Planning for Week One

This coming Monday is week one of religious ed classes. Looking ahead, my overall goals are the following:

  1. to get there early to look over my classroom to see how I can set it up so that the arrangement will be conducive to faith sharing and good behavior
  2. to have name tents ready to place on their seats as they arrive (I will assign seating striving for boy-girl, boy-girl, as much as possible) so that I can begin using their names right away.
  3. to greet each of them as they enter the room
  4. to introduce my self and my aide
  5. to invite them to join in a brief opening prayer in which we prayerfully distribute their textbooks
  6. to do introductions in which we get to know one another better
  7. to do an ice-breaker activity based on the theme of trust
  8. to have the students work on chapter 1: We Trust in God’s Goodness (the young people will do paired interviews: half the class reads one article, the other half reads the other article and then then interview one another to summarize what was learned)
  9. to lead a guided reflection on Psalm 8 focusing on the goodness of God (this will be short and the focus will be on introducing them to reflective prayer and being silent for an extended period of time)
  10. to close with an exercise that encourages the young people to respect God’s creation and to share the earth’s resources

Of course, this is plan A! On the first night, lots of interruptions and distractions tend to take place, so I will need to be flexible!

About Joe Paprocki 2742 Articles
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.

2 Comments

  1. Hi Joe.

    I am a MHR catechist and I am so blessed to have found your blog via the Finding God website. This will be my first year at the 7th grade level and I am a bit nervous, excited and thankful to God that I am given another opportunity to share in our youth’s journey with God.

    I appreciate this blog because it helps me know that what I have planned is not to far off track from a veteran catechist like yourself. Thanks for the reminder about the distractions.

    Have a faith-filled year and God Bless!

  2. Janeen, thanks for your comments and I look forward to meeting you at MHR…we’ll probably bump into each other carrying our supply bins to our rooms each week!

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