Catholic Education A cross the Curriculum

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Catholic Education A crossthe
Curriculum

• How to give
• Catholic identity
• to all subjects
• Web Edition

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Introduction

• Assistant Principal of Curriculum at St. Charles
  Catholic High School
• Contributing Writer and Consultant to Our Sunday
  Visitor Curriculum Division

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Little Jonny Goes to Catholic School
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What do you see?
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What does it mean to do Catholic education across
the curriculum?

• Understanding your role as a teacher in a
  Catholic school can be as subtle and at the same
  time be as significant as the difference that you
  see in the picture.
• Doing Catholic education across the curriculum is
  an old way of thinking that has come back in a
  new way.

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Part I

• Understanding
• the Curriculum as
• SACRED

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The Story of Ego and Spirit
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Catholic Education Across the Curriculum

• Invites you to
• approach education from
• Spirit
• not ego.

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Does creation reveal Gods love to you? CCC 288
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. All things came
to be through him, and without him nothing came
to be. (John 113)
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All of creation is the curriculum of human
inquiry.

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Past, present and future creation comes into
being through Christ.

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Christ is the principle of creation and
redemption. CCC 792

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Catholic education understands that the mystery
of God is being revealed in its curriculum.

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We come to know the artist through the art.

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Through the study of each of our disciplines we
encounter the mystery of God.

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Each of us are invited to do Catholic
education across the curriculum.

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As Catholic educators we are invited to help our
students see

• their relationship with the world,
• their relationship with others,
• and their purpose in life as
• sacred endeavors.

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Part II

• The Invitation to Each
• Teacher in a Catholic School

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Does this mean I have to add teaching religion to
my curriculum?

• No!
• That is the job of the religion / theology
  teachers of your school.
• They are the catechist of the school.

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Broken Escalator

• What Happens when the escalator brakes?
• Search UTube

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We can support each other in our mission as a
Catholic school.

• A CATECHIST is someone whos teaching is specific
  to the topics of religion/theology,
• Bible, doctrine, moral law, prayers, sacraments

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Doing Catholic education across the curriculum
has a broader application so as to support the
mission of a Catholic school.
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Catechesis

• Catechesis is from a Greek word meaning to
  echo,
• as in to echo the specific teachings and
  practices of the Catholic faith.

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Doing Catholic education across the curriculum
supports the religious education of the school.

• Religious is from a Latin word meaning to bind
  or tie together,
• as in to unite together in order to make
  stronger,
• as opposed to all wondering aimlessly without
  purpose or meaning.
• Education comes from a Latin word meaning to
  lead out.

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Supporting Catholic religious education means

• As Catholic school teachers we use the virtues
  and values of the Catholic faith
• to lead students out
• in a way that unites them to their greater
  purpose God, Church, Mission.

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Brick Layer
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Brief History of Religious Education
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What is the First Article of Faith?

• God created everything seen and unseen.
• Using faith and reason, creation is the worlds
  first religious educator.
• Creation is revealed as the first step towards
  this covenant, the first and universal witness to
  God's all-powerful love. CCC 288

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Pre-Modern

• The pre-modern had a one world view under Gods
  creation of the seen and the unseen.
• The world was a manifestation of Gods Spirit.
• Teachers are religious leaders of the
  community.

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Modern

• Modernity proposes a split between
• the spiritual and material world
• Spirit becomes the ghost in the machine, i.e.
  Wizard of Oz.
• the human and natural world.
• The natural world is something that humans must
  enforce its control over.
• The natural worlds role as sacred revelation is
  diminished.
• The natural world becomes the wild-erness
  rather than the sacred home of humans.

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Post-Modern

• Because of the Judeo-Christian commitment to
  faith and reason
• and sciences move away from the Newtonian
  mechanistic view,
• there has been a reconciliation between religion
  and science / faith and reason / sacred and
  secular literature / religious ritual and the
  arts.

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Wall-E as a Catholic Educator A Parable for Our
Times

• Search UTube

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As Catholic educators we are invited to

• - disturb,
• - expand,
• - transform, and
• - grow
• our students so that they may become aware of
  their relationship to the world, each other, and
  their purpose.

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The Call to be a Religious Educator in a Catholic
School

• Goes beyond being an instructor.
• It is a call to be a Teacher.
• What does Mary Magdalene call Jesus after the
  resurrection?

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The Invitation to Be a Catholic Educator

• Uses learning to transform the person,
• instead of simply transmitting information.

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The Invitation to Be a Catholic Educator

• Is focused on teaching the students
• NOT a subject.

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The Invitation to Be a Catholic Educator

• Understands the world as
• a communion of subjects
• rather than as
• a collection of objects.

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The Invitation to Be a Catholic Educator

• Sees learning as a dynamic co-creative process
• rather than
• as a passive collection of information.

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Part III

• Bringing Catholic Education Into Your Curriculum
• Helping Students to See with Their
• Spirit

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• Look what happen to Mr. FedEx.
• Search UTube

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Three Areas Where You Introduce Catholic
EducationInto Your Curriculum

• Cosmic Awareness
• Social Awareness
• Spiritual Awareness

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First Cosmic Awareness /Understanding the World
Around Us

• To call students into awareness of their
  relationship to the world.
• (How) Does your curriculum awaken your students
  to their relationship to the world around them?

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Second Social Awareness

• To call students into awareness of their
  relationships with other people.
• (How) Does your curriculum awaken your students
  to their relationships with other people?

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Third Spiritual Awareness

• To call students into awareness of their purpose
  for being.
• (How) Does your curriculum awaken your students
  to their purpose?

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Catholic Curriculum Design

• Incorporate religious education questions and
  discussion into lesson components.
• Big Idea or Essential Questions
• Discussion points for Catholicity connection
• Assessments
• Design questions to assess understanding your
  disciplines concepts, content, or skills while at
  the same time making the Catholicity connection.

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Sample Social Studies Lesson on Egypt

• Essential question Is the U.S. the Egypt of our
  day? (Compare and contrast theocracy to
  democracy?)
• Catholicity Discussion What is the role of
  religion in government?
• Assessment Compare and contrast Egypts
  theocracy and the U.S. democracy.

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Sample Essay

• This student relates types of numbers to an
  understanding of Gods creation.

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(No Transcript)
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Check out a school system that has a well
developed Catholic curriculum - Saskatchewan
Catholic Curriculum Online.

• http//www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/cco/

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Three Categories of Catholic Education Curriculum

• Word
• Works
• Worship

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Word beliefs
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Sacred Word Questions

• Word type questions have to do with beliefs.
• Who is God?
• What is creation?
• Why was it created?
• Why did God create humans?
• Who are we?
• What is the meaning and purpose of life?

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Works Moral teachings
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Sacred Works Questions

• Works type questions have to do with how someone
  or societies act or live.
• Is an action right or wrong?
• What value does this action hold?
• How will an action benefit or hurt others or
  other parts of Gods creation?
• How does the curriculum lend itself to the Gospel
  call to justice?
• Is God calling me to act one way or the other?

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Worship - prayers, rituals, or liturgical
celebrations
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Sacred Worship Questions

• Worship type questions have to do with prayers,
  rituals, and liturgical celebrations.
• What are we asking of God and our world, and what
  is God and our world asking of us?
• How do we show gratitude to God and for creation?
• What experiences shape our world or signify
  passage to a new world?
• What significant events in life are recalled
  through celebrations or memorials?

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Questions to Avoid

• Do not ask questions that are meant specifically
  for religion/theology class.
• Dont ask
• Can you recite a prayer?
• Can you list the 10 commandments?
• What is your relationship with God?
• Do ask
• How is learning math like learning to pray?
• How is a character of a story supporting or
  breaking Gods commandments?
• What affect does science have on your
  relationship with God?

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Sample Questions

• Sample questions are meant to prime the pump.
• Use your expertise in your curriculum to create
  good questions for discussion.

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The Spirit of Language Arts

• Created "in the image of God," man also expresses
  the truth of his relationship with God the
  Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. CCC
  2501

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Language Arts Word Questions

• (Grammar) Using the rules for writing a complete
  sentence, describe the characteristics of God.
• (Literature) How is this novel describing what it
  means to be human?

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Language Arts Works Questions

• (Grammar) How would you relate the rules for
  grammar to the 10 commandments?
• (Literature) Compare and contrast a character in
  literature to the ideal Christian life.

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Language Arts Worship Questions

• How can the self-expression of journalism be
  important to spiritual development?
• Where can you find the paschal mystery,
  life-death-resurrection, expressed in literature?

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The Spirit of Math

• there can never be any real discrepancy between
  faith and reason. CCC 159
• Math is one expression of our human gift in the
  art of reasoning.
• Math holds one of the primary keys to
  understanding the order of Gods universe.

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Math Word Questions

• What concept in math describes how or why God
  created the world?
• What concept or principle in math helps describe
  who God is to you?

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Math Works Questions

• Think of a math equation that has rules,
  procedures, or concepts that can be applied to
  living our life?
• Where would survival on the planet be today
  without our human ability to do math?

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Math Worship Questions

• How can doing math be considered a form of
  prayer?
• What is a key formula or principle of math that
  should be celebrated because of the creative
  opportunities that it has provided?

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The Spirit of Science

• The humble and persevering investigator of the
  secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by
  the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is
  God, the conserver of all things, who made them
  what they are. CCC 159
• God did NOT throw dice
• to create the universe.
• Einstein

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The Spirit of Science

• Post-modern science rejects the modernist notion
  of survival of the fittest.
• Instead, it embraces the Gospel concept of
  survival of the most loving.
• Search UTube for Being Present by Brian Swimme.

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Science Word Question

• How has science contributed to your understanding
  of what place humans hold in the universe?

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Science Works Questions

• Describe something you have learned from science
  that if more people knew or understood would help
  to make a better world.
• What would be the wrong uses of science?

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Science Worship Question

• There have been significant discoveries made in
  science. Which one do you think has made the
  greatest impact on our lives?

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The Spirit of Social Studies

• "The Church. . . believes that the key, the
  center and the purpose of the whole of man's
  history is to be found in its Lord and Master.
  CCC 450

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The Spirit of Social Studies

• If God is master of history, there is always a
  sacred lesson in the story of the world. We
  should no more neglect the stories of our planet
  anymore than we should neglect our stories of
  faith.
• Characteristic of free societies is to take the
  study of history and social systems very
  seriously.

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Social Studies Word Questions

• Do you believe God acts in history in some way?
  Why or why not?
• What do specific events tell us about our human
  condition?

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Social Studies Works Questions

• Why is the knowledge and understanding of social
  studies important to the Christian mission?
• Take a significant event in history and relate it
  to the Gospel message.

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Social Studies Worship Questions

• What event in history, outside of Church and
  Scripture, should we be most thankful?
• What current event do you think most deserves our
  prayers?

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Sample Questions for Other Disciplines
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Sample Word Questions

• Foreign Language What characteristic about
  foreign language tells us something about God?
• Physical Education If God was a sport or a type
  of physical activity, which would God be?
• Fine Arts What is the relationship between God
  creating the universe and any artistic creation
  of your own?
• Home Ec What does good nutrition say about what
  God wants for human beings?

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Sample Works Questions

• Foreign Language How does the study of foreign
  languages help us to fulfill our role to live
  good Christian
• Physical Education How does learning a sport
  help with living the Christian life?
• Fine Arts What do the disciplines of the arts
  teach us about living the Christian life?
• Home Ec Why is proper nutrition an important
  responsibility for Christians?

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Sample Worship Questions

• Foreign Language Why is learning a foreign
  language like learning to pray?
• Physical Education In what ways could exercise
  be considered a prayer.
• Fine Arts In what ways do the arts give
  expression to our spiritual lives?
• Home Ec In what way is food considered more than
  just nourishment?

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Recommended Book

• Sacred Universe by Thomas Berry

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Recommended Book

• The Universe is a Green Dragon by Brian Swimme

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Recommended Book

• Faith, Science, and Reason by Christopher Baglow

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Contact Information

• dtriche_at_archdiocese-no.org or
• charlie_1104_at_yahoo.com
• 985-653-3809
• Go to http//spiritualdiscovery.wordpress.com to
  get PowerPoint.

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The End
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Special Thanks to

• Faculty and Staff of St. Charles Catholic High
  School

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Special Thanks to

• Our Sunday Visitor