Cathy Dooley

Northeast Catholic High School

If anyone knows how to keep students interested in the classroom, it’s Mrs. Cathy Dooley, a Theology teacher at Northeast Catholic High School. Mrs. Dooley doesn’t rely on traditional lectures and homework assignments to teach her students. Instead, she leverages emerging technological trends to reach today’s 21st century learners.

Mrs. Dooley recently set up a blog where her students have the opportunity to post homework assignments, read their classmates’ posts and leave comments for one another. “The biggest perk of the blog is that students are able to post their work right onto the site, so there’s never an issue about losing assignments or forgetting them at home,” says Dooley.

In addition to blogging and maintaining a web site where students can find the class syllabus, homework assignments, and links to other Theology web sites, Mrs. Dooley also encourages students to use technology in other innovative ways. Recently, she assigned her students a group project and encouraged each group to use a different technological medium to present their work. The groups used methods ranging from videotaping to podcasting.

Mrs. Dooley, an educator with15 years of experience, has been a Theology teacher at North Catholic High School for eight years. In addition to teaching Theology, she is involved with Student Council, Community Service Corps (CSC) and Kairos, a student retreat program.