![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TRTm-Monthly-Resources1.png)
Premium members of The Religion Teacher have access to hundreds of practical resources to lead their students into an encounter with Christ.
Or learn more:
The three bonuses (details below) expire at 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2020. Join today to get these gifts when you become an annual member of The Religion Teacher.
Catechesis, COVID-19, and Three Changes We Must Make
COVID-19 is a disease unlike anything we have encountered in generations.
Classrooms look very, very different.
Many programs are online or transitioned to a more family-focused model of faith formation.
I know we are all uncertain as to how this will all go.
But what if we looked at this year as an opportunity rather than an obstacle for catechesis?
Catechesis = Connection
Faith is something more caught than taught.
Catechesis is different from any other form of education.
Catechesis is about connection.
Catechesis succeeds through personal connections between a witness (teacher) and disciples (student).
As Saint John Paul II once wrote:
“The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ.”
Catechesis Tradendae, 5
Here is the biggest change we need to make in the way we do catechesis:
We must shift our focus from impersonal information to a personal formation.
From Information to In Formation
Formation, not information should be our goal.
We need to make the transition:
. . . from facts to faith.
. . . from read and answer to read and reflect.
. . . from teaching to testimony.
COVID-19 and Quarantine Showed Us the Changes We Need to Make
Change #1: Long lectures weren’t working.
Kids are being asked to watch a lot of online, educational videos.
We have some good research today about what works and what doesn’t.
The ideal length of an online video should be about six minutes or less.
In an educational study by professors Philip Guo, Juho Kim, and edX’s Rob Rubin, they found:
- Shorter videos are more engaging
- Videos with a personal feel are more engaging
- Whiteboard and tablet videos are more engaging
- Videos with enthusiastic teachers are more engaging
- PowerPoint slides are less engaging
- Pre-recorded classroom lectures are less engaging
Online videos or live stream lectures for students should be brief, personal, and enthusiastic.
The same goes for in person instruction as well.
Change #2: Textbooks alone weren’t working.
Teachers in every subject area struggled to get their students to do the work at home during the quarantine. They couldn’t rely on class time to get through the textbook.
Kids have very little motivation to read textbooks at home.
Parents might read the textbook with their kids, but then what?
We need the curriculum (preferably approved by the USCCB) as the backbone of what students should learn.
We just can’t stop there.
The activities can’t be an afterthought.
Engaging activities that cultivate formation instead of regurgitating information must be in every lesson.
Make it simple.
Make it interesting.
Change #3: The parent drop-off mentality wasn’t working.
All the parents who bring their children to us for religious education want our help.
Many lack the confidence to do their own catechesis at home.
Unfortunately this leads to a drop-off delegation mentality:
“The greatest challenge in this situation is for couples, mothers and fathers, active participants in catechesis, to overcome the mentality of delegation that is so common, according to which the faith is set aside for specialists in religious education.” (New Directory for Catechesis, 124)
COVID-19 makes it clear that the delegation mentality must change immediately.
The parents of our students need help now more than ever.
They need resources to give them confidence and courage to do catechesis at home.
Tools for Faith Formation (Not Just Information)
More and more religious educators are shifting their focus to a catechetical model that emphasizes an encounter that leads to lifelong faith formation.
They are seeing the necessity to balance both education and an encounter in catechesis.
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/jared-dees-circle.png)
My name is Jared Dees.
I’m the founder of The Religion Teacher.
In the last eleven 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.
Most of the tools we have are focused entirely on faith facts and now faith formation.
The resources at The Religion Teacher teach the head and touch the heart. They focus on both education AND encounter. The lead students from the information towards faith formation.
Here is how to focus on Formation above Information
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.
Each of the hundreds of tools for members of The Religion Teacher are based on the steps of Lectio Divina. These steps could be simplified into three basic movements within the videos and worksheets you will find here:
- Read (Learning)
- Reflect (Meditation)
- Respond (Prayer)
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 450+ 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.
470+ 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.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
100+ Saint Biography Worksheets
This series of worksheets will 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. Multiple saint worksheets are 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.
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/trt-activity-worksheet-packs-screenshot.png)
The Religion Teacher’s Advent Activity Pack and Lenten Activity Pack are now 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:
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TRT-Lenten-Activity-Pack-Cover-642x1024.png)
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/TRT-Advent-Activity-Pack-Cover-642x1024.png)
80+ Catechetical Class Videos
![class-videos-join1](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/class-videos-join1.png)
“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, 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
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/trtm-courses-screenshots-sept18.png)
“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
Resources for Virtual Catechesis and Faith Formation in the Home
As a member of The Religion Teacher, you can download and share the member resources with your student and families.
Download and share member videos and worksheets online in virtual classrooms or send them home for parents to use with their children.
Individual Educator Memberships allow one religious educator (catechist or teacher) to share member resources with families in their classes.
Group Parish Memberships allow a DRE or principal to share member resources with all teachers, catechists, and volunteers as well as all families within a parish or school.
There are also special links for every member-only video that can be shared and viewed without logging in.
With a membership, you can email the files to families or upload them to your learning management system, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
Caution: Do not make these worksheets freely available to the public on parish or school websites.
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 September 30, 2020. 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 My Most Popular Book, 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/31DaysBBRE-3D-Cover-213x300.png)
31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator is full of exercises you can do to become a better disciple, servant, teacher, and leader. The tips on teaching and leading will help you create a classroom of active learners.
With more than 13,000 copies sold so far, this book is a key resource for religious educators at all levels and in both schools and parishes.
Value: $11
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)
![](https://www.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/TRT-lectiodivina-worksheets-cover-2020-642x1024.png)
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) Pray without Ceasing: Bible Stories for Kids about Prayer eBook
![](https://members.thereligionteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pray-without-ceasing-cover-640x1024.jpg)
Pray without Ceasing is the latest edition in the series of Bible stories for kids books. The book includes twenty-nine stories from the Old and New Testaments. Children will read about the prayers of the prophets like Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Jonah, and Daniel. They will learn from the prayer practices and parables of Jesus Christ and from the people who asked for his help and healing. Most of all, kids will start to apply lessons about prayer to their own lives as they experience the grace that God is giving to them. Each short Bible story in this book includes a brief introduction, an easy-to-read retelling of events, and reflection questions to discuss.
This book will be published on October 7, 2020. Multiple formats of the digital edition will be sent to annual members who sign up by the end of September.
Value: $2.99
**You must join as an annual member to qualify for the bonus gifts.
Offer expires on September 30, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.
How do I join?
There are two kinds of memberships: individual and group.
As an individual educator 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 parish member, you will be able to share access with your entire parish of religious educators. (This option is for DREs, pastors, and principals.)
Individual Membership (Annual)
$49.99/year
Special Offer! Get summers free.
Access for individual religious educators
Group Membership (Annual)
$179.99/year
Special Offer! Get summers free.
Access for an entire parish or school staff
*Monthly memberships are also available but are not eligible for all bonuses.
What Members Are Saying
“I’ve changed how I teach. I focus on them learning instead of me
Olympio D’Mello
“Being a member of The Religion Teacher has given me fresh insights.”
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