Teaching a CCD class for first time. Very nervous

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Hi,

I volunteered to teach a 5th grade CCD class at my parish. I have never done anything like this before in my life. Everyone at my parish thinks I will do really well, but I’m very nervous, and I am not sure how I am going to go about doing this. The first class is on Tuesday. I have a meeting with my spiritual director tomorrow, who is a deacon, and I will definitely talk to him about this. I also have asked my Pastor if I can set up a meeting with him to talk about it, and he is going to look at his schedule to see when he is available. I’ve looked through the first chapter of the teacher’s manual the director of religious education gave me, and it seems like a lot of stuff to cover in an hour. I’ve never really been good at organizing presentations of any kind. I just want to help people to know Jesus and the Holy Trinity through His Church, and I thought it was about time I take the initiative to do something about that desire. I’ve been praying to the Holy Spirit like mad to help me figure out how to approach the class, and I’ve been praying to my own and the guardian angels of the students in the class to whisper words of love into our ears, and to sing psalms of love into our souls before, during, and after our class time. Also, I am struggling with money issues, which are complicating things like transportation and eating.

If you have any words of encouragement or counsel, or any prayers you can offer myself and the students who will be in my class, please do so. I appreciate prayers more than anything else.

God bless you all, and pray me good “luck”!
Joshua
 
I’m in the same boat with you. My first class consists of 1[sup]st[/sup] graders. You’ll be alright, I’m sure. Just remember, they’re not quite up to hour-long lectures, yet.

I think the large amount of material is to make sure you understand the subject well enough to teach (we all need a refresher, occasionally). Just make sure you cover the core lesson well enough to convey understanding and include related activities appropriate to the age group.
 
Joshua, I will be praying for you.

My wife and I just started this last Monday teaching 5th grade religious ed too! 🙂

Now, last time we did it 20 years ago, when she was in high school and I in college. She would teach Spanish first communion, and I would teach Spanish confirmation.

After that we’ve been involved in youth ministry (mostly teenagers), so this is the first time we tackle 5th grade (one of our daughters is in the class).

I’ve been very impressed with the director of religious ed at our parish, and they have a great guide with online resources to prepare for the classes. I think in most lessons there’s more material than you can cover in an hour, so it is important that you don’t focus on trying to use all this material but to focus on making sure kids understand the main point of the course.

Don’t let the extra material intimidate you, as a matter of fact, view it as a “safety net” in case an activity ends earlier and you feel like you’ve run out of things to do.

I recommend you always prepare your own outline for the class. Write what you are going to cover and how, and put estimates for the time. It’s very hard things will go exactly as planned, but with your guide for your class you won’t feel overwhelmed by the material or get lost.

Also remember, kids have been at school all day, it’s a Tuesday. This should be more than a class, I view it like a youth group meeting. Yes, they have to learn, but it’s more than learning about math, things should be fun and practical. At this age, the class shouldn’t be like a long university lecture.

I think you’re going to do great, you’re already preparing yourself spiritually and mentally, maybe we should have a forum for Catechists to share ideas!

God bless!
 
A couple of thoughts, there is almost always way more in the curriculum than there is time to cover it. In most books there are objectives for each lesson/chapter. Those will give you an idea of what to focus on and what the kids should learn.

For the first class, I would spend some time setting up a routine, setting up some rules, and getting to know the kids.

Here is a great site that can help you get started.
 
joshrp said:
Hi,
If you have any words of encouragement or counsel, or any prayers you can offer myself and the students who will be in my class, please do so. I appreciate prayers more than anything else.

God bless you all, and pray me good “luck”!
Joshua
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congratulations, there is no better way to learn more about your faith, and to strengthen it.

the first person to talk to is the DRE or RE director. Find out what curriculm the diocese has for 5th grade, and how to make best use of your catechist manual. Find the pages that describe the learners of that age, which will be a great help.

the manuals for most publishers already have lesson plans you can adapt.

most of these books are also used in Catholic schools, so realize you cannot cover as much one meeting a week as they do in 5 days, so don’t try.

find the pages that give additional ideas on creative ways to reinforce the lesson and evaluate their learning.

Don’t decide for yourself what you want to teach, because the program is based on the children receiving specific topics with a specific focus each year. If you don’t teach those topics they will not be prepared next year.
for instance 5th grade for most textbooks used here focus on liturgy and sacraments

find the website for the publisher of your textbook, which has many freebies and resources for catechists. ask the DRE if there is a code for your parish that gives you access.

But you can begin every class with a short reading and reflection of the gospel for the coming Sunday, and you can probably find things on line to reproduce to send home for this purpose.

Lesson Plan (our classes are 1.5 hours)
5-7 minutes
Gathering activity, often a review of last week’s work, to keep them occupied while you take attendance etc., this can be a worksheet related to the gospel if you are going to start with that, for instance
5-7 minutes
opening prayer, including reading of the gospel if you choose
one reflection question for discussion
5 minutes
Introduce the theme for today’s lesson
20-30 minutes
main presentation of the lesson
try to teach not more than 3 main points - words - ideas - you want them to remember
in fact for this age group, if you leave them with one main idea that is enough
10-15 minutes
discussion or process to help them retain the concepts in the lesson
crafts come under this heading but are not the only means you can use
at this age they need and want time to share their own ideas, which reinforces their learning.
5-7 minutes, wrap up, restate the main idea(s)
short reminder of what will be coming up next week
closing prayer
 
Preparation is the key to success
prepare spiritually by prayer
if you have 5 minutes, look at the scripture listed in the catechist manual for that lesson, read it, pray with it
if you have 10 minutes, look at the CCC sections referenced in the manual for that lesson, and read them prayerfully and reflectively
if you have more time, read the actual lesson, and plan how you will present it, process it, reinforce it, and test it.

try to plan an entire unit, not just a week at a time, realizing you cannot cover an entire chapter in one session. look at the CCD calendar, including days you do not meet, and look at the test, decide how many lessons you can cover, and make you plan accordingly.
 
puzzleannie said:
try to plan an entire unit, not just a week at a time, realizing you cannot cover an entire chapter in one session. look at the CCD calendar, including days you do not meet, and look at the test, decide how many lessons you can cover, and make you plan accordingly.
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This is key, our classes are neatly organized generally in units of 3 lessons per theme, example: our first theme is revelation (Longing God, Worshiping God, Signs of God’s Presence).

If you plan a bit ahead you can make sure you tie all of these things together vs just focusing only in the current week’s lesson.

My background is youth ministry, and with 5th graders I think even more, you have to make sure you include activities that engage the creativity of the students and are fun. Lecturing for long periods of uninterrupted time (20-30mins straight) sometimes could be counter productive and end up disengaging the students (although there are different styles).
 
I have also just started to teach an RE class and never have done it before. My grade is first and their attention span is very limited for some- mostly the last quarter of class. A friend of mine has said that the best thing to do is teach from the heart on the material you’re required to go over. She indicated that after a couple of times teaching the flow of things will come naturally. I too feel there’s a lot of info. to cover for these little ones and many of them have not been introduced to the simpliest concepts of the Christian faith

I think by prayer and calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance is the surest way to be at peace with yourself and your abilities. Inspirations will come to you that can be the add’l materials or messages you can impliment in conveying the weekly lessons.

God Bless.
 
I thank you all for your advice. I talked to my pastor and the director of religious education and I think they are going to have me work with another teacher who is experienced at this, so that I can learn from that person. I guess I will be teaming up with this other teacher for the class. I am not very good at preparing for things on my own yet, and reading the teacher’s manual, I am just not sure how to approach it on my own. So working with another person who has done it before I will be able to get experience and see how to teach well, without getting overwhelmed.

But maybe we can keep talking about this while I am learning how to teach catechesis.
God bless you all!
Joshua
 
That’s great Joshua, I’m glad your pastor and director of religious helped you come up with this arrangement. That’s what we do in our parish, they try to pair up an experienced Catechist with an “assistant”, to get them up to speed.

We should start a thread or continue this one to see how we are all doing this school year, share tips, issues and pray for each other and the kids.
 
In the same boat buddy. I’m teaching pre-confirmation this year and its my first time to teach too. Ill happily share any advice and tips as soon as it gets going this wednesday.
 
=joshrp;8367322]Hi,
Click to expand...
I volunteered to teach a 5th grade CCD class at my parish. I have never done anything like this before in my life. Everyone at my parish thinks I will do really well, but I’m very nervous, and I am not sure how I am going to go about doing this. The first class is on Tuesday. I have a meeting with my spiritual director tomorrow, who is a deacon, and I will definitely talk to him about this. I also have asked my Pastor if I can set up a meeting with him to talk about it, and he is going to look at his schedule to see when he is available. I’ve looked through the first chapter of the teacher’s manual the director of religious education gave me, and it seems like a lot of stuff to cover in an hour. I’ve never really been good at organizing presentations of any kind. I just want to help people to know Jesus and the Holy Trinity through His Church, and I thought it was about time I take the initiative to do something about that desire. I’ve been praying to the Holy Spirit like mad to help me figure out how to approach the class, and I’ve been praying to my own and the guardian angels of the students in the class to whisper words of love into our ears, and to sing psalms of love into our souls before, during, and after our class time. Also, I am struggling with money issues, which are complicating things like transportation and eating.
Click to expand...
If you have any words of encouragement or counsel, or any prayers you can offer myself and the students who will be in my class, please do so. I appreciate prayers more than anything else.
Click to expand...
God bless you all, and pray me good “luck”!
Joshua
Click to expand...
THANKS for your Minisrty:

REMEMBER whos truths your teaching. YOUR opinion and my opininions MUST be left outside the classroom. Teach ONLY what the CC Teaches and then teach it FULLY and with Chrity.

Be over-prepared with things and topics so if something isn’t “working” your ready to move on. Encourage Q & A and don’t get too stuck on hearing your own voice:) … Insist of your rules of behavior in class and STAY in charge.

Begin each class and end each class with Prayer!

If the sacraments are part of your ajenda; let me know via a PM and I’ll send you some infor for background.

THANKS for your Ministry!

Try to attend daily MAss the day you teach; it’s a GREAT help.😃

God Bless you,
Pat
 
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