St. Paul was back in session today after the long weekend. Gotta love in-service meetings that you don't have to attend! ; ) I came back fueled from spending a great weekend in Dubuque visiting my LOVELY sister (who still hasn't read any of my blog posts), friends, and met quite a few people too (S/O to the new FOCUS missionaries at Loras. They are on fire and ready to share their love for God on/off campus. Pray for them!)
For my avid readers, most of my students did really well on the assessment I gave them on Friday. There was one student from each class that didn't do all that great and those are the students that I tend to see space off, do not ask questions or participate in class discussions willingly, take notes, or really participate when asked to work with a partner/groups. I know learning is taking place and there is only so much that I can do. Students have to take the initiative too! My new goal is to get those two students to become more active in my classes. If anybody has ways to motivate high school students to participate in class, let me know. My methods do not appear to be reaching those two. I could be wrong, but this is how I see it.
On another note, I had a student come back from the long weekend and she literally said, "Miss Sexton, you know how you said we should start thinking about a Confirmation name? Well, this weekend I was looking up Saints online and you'll never believe that this one Saint did! Her name was St. Lucia, Lucy? I don't know. And she ripped her own eyes out because she wanted to consecrate her entire life to God and not have any man fall in love with her, and apparently God healed her from that too..."
I was GLOWING. This is the excitement and curiosity that I've been wanting to see! The fact that she looked up Saint stories just because makes me so excited!!!
This student's story perfectly led into what I had them do. I borrowed a Saint Kit, which is basically a card catalogue of Saint stories, from the Archdiocesan Resource Center and had each of them pick a saint, read the card, take a few notes, and then share their Saint's story with the class. It was so much fun! They were impressed by all of the amazing things that Saints have and continue to do.
I then shared some words of wisdom that I learned from watching the video Light of Love yesterday. (I recommend watching this! It is about 4 women who are living out their lives as religious sisters and what a day in the life is like!)
One of the Salesian Sisters taught that St. John Bosco said there are three ways to become holy:
1. Be cheerful!
2. Do what is asked of you and do it well!
3. Don't skip recess!
I shared this with my students to point out that sainthood is attainable with the grace of God, prayer, our willingness, and by living a balanced life. It's not just reserved for priests and religious sisters! We are all called to holiness!
After teaching, which was much earlier than most days due to another early dismissal because of the heat, I finally hung up this banner from my pastor at my home parish. It's advertising Corpus Christi Sunday and it looks amazing in my classroom. Thank you Fr. Robert!
My students won't miss seeing this when they walk in tomorrow!
Can't wait for tomorrow!!!
Holy Spirit, inspire us!
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