Sorry for this very long post.

This is my second year as a catechist. I’m teaching 8th grade this year. First may I say that I taught 7th graders last year and the difference between 7th and 8th graders is tremendous in my opinion.

Anyway, our first session, which was a couple weeks ago, was a group session for all 8th graders along with their parents. Our DRE gave an overview of the year to everyone with regard to the confirmation year and what to expect (our 8th graders are actually confirmed in October of their Freshman year in an effort to move them forward in our high school program).

This past Sunday (we meet twice per month for 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon) was my first “real” class time with my group so it was somewhat of a “get to know you” class. I have 19 students. We started with the opening prayer (which included two Bible readings which I assigned to two students). Last year I did not have a prayer/sacred space. This year I created a sacred space with a Bible, a votive candle showing Our Lady of Guadalupe, a crucifix, and 20 electric tea lights (one for each of us).

After the prayer, I had the kids pick a piece of candy out of a bag (twix, milky way, reese’s pb cup) and we used that to divide into 3 groups. We used some time for getting acquainted. The 3 groups each had a question they used to get to know each other (favorite movie, favorite gift or vacation ever, or favorite place to think). I circulated among the groups while they were talking and the groups were having a pretty good time. Several of the kids know each other…..not sure if that is good or bad. I did a little quizzing after we got back in the big group asking (what was so-and-so’s favorite movie, or what was so-and-so’s favorite gift ever).

After this, we talked some about what Jesus’ favorite things may have been…..this took longer than I anticipated but was fun.

I moved on next to talking about class this year and told the group that we would be doing more things to prep them for adult life. I told them that we would be spending a little time every class in personal reflection and that they each have a prayer candle on the table of our community sacred space that they would take to their personal sacred space and be using during our personal reflection time (Joe mentioned this idea of each child having a candle on one of his first classes as did a catechist from my diocese that conducted a catechist formation class that I attended on Friday night). I told them that, since we are a real community in our classroom, if anyone ever was ever absent, we would keep their candles here and pray for them.

The guided reflection time, in which I was VERY nervous to try, went okay. There were about 5 of my 19 kids that I had to keep an eye on (and our room isn’t very big). At first I was a bit discouraged that I did have some kids that giggled during the reflection…..but then I remembered the other kids that seemed like they were into it.

After this, we were pressed for time and I had them spend a little time on writing down the groups that they are involved with (at school or home or in the parish or community) and told them to think about how much those groups rely on them…..and that our group, as a community, relies on each other also to be here at class. That our group will work best as a community, just like a parish, if we are all here together.

We ended with a prayer and two short readings from the bible (I’m going to try and make sure we always start and end with this through the year),

It ended up a rather hectic class because I just had so much planned and we only got to about 70% of it. But the class flew by. Whew!

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Joe Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am

Greg, this is a great summary of your class. Thanks for sharing in such detail. It really sounds like a solid lesson that kept the young people engaged and set the tone for the year. It was indeed a very ambitious lesson plan and that’s good…always best to overplan than to underplan. Don’t be discouraged by the giggling with the guided reflection…it is quite normal and creates a challenge but you need to be determined to win them over and teach them mature behavior. Last week in my class, I had to omit the sacred space and when I told them that, they groaned and one of them said, “that’s my favorite part.” So, know that they will come around. Thanks again, Greg…you share many effective and creative ideas here that we call can learn from.

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My 6th graders are starting to get the hang of being ready to participate in answering a steady flow of questions as part of the learning process. Why didn’t Jesus just decide nobody would be hungry? That’d be easier than going to all that trouble with loaves’n'fish. C’mon, c’mon, be fearless, give me an answer! I’ll take a bad answer! Give it up, I’m too old to hold my breath!

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Joe Reply:
October 12th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

Love it!

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