Convention recap

As I mentioned, last week all Trinity High School staff members attended the annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association in Boston.  It was so amazing to be among 10,000 Catholic school teachers and to see some familiar faces.

The keynote speaker on Thursday was Dr. Mary McDonald, the Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Memphis.  She gave a very inspirational talk focusing on two crucifixes she encountered with an armless Jesus.  She saw her first one after asking Jesus to use His arms to help her with her job and the second one when she was re-opening a school in Memphis.  She took these as signs from Christ that she was to be His arms in the world and in her work.

You can read a great article about her work here and see some stats and pictures of the armless crucifixes here.

I attended six workshops over the course of the two days:

Models of Faculty/Staff Formation

25 Things An Administrator Can Do to Increase Latino Enrollment

Lessons for Sustaining the Legacy from 35 School Leaders On the Front Lines

Will There be Faith?

Reclaiming Charisms for 21st Century Catholic Schools: A Case Study

Preparing to be Called and Sent Forth: The Mass and Social Justice

All but one were very good and gave a good balance of practical and theological advice for our work in Campus Ministry.

Next year's convention is in Houston.  I've only been to an airport or two in Texas so I am very interested in going next year...not just to see Texas but this was such an amazing convention and I got so much out of it.  Yee haw!