It’s official! The date for the Great Adventure Leadership Training Day is set for May 22, 2010 at St. Patrick of Merna Church in Bloomington. The cost is $55 for the study leader track and $40 for the core team/group facilitator track.
Take a look at my earlier post for details on what to expect from this training. This is a new initiative for Ascension Press and the Great Adventure. They just started giving this training last year, and I’m told they have re-evaluated the original material and will completely revise the workshop just in time for our training in May.
Previously if you wanted to start a study, you had to roll up your sleeves and figure it out all on your own. Or, if you knew someone that had set one up, you could ask them to help you get it started. The resources on the website explaining how to actually accomplish this were limited at best. I had never even been to a Bible study, much less started one from scratch, so this was a daunting task. Now, with this leadership training, you can get all the information, material, resources and know-how you need to start a study the right way and keep it going.
In addition, there is training for group facilitators and assistants/core team members. This will include classroom instruction on group facilitation as well as hands-on training in mock study groups to gain practical experience. So, if you’re looking to recruit new group facilitators that don’t have any experience, you can offer them this training as an incentive. They don’t have to go in cold!
If you’re not involved in leading a Great Adventure Study, please pass this information along to the persons in your parish in charge of leading the studies. If your parish hasn’t started a Great Adventure study yet and you would like to, this is the perfect opportunity to find someone interested in leading and getting them the expertise they would need.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Notes on the Summer Institute this year
Below are a few of the decisions made recently by the DSI Advisory Board regarding the Summer Institute this year. DSI is still in the planning stages at this point and nothing is final yet, but it’s a pretty good bet it won’t change much from this.
The registration and brochures will be different this year. The brochure being mailed out will contain the program for this year’s Summer Institute with a map on the back. For convenience, the rooms will be color coded. There will be a letter of explanation sent along with the brochure and the registration form. It’s hoped that the registration form will be put on the diocesan website for online registration. The registrants will be notified of the reception of their registration form by either e-mail or telephone.
The participants will pick up their name tags and the agenda on the day of the Institute. There will be several tables where participants can pick up these things as they arrive – all will be in alphabetical order.
The poster contest is in full swing and “save the date” postcards will be sent out to the other dioceses of Illinois. The winning pictures of the poster contest will hang in the entrance to the Diocesan Summer Institute.
Conference attendees will be notified that various vendors will be in the three workshops dedicated to the various grades on methods, materials, and spirituality.
The St. Vincent de Paul men’s club will be manning the “food court.” The lunches will cost no more than $5.00 per day.
The cost of this year’s Summer Institute will be $30.00 per day or $55.00 for both days.
There will be no Sheen endowments this year due to the economic conditions. Letters will be sent to the pastors asking that the parishes pay for their catechists to attend. The letter to pastors will also ask them to promote the Summer Institute in their bulletin announcements.
Finally, on Friday evening, June 11, a film on Archbishop Sheen will be shown at St. Vincent’s in the new gym.
Watch for more information on the Summer Institute in the coming months. I’ll make it available as it comes along.
The registration and brochures will be different this year. The brochure being mailed out will contain the program for this year’s Summer Institute with a map on the back. For convenience, the rooms will be color coded. There will be a letter of explanation sent along with the brochure and the registration form. It’s hoped that the registration form will be put on the diocesan website for online registration. The registrants will be notified of the reception of their registration form by either e-mail or telephone.
The participants will pick up their name tags and the agenda on the day of the Institute. There will be several tables where participants can pick up these things as they arrive – all will be in alphabetical order.
The poster contest is in full swing and “save the date” postcards will be sent out to the other dioceses of Illinois. The winning pictures of the poster contest will hang in the entrance to the Diocesan Summer Institute.
Conference attendees will be notified that various vendors will be in the three workshops dedicated to the various grades on methods, materials, and spirituality.
The St. Vincent de Paul men’s club will be manning the “food court.” The lunches will cost no more than $5.00 per day.
The cost of this year’s Summer Institute will be $30.00 per day or $55.00 for both days.
There will be no Sheen endowments this year due to the economic conditions. Letters will be sent to the pastors asking that the parishes pay for their catechists to attend. The letter to pastors will also ask them to promote the Summer Institute in their bulletin announcements.
Finally, on Friday evening, June 11, a film on Archbishop Sheen will be shown at St. Vincent’s in the new gym.
Watch for more information on the Summer Institute in the coming months. I’ll make it available as it comes along.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Info from the February Catechetical Council Meeting
Here are a few items that might be of interest from the Catechetical Council Meeting in Peoria held on February 25. The Catechetical Council is the monthly meeting of RDREs and Diocesan Office of Catechetics staff.
A parishioner of St. Mary Parish in Rock Island is working on putting the “Let My People Come” PowerPoint presentations on the diocesan web page.
There will be no Sheen funds available for scholarships to the Diocesan Summer Institute this year.
Lunch will be open to the participant’s choice this year and not part of the Summer Institute admission fee. Participants will have the option of leaving the St. Vincent de Paul campus for a restaurant in town or paying for lunch on the premises. The St. Vincent de Paul Men’s Club will provide food concessions for a flat fee of $5.00 per lunch, which will include a wide variety of choices. More info to come on food choices.
Sessions will not be recorded by Florian Audio/Visual this year. Instead, three talks, the keynote speaker, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, John Michael Talbot’s session and Fr. Antoine Thomas’ session will be videotaped and these will be made available for sale.
A parishioner of St. Mary Parish in Rock Island is working on putting the “Let My People Come” PowerPoint presentations on the diocesan web page.
There will be no Sheen funds available for scholarships to the Diocesan Summer Institute this year.
Lunch will be open to the participant’s choice this year and not part of the Summer Institute admission fee. Participants will have the option of leaving the St. Vincent de Paul campus for a restaurant in town or paying for lunch on the premises. The St. Vincent de Paul Men’s Club will provide food concessions for a flat fee of $5.00 per lunch, which will include a wide variety of choices. More info to come on food choices.
Sessions will not be recorded by Florian Audio/Visual this year. Instead, three talks, the keynote speaker, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, John Michael Talbot’s session and Fr. Antoine Thomas’ session will be videotaped and these will be made available for sale.
Monday, March 1, 2010
First 'Let My People Come" Lecture in the bag!
The first “Let My People Come” lecture for the Champaign and Danville region is complete! Alan Anderson, the DRE for St. Mary’s in Metamora and RDRE for the Lasalle/Peru region, gave a very structured and informative presentation on lesson planning. Entitled “Creative Lesson Planning...Not!”, the presentation centered on planning your teaching using tried and true methods that are perhaps old-fashioned but very effective.
A former political satirist and college professor in Political Science, Anderson now teaches in the grade school and CCD programs at St. Mary’s. Anderson commented that the methods of conveying information effectively have not really changed that much since their first inception in the schools of ancient Greece. “In technology and the hard sciences we’ve moved ahead lightyears,” Anderson stated quoting a former Harvard professor who taught him, “but in the social sciences we’ve moved ahead really very little.”
Some of Anderson’s basic rules for lesson planning:
A former political satirist and college professor in Political Science, Anderson now teaches in the grade school and CCD programs at St. Mary’s. Anderson commented that the methods of conveying information effectively have not really changed that much since their first inception in the schools of ancient Greece. “In technology and the hard sciences we’ve moved ahead lightyears,” Anderson stated quoting a former Harvard professor who taught him, “but in the social sciences we’ve moved ahead really very little.”
Some of Anderson’s basic rules for lesson planning:
- Understand your role as passing on knowledge of Christ
- Don’t feel you have to “teach it all,” but understand you have to teach “something”
- Follow the KISS principle -- Keep It Simple, Saint!
- Pray before and after preparing for class
- Pay as much attention to your own spiritual life as you do to your students and your preparation
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