Day 19.3

It's already Week 4 for with my "new" students!  It's going TOO fast.    
Theme of the week: God's love and mercy
Topic: Sacraments of Healing

It's always great seeing my students after the weekend.  The one girl in my 3rd hour class was absent so I had an all boy class.  So that was a first!  I don't think I could work at an all-boy school, but I'd love to work at an all-girl high school!  I really should see if they have openings at Oprah's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa! : )  

Anyway, today we explored healing passages in scripture.  We then did an adaptation of Ignatian Meditation to get a fuller understanding of the Gospel passages where Jesus heals so many people both physically and spiritually.  

To end class, I had them answer the question, "Does Jesus still heal us, body and soul, like He did in the passages we studied today?

I only had the opportunity to show the following video to my third hour class so I'll share it with my first two classes tomorrow!  Please check this out!  I couldn't have said what Chris says any better!  

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 14-18.3

Monday, February 3-Friday, February 7

It's been a great week.  As of today we have finished learning about the sacraments of initiation!  

On Monday we finished up Baptism.  Here's a picture of the "Say Yes" billboards that my students made:

Couldn't zoom in and get a clear picture of what they say, but you can see them hanging up above the white board.  To the left on the tan wall, you may notice some clippings.  This is our "Pope" wall!  We have pictures, quotes, and newspaper/magazine article on Pope Francis!  

Monday and Tuesday we spent a great deal talking about the Eucharist and what it means to be members of the Church/The Body of Christ.  

Wednesday and Today (Thursday) we covered the sacrament of Confirmation how great the Holy Spirit is and our call of being witnesses of the Gospel!  Check out our Confirmation dodecahedrons:

Some will need to finish assembling them in class tomorrow, but they are essentially 12 pentagon shaped pieces of paper.  The theme for them was Confirmation so they had to put quotes, bible verses, symbols, fruits, and/or gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Each of theirs are unique and we had a great class working on those today!  They will eventually be hung up and on display in our classroom.

Tomorrow (Friday), we will be finishing on a high note!  Since it's the first Friday, we have adoration at the church!  So, guess where we'll be?!?  1st hour will be at the grade school mass, and 2nd and 3rd hour classes will spend the first 30 minutes of class in adoration and then we'll go back to St. Paul's for a review/assessment on the sacraments initiation.  We'll do that at the beginning of class on Monday in the 1st hour class.  

The night class on Wednesday went really well!  I modeled it off of the Here I Am Lord Vocation Conferences in St. Charles, IL.  I invited a young married couple, missionary priest, deacon and his wife, and a religious sister to share their vocation stories with the teens.  The entire night was a huge success and it was fun to make this a class on vocations and focus on vocations that are not technically sacraments.  The church is so beautiful and provides SO many opportunities for people to live out their call from God.  I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was so hyped on being Catholic and for the overwhelming positive feedback I received on the night class and from parents that happened to be there who have their teens in the day class.  

I'm feeling at peace with what I am doing and I'm so excited to try more new things.

God is great!  Thank you for your prayers.

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 12 and 13.3

This will be short and simple.

Today we wrapped up with learning about the symbols for the sacrament of Baptism and then we made posters to tie in with our Catholic identity since it is after all Catholic Schools Week!  We made the "Say Yes" posters/billboards (which I did not take a pic of yet).  They look great!  Also, we played a variety of games and ate delicious baked goods that I brought in along with some students.  It was a pretty easy going day!  

Tomorrow is day 13.3.  We will not be at St. Paul's because all of my classes will be volunteering at the Catholic grade school in town.  Not exactly sure what we're doing, but I think we will be counting a long of spare change because they were having penny wars!  Should be a fun day and a good time!  

Have a blessed weekend!

Day 11.3

Hooray for finally having school!  Of course today was a scheduled early out so classes were short (45 min), but hey, we still had class!  They had so many crazy stories about being snowed in and their travel experiences over the weekend.  I'm learning/hearing so much now that I'm living near a rural area. 

Today's classes went really well.  We started up by playing a round of "Build the Church" aka "Hangman" on the board to introduce today's topic: Sacraments of Initiation!  You just draw a sketch of a church if they guess the wrong letter rather than a hangman.  So that was entertaining and they really enjoyed it. 

Then we went pretty in-depth with the sacrament of baptism, original sin, sanctifying grace, and the effects of the sacrament! 

Main learning point of the day:  Original sin causes our intellects to be darkened and our wills to be weakened.  That is why we do things that we wish we wouldn't have.  We have disordered desire.  The motive of all of our actions boil down to happiness, and we find that the effects of sin are quite the opposite.  Baptism doesn't take this away (concupiscence), but God's grace gives us the strength to overcome temptations!  Yay sacraments!  Yay God!  Yay Church!  Yay prayer! 

We also talked about the life-giving qualities and the opposite for water.  This relates to the sacrament.  We die to sin and are born into a life with Christ!  St. Paul says, " We were buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so too may we live a new life" (Romans 6:4).

I love teaching and learning.  Surprise surprise.

And tonight we are finally having a night class!  So many have been cancelled because of the weather.  Tonight is Movie Night so that will be a fun way to ease back into the night class! 

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 9 and 10.3

As you're probably aware, we had no school on this cold blustery day and school was already cancelled for tomorrow.  Since I am coming to the close of an extended weekend/day, I thought I'd blog about last Thursday and Friday.

Day 9.3, Thursday, January 23

It's hard to think back after a long weekend!  Hmm...I'll come back to this when I get a little more motivated to check what I had in my planner....not getting up from being warm under this blanket ; )

Day 10.3, Friday, January 24

On Friday, I introduced my students to the YouCat (Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church).  We read Pope Benedict XVI's explanation of the importance of being well educated in our faith, in TRUTH.  He encourages to know more than previous generations so that we are well equipped to live Jesus' mission in the face of trials, temptations, disagreement, and hostility.  His words touched me and I hope they did the same for my students.  We finished off a great first two weeks with playing the card game Spoons.  It was filled with so much competition and laughter.  I'm excited for a 3 day week with them!  

I MISS SCHOOL!  

Hope all of you are staying warm!

Side note: OLV, my grade school, will be keeping her doors open!  Thank you for your prayers!  God is great!  So proud of my parish, school, and the community, and to all who have pledged to help.  It still isn't too late to pledge!

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Day 8.3

Today was another good day at St. Paul's (in case you were wondering)!

Summary of today:  We are the Pro-Life Generation!  We spent most of class watching footage of the March for Life.  I'm glad EWTN had live streaming.  I even got to see my former grade school principals, Sr. Mary Sarah (!!!!!!!) be interviewed briefly!  That got me even more excited about the march, knowing she was there and some Duhawks!

Also, I used the same lesson from Term 1 on teaching about the life of Christ, his mission, and the mission he left for us!  I forgot to take a pic of the symbols but I broke it into 8- 1. Jesus' life 2. The Cross-Death and Victory 3. Resurrection 4. Ascension 5. Pentecost 6. The Church, the Body of Christ 7. Channel of Grace- mass, prayer and worship, sacraments... 8. His mission for us- Be disciples!  It was very interactive and filled with scripture and my own commentary.

Difference with the younger students is that they actually take notes when I ask them too...what a concept!  Let's just say only a few committed students from each term took notes.  I keep telling them that they are going to be the smartest Catholics in Manchy!  Which, I wouldn't be surprised.  I'm hoping they are able to be able to communicate the basics and not so basics of our faith confidently.  Pray that I  continue to find ways to keep my current students engaged.

Due to the frigid cold, wind, and windchill, no night class tonight. Womp womp...

We'll see if we have another 2 hour delay for tomorrow, or if we even have school.  (I just want the cold to go away!)  

St. Paul, pray for us!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!

Days 5, 6, and 7.3

Hello again!

Allow me to catch up on the last few days of class.

Day 5.3 Friday, January 17

Briefly started teaching about Salvation History- God's love story.  Main stories that we focused on the story of Creation found in Genesis 1 and 2 and The Fall/Adam Eve found in Genesis 3.  Here was a video by Mark Hart to introduce Salvation History to my students-pretty creative if I do say so myself!  

Main teaching points:  

• God loves us- as an entire human race and on and individual basis.  
• Concupiscence
• God has a plan for us.
• God wants to spend eternity with us, but we should spend our entire lives getting to know Him, not waiting until later...

Success Story:  My third hour class is awfully quiet and it takes a lot of prompting to get any kind of response, and I'm talking even a nod!  Well, I constantly give them opportunities to talk and many times and call on them to get their opinions/thoughts/answers.  Well, I had a student in that class come in asking me a question.  He was confused the day before by something the deacon said at the funeral mass...it was on Matthew 10:39.  However, he didn't know the verse and I didn't either.  With a quick google search, I found the passage, had all of them go to their Bibles, and showed them the footnote that explains that verse.  I pointed out that clearly many people have been perplexed by what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."  Here's what the footnote states: * [10:39] One who denies Jesus in order to save one’s earthly life will be condemned to everlasting destruction; loss of earthly life for Jesus’ sake will be rewarded by everlasting life in the kingdom.  It was nice to be able to show my students ways to get their questions answered even when they are not in class.

That same student asked me whether or not missing mass on Sundays means that he'll go to hell.  Hopefully I clarified his answer will continue to emphasize the importance of going to mass on Sundays- one word: grace.  Ok a few more words- worship, sacraments, fellowship, Eucharist, etc!  And no, not going to mass on Sundays is not a direct ticket to hell.  Sheesh!  However, I did and continue to encourage all of my students to attend mass regularly.  It's a promise we make in our Baptism and really it's what's good for us.  I'm sure God doesn't need my help with anything other than spreading His word and being  an instrument.  Ok, that's a big deal. And we're all called to that!  Basically what I was trying to say is God's goodness does not depend or reply on my worship or prayers to Him.    However, I rely on Him and His grace to reflect His goodness.

From that point on, the class has been more engaged and willing to participate.  It left me feeling great after a good first week of meeting my students and getting them excited about being a follower of Jesus.  

Day 6.3 Monday, January 20

As you can see, we finished studying just a handful of the stories- Creation, The Fall, Noah, Moses, David, and the Prophesy of Isaiah!

Day 7.3 Tuesday, January 21

(2 hour delay due to cold weather)

• March for Life 2014 
• Pro-life Movement  
• Answering the questions who, what, where, when, and why

Please pray for my grade school back home, Our Lady of Victory, and pledge if you can!  Check out this report.

St. Paul, pray for us!

Holy Spirit, inspire us!