November is, of course, the month of all souls

To mark this special month, as part of our opening prayer last night, instead of having the kids offer prayers of thanksgiving or petitions for needs, I asked them each to share the name(s) of loved ones who have passed away so that we could remember them in a special way this month.

We passed the candle and each of the kids mentioned someone dear to them. I begn by remembering my Dad who passed away 12 years ago next month. One of the kids remembered a soldier – a native of Evergreen Park - who recently gave his life in service of his country. Most remembered grandparents. One girl remembered a cousin who just died within the previous week. Lucy, my aide, mentioned both of her parents. It was a very solemn moment and a moment for each of them to recognize that we are all touched by the pain of death.

I also taught them the prayer that Catholics pray for those who have died: “Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.” We repeated that 3 times.

After the prayer, I briefly explained our understanding of the Communion of Saints and how these loved ones are still with us, separated by a “veil” between this life and the next and that we can still communicate with them, praying with them and for them. I mentioned how I occasionally have conversations with my Dad and Lucy added that she converses with both of her parents. I emphasized that for Catholics, this is quite normal and is not strange because we know that even death cannot truly separate us from our loved ones.

It made for a very prayerful beginning for class and helped to sensitize me and I’m sure each of the young people to the depth of feeling that each of us is capable of.

This was a big risk for me and I have to admit that I have a very hard time of letting go of things like this because I know how it should be done. However, I thought I’d give it a whirl and it turned out OK.

Good thing is, I have a small group and they like doing the guided reflections and they have been behaving very well during these experiences. So what I did was, I chose a student who is a good reader and I asked her before class if she would be willing to read the script that I had ready. I showed her the technique of counting slowly to 2 in her head after every sentence (to slow the pace down) and counting slowly to 5 in her head after every time the script said “pause” to allow for reflection.

I still did my part of getting everyone into their “sacred space” and quieting them down before turning it over to my volunteer. My aide and I were able to “patrol” the room as the reflection went on (I also had quiet music in the background and the lights dimmed).

In all, my volunteer did pretty well. She was a bit nervous and so her pace was a bit too quick but not terribly so. I slowed her down once but I basically let go and allowed her to do it on her own.

The script she used was from a book called Guided Reflections for Children – Volume 1: Praying with Scripture.  I would say that her reading part took about 8-10 minutes, including all of the built-in pauses. The rest of the group was as quiet as usual and perhaps more so since it was one of their peers leading them and since 2 adults were patrolling the room!

Afterwards, I thanked the volunteer and asked if anyone else would like to do this in the future and one young lady raised her hand, so I’m going to give it another try.

Has anyone else tried something like this?

I’m going to prod one of the young men to volunteer as well. I’ve been noticing how the guys often sit back and let the young ladies take the lead when it comes to speaking and leadership roles in RE. Years ago, young girls felt pressure to not assert themselves in learning situations…even feeling the need to “act dumb” in certain situations when they were around guys. Thankfully, that has changed. Unfortunately, now sometimes, it is the guys who feel they need to “act dumb” when around the girls (no big surprise when you see how men, especially fathers, are portrayed on TV and in the movies these days).

Anyone else noticing this?

Of the 3 groups, one did exceptionally well, due in no small part to the fact that one of the young ladies volunteered to type for her group mates and she was a whiz at keyboarding! Here is the work of that one successful group so you can see what they came up with (this is untouched by me so it still includes mispellings, etc.).

Group 3 Slides: The Words and Actions of Jesus

This is closest to what I envisioned however, even for this group, there was no time for them to add any clip art. The other 2 groups didn’t come close to completing their slides. I’m not upset about that because they did complete a hard copy first before they began typing, so I know that they did interact with the content of the session which is the most important thing.

I am finishing the Powerpoint and will use it next week to have them present about Jesus to the group, each one commenting on (or at least reading aloud)  the slides he or she was responsible for. I will have a Who Is Jesus? booklet put together for next week for everyone to take notes in throughout the presentation so that when they go home, they can show their parents how much they learned about Jesus. I’ll make that booklet available to you when I have it ready!

With that in mind, for the first time in my life as a catechist, this evening I will be having my students create Powerpoint presentations rather than posters!

For the last few years, during the Jesus unit, I have had my classes work at Jesus Learning Stations, fromwhich they prepared posters to teach about Jesus to the rest of the class. This year, I’ve decided to do something very different.

It turns out that I have access to 3 laptop computers: my own, a work laptop, and my daughter’s laptop. With 10 students, I can easily form groups of 3 or 4 and have each group work with a laptop to create Powerpoint presentations that teach about Jesus. I will have 3 groups (I rearranged the material from the previous 5 learning stations into 3 groups):

• The World of Jesus and the People of Jesus
• The Words and Actions of Jesus
• The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

As you’ll see from clicking on each of the above, I am providing a resource packet to each group with all of the information they need to create their presentation on their assigned topic. I will be telling them to imagine that they are going to be explaining who Jesus is to someone who’s never heard of him before.

Before they do any work on the computers, however, they will have to show me a hard copy of their plan. I have created the “templates” for each of their PowerPoints and will provide hard copies of the slides they need to complete…each slide includes a header that asks a question they need to answer using the information from their resource packets. Each group will divvy up the slides they are to complete and then will get to work. Here are the slides:

• The World of Jesus and the People of Jesus SLIDES
• The Words of Jesus and Actions of Jesus SLIDES
• The Death and Resurrection of Jesus SLIDES

This week, they are to complete their slides which I will take home and combine into one presentation. Next week, we will show the PowerPoint presentation and each of them will “narrate” their slide.

The one “fly in the ointment” is that the clip art gallery on each computer does not have much in the way of Christian clip art so I’m going to need to spend some time this afternoon downloading some clip art that will be readily available to them (the classroom does not have wi-fi access) so that they can “dress up” their slides.

I’m excited and nervous about this new venture. I’m so accustomed to working with paper, scissors, and glue, but I’ve been curious about how to use technology in the classroom so I think this is a perfect opportunity. Pray that we meet with success.

Any pointers and suggestions are most welcome!

At the end of the evening, one of my students apologized that her handout had lots of doodling on it. I told her that doodling was acceptable. I was pleased to later discover the positive doodlings that she doodled!

Click here:  Positive Doodling

P.S. Here’s the answer key for the viewing guide

This doesn’t happen often for me. For one, the kids usually don’t arrive early or stay after class. Second, I don’t usually seek out conversations…it’s just not my style. Third, I’m very careful about not presenting myself as their “buddy” – I’m not seeking their friendship, just their apprenticeship.

So, needless to say, I was surprised when one of my students arrived early last night as we (all 5 catechists met together last night in one room to show a segment of Jesus of Nazareth) were getting things set up. I was dutifully connecting my laptop to the LCD projector when I heard a “Hi, Mr. Paprocki!” It turns out this this young person has decided to serve as a catechist’s aide for the first session of RE that takes place before our session. Needless to say, she was already in the building and came over to the room in which we were gathering.

She has chosen to serve as an aide for her Confirmation service and she is working with the kids who have special needs. As I continued to attach my wires, she pulled up a chair and I asked her to tell me about her experience. She was just so thrilled to tell me all about the kids she was working with and what she’s learning from them! Her catechist even invited her to come in with some ideas to reach the kids so I helped her brainstorm some ideas for presenting the Our Father to them next week.

She also was telling me about the things she likes about our class that she wants to do with “her kids” such as passing the candle around to invite students to pray a petition.

We continued with a pleasant, relaxed conversation as I continued to set up my AV equipment and, what I enjoyed most about it, was the way she kept talking about her kids that she was now serving. Might she be a budding catechist?!

I have to admit to being very guarded in such situations, especially when the student is a young lady. We all need to be fully aware of our role in providing a safe environment for kids, mindful of engaging them in such a manner that clearly communicates boundaries.

What a privilege to be able to interact with our young people in this manner! It’s humbling (and refreshing!) to know that some of them find us worthy of speaking to!

• Exodus 20:10 – “No work may be done then either by you….or by the alien who lives with you.” Had to pause and explain that this was not referring to creatures from other planets living with the Jewish people.
• Exodus 20:17 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…nor his ox or ass.” D’oh…I forgot that was in there!
• Numbers 10:33-34 (the departure from Sinai and the desert wandering) – Had to try to explain why it took forty years to navigate the distance that is the equivalent of traveling from Chicago to Detroit.
• 2Kings 17:1-6 – fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria – this word appears 6 times in 6 verses and each time, the dear girl reading it could not stop giggling over it.
• 1Samuel 8:2 – the name Beer-sheba was good for a few giggles.
• 2Samuel 7:8-16 – “and if he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men...”  I’m sorry this is getting so bawdy but adolescent minds do not miss these things.

We catechists sometimes need to laugh to keep from crying!

• Before class began, I had set up on my prayer center, a circle of battery operated tea light candles (I purchased at CVS…very cheap).
• I had the young people put their textbooks on the floor underneath their chairs and told them that it was time to move into another segment of the class that they are going to really like.
• I introduced the concept of sacred space telling them that, as much as possible, we will spend about 15 minutes of each class in quiet prayerful time. I explained that, one by one, I will call them forward to pick up their candle, turn it on, and proceed to a location anywhere in the room (under a table, on top of a table, behind a desk, in a chair, on the floor, etc.) that they will then claim as their own personal sacred space.
• One by one, they came forward to do just that as I made sure that each location chosen was about 10-15 feet away from the nearest classmate.
• Once they were all in position, I turned the lights out and put on some quiet instrumental background music.
• I invited them to get comfortable, to put their candle down and just stare at it, and led them in some breathing exercises for about a minute and a half.
• Surprisingly they were very quiet and cooperative – usually I get a few wise guys who make wheezing sounds when I invite them to breathe deeply!
• I then led them on a guided reflection, inviting them to imagine that they were aboard the Space Shuttle, orbiting the earth. I invited them to imagine looking down at the earth below and taking in all of the beauty of God’s creation and to look at the moon and stars, thinkin about how good God’s creation is. I did this for about 2-3 minutes.
• I spoke about how we can trust God because of the goodness of his creation that he shares with us. I invited them to talk to God, thanking him for creation. I then invited them to thank God for this quiet time, for the beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying, for the peaceful sounds of the night outside our room, and so on. I did this for 2-3 minutes.
• I then allowed them to just rest in the quiet presence of God for a couple of minutes – complete silence. I finished by telling them that they most likely feel very peaceful right now and to remember that the next time they are in Church and extend a Sign of Peace to someone, that they are wishing that this person will experience the same peace you are feeling right now.
• I slowly called them back to the room, turned a few lights on slowly, and made sure we had not lost any of them to sleep! I’m happy to report that they all stayed awake! They then returned to their seats, placing their candles back on the prayer table.
• When we gathered back, I asked if this was the quietest moment of their day and all but one raised their hand. I said that this is how we are going to pray each week whenever possible – that this is a little different from how they may have prayed before but that it is a grownup way to pray. I asked if they liked it and they responded positively (no gushing or anything, just a few nods, a few “yeahs” and a couple of “uh-huhs”)

All told, we took between 15-20 minutes total for the Reflect step. I never once used the word meditation…kids can often act goofy when they hear that word. I’ll tell them in a few weeks that this is what they’re doing.

Only once during the guided reflection did I need to stop and correct some behavior. One of the boys was trying to hold back laughter and finally let loose with some giggles and guffaws. Over what, I have no idea. I just stopped and said to the whole group, “you need to resist the urge to laugh and giggle when we do this because that’s what children do and you’re not little children anymore. You need to act like young adults.” That seemed to work.

When we were all done, I complimented them on their behavior, telling them that they acted very maturely. We were now ready to move into the final step of the class, the RESPOND step, where I send them out through “my door” (remember, St. Ignatius’ advice? “Enter through THEIR door but be sure to leave through YOUR door!”) I’ll describe that experience tomorrow.

Here are some samples:

If you could build a private bridge or tunnel that would take you directly from your home to any place at all, what would it connect to?

*   *   *

If you could transport yourself back in time and experience first-hand any story in the Bible, which one would it be?

*   *   *

If you asked five people who know you to write down the one word that they think best describes you, what do you think would be the most common answer? (consider the answer carefully from their viewpoint, not yours)

*   *   *

If you could literally jump into the pages of any book you’ve ever read and experience the action along with the characters, which book would you choose?

*   *   *

If you were in charge of planning for and building a brand-new museum, what specific theme would be the focus of the museum and where do you think would be the best place to build it?

These questions could be especially helpful at the start of the year as you attempt to break the ice and get to know your students and help them to get to know one another if they don’t already.

Check it out: The Meal Box