Are there any CCD teachers here?

[puzzleannie]

8th grade CCD or RE in particular, but Jr High in general is essential, in my experience, for the child’s future faith formation and adherence to the faith. Most good catechist guides have a section on the attributes of the age group you are teaching, how they learn, and where they are in their spiritual development, psychological development, and why. Take time to read this.

the single most important attribute for a good catechist is a strong, lived faith supported by a committed prayer and sacramental life. You can aquire the knowledge you need but the faith comes only from the Holy Spirit in Christ.

 

[Researcher]

I teach high school kids and love it, even though most of the kids don’t want to be there. I talk about what I am passionate about and I know the kids see this (from the feedback I have received). I do this because so many of the kids are very poorly, if at all, catechised at home. I take it as a challenge. I plant so seeds. Some seeds take a long time to sprout. Some don’t.

 

[redheadsmommy]

I teach a combined class of 3rd,4th,and 5th graders because we are a very small parish. We have books that we use but I also try to infuse as much knowledge about the faith in the form of apologetics for kids along with telling them each and every class about how much God and Jesus love them that we have been given the gift of the Blessed Sacrament. We live in a Protestant dominated Southeast where the kids are being drawn in by all the fun at the local Mega - churches and at least half my class are products of broken homes and only come every other week. Some of the other mothers and I have also started a program on Wednesday night(big night for all the local Baptist et al. churches ) we let the kids have some play time to expend energy then we take 20- 25 minutes to reinforce something about our faith.,Then we attend mass where we take time to really let the kids learn proper mass procedures for such things as genuflecting, following along in missalette, and reverence for the body and blood and the beauty of the mass. We then follow this with fellowship time where we break bread. We try to have a fun fellowship night about once a month where we bowl or skate or something similar. We have also inititated a parish night for Rosary and Family Dinner. My main goal is to give my children the proper tools for the knowledge of their Catholic faith because all of their Protestant friends will be quite knowledgeable in their anti-Catholic rhetoric as they become older. I was raised in the Southeast by Northern parents who did not understand the attack we children would be under so they did not know to give us the tools we needed and now I have two siblings who no longer attend Catholic churches. I don’t want to see that happen with my four kids.I can say without a doubt that I have been called by the Holy Spirit when it comes to this because the Holy Spirit is who spoke to me in order to bring me back full force to the RCC when I was being drawn into a local Mega church because of my lack of knowledge about my faith. He was the one who helped me find websites such as this and others to show me how blessed I was to be part of this church that Jesus himself began.

 

[TexRose]

Well I’m waiting on the background check (i’m sure i’ll pass with flying colors) but the DRE and I talked yesterday and she told me that she’d really like for me to be ready to teach by next fall.

 

[AngelicDoctor]

TexRose,

I am a director of religious education for a cluster of 4 parishes in central Iowa. Regarding classroom manangement, it depends on how large your classes are. Kids are kids wherever you go… although I have found country kids a little more respectful, on average, than suburb/city kids. Typically, the classes with the greatest difficulty, I would say are 7th-9th grade… there is that sense of being too “cool” to be there, teenage rebellion is creeping in, etc. Still, in the younger grades you can get the attention deficit kids who go wild.
It is a wonderful thing to teach, however. You can always ask if you can assist a catechist in her classroom as an aide. That would be less work and give you a chance to get some experience and see if you would like to teach later.

(see below for my blog which is dedicated to evangelization and catechesis):