Alliance of Mission District Catholic Schools

From the Executive Director

Reflection

November - December 2008

::\Merging the Holy Holidays/::

So many times in my adult life I have been rather disgusted that Christmas shopping and displays and so forth have shown up even before Thanksgiving had been celebrated, had even a chance to be celebrated for itself. My sense is that I am not alone here. I guess there is still a large part of me that does resist moving so quickly from one holiday to the other without the time to dwell in the meaning of the feast or holiday. But, I had to step back this year, and see myself being propelled into Advent and Christmas even as Thanksgiving was in its preparation stages. I could give you, as I have given myself, the reasons, the excuses, for why that happened; however, I when I got to the end of all my excuses, I discovered that maybe there is another way to think about the merging of these feast days that somehow, in our culture, become "THE holidays." I discovered that maybe there is a good sense to thinking of them as "THE holidays" - of considering them all together as "HOLY days" and no more feeling the need to divide them all up in a rigid sort of sequence.

I admit, my gift creating and buying has started early this year. And, I have taken delight in the simplicity of giving that I am trying to adopt. And yet, beyond that delight, I have noticed the delight I have taken in just thinking about those to whom I am sending or giving a gift, in the thinking, found the "thanking." Then there has been the delight in preparing for the sending or giving, and in the preparing, I also found the "thanking." I have also found myself wondering what the arrival of the gift will mean to those receiving, and in imagining that scene with joy, I discovered another instance of "thanking." The "thanking" has been for the "who" - the people who will receive - and how blessed I am to have people in my life whose presence causes me to give thanks, whose presence causes me to want to think about them, whose presence causes me to prepare something special (though simple) for them, and whose presence makes me joyful enough to want to say thank you with a gift. The people in my life — family, friends, those with whom I work — are the "word [in this case the reason for the word thanks] made flesh" for me. They are the presence of "Jesus -come- among us — Emmanuel" to me.

So, perhaps there is something to be said for merging the meaning of these "holidays" — especially this year when Advent, the season of preparation, follows so closely on the season of Thanksgiving. Perhaps thanksgiving is a wHOLlY part of Christmas; and, the joy of the Christmas and its preparation time, Advent, is a wHOLlY part of Thanksgiving.

So, I don't think I am going to worry anymore about when everything should start and how soon and whether this one should be finished before the other starts. What matters to me now is that I move into "the holidays/ the holy-days" remembering how they seem to merge together into what matters most -- honoring those we love, preparing to gift them (simply) in order to express that love, and finding joy and thanksgiving all along the way.

God of Thanksgiving‚
God of Advent‚
God of Christmas‚
Delight us‚ give us Joy‚ and evoke our Thanks.
Throughout these holy holidays‚
Let us discover Jesus -with- us in all those we love.

Sr. Maureen Hilliard
AMDCS Executive Director

AMDCS News Updates

November/December 2008

In October and November Julie Clemens and Sr. Maureen have visited the parent groups at Mission Dolores, Epiphany, and St. Finn Barr Schools, updating them with our PowerPoint presentation of the Bishops' statement on Catholic Schools and on the recent progress of the AMDCS.

The AMDCS Professional Learning Communities continue to come together twice monthly to establish lesson pacing, benchmark testing, and content delivery of the math curriculum by grade level, and to work together discussing "best practices" with the new math series which was adopted September 2008.

In November the cursillo community honored Fr. Mickey McCormick for his 75th birthday and 50 year anniversary of priesthood. Fr. McCormick designated all gifts to be directed to the AMDCS and we have been receiving generous donations. Thank you, Fr. McCormick, for your care of the Mission district children and families.

Selected teachers from the eight AMDCS schools and their administrators will begin a "train-the-trainer" program in Differentiated Instruction (DI) January 21-22-23 and will continue for six additional day long sessions February to May. DI changes teaching methodology toward planning for individual student learning modes "up front" in the lesson rather than finding out at the end of the lesson, through "the test", that various students needed different approaches to learning the concept. It is an exciting program funded through various donations to AMDCS curriculum enhancement and teacher training and offers the great opportunity for ramping up AMDCS student achievement. The program will be offered by a nationally known consultant, Judy Rex, through the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.