Archive for the 'Learning Environment' Category
Last night was my first class of the R.E. year and I couldn’t be more delighted with how things turned out! Here are the highlights:
- I arrived to discover that there is no period 1 class (5:30 - 6:45 pm) taking place in my room which means that I can get there nice and early each week and set my room up without rushing!
- I have a very large room this year…no desks…just tables and chairs. This made it very easy for me to re-arrange the furniture, create a “horseshoe” with chairs, set up a little prayer center in the middle, and have all of my supplies in place with plenty of time to spare.
- I greeted each of the kids with a handshake as they entered and asked them their names. They were very polite and sociable.
- They had a palpable sense of curiousity about the setting - no desks, chairs in a semi-circle, Bible, candle, and holy water in their midst, lights slightly dimmed, quiet music playing in the background - that seemed to foster a sense of quiet (either that or they were afraid of me!)
- Our introductions went very nicely…in addition to introducing themselves and sharing a thought or two about their interests (sports, musical instruments, etc.), I had them share the name of the person they most trust in the world (the theme of the class was “We TRUST in the goodness of God). They did this without much hesitation, most naming one of their parents or one of their classmates (which was very nice), while one said “me” referring to himself.
- We had a nice opening prayer in which I read to them their “classroom covenant” (which states the rights and responsibilities of each young person participating in this class) and then had them come forward prayerfully to sign the covenant, bless themselves with holy water, and return to their seats. At that point I prayerfully presented their textbooks to them, calling them forward one at a time by name and saying “May you find God in all things” as I handed them their Finding God textbooks.
- Following the prayer, I invited them to leaf through their books just to get an idea of what lies ahead.
- I introduced the notion of trust and played to them a recording of a song by Linkin Park (”From the Inside”) that summarizes the difficulty that young people have when it comes to trusting, especially after being hurt. They were a bit blown away that their catechist knew who Linkin Park was and actually played one of their songs in class! I told them that they probably won’t hear that song in church on Sunday…they laughed!
- From there, I assigned them a couple of articles from chapter 1 that deal with the concept of faith (trust) in God. Half the group read one article (silently) while the other half read the other article. Then, I paired them up and had them interview one another about what they read.
- We gathered once again as a large group and summarized the key points in the articles, namely, that we are called to place our faith in God whose goodness can be trusted.
- I introduced them to the concept of “sacred space” - they each could find a place in the room to call their own - a space that they will use for prayer and reflective reading. Most chose to sit under one of the many tables! They really got a kick out of this.
- As they sat in their sacred space, I invited them to listen to the song On Eagle’s Wings which is, of course, a song about complete trust in the goodness of God (the antithesis to the Linkin Park song). I also gave them the lyrics to reflect on as they listened. I never expected anyone to sing along, yet a couple of the girls started to sing on the refrain (I heard one say out loud, “I love this song!”). During the next refrain, a number of the boys chimed in but in a sarcastic manner. I paused the song and said, “if you want to sing along, you’ll do so prayerfully. If you’re making fun of the song, don’t sing…just listen.” I resumed the song and the sarcastic singing was gone. Interestingly enough, however, those couple of girls kept right on signing and I can’t be sure but I believe a few other voices joined in!
- When the song was over, I invited them to sit quietly and ask God for the grace they need to trust him. They were nice and quiet for a couple of minutes.
- It was time to go so I invited them back into the semi-circle and had them collect the books and supplies. I told them that they had done very well for the first class and that I looked forward to working witht them this year.
- They left with a great deal of energy and, believe it or not, when they were down the hallway, I heard a few of them break into the refrain of “On Eagle’s Wings!” Not that this singing was even close to being reverent, but I had to laugh to myself that I “got in their heads” which is no easy task!
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being with me last night and for guiding and inspiring me and my students to encounter you!
I’m hearing that some parishes are experimenting with a catechetical model that employs a summer intensive religious education program for K-8 (usually 3 weeks) while throughout the year, offering periodic intergenerational events and a weekly children’s liturgy of the Word. Sounds to me like an interesting alternative. This is not to be confused with a Vacation Bible School. it is the formal religious education program taking place in a 3-week intensive model. Instead of having twenty- to twenty-five weekly sessions of 75- to 90-minutes throughout the year (@ 30 hours of formal class time), the summer intensive meets 4 or 5 days a week for 2 or 3 hours, covering about the same amount of class time…about 30 hours. I’d love to hear thoughts, especially from anyone doing this model. Have a great weekend!
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending an intergenerational catechetical event at St. Raphael parish in Naperville, Illinois. The DRE, Jane Ehrlich, does a fantastic job of catechizing the entire parish!
I was amazed at the amount of planning and coordination that must go into such an event for about 700 people! The evening began with dinner (pizza and salad) in the gym followed by an opening experience in the church. This experience served to gather folks, engage them, and set the tone for the evening. It segued nicely from a lighthearted look at the craziness of the secular Christmas season to the prayerfulness of Advent.
After that, there were 3 venues that each featured 20-minute experiences focusing on the Advent and Christmas season. Groups alternated between these 3 venues and then met again in the church for a closing experience.
In all, it was a wonderful experience and was masterfully planned and coordinated by Jane Ehrlich and her staff. What I like most about it is that Jane and her staff see these events as complementing the existing religious education program. They are periodic rallying points throughout the catechetical year to gather families together in community and involve parents in their children’s faith formation. They are like mini-revivals that energize the parish and the religious education program. They are not seen as a replacement for ongoing catechetical programming.
I think that is very wise. For one, much of what happens at events like these is not so much catechesis as it is evangelization or even pre-evangelization. By this, I mean, that the activities at these events are designed to be an entry-point into the life of the Church, helping everyone involved to feel more comfortable with a church-environment.
The General Directory for Catechesis reminds us that “catechesis is a moment within the whole process of evangelization and that there are “activities which prepare for catechesis.” (#63) This is what intergenerational events accomplish, preparing people for catechesis which is the formalizing of faith. Here’s more from the GDC:
Nevertheless in pastoral practice it is not always easy to define the boundaries of these activities. Frequently, many who present themselves for catechesis truly require genuine conversion. Because of this the Church usually desires that the first stage in the catechetical process be dedicated to ensuring conversion. (185) In the “missio ad gentes”, this task is normally accomplished during the ‘pre-catechumenate’. (186) In the context of “new evangelization” it is effected by means of a “kerygmatic catechesis”, sometimes called “pre-catechesis”, (187) because it is based on the precatechumenate and is proposed by the Gospel and directed towards a solid option of faith. Only by starting with conversion, and therefore by making allowance for the interior disposition of “whoever believes”, can catechesis, strictly speaking, fulfil its proper task of education in the faith. (188)
All of this to say that intergenerational events play a very important role in the evangelizing mission of the Church. In particular, they help to achieve the first-stated goal of the U.S. bishops’ evangelization document Go and Make Disciples:
To bring about in all Catholics such an enthusiasm for their faith that, in living their faith in Jesus, they freely share it with others
One caveat that I do have in this whole discussion is calling these intergenerational events “whole community catechesis.” As mentioned above, what is taking place is not so much catechesis as it is evangelization or pre-catechesis. Secondly, the atmosphere at these events is so heavily geared toward parents with young children that, even when parishes offer a track strictly for adults, those adults feel out of place. I thought last night’s experience was wonderful…if you have young children. As someone who has college-age children, I would personally not attend such events…I definitely felt out of place not having kids with me. However, I wish that such events were offered when my kids were young and in religious education!!!
Like many (most?) catechists, I share a learning space - a classroom - with a Catholic school teacher. I realize the tensions that can arise from one group using a room that “belongs” to another group. I was a Catholic school teacher for 9 years and recall my room being used by numerous groups for after-school activities, so I know this experience from both sides of the fence. I’d like to offer a few thoughts.
First, catechists and Catholic school teachers, along with all of their students, must realize that the room belongs to the parish, not to any one group, teacher, or catechist. We are all stewards of that room for various periods of time. This means that we are to care for and preserve that room while occupying it, so that it can be used by the entire community (present and future) in whatever way best serves the Gospel.
I know that during my years of teaching in a Catholic school, I took pride in “my” classroom, decorated it, and kept it neat. I also realized that from year to year, I could be (and was) moved from one room to another depending on scheduling. This reminded me that no one space “belonged” to me.
We catechists must realize, at the same time, that there is indeed personal property in these rooms. Catholic school teachers have materials and resources on their desks and on shelves that belong to them. Students have belongings tucked away in their desks. While we have every right to use the learning space, we need to pay particular attention to and respect the personal belongings in these spaces.
Given that reality, however, Catholic school teachers should give serious thought to what they do leave out. Space in many parishes is at a premium. Extra-curriculars, parish groups, adult faith formation, and religious education classes are all in need of gathering space at the parish and in many cases, classrooms are the only available spaces. Common sense dictates that personal belongings should be kept in secure spaces. Many high power executives leave their offices each day with absolutely NOTHING left on their desks for security reasons. (i remember once seeing Cardinal Bernardin’s desk after he had left for the day…nothing but mahogany and a desk blotter!) There is no reason that Catholic school teachers couldn’t also secure their possessions and papers in storage containers next to their desks at the end of the day to keep them from being moved or tampered with by various groups that will be using that space after school.
We all need to realize that the days of the “publics” being a minority in the Catholic environment are long gone. Statistics reveal that there are currently approximately 1.6 million students in Catholic elementary schools and approximately 3.4 million public school elementary students receiving religious education in Catholic parishes. In other words, there are twice as many public school students using Catholic properties for religious education than there are Catholic school students.
Granted, the Catholic school students and teachers spend their entire school day there 5 days a week while the public school students come in once a week. However, the public school students, as baptized members of the faith community, have equal stewardship of that space. What does or should that mean in practical terms? It means that there is no reason that catechists should not have designated storage space in their assigned rooms. Some parishes already do this, designating certain shelves or cabinets as RE storage space.
In many parishes, catechists are foreced to trapse up and down the corridors and stairs of school buildings each week carrying their “bins” of supplies and resources (often weighing well over 25 pounds if carrying textbooks) to and from their assigned rooms. At the end of their sessions, these bins are collected and stored by the DRE in the RE office. I see no reason why, as equal stewards of the learning space, catechists cannot store these bins in the classroom, clearly marked as property of the RE program.
As catechists, we need to be sure that desks, tables, and chairs are returned to their original positions and that chalkboards are wiped clean. By the same token, Catholic school teachers should wipe chalk boards (or at least sections of the boards) clean at the end of their day so that they can be used by catechists and others who use the room.
From my own personal experience this year, I’ve been guilty on several occasions of not getting the desk configuration right when I tried to put the room back together after my sessions. The school teacher was justifiably irritated by this and notified the DRE who then notified me. I left a note of apology along with my phone number and e-mail on the teacher’s desk so that she could notify me directly if there were problems instead of burdening the DRE. By the same token, however, I have not once in 3 months been able to use the chalkboards in the room because they are filled with information (and one of the boards is innaccessible because of a table full of supplies and resources in front of it). I think it would be proper for the chalkboards to be cleaned at the end of each school day so that catechists (I’m not the only catechist who needs to use that room) can have full access to the parish learning space.
The bottom line is that we all, catechists, Catholic school teachers, and students (RE and Catholic school), need to enter and leave our learning spaces with a proper sense of stewardship which teaches us that we own nothing but are given responsibility to care for the resources God gives us so that all people may benefit from them.
The Powerpoint presentation I did last night on Church history went very nicely. First, I would say that the kids were intrigued at the notion of a “high-tech” religion class. They got a very clear message that “something was up” for that night’s class. It’s always good to communicate the message, as they arrrive, that “there is most definitely a plan for this session and I need YOU to fit into that plan ASAP!”
Second, providing the young people with a note-taking sheet (fill-in the blanks) was absolutely crucial to keeping them active instead of passive. All they had to do was fill in some names and dates that I left blank on the sheet. Knowing that they had a task to perform while I was performing my task kept them on focus and well-behaved (for the most part…remember, kids are kids and I absolutely DO have to stop every once in a while to get their attention back). I found it interesting that, even though we do not grade in our program and there will not be a test (and I never told them that I would collect the note-taking sheet), they felt compelled to complete it properly, even asking at various points if I could clarify a certain item that they missed.
Third, the presentation was not a straight lecture. I did a lot of back-and-forth throughout, asking them questions and inviting them to guess what some of the slides are talking about. With this interaction, we were actually only able to get through three-fifths of the timeline. I could have done a bit more but they kept reminding me to save time for our guided meditation. (I’m not so naive as to believe that they are all begging to meditate. They like the idea of getting out of their desks, spreading out on the floor, turning the lights down, and having some quiet time. For some, I’m sure it’s just a chance to zone out. But I know that the Holy Spirit is reaching them in some way, shape, or form. The bottom line is, if 8th graders are insisting that we include time for prayer, I’ll take it!!!) Anyway, we will finish the timeline next week.
Finally, doing the Powerpoint created a bit of a stir that I’m sure the kids noticed. Our DRE stopped in to observe for a while and to add a few thoughts of her own. That made an impression on them. Then, one of my 8th grade catechist colleagues arranged to have the DRE watch his class for a while so that he could sit in for about 10 minutes to observe. Again, I can’t help but think that the young people take notice of adults showing such great interest in catechesis. I think that speaks volumes. They see that we are committed to finding the best ways to proclaim the Gospel and that we have enthusiasm for this ministry.
I’ve decided that the best way to make the Powerpoint available for download is to invite anyone who is interested to send me an e-mail requesting the file. I’ll also be happy to send you the note-taking sheet. Contact me at joe@catechistsjourney.com. Be aware of the fact that the Powerpoint file is large and may take some time to download depending on what type of service you have.
Again, I want to reiterate the fact that I’m not proposing that all catechists need to be creating Powerpoint presentations for their sessions. Few of us have time to do so and many of our parishes do not have the equipment. However, the technology is available and can be used effectively and I know that some catechists are very computer savvy and can utilize this approach very easily. The overall message is that we commit ourselves to sharpening our techniques, whatever our style may be, so that we can engage our young people in the most effective manner. We’re working with the best material available - the Gospel! - so we need to devote lots of attention to how we are transmitting the message!
Last night was a night of ups and downs. We began by reviewing how to pray the Rosary and then we moved into our reflective prayer and prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, connecting this to our last class when we learned about the Cross of Jesus. A couple of the young people were pretty hyper and couldn’t sit still. I even had to pause at one point to ask one of them to apologize to the group for interrupting the prayer with various noises and comments.
It was frustrating for a while but eventually toward the last third of the prayer, they had achieved a calm. This allowed me to use a few minutes after the Rosary to invite them to talk to Jesus in the silence of their own hearts which they did very nicely for about 5 mintues.
We then moved into a review of the material that we have covered over the past 6 weeks. This did not go as well as planned since they were not able to keep their focus. I think my mistake was not giving the review to them as a quiz first and then going over the answers.
Finally, in the midst of that review, one of the young people who had been acting up throughout the evening (and for several weeks) finally pushed me too far and I had to firmly confront his behavior and challenge him to act more maturely. I never enjoy doing this but at the same time, I reminded the entire group that it’s my job to make sure that they begin to grasp an adult faith and that I will never hesitate to challenge behavior that is not conducive to doing so.
I also realize that the well-behaved kids appreciate it when poor behavior is clamped down on. They are annoyed by the bad behavior and feel that their time is wasted if such behavior is allowed. We do the entire group a favor by keeping discipline. It’s just not our favorite thing to have to do, right?
All in all, last night was not one of my best experiences but I think the tone is set for next week and I feel compelled to step up my efforts to facilitate an engaging session!
Religious education classes at the parish where I serve as a catechist are 75 minutes. That’s not a bad amount of time although it really seems like 90 minutes would be more effective, especially to allow for more substantive prayer experiences. I think it would also be nice to have occasional “extended” sessions that last 2 to 3 hours, perhaps once a month or at least quarterly. Where is it written that classes must be the same length every week?
Anyway, I’m wondering how much time you feel is needed for an effective religious education session. Let’s hear from you.
Today’s Parish Minister Magazine has published an article of mine on their Website:
http://www.todaysparishminister.com/Bonus/15WaysMoreCatholic.php
The article is about Catholic identity and how any Catholic institution,
especially the parish, can make any gathering of Catholics “more Catholic.”
Enjoy!
