Catholic School Matters Top Five

This is the final Catholic School Matters newsletter of 2017.  Below I will include the most popular link from each of the fall newsletters as well as my own favorite.  I encourage you took them over and find an article or two which interests you.  I always find it interesting to see what is the most popular link and it’s sometimes difficult to choose one favorite.  There is a TON of great content in this newsletter!

As you approach the Christmas break, I encourage you to take a break and to allow your employees to break, too.  Read “Emailing While You’re on Vacation is a Quick Way to Ruin Company Culture” and make sure that you’re not emailing colleagues over break.  No sense in disturbing another person’s vacation!  It can wait.

Read “How to Be More Productive Without Burning Out” to consider how you are approaching work and whether you need to make any changes.  The article is full of great suggestions about how to frame work in a life-work balance.  For a deeper dive, I encourage you to read “If You’re Too Busy for These 5 Things: Your Life is More Off-Course Than You Think.”

Perhaps the article which stuck with me the most this week is Maker vs. Manager: How Your Schedule Can Make or Break You.  I often have the need for uninterrupted time in order to create.  (Right now, I’m two hours with my phone shut off, for example).  But I’ve never seen such a great explanation.  I encourage you to spend some uninterrupted time over the next few weeks for deeper thinking and creation.  Strategic planning, communications, long-term goal setting—these all take quiet, uninterrupted time.  Are you looking for a New Year’s Resolution?  How about scheduling some uninterrupted time for creating and planning purposes every week?

Catholic Schools news doesn’t stop.  Let’s congratulate the Diocese of Grand Rapids for its decision to open a new elementary school in 2018 and for the Diocese of Buffalo for re-opening a Catholic school closed in 2013.  Marist High School in New Jersey has improved its prospects and Holy Cross HS in New Jersey prepares to become independent of Diocesan control.  Let’s hope for the best for the 2 Connecticut Catholic schools merging this fall and the rural Kansas school struggling with rumors of its closing.   Let’s grieve for the announcement that Livonia Ladywood HS—an all-girls Detroit Catholic school—will close this fall and hope that this New Jersey Catholic high school won’t close..  And let’s celebrate the advent of tuition tax-free scholarships in Illinois while hoping that New York Catholic schools are able to secure state-mandated reimbursements.

Most popular links:

1. Aug 20^th: 5 Mistakes Teachers Make the First Day of School
2. Aug 27^th: As Enrollment in Catholic education is on the decline, some Massachusetts schools find that reputation keeps numbers steady
3. Sep 10^th: What Teachers Want You to Know: A Note to School Administrators
4. Sep 17^th: How a School District Ditched Awards and Assemblies to Refocus on Kids and Learning
5. Sep 24^th: Pope Francis’ new document, Evangelii Gaudim: 9 things to know and share
6. Oct 1^st: The Difference Between Open-Minded and Closed-Minded People
7. Oct 8^th: Classroom Management Makeover
8. Oct 15^th: President of Catholic U warns against ‘echo chamber’
9. Oct 22^nd: A Catholic School is born
10. Oct 29^th: The 4 Practices of Servant Leadership for School Leaders
11. Nov 5^th: Fr. Antonio Spadaro’s talk “Welcoming the Stranger”
12. Nov 12^th: 36 Questions to Bring You Closer
13. Dec 3^rd: How to Let Go at the End of the Work Day
14. Dec 10^th: The video showing Sacred Heart School in OKC

My Favorite links:

1. Aug 20^th: Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers
2. Aug 27^th: Meet the First Black Superintendent of New Orleans’ Catholic Schools (and the link to the podcast conversation here)
3. Sep 10^th: How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know
4. Sep 17^th: Dean James Ryan’s 5 Essential Questions in Life
5. Sep 24^th: Francis on ‘Joy of the Gospel’: Pope lays out his vision for an evangelical church
6. Oct 1^st: Bruce Springsteen, Artful Leadership, and What Rock Star Bosses Do
7. Oct 8^th: The More Innovative I have become, the less classroom management
8. Oct 15^th: America Wasn’t Built for Humans
9. Oct 22^nd: Faith Formation and the Personal Relationship with Jesus
10. Oct 29^th: The War Against Just War
11. Nov 5^th: Who do you say you are: Relationships and Faith in Catholic Schools
12. Nov 12^th: How Design Thinking is Improving Patient-Caregiver Conversations
13. Dec 3^rd: Bishop McElroy sees ‘a cultural crisis in our body politic’
14. Dec 10^th: 10 Ways Hispanics are redefining American Catholicism in the 21^st

My Top 5:

In this issue, I have a few thoughts on time management and productivity and few articles which might cause you to reexamine how you are working.  Then I have my end-of-the-semester list of most popular and favorite articles from each issue.  My Top 5:

1. Oct 1^st: Bruce Springsteen, Artful Leadership, and What Rock Star Bosses Do
2. Nov 12^th: How Design Thinking is Improving Patient-Caregiver Conversations
3. Oct 15^th: America Wasn’t Built for Humans
4. Sep 10^th: What Teachers Want You to Know: A Note to School Administrators
5. Nov 5^th: Fr. Antonio Spadaro’s talk “Welcoming the Stranger”

Have a great Advent, a blessed Christmas, and a wonderful break.  I’ll be back on Jan 7^th.