Last night I attended my end-of-the-year meeting with Arlene, my DRE. She schedules grade level meetings to informally evaluate the year and to look at the schedule for next year. So I was with several of my fellow 8th grade catechists last night as we chatted about what worked and what we’d like to tweak for the coming year. It was a good opportunity to compare notes with colleagues and to hear how they dealt with similar experiences. Our conclusion was that we made some great strides this past year in implementing some innovative ideas, especially the confirmation intensives. We committed to doing those once again and decided to schedule a couple of opportunities for our groups to come together for some large-group presentations, particularly for the Church history PowerPoint and the viewing of the segment from the Jesus of Nazareth DVD. It was a productive meeting and I appreciate the attention and affirmation that Arlene gives to all of us catechists!
About Joe Paprocki
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Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.
Joe,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the meeting with your DRE. I have thought about doing this for years and have never followed through. Today I’ll send out the invitation to my catechists. Our program sounds smaller so we don’t have the advantage of much grade-level discussion but I think it will be valuable just the same. Thanks for the inspiration!
God bless,
Joe
Joe K., Glad to hear that you plan to meet with your catechists…I think you’ll enjoy it. You may want to look at the catechist self-evaluation tool I posted a few weeks ago…it could serve as a focus for your meetings.
https://catechistsjourney.loyolapress.com/2010/04/27/growing-as-a-catechist-self-evaluation-pdfs/