in the front seat

Summer vacation is almost here, and both students and teachers feel the anticipation, though for different reasons.  Most students are simply looking forward to the time away from school and the lazy summer months.  Educators do look forward to this also.  In addition to relaxing, many educators work second jobs, catch up of home project that were put off during the busy months of May and June, and most engage in serious professional development.  In fact, most educators come up with their biggest ideas during this time. Well, in addition to relaxing, planning, working, pursue our own studies, and doing whatever it is that we like to do during summer vacation why don't we spend some time growing in faith.  Joe Paprocki, a Catholic Educator and author of " Sharing My Journey of Teaching the Catholic Faith ", has called on fellow educators to do this.  Additionally, last Friday, our faculty retreat our administrator asked us the very same question. ...

What's your name?  Who named you?  Who were you named after?  What does your name mean? Is your name biblical?  Do you share your name with a saint? Every year, the U.S. Social Security Administration compiles a list of names that new parents gave their children that year, coming up with a top 10 and a top 20, and so on. The SSA just this week released the list of most popular names for 2012. What is in a name? We all know that first names are meaningful and that parents choose them carefully. It is interesting to note how many parents choose biblical names or saints’ names whether they choose them for that reason or not. Interestingly, more parents give their sons biblical or saints’ names than they give their daughters. Looking at the top twenty names for 2012, sixty percent of the boys’ names are also in the Bible: Jacob (1, most popular), Noah (4), Michael (8), Daniel (11), Matthew (12), Elijah (13), James (14), Benjamin (16), Joshua (17), Andrew (18...