And they rose to the (creative) challenge...

These Saint Week packets to go along with the 7th grade Ablaze text have been a really neat experience this year. At least, I'd like to think so. With each chapter/Saint, I try to create tasks that challenge their thinking but also allow for creativity.

And I'm never sure what kind of responses I'll get.

This time around, the students read about Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, a young girl who lived during the 1970s and 1980s in Italy. She has been the most relatable Saint to date, as the book highlighted her love of socializing, playing tennis, hiking, and doing other things normal kids do - by no means did she sound like she lived an "untouchable" lifestyle. Still, it was clear how much Chiara loved God and how much she wanted to help others. Even as a young student in grade school, she would often give her snack away to other children at lunch. And, she would attend daily Mass as often as she could.

While Chiara died (from bone cancer) before the invention of cell phones (and definitely before Smartphones), I couldn't help but wonder what she would have had on her phone if she lived in our day and age. And that sparked an idea - I challenged my students to detail three apps that Chiara would have had on her phone and provide reasoning for each one using their understanding of her life. When I graded their packets this week, I realized how creative each student had been in determining the apps (though some definitely explained their reasoning better than others), and I was blown away.

Here are two examples - You may have to click on each image to read its content:

There were other tasks too, including the more typical paragraph with evidence and reasoning as well as the invitation to design a symbol to represent Chiara and the effect of her life on others.

Here are a couple of those - again, you may have to click on each to view:

All in all, I am glad the 7th graders have been open to being the "guinea pigs" for this book and the respective packets. Hopefully each year I'll be able to tweak the packet to be better and clearer.

I'm feeling pretty good going into Christmas break. My bags are (mostly) packed, my presents (though unwrapped) are all in the bag, and I'm ready to visit my sister's school on Friday.

Tomorrow is an 11 a.m. dismissal - we've totally got this! Happy Christmas break everyone!