Day 17 - Just for Teachers

This RAK is just for teachers, especially Catechists. If you want to know how to reach your students with games, read my Session 3 notes from the LA Congress.

Enjoy,
Christina

P.S. Know a teacher, pass on this RAK! If you have any great games to share, just post them on this blog.

Session #3 – Game On! Creative Catechesis with Young People – Michael Theisen
What’s your motivation and why are you here today?
What are the most frequent complaints you hear from young people regarding faith formation?
It’s boring. Why do I have to go, if mom and dad don’t go to church. My sports team needs me. I don’t get it. It doesn’t relate to me. My parents make me come. Not just boring, but you are boring.
It’s never too late to learn something new.
Game: Faithful Feud (Similar to Family Feud)
Volunteers: 10 people on stage to be sign holders. 5 for 1 family, another 5 for 2nd family.
Family chooses 1 spoke person. (Who looks the smartest:-)
When you think you know the answer, have to make the sound and motion of a buzzer. It’s important to practice.
Question 1: What’s your favorite book of the Bible? (Most families answered _____________).
If John is the #1 answer, it would be up there. Whoever gets closest to the #1 answer, they get to play.
Question 2: What’s your favorite Feast or Holy Day.
(Ash Wednesday was #7) (Pentecost was #5) 1 family, plays.
Make this a learning opportunity: Ash Wednesday, what do we know about it…beginning of Lent, where do ashes come from..etc. What do we know of the Pentecost? 50 days after Easter. Why do we call it the b-day of the Church. Holy Spirit came down on the disciples. Disciples were liberated to share the good news. What feast where they gathered for? Easter, #1 answer. Christmas, #2 answer..celebrates the birth of Christ. Good Friday. The day Jesus died. He died for our sins. Die to be resurrected. Celebrate by Stations of the Cross. Palm Sunday… Assumption of the Lord (March 25th) …Holy Thursday (Tridiuum).
These are just ideas of how you can incorporate lesson plan w/games.
Next Game: Win it in a minute. Sign Holders must get in liturgical year order.
Use game shows to review lesson plans:
Faithful Feud
Graceball (Similar to Baseball)
Holy Word Squares
Jeopardy
Catholic Millionaire
The Wheel of Fortune – Depends on a Theme…(~ to hangman). Guess a letter. First person comes in and guesses. Then 2nd person coming in guesses 2nd word.
Are you Smarter than a _______ Grader?
Win It in a Minute! (Ideas: DO exactly what’s on the show for your religious education class. Get creative to cover the topic you’re covering in class.
DVD or Online games
(CatholicQuiz.com, CataQuizem?)
Want to engage people – it’s the reason why we have games. We want to make sure we go beyond the games. Where is game going to leave them? Understanding the topic/lesson plan.
Some Truth or Consequences of Playing Games:
Engagement is the Goal.
Go Beyond the Game.
Games are End to Means.
Empower Youth to Lead the way. Games are a means to an end. If parents play, it puts parents on the same level. They are working together not at odds with each other.
Why should we be playing games?
Catholic teenagers tended to be particularly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and is meaningful in their lives.
What’s My Core Mission?
Ex. Southwest. They are the low fare airline.
What is our End Game? What is our core? Discipleship.
All ministry w/adolescents must be directed toward presenting young people w/the Good News of Jesus Christ and inviting and challenging them to become his disciples.
As Catechist, we are called to build a kingdom w/god.
Disciple Builders Ask:
1. How will this lead youth to actively participate in their faith.
2. How can this empower our youth to be disciples? Empowerment
3. How is this leading youth to grow as disciples in the world today? Growth.
The Power of a Core Message:
How do we engage people with a message. How do we get them to remember the message. Remember the campaign about smoking, the images of those who were exposed.
How likely were people to smoke a cigarette during the year. It depends on the commercial. That’s why smoking campaign was so successful. Young kids, snowboarding, etc.
Make sure it gets to the heart.
Sour Grapes. Story: The fox wants to eat juicy grapes on the vine. The Fox jumps several times to try and eat the grapes. The fox finally gives us. Fox says, I’m sure it’s sour. Easy to despise the sour grapes rather than to admit the fox couldn’t reach the grapes. Easy to assume people already know the story.
Name that Tune - Don’t move lips or hum tune. We go into lesson knowing this is so simple because we have been there. Our assumptions set us on the wrong course. We’ve already studied it..they haven’t. When you teach each lesson, go in with the idea that no one has studied it yet.
How to sing your Catechetical ABCs.
A – Affective Knowledge = Heart
B – Behavioral Knowledge = Hands
C – Cognitive Knowledge = Head
Comprehensive Catechesis brings all three elements together: to know, love and serve Jesus.
Love others as yourself and create ownership.
Top Five effective approaches –
Ideas: Role Playing, Story Telling, Music, Strategies, Skits.
5. Service Learning – Going out and doing service and talking about it.
4. Drama/Acting
3. Extended Trips/Conferences
2. Retreats (Can be day retreat – field trip)
1. Summer Intensive (vacation bible school) – usually for kids, teens teach it and they are involved. You learn because you have to teach it to somebody. How do we get our kids to teach to others. This is what disciples do to others.
Teaching to the Core: - Handout
What is the Core message?
Keep asking yourself why? Why is this topic important for teens? Then come up with an answer. Why is it important to teenagers to know why Jesus instituted Sacraments. Not trying to create disciple in 60 seconds..but a journey on the way there.
Getting to the Core in Three Acts
Core Idea
Act One: Engage
Act Two: Examine
Act Three: Explore
Core Idea
Example: Getting to the Core in Three Acts
Zacchaeus, The Tax Collector. Luke 19:1-10 (Actors from the audience for parts, including a tree.) Play to the Audience. Zach was the shortest person in..(person acts it out).
Core Idea (Conversion)
Act One: Engage
Act Two: Examine
Take the story….Make sure it is proclaimed. The Town of Jericho, Taxes, Taxes, Taxes, Zacchaeus the Chief Outcast, Climbing over Dignity, A Dinner Conversion, Payback Time, Following Jesus. Ex. Zaccheus was rich, but was an outcast. Out of all the people, Jesus speaks to one..Zaccheus, can you imagine what was said or recorded to the story. Jesus says, I want to have dinner in your house. What go to the house and eat with the sinner? What happened as a result. During dinner, conversion occurred. Transformation occurred. He paid back over and above what he needed too. Sign of a converted heart and followed Jesus down road to Jerusalem.
Act Three: Explore
Want kids to apply the story to their life. Look at different level of status in their school. Ex. Geeks, Jocks, etc., they create the label. Who has the most and least power. Where are they in the social letter.
Creating your school’s Ladder of Status…..
..and Jesus turning it upside down.
Outcasts were the first one to hear the news.
Imagine Jesus came to your school and sought you out?
What would other students be whispering?
What would Jesus need to say to you to change your life? To have you follow him down the road? To have heart turned in such a way, that you would be willing to risk following him as his disciple.
Must apply it to their lives. We’ve been called to engage people for the sole purpose of disciples.
Core Idea
Warning: The risks facing contemporary teens bear solemn testimony to the church’s ineffectiveness at addressing adolescence. Youth look to church to show them something. Someone, capable of turning their lives inside out and their world upside down. Most of the teacher’s just order pizza and have our teen socialize.
Our job is to educate kids and to form disciples. We have to take them deeper.
Ice Breakers build community.
Each Classroom has questions that each child is struggling w/. Go to different classrooms and see what other children are struggling w/. What did you learn?
Many started changing the way they deal w/other students as far as space. (They had moved around desks.)
We have to be very careful not to explain everything.
Better to create more questions. Create a hunger in young people.
Prayer and Faith sharing is critical.
Bottom line..all of it (see handout) has to lead everyone to core message.
Which signs reflects your life right now. Build boards…etc. Praying Scripture.
Word (1)
Word (reflect on 1 phrase)
Prayer
What is God telling you to teach?
If a student can visualize it, they will learn the lesson.