Tools to Help Kids WANT to Learn their Faith

Premium members of The Religion Teacher have access to hundreds of practical resources to lead their students into an encounter with Christ.

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The three bonuses (details below) expire at 11:59 p.m. on January 31, 2021. Join today to get these gifts when you become an annual member of The Religion Teacher. 

The Reality of Religious Education

As catechists, teachers, and faith formation leaders we share a common fear. 

It sits in the back of our minds most of the time, but I often hear about it in conversation with religious educators. 

We’re afraid our work isn’t making an impact. 

We’re afraid our students won’t learn to love God like we do. 

There’s usually good reason for this. 

Many of our students aren’t engaged in class. They aren’t excited to learn. They often forget what we taught them. 

My Realization: Retreats vs. Religious Education

As I thought about my own faith formation journey, I realized something.

The reason I was so motivated to learn about my Catholic faith is simple: 

I had an encounter with Christ. 

I felt the loving touch of God in my life. Where did I experience this encounter?

. . . at a retreat. 

The catechesis came after. The excitement about religious education was the result of a retreat experience. 

I WANTED to learn about Christ because I had the encounter with Christ.

My guess is most kids missed out on the opportunities to go to retreats in 2020 and will miss out again in 2021. 

But here’s the thing: 

Our students shouldn’t have to go on a retreat to experience an encounter with Christ. 

We can give them a retreat experience each and every time we teach. 

Religious education should feel like a retreat!

Why Retreats Work

Do your students ever get bored in class?

It’s a common challenge I hear from religious educators. They want to know how to get their kids more engaged in learning their faith.

There are three ways we make religious education boring: 

1. Religious education is boring when we talk too much. 
2. Religious education is boring when we’re bored with the kids. 
3. Religious education is boring when we don’t balance content with contemplation. 

A retreat, on the other, hand avoids these mistakes as much as possible: 

• During a retreat, the story-filled witness talks and homilies are followed by prayer, reflection, and discussion. 
• During a retreat, the leaders and participants welcome one another and grow in relationship together. 
• During a retreat, there is a balance of both learning about God and opportunities to love God. 

So, how do we combine the retreat experience with religious education? 
What would retreat-like religious education look like? 

Imagine this:

Students arrive in class and take their seats. They are smiling because their teacher is smiling and talking with them as they arrive. 

The lesson isn’t boring at all because it doesn’t feel like school. The teacher tells stories including some personal stories that make the lesson much more relatable to real life. 

Then the kids start the activities. They practice applying what they learn through academically challenging tasks and deeply spiritual meditations. They are given quiet time to reflect on their personal lives and sometimes get to share these experiences with others. 

When they pray, it doesn’t feel like a chore. It feels like a natural response to the lesson and the reflection. They bring before the Lord the thoughts and feelings that are at the top of their minds and hearts. They pray and mean it. 

Class ends before they know it. No one was counting down the time on the clock. On the way home that day, the kids have a conversation in the car with their parents. Moms and dads get a little insight into the lives of their kids and start thinking about their own faith lives as well. 

Retreats Help Kids Encounter Christ and Religious Education Should, Too

More and more religious educators are shifting their focus to a catechetical model that stresses an encounter with Christ above all else.

They are seeing the necessity to balance both education and an encounter in catechesis.

My name is Jared Dees. 

I’m the founder of The Religion Teacher.

In the last twelve years I have created and shared hundreds of lesson plans, activities, worksheets, and videos with practical ways for religious educators to lead their students into an encounter with Christ.

The textbooks we get at the beginning of the year just don’t have enough ideas and resources to accomplish everything we want to do.

Plus, many of the resources we find online keep them busy, but do not challenge them to learn and grow.

The resources at The Religion Teacher teach the head, touch the heart. They focus on both education AND encounter.

If I had these resources when I first started out as a religion teacher, I would have avoided a lot of mistakes.

Here is how to focus on ENCOUNTERS instead.

Many of the resources I have found as a religious educator offer only an education and not the opportunity for an encounter.

The students might learn about God, but they are often not given the opportunity to experience the love of God.

My goal with every new resource at The Religion Teacher is to combine both education and encounter into one tool.

First, students learn about God.

Then they they encounter him through meditation and prayer.

The worksheets and videos available to The Religion Teacher members challenge students to think critically about what they learn, but also meditate emotionally on the impact on their personal lives.

Prayer and meditation are essential parts of the religious education process. The Religion Teacher tools are meant to provide learning, meditation, and prayer all in one.

The Religion Teacher membership website provides three kinds of resources for members:

• Graphic Organizers/Worksheets: Downloadable handouts that challenge students to think and reflect on their faith.
• Class Videos: Class videos with graphic organizers to help students understand the most challenging topics.
• Online Courses: Online training on how to engage and evangelize students and parents.

Hundreds of members now have access to 500+ worksheets, 80+ class videos, and five online courses.

The philosophy behind each of these resources is to keep the learner active and engaged and encountering Christ in class.

500+ Engaging Worksheets and Graphic Organizers

“The weekly reading worksheets have given me a jumping off place to discuss the gospels.”

Nancy Pretto
Middle School Catechist

The Religion Teacher’s worksheets require students to think, reflect, and make connections between Scripture, Tradition, and their personal lives.

They help get students beyond knowing ABOUT Jesus and truly reflecting on their RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.

Sunday Gospel Reading Worksheets

Each week a worksheet is offered to help teach about the Sunday Gospel. These weekly reading worksheets are based on the principles of Lectio Divina, an important Catholic devotional practice that leads people into an encounter with God in Sacred Scripture.

*The Weekly Gospel Reading worksheets are available in Spanish for the first time this year!

Share the Lives of the Saints with Your Students with these 100+ Worksheets

This new series of worksheets is designed to help introduce your students to the lives of the saints. Each worksheet includes a brief saint biography with questions to help reinforce and challenge students to reflect on the life lessons these saints have to teach us through the way they lived and died. A saint worksheet will be available for every week of the calendar year.

The Religion Teacher’s Activity and Worksheet Packs

Members also get access to packets of worksheets that are usually sold separately for $10-12 each including The Religion Teacher’s Catholic Mass Worksheets, Genesis Worksheets, Ten Commandments Worksheets, The Lord’s Prayer Worksheets, Works of Mercy Worksheets, and the Catholic Social Teaching Activity Pack. New products like these are added to the membership website every year and the library will continue to grow over time. Each of these resources are available for no extra charge to premium members.

The Religion Teacher’s Advent Activity Pack and Lenten Activity Pack are available to all members. These two products have sold more than a thousand copies each, but members can access them any time without an extra purchase:

Catechetical Class Videos

“The Religion Teacher membership website has helped me with specific videos I have needed as well as new ways to approach certain topics.”

Kelly Foyle
Middle School Religion Teacher

The class videos offer an additional level of support and explanation to important teachings of the Catholic Church. As the students watch the videos, they fill out graphic organizers that are custom-made for each video.

With these short classroom videos and their accompanying worksheets, catechists and teachers can supplement their religious instruction and extend their lessons with some additional interactivity.

These catechetical videos include lessons in a variety of topics including Scripture, the Sacraments, the Saints, Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic Symbols, Advent, and Lent.

Each video comes with a printable worksheet for students to complete as they watch the video. The combination of these videos and graphic organizers will allow religious educators to introduce new topics or support in-class lessons in an engaging way.

Online Courses for Religious Educators

“After so many years of teaching and getting a bit worn out, the beginning of the year course helped re-focus and re-energize me and remind me of some things that I had forgotten.”

Judy Carney
Middle School & High School Religion Teacher

The courses that the religious educators can take to grow and become better are more than just informational videos. They offer effective exercises that will make educators better at what they do.

The easy-to-implement strategies and formation ideas in the courses and online seminars will help catechists and religion teachers focus on how they can become a better religious educators for the students they teach.

Members will have access to highly effective courses including:

• Classroom Engagement: Motivate Your Students to Love Learning the Faith
• Empowering Parents
• 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

What are people saying about being a member?

“Being a member of The Religion Teacher has given me countless ideas about lesson plans and material to accompany lessons, as well as tools to get children and parents more engaged.”

Darijana Kline
Elementary Grade Catechist

“I can provide useful ideas for my catechists especially since they are not teachers.”

Bridget Murphy
Director of Religious Education

Join Today to Get These Bonus Gifts!

The three bonuses (details below) expire at 11:59 p.m. on January 31, 2021. Join today to get these gifts when you become an annual member of The Religion Teacher. 

I am so confident that the resources available to premium members of The Religion Teacher will help you lead your students into an encounter with Christ, that I am offering a series of bonuses for anyone who becomes an annual member this month.

(Already an annual member? Email Jared Dees for information on how to access these bonuses, too, if you have not received them.)

If you sign up as an annual paying member today, you will get:

1) A Copy of Christ in the Classroom  

Christ in the Classroom: Lesson Planning for the Heart and Mind explains in detail how to apply Lectio Divina to lesson planning for all age levels. It comes with dozens of activity ideas and teaching strategies for each Lectio Divina step to help you keep your students engaged and entering into an encounter with Jesus Christ. The book will give you the tools to get beyond just teaching about Jesus and instead making sure he is invited into the classroom.

Value: $13

Note: Only available to those registering in the contiguous United States. Everyone else, email Jared for an alternative bonus.

2) The Religion Teacher’s Lectio Divina Worksheets (Revised & Updated)

This resource is sold separately at The Religion Teacher. The Religion Teacher’s Lectio Divina Worksheets enable teachers, catechists, and home-schooling parents to guide their youth through a lectio divina process with very little instruction required.

The simple, easy-to-use format of each handout invites students and young people to engage personally with the word of God. After introducing and practicing each activity, students will be able to come back their favorite handouts again and again for many different Bible passages throughout the year.

Note: Check the box to add this to your order at checkout.

Value: $10

3) Bible Breaks Series eBooks (5 Books)

The Bible Breaks stories for kids help families and faith formation groups set aside a few minutes during the day to read and reflect on the Word of God. Each short and simple story is written to help teach children the most important lessons of the Christian life from sacred Scripture.

As an annual member, you will get access to the eBook version of the entire Bible Breaks series of books with Bible stories for kids. You can print copies of the stories and use them in class or read from a device.

Value: $15-40

**You must join as an annual member to qualify for the bonus gifts.

Offer expires on January 31, 2021 at 11:59 p.m.

How do I join?

There are two kinds of memberships: individual and group.

As an individual member, you personally gain access to all of the worksheets, videos, and online courses. (This option is for individual catechists and teachers.)

As a group member, you will be able to share access with your entire parish of religious educators. (This option is for DREs, pastors, and principals.)

*Monthly memberships are also available but are not eligible for all bonuses.

What People Are Saying

“I’ve changed how I teach. I focus on them learning instead of me
“Being a member of The Religion Teacher has given me fresh insights.”

Olympio D’Mello
High School Religion Teacher

“I’m able to provide catechists with timely material to supplement their regular curriculum. Jared Dees has supplied great resources for my catechists to look at why they’re doing what they’re doing when it comes to sharing their faith with our children–and how to do it better!”

Laura Mack
Director of Religious Education

I’ve changed how I teach. I focus on them learning instead of me conveying. I use suggestions on teaching methods like the first week of class ideas.”

Kelli Norman
Elementary Grade Catechist