Today conversation once again begas as a time to reflect upon and question prayer practises within our school. Some of the areas we covered included: ~Morning assembly prayer - is this the most effective time for prayer? How can we as teachers better set the mood for prayer, e.g teachers displaying reverance and respect? Is having students sharing prayer making it a meaningful time or is this simply the "easy option" for teachers?
We also discussed how prayer within classrooms is often prayers of petition,and rarely do the children identify and pray prayers of thankfulness (and yet we have so much to be thankful for!) How do we assist the children to recognise this?
Eventually (after a full circle of discussion) it was decided that we could assist with prayer in the classroom by putting together some simple liturgies to be used at the conclusion of teaching an RE unit. We had identified that the end of the RE units was generally the time when prayers were "dropped" as time factored in areas such as organisation, other KLA's and curriculum areas, the knowledge and availability of resources was considered limited, self knowledge for teachers to organise and/or manage effective prayer was limited and class balance and student management often made us less than enthusiastic to participate in a quiet prayer session.
Our next step was to create a SIMPLE proforma to follow when organising a class liturgy. The main ideas were to keep it simple and not a make prayer a "dramatic production", to engage the students in MEANINGFUL prayer time and to assist the teachers in preparing and organising prayer by identifying what 'prayer' is and what resources are available to assist teachers in organising prayer.
The following was developed as a general guide: ~ A prayer focus - the recalling and/or retelling or story and life experience ~ Otional song ~ Scripture ~ Reflection (Homily) ~ Activity and/or Response
After we had settled on this basic outline, we discussed going our seperate ways to try putting together a liturgy for a unit from each stage. However, after a few more Freddo Frogs, it was decided that it might be better for us to colaborate together and share our knowledge/ideas/experiences.
We began with the Year Two unit 'A Forgiving Community' which is a simple reconcilliation unit. We ended after plotting some initial ideas for prayer for this unit.
The times we have spent in discussion so far has clarified my own thoughts on what I want for prayer in my classroom. If only it all comes together so quickly and easily (hahah)! It was great to see some of the resources available - let's face it, who really has time to go through and find what you need? Even hearing so many new and interesting ideas regarding prayer from my peers has been rewarding in itself!
P.S Phil - It's your turn to supply the chocolate. We like Nestle, Cadbury and Red Tulip...
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Wed 22nd Aug, 2007
Today conversation once again begas as a time to reflect upon and question prayer practises within our school. Some of the areas we covered included:
~Morning assembly prayer - is this the most effective time for prayer? How can we as teachers better set the mood for prayer, e.g teachers displaying reverance and respect? Is having students sharing prayer making it a meaningful time or is this simply the "easy option" for teachers?
We also discussed how prayer within classrooms is often prayers of petition,and rarely do the children identify and pray prayers of thankfulness (and yet we have so much to be thankful for!) How do we assist the children to recognise this?
Eventually (after a full circle of discussion) it was decided that we could assist with prayer in the classroom by putting together some simple liturgies to be used at the conclusion of teaching an RE unit. We had identified that the end of the RE units was generally the time when prayers were "dropped" as time factored in areas such as organisation, other KLA's and curriculum areas, the knowledge and availability of resources was considered limited, self knowledge for teachers to organise and/or manage effective prayer was limited and class balance and student management often made us less than enthusiastic to participate in a quiet prayer session.
Our next step was to create a SIMPLE proforma to follow when organising a class liturgy. The main ideas were to keep it simple and not a make prayer a "dramatic production", to engage the students in MEANINGFUL prayer time and to assist the teachers in preparing and organising prayer by identifying what 'prayer' is and what resources are available to assist teachers in organising prayer.
The following was developed as a general guide:
~ A prayer focus - the recalling and/or retelling or story and life experience
~ Otional song
~ Scripture
~ Reflection (Homily)
~ Activity and/or Response
After we had settled on this basic outline, we discussed going our seperate ways to try putting together a liturgy for a unit from each stage. However, after a few more Freddo Frogs, it was decided that it might be better for us to colaborate together and share our knowledge/ideas/experiences.
We began with the Year Two unit 'A Forgiving Community' which is a simple reconcilliation unit. We ended after plotting some initial ideas for prayer for this unit.
The times we have spent in discussion so far has clarified my own thoughts on what I want for prayer in my classroom. If only it all comes together so quickly and easily (hahah)! It was great to see some of the resources available - let's face it, who really has time to go through and find what you need? Even hearing so many new and interesting ideas regarding prayer from my peers has been rewarding in itself!
P.S Phil - It's your turn to supply the chocolate. We like Nestle, Cadbury and Red Tulip...
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