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 Religion Teacher Blog
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…
How do you manage students talking out in class?
Students talking out in class can be one of the most frustrating challenges teachers face on a day to day basis. Whether it is whispering to their neighbors or blurting out questions or comments without a hand raise, talking can be a problem. Usually it is the same students causing the problems day after day…
Using Facebook Questions to Teach Religion
More and more teachers are integrating social media into education. I’m glad to see teachers taking small steps in this direction. One natural tool to do this is Facebook’s Questions function. First, let me admit that when I was a teacher I was very wary of Facebook. I was very afraid of my students finding…
