James Nolte along with Father Robert Gentile and Father Michael Pierz the Mass was offered for the intentions of the teachers and the Catholic school students across the diocese. In his homily, the bishop spoke about the troubles, unrest, and discord permeating our culture and how in the classroom, teachers are witnessing the impact on children.

The president of the College of Our Lady of the Elms, Harry Dumay, PhD. offered the keynote address. The theme for the day was “Planting the Seeds of Hope in Catholic Education.” Dumay told the teachers that they are planting the seeds of hope for our world. Simply said, Dumay said there are two main purposes for education, “for the betterment of the person and the improvement of society.”

He went on to say the College of Our Lady of the Elms has a commitment to work with the diocese to advance Catholic education in the diocese, in part through the formation of Catholic teachers.

Maria Wagner, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Springfield, said this professional development day is intended to improve collaboration among the teachers on the grade levels. “I wanted to bring all the teachers in the diocese together to start working toward unity, collaborating and making sure we’re working on the same curriculum and have some sort of system approach to what we teach our children throughout the diocese,” she explained.

The teachers broke off into smaller groups for two sessions to talk about the challenges they face, how they work to meet those challenges, and to learn from others what is working in their classroom.