Academics

Ignatian Educators

Profiles of Ignatian Educators
Above and beyond their duties in the classroom, teachers and colleagues at St. Joseph's Prep have a tradition of doing more. By practicing cura personalis, they are moderators, coaches, and volunteers all with the goal of forming our students to do more, be more, and become the young men that God wants them to be. 

Scroll down to read about some amazing educators who are Animating the Jesuit Mission, Modeling Ignatian Pedagogy, and Discerning Ways of Teaching and Learning.
Religious Studies Teachers Callaghan and Gambone Aid Mission And Ministry Efforts
Religious Studies teacher Mike Gambone remembers attending the Ignatian Family Teach-In in Washington, DC and being fascinated by the presentations offered by other schools.

“Schools were doing incredible programming for students with regards to mission and we were very excited to bring the ideas back,” Gambone says. “We learned that many of those schools had more resources than ours in the area of Mission and Ministry so anything we wanted to add would need to be supported.”

Gambone and fellow teacher Dino Pinto P ’25 developed a proposal to more formally utilize members of the Religious Studies Department to assist the Office of Mission and Ministry in creating more opportunities to impact the prayer/liturgical life of our students and also commit more resources to social justice initiatives with our neighbors. This plan was well received by School President John Marinacci P’27 and Department Chairs Pete Callaghan and Sheri San Chirico and the plan was enacted. READ FULL ARTICLE
Model Prep Teachers Continue to Adapt to Changing Learning Styles
Dr. Nunes and Mr. Fabry Building “Thinking Classrooms”

Andrew Fabry is a well-respected teacher of mathematics. Chair of the department, his students learn at high levels and often report him as an excellent teacher. This year, however, he is changing the way he teaches his Algebra I class and it has made a huge impact.
Walk into his Jesuit Hall classroom during that period and you will probably not find him standing at the board and lecturing. Unless he is presenting a new concept, you will most likely see him moving around the classroom as his students, put into random groups, stand in front of a white board and work on problems together. Fabry interjects when needed but mostly observes the work being done.
“It’s a great way to offer a low-stakes assessment,” he says. “Most students naturally want to collaborate and this encourages them to learn together. They need to know the proper terminology so they can communicate and then help each other as needed.”
This change came about over the summer. Fabry read the book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, given to him by Kevin Gregorio, Director of Learning Services. “It gave me a lot to think about,” says Fabry. “This practice is based upon research so I decided to take the risk and it has been a major net improvement.” READ FULL ARTICLE
Merging Disciplines, Master Teachers Rupertus and Conners
Help Open Students’ Eyes to Different Worlds
Twenty five years ago, two colleagues had an idea: use history and literature together to offer a study of American ideas and culture. The result, American Studies, taught by Dr. Chris Rupertus P ’24, ’26 and Mr. Bill Conners ’80 proved to become one of the best loved courses for students, with an impact felt years after they left the school.

“It was a lot of work and our students stepped up,” Conners said of the class. “I think they appreciated the atmosphere, the unique nature of the course. For most of the life of the course, we were together for 80 minutes every day and that really helped to create a community.”

The course took on different aspects of American history and examined literature (novels, short stories, essays) and primary-source documents connected to each topic or era. For example, the examination of the women’s movement would include the reading of the Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Convention plus literary works such as The Awakening and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” READ FULL ARTICLE
 
For more information, contact Bill Avington '90, Director of Communications.

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