I had a very enjoyable session last night! Here are the highlights:

• We began in church with an opening prayer service with the pastor. I met my group out in the parking lot and they were jovial and polite. I had a full class with the 2 absentees from last week being present.
• The kids were very well behaved in church…I was quite pleased to see that. My aide Lucy was there as well and it was nice to have her present as well.
• I eased out of church after the prayer service and before our class was dismissed to get upstairs, allowing Lucy to bring them up. This gave me a few minutes to get a few more things in place before they arrived. We had 45 minutes left at this point.
• As they entered, I greeted them with a short “quiz” about what we covered last week. This got their attention immediately and then they realized that the questions were fun and we enjoyed going over the correct answers. It actually made for a nice review of last week.
• We did our opening prayer: “This is the day the Lord has made…” followed by signing our foreheads, lips, and hearts, and then passing the candle to offer prayers of thanksgiving or petition. They are doing very nicely with that, thanking God for very simple things, not being silly, and just looking and sounding comfortable.
• 2 of the students, both boys, brought personal symbols for the prayer center! One brought his 3rd grade Rosary and the other brought a small stone. I was very pleased with this and encouraged the others to follow suit.
• We did an activity called “Revealing Moments” in which I covered a poster of a celebrity (Taylor Swift) with cards that we played a memory game with. One of the girls guessed pretty early and then I explained that we didn’t know who it was until we revealed various parts of her face. I said that today we were going to learn about how God has revealed himself to us in Jesus.
• We read from the textbook about how Jesus reveals to us the face of God. We used the ball toss for taking turns reading and they continue to enjoy that and it keeps them engaged a bit more.
• One of them asked me if we were doing sacred space! I said that’s up next.
• The article in the text mentioned Jn 3:16 – “For God so loved the world…”  I sent them to their sacred space to reflect on this passage which I provided on small slips of paper, inviting them to memorize the words. I turned out the lights, put on some music, and they were very quiet. I did a sort of Lectio Divina on this passage, repeating it every 30-45 seconds or so for 2 or 3 minutes and then just leaving it silent for a few minutes.
• I finished by telling them that their “assignment” was to spend some quality time with someone who needs love in the days ahead because God sent his only Son Jesus to spend quality time with us!
• We gathered for a Glory Be and they blessed themselves with Holy Water as they left.

Thank you, Lord, for a good session.

Yesterday, I told you about the first 35 minutes or so of my first session on Monday evening during which time my focus was to ENGAGE the young people. My Engage step normally does not take that long however, being the first night, there was more engaging to do! With the focus on the theme of TRUST, we next moved into the EXPLORE step of the lesson, where we look at the story of salvation and how it connects with the lived experience we just talked about in the Engage step. Here are the highlights:

• First, the pastor stopped in. This is always a welcome interruption. He is a new pastor and he came in to introduce himself to me and to the young people and I thought he did a fine job of doing so. He was very cordial and outgoing and he engaged the young people in some brief conversation. I thought this showed great interest and support for these young people.
• I did a brief “book presentation ceremony” to present the young people with their textbooks, telling them that this is not just any textbook but is a means by which we encounter Jesus and so we do more than simply distribute them. I called them forward one at a time by name and presented their book to them saying, “May the Word of God be in your heart.” They behaved quite well for this and it went very quickly.
• We then immediately opened our books to chapter 1 and, using the ball toss, the young people took turns reading a few paragraphs at a time. I inserted some comments along the way. The article we read was about how our story of creation in Genesis teaches us that God is good, all of creation is good, and that we can trust in the God of our creation who continues to care for His creation. The article compares this to the Babylonian creation myth that teaches that creation came about as a result of a violent battle between angry gods who then enslaved human beings.
• We spent about 15 minutes focused on this chapter and the content. Normally, I would spend more time on the content, however, being the first night, I had spent a lot of time engaging them and I wanted to be sure to introduce them to the REFLECT step of our sessions, where they go to their “sacred space” for guided reflection.
• I emphasized to them that, out of the first 45 minutes or so of class, we had only read from the book for about a third of the time. I told them that we are not just going to come here and read from a book for 75 minutes but that we will continue to do a variety of things to keep them going.

Normally, I would want to have the young people DO something with the material that has been read…some type of informal assessment to see if they “get it.” Again, given the time constraints of the first session, I was unable to do this. However, I wasn’t too concerned because the concept – we can trust in God our Father – was very simple.

Next we moved in to the Reflect step. I’ll share about that tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have sent in comments about their first session. I invite more of you to do so. I/we love to compare notes and we learn from one another. In all honesty, I did 4 or 5 things on Monday night that I picked up from other catechists who shared their ideas here on my blog…THANKS!

Are you off to a good start this year as a catechist? Please share your comments with me and your fellow catechists about your first session (click on Comments below).

My first session last night went very well, thank God! Today I’ll share some observations about the Engage step, which, being the first class, took about 35 minutes:

• My aide had a family issue to tend to and was unable to be there last night so I was on my own to get things organized. Also, there is a class in my room that doesn’t let out until 15 mintues before I begin so I don’t have very much time to get the room in order.
• Thankfully, our supply bins are now being kept on our floor so we don’t have to lug them up 3 flights of stairs!
• 2 of my students are related to other catechists and both of those catechists came by as I was setting up to introduce me to them…that was very nice.
• I greeted each student at the door with a handshake which generally seemed to surprise and disarm them a bit. I immediately had them sit in assigned seats and gave them each an index card to jot down the names of 5 people they trust. They did not have a moment to breathe before I had them on task  and attentive.
• I was assigned 10 students, 6 boys and 4 girls. 3 were absent and one was added so I ended up with 8 students last night. I have to say that they were very pleasant and friendly and I think we hit it off nicely.
• I immediately began by introducing myself …about 20 seconds into that, one young man blurted out a question without raising his hand. I cut him off and said, “I’m sorry, but you don’t talk while I’m talking.”  He was a bit surprised at the quickness and firmness of my correction but he apologized and I continued on having asserted my authority very early on. That appearance of being strict was (hopefully) offset by my attempt to be very cordial in my tone as I continued my introduction.
• Next, I had them stand and I explained that we’ll always begin with prayer and that I will say “This is the day the Lord has made” and that they are to respond, “Let us rejoice and be glad!” I had this written on a cue card and we practiced it a couple of times. They did very well.
• I had them pass a candle (battery operated) around and offer either thanks for something they are happy about or a petition for someone who needs prayers. This year, I did not give the option of passing (last year when I did that, they ALL passed!). That went very nicely and they all offered thanks for something or someone and all were sincere (save for one who offered thanks for Jay Cutler, the new Bears quarterback, who had a miserable debut and was more worthy of a petition rather than a thanksgiving!)
• I had them next introduce themselves and share the name of one person from their list who they most trust. Most mentioned either a parent or a friend, many of someone in the class which was nice.
• Next, I mentioned that trust is not always easy and I introduced our song of the week, “From the Inside” by Linkin Park. They listened very attentively, looking at the lyrics that I had printed up for them.
• After the song, I did a ball toss to several of them, asking them their take on the song and why it can be hard to trust. They said that it can be hard to trust especially when someone is two-faced.
• I used that as my segue to move into the theme of the session which was that we can trust in the goodness of God the Father. That brings us to the next step of the session, the Explore step, where we make a connection between their lived experience (entering through their door) and the teaching of the Church (moving them toward “my” door). We’ll explore that step tomorrow.

The one thing that I really worked on this year and I’d have to say I feel very good about, was the fact that I kept them on-task from the get-go and itnroduced another task for them every few minutes. The clear message was that they were going to be asked (told) to do many things in this class and to ”get with the game plan!”

I have to admit that my inspiration for this came this past Saturday as I went for my run in the park. There was a grade school football game going on and there were also a few army recruiters present who apparently offered the older teens who were present the opportunity to experience a 15-minute boot camp. As I ran around the park, I listened and watched as football coaches and army recruiters barked instructions to young people that were followed to a T. I thought to myself, “Why shouldn’t I teach with the same authority?” My tone was certainly different (cordially pastoral) however, my mindset was that of the coach and drill sergeant. I had it in my head that I have no less reason to show authority as a catechist than the coaches or military men that I observed.

Tell us about your first session…how’s it going so far?