CHERRY HILL – “We have a sacred obligation to lead students to Jesus, making sure they understand that He is in every subject.”
Kicking off the professional development day for the Diocese of Camden’s elementary school teachers and their principals March 18 at Camden Catholic High School, Dr. Bill Watson, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, reminded the 440 gathered of their mission as educators to young minds.
“We teach the whole story. Our faith tells us that Jesus is the Word of God, the Word made flesh. You have to know the world that was made through Him, with Him and in Him. When the seventh-grade science teachers teach about mitosis and meiosis in the nittiest, grittiest detail, that’s helping them get to know Jesus, because we’re appreciating the miracle of creation that He made.”
The day – one that for the first time in decades brought together all of the Diocese’s elementary school teachers and principals under one roof – included a keynote from guest speaker Dr. Gene Kerns, chief academic officer at Renaissance Learning, an educational software company and curriculum partner of the Office of Catholic Education.
Presenting on “Literacy and the Science of Reading: Taking Stock of Current Student Performance and Pedagogical Thought,” Dr. Kerns provided research and real-life trends and examples of nationwide declines in literacy and solutions to improve reading and writing performance among students.
“Our kids aren’t reading … they’re distracted by everything else they could do,” he said, adding that there is an urgency to teaching students bedrocks such as phonics, reading skills, comprehension, vocabulary and critical thinking, especially at the younger grades.
“The first couple of grades in our primary schools are the last period during which we can turn the have nots, in terms of knowledge and vocabulary, into haves. If we wait until third and fourth grade to start imparting knowledge, it’s too late,” he said.
To these ends, Dr. Kerns provided educators with links to podcasts, books, and educational publications and research articles that can aid in classroom instructions.
Dr. Kerns’ visit – his second to the Diocese of Camden in the past year – came about after the enthusiastic response to his gathering with elementary school principals last fall on the same topic. School leaders have identified student literacy as a pressing focus for educators.
“The change [in student literacy performance the past few years] is attributable to the way society has changed,” Dr. Watson noted. “Kids watch more videos and they read less. The things they do read are short, so their attention span is shorter.”
Dr. Kerns’ talk was able to “illuminate how we learn to read and what that means in the classroom [and brought to teachers] affirmation and support from a research perspective” to focus on ideas such as building content knowledge, Dr. Watson said.
As part of the development day, teachers and staff had the opportunity to share lunch with their grade-level colleagues and collaborate on best practices in literacy and reading, inspired by the keynote.
“Dr. Kerns’ presentation helped me realize that topics such as phonics are important not only in phonics class, but will prove beneficial to students in other subjects such as science, social studies and math,” said Andrea Rybacki, a second-grade teacher at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Regional School, Berlin.
Another insight from Dr. Kerns she plans to take back to her classroom “is that we should be reading to the children to help with their vocabulary and background knowledge, even reading to them two levels higher to challenge them with reading they might not normally be engaged in.”
The day concluded with Mass celebrated by Bishop Dennis Sullivan. Among those concelebrating were Father Robert Hughes, Vicar General for the Diocese, and Father Stephen Robbins, director of Catholic Identity at Camden Catholic High School.
Bishop “reinforced the idea that teachers perform their roles with love and compassion, and that makes the Catholic School difference,” Dr. Watson said, praising the Camden prelate for being “a staunch supporter of Catholic schools.”
“He has always pushed us to be our best, provided resources for families to access Catholic schools and truly believes in Catholic schools,” he said.
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