Bishop McNamara Catholic School 7th and 8th Grade Religion Open House Bishop McNamara Catholic School 7th and 8th Grade Religion Mrs. Bridget Bassett Email: bbassett@bmcss.org

Welcome Parents! I strive for Religion Class to be a sanctuary, a place where your child feels at home, comfortable to share and most of all a place to learn about the Catholic Faith. A few things you should know about me: This is my 4th year of teaching junior high religion, my 15th year of teaching and I love being with your junior high student each day – REALLY, I DO! I am a mother to 4 children and so I understand the teenage brain, as much as you can understand the teenage brain. My faith is my strength and my goal is to help your child strengthen his/her faith. Nearly every Friday, your child will hear one of the readings for Sunday and we will do an activity to go along with the reading. Your child will be journaling in a prayer journal each week. This journal is to help them enhance their conversations with God and Jesus. I have my own prayer journal at home. We often say we will pray for others and we forget, we have busy lives and this is a good way to grow our faith.

Curriculum Goals 8th Grade – Decision Point Confirmation Prep Program Program developed by Dynamic Catholic and Catholic Author Matthew Kelly Online resources and an App is available for free that has links to the video series your child will see in class. I highly recommend you watch it too, this is an amazing program developed for teens, but it speaks to all of us. Confirmation Calendar on website will have information from each parish that I have received information from about meeting dates, retreats, binder checks, etc. I will keep it updated with all the information I have been given. The DRE for each parish is responsible for the sacramental aspect of Confirmation. I teach the program, but you will need to contact your DRE from your parish for individual questions about Confirmation. Questions that I can answer about Confirmation? Youth Group Ministers will be coming to meet with students each month to keep in touch and to inform of upcoming service opportunities.

Curriculum Goals 8th Grade Religion Series – Christ our Life Program by Loyola Press and it covers Church History and the life of Christ This program will be covered after we have complete Confirmation Prep 8th Graders will take the ACRE test in May which is a measure of their knowledge of the faith. Does not count against their grade, just like the ITBS.

Curriculum Goals 7th Grade Religion Series Christ Our Life by Loyola Press This series focuses on the Life of Christ We will also use the 8th Grade book at times during the year and will cover Church History We will do a unit on the Liturgical Calendar, Holy Days of Obligation, etc. Students will be responsible for completing a service reflection each month. This can be found on my webpage and I will have paper copies available in my classroom. First service reflection is due on Friday, Sept. 30.

Class Expectations My classroom expectations are pretty simple: Be respectful of everyone, this includes not talking while others are talking (especially the teacher) and being a distraction in class. This is the biggest discipline challenge I have in my classroom. Be responsible – take responsibility for your actions. Be prepared. Be organized Study hard – if you want good grades, you have to put in a good effort. I explain often to my students to not expect an A if they didn’t put forth an A effort. It’s pretty simple. You expect for your child to be challenged and you chose BMCS for the faith- based education and for the curriculum. We expect your child to put forth their best effort everyday, because we are putting forth our best effort everyday! I encourage your family to go to church each week. At the end of time, we will be judged for how we treated others, served others, loved others. We will not be judged for our volleyball serve, our baseball pitch or what we binge watch on Netflix. I encourage you to put God and faith first in your life and the life of your family.

Questions? Do you have any questions for me? You can contact me via email: bbassett@bmcss.org I will get back to you as soon as possible, but understand that when I leave school at the end of the day, I am committed to my family and their needs. I do check email once I put my youngest to bed, but know that I will get back to you within 24 hours during the school week.