Your servant is listening

With the approach of a "red day" on our school calendar, the attention of our students and families invariably aims toward how to maximize the gift and blessing of a day off. When two days off are scheduled, we often see a virtual frenzy of anticipation.  It's a thrill I still remember from my own days parenting school age children.  Breaking routine for a day or two in the middle of a bleak winter can do wonders to restore and energize the spirit - or maybe it's just the indulgent pleasure of stepping away from our routines and work for what seems to be an unexplained reason.  It's not a holiday or a holy day. It's just, well, a day off - or so it seems.

Sometimes, students or parents inquire as to the reason for this unexpected pleasure. Though no curiosity surfaced this week, I nonetheless want you know that the faculty and I have spent the past two days immersed in some rich experiences that will make us better teachers and better people.  On Thursday, our entire staff participated in our first ever faculty service day.  Especially in this Year of Mercy, we felt it was important to "walk the talk," modeling the gift - and riches - of service to others.  We divided into four groups, offering corporal and spiritual works of mercy to the poor, to intellectually and/or physically disabled disabled clients, and to the elderly.   We worked at the clothing distribution site at St. Hyacinth's Parish; at St. Anne's Intergenerational Care Center; and at Independence First.   We even offered a return of service to the Urban Ecology Center that enriches us so much.  Though our goal was to give without seeking anything in return, we took away renewed spirits of gratitude and hearts formed a little more in the likeness of Christ.

Today, we  joined together with the faculties of all the schools in our "deanery" (the nine Catholic elementary schools in the North Shore and Ozaukee County) for our third annual peer-to-peer learning day designed to break open the seismic shifts in our literacy standards.  We focused on the reading shifts in 2014; on writing in 2015; and, this year, took on the speaking and listening standards.  It was an energizing day of both theoretical and practical learning.  As I sit here at my desk at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, there are at least two teachers in the building with me, working with enthusiasm to incorporate some of today's take-aways into next week's lessons.  We worked hard today, but also forged a bigger professional learning community and gained renewed enthusiasm for our work and a deeper appreciation for the quality of our school.  Something invested, something gained.

I feel a certain confidence that when teachers and students reunite on Monday, we will bring together a sense of renewal, whether born of respite or a different kind of work. With gratitude and enthusiasm for our mission, our minds and hearts will be ready to take on the challenges just around the bend.  To what will we be called?  Speak Lord, your servant is listening (1 Samuel, 3:10).