Teaching Skills Archives - Page 26 of 39

Reading from the Textbook: Breaking Up the Routine, Part One

Most of us catechists are appreciative to have excellent catechetical textbooks from which we can draw forth the content of our rich Catholic heritage. That’s a fancy way of saying that in our lessons, we plan to have students read from the textbook. The problem is, that can become very routine and boring. Fear not! There are ways we can break up the routine while still reading from the textbook. I covered some of these ideas in […]

The Digital Technology Divide: What Does it Mean for Catechists?

Joe Paprocki

There’s been an article buzzing around on Facebook that deals with the “digital technology divide” in education. The article presents the fact that, since this generation (digital “natives”) is the first to grow up completely surrounded by digital technology, they think and process information differently than us digital “immigrants” do. In particular, the article states that “Educators must relinquish the idea of being all-knowing and replace that concept with an attitude of being a facilitator, knowing that […]

Inviting Students to Evaluate

Joe Paprocki

One of the things I plan on doing this Monday evening is having the kids complete an evaluation of their experience with me this past year. I often did this when I was a high school religion teacher and I found the feedback very helpful. I’ll have to formulate some kind of an evaluation form for them to use…that is, unless someone out there already has one!!! If so, I’d love to see it if […]

A Case of the Sixth Commandment Giggles

Joe Paprocki

On Monday evening, I had a cozy little group of 7 students, since 3 were rehearsing for the Living Stations. I used this opportunity to continue our exploration of the Ten Commandments, looking at real-life examples of how to live out the spirit of each of the Commandments. It turned out to be a very nice evening except for one thing: the boys (3 of 4) developed a severe case of the Sixth Commandment giggles. […]

Before and After

Joe Paprocki

We had a very nice class last night with 8 of 10 students present for their first class session after Confirmation (and the DRE received calls explaining the 2 absences). The kids had a very pleasant attitude about Confirmation…they seemed genuinely proud and there was no resentment about being back in class – the message had been conveyed that Confirmation is not the end! The post-confirmation guided reflection went very nicely! Several of the other […]

Not Bad!

Joe Paprocki

Our experience of playing a Jeopardy-like review was not bad at all last night. Of course, games can rile kids up so we were walking a fine line between having fun and laying down the law last night. However, overall, I’d have to say that fifty 8th graders in one room behaved pretty well! The nice thing was that they did a pretty good job of answering the questions. All of us were pleased that […]

Kids’ Silly Behavior Plays Right Into My Hands

Joe Paprocki

Every once in a while, it pays to be patient with kids’ silly behavior because it can play right into your hands. Last night was one of those occasions. As I was teaching about the anointing with chrism at Confirmation, I focused for a while on the fact that the chrism has a fragrance (sometimes referred to as “perfume for the soul”) which symbolizes how the Holy Spirit helps us to give off the “aroma […]

Poverty Quiz Struck a Nerve

Joe Paprocki

At the end of Monday evening’s session, I asked each of the kids to share one thing they learned that evening: spiritual and corporal works of mercy, social justice, service, and living the Beatitudes. I was struck by how many of the young people referred to the poverty quiz that they took in the social justice session with Chris. Many of them pulled the quiz out and quoted a fact or figure about poverty in […]

On the Other Hand…

Joe Paprocki

Yesterday, I provided a rather glowing summary of Monday evening’s Confirmation Intensive. Indeed, the evening overall went very well and was a positive experience. On the other hand, there are always a few moments that provide sobering reminders of the troubles that some of these kids have. The Confirmation Intensives allows me the opportunity to catch a glimpse, so to speak, of each of the five 8th grade classes. For the most part, each of […]

Positive Doodling

Joe Paprocki

On Monday evening, we presented a segment of the video Jesus of Nazareth, focusing on the death and Resurrection of Jesus (about a 40-minute segment leading up to the end of the film). As part of the viewing exercise, the young people have a viewing guide that they fill in as they watch (we pause the video at each scene that has a question connected with it). At the end of the evening, one of […]