AMORE inservice planned for Feb. 1 in Spencer

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
January 22, 2004

SPENCER - The 7th Annual Northeast Deanery AMORE Inservice will be held from 12 to 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 1 at Sacred Heart Church in Spencer. The theme of the inservice is "Getting in Tune with God."

The inservice will begin with registration and lunch followed by the keynote speaker at 1 p.m. The keynote speaker will be Sister Julie Tebbe. She is a kindergarten through eighth grade music teacher at Mater Dei School in Sioux City. Sister Julie will present "Music in the Classroom and Worship" to show attendees how music can enrich lessons and worship.

"She is going to show us her musical gifts," said Alissa Schipper . "We have all experienced her in one way or another at camp or in different settings. She has touched the lives of so many of our kids here at camp and otherwise. We just want to showcase her and show how much her spirit and talents bring to life a classroom or a campground. We want to know how we can do that and how we can tie it into our classrooms a little more. It's a universal language and so how can we use that in our classrooms as well as in worship?"

Kathy White and Schipper will provide information and tips on lesson planning and structure.

"We want to try to make it interesting when the students are here - breaking away from book learning and doing more experience learning. We are going to try to provide some good tips on that," said Schipper.

After tips on lesson planning and structure, grade level breakout sessions will allow for idea sharing, support and networking.

"They have always enjoyed being able to go and draw on knowledge from people who are doing the same things that they are," said Schipper. "They may do things a little differently. Some might follow a book or other lesson plans, but they all are experiencing similar things at their own grade levels. They really enjoy visiting with each other and sharing lesson ideas that they can take back to their DREs. That's exciting for them."

The day will conclude with a closing prayer service.

Catechists from the NE deanery and catechists from the rest of the diocese are invited and welcome to attend the inservice.

"They give so much," said Schipper. "We want to make sure that we aren't draining them of all their resources that we are giving back resources and something to feed their spirits as well. Certainly, the experience of Sister Julie will feed their spirit. We are always concerned with making sure that they don't feel like they are giving and giving and not receiving anything back. Anytime we can give them extra resources to use in the classroom, they appreciate that."

The planning committee includes: Cary Brown of St. Mary's, Storm Lake; Richard Burke of St. Joseph Church, Milford; Sue Durbala of St. Mary's, Spirit Lake; Corrine Krause of St. Andrew Church, Sibley; Lois McCarty of St. Mary's, Everly and St. Louis Church, Royal; Kerry Noethe (publicity) of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Fonda and St. Columbkille Church, Varina; Carolyn Pudenz (publicity) of Resurrection Church, Pocahontas; Betty Ann Rosfjord of St. Patrick Church, Estherville and St. Mary's, Armstrong; Schipper of Sacred Heart, Spencer; Karen Schwaller of St. Joseph, Milford; Angi Strohman of Holy Family Church, Emmetsburg; White (site coordinator) of Sacred Heart, Spencer; and Nancy Williams of St. Joseph Church, Hartley and St. Cecilia Church,Sanborn.

"We work together so well as an AMORE group," said Schipper. "We just decided that rather than all of us planning our own inservice, we could plan something so much better together, if we pool all of our resources and try to come up with something that would suit all of our needs. For a larger group, we can get better speakers and not always rely on ourselves to be the experts."

An information brochure has been sent out to DREs in the NE Deanery to distribute to their religious education catechists. The deadline for catechists to register with their DRE was Jan. 21. The deadline for registrations and fees to be sent to the site coordinator, White, is Jan. 27. Checks for the cost of the inservice, $10, should be made payable to Sacred Heart Religious Education. For information call White or Schipper at Sacred Heart at (712) 262-4486 or a parish DRE.

If the inservice has to be cancelled due to bad weather, listen to KICD (107.7 FM or 1240 AM) Spencer or KAYL (101.7 FM) Storm Lake for announcements or call (712) 262-3047 for updates. No snow date is scheduled and all fees will be refunded in the event of cancellation.