The gift of REAP

Got souvenir from REAP (Religious Education Accreditation Program) 2-day workshop delivered by Brisbane Catholic Education (25-26 November 2016) at Catholic Junior College - Singapore. It was very inspiring. The workshop has given a lot of reference for RE teacher. And, more than that ... it's like validating what we have done in the classroom.

The workshop was integrated with para-liturgy - creative prayer service in such a way that it has changed my horizon. Thank you for Father Edward Seah - Chairman of ACCS (Archdiocese Commission for Catholic Schools) who hosted this event for Catholic teachers.

Teaching is not just about presenting the material, but also conversion of the teacher himself. In other words, teaching should be able to enlighten the teacher to be more active and creative. It should make the teacher see all the challenges as treasures. And, in the end, how to use those treasures to give more benefit to teaching-learning environment. Both teacher and student should gain the benefit of harmony among themselves. They need to work together to maximize learning capacity.

Mark Elliot, one of the Australian speakers, mentioned that it should be more hopeful. Here, we got more "quality" in Catholic faith. He was trying to respond from one of the participants who seemed to be desperate with the atmosphere of secularization. What the workshop contributes is to change our mindset and mentality. To give the best for the classroom is to install tools for the students so that they can easily translate the message.

Bible approach was introduced. Story of Nativity and Zaccheus were used. From the story to values. With variety of games, the participants were gradually brought to the content and, lastly, the message. Simplicity, night, peace, starts are some of the words that came out from the Story of Nativity. It make sense that the activity itself is the message. The joy of engagement and being together in solidarity to solve the problem are not just appetizer. They enriched the content.

Participants were divided into groups of six. My group composed of ladies from different school. The learning materials were provided. There was no pressure in group activity. Each of us was complement to one another. From in-group activities then it moved to different learning style. We were introduced with some teaching techniques: story telling, crafting, and role play.

What I found from story telling was content of the story. But, in my observation, it made sense that the success also came from the teacher, the facilitator. Quality of engagement and communication skills play important part for the success of teaching-learning activity. In crafting session, we used various material to create certain "final product" which made teaching-learning activity be more visible and meaningful. In role play, we used the story of Prodigal Son as the theme. Hot seat technique that is what they called. Two participants were asked to be hot seat-er to answer questions from other participants.

Indeed, the gift of REAP is "refreshment" to what we have been doing in the classroom. Somehow, it is also a demand to be more creative - challenge of creativity. Why? Teacher and student need to sign a contract that they agree to move together creating championship - success story from classroom. As I always believe that happiness should be with meaning. Classroom happines should be distributed equally to all (the teacher too!).