Welcome!

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to search the archives so far back! By way of introduction, my name is Meghan and I adore teaching CCD. I am coming up on my fourth year as a catechist and my second year as director of the religious education program at my parish.

My professional world did not always revolve around teaching. I have both a Bachelor's and a Master's in Social Work and spent seven years working in the social work field with older adults. I am grateful for the education, as I believe it helped me to be a better, self-aware, well-rounded human being. And my work with older adults was meaningful and has provided me with knowledge and a skill set that is extremely valuable in my personal life.

But after seven years, it was time for a change.

My husband and I are originally from Northern Virginia, aka The D.C. Metro area. Constant traffic and politics surrounded our existence. So when he finished his advanced degree and we had the option to move, we both enthusiastically said yes! So I quit my job and we moved to Bangor, Maine and steamed lobster for a year. Next, we moved to Tampa, Florida and went to Disney World for a year. At this point, we had experienced life in an exact geographical average of the entire Eastern seaboard of the United States. But New England was what we loved in terms of the culture, the pace of life and the change of seasons. So we aimed to move back as close to Maine as we could while my husband could still work a job that optimized his professional skills. And we found Vermont.

Almost as soon as we moved to Vermont, I wanted to get involved with my local parish. After years of moving around and never feeling quite connected to a church, I felt like I had to dive right in and establish my parish home. So about a month after we dragged all of our worldly possessions from the Deep South, I signed up to be a CCD teacher.

The first year was definitely a learning experience. I had six fifth graders that year and they saw me through a lot of experimentation. I made my share of rookie mistakes, but I also stumbled onto a lot of things that worked. Really well, in fact. And I found that with each lesson I taught, my own faith grew stronger. Soon, I began to realize that I was finding more joy in teaching CCD than in any other job I'd ever held.

I share all this to begin at the beginning so that as you continue to read, my perspective makes more sense. In the posts to come, this will matter because I am going to discuss how you don't need to have a teaching background to teach CCD, that your style of teaching should always be rooted in your strengths, and that finding your passion in faith is going to be the key for how to direct your lesson plans.