Welcome to a New Catechetical Year!

Starting a New Faith Formation Year

Calling Children by Name
Kathleen Butler believes that having a conversation about names on the first day lays a lot of good groundwork.

Shining the Spotlight on Those We Teach
Joe Paprocki shares that our goal as catechists is to turn the learning space’s spotlight on the students, not ourselves.
 

How to Prepare for Class
Denise Gorss suggests five ideas for making sure class goes smoothly.
 

Three Ways to Turn Your Faith Formation Class into a Mini-Retreat
Darcy Osby wants to give children space for quiet and stillness.
 

Catechetical Sunday
The theme for Catechetical Sunday 2018 is “Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ.” Find articles and prayers to help you embrace the way of discipleship.


EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY JARED DEES - READ THIS!

It wasn't until I personally encountered Christ that I became motivated to pursue an education in religion.
I wanted to learn everything I could about the Catholic faith! My mindset had shifted. I wanted to learn because I loved God, not because I had something to gain from it. 
In a similar way, we are called as catechists and religion teachers to help our students encounter Christ. Out of that constant encounter with Christ, the things they learn will become so much more meaningful. They will become so much more personal. 

At the end of Monday's email, I asked you to email me your goals for the year. 
I LOVED reading your responses. 
Here are a few that stuck out to me: 

• "That students really fall in love with Jesus, his example, his message!  That religion class is meaningful for their lives...not just another course."
• "I want my kids to have an encounter, with Jesus, that will remain with them the rest of their lives!"
• "Besides of course meeting Jesus. But to fall in love with attending Mass."
• "I want them to learn what they will truly be blessed with when they receive their First Communion."
• "My goal this year is to reach both students AND parents of my 5th graders. It’s a difficult time to be a Catholic right now. I’m hoping to help my students and parents focus on the love of Jesus and not the sins of our Church."

There were so many good goals in my email inbox!  
If you haven't articulated your goals for the year yet, I please do so now. Send me a reply to this email committing yourself to a goal for the year. 

From Education to Encounter 
So, if a relationship with Christ really is our goal, why do we spend so much time as religious educators doing things that do not lead our students into that experience? 
Why do we perpetuate so many of the teaching practices that just don't make an impact? 
I want to break down just a few of the most common practices teachers are using in class and see how we can transform those strategies into opportunities for an encounter with Christ. 

Educational Strategy 1: Lecture 
Please, please, please limit your lecture time. 
Stick to just three main ideas and keep in mind that your students have very short attention spans. 
Lectures aren't all bad. They are efficient ways to get information across to people quickly. 
But time is limited. Students learn best when the are actively engaged, not just passively listening. 
That being said, I can think of a lot of my teachers and professors over the years who gave amazing lectures. I felt like I could listen to them all day. 
Here's what they did extremely well:  
The best lecturers tell stories. 
It is definitely something I missed in my first few years. 
I created long outlines of information I just had to get across to the kids in the limited time we had. I lectured and lectured and lectured and . . . the kids were bored out of their minds! 
Could I blame them?
I wasn't giving them something meaningful to connect to the ideas. 
The anecdotes I told about my life, however, they never forgot! I heard comments during recess and in between classes about stories I told in class. 
The kids liked to connect with me on a personal level. 

Encounter Opportunity #1: Teach with Testimony
So, how can we turn lectures into opportunities for encounters with Christ. 
Teach with testimony. 
Share how the ideas that you are teaching directly affect your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 
Christ told the Apostles to "be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).
That is what we must do as well. We must bear witness to our relationship with Christ and how we live differently because of the relationship. 

Educational Strategy 2: Worksheets 
I really love worksheets, more accurately, I love graphic organizers. They are great ways to help students make connections between ideas. 
I do not love busy work. Do a Google search and you will find a lot of word searches, maze worksheets, and coloring sheets that do not help students learn. 
Sure, a maze or a coloring sheet with keep a kid quiet, but will they grow any closer to Christ? 
Will they learn anything from the experience? 

Encounter Opportunity #2: Handouts for the Head and Heart

When looking for or creating worksheets for your students, make sure that the questions include a mix of the mind and the heart activities. 
Some questions help students summarize and make connections. Their answers are objectively correct or incorrect. 
Other questions can be more personalized. For religious educators like us, this is important. We want our students to make personal connections to what they are learning about so that they have a personal connection to who they are learning about (Jesus Christ). 
If the worksheet you find is missing meditation questions, then make up a few of your own. Help your students recognize how what they are learning is relevant to their lives and relationship with God. 

Educational Strategy 3: Tests 

When I taught religion in Catholic schools, I was always adamant with the students and parents about the academic rigor that was expected in every subject in the school, including religion class. 
I didn't grade my religion tests any differently, for example, from my social students tests. 
A lot of parents just couldn't understand how their child could get anything lower than an "A" in theology. 
I still feel this way . . . but I may have gone too far. 
I was so focused on the academic expectations I had for those kids that our in-class prayerful experiences were barely squeezed in to what little time we had. 
Prayer was mostly an obligation in the early days and not a vital part of the learning experience. 
Every lesson I planned was determined to get the students to learn and do well on the tests and other assessments I had them do. 
Of course we prayed and I introduced them to the richness of our Catholic devotional life, but I could have done a better job integrating the learning experiences with the prayer experiences. 

Encounter Opportunity #3: Action after Assessment

At the end of a series of lessons or unit on a certain topic, it is customary to give a test to see how much information the kids learned and retained. 
This really is a great way to assess what students have learned? 
But what about the heart? 
Why not ask the students to show how they and others are living what they are learning? 
At the end of a unit on the Eucharist, why not schedule a special Mass to celebrate together? 
At the end of a unit on one of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, why not schedule a field trip to the homeless shelter? 
These do not have to be graded assignments. Your students don't have to prove anything to you. 
The opportunity, however, is to help them live out what they learned. 
Help them see how they can take action to apply the lessons in class to their lives outside of class. 

How We Can Transform Religious Education 

At the bottom of every email I include The Religion Teacher's Vision: 
Every Day, Every Class, Every Student, an Encounter with Christ 
How can we make sure encounters happen in every class, every day, for every student? 
I've tried to offer a few ideas in this email. 
On Friday, I want to share a process that guarantees a daily opportunity for every student to have an encounter with Christ. 
. . . but one more thing before I go. Don't skip this. 
1) First, write down your goal for 2018 in religious education. 
I wrote mine in the footer of the lesson plan template I use to plan every week. 
Write it on a post-it note and keep it wherever you plan your lessons. 

2) Second, tell someone your goal.
Tell a colleague. Email it to me. Share it with your principal or DRE. Share it with your students. Don't be shy about focusing on a BIG WHY. 
. . . 

The Religion Teacher's Vision: Every Day, Every Class, Every Student, an Encounter with Christ. 


 

Help our students develop a relationship with Christ. 

Help them ENCOUNTER Christ in class. 

In Wednesday's email I shared three common teaching practices that all teachers use with ways we can transform them into opportunities for encounters with Christ. 

Today I want to share a method that will ensure every class gives your students an opportunity to encounter Christ. 

My vision through The Religion Teacher's is "Every Day, Every Class, Every Student, an Encounter with Christ." 

Why should we strive for anything less?? 

So, I have two things to share today that I hope will help make this vision a reality. 

1. The Encounter Question 

Here is a very simple habit that I encourage you to adopt. When you finish planning your lessons and then again when you finish your class, ask yourself: 

Did I give my students the opportunity to encounter Christ in class? 

It is so simple, yet so important to ask. 

I'm ashamed to say that if I had honestly asked myself this question about classes I have taught over the years, many times the answer would be "No." 

Did I teach them well during those lessons? Did they learn anything? Did I use effective teaching strategies? 

The answers to all those questions could be yes, but that still won't guarantee that I gave them the opportunity to encounter the living God. 

Which brings me to this: 

2. Lectio Divina Lesson Planning 

Use this five-step process of lectio divina in every class you teach and you will guarantee students have the opportunity to encounter Christ. 

[What is lectio divina? It means "sacred reading." It is an ancient practice of prayerfully reading the Bible in the presence of God. We don't just read to understand what the Bible is saying; we read to understand what God is saying to us through the Bible. Here is an overview of the five steps of lectio divina.] 

Now, I'm not saying you should guide your students through a process of reading the Bible using lectio divina during every class (though it wouldn't hurt!). 

What I am saying is the process of lectio divina can be applied to anything we teach. 

It turns educational opportunities into opportunities to encounter Christ in class. 

Here are five questions your students will directly or indirectly ask in a lectio divina lesson plan: 

1. Learn: What does this teaching mean? 
2. Meditate: What is Christ saying to me? 
3. Pray: What can I say to Christ in response? 
4. Contemplate: What conversion of the mind, heart, and life is Christ asking of me? 
5. Act: How will I make my life a gift for others? 

When you sit down and plan your lesson, think about how you can create activities or find resources that encourage students to answer these five questions. 

For example, imagine I am teaching a lesson on the first chapter of Genesis (the seven days of creation). 

A normal lesson might have the students memorize the seven days and work on activities to help them remember what happened on each day and why it is important. 

That's really just the first step in the lectio divina lesson planning process (Learn). This approach is good, but we can't stop there. We want our students to know what the seven days of creation mean, but we also want them to know what each day means to them on a personal level. 

Meditation: Have the students draw pictures of themselves experiencing each day of creation in their lives. Put particular attention on the seventh day and have them draw how they rest on the Lord's Day. Or maybe just focus on one day of creation and have the students think of one way they experience that part of creation as a gift from God. 

Prayer: Have the students compose prayers of thanksgiving for each day of God's creation. Or, have them read and reflect on prayers dedicated to God's creation by St. Francis (Canticle of the Sun) and others. 

Contemplation: Go outside. Have the students observe God's creation. What days of creation do they see here? How do they see things differently knowing that God created all of this? 

Action: Give the students some ideas for how to care for God's creation. As a homework assignment, have them do one thing to respect and preserve God's creation in some way and be ready to write and talk about it in the next class. 

Teachers and catechists have done all of these things of course, but sometimes we forget to get past that first step. 

Our students need to have an encounter with Christ in creation, not just an education about the creation story. 

The lectio divina lesson planning process helps ensure we go through all five important ways of encountering Christ in class.