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 […]
At the recent plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the use of new technologies of the digital age to spread the word of God. With that in mind, for the first time in my life as a catechist, this evening I will be having my students create Powerpoint presentations rather than posters! For the last few years, during the Jesus unit, I have had my classes work at […]
Last evening’s session went OK, however, as I look back over my attempt to walk the young people through the Bible in preparation for the unit on Jesus, I’m having second thoughts about my approach. Frankly, I think it was a bit beyond them to explore so many Scripture passages (as outlined in my handout) in one swoop. As brief as most of those passages are and as easy as I thought it would be […]
I had a very enjoyable session last night! Here are the highlights: We began in church with an opening prayer service with the pastor. I met my group out in the parking lot and they were jovial and polite. I had a full class with the 2 absentees from last week being present. The kids were very well behaved in church…I was quite pleased to see that. My aide Lucy was there as well and […]
Here’s my plan for tonight, the 2nd session of the year. I was away for a few days, so I didn’t get to plan for this session as early as I usually hope to. But don’t we all face this from time to time? Anyway, here’s the plan: The theme (BIG idea) is “God Reveals Himself to us through his Son, Jesus Christ.” I will emphasize the notion that Jesus reveals to us who God […]
Welcome to Week 4 of our Online Catechist’s Retreat (The Spirituality of the Catechist) as we take a look at the third characteristic of our spirituality: An Openness to the World. Thanks so much for insights posted last week on the theme of our openness to the Church! It is so enjoyable and enriching to read your thoughts and to converse with you. If you’re just joining us, you can go back and “catch up” and then come […]
Last night, we spent the evening getting to know Jesus better. Here are some highlights. First we had a fire drill..all went well. I began by playing our “song of the week” – Shania Twain’s “Wanna Get to Know You.” (see yesterday’s post for some of the lyrics) I talked about how 2 people in love want to get to know one another and explained that this is our theme for the evening: we want […]
I mentioned yesterday that I was preparing 5 learning stations on Jesus to use this coming Monday. The 5 learning stations are the following: The world of Jesus The people of Jesus The words of Jesus The miracles of Jesus The death and resurrection of Jesus I’ve drawn these 5 categories from the book Jesus: A Gospel Portrait by Fr. Donald Senior (Paulist Press, 1992). They are available in PDF format. Click on each 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 […]
I have a Powerpoint meditation on Images of Jesus that I put together a few years back and plan to use this upcoming week with my class. The presentation contains 82 images of Jesus that I’ve found from various sources. In all, the presentation is set to run about eight minutes long and I have it timed to two songs that I play on CD: “Jesus, the Lord” (St. Louis Jesuit) and “Hold on to […]
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