The 2012 Catholic Schools Week theme is “Faith. Academics. Service.” I’m happy to welcome another excellent collection of ideas and activities from two master teachers and employees of the Alliance for Catholic Education, Jennifer Dees and Meghann (Robinson) Kirzeder. They have come up with some amazing ideas that should be useful for an entire school,…
The Religion Teacher Blog
7 Ways to Use Praise and Worship Music In Class Prayer
I have to admit that I like praise and worship music and use it in class often. I was very involved in my youth group as a teenager and the music that is played at Steubenville Youth Conferences has stuck with me for years and still holds a special place in my heart. A major…
The Religion Teacher Gets a New Look!
I am so pleased to introduce a brand new logo and design to The Religion Teacher. We have come a long way since starting this website as a Blogspot blog in 2009 and it feels like just yesterday that the .com version of the website was established. I started The Religion Teacher because I wanted…
The Top Resources of 2011 at The Religion Teacher
This year has been the biggest year yet for The Religion Teacher. I began 2011 providing support for the new owners of The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning–the free eBook available to subscribers of The Religion Teacher mailing list. Then in the summer, I began to work on The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal…
Joe Paprocki on “Evangelizing Discipline”
I am happy to welcome Joe Paprocki, author of The Catechist’s Toolbox: How to Thrive As a Religious Education Teacher, as a guest at The Religion Teacher. Joe is celebrating the fifth anniversary of his very popular blog this week! Joe was an inspiration to me in starting The Religion Teacher three years ago, so…
Using Printables to Create a Personalized Advent Calendar
One of the most popular activities in religious education classrooms during the season of Advent is updating and using Advent calendars to prepare for Christmas. Advent calendars come in many different variations. Like the Jesse Tree, Advent calendars can become daily opportunities to focus each day on the preparation for Advent. The Advent calendars are…
5 Minutes with Christ – A Book of Reflections for Teachers
I was privileged to be both a contributor and developmental editor for the book 5 Minutes with Christ: Spiritual Nourishment for Busy Teachers. This book was developed and written by the Alliance for Catholic Education, an organization dedicated to the service of Catholic schools. As a teacher I remember rushing from class to class, event…
St. Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music, Activities and Prayers
The feast day of St. Cecilia, patron saint of music falls perfectly right around Thanksgiving on November 22. The days around Thanksgiving can be either stressful with exams or laid back with movies and break.
How to Hold a Class Debate that Gets Kids Excited
One of the best ways to encourage critical thinking is to provide students with the opportunity to have a debate in class. Not all students necessarily know how to hold a class debate so they may need some in-class debate formats to follow along with some time to prepare for the debate. Consider using the…
How to Create Blank Venn Diagrams
Venn Diagrams are one of the most commonly used graphic organizers. They visually represent the relationship between two items in two (or three or more) intersecting circles. Venn Diagrams are often used in assessment to measure a students ability to show the learning objective “SWBAT compare and contrast.” They are also great tools for reading…
