Using your Kindle To Teach CCD

For the last few months I have been using my kindle to carry my lesson plan and references for teaching 8th grade CCD.  For those non-Catholics who don't know and those Catholics who never asked ; CCD stands for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.  It is the name for the classes Catholic children who are not in Catholic school take in order to learn the faith. 

I favor using more modern tech if  I can.  A few weeks ago we all did our own fake facebook page (on a paper template) for Jesus to cover concepts such as who His friends were, what people would ask as intercession, how saints pray for us (by seeing what intercessions they would post) and omnipresence by showing Him attending many masses at the same time with the events function.

So I thought I would post on how to use the Kindle as a lesson planner and reference holder.  First I write a lesson plan.

Here is a bullet pointed version of my lesson plan for this week based on our textbook. I often use the bullet pointed version and use the text as a guide to the main points of the plan in addition to what I have memorized about the text. (Page numbers in parentheses from the teachers manual):

Lessons 8 And 9 Combined
Part 1: Suffering Servant and the Passion

Opening Prayer

Engage

• What is a prophet?
• Why is it important to get messages to people accurately, safely and on time?

Teach and Apply

•  The Suffering Servant
•  Isaiah and prophecy
•  Read pages 84-85 (152-53)
• Why was the idea of the suffering servant helpful during exile?
•  The odds of Christ.  1 in 10 to the 157th power to fulfill 48 prophecies (He fulfilled 324)
•  Speaking out for justice
•  Sinless Servant
•  Christ as Historical figure…He existed
•  Compare the suffering servant with Jesus
•  Works of art inspired by the life and work of Jesus
•  Does Christ inspire you?
•  Veneration of the Cross p. 92 (p. 160)
•  Evil in the world
•  Original Justice
•  Original Sin
•  What effects of original sin do you see in the world today?
•  Where and why do people suffer?
•  Silently read p. 95
•  Moral and Physical evil (Did you know p.95 (p. 167))
•  How does the Paschal Mystery illustrate good coming from evil?
•  Freedom, good and bad consequences p. 95 (p.167)
•  Faith Connection activity p. 95 (p. 167)
•  Jesus the new Adam
•  Jesus Cross, our Cross

Connect

•  How does the passion and death of Jesus help us carry our crosses
•  Without Good Friday, No Easter Sunday
•  "Unless there is a cross in our lives, there will never be the empty tomb--unless there is a crown of thorns, there will never be the halo of light--unless there is a Good Friday, there will never be an Easter Sunday- Fulton Sheen 

•  Dealing with Loss and Suffering

Closing Prayer

I then take the lesson plan and use Mobipocket creator to convert the Word Document to a Kindle Format..usually a PRC file. Sometimes the formatting gets messed up on the indents of the bullet points...if that would bother you then use a format without bullet points.

I then bookmark relevant points in the Compendium of the Catechism so I am sure present the material on the major points in the correct manner. If you do not have a Kindle version of the Compendium then go to the Vatican Website and copy and paste the sections you need into a word file and convert it like the lesson plan.

For this lesson I have sections 118, 119, 366

118. Why was the death of Jesus part of God's plan?
599-605
619
To reconcile to himself all who were destined to die because of sin God took the loving initiative of sending his Son that he might give himself up for sinners. Proclaimed in the Old Testament, especially as the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant, the death of Jesus came about “in accordance with the Scriptures”.

119. In what way did Christ offer himself to the Father?
606-609
620
The entire life of Christ was a free offering to the Father to carry out his plan of salvation. He gave “his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and in this way he reconciled all of humanity with God. His suffering and death showed how his humanity was the free and perfect instrument of that divine love which desires the salvation of all people.

366. What place does human freedom have in the plan of salvation?
1739-1742
1748
Our freedom is weakened because of original sin. This weakness is intensified because of successive sins. Christ, however, set us free “so that we should remain free” (Galatians 5:1). With his grace, the Holy Spirit leads us to spiritual freedom to make us free co-workers with him in the Church and in the world.

I then bookmark all Scripture readings in my Kindle version Catholic Edition RSV Bible, and read over any important notes in the Kindle RSV Catholic Study New Testament by Scott Hahn.  I highlight as notes or bookmark any helpful information.  For this week I have the Suffering Servant Isaiah passages and the Passion accounts. 

I then load any MP3 versions of hymns that are suitable for reflection if I have them.

Then anything special.  This week I do a short prayer service for the Veneration of the cross in Word and convert it to Prc for Kindle.  

Now I move the lesson plan, Bible and Compendium (along with any other bookmarked reference material) into one Kindle collection so I have them all in one  place to make it easier to switch between them.

Then I can use the Kindle one handed while writing on the board, reference dozens of various sources and even use it to play music.  So with the kindle and teachers manual (to reference the textbook) I usually do the whole class while not having to go through multiple books.

Now in class I use the kindle as the main reference to my lesson plan (always have paper backup),  my Bible (although be sure to keep one on the class altar/prayer space) and portable Compendium of the Catechism.