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, 2022. Join today to get these gifts when you become an annual member of The Religion Teacher.
Teaching is not your #1 job.
Your job is not what you think it is.
Whether you are a religion teacher, catechist, director of religious education, or principal, know this:
Teaching is not your #1 job.
Will you teach the Catholic faith this year?
Yes.
Will you help kids learn to read the Bible?
Yes.
Will you create lesson plans, activities, quizzes, tests, and lectures?
Yes.
But “teaching” is not our primary duty in religious education.
What we do in the classroom is different from every other subject.
It is different than math, language arts, history, science, and anything else students learn.
As a religious educator you have just one goal:
Lead your students into an encounter with Christ.
I repeat this quote often because it is a reminder of what it truly means to be a Christian:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”
—Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1
Our top priority isn’t to teach the teachings.
Our top priority is to lead our kids into a personal relationship with Christ.
We make disciples, not theologians.
If the role of a religious educator is different than other kind of teacher, then you should have access to different kinds of resources.
The worksheets, videos, lessons, activities, and strategies you use in class should be specifically designed to cultivate an encounter with Christ in class.
Resources that Lead Kids to Encounter Christ
As religious educators, every little bit of help goes a long way.
My name is Jared Dees.
I’m the founder of The Religion Teacher.
In the last thirteen 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 do not provide enough ideas and resources to accomplish everything we want to do.
Many of the tools we find online don’t work for our students.
There is a better way.
The resources at The Religion Teacher are meant to save you time and energy as you serve your students and their parents.
These tools will make it easier for you to cultivate encounters with Christ in class.
Spend Less Time Lesson Planning
. . . and spend more time with your students.
The goal in religious education is a relationship with God.
This means we have to be more than teachers.
We have to focus our time and energy on being compassionate and caring mentors in the lives of the young people we serve.
Our students are struggling with real life problems.
Everyone has these struggles.
You have the opportunity to meet them where they are and help them find hope and loving acceptance in the Church.
You have the opportunity to help them grow in their relationship with God.
Is this asking too much of you?
Is this too overwhelming?
You are not alone.
I have been a religious educator for 18 years now and spent most of that time developing resources for other teachers and catechists to use in class.
When The Religion Teacher opened up for members to join in 2014, there were only 41 videos and worksheets.
Today there are more than 900 downloadable resources available to members.
There will be 1,000 resources available to members by the end of the year.
Why?
Because I want to save you time and energy in planning your lessons.
You should have an easy-to-use, practical resource for every topic you teach this year.
Here is what you will get as a member:
What Do Members Get?
The Religion Teacher membership website provides three kinds of resources for members:
- Printable Worksheets: Downloadable handouts that challenge students to think, meditate, and pray. There is no “busy work.”
- Class Videos: Class videos with graphic organizers to help students understand the most challenging teachings.
- Online Courses: Online training on how to engage and evangelize students and parents.
The philosophy behind each of these resources is to keep the students actively learning, engaged, and encountering Christ in class.
600+ Engaging Worksheets and Graphic Organizers
“I do not have to spend as much time pulling resources off of the web because The Religion Teacher has such great ideas for members.”
Karan Giera
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 Christ and truly reflecting on their RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.
Sunday Gospel Reading Worksheets
“The weekly reading worksheets have given me a jumping off place to discuss the gospels.”
Nancy Pretto
Middle School Catechist
Each week you will get a worksheet 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 also available in Spanish.
Share the Lives of the Saints with Your Students with these 150+ Worksheets
“These activities bring our saints alive to the students.”
Elizabeth Kogler
Director of Religious Education
Celebrate the major saint feast days throughout the year with a series of saint worksheets. 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
“My teachers have saved time by being able to easily access worthwhile worksheets.”
Heather Irvine
Religious Education Coordinator
Members have access to the many collections of worksheets and activity packs that are usually sold separately for $8-12 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. Every new product from The Religion Teacher will be available to members at no additional charge.
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 to the lesson plans, videos, activities, prayers, and worksheets without an extra purchase.
160+ Catechetical Class Videos
“The Religion Teacher videos seem to fill a hole in our religion curriculum. In particular, there is excellent resources for the liturgical year.”
Becca Gann
Middle School Religion Teacher
Supplement your lectures and lessons with a series of short videos about Catholic Scripture and tradition.
Members have exclusive access to graphic organizer worksheets students can use to listen and learn from each video.
These catechetical videos include lessons in a variety of topics including Scripture, the Sacraments, the Saints, Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic Symbols, Advent, and Lent.
The combination of the videos with the 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 Religion Teacher membership has made me a better catechist and DRE for my catechists.”
Olga Saenz
Director of Religious Education
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
“The Religion Teacher has given me many ways to help my students see how they can personally be a light to others. I love the way the questions get students to think and reflect.”
Cathy Singleton
Elementary School Religion Teacher
Join Today to Get These Bonus Gifts!
The three bonuses (details below) expire at 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2022. Join today to get these gifts when you become an annual member of The Religion Teacher.
I am confident that the resources available to premium members of The Religion Teacher will help you lead your students into an encounter with Christ. To encourage you join, I am offering a collection 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 To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach
To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach provides inspirational ideas and stories to help you shift focus from the teacher-only mindset to be able to heal your students’ hearts and proclaim inspirational good news.
Value: $17
Note: Only available to those registering in the contiguous United States.
Everyone in other countries, 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) Digital Version of Beatitales
The eighty fables and parables in this short story collection for kids will give young people a greater appreciation for the ways they can live out the teachings of Jesus from the Bible. Religious educators have been reading these stories to their students, assigning them as group work, and inviting them to make up skits to act them out.
As an annual member, you will get access to the eBook version of Jared Dees’s best-selling children’s book.
Value: $7
**You must join as an annual member to qualify for the bonus gifts.
Offer expires on September 30, 2022 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 to set up to share with all staff and volunteers.)
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 Else Are People Saying?
“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