Experiences of teaching CCD

[Flopfoot]

Has anyone else here taught CCD before? How did you find it?

I taught CCD for the first half of this year. I taught year 2 (7 years old) and kindergarten (5 years old). The kindie kids were difficult - you can hardly teach them anything, coz you’ve only got 10 minutes at most and after that their concentration is gone. So then they would spend the rest of the lesson coloring in pictures related to the lesson.
My year 2 class was small, only 3 students. Some classes I would manage to teach them something. But there were some things which it was hard for them to understand. Like once, one of them asked me what the bread and wine at church were all about. I told his that it was Jesus’ body and blood. He was really freaked out. He thought that it would taste like flesh and blood.

Oh well. I don’t think I’m very good at working with children. I guess I’m not that great working with youth or elderly people either. Some of the other catechists were pretty good though.

Teaching CCD was hard and not all that rewarding… I could only hope that I was making a positive difference for these children.

Anyone else care to share their experiences of teaching CCD?

 

[JamesD]

I taught my first class two weeks ago. Took over for a teacher who couldn’t do it any more. The kids are 16. I was very nervous but felt very good about it after. It was fun. The kids were great.

We went through the apostles and nycean creed. I felt a little bad for one girl. When we were discussing what “Catholic” meant, I said “You have to understand that before about 400 years ago there was only one christian church”. This girl then says “That must have been St. Francis’s” (Which is the oldest church building in town). Well I laughed pretty good and said “Thats a good one!” Untill one of the other kids said:“I don’t think she was joking”
They thanked me afterword so I am hopeful that they got something from it.
I must say that I thought the teacher guide they gave me was not very good. I mean sugestions included: Have the kids write there own creed. and play for them the John Lennin song Imagine and have them write new learics.
I am looking forward to our next class.

 

[puzzleannie]

you cannot hand on what you do not possess yourself. if you really want to be challenged to learn more about your Catholic faith, and to grow spiritually, become a catechist. Children will not let you fake it. They know the real deal when they see it. Just because they are 5 or 7 or 12 or 16 does not mean they cannot discern between truth and lies or half-truths, or sincerity and hypocrisy.

you cannot teach effectively without preparation. Planning should take a minimum of 45 minutes planning and preparation for every hour and half in the classroom. My best catechists come a half hour early to set up the classroom, gather their materials, and pray together before CCD begins. They follow our lesson planning guidelines: read the Catechism and scripture citations suggested for each lesson in the Catechist Manual, meditate and pray on them before making a lesson plan.

No, small children cannot listen to a lecture for an hour. Your catechist manual has a section on how children learn best at this age, their traits and characteristics, and suggestions for various methods that use all kinds of learning styles: verbal, linguistic, mathematical, logical, movement, empathetic, etc.

Incorporate games, songs, something with movement, to reinforce the concept you are teaching. When children move all or part of the body while learning, especially while memorizing, it enhances the activity of the part of the brain responsible for learning.

do not expect small children (or older ones) to sit perfectly still and listen for an hour, it won’t happen. Even coloring can be effective if it is part of the lesson:
read the story of Mary and Martha from the children’s lectionary or bible, give them the coloring sheet:
"here is a picture of Jesus with his friends when he visited their home. draw yourself in this picture. Are you Mary or Martha? Are you one of the apostles? are you one of their neighbors? What did Jesus say and do? How did you feel when Jesus was speaking? did He speak to you?
this introduces them to a type of meditation with the scripture, and becomes more than just a time-filling coloring activity.

 

[Namid]

I taught a few years ago for the 3rd graders. I had a very bright class and could tell that the parents had worked with these children. That summer I took on VBS and asked that I have the kindergarten class. I was stumped on how to teach them. I was totally lost because they couldn’t read . When regular SRE came back around I asked for the 3rd grade back again I am sooo impressed with those who can teach the little ones.

 

[Orogeny]

puzzleannie:

you cannot hand on what you do not possess yourself. if you really want to be challenged to learn more about your Catholic faith, and to grow spiritually, become a catechist. Children will not let you fake it.

Boy, is that the truth! I have been teaching confirmation classes for a while (this is my fourth year) to 15 year olds and it has been a great learning experience for me. While some are there because they have to be, most have sincere questions. I always let them know at the beginning of the year that I love questions and that there is plenty about our faith that I don’t understand, so if they ask me a question I don’t know the answer to, I will tell them so but I will have the answer the next class.

Peace

Tim

 

[hilde_the_dog]

I started this year being an aide for 6th grade boys, turns out its more like the other guy teaches for a while then hands it over to me. Joining the CC via RCIA three years I was not sure I was up for this when the CCD director approached me about teaching. (Apparenly I must have made an impression with him at RCIA, Reading and hitting the daily Masses).

Man those kids send out some good questions - whether Jesus had brothers as in the use of the word “brethren”, did Jesus have children (read DaVinci Code), how to answer that C’s worship Mary, the concept that God create time and space and thus is not subject to it. Those are the ones I had to answer. It keeps you awake. That part of the reason why I love CAF. You learn and can teach others