National Catholic Education Association 2025 Convention

Dr. Betsy Donlon and Dr. Hope Link attended the 2025 National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Convention, held in Orlando from April 22-24. They were honored to be invited as breakout session speakers, presenting a session entitled “Building Listening Skills to Boost Classroom Participation.”

The session description read:
“‘The ones doing the most talking are doing the most learning.” This session will explore whether this statement is always true in classrooms, and if it might be worthy of our time as teachers to teach students listening skills, leading to deeper and more meaningful classroom discussions. This session will also explore total participation techniques and ideas for inviting students into the classroom community.
 
The NCEA Convention is one of the largest gatherings of private education professionals in the country, drawing almost 4,000 attendees. Keynote speakers included Dan Fitzpatrick, who presented “” and Fr. Nate Wills, who spoke on “Artificial Intelligence and Catholic Education: Helpful, Harmful, or Hopeful?”

In addition to their own session, Dr. Donlon and Dr. Link enjoyed attending breakout session about using vertical thinking boards to inspire interactive classroom discussions and active student participation. 
 
A special highlight for the event for Dr. Donlon was reconnecting with Sister Moana Grace, an Aquinas College alumna from the Class of 2023, who was also in attendance at the convention.