In the Catholic Church, Parish School of Religion (PSR) is a religious education program for children who attend schools without formal religious education (i.e. public schools). I'm teaching a Special Needs student each Monday night this school year. She made her First Communion in the spring, so I'll work on reinforcing what she learned last year and try to go a little bit deeper into the topics.
Unlike the standard PSR classes, which are parish-based, the special needs students come from throughout the area. The sessions are held at the same time as the regular program, but in a different building on the church campus. Lessons are tailored to the abilities of each student. Sometimes a "class" is an individual child, and sometimes several are grouped together, but for the most part there's one teacher for each student.
Tonight was the first class. Since I was unsure exactly what my student likes and can do, I wanted to have a variety of activities planned--a review of prayers she learned last year, some activities about yesterday's Gospel reading, and an art sheet. In case any of those flopped, though, I wanted to have some backup. That's why this afternoon I found myself in the children's section of the library for the first time in a couple of decades, because I wanted to get some books that we could read together.
I'd forgotten just how low the shelves are there; I had to sit on the floor to be able to see the book titles, but I found three that I think would be appropriate to what we're talking about today. I set my room up with my huge pile of goodies and waited for my student to arrive. And waited. And waited. Just when I thought she might not be coming she arrived. Thank goodness I had prepared a lot of activities, because I want through all of them in 30 minutes. At the end of the evening all of the students and teachers gathered in a large room for prayer and songs, then it was time to go.
I've already gotten a bit of a start on next week's lesson, but it needs a lot of work between now and then!
I'd forgotten just how low the shelves are there; I had to sit on the floor to be able to see the book titles, but I found three that I think would be appropriate to what we're talking about today. I set my room up with my huge pile of goodies and waited for my student to arrive. And waited. And waited. Just when I thought she might not be coming she arrived. Thank goodness I had prepared a lot of activities, because I want through all of them in 30 minutes. At the end of the evening all of the students and teachers gathered in a large room for prayer and songs, then it was time to go.
I've already gotten a bit of a start on next week's lesson, but it needs a lot of work between now and then!
sounds like a rewarding job, doing God's work. Good for you Kathy.
ReplyDelete