So, as it turns out, my first session of religious education for this evening was canceled due to the excessive heat here in Chicago! It is in the mid to upper 90s during this 2nd week of September! Well, that’ll give me more time to polish my own lesson which will now take place next Tuesday! In the meantime, I’ve put the finishing touches on a resource I think you’ll find helpful. It is a Session […]
Tonight’s the night! I begin teaching 6th graders (Old Testament)! I’ve put together a little video that shows you some of my catechist preparations not only for tonight but for the year…I hope you find it helpful. In the video, I mention or show a number of resources. Here are links to all of them: My Session Outline – Session One 9/10/12 My Schedule for the Year PROCLAIMING THE WORD Bookmark in Word Prayer Intentions […]
Here’s a chance to see some of the creativity of young people as they put together videos to visualize the meaning of finding God in their everyday lives. Congratulations to the winners! The videos entered in this contest showed creativity as students and teachers worked together to visualize the meaning of finding God in their daily lives. The Winners of the 2012 Finding God Video Contest are the following: First Place Finding God at St. […]
In this segment of Catechists in Action, 7th grade catechist Len Astrowski shares some details about how he prepares for his lessons. Watch for the following: Len explains that he has all of his lessons on computer and makes adjustments each year as needed Len shows the outline that he develops for class each week and emphasizes that it is not “cast in stone.” Len shows how he follows the 4 steps of the catechetical process […]
Where do you find God? Loyola Press is asking students, teachers, and catechists to showcase the inspiring and sometimes-surprising ways they experience God’s presence in their everyday lives through the Finding God Video Contest, an original multimedia project. Schools and parishes who submit videos are eligible to win the following prizes: First prize: School- or parish-wide adoption of the new edition of Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts(grades 1–6) Second prize:$1,000 Loyola Press product […]
Monday evening was my last class of the year with my 4th graders. I’m gonna miss these little guys…they were a very sweet class and we had a good experience together. We began with a closing Mass in church and, for the second year in a row, the organist chose to sing “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad” as the responsorial and for the 2nd year in […]
As I mentioned in my last post, I taught my first 4th grade RE class on Monday and really loved it. Here are some more details about the ups and downs of that first class: I arrived 45 mins early only to find out that the doors don’t open until 30 mins before class begins. I’m such a dork! 🙂 For the early session, the kids kind of straggle in over a 10 min. period […]
I enjoyed our catechist meeting last night, especially getting the chance to meet my aide and my fellow 4th-grade catechists. It was also nice to see the 8th grade catechists with whom I teamed these past several years. They needled me about leaving their team and we had a good laugh about it. My aide is a mom who has served in the program for a few years and I believe one of her children […]
One of my favorite cartoons shows a professorial-looking catechist or Sunday school teacher in a classroom full of pre-school children and saying to them, “I’m new to teaching your age group. How much do you know about systematic theology?” The truth is, if we’re not familiar with the developmental characteristics (emotional, psychological, spiritual, physical, mental) of the age group we teach, we can find ourselves facing some real challenges. Here are links to some very […]
In tonight’s Webinar presentation, I offered tips for leading guided reflections. I promised to post a sample on my blog for your convenience. This is taken from the Finding God program which includes scripts for guided reflections in each unit. Another good resource for guided reflections is Guided Reflections for Children, Volumes 1 and 2 (Loyola Press). Called to Holiness – (Time: approximately 10 minutes) We all have imagination. Imagination allows us to go places […]
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