While filling my ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) water bottle, Chris and Daniela, two of my sixth-grade math students, approached me separately. “Mr. Poche, your math class is too easy for me,” said Chris. I assured him I would find some challenging problems for him to try, and Chris, seemingly satisfied, walked away. Daniela, patiently waiting for her turn, said, “Mr. Poche, I’m confused. I’m not good at math. Can you help me?” This moment, as well as countless others, was an early step in my journey from a Catholic school math teacher to a member of ACE’s Higher-Powered Learning (HPL) team, where I now support Catholic school educators in leveraging technology to meet the needs of all learners.
Catholic school educators are likely to resonate with this moment of “water cooler whiplash.” Fr. Nate Wills, CSC, director of the HPL team, calls this the “differentiation dilemma.” On one hand, teachers want to do everything they can to support their students’ success. On the other hand, teachers often feel unequipped or inadequately trained to meet such varied needs. As a teacher, I wanted Chris and Daniela both to receive the excellent Catholic school education they deserved. However, I was already overwhelmed planning one lesson per class, and now I had essentially promised to plan two more. This desire for personalization, paired with the frustration of being unable to consistently deliver it, is a challenge many teachers encounter daily and a driver for innovation in Catholic schools.
Rather than going back on my promise to either student, I knew I had to find a way to meet the individual needs of Daniela and Chris (not to mention the other 30 students with unique needs) without spending all of my waking hours lesson planning. In short, innovation was necessary. In searching for ways to innovate, I found Jesus’ role as a teacher to be a guiding model.
My challenge was not simply to innovate while staying true to Catholic values but to innovate in a way that more fully expressed and enhanced those values. One example is meeting the needs of all students. This remains a core value of Catholic education as we believe that all students are created in the image and likeness of God and deserve an education befitting of that uniqueness. How could I improve my teaching practices, not simply to stay true to the value, but rather to more fully express it through meeting the needs of all students?
When reflecting on how Jesus taught, many readily conjure images of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is painted as a “sage on the stage” delivering whole-group instruction. While this pedagogical strategy does have a place in modern classrooms, so do other models that Jesus employed. We often overlook moments when Christ the teacher was a “guide on the side,” such as on the road to Emmaus (just-in-time, dialogic, small-group instruction) and when he appeared to doubting Thomas (intensive, one-on-one, experiential learning). These student-centered pedagogies highlight each learner’s needs, moving away from conventional, one-size-fits-all approaches.
If I wanted to achieve a greater degree of personalization in my classroom, I knew I needed help. With the right tools and practices, I could reach more students and focus where I was needed most. This is where technology came in, not as a replacement for good teaching but as a tool to support personalized learning.
Through my coursework in ACE, I encountered the idea of “blended learning” as a way to meaningfully use technology for personalization. It is a teaching model where educators can optimize their time by leaning on technology when appropriate. This approach gave me the space to encounter my students in more meaningful and personalized ways.
Fr. Nate Wills summarizes HPL’s approach to blended learning as “students use adaptive software in a classroom setting to personalize their engagement with content, while teachers employ high-yield instructional practices” (Wills, 2015). Students refine their skills with adaptive software programs that provide supplemental instruction and immediate feedback. While one group of students works on adaptive software, teachers can then meet with a small group of students needing additional support as identified through the data collected by the adaptive software programs.
Whether I needed to reteach a concept to a small group of students who had been absent or have a one-on-one conversation with a student who needed extra support, blended learning gave me the flexibility to personalize learning. The formative assessment data from these programs only further empowered me to differentiate learning to meet the needs of all students.
True innovation does not undermine Catholic education’s values—it strengthens them. By innovating, we more fully live out the core principles of Catholic education, embodying the call to be Christ the Teacher. In my classroom, blended learning answered the “differentiation dilemma.” Now, as I work for the University of Notre Dame’s HPL team, I teach other Catholic school educators how to do the same. I am energized by leveraging technology in specific ways to deliver on Catholic education’s promise to provide an excellent education for every student.
As the technology that personalizes instruction in the classroom grows more robust, the need to ensure that technology is used in ways that align with learning goals is more important than ever. Generative AI, described by Pope Francis as “an exciting and fearsome tool,” shows great promise for further personalizing learning experiences.
Ultimately, it is teachers, inspired by Christ, who will create those meaningful moments of personal connection—like my encounter with Chris and Daniela at the water cooler—that allow us to know, love and serve our students more fully.
If you are interested in implementing blended learning in your classroom, school, or diocese, visit ace.nd.edu/hpl/ebook to request your copy of our “7 Strategies to Power-Up Learning” guide.
Lewis Pochéis associate program director at Higher-Powered Learning at the University of Notre Dame.
lpoche@nd.edu