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Hi all, I am looking for advice and where better to turn than the great repository of all knowledge... Hatrack.
Here's the dilemma. I am beginning my first official teaching job. One of my duties is to plan a week long "Immersion" experience for 10 to 20 of my students. I was given a lot of leeway in picking what kind of experience I wanted it to be, but based on my background (as a nun) and my school (private and catholic) I thought that I would offer something related to the church. My focus for the week is going to be on the history of the Catholic Church, specifically in our area. I have field trips planned for three days of the week and I think they will each take up the full day. The final day of class I am going to have them use MovieMaker to create a documentary of what they have learned using pictures from our field trips and the Internet.
Where I'm stuck, is what to do with them on the first day of the class. I would like to do a broad overview of Church history and play a little trivia game with them. As the week is really supposed to be about learning through means other than lectures, I'm trying to come up with some different ideas for that day so that they're not just sitting and listening to me for long chunks of time. One suggestion has been to show a video (either a documentary or fictional) based that has some relevance to church history. Now, what might be good to show? What is something that teenagers might find interesting but could spark some good discussion about our history?
posted
I can't think of anything contemporary or comprehensive. All I come up with is stuff like "Shoes of the Fisherman" and "Song of Bernadette" or "A Nun's Story".
Lots of biographys. Wasn't there one about Archbishop Romero not too long ago. Inspiring, but not an overview.
I'll keep thinking...
edit: what about something like Peter Ustinov's Inside the Vatican? I haven't seen it, but it might be what you want.
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I really, really like "Shoes of the Fisherman". If the Catholic Church really worked that way, I'd have no problem converting. But, it doesn't.
"The Mission" is a fairly pro-Jesuit movie about some Jesuits who tried to protect the native Gaurani in Paraguay from slavers and the Portuguese government. "Romero" is about Archbishop Oscar Romero, who is part of the liberation theology movement in El Salvador, and was assassinated.
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posted
Was "Black Robe" any good? That's the one about the Canadian Martyrs, right?
Umm... My late-teenaged discussion group enjoyed "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," about St Francis of Asissi, but it might be a little hokey for your group.
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The Mission is probably my favorite movie depicting Catholic history. But it does not exactly paint the Catholic church in a completely good light as both the bad guys AND the good guys are all Catholic. Unfortunately there are no movies about Matteo Ricci which is a crying shame, he would make a GREAT biopic.
What about doing a quiz show the first day of class? With some sort of prize for the winner and a consolation (redemption/salvation) round for those who get eliminated at the end?
My history teacher did those and I loved them. But I suppose quiz shows are really only good for reviewing information, not teaching it.
The other thing my history teacher did that I enjoyed was role playing where he'd hand us scripts give us 15 minutes to review them and then perform them together. Each scene was something of historical significance dialogged out by famous characters. You didn't have to memorize your lines you just had to act them with gusto and it really held attention quite well.
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posted
You could always pull some quotes from "Non Campus Mentis." I love that book, and it's quite informative, in a "what not to do" sort of way.
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The History Channel shows some good documentaries about Christian history, and I guess most are for sale.
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