I have come to fall in love with teaching in Catholic schools. What are YOU in love with?...

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything." - Pedro Arrupe

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Highs and Lows: the Beautiful and the Jaded

While it wasn't my ideal Friday night, I did get a chance to read through my students' bellwork sheets last night. I was so excited to see such beautiful ideas and reflections from many students, both in 6 & 8th grades - here are 2 samples:

"My high in religion was all the fun activities we do and I have no lows at all!"

"A high has been reading a story (Children of the King) in religion. A low is that I forgot to pray."

As a teacher, I love to see responses such as these...but I was troubled when I came across one 8th grader's paper with responses on many of the week's prompts such as "This doesn't apply to me" and "my high was when religion class ended and my low was religion class." That really bothered me...and I am stumped.

Not too long ago, this student (who is not Catholic) was interested in what we were learning about even though it was different from her own faith...so what happened? When did such a drastic change occur? Most importantly, how can I bring her back to a more open, positive mindset for learning about the Catholic faith and developing her own personal relationship with God? I do plan to make a phone call to her mom on Tuesday just to see if anything is going on at home and to make her parents aware. How can someone so young be so jaded?

Well...we'll keep fighting the good fight in the classroom this year - my goal is to get both the students and parents on board for spending time together in prayer and for going to weekly Sunday Mass - maybe this will be the year when this finally comes to fruition. Time will tell.

But for now...GO IRISH! Woo hoo!!

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