Effective reading comprehension is essential to studying the Catholic faith. Being able to read and understand the Scriptures is an obvious reason for this. Since textbooks continue to be a primary teaching tool at all levels of religious education, catechists and religion teachers should have a number of teaching strategies and activities up their sleeves…
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Catholic Religious Education Resources
Lesson Planning Resources The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning by Jared Dees – This is a free e-book that includes tutorials on how to lesson plan effectively. This step-by-step to lesson planning for religion teachers and catechists teaches readers how to prepare a lesson, craft clear lesson objectives, implement effective assessments, and meet the…
Classroom Procedures and the First Weeks of School
Classroom procedures and routines are the key to effective classroom management. One of the earliest and best lessons I learned as a teacher was the importance of classroom procedures above and beyond classroom rules. All teachers have rules in their classrooms, but many teachers waste time and energy enforcing rules instead of practicing procedures until…
Catholic Mass Reflection Questions
Occasionally you will have the opportunity to meet with students either before or after mass. As I mentioned in my post on CatholicMom.com, “How to Get Teens to Participate in Mass,” it is critical that we help young people connect their personal experiences with the Liturgy (“find their feelings”) and learn more about the God…
High School Theology of the Body (Tips for Teaching Teens)
If you have had the pleasure of teaching teenagers about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, then you will surely agree that it is changing the face of Catholic sex education today. As more resources become available for teachers and as the Theology of the Body continues to grow in popularity throughout the Church,…
An 8th Grade Catechist Reflects on His Year
For catechists, this is a great time to reflect on the past year and look ahead to next year. I did a little reflecting and came up with some observations about the year and goals for next year. This was my first year teaching 8th grade CCD at our current parish. It was an adjustment…
Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel on Vatican Website – Activities
The Vatican has added another interactive feature to their website. Have you ever been to the Sistine Chapel? Have your students been? With so many things to see in Rome, I was never able to block out the time to wait in line to see it. A “virtual” tour may not be as good as…
Happy Anniversary to The Religion Teacher blog
Well, it has been one year since I launched The Religion Teacher. It has been a great experience and I am thankful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with you. Since the first post in March 2009, I have shifted my focus away from news and web reviews to pedagogy and practical…
Religious Education and Catechesis Blogs
As I promised on the Catechetical Leader Podcast (episode #2), here is the list of catechetical blogs that I have found and followed over the past year. If I missed one that you have created or that you follow, please submit it as a comment or email me. I know the list is overwhelming so…
Visualizing God in Prayer and Guided Meditations
When you pray, how do you imagine God? Do you visualize someone or something? Do you use images to help you pray? Too often we tend to focus on what we are praying for rather than the God to whom we pray. If you ask your students what they imagine when they pray, you may…
