• All ten students were present and in good spirits
• During opening prayer, one of the boys prayed for Brian Campbell, Blackhawks’ defenseman, who suffered a broken collar bone and cracked ribs as a result of a vicious hit by Alex Ovechkin on Sunday. I thought that was pretty cool.
• We spent the first 20 minutes or so reviewing their confirmation exam. I had the student with the highest score lead the review and he did a very nice job.
• I then assigned the Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills and met with each student to go over their presentation. This took about 10 minutes.
• The presentations were a lot of fun. I had fun. The kids had fun. I just don’t know how effective the presentations were and that’s why I call it a mixed bag.
  • If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I am not a big advocate of FUN being the primary goal of catechesis (I’m such a crumudgeon!). I think of FUN as a fringe benefit. IMy goal is to be ENGAGING  which most often translates into FUN.
  • The problem was that I think a lot of the message got lost, namely because I entrusted the kids with reading the entire scripts and, in most cases, they are just not very good readers! They mumble, read too fast or too slow, and as a result, I feel like we never quite hit the nail on the head.
  • Perhaps a better way to do these Two-Minute Drills is to have the kids conduct the activities (which they did nicely) but have me/the catechist do the summary on each one in order to drive the point home.
• Each of the activities took more than 2 minutes, of course (that’s just a catchy title) and we were a bit rushed to complete the tenth commandment, however, we got them all in.

So, all in all, it was good to see the kids so engaged and interacting and having fun and taking ownership. It was a little frustrating feeling as though we continually missed the mark just by a little and, again, if you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know that I don’t like to miss the mark!

I want to do something to reinforce the Ten Commandments as we move in to this last unit on Morality. I also want to place more responsibility on the kids now that they are confirmed, so that they sense a difference between how I taught them before Confirmation and how they are learning now.

No, not THAT kind of two-minute drill!

Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills

This should be interesting! Of course, I’ll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck!

The post-confirmation guided reflection went very nicely! Several of the other 8th grade catechists used it as well. You may want to adapt it to your setting.

Anyway, the BEFORE AND AFTER that I’m referring to in my title for this post is not about before and after Confirmation, but about the room in which I teach! I’ve alluded before to how important it is to create an environment that is conducive to faith formation and prayer. I teach in a science room! I have 15 minutes to get in to my room and to try to transform it in some small way. Here are couple of pics that show what I’m able to accomplish in the short time I have:

BEFORE - a science room

As promised, I put together a guided reflection that I’m going to use tonight to help the young people reflect on yesterday’s experience. I think this will give them an opportunity to sift through all of the hustle and bustle of yesterday and zero in on the actions of the Lord that were at the center of this sacramental experience.

I’m sure it was hard for the kids to take it all in as it was happening yesterday. It didn’t help that the sound system in the church is not the best and that the wireless microphone the bishop used for his homily was not working! About halfway through the homily, the associate pastor came to the rescue with another working microphone but, unfortunately, a great deal of his message was lost at this point. Finally, and I don’t want to be too critical here, but the fact that the bishop went on for about 40 minutes didn’t help either! He spent about 20 minutes doing some dialogue with the kids (this was when the mic wasn’t working) and then about 20 minutes of sharing his thoughts on the sacrament. I think the kids’ attention eventually drifted.

That’s why I think it’s helpful to take some time, post-confirmation, to reflect on the actions of the Rite and to help them to recognize the graces that penetrate any of these minor distractions.

Feel free to use this guided reflection and to adapt it to suit your own needs. I hope you find it useful.

Confirmation Guided Reflection

BTW, I plan to segue from the guided reflection into the song, I’ll Stand by You by the Pretenders (also covered by Carrie Underwood).

Click here for an interactive pdf calendar of 40 Ideas for 40 Days!

Happy Ash Wednesday everyone! I hope your Lent is off to a good start!

MY LENTEN CALENDAR 2010

Also, I received another Lenten Calendar from Nancy P. who says that this one is similar to Victor’s but that this one provides a specific suggestion for each day. Here’s the link to Nancy’s calendar (which she credits to a web site from an organization named Florida Cener for Peace):

Lenten Calendar

Here’s how she plans to use it:

What I’m planning to do with my students is to have them paste it on a purple construction paper (large size).  I will modify part of your friend’s instructions and it will be as follows: 

This Lent I will show my love for Jesus by doing these good deeds for Him each day.  Before I go to bed I will color the cross of the day as follows: 

Purple – I did it even though it was hard for me to do.

Yellow – I did it and I said an extra prayer while doing it.

Red – I did it and didn’t mention it to anybody.

Thanks to Victor and Nancy for sharing their calendars with us!

Lenten Webinar Participants Ideas

Enjoy and please share with me (us) how you’re using these ideas and any variations or ideas of your own that you’ve come up with!!!

• Activity #1: Avoiding Temptations
• Activity #2: A Lenten Chain
• Activity #3: My Lenten Calendar (Click here for the 2010 version) (Spanish Version – Mi Calendario Cuaresma 2010)
• Activity #4: Remembering the Lamb
• Activity #5: What’s with the Pretzels?
• Activity #6: Bury the Alleluia
• Activity #7: Operation Rice Bowl
• Activity #8: Operation Rice Bowl and Peace Pole
• Activity #9: The Seven Last Words of Christ Scripture Search
• Activity #10: Making a Paschal Candle
• Activity #11: A Group Fast
• Activity #12: Praying the Daily Examen
• Activity #13: My Lenten Promises
• Activity #14: Sacred Art/Budding Artists
• Activity #15: NOW Crosses
• Activity #16: A Change of Heart Tree
• Activity #17: A Lenten Practices Jar
• Activity #18: Stations of the Cross Tableaus
• Activity #19: Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary Scripture Search
• Activity #20: Magic Cross
• Activity #21: Jesus in the Garden
• Activity #22: Looking for Clues
• Activity #23: A Spiritual St. Patrick’s Day Activity (Time sensitive: March 17)
• Activity #24: What Lenten Hymns Teach
• Activity #25: Silence is Golden: In Honor of St. Joseph (Time sensitive: March 19)
• Activity #26: The Desert Experience
• Activity #27: The Scrutinies
• Activity #28: HCA Missions Stations of the Cross
• Activity #29: An Examination of Concience
• Activity #30: Writing Prayers for the Stations of the Cross
• Activity #31: Unjust Punishment
• Activity #32: The Passion and Resurrection Activity Centers
• Activity #33: Triduum Tryptics
• Activity #34: Make a Paper Palm Branch 
• Activity #35: Palm Crosses
• Activity #36: Scenes from Holy Week
• Activity #37: Palm Weaving and Braiding
• Activity #38: Holy Week Basket
• Activity #39: Resurrection Eggs
• Activity #40: A Holy Week Gift Box

Whew! That was quite a task, but it’s nice to have these ideas in one place, eh? Happy Lent!

The nice thing was that they did a pretty good job of answering the questions. All of us were pleased that they did know a number of basic things about the Catholic faith. We impressed upon them over and over that if they listen closely, they’ll hear all of the items from next week’s confirmation exam.

Probably the most impressive answer was when someone guessed that the phrase we use to describe the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is “The Paschal Mystery!”

In the end, I’m proud that my class ended in first place, but it was only because we got the Final Jeopardy answer correct (This pope visited Chicago in 1979 – Who is Pope John Paul II?) while the team we were tied with got it wrong. There were 3 or 4 kids on my team who really knew their stuff…I was impressed.

Following the game, we distributed a study sheet/packet for them to take home, once again telling them what they need to know for the exam next week. They have certainly been prepared! The biggest challenge for them will be the section on the Ten Commandments which is a blank page that they have to fill in from memory!

All in all, we were pleased with how things turned out. It was hard work keeping them attentive but it was worth it for the engagement it created and the learning that took place.

We are going to do this review using a Jeopardy-like game that I found online last year at http://ccdgames.com/Jeorpardy.php. This site provides the game in a Powerpoint format so that it can be projected on a screen as a gameboard! I found that it was possible to simply save one of the games as a Powerpoint file and then change the categories, questions, and answers to suit your needs. As a result, I’ve put together 4 “rounds” which you are welcome to use or adapt as needed.

Ten Commandments review game

sacraments review game

Nicene Creed review game

General Catholic Doctrine review game

When you open these and play it as a slide show, the first screen is the game board. When you click on a square the “answer” appears and when you click again, the “question” (solution) appears. Then, you click on the icon in the lower right hand corner of that screen and it takes you back to the game board! Very cool!

You’ll notice in my examples, that I’ve simply named the columns A, B, C, D, and E since they are all on the same topic. I’ve also changed the points (or dollar amounts) to be the same since we are simply going to play by starting on the first square and progressing through to the last one. You can, of course, change this to have it match the format of the TV show if that suits you better.

We’re going to have all 5 classes together, each class as a team. The kids in each class will pair-up and work together as pairs to answer a question when it is their team’s turn. I’m going to work the computer and the other 4 catechists will rotate for each round, one being the host/MC, another keeping time (10 seconds to answer before a buzzer is sounded!), one to keep score on the chalkboard to the side of the screen (game board) and one to walk about keeping order and indicating whose turn it is.

We’ve never done this before so it should be interesting. Hopefully this will not become a circus but I think the looming exam is enough leverage to keep them honest!

P.S. If time permits, we”ll also play a final round like “Final Jeopardy” – I’ve even found the melody that the game show uses for this round! You can download it from ITunes for 99 cents (search for “Jeopardy Theme” and choose the 30-second version)