Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This time of year should be relaxing and enjoyable for everyone, so I hope you are all having a calm time off from school, work, or whatever your 9-5 day consists of. While at mass this morning, the priest very emphasized the meaning of Christmas and how it centers around unconditional love, not things and possessions. Yes, even though we give each other presents, we should not forget what the real meaning of Christmas is:

Love. Family. Friends. Joy. Etc.

Since today is such a joyous and memorable holiday, I think this is the perfect time to show you the pictures from my happiness class. We each took markers and wrote down words that either relate or associate with the idea of being happy. Take a look and see, and guess which one's are mine if you can spot 'em ;). What words come to mind for you?

I absolutely adored this activity because as a class, we unified together to bring forward happy thoughts and feelings for our professor and for one another. We all deserve to be happy and I am very blessed to have taken this class to justify those reasons why. It's one of those special moments where it's tough for me to put into words. 

Recap: CHRTC 100

My other Christian theology course I took this term was CHRTC 100 where it focused on introducing us to the Bible. So fitting right since today is CHRISTMAS EVE. The day before Jesus Christ was born. This course was a basic lecture and straightforward with three tests and a discussion question component.

All my professors have been so amazing this term and for this class the professor is no exception! As a whole, they all have been super helpful, accommodating to overall great mentors which I learned from them all and me. *cue the applause* *I swear I'm not a suck-up* 

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If I'm perfectly honest, my attendance for this class was not the greatest. Once you're in your later years in your degree, i.e.,. third-fourth-fifth-sixth years, you tend to gauge which lectures are most important actually to show up. Don't get me wrong, I strongly advocate in going to class EVERY SINGLE TIME, but there are those where it's just like "check eClass the powerpoint slide will be up anyways." Seriously kids, go to class, EVERY TIME. Strive for that perfect attendance! 

Although I don't revolve my life around quotes and sayings and passages, they do influence that way I see my life and how I interpret various situations. I'm pretty sure my classroom will just be pinned with posters of inspirational quotes, just you wait. I bring this up because some of the ones I always turn to, came from the Bible! Learning in class the contextual meaning behind them, especially ones from the Psalms and Proverbs and the Gospels was pretty great to understand. No, I won't pummel you with quotes, BUT BUT BUT here's one of my all-time favorites.

Recap: CHRTC 103

I am so grateful that I took not one, but TWO CHRTC (Christian Theology at St. Joe's) classes this Fall Term. I don't know if you guys know, but my plan is to finish my B.Ed with my Certificate to teaching Catholic Education. I feel that it will help me with applications and jobs, plus I really do want to teach in a Catholic school district. I took CHRTC 250 back in 2014, I finished both CHRTC xxx (which is my 103 Happiness class) and CHRTC 100 this term, finishing with one last class next term! It's P-R-etty exciting, let me tell ya.

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If you're interested in that Catholic certificate, click here to find more information about it!

Okay, so CHRTC 103 is called Introduction to the Roads of Happiness. Ya, I see those eyerolls already, don't give me those. I remember I was late for this class on the very first day (yikes!) and it was a smaller class too, I think about 12 people in it? It is definitely a worthwhile and truthfully, one of the best/better classes I recommend to take at the University. Here are my top three favorite things about this course.

1. Okay, so the breakdown of the evaluation components is simple: 3 papers (which I did very well on, pat on the back for me is needed) and a participation/discussion mark. The three papers, I felt was more of a fair and authentic approach to appropriately assess our understanding about the course of happiness (which I will touch later on!). There was no final exam, instead it was a final paper (thank you thank you professor) which I felt was my strongest paper yet. *giving myself high-fives*

2. So my first favorite thing, if you haven't already guessed, is the assessment. It was pretty easy, as it should be for a 100-level course. My second favorite would have to be coming to lecture! Who knew that coming to lecture could be SO refreshing and helpful? (I did actually..). The style of the class was considered a "semi-flipped classroom" meaning we would have to do discussion forums before coming to lecture. That way we would be already somewhat familiar with the topics going to be addressed. The forum discussions were straightforward, reply to the question then reply to a classmate's post.

The lectures, didn't even feel like lectures, more "class discussions". Starting the second week people didn't even write things down (only if it was important for the papers). It was more of a "period where we shared our feelings and applications of the given content" kind of a class. Worked for me since I looooove to talk.

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3. My last thing I want to highlight is the CONTENT! (Aka what we learned). Is it possible to walk away from a class a better, happier person?! Because each lecture I felt that. It wasn't weird, but it was refreshing to feel, almost like therapy. 

Our textbook was amazing too, it's called The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky. I highly suggest you check this book out, it discusses myths about happiness and ways to cultivate happiness long-term, for example. It's a very quick read too, and who knew a book I would read for efferent purposes could also be used for aesthetic reasons. (That's my literacy vocabulary coming out... sorry).  

Not only we explored key terms such as happiness, gratitude and love, but also saw the other side of the mirror by analyzing negative words like acedia, lust, depression and sadness. Our amazing professor used eye-opening videos and photographs to deepen our understanding. It was honestly, an overall amazing class. Take it. 

Also, during the last class, each student took markers and wrote words that mean or relate to happiness. I won't post those pictures now, but I will soon. It's truly inspiring! 

Subject 5 (and final) - Religion

The last subject I taught was Religion! If you've been reading my blogs (which I hope you have!) then you would know that Easter Mass was during my last week of my practicum! I taught my class certain bible passages that were Easter related.

If you haven't read my blog post about the school's Easter Mass celebration, you can read it here! I listed in that post the two hymns that were played throughout the mass. These songs are on my repeat YouTube playlist without a doubt!

An activity I led in class which summed up the religion topics, was to make a greeting card for grade 2/3 students preparing for their First Holy Communion. This is legit straight from my lesson plan:

"Explain how First Communion is considered one of the holiest and most important occasions in a Roman Catholic person's life. It is the first time that a person receives the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, which is the consuming the bread and wine (body and blood). Catholics believe these to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Most Catholic children receive their First Communion when they're 7 or 8 years old."

Here are some examples of their greeting cards!

I emphasized the purpose of this activity was to use what they have learned in the previous classes, and explain why and how Jesus is important to all of us. I told them not to put their name on it, as this was anonymous. These grade 2's/3's would be thrilled for their First Holy Communion preparation to be started with a caring, 6th grader making them a card! Here is the template I provided for them. Of course, they were expected to add more! 

Dear Student, 

Jesus is important to everyone because… 

Jesus will always remind me of love, power and forgiveness because… 

Jesus is a part of me… 

Yours, 

A 6th Grade Student

My favorite part about this activity was I gave the students just one block to do and finish it. This block actually happened to be before recess. Once the bell rang, I believe about 8 or 9 kids stayed in, during their recess, to make it more colorful and more meaningful for the students. How thoughtful is that?! It definitely is, shows how caring these students are for younger ones!

Easter Mass

During my last week, which is actually last week, our school had an Easter mass to celebrate with the entire school. I taught religion classes last week to prepare for the importance of Easter and how it's an important day for us Christians. 

I didn't think that 800 students would fit in the gymnasium, but it certainly did. A lot of the students were even asking why have an Easter celebration so far away from Easter itself? I responded saying that Easter marks celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, and it's never too late for it.

I further explained how Jesus is and always will be a part of us. At times during struggle and at times during triumph. In order to prepare for the celebration, my MT played 2 hymns for the class to be familiar with. These two songs are inspiring to listen to while watching the lyrics pass by on the screen. Every time I listen to these songs, I'll always think back of the amazing students I was blessed with for my first practicum.

I hope you like these amazing Christian hymns and pass it along when you teach Religion!