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The Father’s Love
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Do We Need A Paradigm Shift?
If in 1990 you would have asked people if they would buy bottled drinking water they would have laughed at you or rolled their eyes. But today 9.67 billion gallons of bottled water is consumed in the United States alone (according to the International Bottled Water Association’s 2012 report).
In the same vain if in 1990 you would have said that the paradigm for religious education will not be the best means of forming children in the 21st century few would have listened.
I could write an educational catechetical dissertation (maybe I should) on how we got to the place we are at in the realm of catechetical formation of young people. I will spare you, at least for now, a lengthy introduction to the state of education and catechesis today. However, let me share that neither in public education or in catechetical formation is the factory model working as an effective model for catechetical formation.
I don’t think it is a complete failure but I wonder if there are better models that need to be considered today. The factory model has been defined in various ways, but here is one definition: “In the “factory” school, all students were grouped chronologically, were taught the same material from the same textbook, and were expected to function in an obedient, non-questioning manner (Schrenko, 1994).” This method allows teachers to teach the same way all subjects at the same pace to all the children in the classroom.
Our catechetical classrooms today follow this model to a great degree although with some variation. Technology is driving much of education and there are many attempts to reconsider the 150 year old factory model that has impacted all education. 
In parish religious education/catechetical formation we have a number of current obstacles that I’ve encountered through using this factory classroom model:
1) Catechizing is more challenging today because you have students who have been sacramentalized but have a very limited knowledge and understanding of the faith, and students who know the facts but have not come to a place where they are in a deeper relationship with Christ (not meaning to make any judgments on where they are in that relationship).
2) Students are coming to class with little encounter with Christ at Mass (usually because they are not being taken by their parents).
3) Many catechists aren’t trained teachers and do not have the ability to facilitate the learning needs of each student.
4) Catechetical formation happens only once a week and for only a short amount of time.
Today there is a great need to begin considering what we can do to shift the current predominant paradigm in our religious education classes. As students get older they do not desire to learn in the way we are teaching them (this goes for both public education as well as catechetical formation). “The specific aim of catechesis”, according to St. John Paul II is to:
to develop, with God’s help, an as yet initial faith, and to advance in fullness and to nourish day by day the Christian life of the faithful, young and old…Catechesis aims therefore at developing understanding of the mystery of Christ in the light of God’s word, so that the whole of a person’s humanity is impregnated by that word. Changed by the working of grace into a new creature, the Christian thus sets himself to follow Christ and learns more and more within the Church to think like Him, to judge like Him, to act in conformity with His commandments, and to hope as He invites us to. (Catechesis in Our Time #20).
The Church’s mission to hand on the faith has always been the same, but it seems that at least some kind of shift is in order for 21st century catechetical formation.
3 Questions
1) How can we proclaim to Gospel Message to those we encounter in our classrooms and best hand on the faith today?
2) What obstacles are you encountering in today’s religious education classroom?
3) Do you see any possible solutions to how we can make a shift?
Originally posted at relevantcatechesis.com
The Getty Guide to Imagery Series: a Goldmine for Educators
We’re so fortunate to have a 2,000-year treasury of Christian art, and it would be a shame not to share it with our students, wouldn’t it? Art can point us towards a deeper understanding of Scripture or the life stories of the saints; it can move us emotionally in a way that words sometimes do not. You can pique kids’ curiosity and draw them into the story by sharing images with them.
Online, there are some terrific databases of images you can use in your class. Three of my favorites are:
- Biblical Art on the WWW – searchable by topic, person, etc. Really cool set of images and links to images elsewhere
- Olga’s Gallery – very comprehensive collection of images, often with annotation that can be helpful if you’re not familiar with the work or the artist
- Web Gallery of Art – another very comprehensive collection, with links to the sites where the images are hosted.
While online sources are fabulous when you’re looking for a specific work of art, having books to flip through can give you a broader view of the life of a given saint or figure as portrayed in art. That’s why I absolutely love the Getty’s Guide to Imagery Series. I’ve reviewed two volumes of the series so far for Tiber River – Old Testament Figures in Art and Saints in Art. From the reviews:
With its many notes as to recurring themes and connections to the New Testament, this would be terrific to have on hand for a Scripture class at any level, as it provides beautiful art to supplement a lecture or to examine in its own right. Each image is reproduced in full color and is grouped with similar pieces based on their correspondence to a particular event or figure in the Old Testament. Significant events in salvation history are presented in approximate chronological order, with notes as to the geographic location, relative time of their occurrence, Scriptural references, and the region where a particular image or event was most popular.
For example, the story of Abraham’s encounter with the king and priest Melchizedek is represented by two paintings, each with notes about the event prefiguring the Last Supper. The section on this event includes an explanation of the circumstances leading up to Abraham’s meeting Melchizedek, and points out that Salem is the ancient name for the city of Jerusalem. Each painting has multiple notes that point out significant figures and techniques used by the artist to create the work.
Read more about Old Testament Figures in Art at Tiber River
and
The images collected in Saints in Art are not intended to act as a hall of fame for the most widely venerated saints throughout the world, but rather serve to show us the symbols and stories associated with various aspects of Christian history. Each image is shown in full and vivid color, with notes around its perimeter that identify significant parts of the scene. We learn to look more closely at these works of art and to understand that there is meaning to every small detail, and to enjoy “decoding” similar images.
For religious educators, this book would be a great resource for discovering new and unusual facts about saints, and for sharing with students to help them remember what made each saint unique. Some graphic scenes of martyrdom and occasional nudity would mean that this isn’t a book you’d leave around for kids to page through, but there are many, many images that could be appreciated by even the youngest art aficionado. I think it’s great to use visuals like these in teaching and learning about our faith, because we can come to better appreciate beauty as well as having another way to remember important events in the life of a saint we’re studying.
Read more about Saints in Art at Tiber River.
It seems like they’re always coming out with new volumes in this series, and I can’t wait to add some of the other titles to my collection. I highly recommend that you check them out, too.
I wrote these reviews of Old Testament Figures in Art and Saints in Art for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, your source for Baptism Gifts and First Communion Gifts. Tiber River is the first Catholic book review site, started in 2000 to help you make informed decisions about Catholic book purchases. I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.
3 Tips for Dealing with Classroom Discipline
Lisa Mladinich has an excerpt from her book up today at Patheos, and it deals with the number-one concern that many beginning teachers and catechists face: classroom discipline. She gives some terrific suggestions and I encourage you to read the column in its entirety. I’m having trouble posting a comment there, so I’m just going to throw out three things to keep in mind when dealing with behavior issues and teenagers.
1. Let them save face. Especially if you’re only seeing them once a week, building relationships with your students is of paramount importance. If at all possible, try to avoid dealing with one child’s behavior in front of the whole class. It puts you in the spotlight when you’re nervous about maintaining order in your class, and it usually means you’re going to alienate that kid in a way that will be very difficult to fix.
Try: moving around the room while you’re talking, slipping the student a note while you’ve got the class at work on another activity, moving the child’s seat – although I think it works best if you don’t do this in the middle of class but wait until next time around and rearrange several kids’ seats.
You don’t want it to appear that you are “out to get” the child who disrupted class. If you need to, pull the student outside while your aide monitors your class – but, to be honest, I haven’t had a lot of success with this when we’re talking about a once-a-week CCD class. It’s okay to send a kid to the office, and if you think you’re going to need to do so, do it early in the year rather than waiting.
2. A good lesson plan prevents many a discipline problem. Oh, how I hate to be told that, but it’s often true. If you’ve come up with a lesson plan that involves a variety of activities (15 minutes of lecture/notetaking, 20-30 minutes of small group work, a quick quiz or review game, prayer session), you are more likely to maintain the flow of the class without discipline problems.
Try: Write the plan up on the board at the beginning of class so they know what’s coming. It’s okay to say, “hey, guys, hang in there for about five more minutes of me talking, you’re doing great.”
3. It’s (usually) not (just) about you. Look, a lot of times, our kids are worn out when they come to class. You don’t know what sort of day they’ve had, what issues are going on at home, what someone said to them as they were walking from the car to your classroom. Try not to take it personally.
Try: Ask the child to stick around for a couple of minutes after class. “Hey, I just want to make sure I haven’t said something to upset you, because I feel like we keep having discipline issues and I’m concerned.” Teenagers want to be treated like adults. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t alert their parents if there are repeated or extreme disciplinary problems going on with that kid, but approaching them in a way that shows you respect their maturity (the maturity that may lie deep, deep down below the surface) can go a long way towards reversing a behavior issue.
Oh, I’m going to add one more. Do. not. stand in the hallway after class complaining about a kid to the teacher who had them last year. It can feel like such a relief to learn that you’re not the only one who had a difficult time getting young Percival to stop scratching his fingers on his slate during your lecture. But…don’t. Take it to prayer, or talk to your DRE and say, “can you tell me some more about what’s going on with Percival? He simply won’t stop calling Eustace a ninny.”
So – what’s worked for you? How do you keep your cool when dealing with misbehavior?
Catechist Chat: From Aide to Apprentice
Do your students know your aide’s name?
When you have to miss class, does the DRE scramble to come up with activities for your kids to do?
If you’re cringing with self-recognition, you’re not alone. I am your leader in the March of Ignoring Your Classroom Aide. And I should know better.
My first year of teaching, I had 42 kids in a class. I couldn’t send a student to the office until I had documented nine steps I’d taken in the disciplinary process beforehand, including a visit to the student’s home. I would have given anything to have an extra adult in the room to help me out.
So why is it so hard for me now to find ways to incorporate my aide into my class? We get along great, and she helps me “debrief” after class to talk about what worked and what didn’t. Still, I’m afraid the primary responsibilities I’ve given her are taking attendance and being the extra adult in the room with Safe Environment Training. I’d like for her role to become more of an apprentice, to the extent that she wants to become more involved.
Now, I am well aware that one of the benefits of being an aide versus the primary teacher in the room is that you can just show up and not have to plan ahead of time. So what I want is to find ways for her to have a greater leadership role in the classroom without placing an additional burden on her time outside of class. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
1. Aides can administer quizzes and tests. There’s no reason why I have to be the person saying, “Okay, do the best that you can, and remember what we talked about” while she is relegated to paper passer-outer. And, since I frequently have the kids grade their own quizzes, all my aide needs is an answer key and for me to be ready to clarify answers that the kids aren’t sure about. (I keep a class set of red pens and pass them out at the end of the quiz for the kids to grade with).
2. Aides can be the game show host or “Vanna” when it’s time for review. Games like Jeopardy or Challenger, especially once they’ve been played once with the kids, sort of run themselves. Kids seem to get more into it when there’s a comedy routine between the host and the scorekeeper as they’re playing. Again, all the aide needs is the answer key, and for me to be ready to jump in as needed.
3. Aides can be the primary teacher for a given topic. If she’s interested, I would love to have my aide be the lead teacher at times. It requires lots of advance notice, supplying her with the materials I’ve found useful in the past, and my own willingness to hand over the keys to the Mercedes that is my class.
There’s the real problem – I love teaching, love planning, and like the illusion of control. I’ve been a mentor teacher to student teachers in the past and enjoyed the process of helping new teachers hone their skills, but it was always hard to take myself out of the picture and let the student teacher shine. Yet treating our aides like apprentices is one of the best ways we can recruit new catechists. And, really, would you want to sit at the back of the room with the roll book and watch me blab away at teenagers for an hour every Wednesday?
Erm…don’t answer that. But do tell us – What’s your working relationship with your aide like? How involved is your aide, and how happy are you both with that arrangement?
Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”
Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).
Catechist Chat: Classroom goals for 2011
Sure, it’s the New Year’s Resolution time of the year, and I can’t resist a good self-improvement goal. But I’m posting this today because most of us are taking a little halfway-point break from our classrooms over the Christmas holidays, and it’s a great opportunity to regroup and come back fresh next week, or whenever your catechetical duties resume.
Here’s my challenge to you, then: Set one PERSONAL and one PROFESSIONAL goal for yourself as a catechist.
Kick it up a notch by using Jennifer’s Saint’s Name Generator to choose a saint to be your personal mentor for the next year of your vocation as catechist.
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| St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Lookin’ out for me in 2011 |
My goals:
PERSONAL: Resume structured prayer time at the beginning and end of the day. It’s the most important thing I can do each day, and yet I let it slip by the wayside – or, worse, see it as just another “good habit” I’m working on, along with exercising more, going through the mail each day, meal planning, etc. Making prayer my personal self-improvement project leads me to look around and evaluate the results – well, what percent more holy am I after these three works of daily Bible readings? How’s that working out?
And so, even as I’m talking about this in terms of a habit – spending time at the beginning and end of the day with my Magnificat magazine and assorted other spiritual reading – I’m not doing so with a specific goal (yell at children 1/3 less often) so much as recommitting to a relationship with Christ.
PROFESSIONAL: Focus on involving my aide in our class sessions in a more meaningful way than just taking attendance and walking around to monitor behavior. I’m going to follow up on this in a later post.
So, reader, how about you? What goals will you set for yourself as a catechist in the year to come?
Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”
Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).
Catechist Chat: Rubrics – Not Just for Mass Anymore
I’m a big believer in rubrics. Both of the “Say the Black, Do the Red” variety, and in the classroom. What’s a rubric, you ask? Sit back as I explain how you can overcome your hesitation and finally build up the courage to cross the Rubric…con.
That seemed like it was building up to be an awesome pun, didn’t it? Sorry about that.
Okay, basically, a rubric is a terrific time-saver for teachers and a way for students to know your expectations very clearly before they begin an assignment. Rubrics are great for essay portions of tests, evaluating projects, rating students’ behavior or class participation – pretty much anything you can evaluate, you can evaluate via a rubric.
Rubrics4Teachers.com has tons of examples; I usually make my own, so that they’re tailored to the assignment. Decide how many aspects of an assignment you want to evaluate, come up with a “4-3-2-1” description in each category, and then give the rubric to the kids before they start the assignment, so that they know what they should be doing to complete it. Then, you just need to circle the box in each category that best fits the student’s performance.
Here are some sample rubrics you’re welcome to use and/or modify – click on the link to view them in PDF form.
Saints Essay Question: Choose four saints whose lives we have discussed in class and explain how they practiced the corporal and/or spiritual works of mercy.
Sacraments Essay Question: Choose four of the seven Sacraments. For each Sacrament, explain how it was instituted by Jesus, how it serves to provide us with grace, and how a person should prepare to receive the Sacrament.
Scripture Class – General Essay: Choose at least three Biblical figures whose lives we have discussed in class, and explain what people can learn from their example. You may include details about how each person either chose to do God’s will or disobeyed God, and what resulted from those decisions.
Hope these help! And hang in there – Christmas is right around the corner!
(AAAA! CHRISTMAS IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!!!! AAAAA!!!!! MUST START BAKING!)
Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”
Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).
Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible: Highly Recommended
Through the generosity of the family-run bookstore Aquinas and More, I was able to obtain a review copy of the Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible – New Testament. I was so excited to receive it in the mail that I started listening to it right out of the package. An audio recording of the New Testament, voiced by a cast of professional actors, this 18-CD compilation is an engaging, professional audio version of the Bible perfect for listeners of any age. You can view video clips of the recording process and listening to sample tracks from the CD’s at the website for the Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible.
I’ve enjoyed listening to the CD’s while going about my day – it’s uplifting to hear the Word of God during the mundane duties of everyday life, and it also allows me to experience the Gospels “as the action unfolds.” Hearing the recording on its own or while reading along is a terrific way to reflect upon the readings for the day or to study a book of the New Testament as a whole.
As a catechist, I cannot wait to use these recordings with my students. I plan to play snippets for them each week as we work our way through the New Testament, and I know this will be more effective than my reading aloud from the Bible to them. The packaging says that an Old Testament version is in the works, and I can assure you that I will be first in line to purchase it as well.
The recording carries an imprimatur and is a solidly Catholic endeavor. The text is that of the New Testament, Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition. I really feel that this compilation could easily be utilized by scholars and Bible enthusiasts from any tradition, however, and the producers’ commitment to creating a high-quality recording is a testament to the value of this resource for personal and group study.
I can’t recommend this collection highly enough. This would be a terrific gift for a Bible enthusiast or for a friend who is just beginning to learn about the life of Jesus. It’s a treat to hear the voices of some of my favorite actors – John Rhys-Davies, Neal McDonough, Sean Astin, Kristen Bell, and many more, and the quality of the recordings is top-notch. It’s a great value for the price, and it’s an addition to my library that I know I will rely on for personal and catechetical use for years to come.
I wrote this review of the Truth & Life Dramatized Audio Bible for Aquinas and More’s Tiber River Review Program, though which I can earn cool Catholic stuff by sharing my opinions of other cool Catholic stuff. I appreciate their responsive customer service and excellent selection, and I encourage you to check out their unique Christmas gift options – if you’re stumped for ideas, they have a great list of Most Popular Catholic Gifts in various categories.
Catechist Chat: Quick and Easy Bingo Review
Well, I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged, because after various interruptions and special programs, I think I’ve had seven class sessions with my students for a Scripture course that’s supposed to be 14 weeks long. So it’s been a frenetic pace all the way through and I haven’t done as thorough a job as I would have liked to, but – it is what it is. Tonight was our last class, since the next two weeks will be replaced by Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and then our closing Advent Program. I needed to give them a “final exam” of sorts and I knew they weren’t ready. Enter…BINGO.
Love me some review-game bingo. It’s not the most thrilling activity in the world, but it’s better than a review sheet and more interactive. Best of all, it requires minimal effort, because you have the kids make their own cards.
Here’s a blank review sheet Bingo card. The way it works is – pick 8-10 terms for each column of the Bingo chart. You can put these on a separate review sheet (and use the Bingo as a complement) or stick the list right below the card itself, as I did in this Scripture class review Bingo. (WARNING: Looking at this example will show you what a shoddy job I did of covering the Old Testament. I mean, not a prophet to be found on the list. I did the best I could).
Anyway – then you tell the kids to pick words from each column and write them wherever they’d like on the corresponding column of the Bingo card. You’re Catholic, right? I don’t need to explain how Bingo works. I usually read aloud the “answers,” Jeopardy-style, to see if they can guess what I’m talking about, and then I go over it once more with them. You can even just make up a list on the spot and write it on the board – as long as you have at least five terms for each column (four for the “I” column, technically), they can make up a card. Much, much easier than trying to generate your own set up randomly-sorted bingo cards.
Speaking of Bingo, Loyola Press has a nice printable set of Advent Bingo cards, complete with leader’s guide.
Hope your class is making the transition to Advent nicely. (Code for: not totally losing it as Christmas break approaches).
Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”
Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).