Teaching Philosophy

As a catechist, it is extremely helpful to develop a teaching philosophy, regardless of how many years of experience you have. I did not have one when I began teaching, as my first instinct was to survive. That said, I did have some principles that I worked to abide by, e.g., keep the kids engaged, don't rely solely on lecture, make the lessons fun. Over time and with practice, that evolved into a more formal philosophy, which I've shared below. It's given me a great deal of success and I hope that it works for you, either as written here or tailored to your own design. In some small way, I want you to make it yours!

1) Give the students a positive association with Catholicism 

Students attend CCD classes for a variety of reasons. For some, their parents want it to be the Catholic curriculum that is not accessible to them in public schools. These parents wish to enhance their children's religious education by having them take classes in a formal setting, reinforcing what they are teaching at home. CCD functions as enrichment, which is what it should be. For other students, their parents may not be sure how to approach religion. They have faith themselves, but may not be sure how to communicate it to their children or integrate it into home life. They may have been raised Catholic, but have a limited knowledge base and therefore may not feel confident to articulate the faith. So we may have children in our classrooms who have very little concept of God or do not know the name of Jesus before they come to us.

Make no mistake--both types of students are welcome and we celebrate that we have them with us! But we keep this variation in mind for a reason. Some students may prove to be lifelong Catholics whose faith will never waver. Others may choose not to set foot inside a church once they are no longer made to do so. As a wise person has said before me, religious education of any scope is not an insurance policy for faith or practice; we recognize the power of doubt and the inclination to rebel. And it is for this reason that we focus on giving kids a positive association with The Church. There may be a day a former student leaves the sanctuary, intent on never returning. But on a different day, they may have a nice memory of a kind teacher. One lesson made sense to them and reached their heart or revealed their soul. The way truth was presented to them felt like love that they could comprehend. Even unconsciously, this may be their pathway back into The Communion of Saints.


2) Make your lessons multi-sensory

People have different learning styles and different types of intelligence. That is, what works to demonstrate a concept to one person may not be effective for another, even if the same basic information is being conveyed. Bottom line: The package your lesson is wrapped in, matters.

In each lesson, I try to combine different methods so that hopefully during any given class, every child will be moved by at least some part of the experience. Lecture is a large part of what I do, but I also try to incorporate videos, music, themed food, crafts, reading, scents (e.g., myrrh), and games in some combination. In this way, you are more likely to get a concept across to a wide range of children, particularly because you don't have the advantage of getting to know them and what works for them on a daily basis like a regular schoolteacher. It has the additional effect of decreasing boredom--the children never know exactly what to expect if your lessons aren't formulaic. They maintain engagement if they know unpredictable, interesting things are to come.


3) Teach the subjects for which you feel passion

If you are excited about what you're teaching, the kids will get excited too. Conversely, if you are drudging through the story of a saint for which you don't feel devotion or a bible story about which you feel lukewarm--DON'T TEACH IT. You only get to see these kids only every week or two. I am confident that for that number of class periods you can come up with lessons about which you feel passion and are relevant to your faith life either now or at an exciting time in your past. If you must teach a subject because it is key and you don't find it inspiring, see the multi-sensory section above--make the packaging inspiring. Whatever moves you to be excited and proud to be Catholic in front of your students, you are going to see reflected back to you in their reactions.


4) Harness your strengths

We are all blessed with different gifts from God. Our hobbies and interests can be considered gifts too if we use them for the purpose of holy service. Tapping into your strengths will help you develop a teaching style and encourage you to love what you're doing. It will also help you channel your authority in the classroom so that you appear more confident and worthy of the children's respect. Here are some examples of my own strengths and interests and how I make them work to my advantage:

*I am an introvert. That might seem like it spells disaster to make myself the center of attention in front of a class, but it actually isn't! Being an introvert helps me empathize with the quiet and shy kids so that I minimize group work and am especially sensitive about not embarrassing anyone.

*Although I'm not a professional teacher, I did enjoy giving presentations in my former career and tailoring each one to my audience. If I view teaching through the lens of giving a presentation and tailoring it to 11-year-olds, I realize that I have more experience than I think I do and that gives me confidence. Having been a social worker is also valuable in that I have a basic background in child development. This has helped me immensely for designing age-appropriate lessons and working with special needs students. Every career has a skillset that is applicable to the classroom if you take the time to find the parallels.

*Writing is also a talent of mine--if you've read this far, you may not agree!--but I do like it. So I harness my writing talent to write myself "scripts" before lessons so that I have appropriate, non-heretical wording in front of me to refer to if I can't come up with the words extemporaneously. Many times I read from it, other times I merely skim it to remind myself of the concepts I need to cover. And occasionally, all it does is serve like Dumbo's magic feather just to help me believe in myself and my own knowledge base.

*Speaking of Dumbo, I am a shameless fangirl of Disney movies and other animated features. If I can use Disney clips to demonstrate concepts, I will jump at the chance. Kids see me getting excited about characters and the veracity of my opinions and they are right with me on discussing the morals of the story.

*Food. I love eating and I love baking. If I don't have time for the latter, usually there is a reasonably-priced vendor that I can rely on for help. I promise the kids that every lesson, they will receive an edible, but it always serves as part of the lesson. Examples include "Land of Milk and Honey" cupcakes when discussing Exodus, shamrock-shaped cookies to demonstrate The Holy Trinity, and pineapple soda and Mounds (coconut) bars when recounting the life of Hawaii's beloved Saint Damien of Molokai.


5) Show them how Catholicism is applicable to their own real lives

I love the motto of the Catholic Center from my university--accepting the challenge of a living faith in a loving God. Even young children need to be taught that our faith itself is living and growing and also teaches us how to live. It is very real in terms of using it to love and serve all types of people. We can teach kids in age-appropriate ways how to safely seize the opportunities that they have to love one another and reach out to the poor and suffering. Our natural instincts are often to protect children, to preserve their innocence from the knowledge that terrible things exist. But the reality is that kids see suffering. They know when their friends are poor. They see bullying at school. Some of the older kids may have had classmates commit suicide. They may relish an opportunity to talk about these difficult subjects and feel empowered to do something about them--to learn how to love by taking specific actions. Some of the best conversations I've had with my students are when we have talked about real examples of these types of challenges and how they can address them.