Stories from the Field Archives - Page 49 of 61

A Little Rusty

Last evening’s class went very nicely, however, I really felt like I needed to ovecome some “rust” after a few weeks of not teaching (because of interruptions in the schedule). For one, I forgot to include our little ritual gesture of marking our foreheads, lips, and hearts with the sign of the Cross at the start of class! Didn’t think about it till I got home and was reviewing in my mind how the class […]

Ten Commandments

Joe Paprocki

It feels as though I have not taught my 4th graders for a few weeks now, because of guest speakers and Presidents’ Days, etc. Tonight, that all changes as I get back to the basics with my li’l ones and focus on the Ten Commandments one last time! As you may recall, back in January, we made a DVD of the kids doing mini-presentations on the Ten Commandments. For tonight’s class, I put together the […]

4th Graders on the Red Carpet

Joe Paprocki

Last night was the successful premiere of the Ten Commandments DVD that my 4th graders filmed over the past few weeks! It opened to an audience of about 8-9 parents who visited my classroom as part of the Open House. The parents enjoyed watching their little stars on the big screen and the kids were tickled to see themselves. All in all, it was very successful. I made a copy of the DVD for each […]

Scripts for Ten Commandments Video Presentations

Joe Paprocki

As I mentioned yesterday, I plan to videotape my students doing brief presentations/demonstrations on the Ten Commandments and then showing the video to the parents who attend the Open House later this month. Here are the scripts that I’ve prepared: Ten Commandments Video Scripts These scripts are adaptations of the Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills that I did with my Confirmation class last year. Some of the adaptations were to make the activities more appropriate for 4th […]

Lights! Camera! Action!

Joe Paprocki

I’ve decided that I’m going to produce a video starring my fourth-grade class. Later this month, we have an open house for parents to attend part of their children’s class. I thought it would be a nice idea to film the students over the next couple of weeks as they do mini-demonstrations on the Ten Commandments and then show the video to the parents who attend the open house. Last year, I put together Two-Minute Drills for […]

“Please, Mr. Paprocki! Pleeeaase!!!”

Joe Paprocki

I had planned to be a “Grinch” last evening and skip taking my class to the Christmas pageant that the first-graders were putting on. I figured that my kids wouldn’t know about the pageant since I hadn’t said anything about it and I would have one more full session before Christmas break to complete the seven Sacraments. I forgot that many of my students have younger siblings! The first girl that came in asked, “Are we […]

The Healing Effect of Oil

Joe Paprocki

Here’s a little tweak on the part of my lesson scheduled for tonight that focuses on the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick and the healing effect of oil. I planned to show the healing effect that baby oil can have on a dried leaf. On my way to the train last week, I picked up a few dead leaves to bring home and allowed them to dry out for a day. Of course they […]

Sacraments of Healing and Sacraments of Service

Joe Paprocki

This coming Monday, December 20, 2010, is our last class before the Christmas break. I’m going to use this session to teach the four remaining sacraments: the Sacraments of Healing (Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick) and the Sacraments of Service (Matrimony and Holy Orders). I plan to do 4 simple “demonstrations” to introduce each of the 4 sacraments before we read the text and discuss them. Here’s my plan in detail: Sacraments of Healing and Sacraments of […]

A Mixed Bag

Joe Paprocki

Last evening’s session went well for the most part but was a mixed bag. Here’s what I’m talking about: Because of frigid wind chills, I expected low attendance. Instead, I had perfect attendance! While it’s great that they all showed up, I was thrown off…but that’s my own fault for having low expectations. Whenever I have low expectations, the adrenalin isn’t flowin’ so I felt like I was just not hitting the nail on the […]

Keeping it Simple

Joe Paprocki

I plan on keeping things very simple for today’s class for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, we are experiencing brutally cold weather with wind chills of -20 so I have a feeling I’ll be missing a few students tonight. Secondly, we need time to process last weeks’ learning stations on the Sacraments of Initiation, so I intend to just gather with them on the floor and talk through each of the sacraments, asking […]