Personal Prayer Symbols

Last evening turned out to be a very lovely evening with my sixth graders. First, we gathered in Church for the Opening Mass with the pastor. I was able to recall many of my students by name as they arrived and that always makes them light up. They were well behaved during Mass (as I’ve mentioned before, almost too well-behaved, meaning that they are so passive and hardly respond to the parts of the Mass, […]

Sneak Peek of Bible Learning Stations

I mentioned in my previous post that I am working on Bible Learning Stations for next week’s session. Here is a sneak peek of the newly completed first learning station: The Pentateuch. In addition to the Pentateuch display board, there is a fill-in sheet for the students to complete and a bookmark for them to place in their Bible to mark off the Pentateuch. More to come!  

Opening Mass Tonight; Thinking Ahead to Next Week

Tonight, our religious education program celebrates our Opening Mass in the Church which means that I will primarily be supervising my 6th graders as they gather for Mass and then throughout the Mass. This afternoon, I plan to go over their names so that this evening I will be able to greet them and talk to them by name. As we wait for Mass to begin, I thought I would do some Q & A […]

Happy Catechetical Sunday!

On this Catechetical Sunday, my hopes and prayers are with all catechists and catechetical ministers as we seek to be agents of the New Evangelization! Personally, I’m marking the occasion here in Louisville, KY, where I spent a wonderful day with 100+ catechists and catechetical leaders yesterday exploring Catholic identity and strategies for more effective catechesis. Thanks to the good folks of Louisville for a wonderful experience!

Off to a Good Start!

I was very pleased with my first session of 6th grade religious education last evening! 🙂 Here’s a rundown of highlights and lowlights: Since I teach in the later session and someone is in the room before me, I don’t have much time to set up (15 mins…if I’m lucky) so it is a real whirlwind trying to get things ready. I have this notion that the kids will walk into this very serene and prayerful […]

Getting Ready for My First Session with Sixth Graders

Tonight’s the night! I begin teaching 6th graders (Old Testament)! I’ve put together a little video that shows you some of my catechist preparations not only for tonight but for the year…I hope you find it helpful.   In the video, I mention or show a number of resources. Here are links to all of them: My Session Outline – Session One 9/10/12 My Schedule for the Year PROCLAIMING THE WORD Bookmark in Word Prayer Intentions […]

Helping Young People to Proclaim God’s Word

This year I am going to make a concerted effort to have a Scripture reading proclaimed from the Bible by one of the students during every class. I plan to have the Bible enthroned in the middle of the Prayer Center as always and, when it comes time to hear a Scripture passage, one of the young people will get up, bow before the Bible, and proclaim the reading from the Bible (I will have […]

My Learning Space for This Year!

Tonight, I got to take a peek at the room that I will be teaching in this year…it’s the school library! I’m so excited because the focus of 6th grade is the Old Testament and one of the images that I love to use to teach about the Bible is “God’s Library!” Also the room is carpeted which will be very conducive to guided reflections. I’ll have 14 students and I plan to move some […]

A Year of Faith Online Retreat – Now in One Place!

This summer, many of you took advantage of an online retreat titled, “Preparing for a Year of Faith” that I offered here on my blog. Over the course of a month, we reflected on and shared insights about the 4 pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Now, you can access the entire retreat in one place! Just click on the Year of Faith banner below: In the future, this will be availabe under […]

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