March 10, 2010 |
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What’s new at local Catholic schools
AMY F. SMITH | FC 
AMY F. SMITH | FC 
AMY F. SMITH | FC PENSACOLA | On the second day of the 2008-09 opening of St. Paul Catholic School here, kindergarten students sat on the floor while their teacher, Kathleen Matthews, showed them a globe. “What did God make on earth?” she asked the class Aug. 13. The students who had their hands raised were allowed to answer: “the seven oceans,” “the moon.” Matthews added: “people.” All of the Catholic schools within the diocese have something new to add to the curriculum this year. For St. Paul School, this is the first year they have a voluntary prekindergarten class for 4-year-olds. Specifically for this grade, the school has purchased the preschool version of Rowland Corp.’s “The Superkids,” a reading program that focuses on the alphabet and phonics through a cast of “superkids.” Last year, the school was awarded a pilot grant for the program for the kindergarten class. This year, they won a pilot for the first grade, thus now making it accessible to prekindergarten through first grade. “I saw our kindergarten putting sentences together at Thanksgiving (last year). I have never seen that before,” said Louise West, principal. West has worked in education for 47 years. “They were actually taking words and putting sentences together. And I’m not talking about three-word sentences.” At Little Flower Catholic School in Pensacola, students have an updated computer lab in which to learn, as well as Smart Boards, or interactive whiteboards, in every classroom. “We have added Spanish to the curriculum for grades kindergarten through eighth,” said Sister Barbara Zipoli, Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, principal. “This is an exciting time to be a part of Little Flower Catholic School.” In Fort Walton Beach, St. Mary Catholic School has begun a county-funded gifted program from kindergarten through eighth grades on their own campus. Previously, children whom the school chose for this program had to travel to Shalimar Elementary School. “The new gym is the biggest news on campus,” Regina Nadicksbernd, principal, said of this new facility that is housed in the recently dedicated Msgr. Mullins Family Life Center. Within this building is also the school’s new cafeteria, which makes use of a touch-point system through which computers recognize students’ lunch plans with the touch of their fingers. According to Lloyd Kinderknecht, assistant principal at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart School in Pensacola, students there are the most excited about the new bathrooms and playground equipment. “Sacred Heart has a wonderful staff of veteran teachers,” said Kinderknecht. “And the kids are simply happy to be back with their friends.” The students and teachers at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Pensacola will spend at least 15 minutes at the end of each day reading as participation in DEAR, or Drop Everything And Read. If the students see their teachers reading, explained Principal Sister Isabel Garza, they will be encouraged to do so. Because three Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco, including Sister Garza, recently joined the community, the students started the year with a Salesian pastoral theme, “Discovering Jesus’ Miraculous Power.” Each month also has its own theme, all focusing on Jesus and the power he gives to all to live in service to others. The school will incorporate this theme into providing services to men and women in the military overseas, contributing to the local food pantries and to the Alfred Washburn Center for the Homeless. 
AMY F. SMITH | FC This year at Pensacola Catholic High School, technology is literally in the hands of every freshman. All ninth-grade students get their own Apple laptops to use throughout the day. “Aware of the current and future learning needs of students in the 21st century, CHS has been working consistently to meaningfully insert technology in the curriculum throughout recent years,” said Sister Kierstin Martin, Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, principal. At St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Panama City, educators are working to institute the teaching of Mandarin Chinese for grades kindergarten through second. “We have a certified teacher and we are seeking sponsors for the cost of the program,” said Dr. Kathy Kidd, who started as principal this year. Dr. Kidd added that the school is also offering Spanish instruction for kindergarten and first grade this year. “We’re working not only to facilitate our curriculum in Catholic schools, but to look at Catholic schools as something different,” said West of St. Paul Catholic School. “We offer something very different with our Catholic identity.”
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