Saturday, July 5, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Senses of the Bible
Senses of the Holy Bible - Song
Here is a song my students wrote and recorded that covers the senses of the Bible: Anagogical (Heaven and analogies for the Church), Allegorical (relating to Jesus), Literal (reading the Bible the way the author intended), Moral (reading the Bible in a way to learn what you should and shouldn't do). Check it out! It's catchy and accurate.
My Podcast Site › Embed Code — Podbean
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy comes from St. John Bosco. It can be stated as "the object of teaching is to make virtue more attractive than vice." This means everything that goes on in my class is not to force or require that students be virtuous but to attract them to virtue and the virtuous, and to inspire a hunger for virtue. Our Lady, when talking with St. John Bosco encouraged him saying, "Not with blows, but with gentleness and charity, you must take care of them and win their hearts," he said, "teach them the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of sin." "How can I teach them, who am ignorant myself?" asked John. "By obedience and knowledge, you will do the impossible," was the answer.
My classroom is often loud and active. Sometimes it just looks as though I am trying to be the "fun teacher", but really I'm just tricky. My sneaky methods involve all sorts of different access roads into students' minds and hearts. These access roads may be goofy songs, competitive games, spirited debates, powerful chapel visits, or silent reflection. I recognize that not only do students need differentiation for different learning modalities, but they also need to be presented with chances to see our faith in ways that connect with them. Some of my students gush when I throw out beautiful quotes, others wake up from a daydream when I present a challenge to prove something true in our faith, and still others see themselves in the heroic and captivating stories of the martyrs. Appealing to students' natural attractions to the good, true, and beautiful is important in each lesson. I never want to leave a lesson feeling like I've only appealed to certain types of spiritualities.
I believe my role as a teacher ultimately comes from God. Just as God gives His laws for our love and happiness and lets us freely choose to follow or not, I, as a religion teacher, feel it is important to allow my students an opportunity to take ownership of their faith. This means I give students time and ideas to "chew on" what they have learned in Religion, to feel free to ask questions, to confront their doubts and to accept them as tools to strengthen their faith, rather than seeing doubt as something that will ruin it. I see students more excited about their relationship with God when they can be honest with Him, take off their "holy masks" and see their faith as a proposal they've chosen, rather than as something their Religion teacher has forced upon them.
"Some professors are merely textbooks wired for sound. Teaching is too often reduced to the communication of the notes on the professor’s yellow pages to the white pages of a student’s notebook, without passing through the minds of either” - Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Guide to Contentment, 1961). I don't think I could teach somewhere that I had to be a "textbook wired for sound" I would perish out of boredom, as would my students. I come to each lesson enlivened by the Holy Spirit and having kissed the crucifix on the altar of my desk.
My classroom is often loud and active. Sometimes it just looks as though I am trying to be the "fun teacher", but really I'm just tricky. My sneaky methods involve all sorts of different access roads into students' minds and hearts. These access roads may be goofy songs, competitive games, spirited debates, powerful chapel visits, or silent reflection. I recognize that not only do students need differentiation for different learning modalities, but they also need to be presented with chances to see our faith in ways that connect with them. Some of my students gush when I throw out beautiful quotes, others wake up from a daydream when I present a challenge to prove something true in our faith, and still others see themselves in the heroic and captivating stories of the martyrs. Appealing to students' natural attractions to the good, true, and beautiful is important in each lesson. I never want to leave a lesson feeling like I've only appealed to certain types of spiritualities.
I believe my role as a teacher ultimately comes from God. Just as God gives His laws for our love and happiness and lets us freely choose to follow or not, I, as a religion teacher, feel it is important to allow my students an opportunity to take ownership of their faith. This means I give students time and ideas to "chew on" what they have learned in Religion, to feel free to ask questions, to confront their doubts and to accept them as tools to strengthen their faith, rather than seeing doubt as something that will ruin it. I see students more excited about their relationship with God when they can be honest with Him, take off their "holy masks" and see their faith as a proposal they've chosen, rather than as something their Religion teacher has forced upon them.
"Some professors are merely textbooks wired for sound. Teaching is too often reduced to the communication of the notes on the professor’s yellow pages to the white pages of a student’s notebook, without passing through the minds of either” - Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Guide to Contentment, 1961). I don't think I could teach somewhere that I had to be a "textbook wired for sound" I would perish out of boredom, as would my students. I come to each lesson enlivened by the Holy Spirit and having kissed the crucifix on the altar of my desk.
Monday, June 16, 2014
About Me
My name is Sara LeDuc. Sara means princess. Those who know me know that this is quite fitting. I am a lover of napping, teaching, good food, reading, and road trips. I am an ice cream addict, a constant learner, and can never pass up a good conversation or an interesting article online. I have a passion for teaching. I am especially drawn to teaching religion and speaking about the beauty, truth, and goodness the Catholic faith has to offer. I see myself as God's beautiful, spoiled, beloved, and demanding daughter, and that changes everything.
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