Educator Workshop: A “Valuable,” “Reaffirming” and “Relaxing” Experience

The consensus of the participants at the 16th annual Lasallian Educator Workshop, which took place from November 4–6, 2002, was that the workshop was, to borrow a few words from the evaluations, “valuable,” “reaffirming” and very “relaxing.” Some of the positive feedback certainly is the result of the comfortable setting of the Christian Brothers Spiritual Center in Adamstown, MD. The participants ended up relishing the opportunity to rejuvenate by getting away from their busy lives to reflect on working in a Lasallian school or agency and simply winding down.

Nevertheless, the stellar presenters, Br. Brian Henderson, FSC, the Director of St. Gabriel’s Hall, and Mr. Ray Ricci, the Vice-President for Enrollment Services at La Salle University, deserve the bulk of the credit for the superior evaluations. Br. Brian and Ray (pictured above from left to right, respectively) addressed a wide-range of topics from an overview of St. La Salle’s story, the Christian Brothers and the Lasallian Mission, to Lasallian Association, to the Characteristics of Lasallian schools, and the “Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher.” With colorful examples and complementary presentation styles, the Henderson/Ricci team affectively informed, formed and challenged the participants. Their unquestionable passion for and faith-filled belief in the Lasallian mission was contagious.

The diversity of the eleven paricipants, in terms of the schools or agencies they represented and number of years in service to those schools or agencies, brought interesting perspectives and increased the awareness of the breadth of the apostolates in the Baltimore District. In the photo below, pictured from left to right, Jeremy Bryant (the San Miguel School in Washington, DC), Mary Ann Lloyd (Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh), and Bob Spear (De La Salle Vocational) share their reflections on their varied experience.