My First Visit to Antiochian Village

I lovingly kissed each of my kids on the cheek before reminding them to be good for grandma and grandpa and then pulled my suitcase behind me as I walked out the front door.  A weekend of fellowship with other Orthodox church school teachers awaited me in Pennsylvania.  As much as I would miss my kids, I was equally excited about the conference I was attending.

I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the 2011 Orthodox Institute this past weekend with my sister, Catherine, and my dear friend, Cassandra at Antiochian Village.  For me, Antiochian Village is a place I’ve only heard about from friends and acquaintances as they tell me about their cherished memories from this beloved camp and retreat center subsequently leaving me longing to visit there myself for years now.

As we pulled into the conference center parking lot, I could feel my enthusiasm intensifying with anticipation for the weekend.  This year’s Orthodox Institute welcomed a large group of Pan-Orthodox Christians who gathered together to discuss, learn, and share about Orthodox education in our parishes.  In attendance included Carole Buleza (Director of the Antiochian Archdiocese Religious Education Department), Dr. Anton Vrame (Director of the Greek Archdiocese Religious Education Department), Fr. Thomas Hopko, and many other wonderful and inspiring speakers.

I had such a hard time deciding which sessions I would attend at the conference when I filled out my registration form.  Although I did finally make a decision and chose six sessions, I still wish I could have attended the others as well.  My sister and I purposely signed up for differing sessions enabling us to swap handouts and experiences in the evenings back in our room in the conference center.  We had two days filled with prayer, enlightenment and ideas (see below) from our sessions, fellowship during meals, time to browse the enticing bookstore, attend book signings by three Orthodox authors, casually browse through the heritage museum, and explore the Holy Land exhibit guided by Dr. Maria Khoury.

It’s hard not to get excited about teaching when you’re amongst a group of individuals eager to educate their children about our Orthodox faith just like you are for your students.  After returning to our room both evenings, the three of us talked about our sessions and swapped additional ideas we could implement in our classrooms back home.  We’d talk for several hours before yawns seemed to contagiously spread amongst us.  We crawled into our own beds and eagerly opened up our materials we acquired from earlier in the day.  A smile soon stretched across my face as I glanced up from my book to see Cassandra reading “Letters to Saint Lydia” by Melinda Johnson and Catherine reading the handouts from Khouria Gigi Shadid.  I don’t know how to explain it other than to say – it just filled me with joy.

At breakfast after Liturgy on Sunday morning, we were telling some of the people at our table that this was our first time to Antiochian Village.  He told us all about his family’s experiences there and suggested we walk around the grounds and see more before leaving.  You didn’t need to suggest it to us twice!  We drove up to the camp area, predominantly because we had no reference to know how far away it was therefore we decided to drive until we found a spot to stop and walk around.  It didn’t take us long to find the next parking lot.  We got out and walked parallel to the small cemetery surrounded by towering trees until we found a path and followed it.  It led us to the grave site of Saint Raphael, an outdoor chapel, and then many cabins.  We ended up walking in a large circle before coming out to the central grassy area where another beautiful chapel stood to one side.  As I looked around, I could imagine all the kids running around there in the summer – playing ball, sitting in groups talking, coming in and out of the dining hall to eat, and walking to the church each day.  It must be a site to behold.

Time was quickly passing and we needed to make our way back to the airport.  Our families were waiting for us back home.  (My mom called me during the weekend to let me know two of my kids were sick.  It was time to switch back into mommy mode…do you ever really switch out of it though?)  My sister and I had so many ideas flooding our thoughts on the way home that we spent the duration of both legs of our flights drafting a unit on the five senses in Orthodoxy for our Kindergarten class.  This may be a quirk on our part because we actually find a lot of enjoyment in writing curriculum.  Part way through writing our notes and flipping through the Orthodox Study Bible on my iPad, I realized we were not exactly using hushed voices on the plane.  Ooops.  Not that we necessarily needed to be silent but I hoped we weren’t keeping someone from sleeping near us since the sun had long since set and our reading light was a necessity if we were to see anything on our tray table.  I’m left curious with what the passengers around us were thinking of our conversation.  The notes scribbled into the notebook on the plane lay waiting on my desk for us to bring them to fruition in the coming weeks.

One of the many beneficial aspects of the conference were the ideas swapped between fellow teachers during the conference.  I’d like to share some of those ideas with you.

Ideas swapped during “Introduction to Church School Ministry”:

• Rotate guest speakers through each of the classrooms.  They can be someone who is knowledgeable about a specific topic relating to Orthodoxy, enjoys telling/reading stories about saints to children, wants to teach a hymn, or do an art project with the class.
• Publish a church school calendar with all the events for the year.  This can be in paper format and/or published on the parish website.
• Team teaching or having substitutes available.  If you’re able to have two teachers per classroom then one can cover for the other when they are out of town and also assist in the classroom for a smoother class session.
• “Lessons Learned Meeting” at the end of the school year.  In May, hold a meeting with your church school teachers.  Discuss and take notes on what worked well and what needs improvement for the following year.
• Telephone Conferences.  This is especially beneficial for parishes who have people that drive long distances to come to church.  Hosting a telephone conference for your church school meetings has enabled some parishes to get better (if not 100%) attendance for meetings.  Notes and agenda are emailed to teachers before the teleconference.
• Provide childcare for meetings
• Newsletter to parents and teachers
• Post info on how much the parish is spending on each student and the expectations of parents and students. What are you hoping to achieve?  Do you want an occasional home assignment or project returned?  Do you want the children to show up on time to class?
• Hold an open house.  Let parents visit their child’s classroom and meet the teacher.  Teachers can prepare a short introduction to the curriculum the students will be using and the goals for the year.
• Start a Facebook page for your church school.  Use it to remind parents about upcoming events and/or post pictures of their children in church school (with parents’ written permission beforehand).
• Send a postcard, email, or have a classroom celebration for each child’s Nameday in your class
• Provide church school registration online and via a table in the hall during fellowship hour
• Provide an option for free will donations to the church school when parents register their children.  This money can help supplement books, materials, snacks, etc.  A wishlist can also be provided along with the registration for parents to donate specific items to the church school.
• Provide a spot on the registration form for parents to tell you about any special needs their child may have 
• Assign a patron saint to each classroom and students learn about this saint throughout the year
• Provide a classroom altar in each room
• Some parishes are having a Bible Study for all adults in the parish and simultaneously hold church school for the children on a day other than Sunday.  Potluck dinner before or after everyone’s class.
• Mail home that week’s lesson to the students who missed class that day

Ideas swapped during “Build Your Staff, Build Your Students”:

•  If you are at a parish who has church school during any portion of the Liturgy, transition church school outside of Liturgy over several years with baby steps.  If this transition has the potential for causing rifts in your community then do it slowly.  First year you might move it to after the Gospel reading.  The following year move it to after Holy Communion.  Then the third year move it to after the Liturgy.  Hold a meeting with your parish priest and discuss the best ways to transition your parish.
• Ask for help if you are not getting people to volunteer.  If you need more teachers or someone to help with a retreat, play, or something else then try approaching them in person, advertise in the parish bulletin, or ask Father if he could make an announcement at the end of Liturgy.  Sometimes people need to know you need help instead of assuming someone else will volunteer in their place.
• Fall Saints Party – a parish had several adults volunteer to dress up like a saint.  Each of those adults was assigned a classroom and the children would rotate through each of the classrooms.  The adult would tell the kids the story of that saint and had a visual to accompany their story.  Treats were served in the hall at the end and the kids also attended in costume.
• Provide each teacher with a resource binder at the orientation teacher meeting at the beginning of each year.  The binder would include a copy of the student registration form, the church school calendar for the year, list of students in the church school (or just for their class) including parent email addresses and children’s namedays, prayers, altar boy list and schedule, church etiquette, information on the Oratorical Festival or Creative Festival, articles and ideas for the teachers.
• Provide a summer Orthodox reading program for the children.  It would be a similar program to the reading program your local public library holds each summer.  The children would write down the list of Orthodox children’s books they read to someone else (or if they’re younger, the list of books someone read to them) and turn it in to get a prize at the end of the summer.
• Preplanning before class starts is key to a successful classroom!  It’s so important to have your lesson prepared before class and have everything already out at the child’s desk or table before they come into the classroom.  Otherwise time is wasted passing out papers, pencils, sorting out craft supplies and passing them out, etc.  This allows for a smoother transition and better overall control of the students.
• Have a group of teachers working together to fulfill the church school’s goals for the year.  Most successful parishes will have two groups.  1) A group of people who have a vision and provide ideas  2) The group that carries out the vision and ideas. Often you’ll have a group of people that are enthusiastic and full of ideas but can’t or don’t have time to carry it out.  Then you have the group of people who say they’re not creative but they’re willing to do whatever you want if you just tell them what to do. Recognizing this and working with it instead of against it will create a more successful church school program.