During the first quarter of 2020 our Educate Magis platform was filled with wonderful participation and sharing from members of our global community. There were also great new resources and tools made available globally and an unexpected change in teaching style suddenly had to be implemented across the schools in our global network.
In this article we walk you through the Educate Magis highlights on the first quarter of 2020:
- Some Educate Magis Statistics
- The Virtual Colloquium connected and engaged educators from all over the world
- The Educate Magis Mobile App – An alternative channel to participate
- Supporting and enhancing your work in 2020
- The experience of navigating this pandemic as a global community has been a blessing
- Spread the Word on how to use Educate Magis
Some Educate Magis statistics
Before we start the journey through the first quarter of 2020, let’s take a quick look at some statistics from the first quarter. Our global community is continuously growing, we closed the quarter with 9,756 subscribed members. The top 10 countries with the most participation in community activities during this quarter were Colombia, Brazil, United States, India, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Philippines, Argentina, and Ecuador. The top three most downloaded documents were “Jesuit-Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century”, the Spanish version of the same document “Colegios Jesuitas: Una Tradición Viva” and “JESEDU-Jogja2020 Virtual Colloquium Participant Guide”. The top three most downloaded Lesson Plans were “Dignity of Every Human Being”, “¡Hola! Soy el Coronavirus” and “Food Waste Audit”.
The Virtual Colloquium connected and engaged educators from all over the world
The year started with an amazing response and engaging participation in the Jogja Virtual Colloquium. Educators from around the world connected via the Educate Magis platform to reflect and act on the contemporary educational issues and challenges that will be discussed at the II Colloquium JESEDU-Jogja2020 in Indonesia, in June 2021. “Building Reconciliation”, “Cultivating Depth” and “Choosing Purpose” were the main modules of this virtual gathering, each had a 5-minute video that presented a 21st-century issue, which was discussed by educators in relation to the Universal Apostolic Preferences. The video aimed to bring our mission and the UAPs closer by contextualizing them in the contemporary world. After reflecting on the experience of watching the videos people were encouraged to act by responding in different ways, such as joining a conversation, taking a poll, and/or sharing best practices with photos.
A significant part of the Virtual Colloquium was the inclusion of the 10 Global Identifiers of Jesuit schools taken from the “A Living Tradition” document as a resource to reflect on and assist participants while answering the polls. The document “Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century – An Ongoing Exercise of Discernment” is an 8 year work from the Secretariat of Jesuit Education and the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education (ICAJE) that follows a tradition of assisting the educational apostolate in reflecting and discerning the particular challenges and opportunities of our time. This document is available on Educate Magis in digital format to enhance our experience of reflecting on and using the 10 key Global Identifiers of Jesuit Schools. “These are another important element to help in the reflection about what makes a Jesuit school today Jesuit, enabling us to navigate the challenge of keeping our identity to serve our mission of reconciliation and justice central to what we do and who we are.” Letter from Fr. General Arturo Sosa SJ. Rome, November 5, 2019
The Virtual Colloquium connected educators from all over the world, Spain, India, United States, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Australia, France. Members from these and other countries took advantage of the opportunity to interact and exchange reflections with educators from different contexts guided by the same mission. Here are some educational and heartwarming experiences shared by participants from the six Jesuit regions.
The Educate Magis Mobile App, an alternative channel to participate
While members of our global community were undergoing this fabulous experience, a new project that had been in its development and testing phase since 2019 was launched to help educators stay connected with the latest global stories and conversations on Educate Magis. The new Educate Magis App was created as a request from many members who were looking for an easier, quicker, and more flexible way to engage with the global dimension of our Jesuit schools. The Educate Magis App was also launched as an alternative channel to participate in the Virtual Colloquium, in particular within the conversations.
Supporting and enhancing your work in 2020
Another highlight of the first quarter of 2020 was the annual planning session that the Educate Magis team in Galway had together with the Secretariat for Education, Fr. Jose Mesa SJ and his assistant for Global Projects, Catharine Steffens. One aspect of this meeting which stood out for all of us was the wonderful input we received from some members of our global community, which helped us channel our ideas and actions based on our global community’s needs to further support or enhance your work in 2020, particularly, but not exclusively, in the areas of Global Citizenship Education, Mission & Identity / Ethos / Ignatian Formation, and Global Collaboration and Networking.
The experience of navigating this pandemic as a global community has been a blessing
The first quarter of 2020 took an unexpected twist at the beginning of March. On March 13th the spread of COVID-19 was declared a pandemic forcing many countries to shut down schools in order to control the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. Little by little schools started to reach out to us and to each other for guidance on tools and resources to teach online. A new way of teaching had to be implemented across the schools in our global network, and thus our priorities changed. As we began working from our homes we began to focus on accompanying and supporting teachers as they navigated this new way of teaching.. One of Educate Magis’ first responses was to open a conversation ”COVID-19 – How can we support each other” to bring our global community together in a safe environment where they were able to share ideas and practical tips on how we could support each other. The replies to this conversation and the many video conferences with teachers from schools in different contexts of the world guided us to the development of further COVID-19 responses.
We put all our efforts into redesigning the Classroom Materials page in order to provide teachers access to share and search Lesson Plans and Materials to make it easier for them to transition from teaching in class to online teaching. We gathered experiences and recommendations from teachers to share with parents and other teachers during the lockdown. Members of the global community shared beautiful and very useful Ignatian Spirituality resources created especially to keep a healthy mind and spirit during the situation. Jesuit schools and Jesuit organizations, such as JRS, worked on making available special Global Projects for students, which could be done while students were learning online. While the past few weeks have been challenging and there is still much uncertainty, the experience of navigating this pandemic as a global community has been a blessing. The solidarity and generosity from teachers of Jesuits schools around the world has been inspiring and for that we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. There are many more virtual activities and resources that we are preparing. Here is the Educate Magis COVID-19 page where you can find all the above resources, recommendations and projects shared by educators from our Global Community.
Spread the Word on how to use Educate Magis
The global dimension of our Jesuit schools offers many opportunities; opportunities to collaborate, to grow, to learn. Therefore, we encourage our members to Spread the Word on how to use Educate Magis and the benefits of being part of this unique global community. Here is an article shared by the Colombia Association of Jesuit schools ACODESI on how Educate Magis is growing strong in Colombia and also the New Spread the Word page, a resource to help you explain to your colleagues what Educate Magis is, how to connect with other educators and how to use the tools offered on the platform, which we hope you find useful in the days to come.
We hope you have enjoy reading this update and as always let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions you would like to share with us! We hope to continue this journey of solidarity, companionship and reflection together.
