All Saints teachers incorporate faith-building into students’ daily routines
Administrators, teachers and students at All Saints Grade School in Canton have taken the Holy Father’s words to heart and are celebrating the “Year of Faith” — which started Oct. 11, 2012, and concludes on the Feast of Christ the King, Nov. 24, 2013 — in grand style. Activities include preparing and displaying informative religious artwork, weekly school-wide and classroom-specific prayer services and many other activities.
“During the ‘Year of Faith,’ our teachers are providing many opportunities within the classroom for our students to celebrate, deepen and share their faith,” said Krtisten Strausbaugh, principal of All Saints. “As I’ve walked down the halls and into classrooms, I’ve been amazed to see so many teachers incorporating faith-building ideas into the classroom environments.”
One room, teacher Laura Huck’s fifth-grade language arts class, incorporates a weekly prayer service with its homeroom session. “Throughout the week, students are able to add any special prayer intentions to the classroom prayer wall,” Huck said. “On Friday, the Prayer Leader (a classroom job that also leads daily Grace before lunch) and I lead a 10-minute service to share our faith. We turn off the lights to create a quiet atmosphere, stand in a circle and pass around one of the items from our prayer table (a crucifix, a small ‘Christ the Teacher’ picture or a rosary). When the item comes to each student, he or she shares something for which they want to thank God. Then we pass the item around for a second time and each student can choose to share their personal prayer intention.”
Fourth-grade religion and social studies teacher Rob Arnould is utilizing technology to enhance the faith experience of his students. “Podcasts of the daily readings from a British monastery and the scriptural rosary from rosaryarmy.com are some things that my students enjoy,” Arnould said. “The interactive rosary on Fatima.org also is a favorite.”
Michelle Shore, curriculum director at All Saints, explained the impetus of the school’s initiatives.
“During this ‘Year of Faith,’ All Saints is focusing on spreading knowledge about our Church and a passion for our Catholic faith through the virtues and saints.
From the moment guests walk through our front door, they are greeted with displays that change monthly featuring the virtue of study through the Archdiocese of
Detroit Virtue Project and holy Catholic saints. This has proven to be an amazing way to spread information and faith to our students and families alike.
“Each featured saint is accompanied with a lasting life lesson of love, service and encouragement as well as five highlights that most people might not know about this model of faith,” Shore said.
All Saints also celebrates a weekly community prayer service every Tuesday in addition to Mass and daily morning prayers, she said. “This time gathered in community has joined us in prayer, school-wide acknowledgements, fellowship and blessed us with the opportunity to further discuss the virtues and saints and grow in faith together.”
Tim Keenan is a freelance writer based in Farmington Hills.
