, isLeadArt: , itemUrl: , itemCaption: , isStory: true, linkUrl: , description: }, id: 185339 }) }) Facing a classroom full of empty desks, and staring into a computer in front of her, Amanda Woods reminded the Pottstown seventh graders on the other side of the screen that their poetry assignment was due the next day. “Two minutes I have left with you please don’t leave,” she said. Woods implored her students to email her their drafts. “I love to read what you guys write,” she said.
Coronavirus Coverage The classroom at Pottstown Middle School was quiet. Most of Woods’ students don’t speak aloud during class, instead typing questions in the chat. Keeping them engaged is a struggle: On a recent Thursday, one student logged out after 30 seconds. Another joined 26 minutes after class began.
Gina Christian
By Gina Christian • Posted February 26, 2021
Kneeling for a quick prayer after a recent Mass, I heard someone pause at my pew and looked up to see a fellow parishioner.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said. “But Dorothy passed away this past week, and I was wondering if you might write an article about her.”
Holding back tears, the woman explained how her deceased friend had lived out the Catholic faith over more than nine decades.
A member of Little Flower High School’s first graduating class, Dorothy married and, unable to have children herself, showered her niece and nephew with affection.
Little Flower songwriting class ‘lets students lead the way’ to musical diversity
Jennifer Allen of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass choir performs at a Feb. 9 concert marking the start of weekly songwriting workshops led by composer Tonya Taylor Dorsey at Little Flower High School. (Gina Christian)
By Gina Christian • Posted February 24, 2021
Students at an archdiocesan high school are finding their musical voices, thanks to a new songwriting course led by an acclaimed composer.
Tonya Taylor Dorsey, director of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir, has launched a weekly workshop series at Little Flower High School in the city’s Hunting Park section.
Northeast Times
By Jeane McNamara
Taking on the responsibility of leading the Little Flower community was at best a complex proposition when I took it on in the spring of 2018. It was a professional and personal gamble. I was ready for something more in my career arc, but recognized that I still had great responsibilities to my family’s well-being and my own. At that time, I had one child about to go to medical school, one launching in college and one starting high school. Little Flower is not exactly around the corner from where I hail in the bustling metropolis of Phoenixville. But having been formed by the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHMs) during my experience as the Academic Dean at Villa Maria Academy High School, and having been involved in the community in Phoenixville, I was drawn to Little Flower for its diversity, its rich history and its deep roots in its own community. A challenge didn’t scare me and neither did a lengthy commute.
MLK’s dream is now our task to realize, says archbishop
Archbishop Nelson Pérez speaks at a Jan. 18 archdiocesan interfaith prayer service in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hosted by St. Dorothy Parish in Drexel Hill. During his reflection, the archbishop said the dream envisioned by the slain civil rights leader is now the task at hand for each one of us to make it come true.” (Photo by Sarah Webb)
By Gina Christian • Posted January 19, 2021
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood that “pure love in the imitation of God the Father” remains the ultimate antidote to racism, said Archbishop Nelson Pérez.