PREP Teachers Retreat Reflections

Article by Jake Ziede, Class of 2016
My time at Founder’s Hollow the past weekend was the closest connection to God I’ve felt in a long time.  The retreat lasted for about 36 hours, and we were always doing something.  Whether we learned about how to be good teachers, worshiped before the Blessed Sacrament at Eucharistic Adoration, or just enjoyed ourselves during down time, the trip was definitely a pleasant break from everyday life.  It’s easy to lose the sense of the importance of faith as we live day to day, so taking a retreat allowed me to focus on God and my relationship with Him.  We did many exercises to build our knowledge of teaching, most of which I plan to bring to my own classroom.  This experience also helped focus the true importance of PREP; it’s not just a club or a study hall ninth period.  PREP is about bringing the Word to children as we have received, and it’s also about building my own faith.  That’s what I love so much about this school; there are countless amounts of ways to build faith to find what suits you.  The whole experience was rather moving to say the least, and, with this newly found grace and confidence, I look forward to watching both the faith of the children I teach and my own faith grow together.