Just wondering who else is feeling that sense of wonder when glancing at the calendar at seeing that we are into November already? Where did the time go? Didn't we just start school?
Thanksgiving and Christmas are on top of us and we still have so much to accomplish! If anyone else is feeling like this, please respond in the blog and share how you are coping. All of us can benefit from each others' experiences!
We are entering this season of thanks and gratitude. As we do, continual reminders of the challenges facing our Hawaii Catholic Schools network, become even more visible as the pressure mounts during the competitive Hawaii private school recruiting season. Open houses are beginning to pop-up and we want to make sure we highlight all the best points that a Catholic education in Hawaii has to offer. Each of us in our network of Hawaii Catholic Schools can reflect and identify how we are going to contribute to recruiting more students and families to our Catholic ohana of schools. Whether it is through actively speaking with people in the community or raising the instructional bar in our school/classroom/system, there are myriad of ways that we each may contribute. Perhaps if we view our recruitment opportunities as ongoing for the year then maybe we can stem the tide begin attracting students back to the product we offer: Quality instruction, respectful and safe learning environment, extracurricular activities such as foreign language, athletics, computer instruction, etc, and of course, Catholic faith doctrine.
Please know that I am not saying this is an easy challenge we face! Everyone I have met in our network of schools is working hard. Making sure we are actively involved in changing up the pattern, either individually or collectively, as part of the network of Hawaii Catholic Schools, is all that anyone can ask. To look in the mirror at the end of the day and know we did our best for the kids and their families and that we did something to spread the word - not only of God, but of the positive changes we are making in our schools - should make us feel proud of our efforts.
We have resources at our disposal to help promote our work - CCA and their Facebook page, Edmodo and the connections it offers to our parents, PD360 and the connections it offers among our teachers and administrators - private, parochial and diocesan, and of course our own personal conversations with our students, their parents and the parishioners who come and visit our schools. Mass is another opportunity for us to reach out and connect. The more we accept our role as active spreaders of the good word, the more we will attract people to our schools.
Please share the work you or your school is doing to actively bring students and families to our schools! Be proud of what you have accomplished and willing to share the changes we are making to meet the needs of our 21st Century students and the rapidly changing world we live in. Upload a video, publish some writing pieces, highlight the community outreach that some many of our schools and students are participating in across Hawaii. This is a forum to do that and I welcome all of you join in the conversation!
Hawaii Catholic Schools are AWESOME!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment