Liz+Girton+Article

ARTICLE DUE DATE Dec. 1, 2013

Elizabeth Girton Basilica of Saint Lawrence 97 Haywood Street Asheville, NC 28801 828-252-8816 Faithformation@bellsouth.net

Capstone Article Project Title: //Diocesan Certification for the Over-extended Catechist// As the Director of Faith Formation for my small city, downtown parish I have, over the eighteen years of my ministry at this parish, attempted to get my catechists certified as the diocese requires but they are all working jobs during the week and generously sharing their faith on the weekend with others in the parish. My dilemma then is how do I make catechist formation available without creating an undue burden on them or their families? They already spend time in preparation for their classes and of course spend two hours in class with their learners. They are already giving munificently of their time and talent. After encountering Sr. Caroline Cerveny at the Mid-Atlantic Conference in the spring of 2013 at her “ __ TEN GREAT IDEAS for your Classroom or Ministry Using Web 2.0 Tools __ ” I knew what she was sharing was what I had been seeking for my catechists. When the opportunity for taking the Digital Disciple Boot Camp on-line arose I was quick to sign up for it. Here were the tools I was seeking to solve my challenge of getting my catechist’s formation with the diocese at least in process. Since many of my catechists were not very computer literate, I wanted to select the easiest to manage tool so that they would not get frustrated but keep returning to the materials for their compliance with the diocesan requirements. I wanted a format that they could share their ideas and responses in order to learn from the wisdom within their group. Additionally, I wanted them to be able to interact with the material on their time schedule not mine. Another requirement for my project was that I could evaluate its use and its usefulness. I decided I could accomplish all of this with the use of a blog. I checked with my pastor to make sure he was OK with this method of catechesis, which he was but he has as yet to be able to get on the blog himself. Every time I offer to help him he gets frustrated and says he will just try again later. I also check with the regional coordinator to make certain that it would be acceptable to do catechist training this way. He looked at the blog and said it appeared to be a sound form of catechesis just to make certain that I cover all the levels of the Catechist Recognition Process that the diocese has approved. I set up a blog through WordPress and invited the catechists to check it out. The first time on they could not all figure out the directions I sent them about signing up for the blog then accepting the invitation. After getting through the rough patches of a new experience, I had all of my catechists registered and successfully on the blog. The first post was to read a particular article in their Catechist Magazine and share one idea that was new to them or that really touched their hearts. After a few weeks all of them had made a comment of some type to the article – ironically, some of them responded to me in emails and in person which defeated the purpose of the collaborative community but at least I knew they were reading the material. I encouraged other catechists to help those who were struggling with the tool so that I was not the guardian of the site; I wanted to help build community through the blog and wanted them to seek assistance from others who knew what they were doing. This helped and all of my catechists were visiting the site regularly by the end of October. The only exception was one family whose computer was working and she could not use her phone to get all the webinars. She did say once she gets a computer for Christmas she wants to go back and see all the materials on the blog because what she say she found very intriguing. Therefore I felt very good about the blog with 100% of my catechists logging on regularly. As I added posts the catechists would respond more on the blog so others could see what they were thinking. Some were not as comfortable doing that so they just read the article or watched the webinars I embedded without making a comment on the blog. Those who did share their thoughts were very insightful so even those who did not respond themselves could see what was being discussed. I added a post each week. Some were webinars I embedded, some were YouTube videos, others were “how to” articles, others were stories on social justice. As time went on it seemed the catechists participated more often and were sharing ideas with one another that the post brought to mind. At the end of October, I did a PollDaddy Poll asking if the catechists felt they were engaged enough in the material, if they were able to spend the time some of the webinars required, if they found this type of formation helpful in their development as catechists. The majority of responses were positive with only a few who thought it took too much time for them to do the work. Additionally, I invited colleagues to check out the blog. They too had positive comments and thought they might try the same thing with their catechists. I offered to open the blog to their catechists as well and they wanted to check with their groups to see if they would use something like this for formation. In looking at the stats for the site there have been over 757 views although the blog is a private one. There have been 22 comments from my catechists and I have also had colleagues view the site who shared enthusiastically that they thought it was a great tool for catechist training. Once we join forces and see if we can all invite our catechists to use the blog for their training which will spread the posts around to all of us making it a richer experience. The Project Goals I set were: I was able to accomplish all these goals and even more. The catechists took responsibility for their own formation and encouraged each other in keeping up to date with the readings. These were exciting results because it has always been a challenge getting the catechists trained but using this blog I will continue throughout the year so that everyone will have a first year certificate which will be a first for my parish. I will have the substantiation I need to show the diocese that the catechists have completed their modules making it a good way to have what I need to show the diocese the work the catechists and I have been doing to get the catechists up-to-date on their certification. The technology I used was:
 * Create a private blog for my parish catechists as a tool for furthering their catechetical formation to meet parish and diocesan guidelines.
 * Create a community of digital disciples who are excited about sharing their faith with each other.
 * Using “Catechist Magazine”, challenge the catechists to read current materials that will increase their skills within their ministry.
 * Include articles that will also encourage catechists to develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ which they can then share with those with whom they minister as well as other catechists.
 * Form leaders within the catechists who encourage anyone who is not participating whether it is fear, time or whatever the circumstances so that I as the Parish Catechetical Leader do not come off as a taskmaster.
 * Blog – WordPress
 * Email
 * Links
 * PowerPoint presentation (used this to show some of the catechists having trouble getting on the blog the step by step way to get in)
 * Imbedded YouTube into one blog
 * PollDaddy poll
 * Webinars
 * YouTube
 * Wordle