Alliance for Catholic Education
The 2022 Christ the Teacher Award has been given to someone affectionately known by students as their “grand teacher:” Ted Caron.
That’s because Becky Tapanes’ students at Nativity Academy in Louisville, Kentucky, know Caron as their teacher’s teacher.
Each year, ACE Teaching Fellows Program gives the Christ the Teacher award to a member of the ACE faculty who “through his or her teaching and interaction with students, exemplifies qualities modeled on the life of Christ that we read about in the Gospels.”
Ted serves as a member of the faculty for instruction and supervision in ACE Teaching Fellows and coordinates how faculty supervise ACE Teachers. He works with teachers like ACE 28’s Tapanes to improve their classroom instruction and management.
As Kati Macaluso, the interim academic director for ACE Teaching Fellows, described Caron as she presented the award during a Mass at the Grotto on Wednesday, Caron is known as:
- a long-time academic supervisor of hundreds of ACE teachers,
- a professor charged with teaching courses as diverse as middle and high school social studies methods, elementary assessment, and literacy across the content areas,
- and a leader tasked with keeping faculty and students anchored to the K-12 Catholic school students and communities that propel ACE’s existence as a program at Notre Dame.
Much like a grandparent, he is known by his own students “for his deep and abiding love—a love shown by his willingness to listen and to walk with an ACE teacher, a fellow faculty member, a school principal—through even the hardest of days.”
"It's an honor to walk with so many mission-driven Catholic school teachers who strive to be excellent for their students," Caron said.
Caron graduated from the University of Notre Dame, taught as a member of ACE 4 in Baton Rouge, and earned his doctorate in curriculum and supervision from the University of Iowa. He has been a teacher, principal, university instructor, teacher supervisor, and curriculum consultant.