For last night’s class, I did my best to walk the young people through the Bible. Unfortunately, as happens, we had some interruptions (a fire drill and a time out to have the kids sign a banner for the Year of the Priest) so in the end I only had about 40 minutes to teach…I got as far as getting the Jewish people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea and ran out of time just as they were receiving the Ten Commandments! We’ll pick up there next time.
In the meantime, here are some pics to show you…I built a model of “God’s Library.” It’s a mock-up of what the Bible would look like if it were indeed a building…a library. (I use this metaphor in my book, The Bible Blueprint) It took me a few hours to put together at home using cardboard, tape, some images I printed off of my computer, and a label machine.
What a great idea !!!
Joe.
First, thanks so much for telling us how much time you spent putting this together! The next time my wife tells me that I spend too much time prepping for class, I’m going to show her this!
Second, I spent a lot of time prepping for my first class last weekend. Our first “class” was as a group so this past weekend was our first real time together. Hopefully I’ll get time later in the week to share my experience from my first class.
Greg
Thanks, Greg. One little asterisk to add to the time I spend on my classes. I like to remind people that my job allows me to do this…almost like I’m a full time professional catechist. While I think it’s important to spend quality time on lesson planning, I realize that many catechists cannot devote the amount of time that I am provided with. I don’t want to “scare off” any catechists who think that, because of their full time work and raising a family, they cannot devote the same amount of time to planning as I do and therefore do not feel adequate as a catechist. That’s why I share my ideas on this blog with others so that hopefully it will cut down on catechist’s planning time and help them to not have to reinvent the wheel with each lesson!
Hi Joe,
Thank you so much for the idea! I will try to make one with my children and I will let you know how mine went.
Carina
Great, Carina…I look forward to hearing from you!
Hi Joe,
I am a catecheist for 2nd and 5th grade and also in my second year of the Creeds bible study program at my parish. I love the library metaphore and think it can work for both of my classed and a great reference for me as well. For my 5th this past Sunday our task was to learn more about using the bible by placing cut outs of the names of the books in the correct order -I may do it again with the outline of the library, for yesterdays 2nd grade, we were challenged to be able to name the 4 Gospel writers in order! After class I began reading “The Bible Bluprint”-what a great book for a bibliophobic like me!
Thanks for all your “real time ” advise
Carol
Carol, you are most welcome! Thanks for the kind words and for the update on your teaching…sounds like you are very Bible-focused in your lessons. That’s great. Keep in touch.