Principal's Goals for 2009-2010
The Archdiocese of Chicago has embarked on a long-range strategic management plan for all its schools. The Plan entitled: Genesis: A New Beginning for Catholic Schools is designed to provide a frame work for excellence in the Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese.
Genesis proposes 18 major goals for the future:
- Six goals focus on the Catholic Identity of our schools,
- Six goals focus on academic excellence,
- and six goals focus on school fiscal vitality.
Each of the Genesis goals is supported by a number of action steps that will help local schools to achieve the 18 goals. Numerous committees including teachers, pastors, and principals, along with the staff of the Office of Catholic Schools, were influential in developing the Genesis goals.
Each school in the archdiocese uses the format of these goals to direct its local planning.
St. Germaine School Goals for 2008-2009 are direct results of the Genesis process.
Catholic Identity
- We will continue to encourage students to make life-long commitments to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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We will continue to foster growth in our teachers, principal, and school board in the area of spirituality.
- During the 2009-2010 school year, teachers will complete the Archdioceses of Chicago Ant-Racism workshop sponsored by the Office of Racial Justice. This workshop is required for all teachers in the system.
Teachers have already completed the four required courses on Creed, Prayer and Liturgy, Scripture, and Morality.
- During the 2009-2010 school year, teachers will complete the Archdioceses of Chicago Ant-Racism workshop sponsored by the Office of Racial Justice. This workshop is required for all teachers in the system.
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We will expand the focus of our weekly school prayer services to increase awareness of our role as stewards of God's creation.
- Our prayer service themes for the year will be built around the Sunday lectionary readings. The scripture message, with a special focus on stewardship of time, talent, and treasure, will be presented to children at an age-appropriate level and learning activities will be included so that students will be prepared to participate with greater understanding in the weekly parish Eucharistic celebrations.
Academic Excellence
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We will continue to align our school curriculum with the curriculum provided by the Office of Catholic Schools.
- The Office of Catholic Schools has presented a complete set of curriculum documents for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese. Over the next several years, schools will examine how their local curricula include the essential portions of the Archdiocese documents.
- We will provide a seven week teacher in-service which will focus on effective strategies for formative assessment. The ASCD text: How to Give Effective Feedback to Students, will form the basis of the workshop..
- We will continue to compile individual student longitudinal data from TERRA NOVA scores to better differentiate learning to meet student needs.
- By compiling individual student test data over several years we are able to analyze strengths and areas of concern in the student's progress.
School Vitality
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We will work to update the school website to provide current information about athletic events and other extra-curricular activities. We will ask each organization to provide a contact who will submit material to our web coordinator.
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We will explore the possibility of establishing class/grade pages on the website to offer a glimpse of activities in our classrooms. If possible, we will establish e-mail accounts for teachers on the school website to facilitate communications with parents.
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We will continue to provide school board members with research-based information regarding marketing and development and attempt to find ways to integrate new ideas into the long-range plans for the school.
