ACE 15 Returns to Notre Dame
A lot can happen in the course of a school year. In a matter of ten months children at every grade level achieve academic milestones that often seemed unreachable just the previous year. Yet somehow, with enough encouragement and persistence, they just do it - they read their first sentences, write their first paragraphs, or navigate their daily schedules from the home base of their locker.
They develop the skills and virtues they need to succeed in the classroom and in life. And sometimes their teachers do too.
Just ask ACE 15, the 15th cohort of teachers of the Alliance for Catholic Education—- who returned to the campus of Notre Dame last weekend to continue their coursework in education and prepare for their second year of service through teaching. After an evening of welcome that included a re-orientation, prayer service and welcome back BBQ, ACE 15 is now back in the classroom as students at Notre Dame, furthering their work towards the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) they will earn upon completing their ACE service.
For Andrea Cisneros, one of these ACE 15 teachers who taught in Brownsville, Texas, the second summer of coursework is a welcomed milestone in the ACE experience. “I see classes as a great opportunity to get better as a teacher,” she says. “I appreciate the opportunity to have more tools to help my students.”
Brock Banks, who served with ACE as a religion and social studies teacher at Resurrection Catholic High School in Biloxi, Mississippi last year, agrees that the next seven weeks of classes are going to be a most worthwhile way to fine-tune his teaching skills. “Now we have a lot of context we can draw upon,” says Brock. “We have time to reflect and draw upon our personal experiences—-both our own and those of the other ACE teachers.”
Perhaps the most essential, yet unexpected knowledge that ACE 15 brings to their summer experience is not related to lessons they taught their students, but lessons they learned about themselves—-their limits as well as their gifts. For although it has only been a year since they were last on campus, for Andrea, Brock, and the other members of ACE 15, it has been a year like no other. The growth they have witnessed in their students this past year can only be rivaled by that which they’ve known themselves on the “other side of the desk.” Lessons they taught in math, Spanish or religion in the classroom were mirrored by lessons they lived in faith, friendship and sheer determination.
“I learned I can persevere through trials and errors, both in and out of the classroom. I had to learn patience and how to be flexible,” Brock explains.For Andrea, there were countless lessons in humility. “I had to learn to ask for help, and to see it as a source of strength, instead of a sign of weakness,” she reflects.
She goes on to say that her ACE community in Brownsville, the other first and second-year teachers with whom she shared a home, were tremendous sources of support. The community element of ACE, along with professional teaching and spirituality, is deemed a “pillar” of the program. And for countless ACErs like Andrea who wrestle with the daily challenges of classroom teaching, it is equally a personal pillar of strength and affirmation.
“I can’t imagine a first year teaching experience without other people to support you and challenge you to get better. It was such a blessing to have a community around me committed to the same goal,” Brock Banks agrees.
And in many ways this is the most invigorating part of the summer weeks ACE 15 will spend at Notre Dame —-the opportunity to reconnect with the greater ACE community of faculty, staff, alumni and newest members, ACE 16, and the mission of Catholic school renewal that binds them all.
