Academics


Preschool Program

St. Michael Preschool program is based on the belief that children learn from interacting with their world. Our hands-on experiences will make that world come to life. Saint Michael's Catholic community environment will enhance the well-being of the whole child. Spiritual, social, cognitive and physical development will be promoted through activities that encourage respect, cooperation and independence.

ELS Program

We are lucky to have many supports for all types of learners here at St. Michael School. One of these supports is the ELS program or Essential Learning Systems Lab. It is published by the Creative Education Institute or CEI. ELS is a flexible, individualized, computer based, multisensory therapeutic approach to addressing the reading, language, and developmental learning needs of students. The program's focus on mastery, positive reinforcement, and motivation results in significant gains in grade-level equivalencies, test scores, self-esteem and overall performance. Parents have reported that the program helps their child improve the processing of information in all areas of their lives, not only in school. The program has also been successful in improving the attention and concentration of those students demonstrating needs in this area. Further, the ELS program is extremely beneficial for students whose first language is not English.

Several other schools in the area have this lab and charge an extra tuition for children to participate. Here at St. Michael it is free to those children who demonstrate that the program may help them increase their potential. It is offered as part of our regular curriculum in place of another subject. The student-teacher ratio is very low in the lab, so at times we are able to offer support in the students' other subjects.

World Languages PreK -6

St. Michael School is among the few elementary schools in the Chicagoland area that offers a foreign language for children in grades 1-6. The Spanish curriculum for grades 1-6 is grounded in the "Standards for Foreign Language Learning" as proposed by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language). During class, students are introduced to high-frequency vocabulary, and grammar as well as conversation-builders that will help them reach a level in Spanish in which they feel ready to communicate. There is also a large focus on cultural events, Catholic holidays in the Spanish-speaking world and commonalities that our students share with Spanish-speaking students around the world.

Technology Program

Our goals at St. Michael are to promote, facilitate and enhance teaching, learning and working efforts of the students and faculty through the use of technology. We are constantly exploring and incorporating new technologies that promote learning so as to create an atmosphere of technological collaboration that enhances and supports learning opportunities for all involved.

To become technologically proficient, students will develop their skills through integrated activities in all content areas 1-8, rather than through one specific course. These skills will be introduced during their computer classes and then refined collaboratively with 1-8 teachers as an integral part of the learning process.

Our students' computer classes provide a framework for technology literacy and demonstrate a progression from physical manipulation skills in the use of technology, to intellectual skills necessary for information use. Computer/technology proficiency is not an end in itself, but lays the foundation for continuous learning.

Teachers use these goals as guidelines for planning technology-based activities in which students achieve success in learning, communication, and prepare them to meet the challenges of today's technology-rich world.