May 15, 2009
Marian Outreach presented to national audience at convention
Immaculee Ilibagiza, keynote speaker at the NCEA conference, poses with a delegation from southwestern Indiana. Ilibagiza, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, is the New York Times best selling author of “Left to Tell and Led by Faith.” Posing with the author are Marty Craig, Marianne Webster and Bev Williamson. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Over 100 educators at a national conference came to learn more about “Project Outreach” and differentiated instruction used by Marian Educational Outreach in the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Evansville.
The presentation was given at the National Catholic Education Association conference in Ana-heim, Calif., April 15. The presenters were Marianne Webster, principal at Holy Redeemer School, Marty Craig, principal of Corpus Christi School, and Beverly Williamson, Develop-ment Director of Marian Edu-cational Outreach.
Their presentation, “Differentiated Instruction, Teaching to the Beat of a Different Drum-mer,” will be available for parents and faculties during the 2009-2010 year.
The Marian Educational Out-reach professional training project, Project Outreach funded by Welborn Baptist Foundation, has placed the schools in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville on the cutting edge of the needed reform in education, according to Bev Williamson.
She said Differentiated Instruction has been around about 20 years but the model being implemented by Project Out-reach is a “one of a kind.”
All of the teachers in the Diocesan project schools are receiving opportunities for DI training in summer workshops, follow-up reinforcement during the academic year, and on-site ac-countability activities for three to seven years. Williamson said this training support provided by Indiana University Center for Education and Lifelong Learning provides the long-term support that allows the transformation and paradigm shift from “teacher focused classrooms” to “student focused classrooms.”
Paradigm shifts, which are true and sustainable reform, typically take five to seven years, Williamson believes.“
Thanks to Welborn Baptist Foundation, Project Outreach has been funded for the third year!” Williamson said. Mem-orial and Mater Dei high schools in Evansville, St. James in Haubstadt and St. Joseph in Princeton are the new schools whose faculties will be trained in Phase III during the 2009-2010 year.
Teachers from nine schools have already received training during the first and second phases of the project. These schools are Holy Spirit, Holy Redeemer, Corpus Christi, Holy Rosary and Christ the King in Evansville; St. Phillip in St. Philip; St. Joseph in Vanderburgh County; St. Wendel in St. Wendel and Sts. Peter and Paul in Haubstadt.
Teachers who have already received training will continue to hone their best practices in DI, Williamson said. They will also provide training assistance to the teachers in the new schools.