Tonight, we begin our unit on Church History. We kick off this unit by bringing all five eighth grade classes together for a PowerPoint presentation on Church history to give them a sweeping overview of major events in Church history over the past 2,000 years. Each of the five catechists “narrates” a period of Church history and the kids take notes on a fill-in-the-blank note-taking sheet we provide. It’s an engaging way to introduce a […]
Tonight, we will complete our unit on Jesus. I have completed the PowerPoint presentation that the young people began work on in class last week which covers the various aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry: the world of Jesus, the people of Jesus, the words and actions of Jesus, and the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. I’m happy to share the PDF of the presentation: Who is Jesus – complete presentation PDF As we view the PowerPoint, […]
So things went fairly well last night with my experiment in having the kids make PowerPoint slides to describe who Jesus is. I say fairly well because I was surprised at how poorly some of them are at keyboarding and that slowed the whole process down (they know how to use Powerpoint, but they type slowly!). They behaved well and seemed to like the idea of working on computers in religious education class, but they […]
Due to the overwhelming response for the free Catechist Training Webinars, our first 2 Webinars (August 19 and 26) are now closed and we have added the following dates! Thursday, August 20: Getting Started as a Catechist – Part One Thursday, August 27: Getting Started as a Catechist – Part Two 7:15 – 8:15 pm (CT) To register for these newly added sessions, click here. Here are a few pieces of information that should help respond to […]
Greetings, fellow catechists! I’ve enjoyed a couple of weeks of vacation (mainly stay-cation) and am well-rested and back at work! These last 2 weeks included some lovely day trips, time with some old friends, a big family reunion picnic, some home improvement projects, lots of exercise (running, walking, bike riding) and a long lazy day at the beach! God is good. While I was away, I was keeping tabs on the response to the announcement […]
Here’s an idea for engaging young people in grades 7 through 12 around the Church’s social teaching, helping them to recognize the root causes of poverty and injustice. It is the 2010 Catholic Campaign for Human Development Mulit-Media Arts Contest. Schools and parish religious education programs can participate in this as a tool to help young people engage in Catholic social action. The 2010 contest theme is “Empowering Neighborhoods, Uprooting Poverty.” The contest invites all […]
Last evening was the last teaching session for this year with my 8th graders. Next week, we gather for Mass, some presentations, and then pizza. I enjoyed last night and overall, I feel it went very nicely, a fitting ending to a good year with a good group of kids. Here are the highlights: I met the young people at the door as they arrived. I was holding a tray with their little vigil candles […]
This coming Monday evening is the last session that I will be teaching this current 8th grade class (the following week is a closing Mass and awards ceremony). As part of my plan for this Monday, I’ve put together my own “last lecture.” By now, I’m sure you’re familiar with the YouTube phenomenon, Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” that he gave to his class as the Carnegie Mellon University after he had been diagnosed with pancreatic […]
Last night, we introduced the 8th graders to the topic of Church history, by way of a Powerpoint presentation. All 5 classes came together once again and all 5 catechists divided up the presentation, each of us taking a time period and highlighting some of the major events that took place during that time. Throughout the presentation, the young people were filling in a worksheet with key names and dates. For me, the highlight of […]
At this past week’s session, I focused on the question of “Who Is Jesus?” – a theme we will carry throughout the unit we are on. I played a recording of the song “Superstar” from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in which the very confused Judas asks the question: “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who are you what have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ, Superstar, do you think you’re what they say you are?” I talked about how […]
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