International Collaborative of Catholic School Teachers
CATHOLIC IDENTITY MISSION
The mission is to promote a safe and engaging online space where Catholic school educators -- lay or religious -- around the world can interact with each other. With the laity taking over many of the duties of administrators and teachers in Catholic schools in the last generations along with the shifting population, it is imperative that Catholic Identity be maintained and strengthened. By sharing the faith life of various schools, instructional methods, and classroom environment across international borders, solidarity will be enhanced, and tremendous insight will be gleaned. Teachers with an abundance of resources and those in lack can learn much from each other about effective teaching.
SHIFTING CATHOLIC POPULATION
There was a shift in Catholic population around the world between 1910 and 2010, with increases in the Catholic share of the population occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and the Asia-Pacific regions with decreases in Europe and Latin America-Caribbean. (Pew Research). Between 1980-2019, the largest gains in the number of Catholic schools were observed in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The greatest increase in the number of seminarians has also occurred in Africa (globalcatholiceducation.org). There is much to be gained in a collaboration between schools with a long history of Catholic Education and those in countries with burgeoning Catholic populations.
JOIN THE COLLABORATIVE
The International Collaborative of Catholic School Teachers is a reciprocal sharing of classroom instruction, student performance, and school environment while partaking in interactive discussions in the hope of enhancing Catholic School Identity across all schools as well as gaining an appreciation of Catholic School Culture across national borders.
Learn about the power of video observation to improve instruction from the research done by Harvard's Best Foot Forward Project.
See a non-Catholic sample international channel of classrooms around the world from Fresh Eyes on Teaching. Join Fresh Eyes on Catholic Education Facebook page for insights.
Join the International Collaborative of Catholic School Teachers and start sharing within and between Catholic schools. Each school will receive its own interactive video platform exclusive to its school and also for sharing to the ICCST platform in order to edify and strengthen Catholic Education around the world.
MODEL OF SANCTITY FOR CHILDREN
Values and faith play an important role in the motivation of parents to send their children to faith-based versus public schools. While academics is important, Catholic schools inculcation of faith and virtue are primary to the mission.
According to Pope Benedict XVI: "Catholic educational institutions should have three goals (faith, virtue, academics) in order to be able to fulfill their primary mission to allow students to "encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth."
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who is credited with establishing the first system of Catholic schools in the United States, recommended: “Let your chief study be to acquaint yourself with God, because there is nothing greater than God, and because it is the only knowledge which can fill the heart with a peace and joy which nothing can disturb."
In Jacinta: The Flower of Fatima, written by Reverend J.G. de Oliveira about the effects of the little seer's meetings with Our Lady Fatima, the publishers note reads:
"She (Jacinta) is seen...together with Francisco (brother)...as a model for deeper spirituality among children, if not for an entirely new and lively apostolate of childhood sanctity. Her life tells us that we do not ask enough of our children with regard to sacrifice and prayer. The angels and Our Lady set us the example at Fatima, and Jacinta shows us the glorious result."
