1 / 30

Welcome to the Word: God-talk and the staffroom

Welcome to the Word: God-talk and the staffroom . Amalee Meehan : CEIST & John O’Roarke: Mercy Mounthawk. What kind of God is communicated in this clip? What is your reaction to this portrayal of God?. Christianity.

estelle-genero
Download Presentation

Welcome to the Word: God-talk and the staffroom

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Welcome to the Word: God-talk and the staffroom Amalee Meehan: CEIST & John O’Roarke: Mercy Mounthawk

  2. What kind of God is communicated in this clip? • What is your reaction to this portrayal of God?

  3. Christianity God’s intimate involvement with the world reaches a whole new level with the Incarnation God becomes one of us in Jesus Christ

  4. The Incarnation Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us” (Mt 1:23) This is the central mystery of the Incarnation: God is with us in Jesus Christ

  5. D G

  6. How do we enter this relationship? • Jesus is the love and tenderness of God, the means of friendship, and the bridge between us and God. • He is the ultimate way that God comes into our lives and draws us close.

  7. Who do you say that I am? Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). How do you answer his question right here, right now?

  8. Course Outline Spirituality and life’s journey  Being a reflective teacher Imago Dei: Who am I and Whose Am I?  Jesus - the face of God Jesus as teacher The spirituality of teaching and learning  Celebrating the Catholic school  

  9. So Far . . .

  10. Where did the course come from… Joining the dots… The expectations … The experience in the school … learning communities…

  11. The expectation GravissimumEducationis(1965) ‘teachers must remember that it depends chiefly on them whether the catholic school achieves its purpose’ (Flannery 1998 p.733) ‘the catholic educator must be a source of spiritual inspiration…the Lay Catholic educator is a person who exercises a specific mission within the Church by living the faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school…Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith 1982

  12. Formation is indispensible … and must be kept up to date and on the same level as, and in harmony with human formation as a whole’ CCE 1982 #62 (Lay Catholics in Schools) CEIST is committed to building school faith communities ….where staff are supported and facilitated in their vital role within the school (p.11)

  13. So how do we do this????

  14. ACTIVE SPIRITUALITY SPIRITUALITY FOR THE ACTIVE LIFE (Parker Palmer 1990) The experiences of teachers’ everyday work are central to teachers’ spirituality… ‘choosing to integrate everyday spirituality into a more meaningful whole is what spirituality is all about’ ( Ashton 2004 p 56-57) There is nothing in everyday life that is ‘irrelevant to the spiritual life’ (Paul VI 1965) Groome 2002, 284) ‘Spirituality should be lived ‘in the market place of life’

  15. Constant business and over-business of teachers’ daily lives militates against nourishing their inner lives, research has shown that reflection on the experiences of daily life – the good and the bad – sustains their spirits… (Jackson and Jackson 2005, McMahon 2003, Simone 2004) [Courage to Teach Programme – Parker Palmer ]

  16. Moments of grace… Experiences in daily life that nurture spirituality: Experiences of community, feelings of being connected, and being appreciated… Experiences of making a difference: student achievement, student growth,

  17. MAKING SPACE Not adding another burden… BUT MAKING SPACE CREATING CAPACITY To reflect on the moments that providentially fill our days… Giving teachers the eyes with which to discern these moments: scripture and tradition…

  18. Reflecting together When was the last time you had a good conversation? John O’Donoghue at the 1st CEIST conference in this very hotel. Prayer - communal and life giving … COMMUNITY IS KEY

  19. Learning communities Learning school Pilot Project AFL grouping SEN literacy and numeracy group So we started with a meeting with interested teachers to see what they wanted… our planning is based on this meeting.

  20. Aims This course aims to enliven participants’ understanding of the Catholic faith in ways that are formative, informative and transformative. Through connecting how God is revealed with the deep desires of the human heart, it hopes to deepen participants’ own faith, praxis and relationships – with God, with themselves, and with others - especially in the context of the school community.

  21. What model are we using? Dialogue of faith and life

  22. CRITICAL MOMENTS What teaching strategy did I use? How effective was it in achieving the learning outcomes? Were all the students engaged? Is it efficient in terms of time? Will I get the course covered? What would I change if I were to use this method again?

  23. A lot of work with teachers focused on ‘what’ we do, or ‘how’ we do it or occasionally ‘why’ do we do it - we might consider focusing on ‘who’ is doing it…. ‘We teach who we are’

  24. Let’s change the questions – to look through the prism of faith and belief… MOMENTS OF GRACE Did I treat all the students fairly? Did I deal with that student with any sense of mercy or compassion Did I see in that moment a seed that I planted?

  25. You have to have the glasses cleaned You have to have the mirror polished Sultan and the Chinese and the Indians Therefore our aim: ‘to enliven participants’ understanding of the Catholic faith in ways that are formative, informative and transformative’.

  26. Nothing new here… • An age old method of prayer… • How does the word of God speak to me in my experience of life today? • Meditation / reflection on scripture in the stuff of every day…

  27. An invitation to teachers • This course is an invitation to every teacher of every subject area, to explore their faith and connect it to their life, especially their work life. • It is spiritual in emphasis, and we hope to engage people at the level of head, heart and hands – practical living. • There are no fees, no travel and no exams. We ask simply for time and enthusiasm!

  28. Time The course runs over seven evenings for two hours each evening one hour during the week to mull over the preceding class, to write a one page reflection and, from time to time, read a short article.

  29. Short Bib: • Ashton, W (2004) The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. In Donton and W Ashton (Eds.) Spirituality, Action and Pedagogy (Vol 8), New York: Peter Lang. • (Paul VI 1965) Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity • Groome, T.H. (2002) What Makes us Catholic San Francisco: Harper Collins • Meehan, Amalee. (April 2008) Bring Them Home: A Role for Catholic Schools in Ireland Today. The Furrow

More Related