From Average Advent to Advent Encounters with Christ!

As Advent approaches, I have a challenge for you.

Whether your students attend Catholic school or parish catechesis, many of them will spend many years in religious education.

They will learn about Advent year after year.

They will learn about the Advent colors. They will get their Advent calendars. They will decorate those Advent classroom wreaths. They will be told again and again, “it’s not Christmas yet! It’s still Advent!”

So, here is my challenge:

Don’t let this be an average Advent for your kids.

As you plan your Advent lessons or activities, I challenge you to shift from information ABOUT Advent to a transformation THROUGH Advent.

Put simply:

Avoid the average Advent.

Give your students an Advent encounter.

The Religion Teacher’s mission and vision is to help you achieve this:

Every Day, Every Class, Every Student, an Encounter with Christ.

Advent gives us an incredible opportunity to make these encounters possible.

Average Advent vs. Advent Encounters

So, how can we make this shift?

How can we avoid the average Advent and cultivate Advent encounters instead?

Three steps:

1. Learn
2. Mediate
3. Pray

LEARN

First, continue teaching those Advent lessons you have always taught. Teach about the colors, the calendars, the candles, and the wreaths. Catechesis starts with information then shifts to formation.

Yes, many of your students will have heard this before. Re-teach the reason for the season. We all need the reminder.

But don’t stop there . . .

MEDITATE

Second, invite your students to personally meditate upon our beliefs about Advent.

This is the primary difference between an average Advent and an Advent encounter.

While our teachings and traditions about Advent do not change, our students change. They approach this Advent season different than they were last year.

This is the same for all of us.

We all come to this Advent season beginning a journey of preparation for Christmas. Each day we take another step closer to the coming of Christ.

So, give your students the time in class to meditate on what Christ wants to say to them through each of the teachings and Advent traditions you share with them.

Make Advent personal and important to their lives this very day.

This is the first half of the encounter.

In meditation, we listen. Next, we will respond.

PRAY

Finally, your students will respond in prayer.

They learned what we teach. They meditated on what Christ wants to say to them. Now, they will say something back.

Make prayer an integrate part of the Advent learning experience. Give your students the time right now to pray as they make their way towards Christmas. We never know what the Lord has placed on their hearts to be spoken and given back to them.

You can offer a lesson or multiple lessons on the Advent season, but these three steps don’t have to take an entire class period. You can sprinkle in Advent lessons throughout the four weeks of the season.

Assisting You This Advent Season

Are you on board? Together, can we avoid the average Advent for our students and focus on Advent encounters instead?

I want to help save you the planning and preparation time to make this happen.

I will be preparing daily, mini-Advent lessons you can use to start each class in December.

Since starting The Religion Teacher sixteen years ago, I have created loads of Advent resources to help you cultivate an encounter with Christ in class.

The Advent Activity Pack includes 25+ worksheets, a video series, six lesson plans, and lots of prayer ideas. You can buy this resource separately or access it as a member of The Religion Teacher.

I want to pull together all of those Advent resources for members into daily mini-lessons.

Each week I will send daily, mini-Advent lessons that focus on cultivating an encounter with Christ. Each mini-lesson will feature a printout or video along with a prayer you can use with your students.

It will be almost like an Advent calendar of lessons for you to share.

To access these daily Advent lessons as well as the entire Advent Activity Pack, you will need to become a member of The Religion Teacher today.

If you are already a member, then you don’t need to do a thing. You will have access to all the new Advent tools in your weekly Monday member email.

If you haven’t become a member yet, then now is the time:

Become a member of The Religion Teacher today.

What Do Members of The Religion Teacher Get?

In addition to this year’s mini-lessons, you will have access to tons of Advent resources:

• The Religion Teacher’s Advent Activity Pack
• Gospel Reading Worksheets for all four Sundays
• December saint and feast day worksheets

Now is the time to join. You can cancel at any time or keep the membership going into the new year.

Again, join today and I’ll send you a bonus eBook of the Advent with the Angels devotional for kids.

What Else 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 Church 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.

700+ 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 200+ Saints with Your Students

“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, Beatitudes Worksheet Collection, Ten Commandments Worksheets, The Lord’s Prayer Worksheets, Seven Sacraments 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.

250+ 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!

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, your entire parish and/or school of religious educators and teachers will have access to the resources. (This option is for DREs, pastors, and principals to set up to share with all staff and volunteers.)

You can cancel at any time.

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