The Religion Teacher: Membership Benefits

Since The Religion Teacher membership website opened in 2014, dozens of new resources and teaching ideas have been posted for the hundreds of premium members who have registered so far. More resources are added to the membership website every week.

Here are a few reasons why I think you will love the member resources and what you can find there right now.

Why You Should Join The Religion Teacher

I get emails every single day from catechists and religion teachers that ask relatively the same question:

How do I get my students engaged in class?

Or:

How do I get them excited about their faith?

Many of our students are struggling to pay attention or simply not interested in learning what we have to teach. It is a constant struggle and it often feels like we’re not making any progress.

That’s where the resources for The Religion Teacher members can help.

Weekly Readings Worksheets for Sunday Mass

New worksheets are posted each week for members of The Religion Teacher to use to reflect on the Sunday readings. The worksheets help students recall what they read as the prepare for or recall the first or second readings and the Gospel reading.

These worksheets focus on three areas that more or less correspond to the process of Lectio Divina. They are:

Recall (Lectio): Students recall what they read, learned, or already know.
Reflect (Lectio, Meditatio): Students reflect on their lives as it connects to what they read or learned.
Respond (Oratio, Contemplation): Students respond to what they read or learned by praying to God or by transforming their lives in some small way.

Engaging Classroom Videos for Students

As a member of The Religion Teacher, you will find dozens of videos that you can show in class to supplement your lessons. The lives of young people today are so penetrated so deeply by technology that they come to expect multimedia resources for learning. These short, engaging videos will help meet that need for engagement.

Each class video comes with a graphic organizer to help the students listen, watch, and understand the lessons about the Catholic faith.

Here is a sample of the kind of videos you will find as a member. It features our beloved Saint John Paul II:

You will find engaging videos and graphic organizers just like this one for a wide range of topics including:

Catholic Saints
Sacraments
Scripture
Advent
Lent
Prayer
and more!

New videos are added to the site each month and stay in your library for the life of your membership.

Check out the full range of videos by joining today.

Teaching Ideas, Professional Development, and Spiritual Formation

In addition to the resources for your students, you will find a large library of resources to help you become a better religious educator. We have had all types of members sign up for these resources. Both new teachers and volunteer catechists and seasoned veterans find new ideas and strategies that work by participating in these courses.

On a weekly basis, members receive at least one new teaching idea as a part of ongoing courses focused on areas where religious educators want to grow the most.

You can find full descriptions of the courses and series that are available so far here.

These courses include:

Classroom Engagement: Motivate Your Students to Love Learning the Faith
Teaching with the Joy of the Gospel: A Series of Reflections on Evangelii Gaudium for Religious Educators
Starting the New School Year Off Right
Contagious Classroom Prayer: Convincing Kids to Pray Now and Forever
Empowering Parents

By participating in current and past series, you will find new and practical ideas to try out in your classroom. You will find reminders of things you know you could be doing, but forgot how important it was to try.

All of these resources are shared to help you create a more engaging experience in your classroom so that your students will be motivated to learn, love, and live out their faith both now and as adults.

How to Join The Religion Teacher

There are two membership options for The Religion Teacher. You can join as an individual member for $4.99/month or sign up for a group membership for $17.99/month and gain access for your entire school staff or group of parish volunteers.

Or, if you sign up for an annual membership, you can get summers for free.