Teachers

High School Teachers Resources

Lesson Plans for High School Theology and Religion Teachers
Teachers have the opportunity to help students begin to choose their life paths, and these flexible lesson plans make it easy to give existing curriculum units a vocations flavor. The idea is to develop a classroom "vocations culture" in which students feel free to consider Church vocations among their many options.

Each lesson has a teacher's guide and accompanying downloadable worksheets. You'll see the goal, core concepts, teaching tips, prayer, and Scripture readings to help make the most of each lesson. Click here for lesson plans to enhance your classroom culture in a way that fits your style!

God’s Design CD-ROM
Interactive CD-ROM will invite your students to take the “Teen Challenge,” including a quiz to help them answer the question, “Could you be a priest or sister?” An “Interest Survey,” also in the Getting to Know Me section, matches students’ interests with particular religious orders or diocesan priesthood. Tour religious houses and a rectory in the Church Vocations section, and consider having students produce videos to illustrate what makes a home and what makes a community. For your students or yourself, consider clicking on a mini-retreat. The choices range from two minutes to 24 hours.
Available from the National Coalition for Church Vocations, 1-800-671-NCCV.

Story of My Life Program
Based on a written tool developed by the Gallup organization, Story of My Life helps young people identify their talent for Church leadership. All it takes is one classroom period. A priest and sister will come to talk briefly about vocations. Students will then fill out written booklets, indicating on a scale of one to five the likelihood that they would include each of 96 statements in an autobiography. The Vocations Office electronically “scores” the booklets, and students are given the option to meet one-to-one with a vocation director to discuss the results. (These meetings take place during a student’s free period or study hall.) Contact the Vocations Office at (414) 747-6437 or vocations@sfs.edu to set up the Story of My Life program for your students.

Social Studies Career Sleuths
November is Native American Heritage Month. Thanksgiving ties into that heritage, although Native Americans and Americans of European heritage attach divergent meanings to the day. As a project, assign students to research the Thanksgiving legend from both perspectives. Why do some Native Americans call it a “Day of Mourning” instead of “Thanksgiving”? Is there some common ground that could bring people together? Focus on the goal of looking at things from different angles—something which Church leaders in the worldwide Catholic Church must do all the time. Remind students to look at why the perspectives differ, not to debunk one version or the other, but to understand.

Calling All Saints
On November 1, the Catholic Church and other Western Christian denominations celebrate All Saints Day. November 1 officially became the Feast of All Saints under Pope Gregory III, who dedicated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter, in Rome, on that day. Pope Gregory IV made it a worldwide Catholic fast day. Have students research the patron saint of a favorite hobby or future profession. Their essays should include 1) how the saint became associated with the hobby or profession, and 2) something in the saint’s story that is inspirational to the student (or a statement about why the student didn’t really find the saint’s story to be personally inspiring).

Here are some patron saints that might be of interest to your students: